Comments on: Ethical finance http://ajustlife.org/blog/2009/02/ethical-finance/ Just another All of these people's blogs weblog Sun, 19 Apr 2009 16:30:27 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.0 By: Sam Moore http://ajustlife.org/blog/2009/02/ethical-finance/comment-page-1/#comment-8 Sam Moore Thu, 12 Mar 2009 10:21:20 +0000 http://www.ajustlife.org/?p=17#comment-8 Mark, absolutely I agree we need to also enjoy the good things God gives us, and also enjoy real life by serving others. Self-centred greed does so easily creep in - how can we help each other to avoid that happening? Mark, absolutely I agree we need to also enjoy the good things God gives us, and also enjoy real life by serving others. Self-centred greed does so easily creep in – how can we help each other to avoid that happening?

]]> By: Mark Sweeney http://ajustlife.org/blog/2009/02/ethical-finance/comment-page-1/#comment-2 Mark Sweeney Thu, 26 Feb 2009 12:46:50 +0000 http://www.ajustlife.org/?p=17#comment-2 Is there a difference between narcissistic consumerism and enjoying what has been created around us? My confusion stems from understanding why God made so many different types of everything and their 'function'. Unfortunately talk of money and it's use often is reduced to simple existance and keeping people alive. But then after we keep people alive we don't help them to have a reason, hope and joy in the life that has been extended by x number of years. Seeing folk in hospital situations where their life is being preserved by drips and formulated infusions why didn't God just make a food that kept us alive instead of providing a vast array of things that we can enjoy? Why endless varieties of fish, birds etc etc etc... So is it wrong to enjoy a trip around Wyse Byse and maybe even buying some things that you like? No and yes... Left unbalanced where we don't want to share what we have and keeping it for ourselves I think actually inhibits our enjoyment and certainly prevents anyone else from experiencing the joy. God is a God of abundance and so if we can keep a balance (ensuring money is not our god but a mere reality of a society who cannot live trusting God for all their needs) then we can enjoy what is around us. Key in all this however is that Jesus reminds us that the way to experience real life however is in serving others and caring for them. How then can there be room for self centred greed to creep in if we are always thinking about the needs of others before our own - a healthy way to stop us drowning in our own greed (for which we are to be more pitied than scorned). As Christians, surely we should be the ones in society giving our money away most freely, being as generous as we possibly can rather the penny pincing scroges. What does Jesus tell us in the parable of the Shrewd Manager? (Luke 16 1-12 just before the not serving money passage) This is a realy tough parable for me to understand but surely important for us to understand how we can avoid serving money without throwing the baby out with the bathwater... Is there a difference between narcissistic consumerism and enjoying what has been created around us? My confusion stems from understanding why God made so many different types of everything and their ‘function’. Unfortunately talk of money and it’s use often is reduced to simple existance and keeping people alive. But then after we keep people alive we don’t help them to have a reason, hope and joy in the life that has been extended by x number of years. Seeing folk in hospital situations where their life is being preserved by drips and formulated infusions why didn’t God just make a food that kept us alive instead of providing a vast array of things that we can enjoy? Why endless varieties of fish, birds etc etc etc…

So is it wrong to enjoy a trip around Wyse Byse and maybe even buying some things that you like? No and yes… Left unbalanced where we don’t want to share what we have and keeping it for ourselves I think actually inhibits our enjoyment and certainly prevents anyone else from experiencing the joy. God is a God of abundance and so if we can keep a balance (ensuring money is not our god but a mere reality of a society who cannot live trusting God for all their needs) then we can enjoy what is around us. Key in all this however is that Jesus reminds us that the way to experience real life however is in serving others and caring for them. How then can there be room for self centred greed to creep in if we are always thinking about the needs of others before our own – a healthy way to stop us drowning in our own greed (for which we are to be more pitied than scorned).

As Christians, surely we should be the ones in society giving our money away most freely, being as generous as we possibly can rather the penny pincing scroges. What does Jesus tell us in the parable of the Shrewd Manager? (Luke 16 1-12 just before the not serving money passage) This is a realy tough parable for me to understand but surely important for us to understand how we can avoid serving money without throwing the baby out with the bathwater…

]]>