Dale Cresap's blog

Have you ever expressed an interest in doing something but not followed through with it? If you tell your friends, what question will they ask in reply? Isn’t it some version of, ‘what is holding you back’? There can be many reasons, but could this be the wrong question to ask? Perhaps a better approach would be to ask, ‘what is pulling you forward’? Desire is a powerful force, and there is tension when it meets resistance. Desire will have to overcome resistance to prevail. This isn’t likely to happen if you focus only on the obstacles in the way.

What gets you out of bed in the morning? For mothers it is children. For most people it is a job. You may look at these as duties and obligations. What would get you out of bed in the morning if you had nothing external to require it? Everyone can and should have a passion. This is an internal drive that you cannot explain or deny. How many people dream of life with no obligations? This is unrealistic for most people, but if you could attain it, what would you devote your life to?

Do you have a comfort zone? Do you spend most of your time there? How can you tell? There is a human tendency to seek out the familiar and reassuring. This is easy and comfortable, but it is not a place of challenge and growth. To move ahead you must depart from or at least challenge your preferred and familiar ways of being and thinking. Your certainties do not always serve you well, but letting go of them will be one of the most difficult things you can do. Ask me for the courage to revisit things you have held for a long time, and be willing to hold a ‘garage sale’ if necessary.

My word promises that if you humble yourself under my hand then I will exalt you in due time. Do you believe this? Are you putting it into practice? Do you see people humbling themselves trusting that I will recognize them? Or do you see people advancing themselves and presenting themselves in the most favorable light? John the Baptist said of himself that he must decrease that I might increase, and he lived simply and humbly as an outsider as an expression of this. But I said of John that among those born of women there was none greater. So it worked for him.

Do you believe in the doctrine of omnipresence? Do you take it by faith that my presence is everywhere? David knew that he was fearfully and wonderfully made, and also that was no place he could go that I would not also be. If you believe this do you live your life the same way? For some who accept this as a doctrinal position live as if mail intended for me should be sent care of their church. Even when my time was not yet come I told my disciples that their time was always ready, and that I would be with them always. Let this be more than a doctrinal position for you.

Do you consider it important to be a good Christian? What about a good person? Are these the same thing? Do you know anyone who passes for a good Christian that you do not think of as a good person? What about the other way around? Being diligent and devout in traditional church activities is highly rated in church, but those outside the church will evaluate you by different criteria. A good reputation among those who do not share your belief structure and creeds is therefore more valuable and enduring than a good reputation in church. Can you be a good person without being a Christian?

When someone gives you a gift or does you a favor, do you say thanks? This is the bare minimum expression of gratitude, and something that even unbelievers do. Is it appropriate that you as the children of God should go beyond this? One approach is to pay back gift for gift, and favor for favor. It is important to be generous, but this is more a matter of keeping score than being grateful. There is a transformative approach to gratitude that goes beyond the acknowledgment of a gift at the time of receipt.

Do you love your enemies? You are called to do so. It is easy to love your friends, those who look and think like you, who hold the same beliefs and values. Too easy, in fact. Everyone does that. How often do the people you regularly associate with challenge your core beliefs? Do you avoid the people who differ with you in matters that you consider essential? Do they have to do something that is personally offensive to you for you to consider them your enemies, or is this enough?

Have you heard various scenarios for end-time events? There are a multitude of versions available, and all claim Biblical support, and all have fierce defenders. Most contradict the others. How can you determine which one is true? Can you accept the reasoning that none of them are? For I declared that eye has not seen, nor ear heard, neither has it entered the heart of man what I am planning. All of the proposed scenarios referred to above are products of human imagination and humanly comprehensible. The real one is beyond human comprehension.

Are you familiar with my parable about the wedding feast? Do you think that you are part of the story? Do you assume that you were one that was invited late from the highways and byways, or do you think that you got a proper engraved invitation in the mail far in advance? More to the point, did you identify at all with the guest who was cast out for having improper garments? It is easy to read the stories from the Bible and identify with the favored and chosen, but there is more to learn from them if you consider all aspects of the story.