Cause and Effect

Mark 9:24; Immediately the boy’s father exclaimed, “I do believe; help me overcome my unbelief!”

Wikipedia says that cause and effect is the “philosophical concept of causality, in which an action or event will produce a certain response.” I have been thinking about this lately and how it relates to Christians.

Many times our natures drive us to look first to the effect while ignoring or even forgetting the cause. We develop our checklist of effects; you must go to Church, you must believe this, you must believe that and if you do you are a Christian.
I worry in our haste we may be reversing the true order of things. This checklist in reality is the effect of becoming a Christian and we must always first look to the cause; Christ!

Oswald Chambers says; “It is absurd to tell a person one must believe this and that; in the meantime he or she can’t! Skepticism is produced by telling people what to believe. We are in danger of putting the cart before the horse and saying a person must believe certain things before he can be a Christian; his beliefs are the effect of his being a Christian, not the cause of it.”

So in our zeal are we putting the cart before the horse? Are we focused on the task rather than what has been accomplished? Don’t get me wrong, this is not a call to do nothing. However, this is a call to rest in the message of Christ, a call to share the message of the cross with proper focus and not a checklist of effect. It is a call to share the cause of the good news!

1 Corinthians 1:18 reminds us: For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.

May all who are being saved look first to the cross; the power of God!

Grace and Peace!