Dale Cresap's blog

Do you have strong beliefs? Are they limited to essential Bible doctrine, or have you added other things as well? You can live your life according to beliefs that you have not formally expressed. Do you think of your commitment to your beliefs to be above any other consideration, such as the humanity of those you encounter? What do you see in my life? I commended the Good Samaritan for his kindness in spite of his incorrect doctrine. I commended the loving or faithful actions of those who were outside of the house of Israel regardless of what they believed.

Do you meditate? This has been a Biblical practice going back as far as Old Testament times. Do you think of meditation as analysis, or as protracted background thinking about things you have studied? Do you think meditation takes place more in your head or in your heart, or are there different versions of it? It is recorded that after Mary received some amazing news from an angel she pondered these things in her heart. She couldn’t really share this news widely. This isn’t a story you would buy from anyone else.

Have you ever taken a leap of faith? This is a common expression, although you could also take a step of faith. These are similar in ways, and different in others. The leap is the more extreme of the two. In taking steps, you have secure footings at all times, and maintain contact with one foot until the other is firmly planted. In the faith parallel this keeps movement secure and stable and under your control, so is any faith really required for this? A leap implies that you cast off from your current situation without being established in the new one.

Have you ever played hide and seek? Have you ever looked for me and thought that I was hiding from you? Yet you have my promise that if you seek me you will find me if you search for me with all your heart. There is a beneficial purpose in the process of seeking. Would you like a clue? I told you that inasmuch as you were kind unto the least of these you were doing it unto me. Is this what you expected? Do you see my presence in the poor, the downtrodden and discouraged, the sick and disabled and rejected? Behold I am with you always, and the poor you have with you always as well.

You know that you are saved by grace through faith, and not of works lest any man should boast. So what do you think of as the essence of your spiritual life? Do you think it is based on a profession of faith and consists of conventionally understood religious activities such as church attendance, bible study, and prayer? Are these things you can do in isolation from the rest of your life? Are you prepared to consider your spirituality as the way you lead your entire life, in every aspect? This is the basis on which those outside your church will evaluate you.

Do you realize that I lived my entire life on earth in a country occupied by an aggressive foreign military power? How much of my ministry focused on this issue? One of my followers would have liked me to give this more emphasis, but my message was about the Kingdom of God rather than about the kingdoms of this world. When the question was put to me at the end of my life I said that my kingdom was not of this world. If it were my followers would have fought for me, but they did not. You are my follower also. What lessons and guidance do you draw from this about involvement in politics?

Do you think growth is steady and linear? It can be, but there are limits to the progress you can make with incremental growth. Typically you can only get more of what you already have. How can you grow if there is something in your life that impedes your progress? Have you ever had a growth experience that began with your life falling apart? Yet did you emerge from it in a larger better place that you could not have experienced by growth in tiny steps? Sometimes the process of growth must begin by letting go. Have I not promised to perfect that which concerns you?

Do you pray? Do you gossip? Do you do both at the same time? Have you ever gone to a prayer meeting and found out all the juicy details of scandals and sins and shortcomings of others that you had no idea of previously? Some things should only be shared with select individuals whom you can trust the carry the burden with grace and this probably doesn’t apply to everyone in your prayer meeting. The Bible teaches you that I know what you have need of when you come to me, so you don’t need to spend your prayer time filling me in on the details.

Do you practice meditation? Are you suspicious of the concept? It was a biblical faith practice long before it was new age. Do you prefer an analytical approach that focuses on logical process and a direct path to answers? Some issues do not lend themselves to this. Pondering is a more gentle approach. It involves living with the questions rather than attacking them. It is more like a crock pot than a microwave oven. Even if the answers to your questions were given to you they might be too much for you to bear.

My word tells you to taste and see that I am good. Your senses work at different ranges. You can see the stars at astronomical distances. You can hear sounds over a range of distances depending on the volume, but it takes a large impulse to be heard at over a mile. Smell works at closer range depending on the substance and concentration, and touch requires contact although this may be brief and fleeting. The most intimate sense you have is that of taste, and that is the one I chose to use in this passage to describe the closeness of relationship I want with you. How do I taste to you?