Dale Cresap's blog

Do you know that every computer search you perform is permanently stored, even if you delete it from your computer? Does this make you more careful in what you search for? Yet even before computer searches became available all of your actions were permanently recorded. I said that the things you whisper in the ear would be shouted from the housetops, and nothing is hidden that will not be made manifest. Have you heard it said that what you do when no one is watching is who you really are? Yet someone is always watching. Live in such a way that you will not feel awkward or embarrassed when it comes to light. 

Do you make a strong distinction between sacred and secular work? You understand the importance of laboring for those things that will endure, since the world you now live in is passing away. Yet you still need to live in this world while you prepare for the next. Without farmers you would not survive to do the work of the Kingdom of God. Do you see that nearly every form of employment is designed to serve some human need? What would be the reason to perform it otherwise? I made an emphatic point that those who ministered to the least of these did so unto me. Meet the needs of your fellow man and you will be ministering to me. 

Do you long to see me move in a mighty way, with visible evidence? I can do this, but it involves a process. What do you see around you that didn’t begin with an idea? This refers to your physical, material world of artifacts, yet each of them began as a concept in someone’s mind, and then they put in the effort necessary to bring it forth. The spiritual world is the same way. My movements and acts begin as concepts of revelation in the minds of my people. If they are willing to embrace them and walk in them then they will come to pass. If you want to see me move, step forward as an agent through which I can act. 

I said that it is more blessed to give than to receive. Do you find this hard to swallow? Does it fly in the face of your culture of acquisition? Yet don’t you see this truth in effect around you, even outside of church walls and among those who do not make a Christian profession of faith? Even if the first half of your life is devoted to acquiring, what do you do with what you get? This applies to more than money. It is a deep-seated human desire to give back, to provide something for the human race generally that represents the value you have acquired whether it be wisdom, skill, art, benevolence, money, or something else. Those who do so know it is more blessed to give than to receive.

Do you find your security in me? Yet you seek employment to produce an income. Do you see your job as a part of my provision for you? I want you to distinguish between me as your primary source of security, and the secondary sources through which I provide it. Otherwise you can make an idol out of something that I see as a means to an end. You can hold these methods I use to provide for you with a loose grip and still do your work with due diligence, for my word also teaches you that you are really working for me. In this manner you can take a transcendent view of both the work you do and my provision for you. 

Dancers stretch to improve their flexibility for graceful movement and to avoid injury. Stretching can be uncomfortable but many people do it intuitively in spite of this for the same reasons. Do you understand that there are spiritual and emotional versions of stretching as well? The experiences of life can disturb your comfort level and challenge you to be more open, tolerant, and accepting. This also will give you flexibility to be graceful and avoid injury in another sense. This type of stretching is painful in a different way, but if you understand the great value of these things you will seek it out deliberately to obtain their benefits. 

Do you see your faith as a journey? Has following me ever given you a sense of dislocation from the comfortable and familiar? You may find this disturbing and think that you are out of my will, but there is a Biblical precedent for this as a necessary step in your spiritual development. When I called Abraham it was to move away from familiar surroundings. Jacob and David fled for their lives after I called them, and Joseph was taken away against his will. You can be too comfortable where you are. Don’t be in distress when I call you to move on from your routine, but expect it as a normal part of my pattern for your spiritual growth. 

Are you eager for revival? Does it seem to be a long time in coming? You can learn a lesson from your garden. If you want produce in the fall you have to start early preparing the ground, and then plant, and then water and pull weeds all season. All this effort takes place in advance with nothing tangible to show for it. The harvest season is short and comes at the end. My word uses many agricultural metaphors as illustrations to underscore the parallels. You understand this process in nature and don’t fight against it. I want you to understand that it is just as valid in the spiritual realm that you may patient and diligent to do the work now to have a harvest later. 

Do you know anyone who responded to the gospel message on their first exposure to it? This can happen, but it is rare. Most people aren’t prepared to make a total life commitment to something the first time they encounter it. Were you? My word makes provision for this in saying that one plants and another waters but God gives the increase. Learn from this simple illustration with plants. Discern the spiritual state of those you encounter and meet them where they are to advance my redemptive work in their lives. Blessed are those who are equipped to minister at every level of spiritual growth. 

How good and pleasant it is for brothers to dwell together in unity. You can think of examples of how brothers are lifelong friends, or enemies. How pleasant the first condition, and how tragic the second. For they are brothers for life whether they get along or not, and how sad to have an enemy for life, but they are not the only ones affected. Nothing grieves a father like strife between children. This is as true in the eternal realm as it is in the one you see. Are you aware of my pleasure when you love your brother and my grief when you do not? If you struggle to love him for his own sake, love him for mine.