Dale Cresap's blog

I taught my followers to seek first the Kingdom of God rather than the things the gentiles seek – what to eat and drink and what to wear. Isn’t life about more than these things? Ye the gentiles still seek these things and the list has expanded considerably with new inventions – cars and computers and all manner of diversions and possessions. Do these things seem more attractive since they are available in such great variety and abundance? Yet my teaching is enduring and eternal. Life is about greater things. All that the world has to offer is available only to the very wealthy, but the Kingdom of God is available to all who seek it. I know that you have need of these things and I will freely provide them but I want you to have your priorities straight for I also want to freely give you my Kingdom. 

Do you like to play games? Structured contests are a worldwide human passion, either to participate or as a spectator. Some believers say they are frivolous and renounce them. Does this seem too legalistic to you? Yet others take them too seriously and their fortunes rise and fall with their team’s victories and defeats. I don’t expect you to give up games, but how can you fit them into my Kingdom which is the greater context of your life? You can play to learn how to live. This is what children do. Give your all, be generous in your support of your fellow team members, be gracious in both victory and defeat. 

You have my promise that my sheep hear my voice. How often do you hear from me? Do you expect me to speak frequently or seldom? Do you assume that you hear everything I say? I am correctly called the Living Word. How shall I not speak? I always speak. If you do not always hear then you would benefit by learning to hear. Look and listen to the beauty of my creation, to words you overhear that come alive to you even if the speaker did not intend them for you, to unexpected thoughts of divine wisdom. The first step to hearing is to know that I am speaking and pay attention. He who has ears to hear, let him hear. 

You have my promise that when you minister life unto the least of these you have done it unto me. Do you take this seriously? Do you understand that it means you have access to me through the needy? If you are spiritually mature you will see my presence and my hand at work in all people, even the proud and affluent, but this takes a higher degree of discernment. I have chosen the poor to be rich in faith. If you struggle to see my involvement in everything around you this is a good place to start to learn. See my presence in those in need, and minister life to them in tangible ways and I will receive it as a heavenly sacrifice. 

When I performed ministry on the earth most of the people who heard my message were common people, and they heard it gladly. Members of the religious establishment were also present and they did not receive me. When you received the gospel message did you do it as one of the common people? Have years of involvement in the religious establishment of your own generation made you a member of it? I want you to understand that this is a real danger and you can make the transition without being aware of it. As you examine yourself for any type of sin be sure that you remain a common humble seeker who receives my word gladly. 

The sick came to me and I asked them if they wanted to be healed. Does this seem like a stupid question to you? Yet consider what I did not ask. I did not ask about doctrines and denominations. I did not ask if they were worthy. I did not dwell on sin in their lives although I did forgive one man’s sins before healing him. In the light of the moral and doctrinal judgments that people make do these omissions seem conspicuous by absence? So perhaps a question that elicits a verbal response of a desire for healing is not a stupid question after all. I have given you an example to follow in your own prayers for the sick. 

Have you heard of the period of history known as the Enlightenment? This period is incorrectly named, for enlightenment is another Biblical term for revelation, and this was a time in which revelation was rejected in favor of human reasoning. What consequences of this change do you still see in effect today? Do you encounter believers who will only accept things they can figure out from their own study of the Bible? I have much to show you from the Bible, but I want you to be aware that it is I who am showing it to you. What does a man have that he did not receive from heaven? Come to me and let me enlighten you. 

Do you tend to judge people by the behavior of their children? Do you assume that the influence of a parent is so strong that there is a direct cause and effect relationship between the conduct of the children and the quality of the parenting? Yet have you not known devout and diligent parents who nonetheless had children who went astray? Consider my own story of the prodigal son. Was there anything wrong with the love of the father? Yet the younger son still departed and disgraced the family. You are not called to judge others. How much less based on the conduct of someone else? 

Are you aware that you live in a fallen world? You see suffering and sin and death and decay. Does it fill your heart with sorrow when you see this evidence? Yet I do not want you to be discouraged. I declared the world to be good before it became a fallen world and it is still my creation. If you look you will see the evidence for this too, in a world that sustains life and growth. Look and see the beauty in this world that is a reflection of my beauty, and see my presence everywhere, intervening in my creation to continually sustain it with favor and blessing. He who has eyes to see, let him see. 

You understand my commandments to avoid idolatry, and that idols can be things other than graven images. You need something to acknowledge as being of supreme importance, and I alone am capable of filling this role. If you don’t choose me you will choose something inferior. Have you noticed that unbelievers find something on which they place undue influence? Lacking a sense of the transcendent they find something close at hand to serve as an anchor. I want you to have a higher viewpoint from which you have a true perspective. Only in me do you have an eternal and infinite horizon and he who is spiritual judges all things.