Dale Cresap's blog

When you first learned to drive did you have a death grip on the steering wheel? Did you find this to be fatiguing? Did you later discover that it was unnecessary and made the task more difficult? Have you discovered the same thing about life? My yoke is easy and my burden is light. You can create stress for yourself where none really exists, but this is not my will for you. I want you to be diligent and fully engaged, but at the same time I want you to be at peace. This is the way you can fulfill your destiny and accomplish the exploits I have set before you. The key is to place your trust in me. 

Do you know that you have desires that originate in your head, and others that come from your heart? I want you to understand how to identify them. Desires from your head can have a self-indulgent quality, wanting luxury items or things better than those of others. They are usually focused on satisfying physical or material appetites, or wanting more for the sake of more, the things that all the gentiles seek. The desires of your heart are unique and it may be hard to explain them but they are a true part of your identity, for they are from me. I gave you the desires of your heart and I will fulfill them. 

Do you ever wonder whether you are deserving of my love or not? If you think you are, then you have no reason to be awed and grateful, for you are only getting your due. If you think you are not, then you may lack peace and security in my love. I tell you that deserving is a concept inconsistent in the realm of love. My grace is freely given regardless of your merit. In this sense it is undeserved. Yet you have no reason to feel insecure about receiving it. If you understand this you can have even greater confidence in my love, knowing that it does not depend on your performance, and you will be transformed as you abide in it. 

I gave you a unique set of fingerprints that uniquely identify you and you leave them on everything you touch. Do you know that I have fingerprints too, and leave them on everything I touch? I created the heavens and the earth and they declare my glory. Doesn’t their beauty make you think of me? I made you in my image, so my fingerprints are all over you. You may readily accept this concept for believers. Can you accept that those who are not yet believers are made in my image just as much as you are? Detectives use special equipment to detect and identify fingerprints. I want you to learn to see mine everywhere you look. 

I accused some hypocrites of being blind guides and others came to me asking if they were blind also. What an odd question. Would it be possible to be blind and not know it? Yet my answer was conditional. Since they claimed to see, their blindness remained. Don’t let this happen to you. Are you willing to acknowledge areas where you lack understanding? Are you willing to revisit and examine anew matters that you thought were settled, and to find fresh revelation? Everything that can be shaken will be shaken. If you are willing to keep seeking and looking you will find that I cannot be shaken, but that I am bigger than you thought before. 

Do you think that you must have an answer to everything? Knowledge and intelligence are highly rated in your culture, and so they may be seen as a form of wealth, but referring to someone as a know-it-all is universally seen as a criticism. You have passed from darkness to light and he who is spiritual judges all things, but even so my word declares the universal truth that you know in part. Have you come to accept this reality in your own life? If not you are mistaken about something very basic. If you have then you are in a position to advance in following me as a seeker who keeps on seeking my Kingdom. 

Do you understand the importance of balance? Your physical sense of balance prevents you from falling over, but you also understand this concept in a broader sense, that you consider everything according to its proper worth and value it accordingly. Yet don’t you see the principle of emphasis operating in your life, to give greater weight to some things than others? You see other people emphasizing different things. How then can you obtain the desirable state of balance? If you are open to consider the things emphasized by people of widely different backgrounds you can move toward a state of balance yourself. 

If there is an offense between you and another person, are you content to let the matter drop and walk away? You may think the matter is over, but this is a resolution that does not involve reconciliation. My word teaches you to go to your brother and seek reconciliation. This is not as easy as letting it drop, but it is the only way to be restored in fellowship. Didn’t I seek you out intentionally before you were reconciled to me? Do you think there is a social protocol that dictates which party should be the one to initiate reconciliation? The reality is that the one who understands the value of it more will seek it first. 

Do you value your liberty and see it as a gift from me? My word tells you to stand fast in the liberty I have given you and not to be entangled again in the yoke of bondage. Do you look outside yourself for threats that would deprive you of your liberty? This verse implies that you should be more diligent to look within. People choose and voluntarily accept bondages more severe than earthly tyrants would impose on them. You can revolt against tyranny, but against whom would you rise up to oppose self-imposed oppression? Come to me and I will give you greater freedom than you would choose for yourself. 

You use the word presence to describe things near you and the word present means now. Can you see how these words are similar and the concepts are related? You also speak of the here and now. You know that I am with you always. Can you follow this concept to improve your awareness of my presence with you and your understanding of what I am doing at all times? For this is an accomplished reality but you will grow in maturity and understanding by your awareness of my presence with you here and now. Do you think of sacraments as rituals for rare special occasions? I want you to walk in the sacrament of the present moment.