Dale Cresap's blog

The Biblical metaphor for transparency is an open book. Have you noticed that some people are more open and forthcoming than others about their thoughts and intentions? You don’t have to pry it out of them. For those who walk in the light and have my presence within them this is a good thing. They express my love and character openly wherever they go. Yet you have also met people who are open books that you don’t want to read. They volunteer criticism and fear and doubt and condemnation. You wish that they would close their cover. For your own part seek me and let me have full reign in your life, then let your light shine before men that they may glorify me. 

Do you think of your worship of me as a sacrifice or do you enjoy it? Is it possible for both to be true? It is the mentality of righteousness by works that thinks your worship doesn’t count unless it is a burden to you. Yet I have stated clearly that I love cheerful givers. How much more does this extend to every area of worship? I delight and rejoice over your adoration of me. You don’t enjoy watching others in pain, particularly if it is on your behalf. I’m the same way. You enjoy watching people enjoy themselves. I especially enjoy watching people whose spontaneous reaction to encountering me is one of rejoicing. 

How large is your vision of me? There is a human tendency to surround yourself with those who agree with you. This applies even to believers. Yet if I look to you like your small circle of friends then your vision is too small and narrow. I promised that if you seek you will find. If you look for me outside your familiar surroundings you will find I am there too. I said that I have other sheep who are not of this fold and they also are a part of my body. You see a family resemblance between parents and children. My image is seen upon all who are mine. If you would see me as I am then your image must include the reflection of all my children.

You know that I have called you to minister to the poor. Do you find few opportunities to do this in an affluent country? If you look further you can find opportunities, but you can also enlarge your understanding of what it is to be poor and therein find more ways to minister. How many people do you know who have adequate material provision and still lead diminished lives in darkness and despair without hope? They don’t need money, but they do need light and truth. Look to me and I will give you eyes to see needs of every type that you may minister to all accordingly and be a vessel of honor, equipped for every good work, a good and faithful servant.

I promised to send the rain and sun on just and on the unjust. You can look for meaning in this in several ways. I treat the wicked better than they deserve since they do not honor or acknowledge me. It is my nature to be good to all. What then is the advantage of the righteous? If I will provide even for those who are distant from me, how much more will I do so for my own children? If your Father in heaven feeds the sparrows and makes the lilies of the field glorious in beauty how much more will he do for those who love him and devote themselves to him? Does this make you want to adjust your priorities? Seek first the Kingdom of God and your needs here will be provided and you will also obtain the wealth of my Kingdom.

Your judicial system and the scientific community are run as adversarial systems. The premise is that in a confrontation between opposing viewpoints truth will emerge, tested by hostile witnesses. Do you think this always works according to plan? It shall not be so among you, for this is not the method to find truth in my Kingdom. In an adversarial system you defend your own position and look for flaws in your opponent. He does the same in an apparently zero-sum game. I tell you to seek the truth and you will find it. Perhaps those who disagree with you actually know something that you can discover if you consider it without being defensive and argumentative. 

Elections are an essential feature of every democracy in which the citizens exercise their right to vote every year or every few years. Not all people live in a democracy but in an economic sense you vote with your money every time you spend it by buying some things and not others. In another sense you vote with your feet every time you take a step. You choose to be some places and not others. You understand the importance of obeying me, of speaking the words I give you and doing what you see me doing, but first you must be in the right location for the right audience. Therefore I call you to follow me. If you are in the right place you will be able to say and do the right things. 

I said that man does not live by bread alone, but by every word of God. When you think of not living by bread alone do you think of how much more you have in a material sense than just bread? Yet my illustration was not to declare how minimal bread is as a material resource, but to contrast material and spiritual needs. Does your great abundance of material wealth make it more or less difficult for you to pursue spiritual nourishment? Perhaps my words could be rephrased to include all that you eat, drink, wear, live in, and drive in addition to electronic communications and amusement, and you would still need to live by every word of God. 

Have you ever met someone who had something to prove? Did you enjoy the encounter? What is it that such people are trying to prove? Those without an internal sense of identity and worth try to prove their worth to others. Wouldn’t you rather be around gracious people who have an internal sense of worth and don’t feel the need to persuade you that they are special? There is a human longing for affirmation and identity, and these cannot be completely obtained by your own efforts. If you come to me I will give them to you free of charge and you can be gracious to others without having to prove anything. 

In modern Christian terminology stealing sheep is a crime. Pastors desire to have a large flock but they know better than to recruit from other churches. Ye they can still be defensive about their own flock. Just as it is wrong to try to get believers to leave their own church to join yours, it is also wrong to deny those in your own church the opportunities to minister and receive ministry from my Body as a whole. I am the head of my Body and just as each member has something unique to contribute, so does every church. I want you to rejoice in what you can give and receive between local fellowships. All men will know you are my disciples by your love for one another.