Dale Cresap's blog

Have you ever been on holy ground and not known it? Trick question. How would you know? Moses didn’t know until I told him and Jacob was surprised by an unexpected experience in a place that had no other special features to recommend it. When you go on a trip you have a destination in mind, but I picked the time and place for these encounters. I created all things and in one sense they are holy on that basis alone, but I can intervene at times and places of my choosing for divine encounters. Are you awake and alert enough with your eyes open to see this when it happens?"

Do you prefer to minister to those within your own faith? In my time on earth I pointed out that God sent Elijah and Elisha to heal outsiders when there were plenty of poor sick people in Israel. This did not go over well with my audience. Those with whom you agree may be comfortable because they are familiar, but God loves all people. Jonah had to learn this lesson the hard way. It is not clear from his story that he ever did. I commend those who are equipped for every good work and refer to them as vessels of honor. This isn’t just what you do but for whom you do it. If you want to be one of these expand the circle of people you will minister to. 

My word teaches you that it is my goodness that leads you to repentance. Does this sound wrong to you? Wouldn’t you expect my wrath to lead you to repentance? Do you understand the difference between being sorry you did something and being sorry you got caught? Wrath is sufficient to make you sorry you got caught but you know that is superficial and I am looking for a transformation in you that is real, deep, and enduring. It may be a subtle and gradual process by which my goodness leads you to repentance but it is the method I have chosen to be effective and I am willing to be patient. 

I told Moses to take off his shoes because he was standing on holy ground. Jacob camped at a desolate spot and was surprised that I was there and he had not known it. Is the concept of holy ground more often my idea, or yours? For people living on the earth and attaching importance to places, it is helpful to think that certain properties belong to a certain place. A more advanced spiritual concept is that I created the whole earth and inhabit all of it. Then your encounters with me are more a matter of your perception and readiness than your latitude and longitude. If being in a certain place is helpful in seeking me then by all means go there. 

Would you guess that it costs more to raise a rich kid than a poor one? Children of wealthy families have trust funds from an early age, so there is money committed for their needs. Who is wealthier than me? So the children in the Kingdom of God are well-off. I will lavish upon you all that you need to grow and develop. Do you understand that the coin of the realm of heaven is grace rather than money? I will provide for your material needs, but do you understand your greater and ongoing need for grace? I’m prepared to spend whatever it takes, but I want you to be aware of the economy of heaven. 

Do you know who you are? Early adolescents are in the process of forming an identity. Since their own is not fully formed they are open to the influence of popular culture and so you see them wearing the same clothes and following the same trends in music and other matters of taste. Most people outgrow this phase to one degree or another, but if you don’t, popular culture will be happy to provide you with an identity at any age if you let it. I didn’t create you for this, but to be a unique person with an identity that is yours alone. This is your destiny and if you seek it you will find it and leave popular culture to those who are content with it. 

Do you think spirituality is confined to churches? Those who first responded to me, at the beginning of the Bible, didn’t have a church, or a Bible for that matter. Do you believe that I created the world? Then every time you open your eyes you should see something that I made, and that is a spiritual experience. Do you furthermore see everyone you meet as created in my image, regardless of their beliefs? You should be able to see my fingerprints on everyone you meet, whether Christian, Muslim, Buddhist or other or none, and that too is a spiritual experience. Do you understand that this is not an argument against going to church?

Have you ever heard the expression ‘sour grapes’? Do you judge people on the actions of their children? Sour grapes is most commonly used to mean that the value of something unobtainable is not as great as was hoped, but it also refers to a proverb that I forbid to my people, that the sour grapes the fathers ate set the children’s teeth on edge. Haven’t you known good parents whose children made bad choices in spite of good training? A valid Biblical principle is that you not judge others. If you would not judge others for their own actions, how much less should you do so for the actions of someone else, even if it is their own children? 

Do you think that light is good and darkness is evil? There are many places in the Bible that use this terminology and so there is a basis for it. You use the same metaphor in referring to stories or places representing evil as being dark. But this is not the only meaning. For I created the day and the night, and the sun for the day and the moon for the night. I created both realms and am the Lord of both. Darkness may obscure your vision but not mine. The Psalmist understood that darkness and light were alike to me. When you encounter darkness either literally or figuratively I am just as much with you as during the day. 

Are you curious about how things work? Do you wonder about cause and effect? When presented with a new situation do you try to find an explanation for it? A given situation may have multiple plausible explanations, some of which are natural and some are supernatural. Do you assume that only one can be true? Do you prefer natural explanations if one is available? This reflects an anti-supernatural bias and there is nothing irrational in thinking that a given effect can be the result of a combination of causes. I created the natural world. I continue to be present and intervene in its operation.