Causes

Today someone made a passing comment about the "cause of Christ" and that phrase caught my attention. For the facebook unenlightened, there is a facebook application that allows to to join different "causes", invite your friends to join, and even give money. Not sure what the point is...maybe to make sure your friends know what sort of good causes you support? At any rate, my thought was that someone should make the cause of Christ one of the causes that can be joined--that is a cause worthy of support.

It often bothers me when people talk about different problems in various place of this world and in all their hopeful solutions they completely leave out the gospel. They support causes to end world hunger or to bring peace to Sudan or to care for orphans in Tanzania, none of which are bad in themselves. But they completely fail to realize that none of those dreams can possibly be realized without the gospel of Christ. Trying to stamp out world hunger without the Christ is like trying heal leprosy with a bandaid. Such a "cure" might possibly heal an open sore on the arm, but when there are sores all over the body and more all the time, that will hardly help. Rather than band-aids you need to deal with the bacteria causing this disease (namely, sin.)

As long as sin is in this world there will be hunger, and war, and pain, and death. The only solution to sin is the atoning blood of Christ. Only in Him, therefore, is the final solution. Only in Him is there really any solution (even relatively small solutions.)

Oh Lord, come soon! And until then find us laboring for the cause of Christ.