Dale Cresap's blog

Are you glad that you are under grace and not under the law? Does it sound too good to be true? Who would want a list of rules to follow if they didn’t have to? Yet how many people understand the implications of grace? For I invite those who respond to grace to have an encounter with me. Consider the accounts of those who did. They reported that they exceedingly trembled and quaked, or said, woe is me, for I am undone, for I have seen the Lord. But you are invited to this encounter at a higher level than Mount Sinai, for you have come to the City of the Living God.

Are you familiar with the theological terms propitiation and atonement and absolution? These are terms you normally only hear in church, and are unfamiliar to those outside. Yet there are terms they are familiar with that convey the same ideas, such as amnesty and immunity. Are you free to use terms like this to present my message? Do you want your audience to understand you? Specialized vocabulary can be used to exclude outsiders, but I want to include them. Consider my own words.

Have you had an encounter with me? This is cause for great joy. You can learn about me from others and from books, but knowing about me is not the same as knowing me. What was your response to your encounter with me? Are you attached to it in such a way that prevents you from moving forward? It would be a mixed blessing if your first encounter with me made you immune to more. You describe your faith as a relationship with me and that implies ongoing flow. I promised that those who continue in my word would know the truth and be free.

When you consider whether someone is young or old what do you use as a reference standard? Don’t you compare them to your own age? No matter how old you are, those who are older than you are old, and those who are younger than you are young. Since your age constantly changes this is not a fixed standard, but it illustrates the human tendency to be subjective and self-referential. Do you see the world around you the way it is or  the way you are? Do you desire to know eternal truth?

I said that in me there is neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor female. Can you comprehend how radical a message this was in a slave economy? The political concept of equality grew out of this, and although it was then claimed to be a self-evident truth, it wasn’t self-evident to everyone, and prior to the gospel message wasn’t self-evident to anyone. Can you see how this message would appeal more to the poor and oppressed than to the wealthy and powerful? Yet everyone benefits from the recognition of intrinsic human worth. This is the reality you find in me.

For atheists nothing is sacred. For some Christians, only those things that occur in churches are sacred. Churches buildings range in size from houses to warehouses, but they comprise a small fraction of the whole world. Does this Christian world view leave most of the world in the realm of the atheists? Christianity is not animism, but you do hold the doctrine of omnipresence, even as I said that I am with you always. Can you see the transcendent in everyday life? If you do you will never be bored. How would your life be different if you walked with this continuous awareness?

If I walked into your church and was thirsty, would you give me a drink? I think that if it was obvious that it was me that you would. What about the least of these or your enemies? In this case would you be so eager to serve them? In this case it may not be so obvious it is me but it really is, and it was my own declaration that established the equivalence. So do you see that the problem here is your lack of awareness and the ability to see things as they really are?

Are you a healer? In every culture those who practice medicine must have extensive training and meet strict and demanding criteria. This is particularly true for cardiac specialists who work on hearts. But in another sense, anyone who is willing can heal a broken heart. If you are willing to establish relationship and trust you can bring healing to those who have been hurt so much that they are in despair. An injured body requires medical attention, but who can bear a wounded spirit? Who can live without hope? I have enabled you to heal these things as much as a doctor can heal a body.

Do you use profanity? Most believers try to avoid this even if they did it before they were saved, according to my commandment that you shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain. How do you deal with people who do not follow this commandment? For you do not have to go very far to encounter people whose language is coarse, vulgar, and profane. You can object and correct them, but you run the risk of coming across as self-righteous and judgmental toward those who have never known another way of speaking.

How do you describe your faith? Have you found that every Christian tradition describes it as a relationship with me? This is true, but can you find the word ‘relationship’ in the Bible? The same concept is there as friendship, and this is a better term because it means a positive relationship that is mutual and intentional. I established this when I told my followers that I called them no longer servants but friends. They called me Lord and they were right so this friendship is not the typical one of complete symmetry but it is still the only concept that works.