Cross Rhythms website editor Heather Bellamy is a regular contributor for the local Sentinel newspaper's weekly faith column, Yours Faithfully. Each week a different leader from the local faith communities write the column. Check out what Heather has been saying to the fine people of North Staffordshire.

As Christmas approaches, with the usual pressures to spend, will we be shopping with the same freedom as in previous years? Or will we be slowed down by recent issues with Northern Rock or the news on Friday that house prices were falling at their fastest rate in 12 years' (The Times)?

In the UK, it's really hard not to get swept along in the currents of spend, spend, spend and even if you don't spend because you can't, the pressure is still there, making you wish you could!

If we're not careful, our happiness can end up being based on money.what we possess and what we can do. An old saying declares: 'death and destruction are never satisfied, and neither are the eyes of man'. How true is that? We have a full wardrobe, but going into the high street shops, we see many clothes we don't yet have and want them! Our hearts don't stop to think that we could instead use our money to clothe or feed someone who doesn't have enough to get through that day or week.

The lie of materialism is very hard to get free from; the lie that physical objects can bring happiness, contentment or peace. Materialism never satisfies, we'll never have 'enough' and even worse, it can sweep us into debt and huge pressures. This isn't a small problem either; more than eight million Britons are in serious debt!

Money is a great servant, but a terrible master; if our security or hope is in finance, we will be heading for a fall at some point.

Money is a master when you want it and pursue it more and more, and still aren't satisfied; or when you build on it for security or happiness; or when you're constantly worried and anxious about it; or when your world literally falls apart because your foundation of finance is shaken.

Money is a servant when you're learning to find contentment with what you have; when outside forces aren't what push you into spending; when you want to use your money for larger reasons than personal gain; when you can enjoy pleasures without them being the focus of your life.

Money in itself isn't evil, what's wrong is our love of it.

If money isn't a good foundation for life, then what is? When money seems to be what makes the world go around, is there another way?

Jesus is another way and a surer foundation.

When my great grandparents didn't have enough money to feed their 9 children, they knelt by their bed and prayed. The next morning there was a basket of food outside the door. For the first year of our marriage, my husband and I didn't have enough money for food each month, yet through Gods provision we never missed a meal.

Jesus says 'do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more important than food, and the body more important than clothes? Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they?'

As we're in the build up to Christmas (the celebration of Jesus' birth), perhaps this is a good time to take a look at these things. Perhaps the current rumblings of financial insecurity in the nation will be a good earthquake in our lives to help us look at what's important and perhaps begin to build on the strong foundation of Jesus Himself.