Dale Cresap's blog

Are you enthralled? How strongly do you support your team or your candidate in an election or the leader of your church? There is nothing wrong with having preferences and providing support for those you favor but you can do so without yielding your personal sovereignty or identity. False messiahs are always looking for disciples and are eager to exert undue influence and control over those willing to follow them. You are bought with a price and you are not your own, and it was I who paid that price. Do not willingly become the captive of any man.

Do you draw distinctions between yourself or your group and others to claim that your gender, nationality, profession, denomination, political candidate, or ideology are superior to others? In mathematics if two numbers are not equal then one is greater than the other. But this principle does not hold in other areas where there can be differences without superiority or inferiority. Look for my redemptive purpose outside of your own group and you will find it. What is the essence of your identity?

Have you heard the question posed about whether you see the glass as half full or half empty? This question is typically asked in a situation in which you get something you want but less than what you felt you deserved or were entitled to. So how do you respond? This depends on whether your life outlook is based on gratitude or entitlement. The illustration is invariably in terms of half full or half empty. What is it were ten percent full and ninety percent empty?

Do you live in the moment or do you take a long term view? How long is your time horizon? You refer to people who live in the moment as impulsive and you can see the problems with this. Do you take a long term view as a result? You can argue that your faith gives you an infinite time horizon but I also said to take no thought for tomorrow for tomorrow would take care of itself and sufficient unto the day was the evil thereof. So there are arguments for both sides and this dilemma cannot be resolved from the perspective of an independent existence.

Do you belong to the Kingdom of God? Do you hold positions on issues of politics or economics as a result of your beliefs? Do you think that every believer should come to the same conclusions, and that your answers to these questions are the right answers, and that Christians should form a unified voting block? Yet you find believers with a wide range of political opinions. I said that my Kingdom is not of this world. So it is more important that your opinions have a basis in the Kingdom of God than that you agree with every believer.

I told my disciples that the gentiles loved to exercise authority over one another and status was measured by position in the hierarchy. Do you find that the same principle is in effect today, but there is another dimension as well, that your culture keeps score by money? People are referred to as millionaires or billionaires as if that were the only measure of worth. But I told my disciples that it would not be so among them and that they should serve rather than seeking to dominate others. Can you apply the same principle to money?

Do you take the sacraments? What is your view of them? They are described as outward symbols of inward graces. They are the means by which something that is visible in the material world is connected to the invisible transcendent realm. Is this the way you view them and experience them? For it is possible to go through the motions without awareness of the spiritual reality. Yet the benefit of the practice lies in comprehending the connection between the realms. If you do not close a door for no reason, then neither should you kindle a fire on my altar or take sacraments for no reason.

You live in a world of commerce, so you expect to pay for the things you want and need, and the range of things available to you for a price is astounding. Yet it is conventional wisdom even for those outside of the church that one thing you cannot buy is love. Have you ever given a substantial amount of money to a friend or family member and found that it didn’t change the basis of the relationship at all? Was this discouraging? But reversing the perspective to those who do not have much money to give, it may be encouraging to know that the lack will not prevent their access to love.

Do you have confidence? Do you have humility? Do you think these are both desirable, but see a conflict between them? Is there a way to have confidence to move ahead, and still operate in humility? The real opposite of humility isn’t confidence, but arrogance. Humility is being modest about your own abilities. The effect of confidence depends on what you place your confidence in.

Have you ever been overcome by your misfortunes and asked me why they happened? Do you normally reserve this question for extreme situations, such as the loss of a loved one, or a failed marriage, or bankruptcy or unemployment? Are these honest inquiries or veiled challenges to my love for you? Have you ever reversed the question and considered that you are no better than those who have gone before, so why should you live in a time of peace and prosperity, with an education and information available to you, with a reasonable expectation of a long and healthy life?