Dale Cresap's blog

Do you ever wish that things would get back to normal? There is a natural longing for the stable, predictable, and familiar. Yet this desire does not work in your favor, and a closer examination reveals why it is undesirable. Normal implies a static condition in which there is no change, growth, or progress. You are comfortable with familiar conditions, and uncomfortable with the unfamiliar. Yet it is under these conditions that growth occurs. Your comfort zone is not large enough for your life and your destiny.

Even for those who are already in prison, those in charge have the ability to impose more strict punishments. One of these is solitary confinement, keeping a prisoner isolated even from other prisoners, and this is considered a harsh penalty. This is a testimony of the power of my statement that it is not good for the man to be alone. It is better to be assigned any other prisoner as a cell mate than to be alone. Have you ever been alone even if it wasn’t externally imposed as a punishment? Have you observed others in isolation of their own making?

Do you love your enemies? This is clearly required by my teachings. Do you regard this as the most difficult of all my commandments? How would you normally regard your enemies? As those who had nothing in common with you, and nothing of value for you? You may think of your friends as those who agree with you, but have you ever received acts of kindness or seen sacrificial giving from those who do not? Have you ever learned anything from those with an alternative viewpoint? So how can you love your enemies? You could start by seeing if there is anything that you could learn from them.

Do you have an inner sanctum and an outer platform? You need some way to spend time with me for your own sanity and mental and spiritual cohesion, if nothing else. Could you survive without this direct connection? What do you gain by maintaining this relationship? Do you get more than just enough to hold yourself together? Do you also get wisdom and insights and encouragement that you can pass on to others? What do you do when you leave your secret place? Do you have a platform and audience from which you can pass along that which you have received? First you need a light.

Do you see salvation as an event or a process? The conventional thinking on this is that it occurs in a moment, a status change that takes place as an event. Yet you are not to say, even in your heart, who shall ascend into heaven, and who shall descend into hell. So this is a question you don’t need to answer, for this is my domain. How shall you proceed with your own spiritual formation? I have given you some guidance on this. If you continue in my word you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free. Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling.

Do you learn by reading? Do you tell your friends about the things you learn in books that they too may benefit from the knowledge? Is there anything that you have read that you don’t have the right to declare? The freedom of speech means that you can say whatever you want, but have you ever heard someone say something that they got from reading only, with no life experience to back it up? How much impact does this message have? Consider the multitudes that marveled that I spoke with authority and not as the scribes and Pharisees. This is not to discourage you from reading.

Do you have a prayer closet? My word refers to entering your closet to pray. You have a strong concept of the meaning of closet according to the type of house you live in. Do you think that the original audience for this statement was affluent enough and with advanced construction methods to have a separate enclosed room in their homes that they could enter and close the door for private solitude? This is a luxury if you have it. Not everyone does, even today. So what do you think it meant to the original audience?

Are you effective at persuading other people? Since you have the message of life you don’t get to opt out, even if you don’t consider yourself to be gifted in this area. Some people are better than others at this, but there are guidelines that everyone can follow. Have you ever been attacked and humiliated? Did you find this persuasive or did it trigger a defensive reaction in you to cling to what you knew even if it was wrong? Other people experience the same thing. Do you admire boldness in the presentation of the gospel? Do you also admire humble entreaty, patience and forbearance?

I looked at the multitudes and saw sheep without a shepherd and it broke my heart. What do you see? Truth is timeless and eternal, but every generation needs a prophet to declare the ancient truth. Who could you identify as being the current voice in your generation, and those from times past? In this regard do not limit your consideration to those at the head of organizations; to those who hold offices and titles. If you look at the Biblical example you will see that prophets are outsiders rather than insiders. Consider John the Baptist, and of course, me.

Do you believe in the idea of the chosen and elect? So do I. So how can you tell them from others? You could look for those who lay down their life, and pick up their cross and follow me. You could look for those who have been sifted like wheat, and submitted to the refiner’s fire. You could look at those who always bear about my death in their own bodies. What about those who are last, being a spectacle unto me, and to angels, and to men; the off-scouring of the world, yet those of whom the world was not worthy? So there really are the chosen and elect.