Dale Cresap's blog

Do you want to be rich and famous? Would you settle for famous? Do you understand what problems come from this? You call famous people celebrities. People to celebrate? Everyone wants to be their friend. Adoring strangers come up wanting handshakes, photos, and autographs. There are a multitude of people to offer approval for their behavior no matter what it is. And so I taught you to beware when all men spoke well of you. Could you accept this treatment and still walk in humility and obedience to me, caring only what I thought of you? How well do celebrities do at this?

Do you experience fear concerning anticipated disruptions and transitions in your life? You have been through many of these already. Have you found that that actual transition is less traumatic than you anticipated? I tell you not to worry about tomorrow, for sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof. You may be worried about tomorrow because you aren’t prepared for the challenges of tomorrow today. But you don’t need to face them today. Can you trust me that I will provide everything you need when the time comes? If you can accept this premise then you can have peace now and also when the transition comes.

Do you have a passion? Do you think of this term in reference to comfort, ease, and self-indulgence? This is a misunderstanding. You have heard of my passion and it had nothing to do with these things. I drank the cup my Father gave me. A passion is not a diversion you choose for fun. It chooses you, and you may think of it more in terms of destiny. A passion is something you can’t explain, but you also can’t turn away from it no matter what the cost in time, money, and suffering. So answer the call to pursue your passion, for it is those who do so that change the world.

Were you encouraged as a child to always do your best? Do you always do the best that you can? Do you think other people do their best? You are not in a position to make this judgment about others and may not be as accurate in assessing yourself as you think. So it comes down to a question about whether you want to make moral judgments of others that are more gracious or more severe. You are subject to limitations that may not be obvious, but manifest in your behavior, and others are in the same situation. It is more gracious to assume that they are giving you their best than that they are intentionally mean, thoughtless, or slothful.

Institutions are founded for a purpose, but they take on a life of their own, and seek to preserve themselves. Do you see my church as an institution? Its original purpose was to serve me, and so it continues to this day. Yet the ‘church’ of my own ethnic and cultural background was founded to serve God, but when I came along it turned out to be more interested in preserving itself and dealing with a perceived threat to itself. So I moved on. This is not meant as a criticism of the church, but the same principles still apply today. Is your church more eager to preserve itself or to follow me when I move on?

Have you ever seen the way a three-year-old child forms an attachment to a particular item, such as a toy or a dish of a certain color, and they are heavily invested in it? This is not an object held with a sense of grace. The dynamics of attachment are obvious, and a more mature person will not grasp it so tightly. Do you see your own life as a progression of letting go? Is there anything that you still grasp? I said that you must become childlike to enter the Kingdom of God, not childish. I call you to examine yourself. One of the main things to consider is the attachments you would benefit from releasing.

Do you think of your children as your children? They are flesh of your flesh and blood of your blood, yet they grow up to think of themselves as their own rather than yours. People are not owned in the same sense as inanimate property. Anyone starting a family expecting to raise a permanent fan club is likely to be disappointed. Do you understand that I am the default owner of all things? Some people commit their children to me in a conscious deliberate act. This is pleasing to me and it is also a recognition of an existing underlying reality. If you understand this truth it will save you from heartache.

Do you like the verses in the Bible that promise that you shall have whatsoever you ask for in prayer? Do you prefer these to the verses that tell you to die daily, or to lay down your life, and pick up your cross, and follow me? This is understandable from an untransformed perspective, but these verses are taken from the same Bible and are part of the same equation. I promise you life, but death is part of the process. I faced death before resurrection and set forth an example for my followers. Even baptism is a ritual death. Do you understand that you have to die before you die so you can live before you die?

Do you love everyone? Do you find it easier to love those who are attractive, kind, generous, and agreeable; in particular that they agree with you? I said that even the gentiles – those outside the faith – love those who love them. So the default position for love is to extend it as a reward to those who are worthy to receive it according to your judgment. But I taught my followers to love everyone, which is in conflict with this version of love. Here it is not about them but about you. Being transformed into my likeness means being transformed to make love a characteristic of your being.

Do you spend time waiting on me? Have you done everything I have asked of you to this point? If not, it would be more accurate to say that I am waiting on you than that you are waiting on me. Do you see that it has to be one or the other? It can’t work both ways. If you have done all that I have revealed to you then you can come to me for further instructions. Until then, continue to move forward according to your current orders. You are free to sit at my feet and hear my word at any time. Do not confuse this with asking for new direction if you haven’t already carried out the direction you have.