Dale Cresap's blog

Do you know people who are happier than they should be based on their circumstances in life? They have found it within themselves to be happy. This is still a necessary step to take for happiness even if you have pleasant and favorable circumstances. No external condition will force happiness upon you. When I told you to lay down your life to follow me it was not to deprive you. Read the whole context. If you seek to save your life you will lose it, but if you seek to lose your life for the sake of following me you will find joy in this world and in the world to come eternal life. 

Do you know people who have remarkably clear insights into evil? They can see it before others can and draw inferences about it that others do not. Do you admire this? It is not a gift from me. I do not want you to cultivate a consciousness of evil. You are called to be as wise as serpents and as innocent as doves. To the pure all things are pure, and you are to think on those things that are pure and lovely and of a good report. You cannot study evil and not be affected by it. Evil is real and you have real enemies who seek to destroy you. Yet if you trust in me I will defend you and warn you about dangers you did not know. I can do a better job of this than you can. Leave it in my hands that you may study truth and righteousness. 

Everyone has a place they think of as home. Your first home is usually your parent’s house and you still think of it as home when you go away to school or move out to make your fortune in the world. Yet gradually your perspective shifts so that your new location and arrangements are identified as home. Yet prisoners and those in the military in foreign lands will never think of those places as home. The very concept of home is a desirable place of safety and security. I promised my children that I would go and prepare a place for them. This is your home in heaven and it is ready for you even if you are not ready for it. It is not familiar to you as no eye has seen it, yet you have my word on its existence and suitability for your eternal habitation. Do you long for it as much as the prisoner and the deployed solider long for their homes? 

Do you persist in fervent prayer to ask for what you need? Start with what you have. For I promised that while you are still speaking I will answer. I may have already answered your prayer and you may not realize it. I normally don’t start a miracle with nothing, I start with a small thing you already have. I fed 5000 starting with a boy’s lunch. An ordinary man became a mighty warrior using the jawbone of an ass as a weapon. A walking stick in the hands of Moses was instrumental in delivering a nation. I delight in taking everyday objects submitted to me and using them in magnificent and miraculous ways for my Kingdom. Are you scanning the horizon looking for your answer to prayer? Ask me how you can use the things I have already given you. 

My word teaches you to be a good citizen of your country. What does this require? It is more than a matter of being law-abiding, even as being a good citizen in my Kingdom is more than a matter of following the law. You are to pray for those in authority over you, humbly entreating me to intervene and bring about my divine purposes in your country. What if your preferred party is not in power, or if those in authority are not god-fearing? The principle still applies, and this passage of scripture was written under the rule of an occupying foreign army, showing that it works even under extreme conditions. Yet in any circumstance my servants do and teach my commandments, following them in their own lives, and advocating them for other people, and that the same life-giving principles may be adopted by the governing authority. 

Do you think obedience school is only for dogs? It is the most important education that you will receive. Even I learned to obey. How much more is this necessary for you? This is not a school you enroll in or a diploma you receive, but it is a subject I teach you throughout your life. I want you to understand this process that you may walk in the light of truth. I want you to willingly embrace it that it may go quickly and easily for you. Many will rage against and oppose this process, stubbornly clinging to willful rebellion. I want to complete it in you early enough that you may go on to lead a full and abundant life of obedience to me. 

My word tells you not to judge other, and that the same standard you use to judge others will be used for you. Does this make you think that if you ignore the sins of others that I will ignore yours? You know that you are not supposed to heap condemnation on others, but there is a place in between these positions that I want you to take. You can be an agent of mercy, discerning my redemptive purpose in those who need my assistance and seeking me for how you may assist in implementing it. Neither condemnation nor indifference is helpful but you can act for real improvement. Is this a standard of judgment that you would be willing to be “judged” by yourself? It will put you in a position to have my redemptive purposes advanced in your own life. 

Do you ever get the feeling that you are being watched? Modern technology facilitates easy communication, and also makes it easy for others to observe and record what you are doing. You may take steps to cover your tracks with varying degrees of effectiveness, yet everything you do is being recorded whether you use a computer or not. What you whisper in the ear will be shouted from the housetops. All is recorded in the records of heaven to be revealed in the final judgment. If you conduct yourself with transparent integrity today then you will not be ashamed in the day when all things are revealed. 

There is a hunger in the human heart for the unconditional acceptance of love. Those who don’t experience this will settle for conditional acceptance as a substitute. Conditional acceptance is based on performance. If you consistently do something that others value and appreciate, they will accept you on that basis as long as you keep doing it. You understand that I want you to behave a certain way. Yet my love for and acceptance of you is not contingent on your performance. This can be understood in terms of cause and effect. Your performance does not obtain my love. My love enables you to obey me. 

The Psalmist desired to behold the beauty of the Lord. Is this something you desire as well, or are you uncomfortable with the concept? You live in a culture with a false sense of beauty, based on unattainable images and associated with sensual lust. Yet this is only the counterfeit of the true beauty that I possess and impart a measure of to each of my children. Fixation on the superficial beauty will interfere with your ability to see true beauty just as fixation on the wealth of this world will hinder your ability to seek true wealth. I want you to delight to see my beauty and the beauty of my presence in your brothers and sisters.