Dale Cresap's blog

My word speaks of taking every thought captive. Do you realize what a beautiful concept this is? You understand about people who are captives. Do you have perfect control over your thoughts? Have they ever gone in a direction that you did not want, that did not serve you, that did not reflect your deepest values? Has your mind ever had a mind of its own? If this has ever happened to you then you can appreciate the value of this scriptural practice. Abide in me and let me teach you to control your thoughts so they are subject to your control rather than you being subject to them.

Are you aware of the essential humanity of everyone you meet? This may be the most obvious in newborns who are ‘fresh from heaven’, but the same concept applies to everyone. Failure to regard the essential humanity of your enemies makes it easier to kill them in war, and to disregard them in peace. What army doesn’t dehumanize its enemies, saying they are not like us? But at the most basic level they are. You use the phrase ‘sanctity of life’ primarily in opposition to abortion, but it should not be limited to that. How can you live your life to regard the sanctity of life in everything you do?

Have you heard the proverb, when the student is ready the teacher will appear? Have you ever encountered something that at the time you could not comprehend, but when you encountered the same concept later you found it to be true and important? You need to be positioned for comprehension. You need to have the depth of soil for truth to take root and grow. It is a greater expression of humility when encountering unfamiliar ideas to consider that they could be true but you are not ready to receive them yet instead of rejecting them outright. This leaves the door open and makes it easier for you to receive them when you are ready.

Have you ever had your teachers tell you that there is no such thing as a stupid question? They were trying to encourage your involvement in the educational process, but they were wrong. There are stupid questions. My own disciples argued among themselves as to which of them was the greatest. This was an opportunity for me to teach them a lesson. How many questions of the same type do you hear discussed, or variants such as whose church is right, whose political party or candidate is the best. These are not really answerable and they engender strife. Let your questions be about redemptive purpose. Those are not stupid questions.

Are you eager to throw things away, or do you put some creative thought into ways in which they may be used for other purposes before you discard them? Humans generate a lot of garbage, but in the natural world there is no such thing. Do you see any spiritual parallel for this situation? Have you ever seen me use things that you would throw away? Joseph told his brothers that what they meant for evil God meant for good. And in my case the stone that the builders rejected became the cornerstone. Nothing is wasted in nature or in the Kingdom of God. What are you eager to discard that I have a purpose for?

I told the story of the Good Samaritan in response to the question, ‘who is my neighbor’. Have you ever gone to a church where all the members refer to one another as brother or sister, as a title? This is a routine practice in some churches, but those who attend them tend to reserve this practice for each other, and do not extend it to other churches, let alone beyond that. Would you agree that the question of ‘who is my brother’ raises the ‘who is my neighbor’ question to the next level? The lesson of the Good Samaritan story is that everyone is your neighbor, even those you would otherwise reject. You have my permission to treat everyone you meet as your brother, whether you call them that or not.  

You know that your car will not move while it is in neutral. What about you? You do not normally think of people as being in gear or not, but you bring your own past to the present moment with all the experiences you have had to date. These can be a hindrance if  they have given you preconceptions and narrow biased perspectives. If everything you encounter falls into neat categories previously assigned you should be suspicious of the way you view the world. If you can release these things you are in a better position to see things as they really are and learn and grow from them. You need to be in neutral if you want to move forward.

Have you ever flown a kite? Most people have as children, and know that two things are required. Wind is necessary; you can’t fly a kite on a calm day. But wind alone is not enough. A kite will not soar aloft without tension in the kite string. Otherwise the kite just blows along the ground. Do you see a parallel to your spiritual life? The wind is like the Spirit, which blows where it will, and you do not control it. The Spirit is the force that allows you to soar aloft, but for this to work you also need to be tethered to the reality of the world you live in. Do not think that you can succeed with one without the other. You need both.

Are you aware that most of the things you buy and use are mass-produced? There are great economic advantages to this, making workers more productive and raising the standard of living for those who live in such an economy. How does this relate to your life of faith? If you see people being saved in large crusades, believing the same basic doctrines, and joining large churches, this can give the impression that faith can be mass-produced like consumer goods. Yet faith is not in the realm of commerce, and its essence is relational, which does not lend itself to mass-production. I am here for you on a one-to-one basis.

I told a story about wineskins indicating that changes were coming in the structure of worship. My own followers didn’t get it, let alone the religious establishment of my time. Martin Luther initiated a reformation of the church in his generation and again the religious establishment did not think it was necessary. Is it time for another reformation? Would you expect it to originate from within the church? Do you belong to the religious establishment in your generation? Then if the time had come for another reformation would you be aware of it? The principle of wineskins was not a one-time event.