Dale Cresap's blog

What image does the word ‘temple’ evoke for you? Most people think of elegant and stately architecture, typically in stone. But what is the function of a temple? Isn’t it a dwelling place for me? My word describes temples as structures built by men, but these are a thing of the past, for I said that I would never again inhabit the works of men’s hands. The temple I now inhabit is one of my own making that is fearfully and wonderfully made. I dwell within those I have redeemed. Do you regard your body as the temple of the Holy Spirit and treat it accordingly? This doesn’t apply to everyone, but the potential exists. Do you look at everyone you meet as a place where I dwell, or could?

Have you ever been through military training? Even those who have not realize that it involves a systematic breaking down that the recruit may be rebuilt to be a good solider. The process may seem harsh to outsiders and even more so to those going through it, but willfulness does not surrender easily and time has proven this process successful. Do you see yourself going through the same process with me? I am building an army and I want you in it. He who falls on this stone will be broken, yet this is only the first step of the process. Deny yourself and lay down your life and take up your cross and follow me and I will transform you into my likeness. 

I tell you to knock and seek and ask, and promise to give results to your search. Do you know that it is OK to ask me questions? Do you know that it is OK to keep asking even after I answer? Your purpose in this should not be to get a different answer, but to add clarity and detail to the original answer. Often I only give you what you need at the moment. It is enough at the time, but there is more available if you keep pursuing the matter. I am not offended by your ongoing questions. Isn’t this how you converse with and learn from your friends? There is a progression in which the preliminary answers call forth a refined set of questions. If you abide and continue in me you shall know the truth and the truth shall make you free. I have answers to all your questions and will give them as you keep asking. 

My word says that you have received freely so you should give freely. Does that mean that you should perform ministry without an income? Yet it also says that a workman is worthy of his wages, and implies that those who work are entitled to eat. Some of those who do not earn their living in gospel ministry will impose requirements that those who do may only receive income from free will offerings, but my word does not require this. Have you noticed that gospel workers generally make less money than those working in commercial world? Be generous to them and non-judgmental. 

Do you long for certainty and universal absolute truth? Yet I have called you to be a continual seeker. There is a human desire to want the final answer and there is comfort in certainty, but it is a false comfort. You may want to stop and build an encampment around the revelation you have received, but this is inadvisable, even if it is a true revelation. Those who think they have all the answers become the enemy of what I will do next. Haven’t you already seen this pattern in history? Do not be content to remain where you are and hinder those who would advance. True security is found in mystery and the tension of ongoing revelation. 

What excuses do you hear from people who refuse to trust and follow me? That I will take control of their lives and compel them to go and do missionary work some place they don’t want to go? Their logic and reason are inverted. How many people feel trapped in their life circumstances, in a dead-end job and frustration over an unfulfilled dream? How many do you meet who plod through life unaware, with no real sense of destiny, purpose, or identity of their own? Don’t you find that it is believers who follow me who know that they are in my will and find it to be the fulfillment of their lives? Come to me for only I can bring to fruition the purpose for which I made you. I am your destiny maker. 

Have you heard that beauty is only skin deep? There is a superficial sense of truth to this statement. Beauty is a combination of internal and external factors. Your culture has distorted these senses because it is so obsessed with appearance. Yet even with this you know superficially attractive people you do not admire, and their counterparts you do admire after you get to know them. I want you to mature beyond the values of your culture that your eyes may be open to see the true essence of the people you meet for their true and enduring identity. As you become more like me you will see other people the way I see them. 

You know that my word teaches you to love your enemies and pray for them. How do you pray for your enemies? Do you ask me to call down fire from heaven on them? Yet this is not consistent with love, and I corrected my disciples for wanting to do this. Should you pray that they will be blessed and find enjoyment in the use of things they stole from you? I do not expect you to affirm their sin. You could pray that my redemptive purpose would be advanced in their life. This may not be something that they would pray for themselves but it is what they really need whether they realize it or not. This is a prayer that you can pray in good conscience for your enemies and one that I am eager to answer. 

Do you like to get your own way? Who doesn’t? People think they will be happy if they get their own way, yet what do you observe about those who get their own way all the time? Don’t you find them to be selfish and spoiled? Can you see that it is more important to grow in grace than to get everything you want? I teach you to seek my Kingdom before the things of this world, and in my Kingdom there are no scarce resources. If you continue to do this you will be changed and transformed into my likeness so that selfishness is not possible. Be willing to lose your life that you may have life, and you will look back and see that you have not been deprived of anything. 

Do you long for a world of established and well-defined order? There is some comfort in this, but it is an unrealistic expectation, for I did not create a static world. Can you balance on a bicycle without moving? Yet you can ride a bicycle without falling over. Engineers distinguish between static and dynamic stability, and you can expect more of the latter than the former in the world of vital life that I created. Do you feel insecure when everything around you seems to be in motion? I know you need a fixed point of reference and I provide that in myself. Trust me to lead you onward in a safe path to peace and victory in this seemingly chaotic world. Please pray for Kim (not her real name (God knows who she is)) who is struggling with legal and marital problems related to alcohol. She has left home and feels she can’t forgive herself.