Dale Cresap's blog

Have you ever been deceived? Are you now? How would you know? For inherent in the concept of deception is that you hold a false view without being aware of it. Can you identify and eliminate deception from your life on your own? It would seem that you need other people, but if you are serious about doing so then you should seek out encounters with those outside of a small circle of like-minded people for they are probably subject to the same deceptions that you are. How large a circle are you willing to draw? The other essential thing is a willingness to revisit long-held beliefs.

Have you ever taken part in a rite of passage? There are milestones of passage such as getting a driver’s license, being able to drink and to vote, but these are more related to ages rather than rituals. Ancient cultures understood the importance of these transitions but they have been virtually abandoned in your consumer culture. Is this a gain or a loss? You have an educational system. Does it teach people what to value and guide them through the transitions of life to maturity? Have parents, and the culture as a whole, abdicated this responsibility?

Do you know the future? I have given you some indications of long range outcomes in scripture, so you can be confident that the story as a whole has a happy ending. Can you see the path from here to there? There are many prophets of doom who see nothing but decline and despair as a current condition and going forward. Others project extensions of their own ideological positions into the future. Both of these should be suspect. Since you don’t know the future whose guidance should you respect and how should you approach it?

A promise from back in the Old Testament is that I have a plan for you and that my thoughts toward you are full of peace and not evil, to give you a future and a hope. Do you find comfort in this? Do you know what your future is? It is an act of faith to believe this future exists even if you don’t know what it is. What conclusions can you draw from the trajectory of your life to date? Are you in control of the direction of your life? Have you already seen it unfold in directions that you didn’t anticipate, that were beneficial for you? I still have a future and a hope for you.

Is the subject of money ever mentioned in your church? Is it ever mentioned in a context other than encouraging donations? It is appropriate to talk about money in church, because I had a lot to say about money, but did I ever ask for donations? I said that wherever someone’s treasure was there would be their heart also. So your whole approach to money, which is visible and concrete and real, is a reliable indicator of your innermost values.

Are you a perfectionist? This term is not normally intended as a compliment, but I told you to be perfect, even as your Father in heaven is perfect. So it sounds like being a perfectionist is the only acceptable goal. But it is not that simple. I criticized the Pharisees for the way the split hairs over the finest points of the law, but ignored the more important issues of compassion, justice, and generosity. So even within the context of perfection there are priorities and ranked values. Do you think that I have unfairly placed an impossible burden upon you?

What is your view of prayer? Do you see it as communication with me? Do you fill the entire time with your requests and expressions of gratitude? I do not reject this, but would it be better to treat prayer as a two-way exchange, much in the same way you dialogue with your friends? Remember that I am your friend. If you offer me the chance to speak, what do you expect to hear? Do you want answers to your questions? Do you think the exercise is a failure if you only encounter silence?

When you think of authority, do you think of a hierarchy? These are structures of power and dominance, and they exist in nations and armies and navies and economies. The structure is visible and there are titles and ranks and everyone knows where they belong in the power structure. There are also spiritual hierarchies in the government of churches and there was a strong one in effect during my time on earth but I didn’t belong to it. I was outside of the power structure yet my authority was inherent and given by my Father. Do you have a title and an office?

Nicodemus came to me by night and I told him that he must be born again to enter the Kingdom of God. He didn’t understand, marveling at the impossibility of the literal meaning, but this phrase has been adopted by believers universally. Yet it is still a cryptic phrase although it is full of meaning. What does it mean to you? Do you equate it with a confession of belief in me; of key doctrinal elements of the Christian faith? This is widely accepted, but in the story of the encounter no definition is given other than being born of the spirit.

Do you think that faith is mass produced? Mass production is a key to economic prosperity. But can it be applied to faith? Gospel crusades are an effort to make this work, and I spoke to large audiences in my own ministry. But I also told a story of one lost sheep that the shepherd searched for with 99 in the fold, and one lost coin out of 10 that was searched for. Does the task of evangelism seem daunting with multitudes lost in the valley of decision? Don’t let the magnitude of the task overwhelm you or be overcome by questions of scale.