daily word - safe?

Dale Cresap's picture

Do you have a safe? Your bank does even if you don’t. This is a sturdy rigid vault where valuables are stored, with a secure locked door, typically with a  combination lock. Do you look at me the same way, that if you just get the combination right you can open the door and get the treasure inside? Many people look at me this way but it is a faulty image. Safe combinations are secret, but my ways are open. Safes are made to keep people out, but I delight in opening my hand and satisfying the desire of every living thing, sending rain and sun on the just and unjust. Don’t think that you or anyone else needs a secret code or manipulation to gain access to me.

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daily word - life quality?

Dale Cresap's picture

How do you assess the quality of your life? Do you think in terms of money? Health? Free time and the ability to do the things you enjoy? These are all desirable. Is happiness a direct pursuit or a by-product of a life of character and serving others? Do you see people pursuing happiness through diversions and fun and entertainment who seem to get ever diminishing results from ever greater efforts? I said that he who would seek to save his life would lose it, but he who would lose his life for my sake would find it. Does this seem contradictory? Yet you can see this principle in action. Seek ye first the Kingdom of God, and all these things shall be added unto you.

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daily word - Lord's Prayer

Dale Cresap's picture

My disciples asked me to teach them to pray, and I did. You know the result as the Lord’s Prayer. Most Christians are familiar with it and it is probably the most commonly recited prayer. Do you have it committed to memory and recite it yourself? Yet you can follow my disciple’s example even more closely by doing what they did, and asking me to teach you to pray. The response I give you may not gain worldwide fame and acceptance, but it should have special meaning for you if I give it to you directly. You speak of your faith in me as a relationship, so the relational aspect of this approach may be more important than having the words just right.

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daily word - endure the storm

Dale Cresap's picture

Do you know people who are devastated by every setback? They may appear to be more caring and concerned than others who can weather the storm, but being devastated is not beneficial to others and is nothing to brag about. I told a story about a man who built his house upon a rock and another who built his house upon sand. They were both satisfactory in fair weather, but one was able to withstand the storm and the other was not. Storms will come. Build your life on me and when they do you will have enough internal structure and strength to withstand these external forces.

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daily word - rules?

Dale Cresap's picture

Which do you think is more important, rules or people? Is it easy to say people? Yet people need rules and structure. If everyone is an exception and a special case the structure falls apart. So there is an inevitable tension between these concepts, and you know people who seem to value one more highly than the other. Rule people have been known as legalists. I encountered these on my own time on earth. I was accused on breaking the law by healing people on the Sabbath. I pointed out that man was not made for the Sabbath, but the Sabbath for man. Honor the rules and follow them, but you are free to examine them and if  they don’t serve the grater needs of humanity set them aside.

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Daily Word - judge not

Dale Cresap's picture

Do you understand that you will be judged by the same standards by which you judge others? Do you assume that you will wait until the final judgment for this to take place? I assure you that you won’t have to wait that long. Have you ever heard someone spewing forth harsh and bitter judgments against others? Don’t you see it as a blatant invitation to watch them closely and look for opportunities to apply the same standards to them? This is a universal principle that also applies to you. Do you see this as a deal to overlook evil in others that they might overlook it in you? This principle is not meant to be a license to sin. Judge not (others) but judge yourself that you may not be judged.

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daily word - righteous agents

Dale Cresap's picture

Do you recognize that some persons can be a bad influence on you; such as leading you back into bad habits? This is a real phenomenon and you are wise not to associate with people who will cause you to stumble in areas of known weakness. Do you know that the reverse is also true? That there are those who inspire you to better conduct than you would on your own? You may think of these as agents of righteousness. Do you think that only pastors or others holding spiritual offices can act this way? What have you found to be true in your own life? Haven’t you seen children or the elderly have this influence on yourself or others, even doing it unawares? So you don’t need an office or title to be an agent of righteousness. Who does this for you? Do you do it for anyone else?

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