Unity Church of Castro Valley
Sunday Message for March 9, 2008
Cause & Effect
This week we are going to discuss Cause and Effect. In the scripture reading this morning you heard that (Matthew 7:2) "The measure you give will be the measure you get."
I would like to tell you about a really good example of this principle. In 2006 Carol Loomis, editor-at-large for Fortune Magazine, interviewed Warren Buffett. At that time he was worth $44 billion dollars. Buffett told Carol that he had just decided to start giving away his Berkshire Hathaway fortune. He pledged to give 85% to charity. He was inspired by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to give back to society.
I don't know if he was aware of the law of Cause and Effect or not – but it worked in his life to the nth degree. Fortune's new list just came out and Warren Buffett is now #1 in the list of the World's Billionaires and is now worth 62 billion dollars. "The measure you give will be the measure you get."
It's very interesting if you go down the list of billionaires that Fortune lists. Number 2 is Carlos Slim Helu from Mexico City. He is worth 60 billion dollars. He has donated close to 7 billion dollars to fund education and health projects, and to the revitalization of Mexico City's downtown historical district.
Bill Gates is number 3 – he's worth 58 billion dollars. He has given up his day-to-day involvement in his company to spend more time focused on the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. This foundation donates to causes aimed at bringing financial tools to the poor, speeding up the development of vaccines (for AIDS, malaria, and tuberculosis), and bettering America's lagging high schools.
All of these billionaires have given great amount of money to charity. Could it be that "The measure you give will be the measure you get."?
WORDS + COMPASSION
Charles Fillmore writes in the book, Jesus Christ Heals "There is a chain of mind action connecting cause and effect in all the activities of life. This chain is forged by man, and its links are thoughts, words."
And yet, it is not just words. So many people just throw around sacred words with no feeling or belief behind them. Jesus condemned the Pharisees for giving lip service in public places so others would think them holy.
Let me tell you a story that I heard at a Greg Braden seminar. There were twins born. And they separated them at birth, as they always do. These two were not only put in separate cribs, but in separate nurseries in the hospital. Everything went by the book as to their care, but one twin did fine while the other one was very weak.
The weak twin was not getting better and they feared that she would not make it at all. The nurse caring for her did everything possible, but as a last ditch effort she took the weak twin and put her in the same crib as the other.
The healthy twin was asleep, lying face down, and couldn't have seen her sister being put in her crib. But the next thing that happened was very amazing. The healthy twin put her arm around her sister and the weak twin's vitals started to normalize.
Hold onto that feeling you have right now. What is that feeling? Compassion? Love? That is the link between cause and effect. Without it, the words mean nothing. Jesus said in (John 6:63) "It is the spirit that gives life; the flesh is useless. The words that I have spoken to you are spirit and life."
With that feeling you can heal the sick and walk on water as Jesus did. You can take command of the principle of cause and effect. You can walk into all the possibilities of your life, health, prosperity, and success.
HEALTH
Jesus was able to heal the sick because he had the love and compassion. He saw all who came to him as the perfection that God created.
In Christian Healing Charles Fillmore wrote, "All causes that bring about permanent results originate in Spirit." Jesus saw in himself the perfect pattern of the God-Mind.
The more enlightened we become, the greater will be our desire for perfect health. To be healthy is natural. It is a state of being sound or whole in mind, body, and soul. When we heal we are bringing forth the perfect Christ being that exists within each of us. We are bringing forth the Truth of ourselves that God created.
It's interesting –I had a mammogram a week or so ago and I just got the little postcard that says, "your mammogram showed no evidence of breast cancer."
But then there is a whole paragraph that talks about the fact that not all breast cancers are found through mammography. It says that I should have regular checkups and physical examinations. Also it said that I should be doing self-examinations.
Now I agree that we should check our breasts for lumps, but again it comes back to our frame of mind, or our consciousness. Too many women check themselves, looking for something wrong. They think, "Whew! I didn't find anything this time, but I might next time."
Why not try a change of mind and a change of cause and effect. You can check your breasts – but do it with appreciation. Love your body, appreciate the beauty and health that exists within you. Then you won't be creating an effect that you really don't want.
PROSPERITY
In his book, Prosperity, Charles Fillmore writes, "The things we see outwardly are the effects that have arisen from causes that are invisible to us. There is an inner and an outer to everything: both the mental and the material conditions pervade the universe."
And, so, we have to look at the current economic state of affairs in our country. With all the talk about recession and depression on the radio and TV – we really need to take a serious look at what we believe – and what we want to create. We have the choice of believing that the worst is going to happen – or that the best is going to happen. We need to take responsibility for our thoughts and feelings in regard to our economy.
All action is governed by Universal Law. Nothing just happens. There are no miracles. There is no such thing as luck. Nothing comes by chance. All happenings are the result of cause and can be explained under the law of cause and effect.
God is law and God is changeless. If we want to generate the perfect creation, we have to conform to law and unfold in our mind, body, and affairs. We have to operate by the principle of innate life, intelligence, and substance.
The law of cause and effect applies to our demonstrations of prosperity. We can't be very happy if we are poor, and nobody needs to be poor. Charles Fillmore writes that 'it is a sin to be poor.'
Jesus talks about this in the parable of the prodigal son. He was teaching the sin of lack and how to gain plenty. It is a wonderful prosperity lesson.
