Dale Cresap's blog

Do you tell everything to everyone? Only a fool utters all his mind. Yet you do need people in your life in whom you can confide; to whom you can tell everything. This is a human necessity. Otherwise your secrets will eat you from the inside out. You have experienced the release of verbally sharing your burden with someone else. Yet you are selective in whom you choose to do this with. What criteria do you use for selection? Does it have to be someone you have known for a long time? You can unburden yourself to a stranger if you sense trust, interest, compassion and empathy.

Would you say that you know me? Scientists use the idea of a conceptual model to describe their current understanding of phenomena. These models can be improved by further investigation. So is your knowledge of me comprehensive? It is okay with me if you think of your current understanding of me as a conceptual model. Has your comprehension of me grown with time? Hopefully so. I want to show you more about myself. Are you prepared to receive greater revelation of me? Are you prepared to let go of misunderstandings that you have acquired about me?

Do you understand as a matter of basic doctrine that I am everywhere? Are you more aware of my presence in some places than in others? Populated places are influenced by the people who live there. Their beliefs and values affect the spiritual atmosphere, and discerning people are aware of this. I am there too, but if I speak in a still small voice it may be more difficult for you to discern my presence. Have you noticed the more neutral atmosphere in uninhabited places? You may find it easier to discern my presence in places that are free of other influences.

Your car is a vehicle. You use it to go from one place to another, and it requires fuel and maintenance to keep doing this. Do you view your body as a temple? You could also think of it as a vehicle. You can walk from one place to another, but in a more profound sense, your body is a vehicle for your spiritual journey through life. Do you wash your car and keep the oil changed because you depend on it for transportation? How important is it to you to have a dependable vehicle for your spiritual journey?

Have you ever heard of the human mind being compared to a computer, or vice versa? This may have been a useful way to understand early computers. Now that computers can beat human opponents at chess, does it seem that computers have surpassed people?  But computers are machines and will never equal people. Computers will never have free agency, will not have compassion, empathy, or a conscience. Computers will never love and they are not alive, as you are. No matter how fast and powerful they are at processing instructions they are not fearfully and wonderfully made, and you are.

Does your church have a music ministry? This position is invariably referred to as worship leader. How do you evaluate the performance of a worship leader? You don’t do it by watching them or listening to them. If they are effective leaders you should see the congregation respond by entering into worship. If they sit silently and passively are they spectators or participants? It is possible to have a spiritual experience without an outward indication, but if the people are not involved perhaps those on the stage should be called performers.

Have you ever heard of blessings in disguise? Are you grateful for the means of grace I use in your life? Do you assume that these will be pleasant and comfortable? Perhaps you should revisit this assumption. Have you ever had your trials and difficulties draw you closer to me? Do these things get your attention more quickly than abundant provision? These are things you would not welcome, but are they really bad if they draw you closer to me and bring forth my image and likeness in your life? Then are you prepared to think of them as blessings even if they come to you in disguise? 

Do you like stories? Do you find stories to be more enjoyable if you get involved in them and give yourself over to them, identifying with the characters, and feeling their emotional content? Do you study the Bible? Do you treat the Bible as a revealed text, investigating it as a scholar, parsing out the meaning of words to draw fixed and defensible conclusions? But the Bible is a book of stories. Do you think it would be acceptable for you to get involved in the stories, giving yourself over to them, identifying with the characters, and feeling the full weight of their emotional content?

Are you led by the Spirit? Do you arrive at this conclusion by deduction, saying I must because I am a son of God, or do you perceive this directly from your experience? Do you think this has to involve drama? Do you know people who claim to experience the leading of the Spirit that way? If you require drama I can provide it, but it is not what I prefer. Do you remember the man of God who experienced an earthquake and a storm and I was not in these things, but I spoke to him in a still small voice?

You know better than to hold your material possessions with a death grip and identify with them. Do you feel more closely identified with your beliefs? Do you consider them to be the essence of your identity? But have you lived long enough to find that you have acquired beliefs that did not serve you, that did not line up with the reality of life? It is OK to revisit your beliefs and subject them to scrutiny. It is OK to discard them if they are found wanting. I promised to lead you into all truth. Do you see your life as an ongoing process of revelation?