Dale Cresap's blog

You have my promise that if you seek for me you will find me. But where would you look for me? Perhaps it would be more accurate to say that if you look for me, I will find you.  For you do not know where I am, but I know where you are, and I will meet you there. You are familiar with this concept by arranging a time and place to meet a friend. But this concept goes beyond physical location. It applies to your life circumstances and condition as well.

Do you carry out the Great Commission? What sort of responses do you encounter? Do you prefer those who are indifferent to those who oppose you? This is a way to avoid conflict, but not a strategy for success. Those who have started their spiritual journey will engage with you even if they don’t agree with you. Those who have not will find the whole subject to be boring. I likened my own generation to children who would not dance to music or mourn for a dirge. They had become indifferent and unresponsive.

Some building projects begin with bare ground, but for others there is already a structure on the property where the new building will be constructed. In this case, the old building must be removed before the new one can be built, and this process is called demolition. This destruction is a necessary part of the overall process that results in a new building. Have you ever been through a similar process in the building of your own life? Have you ever had your life fall apart in spite of your best efforts to prevent this?

I told a story of two houses, one built on rock, and the other built on sand. Both houses remained standing under calm conditions, but when a storm came, the house built on a rock stood and the one built on sand fell. The parallel to human life is obvious. Some people build beautiful structures on a bad foundation. Have you ever see a life of affluence and comfort that would not withstand the storms of life? No building can be better than the foundation it rests on, and the same is true of life.

Do you seek out those who are like-minded to yourself? This is a common phrase that everyone understands and responds to. Everyone likes the company of those who are in agreement with them. Yet do you know people with whom you agree on points of doctrine who are nonetheless disagreeable people? Would you rather keep company with those who are kind or with those with whom you are in agreement? What term would you use for those who are kind and pleasant and congenial? Like-spirited? Is it more important to you to keep company with those who are like-minded or like-spirited?

By this shall all men know that you are my disciples, by the love ye have for one another. This is a profound statement. For any group, do you find their authenticity more validated by the love they have for one another, or for the love they have for you? Hold that thought while we revisit the story of the Good Samaritan, which hinged on the question of who is my neighbor. The moral of that story is to reach outside of the group you identify with to extend kindness to others. You can extend the same principle to the statement demonstrating that you are my disciples.

You have my promise that I will return. Are you eager for this? You can be confident that it will happen even if you don’t know the date and time, even if it doesn’t happen during your lifetime. This is not a matter for passive indifference, for I tell you many places in my word to love my appearing, and to look for and hasten unto the coming of the Lord. This certainty can and should motivate you and give you a sense of urgency in the life you live now. Are you ready for it? Does desiring it imply that you are prepared? Is there anything you have left to do?

Do you see me as a teacher or a judge? What did my life consist of? You find examples in scripture of people referring to me as teacher or rabbi, which was a common honorary address at the time. Did this seem to fit the life I lived? Didn’t I come to teach people about the Kingdom of God? Do you think of God the Father as more of a judge? Yet I declared that those who had seen me had seen the Father, and that I and my Father were one. So does this imply that you should think of your Father God as more of a teacher than a judge?

How do unbelievers perceive me? Have you noticed that even those who do not believe that I exist have a conceptual model of me? Does this strike you as odd? It should strike them as odd. So it is fair to ask them, what sort of God do you not believe in? This is usually a God that is harsh, judgmental, exacting, indifferent, and distant. Do you know from firsthand experience that this is not a valid description of me? So this gives you a place to start with them. Let your light so shine before men that they may see your good works and glorify me.

A fool utters all his mind, but a wise man spares his words. Have you ever met people who spoke every thought that came to mind? Did you find this to be tedious and wearisome? Were you tempted to tell them that it would be better if some of their thoughts remained private, but thought better than to mention it? Yet have you met other people you wish would say more, because their few words were profound? You consider them wise, but the former are not. Their words punctuate the silence, but for the former, silence is a relief. So in your own case, what words do you withhold?