Dale Cresap's blog

Do you believe in playing it safe? Does that mean that the best alternative is inaction when you are faced with risk and uncertainty? Sometimes you should move forward even when the view ahead is not entirely clear. Consider the parable of the talents. The servants who used their own initiative to multiply their talents were commended. Note that the master gave them no direction in how to proceed. Note also that the story did not end well for the wicked and slothful servant who hid his talent in the earth. I will give you direction in how to multiply your talents for me. Inaction is not the right answer. 

I told Peter that the devil desired to sift him like wheat. I told him that I prayed for him, not that this sifting would not occur, but that his faith would not fail. Why did I not prevent this sifting? I went on to say that when he was converted to strengthen his brethren. This conversion was not referring to salvation, but it implied that the sifting would bring about a change in him that would enable him to minister to others. Have you observed this same principle in operation; that those who have been through it are better equipped to give life to others than those who have not? Do not fear to be sifted yourself. 

Do you know that my gifts are free, and that I give them to everyone? I send rain and sun on the righteous and the wicked alike, and do so freely. If you were inclined to pay for these things, what currency would you use? If not a sparrow falls without my notice how much more will I meet your material needs? Yet I have another category of gifts that doesn’t come automatically and unbidden. I told my followers not to seek the things the gentiles seek but to seek first the Kingdom of God. The gifts of the Kingdom are also free but they do not come unless you seek them. If you do you will have them and all else besides. 

Have you heard some people criticize economic systems in which the rich get richer and the poor get poorer? Does this seem unfair? Yet in a sense that matters more I said that to those who had, more would be given, and to those who had not, what little they had would be taken away. I was referring to spiritual things. Have you attended Christian conferences and seminars that were open to the public and observed that the people who needed them most were not there, while those who were fairly advanced already were? The riches of the Kingdom of God are available to whosoever will come, and those who keep on seeking will keep on finding. 

Do you think of uncommitted time as free time and place a high value on it because you can use it to do whatever you want? Yet no time is really free, for you will fill it with something, even if not very much. A better measure would be to ask yourself if you are filling your time with things of high or low value. Have you ever had some discretionary time available to you and looked back and realized that nothing beneficial happened even if you were able to do whatever you wanted? Are you wary of seeking me about filling hour spare time? If you trust me with this I will fill it with joy. 

Do you want to hear from me? Inner stillness is helpful in this process. How will you hear my voice if your own thoughts form an endless continuous sequence? Yet this is a case where the external precedes the internal. You have at your disposal portable electronic communications devices so that you are never out of contact with your friends and music and all manner of news and information, but I do not call you on your smart phone. In this situation you need to unplug to connect with me. Make the choice to cultivate inner calm as a practice and a habit and you will hear from me more clearly. He who has ears to hear, let him hear. 

Paul was a highly educated man by the standards of his day, yet when he preached the gospel he was determined to know nothing but Christ and him crucified. You also are educated and know much more than this. Have you ever encountered situations in which adding more made things worse instead of better? The basic plan of salvation is simple. You can present it in complex terms like propitiation and absolution, or you can present it in simple terms such as saying yes to me, and generally the simpler the better. My word cautions you against adding to or detracting from the basic message. 

What do you pray for? Do you notice that most prayer requests are for those who already have their spiritual lives in order, and they get the most fervent prayer, while those who struggle with weaknesses such as alcohol are left to fend for themselves?  Yet aren’t those who are spiritually strong better equipped to deal with any problem than those who are not? Do you show judgment in prayer by neglecting those who are complicit in their problems? Consider my own example and words, that I was not sent to call the righteous but rather to the sinners, and that the well have no need of a physician, and the good shepherd left the 99 in the fold to go after one lost sheep. 

Some doors are open, some are closed, and some are locked. Some have automatic openers. These provide the greatest convenience in that you don’t even have to push on them or turn a doorknob. Do you believe that I can provide guidance to you by opening and closing doors? I will make your way clear by opening the right pathway and closing the wrong one. Yet as in the case of doors with automatic openers, they don’t open until you approach them. If you would receive guidance from me you need to be active and keep moving. I may wait until you walk toward the right door to open it for you. 

My word identifies evangelists and teachers as specific offices. Yet my commission to every believer is to preach the good news of the gospel to every creature and to make disciples of all men. Do you need an office or a title to do this? If that were the case I would not have directed this to every believer. It is not necessary for you to be able to answer every question of theology for you to do this job effectively. You understand the value of increasing your knowledge and experience, but in the moment you use what you have. I have not left you to do this on your own. The Holy Spirit goes before you to make your words effective in declaring my name.