Dale Cresap's blog

My word tells you to honor all men. Do you think it is enough to be civil to them? That is only a start. It is not enough to be polite. Good manners are necessary, but honor requires more. Do you take a genuine interest in the people you meet, inquiring about their interests and allowing them to choose topics of conversation? Do you refrain from offering negative opinions about things important to them? You know how to show honor to those you admire, or who outrank you, or whose favor you seek. My commandment just requires you to show the same behavior to those to whom you would otherwise be indifferent. 

As a leader, do you consider yourself to be in charge or in control? To be in charge implies a commission to lead within the parameters assigned to you, as I have charged you to carry out your assignments. To be in control implies domination of those under you. The first is Biblical leadership because you are under my authority and authorized to lead as I have commissioned you. The second is not because I have given liberty to those under you, and your leadership is not to control them.  It is only as you are led by my Spirit that you can help people find their own destinies in me and at the same time lead them to work together effectively. 

Are you in a position of leadership? Don’t be quick to respond that this category doesn’t include you. Not all leaders have recognized offices and titles and a well-defined group of followers. You are a leader in some way whether you recognize it or not. Do you think of leadership in terms of hierarchies? I turned this upside down when I taught my disciples that he who would be the greatest among you should be the servant of all. Therefore do not be discouraged if you do not have a conventional position of leadership. If you let your light shine before men that they may glorify me, I will call you a good and faithful servant leader. 

Do you see the world around you infused with transcendent meaning? Do you see this in the ordinary actions you take every day? Would you like to? Animals eat because hunger drives them. You eat also, and can do it for the same reason, but do you think of food only as fuel? This is a common task that you can enrich with spiritual meaning. Do you consider the goodness of my creation and my promise of harvest when you partake of its fruits? Do you do so with gratitude and an acknowledgement of your continual dependence on me?

Have you ever been through an audit? Most people would not volunteer for this and those who face them involuntarily do not wish to repeat the experience. Who would want someone else to delve into the details of their finances or any other area of life to be examined for errors? Yet I invite you to examine yourself, and to come and let us reason together, so I am inviting you to come to me for an audit. This isn’t just about your finances, but includes everything in your life. You may find this painful, but I still invite you to come voluntarily. He who falls on this stone will be broken, but not crushed, and I offer redemption in areas that need correction. 

Do you think of Pilgrims as the original settlers of America? Do you understand that this is a general term for those on a spiritually motivated journey? Then do you see that this term could apply to you? My word makes references to sojourners and this is not a term reserved for a select few, but applies to all who are willing to venture forth. Are you? This isn’t as much a matter of time, speed, and distance as it is a state of mind to seek and keep on seeking in a world that is not really your home, where all things are impermanent. You have my promise that if you keep seeking those things that are above you will keep finding them. 

I commended my servant Job and cited him even to the adversary as a positive example. As a result he was tried at higher level of rigor. At the end of this he was full of arguments and questions. I restored him not by answering his questions, but by asking questions of him that he could not answer. Did this seem like a harsh interrogation to you? I did it in love to restore Job to a sense of mystery and wonder. Do you think of the Christian faith primarily in terms of structured argument, precept upon precept? This is valid but so is the concept of the mystery of the faith. I want you to be filled with awe and wonder too. 

My word teaches you to stand fast in the liberty in which I have made you free. Do you see this as a rallying cry to cast off oppression? Do you see this as more of an internal or external problem? For the passage goes on to say, don’t be entangled again in the yoke of bondage. Doesn’t this suggest hindrances that originate within you instead of those imposed from without? If you examine your own experience and search your own heart, don’t you find that the greatest struggles you face come from inside you? When my apostle cried out, ‘who shall deliver me?’ he was dealing with his own shortcomings. I delivered him, and will do the same for you. 

Are you aware of your rights and prepared to defend them fiercely? There is a level at which this is appropriate. My word tells you to stand fast in the liberty in which I have made you free. Yet it also asks the question, what do you have that you did not receive? This implies that everything you have is a gift. There is a vast difference between these concepts. You can grasp for rights, but gifts should fill you with a sense of gratitude and humility. Which mindset do you think is more appropriate for my children? Even your liberty is a gift from me. Exercise it with a profound acknowledgement of the one who gave it to you. 

Do you understand that believers and unbelievers are subject to different pitfalls? Unbelievers are lost in darkness, but it is only believers who can grow weary in well doing and lose their first love. You can only grow weary in well doing if you are doing it, and those I corrected about losing their first love were busily engaged in church work. These are good things, but they can distract you from the best thing. I gently reminded Martha that Mary had chosen the better part, to sit at my feet and hear my word, and I would not forbid her. If you seek me first you can trust me to guide you to accomplish everything else that is really important.