Dale Cresap's blog

I said, ‘let him who is without sin cast the first stone’ in response to a woman who was under judgment for adultery. No one did. Do you strive to be without sin yourself? This is an admirable goal. What is your motivation? To be able to cast stones at others? This would not be an admirable motivation. There is an unwritten law of justice that those who are themselves guilty are not eligible to stand in judgment. You should not use this precept to avoid accountability and correction that would be directed at you. There is also a higher principle demonstrated in being eligible to throw the first stone, and not throw it.

Do you look at the progress you have made in life as an achievement or a gift? The default answer for most people is that no one gave them anything; they worked hard for everything they have. Yet how hard would it be to find someone who worked harder and ended up with less? Your efforts would avail nothing were it not for the favor and blessing you receive from me, who sends sun and rain on the just and on the unjust. I want to open heaven to pour out blessings on you, but I don’t want to ruin you. If you look at everything in your life as a gift from me then you will be able to receive it with gratitude and humility. 

How do you store your household goods and personal effects? People typically use boxes to organize their stuff and reduce clutter. How do you hold your truth? In a literal sense it doesn’t fit in a box, but this is useful as a figure of speech for the same reasons of organization and reducing clutter. How big is your truth box? Is it full or is there enough room in it to store truth you have not yet encountered? It is good to have a larger box than necessary for the current contents, for it allows room for growth. This is a case where bigger is better, but do you understand that I won’t fit in your truth box?

I said that without me you can do nothing. This is a very broad statement with far-reaching implications. How far are you willing to go with it? If, as I also said, in me all things consist and have their being, then I am involved in everything. Do you struggle with this concept with regard to believers, examining your own life and those of others, and dividing things into categories such as things I am involved in and things I am not? Do you struggle with it to an even greater degree when you consider how it may be applied to unbelievers who do not acknowledge me or make any conscious effort to please me? Yet the statement is given as an absolute. What if it were true?

Is it possible for something to be large on the inside and small on the outside? This seems like a  contradiction in terms. My word says that you have an ‘inner man’ and an ‘outer man’. It is inevitable that your outer man is perishing. It is desirable that your inner man grow and enlarge. Have you met people who acquire greater (non-material) substance as they get older? It is tragic if this does not occur, but this spiritual growth is not inevitable. You have no choice in physical decline. You do have a choice to seek the Kingdom of God. Then you can be large on the inside even as you diminish on the outside.

If you spend a lifetime earning money and accumulate some, you may expect to pass it on to others when you die. They will be glad to get it regardless of what sort of person you were. Do you think it is a higher pursuit in life to seek wisdom and righteousness and the Kingdom of God? You are right about that. Who will benefit from these things when you are gone? There are other reasons for acquiring these things than mercenary accumulation, and they do produce a beneficial effect in this world, but this effect is better realized through intentional effort. Spend your righteousness now.

Have you ever been sifted? I told Peter that Satan desired to sift him like wheat, but that I had prayed for him that his faith would not fail, and that when he was converted to strengthen his brethren. Note that I did not say that I prayed to prevent this from happening. From the life of Peter you can see that he indeed was sifted like wheat, and his faith did not fail, and he did strengthen his brethren. Who would desire these things? Yet the passage implies that they are connected. Would you imagine that Peter thought the whole process was worthwhile except for the sifting? Are you willing to be sifted to enter your own destiny?  

I criticized the Pharisees for enlarging their phylacteries. These were packets of scripture verses worn to be visible. This practice had turned into a ‘mine is bigger than yours’ contest. Can you see why I disapproved of this? Is there a modern day equivalent? How many items are on your prayer list? Have you encountered Christians who were involved in a ‘my prayer list is bigger than yours’ competition? But prayer is good. So is binding my word upon you. Yet the way you approach these things indicated your real motive and the condition of your heart. I told my disciples that if they offered their prayers in secret then their Father in heaven would reward them openly. This principle still applies.

Do you like to receive recognition? Recognition for what? You use the term honor to mean positive recognition, and you give it to those whom you consider worthy of it, but there is another sense in which honor cannot be given or received. If you are not an honorable person, then no amount of recognition will make you one. On the other hand, if you live according to an intrinsic sense of integrity, you will be an honorable person whether anyone else recognizes it or not. Which would you rather be? I made a distinction between those who received honor from men and those who received honor from God. In the end there is only one source of honor that really matters.

If you were to conduct a poll you would find that happiness is very important to people. They put a lot of effort into the pursuit of happiness. How many find it? Would you think that something so important would receive a great deal of emphasis in my word? Yet you find very little there about happiness. Have you discovered that happiness is better obtained indirectly than directly? Does it seem counterintuitive to you that if you seek to save your life you will lose it, but if you are willing to lose your life for my sake and the Kingdom of God you will find it? Look at this same lesson substituting happiness for life and you will understand. Haven’t you observed that the happiest people are those least absorbed with their own pursuit of happiness?