Dale Cresap's blog

Do you feel compelled to rise to every challenge to the gospel? You are called to have an answer for every man about the hope you have in me. Yet this does include all encounters. You will face attacks from hostile and belligerent critics whose interest is in attacking rather than seeking truth. You are not obligated to engage with them, for in so doing you are reduced to their level. Even I, as the Living Word, on occasions refused to answer my critics, and even when I was on trial for my life. I promised to give you the words you need in every situation. Sometimes the way to follow my lead is to walk away.

You have my promise that if you seek you will find. You know this is true of salvation. Do you think that the process ends when you are saved? Do you understand that it applies to everything? For I have much to teach you even after you are saved. If you currently have some wrong answers and keep on seeking then you are on the path to the right answers. If you cease to be a seeker after you become a believer, how shall you grow and move on to maturity in your faith? You understand that I have called you to follow me. This implies that you continue to be a seeker even as a believer. 

Would you like your spiritual life to operate independently of the rest of your life? I taught you that if you came to my house to make an offering to me and remembered that if there was a dispute between you and your brother, to set your gift aside and go and be reconciled to your brother first and then come back and make your offering to me. You cannot practice your faith apart from human relationships and your daily business of living in this world. How do you put this into practice? You see me as a refuge and I will not turn you away, but your relationship with me is intertwined with your relationship with your brother. 

Have you ever been in a dilemma facing a question where both yes and no were incorrect? I faced a question about the legality of paying taxes to the occupying Romans. My questioners were trying to trap me. There were pitfalls in saying either yes or no. My response about rendering unto Caesar the things that are Caesar’s, and unto God the things that are God’s was not offensive to the Romans, and silenced those who were provoking me with questions. Godly wisdom will not be forced into binary choices. It understands the real transcendent issues and reforms the questions appropriately. Ask of me and I will give you wisdom from above. 

Are you familiar with the concept of upward mobility? Even if you don’t express it in these terms you expect to make progress in life, to make more money, to have more things. This isn’t only monetary. You expect to make progress in every area of endeavor you engage in. I spoke highly of John the Baptist, but he didn’t get it. Referring to me he said that I must increase. Referring to himself he said that he must decrease. I taught that those who seek to save their lives would lose them, but that those who would lay down their lives and lose them for my sake would find eternal life. John the Baptist was the forerunner of those who get this. Do you? 

Do you accept that when I walked the earth I was fully God and fully man? How often did I refer to myself as the ‘Son of Man’? For in my time here I lived as fully human. Do you assume that to lead a life in the fullness of your own humanity is to lead a life of sin? And that your humanity is somehow in conflict with your spirituality? The example of my life should convince you of the error of these positions. I want you to understand that the fullness of your humanity is not opposed to your spirituality, but in harmony with it. I meet you in the here and now reality of your life and this is where you will find me. 

Do you understand that prayer can be both spoken and unspoken? It is common for believers to describe their daily devotional time with me as a quiet time. How much quiet time do you have in church? People in social groups are uncomfortable with silence and seek to fill it up. Yet my house was not meant to be an ordinary social group. Do you long to hear from me? I am always speaking but it is easier for you to hear me if you will be quiet. Is your own “quiet time” really quiet or do you fill it with your own structured programs and thoughts? Try some silence before me by deliberate intent. Be still and know that I am God. 

You know that I walked on water. Peter did too. He sank, but remember that first he walked. He showed the initiative to do so by asking me to bid him to come. I replied to this with a single word and he got out of the boat. Have you ever been in a situation where you faced a great opportunity to test your faith? Were you uncertain as to whether I was calling you to respond? You can follow Peter’s example and inquire of me, if that is you then bid me to move onward. I will respond and then you too will be able to get out of the boat and walk on water, even if you are on dry land. 

I was challenged on the question of paying taxes to Caesar and asked to see the coin with which the taxes were paid. I said render unto Caesar the things that are Caesars, and unto God the things that are Gods. This reply silenced my critics, but does it leave you with any further questions about my purpose? Was this an affirmation of civic duty? Was it instruction to distinguish between this world and my Kingdom? It was these and more besides, for it was an even greater affirmation that the things of God are better than the things of Caesar. The same principle applies to any earthly government. Pay your taxes, but lay up your treasure in heaven. 

The wind blows where it will. You don’t know where it comes from or where it goes. I spoke this of the Spirit of which wind is an illustration. You see the effects of the wind, and these are well known enough that men build windmills to capture the power of the wind. Do you see yourself as a windmill? These devices can do nothing on their own, but they receive power from the wind and capture it to perform some useful task. Even so, as you abide in the Spirit and walk in the Spirit being led by the Spirit, you will be able to receive power from the Spirit by which you can perform ministry for others.