Dale Cresap's blog

Do you think that unconditional love is great as long as you are receiving it? Are you prepared to give it? You love because I first loved you. This is only possible for you because you were quickened by my love. This began the process of transforming you into my likeness and enabling you to love. I love because it is characteristic of me, and as you become like me it will be of you too. I do not say that it is easy, but I have invited you into the fellowship of my suffering. Do not fear to respond. You will fulfill my joy and find your joy in this sacrifice. Freely you have received, freely give.

The ancient Greek dramas were tragedies or comedies. These metaphors have carried over into the modern age and you have probably heard of drama referred to as one or the other. Is the drama in your own life absurd or despairing? Yet limiting it to these two choices is cynical. For there is another alternative that doesn’t fit these categories. The story of my work in your life is a tale of redemption. It is not a comedy or a tragedy and neither is it a fictional story written for entertainment. It is the real life you live abiding in me with meaning and purpose and abundance and is cause for rejoicing. 

Do you find yourself constantly surrounded by images and stories of celebrities? Some of these are shallow people who are famous for dubious reasons. How many of them are famous for enduring positive accomplishments or Christlike character? It can take a strong inner sense of resolve to maintain your values in this culture. Yet you have my promise that the first will be last and the last will be first. Those who are so highly esteemed today will be disregarded, and in the fullness of my Kingdom those who labored faithfully in obscurity will receive the recognition due unto them. I will render every man what he is due and the acclaim of men is not worthy to be compared to the rewards I give.

How do you choose your friends? My word says that they who feared the Lord spoke often to one another. I listened in to their conversation wrote a book of remembrance for those who feared me and thought upon my name. These are my special treasure, and you want to be in this book. This depends on your conversation and that depends on how you choose your friends. For you are prone to find a subject agreeable to both. Those who do not have this hunger in their hearts will not want to discuss me. Your choice of friends is a decision with eternal consequences. If you hunger for me you will seek those who have my presence in them as you do and I will find them for you.

To the crowd wanting to stone a woman caught in adultery I said let he who is without sin cast the first stone. Do you take this to be a universal principle or intended for this incident only? You normally think of my pronouncements as being universal, and in a literal sense you should not throw rocks at people. Yet taken in a broader sense, who then can give correction at all? Those who are too eager are automatically disqualified, yet I have placed some in spiritual authority for whom this is a duty. It is a fearful thing for anyone to bring correction to my children but if your motive is love from a broken heart I may allow you to steer others back to the path of righteousness.

Do you ever visit other churches? Do you think that yours does things the way they should be, so doing them another way is wrong? There is more than one way to do things right. In my Father’s house there are many mansions, and in my church there are many local assemblies. I want you to feel at home in my Father’s house because you are among brothers and sisters of your own kind. There is liberty in the expression of observations and worship. I am willing to accept things that may not fit your taste or comfort level. I still receive them as worship in spirit and in truth. I want you to grow to share my joy in every manner of worship that is pleasing to me. 

Does it bother you to encounter closed doors, both in the physical and figurative sense? You sincerely ask me for guidance and want to receive it. Do you realize that encountering closed doors is a form of guidance? This is not what you were looking for but it is a part of my plan. Timing is as much a part of my plan as pathway. When the time is right the right doors will open. The patience you develop in the mean time is a fruit of the Spirit. Are you impatient because you think that events around you are not happening fast enough? What about events inside you? Trust me to complete my work in you and through you on time. 

There was a forbidden tree in a garden and eating from it was the first mistake. It was desirable to make one wise, but it brought separation from me. Prior to this my children walked with me in my garden. I put my redemptive plan into action to restore this relationship. The world is full of the consequences of this mistake, those who reason by themselves apart from me. You may claim that you didn’t eat of this tree, but it is possible to partake of it in a figurative sense. Do you try to figure out right and wrong on your own? Come and let us reason together. Come and walk with me again in my garden. 

You know better than to curse other people. Do you know better than to curse yourself? For it is not socially acceptable for you to curse others, but it is considered modest and humble to belittle or denigrate yourself as if to prove you are not boasting, yet this is not true humility. You are my child, and every parent hates to hear his children pronounce defeat or failure upon themselves. You can limit and disqualify yourself by making such statements and reap a bitter harvest of your own words. Don’t deny the reality of your family heritage that you can do all things through my strength within you. 

Do you understand the need for balance? Balance is not a middle position between excellence and mediocrity. In a physical sense balance keeps you from falling over one way or the other, and balance has a spiritual counterpart. Even unbelievers understand the need for balanced lives.  There are many situations in which there is a tension between two positions, and to do things exactly right you have to avoid excesses on both sides. There is a proper emphasis and time for everything. Ask of me and I will give you wisdom to achieve this balance. Learn to be comfortable with the dynamic tension that produces it.