Dale Cresap's blog

Are you training your children to think for themselves? Will you be happy when they do? Thinking for themselves implies that they will be free to make their own choices that may not coincide with yours. My direction is to raise up children in the way they should go, and when they are old they will not depart from it. This implies constancy, but it also affirms that the direction for  them may not be the same as my direction for you. Will you leave them free to find their own destiny in me? Will you rejoice when they do so?

In some sports there are cheerleaders whose task it is to express enthusiasm for the team and the fans. Cheerleaders do not actually take part in the game. Do you find it helpful to have people cheering you on to carry out your assigned tasks? Do you require it? For there are sports in which the athletes exert just as much effort without additional personnel to encourage them. Things can be more subtle in my Kingdom, but the same principles apply. Have you encountered people who gave up on tasks because they felt unappreciated? Anything is easier if people express gratitude for it.

What is the purpose of your life? To seek pleasure and avoid pain? No sane person seeks to suffer, but suffering comes to you whether you seek it or not. To what lengths are you willing to go to avoid suffering? Too much emphasis on this will diminish your life, for a life with no suffering is too small a life for you. I said blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted.

How much do you know about me? You refer to a saving knowledge of God and that is a valid concept, but it is available to children in a moment. I do not require you to know much about me for me to accept you. Are you following on to know the Lord? If you understand the question you will know that it involves more than reciting a list of doctrinal points. It is more a matter of relational truth than propositional truth. This is a process rather than an event, and your comprehension will be transformed as you walk with me. I am patient.

Where do you expect to find me? Do you go to church to meet with me? Yet you hold the doctrine of omnipresence, which affirms that I am everywhere. I can meet you in church, but I am not limited to that location. Do you see me everywhere you look? I wasn’t really welcome in church myself, and those who looked to me for exalted glory were disappointed, although I did some great miracles. My stories were about familiar, commonplace, and ordinary things, and yet the truth of the Kingdom of God was in them. I will come to you disguised as your everyday life. Will you see me when I do?

Do you belong to a church with rigidly defined membership requirements? In this case you have to meet certain criteria, and then you are enrolled in that church. If at any time you no longer meet those criteria, or of your own volition decide to move on, then you are no longer a member of that church. The Christian church taken as a whole, as my body, is different. There is no central registration of who belongs, at least not here on earth. You can belong to a church but that is a separate affiliation.

Do you have a reputation? Is it important to you to maintain it? I made myself of no reputation in this world even though I could have claimed greatness. I led a simple life and did not seek offices or titles or wealth. Do you think of me as the Son of God? But I called myself the Son of man. John the Baptist had the right idea when he said that he must decrease that I might increase. But did I seek to increase? I said that the poor in spirit were blessed for the Kingdom of Heaven was theirs.

How do you learn new things? Don’t you find it easiest to find something similar from previous experience, so you can learn what you do not know based on what you do know? But what if you encounter something entirely unfamiliar? It is harder to learn with no reference points. What if you tried the method above in this situation? You might make it work, but you might end up misunderstanding the new thing you encountered. The message of the gospel is entirely radical.

Do you still practice the faith tradition that you first learned? If not, then do you see your current practice as being an improvement? What other reason would there be for letting go of one and adopting another? You describe your faith as a journey so this should not be considered unusual. What is your attitude toward your previous beliefs? Do you operate in reaction against them, or do you see them as a part of your developmental process, understanding that they served you for a time, embracing the beneficial aspects of them, and adding to them from your current understanding?

Are you an evangelist? The Great Commission applies to all believers. Do you take the situation of your audience into consideration in your presentation of my message? If you don’t meet them where they are they will not comprehend what you say. Note the way that Paul and I engaged our audiences where they lived, with examples and illustrations that were meaningful to them. Your first encounter may not give you the opportunity to present the entire message.