Dale Cresap's blog

Do you assume that I love you when you do right and am angry with you when you do wrong? I tell you that I love you at all times. Bad parents make their love conditional and offer or withhold it based on behavior and performance. Good parents want their children to make life-affirming choices, but love them whether they do or not. If the best of parents can do this can you accept that I do because I am better than the best of parents? You have my promise that neither life nor death nor principalities nor powers nor any created thing can separate you from my love, not even you. 

Do you recognize how deeply you are influenced by your culture? You may think that your perspective is entirely based on my Word and my Kingdom, but you are nonetheless a product of your culture as well. I have other sheep who are not of this fold. I have believers in other nations and cultures. They too are part of my one body, but they come to it from a different direction than you do. It is beneficial for you to seek them out that you may learn from them. It is good for you to have some of your unexamined assumptions challenged and your thoughts provoked to increase your understanding and achieve unity in my body. 

Do you let strangers or enemies live in your house? Aren’t you particular about whom you allow inside your home? Yet do you ever let such people live inside your head? You should be even more careful about this. Negative interactions with other people can haunt you long after the original offense. The other person may have forgotten about it even if they noticed it in the first place, but it can be a source of ongoing distress for you. Your mind should be an inner sanctuary of peace. Do you find it difficult to evict the intruders? I understand this and if you seek my assistance I will send them away. 

I used manna to provide for my people and also illustrate the need for regular spiritual nourishment. Manna was a daily provision that could not be preserved but there is another provision that is even more immediate. You receive oxygen in every breath. Can you store up air for future use? I breathed life into you to make you alive and breath is a Biblical image of spirit. Manna illustrates a daily need for me. Are you willing to extend this concept to every moment? For I am as close to you as your very breath and in me you live and move and have your being. 

Do you think of honesty in terms of not telling lies to other people? It includes this, but in my Sermon on the Mount I expanded the definitions of various moral concepts such as hatred and lust. Honesty could be treated in a similar way. Have you known people who were living a lie even if they wouldn’t tell a lie? Have you known people who were not honest with themselves? People have a great capacity for self-deception. Let honesty begin by being honest with yourself that you may have truth in your inward parts from which you can speak and live truth to your neighbor. 

Have you ever weeded a lawn or garden? The easy way is to cut the weeds off at ground level but you know that the remaining root will quickly produce new leaves and stems and blossoms. They way to get rid of weeds permanently is to remove them roots and all. This is more work, but it is effective. Do you have any weeds in your life such as bad habits or besetting sins? There are superficial ways of dealing with these as well and they are about as effective. My desire for you is for inward and outward purity. I do not pretend that the process is easy but it is the only way that you may live a life of transparency and authenticity, with your eye single and your whole body full of light. 

Do you encounter unbelievers who seem to have the same peace, kindness, and gentleness of spirit as believers? You know that the gospel is true so do you think that those who follow it should lead better lives and display better character than those who don’t? Yet doesn’t everyone seem gracious when they get their own way? Even sinners are kind to those who are kind to them. You are called to a higher standard. The real test of your character is the way you respond when things don’t go your way and to those who are mean to you. Love your enemies and your light that shines before men is more apparent when it is surrounded by darkness. 

Do you understand the importance of the Bible to the Christian life? When you read it what do you find? It contains stories about people who encountered me in their lives. Are you content to read their stories? You consider my word to have supreme authority in doctrine and the practice of faith; the standard by which all others are judged, and you are right, but you shouldn’t be content with reading the stories of other people. For my word is a call to action, not just to study, but to respond to and act on. Search the scriptures and see that they testify of me. Come to me and encounter me yourself that you may have life. 

I promised you an abundant life. Do you think this means filling up every minute of your life? This can leave you overcommitted, stressed, and exhausted. Perhaps you could leave some of them for me to fill up. If you are completely booked you are unavailable for any unexpected appointments that I would make for you. You don’t know what special opportunities to serve me may come your way, but I want you to be able to respond to them when they arise. Do you look at these things as interruptions to your busy schedule? Yet even now you can look back and see that they are the essence and enrichment of your abundant life. 

You know that the shortest verse in the Bible records that I wept. This was when I came to the tomb of Lazarus. Those present assumed that I wept due to mourning because of my love for Lazarus, but at that point I already knew that I was going to call him back. I wept for those who did not understand the power of resurrection. For this power was not only for some distant future date, but was present with them. Do you understand that resurrection power is present with you today? If you will comprehend this and walk in the reality of all it implies you will give me cause to rejoice rather than weep.