Dale Cresap's blog

Have you been through a quantum change in life? This is a term from physics, but it can be applicable to human experience as well. Most growth in nature, including human growth, is gradual and continuous. Yet certain events can be transformative, and you refer to these as defining moments. They are abrupt transitions that leave you forever changed. Consider the experiences of Jacob with his heavenly vision, Moses with the burning bush, and Paul on the road to Damascus. Have you ever had such an experience? If so, did you recognize it as an encounter with me?

Do you have any religious affectations? These are mannerisms that you may acquire to display your Christian identity. Does this seem innocent enough and even desirable? Yet when you consider the things that I criticized in relation to all the things that I could have criticized, religious affectations rank very highly. Consider my remarks to the Pharisees about the things they did for pretense. I made a strong distinction between things done for outward appearance to be seen of men and things done in secret to please your Father in heaven. This distinction is just as valid today.

Do you think of your salvation as a credential? Once you are saved, do you expect everyone, and particularly believers, to take you seriously? In like manner do you consider yourself obligated to take seriously all of your fellow believers, no matter what they say? Do you find any support for this in the Bible? I accept all who call on my name, but that does not qualify them as teachers. You are called to accept your fellow believers but only to follow me. You are not to judge others on the basis of their positions, but you don’t have to accept them as revealed truth either. 

Have you ever been accused of magical thinking? This is a common accusation from those who reject the whole concept of the supernatural out of hand. Yet this leaves them in an awkward position. It gives them the burden of explaining how the material world came into being, spontaneously and unbidden, but their problems don’t stop there. They would also have to explain the order and structure of the world, and the existence of plant, animal, and human life through random undirected events. They would also have to explain the intricate relationships between them.

What is your view of the world? This common term refers to the planet but it has many connotations and special ones for Christians. This term has been grouped with the flesh and the devil, implying that all of these are evil. Yet I also speak of the world in terms of redemption. I was not of this world but you can be in the world and not of it. Do you see your church as a fortress against the world; the Kingdom of God within four walls? This is a tiny fraction of all things. Are you willing to live in a fortress and give the rest away? I wasn’t.

Do you value your freedom? Why? I tell you to stand fast in the liberty in which I have made you free and not to be entangled again in the yoke of bondage. Do you view your liberty as a basis for unrestricted action or as the means by which you can fulfill your destiny? These are very different. The first centers around you, and the second around finding my purpose and plan for you. I have given you liberty, and yet I still tell you to lay down your life and pick up your cross and follow me.

Do you think of authority as a position in the hierarchy obtained by ordination or appointment? This is one approach, with the attendant offices and titles. This results in a visible and fixed structure of power, but is it the only one? Have you ever observed anyone who exercised authority because they were right, whether or not they held title or office? This is called moral authority, and anyone can do it. Consider my own life.

Do you care what everyone thinks about you? Do you care what anyone thinks about you? In regard to the first question the proverb that you can’t please everyone applies, and the Bible refers to this as the fear of men that you should rightly avoid, because you cannot serve two masters. But what would it say about you if there was no one who has earned your respect to the point that you cared what they thought of you? You get to choose who these people are.

Do you forgive those who ask you for forgiveness? You know that is necessary. What about those who require forgiveness and do not ask for it? The dynamics of forgiveness and unforgiveness are the same whether it is requested or not, and your posture of forgiveness toward others is a factor in your own forgiveness. It can be awkward to offer forgiveness where it is not wanted, so how to proceed? In your own heart you can release the claims of justice that you hold against others. Examine yourself in this regard and I will accept you as having done your part in forgiving others.

The cross is the universal symbol of the Christian faith. So much so that it is even used as jewelry. Does this mean that it has lost its original impact? Would you wear a hangman’s noose as a necklace? Yet the cross represents a far more brutal means of execution. What do you think of when you see a cross? It can have many associations, and there are many perspectives on this question. Time and cultural acceptance can dull the original meaning, but do you have to think of it as a means of gruesome torment and death? Another viewpoint is that I redeemed even the cross.