Dale Cresap's blog

My word teaches you to practice hospitality. Does this make you think of entertaining in your home? Then does your ability to practice hospitality depend on the size of your home and the quality of your furnishings? These things do not assure that you will be hospitable and you can be without them, for hospitality is a broader concept. You make presence for others in your heart and in your life before you make room for them in your home. Even if you are not equipped to entertain you can take the time and interest to show thoughtfulness and consideration for others and so practice true hospitality. 

Do you understand that I love you? Do you walk in the reality of all that this implies? People yearn for acceptance and learn at an early age which behaviors gain approval and which lead to rejection. They train themselves to act in acceptable ways even if it feels foreign to them and so they create a false self. This can also be described as an image to uphold. After living in this role for years it comes as an incomprehensible shock to them that I love their true self. I don’t love their image, because it is only that, an artificial construct. The revelation that I love the real you begins the process of redeeming the real you into my own likeness.

Is it possible to be totally self-involved and at the same time alienated from your true identity? Do you know any selfish people who have no idea of who they really are and where they are going? Even those who don’t believe in me are created in my image, and it is not within a man who walks to direct his own steps. Those in this condition are blind and in darkness. Truly I said that those who seek to save their own lives would lose them. Yet you have a true self and a true identity available if you will seek them. For I also said that he who lays down his life for me will find eternal life. Surrender and yield to me to find who you really are and live your real life. 

If I told you that I loved you would you think of it as a profound statement? Little children learn this as their first lesson about me. Do you think that you have moved on to more advanced and sophisticated concepts? If you think this statement is not profound then you don’t understand the profound nature of love. Who can comprehend it? Science and law can be codified in books, line upon line and precept upon precept, but love is not so easy to pin down. It is not dispassionate and objective. You must experience it to know it. When I tell you I love you ask me what aspects of profound love I want to show you. 

Do you think of ministry as a one-way street, with certain people in designated positions to only give it and others without titles who only receive? I called all my followers to be the servant, or minister, of all. And even those who are in prominent positions of ministry are as much in need of it as anyone else. My model of the church as a body has every member giving and receiving concurrently. Consider this principle in practical terms. Think of those whom you receive ministry from, and the needs that they have that you can meet. Think also of those to whom you minister. How can you humble yourself to receive from them?

You don’t want to have an intruder in your home. Do you take measures to secure it? Do you lock doors and limit access to keys and watch for suspicious activity in your neighborhood? You have every right to be safe in your dwelling and take measures to secure it. Are you as diligent to prevent intruders in your mind? How much more personal is your mind than your home? Your enemy can speak to you but you can take every thought captive to obedience. I tell you to think on things that are lovely and pure. Does this seem impossible? I would not expect it of you if it were. What is not possible on your own is possible with me. 

Do you have a zeal for the truth? This sounds like a desirable virtue, but how do you distinguish it from a zeal for proving yourself right? Other people can make this distinction about you much easier than you can about yourself. Let your search and zeal for correctness begin within yourself. Search and try your ways and turn again to me. So let a man examine himself. Judge yourself that you may not be judged. Be zealous enough for the truth to let it begin with you. Do the deep spirit and soul work to have truth in your inward parts and you will be in a position to speak the truth in love to others. 

You live in a culture of abundance. This gives you a bias in favor of always wanting more and better things and you find support for this in the Bible. Yet the Bible also teaches contentment and even that you should lay down your life and decrease that I may increase. Is it possible that too much emphasis on the first point could interfere with your spiritual maturity? For the second part is also necessary for your spiritual growth. In some ways you already have too much. The release of these things is just as important as the acquisition of better things. Come to me and die that you may live. 

Do you know that you should desire to do my will but have some uneasy concerns that I will ask you to do something difficult and unpleasant? I created you with intent, and you are fearfully and wonderfully made. I created you for a purpose, and you are custom built to perform it. The calling I have for you that is my will for you is perfectly suited for the way I made you. Don’t you find joy and satisfaction in performing tasks that are perfectly consistent with the essence of your being? Don’t be envious of those who make more money for less work. They have their own path to walk. You will find true joy and satisfaction on the path I have set before you. 

Do you think of your vocation as the way you earn money? This is commonly accepted usage for something that is also called a career, but in earlier times it had a different meaning. Vocation was considered another term for calling, as in the ministry that was your unique assignment. For some people these are one and the same but this is not true for everyone. Do you think of your career as your primary identity? These can change with time and circumstances and the state of the economy. If you have a strong sense of calling you should think of your vocation as a more accurate indicator of your true identity and it should be more stable and enduring. If you don’t have a strong sense of your vocation ask of me and I will show it to you.