Dale Cresap's blog

Can you remember the most magnificent thing you saw in nature? What was your response? Were you filled with awe and wonder by the majesty of it? This is an appropriate way to respond to the beauty of my creation. How do you respond to an encounter with me? Do you try to figure it out? If the creator is greater than the creature, then a response of awe and wonder is even more appropriate for me than it is for something I have made. A spiritual encounter calls for a spiritual response rather than a rational one. My work in you is one of transformation, and you are changed from one degree of glory to another by my Spirit. 

You know how emphatically my word teaches against rebellion. This is the rejection of legitimate authority and is as the sin of witchcraft. Do you realize that rebellion has an evil counterpart? The will to power is the attempt to establish an illegitimate authority, even to dominate and control. It is interference in the natural liberty I give to every one of my creatures. I offer you eternal life for you to freely choose, yet I do not force it on you against your will. If I being perfect can leave you free to make up your own mind, how much more should you who are mortal avoid interfering with God given liberty. 

I promised that in the last days knowledge would increase. Can you see how this has happened? Search engines make a multitude of facts available to nearly everyone. Multitudes of people have access to more information than the most elite scholars of fairly recent times. Everyone agrees that this is a good thing, but in what ways is the world better off? Has this served to solve the problems of the world? My word promises that if you seek you will find, and teaches you to seek those things which are above, where I sit at the right hand of the Father. It is not enough to have information available; you must ask the right questions. Use your resources to seek my Kingdom. 

Do you understand that everyone has a sense of presence? You notice a certain atmosphere when you enter a room full of people and if you are already there you notice changes when others enter. Have you found that some people have the effect of overwhelming domination, being ‘full of themselves’ and others bring an appealing sense of acceptance and love? You can be aware of this even before anything is spoken. This presence is a part of a person that accompanies their body. Do you understand that I also have a presence with you? I promised to be with you always, but I want you to actively seek and cultivate a sense of my presence. 

Do you normally think of a journey as a round trip, departing from home and returning there? If you change your permanent residence from one place to another you call it a move. Yet in a spiritual sense your journey with me is a one way trip. Do you find this unsettling, to know that you are passing this way but once, and will not return to those familiar things from the past? Do you recall my promise that I was going away to prepare a place for you, and would come back to receive you to myself? Those who have hope in the land of promise are willing to leave behind things that are familiar but inferior that they may press on to better things not yet revealed. 

Do you prefer conversation or dialogue? You may consider these terms to be synonymous, but conversation can be light and superficial or while dialogue implies a deeper level of engagement. You can control a conversation and steer it in the way you want to go, but a dialogue has a life of its own that neither party has control of and to truly engage in it you must be willing to go where it leads, even in unexpected directions. Is this a scary prospect? Yet it is the way to explore new ground and grow, and those who value it will seek out others who also want to engage in it. Come and let us reason together. 

Do you enjoy travel for the sake of travel? I have called you to follow me, and so you are. I want you to enjoy the journey, but also to realize that it has a destination. For I have told you to seek my Kingdom which is above, a city whose builder and maker is God. So you are traveling and looking for something at the same time. As a result you appear to others to be on a wandering path. Yet I see the same path as the strait and narrow way that leads to life. Others may be on a path where the shortest distance is a straight line.

Do you take doctrine seriously and study my word to be sure your understanding of it is correct? It is commendable to seek the truth and rightly divide my word. Yet honest believers reading the same Bible can disagree on minor issues. Another possible approach is to walk with me and lead a Christian life, and apply my word to the situations you encounter. This more difficult path will probably lead you to fewer doctrinal questions. How many situations do you encounter in life that require a nuanced response depending on whether you are, for instance, Calvinist or Armenian?  Doctrine shouldn’t be a strictly academic exercise. If you continue in my word you shall know the truth and be free. 

Have you received training in a method for sharing your faith? Most systematic approaches involve a presentation like a sales pitch. Yet most Christians use my encounter with a woman at a well as the best example of witnessing. This could be more accurately described as a conversation. What about you? Are you more eager to engage in a conversation or listen to a sales pitch? You can safely assume that others feel the same way. This leads to an informal dialogue rather than a structured presentation. Can you relay the essence of the gospel message in such a setting? You can if you trust me to be present and guide your conversation. 

Are you familiar with my promise that I will give you the desires of your heart? Do you understand that this is an ambiguous statement? How does it read to you? Do you think it means that everything you want will be fulfilled? Or that the desires themselves will be imparted by me? Which do you prefer? Most people like the first sense, because they want what they want. Yet those who have their hearts set on me and my Kingdom understand the greater value of the second meaning, for their greatest desire is to be transformed into my likeness, and they shall have the fulfillment of this promise in both ways.