Dale Cresap's blog

My word speaks of several who have departed from familiar surroundings to go on a spiritual journey of discovery. Father Abraham is a prime example. You see the same thing in the ongoing story of history. Have you noticed how rare it is for someone raised in a church not to go through a period of examining and questioning their traditional practices? Yet even here there is more than one approach. You can start in rebellion against all you have learned, or use it for a launching pad from which to move on. Who is more successful? If you reject all you have been given you have no foundation from which to progress but if you honor the good you already have you are in a position to make it better, and make it your own. 

Have you ever heard the gospel message declared in such a way that presents Jesus on the cross standing between you and a Father full of wrath? It is important to emphasize the centrality of the cross, but this picture presents a false impression of the Father. My disciples asked me to show them the Father and I told them that my Father and I were one, and that the Father himself loved them. John the Baptist was reluctant to baptize me, and with good reason, but I told him to go ahead that all righteousness may be fulfilled. I went to the cross for the same reason. It was not to stand between you and a God of wrath, for the Father loves you too. 

You are familiar with hunger for food. You call this an appetite, but both of these terms can be applied more broadly. You can hunger for human contact, and my word says those who hunger for righteousness are blessed. Have you ever been hungry to worship me? This is a spiritual hunger for my presence and communion with me. Those who are in darkness do not understand this but they are still restless until they enter into life. Do you understand that worship is an inherent response to your creator and is the primary source of your life and vitality? It gives meaning and purpose in a random and chaotic world. I want you to be sensitive to this appetite that you may seek to satisfy it. Blessed are those who hunger to worship me for I will receive their adoration. 

Computers, networks, and databases have in recent years made it possible to access vast amounts of information. Do you think people are smarter as a result? They can be better informed but even if the search is easy you still have to seek before you find. Your character and interests still determine what you will look for. If you seek the things of this world you may find it easier than ever to attain them, but they are still insufficient to meet your real needs. My word is as true in an age of computer networks as it was in a day of scrolls. Seek ye first the Kingdom of God and righteousness and you will find it and all these things will be added to you. 

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.