The prodigal son took his inheritance and went into a far country, where he spent it in wild living and found himself poor. When he returned to his father's house he was not accused of being dishonorable, as we might expect. Instead, the father said, (Luke 15:22) "Quickly, bring out a robe--the best one--and put it on him." That was a lesson in good clothes. It is a sin to wear poor clothes.
The next thing the father did was to put a gold ring on the prodigal's finger, another evidence of prosperity. The Father's desire for us is unlimited good, not merely the means of a meager existence. The ring symbolizes the unlimited, that to which there is no end. It also represents omnipresence and omnipotence in the manifest world.
When the father gave that ring to the son, he gave him the key to all life activity. It was a symbol of his being a son and heir to all that the father had. (Luke 15:31) "All that is mine is yours." The Father gives us all that He has and is, omnipotence, omniscience, all love, and all substance when we return to the consciousness of His house of plenty.
(Luke 15:22) "Put sandals on his feet," was the father's next command to the servants. Feet represent that part of our understanding that comes into contact with earthly conditions. When we read anything in scripture about the feet, we know that it refers to our understanding of things in the world.
The next thing the father did for his returned son was to throw a feast for him. That isn't the way we treat moral sinners. We punish them, we send them to jail. But the Father gives a feast to those who come to Him for supply. He doesn't just give them a necessary ration but serves the "fatted calf." This is universal substance and life in its fullness and richness.
This parable show us that we must return to the Father-Mind. We don't need to 'waste our substance' listening to the reports of a poor economy. But instead, lets seek the divine wisdom to know how to handle our substance and rely on the law of cause and effect. We need to declare in faith and with all assurance: The all-providing Mind is my resource, and I am secure in my prosperity.
ERNEST HOLMES
Ernest Holmes tells us in the Science of Mind Lessons that prayer is its own answer. Cause and effect are just two sides of thought; and Spirit is both Cause and Effect.
If you pray and only partially believe, then there is a tendency to set your ideas in motion. But, if the next day, or the next hour, you completely doubt your prayer, then the idea is wiped out. We have to pray, "The all-providing Mind is my resource, and I am secure in my prosperity," and hold to this idea. We can't then go watch the news about recession and doubt that we will have an effect in the world.
In dealing with God, we are dealing with an energy which we can't fool. We can fool ourselves; we can fool others; but we can't cheat the principle of cause and effect, for this is impossible.
We need to have a sense of self-mastery, of being equal to every occasion. There is nothing too large; no obstacle that you can't overcome; no obstruction that you can't get rid of by the power of Truth.
If you know and believe that God is the only Cause, Effect, Substance, Intelligence, Truth, and Power that there is then you can't help but manifest your desires in the world.
If you lack, if you are poor, if you are without friends, if you are without opportunity, don't fight it. Just be sure to erase from your consciousness any sense of that lack.
You erase these thoughts from your consciousness by pouring in an opposite thought. This opposite thought meets the other and neutralizes it. It rubs it out just like we rub a chalk mark off a board. Take a consistent, positive, aggressive mental attitude in the Truth.
Take no personal responsibility for making anything happen. Pray to God and know that God receives it. God believes it. God accepts it. God acts on it, and God produces it.
No matter how great a responsibility may rest in that which must be done – never let one minute's responsibility rest in your own thought about it. God is in charge and every idea is bound to produce an effect exactly like its cause.
When we create anything we must take what goes with it. Therefore, all affirmations should be made in peace, confidence, and joy. It should be created in the realization of Divine Love and Perfection permeating everything. For we are dealing with the law of cause and effect. We are not depending on chance, but on Law.
We must know that we are dealing with the substance from which all things are made-people, brains, monkeys-everything that is. Nothing moves but Mind, and we are dealing with the Mind that is the Mover, the Creator, the Cause of all that is or is to be. We are dealing with God.
When Jesus said, (Matthew 5:39) "Do not resist evil," he meant that non-recognition of evil is the only way to avoid it. This is true according to the law of cause and effect; for what we persist in recognizing, we persist in holding in place. That which we non-recognize, we neutralize, and it is no longer there so far as we are concerned.
In manifesting our good, don't try to do it; for manifestations are not made through effort. This would contradict one of the fundamental principles of the universe, which is the Self-Existence of Causation.
In other words, nothing can come before that which is, consequently everything must come out of that which is. Within God is the inherent possibility of that which is to be.
All things exist as a potentiality, as a possibility, now. (Revelation 1:8) "I am the Alpha and the Omega," says the Lord God, who is and who was and who is to come, the Almighty."
Try to get a recognition of your desire and pass the whole thing over to God, and let It operate. Just know that the desire is already a fact, and quietly say to yourself, as often as the thought comes into mind: "It is done." The lighter the thought is, the less care or worry over it, the better. The best work is done when the element of struggle is entirely left out.
SCRIPTURE: Matthew 7:1-2; John 6:63; The Parable of the Prodigal Son-Luke 15:11-32; Matthew 5:39; Revelation 1:8
REFERENCE: Jesus Christ Heals Charles Fillmore; Christian Healing Charles Fillmore; Prosperity Charles Fillmore; Science of Mind Lessons Ernest Holmes
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Last updated
March 10, 2008
