Dale Cresap's blog

My word tells you to grow up into the head, which is Christ. Do you understand what I just said? I told you to grow up! Isn’t that what parents tell their children when they want them to show more maturity? Is this process complete in you, or are there ways in which you could show still greater maturity? Do you find that this process of growing up gets easier or harder the older you get? I want you to think of this as a life-long project, and you have made some progress. Don’t let the progress that you have made so far make you hardened and rigid against further progress. Continue to become as little children that you may continue to grow in the Kingdom of God.

How do you deal with the sick? Do you offer them comfort and help them to find meaning in the midst of  their afflictions? How did I deal with the sick? Did I ever follow this approach? You may recall that I healed all their diseases. Isn’t this what you really want when you are sick? You may safely assume this applies to others as well. There may well be meaning available in the midst of trials, and it is never wrong to offer comfort to the afflicted, but I promised that you would be able to do in my name the same works that I did, and even greater works. Don’t withhold healing from the sick when that is what they really need.

When you consider events to come, do wonder which category of people you will belong to in the Book of Revelation? Do you suppose there is more prestige associated with a smaller group, so being one of the two witnesses is better than being one of the 24 elders? But considering the population of the world even 144,000 is not a large number by current standards. Do you suppose that these numbers refer to fixed and literal counts, and that you are competing with your fellow believers for them? Don’t limit me. Don’t assume my infinite power is constrained by fixed numerical categories. I promised to go and prepare a place for every one of you.

John the Baptist said that he baptized with water, but that one was coming after him who would baptize with the Holy Spirit and fire. He was referring to me. His statement of me was true, as demonstrated on the day of Pentecost. Christians still practice water baptism today. What about fire baptism? You won’t see this in a church bulletin, but it is just as real. Have you ever used this phrase in a secular sense of a proving ordeal, such as for soldiers in combat? Yet it is clearly a concept of spiritual origin, and for those who are prepared to receive it this is true. Have the people you admire for their spiritual maturity been through a baptism of fire? Have you?

Do you describe your faith as a walk? When you read that I called my disciples to follow me, is walking the first image that comes to mind?  You can follow someone who is walking ahead of you, but the same term is used to describe the response of a dance partner. Which do you think is a better illustration of your life of faith? You can walk behind someone at a great distance, but dancing requires you to be closer. Is there enough closeness, intimacy, intricacy of movement, and coordination of responses between us for this to be the appropriate term to describe it? May I have this dance?

I said that it is more blessed to give than to receive. Is this always true? You know how to receive graciously, with sincere and polite thanks for whatever is given. Do you know how to give graciously? If you find every occasion to remind the recipient of how much the item cost you, or use your gift as a basis for manipulation or leveraging influence, it is not gracious and don’t be surprised if people reject your gifts. Don’t remind people if they forget to thank you. When they express gratitude, tell them it was your pleasure, and it will be, and then it really will be more blessed to give.

What activities do you recognize as spiritual practices? Prayer and Bible study? Do you ever attend to the first reactions you form to people you pass, notice, or encounter? Try paying attention. Do you see how easy it is to fill in the blanks when you have so little to go on, seeing only their age, weight, gender, ethnicity, dress, and general mannerisms? How often are your first impressions judgmental rather than expressions of redemptive grace? You can turn these first impressions into a spiritual practice by noticing the ones that are judgmental and making it a deliberate act to release them.

Do you love getting free stuff? Do you understand as a matter of basic doctrine that grace is the free gift of God? Yet grace isn’t free in the same sense as the swag you collect wandering around at a trade fair. Grace isn’t like your other possessions that you can display on the shelf, or play with, or put away when you are tired of them. In this sense grace isn’t a possession at all. It is a life-transforming encounter. Those who receive it are forever changed by it, and my word describes them as being bought with a price and they are not their own. So grace is free but you don’t own it. It owns you.

Have you ever had anyone tell you, don’t take it personally? This is easier said than done. The default human response is to take everything personally, to see everything from your own perspective and how it relates to you. But this leaves you too much at the center of your own world, and distorts your ability to see things the way they really are. It also gives others undue influence over you and makes you unstable if your personal worth is attached to everything. I told my followers to build their house (life) upon the rock (me) rather than shifting sand to make them immune to flattery or scorn.

Is it easier to see your own faults in others than it is to see them in yourself?  If you see someone who likes to be in control and you didn’t have control issues, you may say to yourself that someone has to steer the ship. If you do have control issues you may resent the fact that it isn’t you. I told a story about removing the log from your own eye before you volunteered to remove the speck from your brother’s eye. When you react strongly to someone else’s offense, is it possible that your reaction says as much about you as it does about them? If you can’t avoid judging others, at least judge yourself first.