Dale Cresap's blog

When people ask you how you are doing, do you tell them that you are doing well even when you are not? Is this partly because you don’t want to bother them with your troubles and partly because you suspect they really aren’t that interested? New friends will accept your answer, but old friends will dig deeper to find out what is wrong. If you perceive that the interest and intent are genuine you should tell them. They are only able to help insofar as they know the problem. I already know what is wrong but I still invite you to come and let us reason together. It must be addressed to be resolved. 

Do you think of places as being physical locations only? I tell you there are spiritual places as well. I called Abraham to go without telling him the destination. Travel was a part of the process, but the destination was more about being the father of many nations than about a place on the map. I am also taking you on a journey even if you remain in one place. I am transforming you into my likeness. This can occur without your movement, but it is beneficial for you to have the mentality of a traveler, to be aware of your position and progress, and to navigate so that you stay on the path I have set before you, for you have not passed this way before.

I’ll be out of town tomorrow night. See you Saturday.

Have you ever had a day when everything went wrong, bringing woe upon woe and sorrow upon sorrow until you thought that the only redeeming feature was that it eventually be over? Do not lose heart. I did not desert you at this time, even if you were not aware of my presence. In the beginning I divided time and punctuated days with nights that you may take them in increments. Don’t worry about tomorrow before it arrives or yesterday when it is gone. Honor me by conforming to the structure of my creation and living in the day at hand. Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof. Tomorrow will be another day, and my mercies will be new again.

Dale,
I had a disturbing dream about my sister Monique this morning that prompted me to contact her to see how she was. She is not doing well mentally and based on the dream I think she is suicidal. Her boyfriend also called this morning not even knowing that I had been in contact with her. Please pray for her. I am flying to Winnipeg to see her tomorrow. Please share this with your distribution as I do believe in the power of prayer and the strength of many. I will be sharing the love of the Lord with her but there is a rift between her and her son that I know is the much of the problem she is having right now.

Thanks,
Francine

Do you trust your own judgment? It is not in man that walketh to direct his steps, and the heart is deceitful. Your own judgment can get you into trouble, but I offer you righteous judgment. You are too intimately involved in your own choices. Have you ever ‘taken a step back’ from a situation and seen it more clearly, and that you were headed in a bad direction? Carry this process through to the end. Make the deliberate choice to take your hands off, and I will step in to sway your judgment to conform to my will and the principles of my Kingdom. Who has known the mind of the Lord? Yet by yielding to me you will have the mind of Christ.

In the parable of the talents, the first two servants earned a profit and the master was pleased with them. The last servant broke even and was cast out. Do you think this is a story about money and profits? You know that it is possible for investors to lose money. What if there had been a fourth servant who invested his master’s money as the first two had, but the market went against him and he lost money. Would the master have devised a punishment more severe than that of the third servant? Yet the wicked servant’s punishment was not for lack of gain but for attributing false characteristics to the master. If you know me and trust in my goodness I will not cast you out even if you suffer reverses. 

The heavens declare my goodness and my glory. Do you see my handiwork there? Consider the North Star. It is fairly bright, perfectly positioned, and there are no other bright stars nearby. Any child can be taught to find it from prominent reference marks. It has been used by navigators throughout history to find their way as they travelled. Do you see how unlikely it is for all these things to occur simultaneously by random processes? Yet this did not occur by chance. I put Polaris there because I did not want people to be lost. In a greater sense, I came and died at Calvary because I did not want people to be lost. 

Do you think of your faith as life-enhancing, something that will make it better? This is an insufficient faith. It assumes that you start with a good life that would benefit from improvement. The promise of the gospel is more radical than this. It offers transformation. Not an improvement, but a total change. If you live in an affluent culture with many opportunities for self-improvement then the need for transformation may not be obvious, but the same issue was relevant in my own time. Do not water down the gospel message to suit the taste of your audience for life enhancement when they really need the transformation that only I can give.

Does your church take an offering or receive an offering? In semantics the difference between these is whether the initiative is on the part of the one giving or the one getting. It may be customary to refer to taking an offering, but it is, or should be, the case that any offerings are freely given. Perhaps you have had the experience of an appeal for an offering made with pressure or guilt or manipulation. In this case the terminology of taking an offering is indeed correct, but this is not my approach. My word says that I love a cheerful giver, and this can only happen when those giving do not feel exploited.

(I’m leaving town for a week for a family visit and will resume messages when I get back.)

Do you give advice freely? Do you also receive vast amounts of unsolicited advice? Do you receive advice that seems self-serving on the part of those who give it, tailored to their tastes, interests, and preferences rather than yours? Perhaps they feel the same way about the advice you give them. Wouldn’t you rather hear my voice on your own behalf than make something up for yourself out of your own imagination? If you will pause and inquire of me on behalf of someone else I will give you a word in season just for them, and you can speak divine life into their situation instead of making something up on your own.

Have you ever encountered something that was presented as being true, yet as you heard the whole story it was obvious that it was not? Did you find the false claims of validity annoying? It would have been better for the story to be presented with no claims, and left you free to decide for yourself. In the end this is what you will do anyhow. In my word I tell you not to swear at all as a means of enhancing your credibility, but to let your yes be yes and your no be no. It is evil to add more. Truth carries its own validity. If you develop a reputation for simple honesty you won’t need to enhance your credibility and if you don’t all your protestations of telling the truth will only make things worse.