By Sandy Shaw
There are times when we need to do more than just say that we are going to return to basics. We need to return to basics. I write this article one year on from the collapse of Lehman's bank which had so many international tentacles resulting in various international disasters.
Many were hurt. Some were ruined. Jobs were lost. Sin is ugly when we view its consequences.
A few made a lot of money, but who would want to make so much money at such an immense price when considering the lives of others?
In the United Kingdom we are reading of a car company where there has been financial ruination but four men have each made around nine million pounds, with some six thousand people no longer having a job.
Writing as a Christian, it is essential that mankind realises that God's ways and God's laws cannot be broken, and neither can we improve upon God's methods.
One thing God says to man is that godliness with contentment is great gain. We brought nothing into the world and we can take nothing out of it. However, it is true that we can send it on ahead and Jesus Christ makes that very clear.
Invest in the poor. Invest among the poor. Invest in those ministries which minister to the poor. Invest wisely where there are no moths, and no thieves and no corruption, and where pride and arrogance play no part. That calls for honesty, humility and integrity, and these are scarce commodities in the financial world. These cannot be bought on the commodities markets!
Some people live with the thought that they are going to live forever, and to reach their goals they will use almost any tactics available. Such sowing reaps a horrendous harvest.
Lehman's Bank wanted to be the number one and it really did not matter all that much as to how that position and status was reached. A fundamental knowledge of the Word of God would have taught those at the top just how wrong that type of thinking was. Of course, they can be rescued.
Man can be forgiven and restored and reconciled with God following repentance and faith. That is the good news and that news requires to be proclaimed far and wide and particularly in the business world and also in government circles.
Does The White House and Downing Street London know this?
Honesty, humility and integrity reap a very different type of harvest.
Sandy Shaw is Pastor of Nairn Christian Fellowship, Chaplain at Inverness Prison, and Nairn Academy, and serves on The Children's Panel in Scotland, and has travelled extensively over these past years teaching, speaking, in America, Canada, South Africa, Australia, making 12 visits to Israel conducting Tours and Pilgrimages, and most recently in Uganda and Kenya, ministering at Pastors and Leaders Seminars, in the poor areas surrounding Kampala, Nairobi, Mombasa and Kisumu. He broadcasts regularly on WSHO radio out of New Orleans, and writes a weekly commentary athttp://www.studylight.org entitled "Word from Scotland" on various biblical themes, as well as a weekly newspaper column. His M.A. and B.D. degrees are from The University of Edinburgh, and he continues to run and exercise regularly to maintain a level of physical fitness. |  |
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