Dale Cresap's blog

Do rituals matter? When you pray does it matter whether you kneel or put your palms together, or even close your eyes? If prayer is a purely spiritual matter does your posture matter? I hear your prayers regardless of your physical presentation. Does it make it easier for you to pray if you assume the position? Everywhere you walk is holy ground but it is up to you to decide whether you will take off your shoes or not. Rituals are symbolic and symbolism is real. If some practice sharpens your focus and improves your spiritual awareness and devotion go ahead and go for it.

How do you conduct conversations about issues of substance? Do you divide the world into in-groups and out-groups, with in-groups being those that you belong to and out-groups being all others? Do you assign characteristics by group identification and broad scale judgments against those outside? This is dehumanizing, rejecting the uniqueness of every person. Is there an alternative? Would humanizing conversation recognize the value and unique dignity of every person? Would it be inclusive enough to include the love of your enemies? Can you engage in humanizing conversation?

I said that unless your righteousness exceeded the righteousness of the scribes and the Pharisees you would not enter the Kingdom of Heaven. This was a shocking statement to my audience who saw these groups at the top of the hierarchy of religious practice. Was it meant to be discouraging and present an impossible standard? The righteousness of the Pharisees was self-righteousness, and they loved recognition. I told my followers to pray in secret and they would be rewarded openly.

Do you see the goal of your faith as an act of transformation? The Bible refers to being transformed by the renewing of your mind. You normally think of your mind in relation to education. Does that imply that transformation can be accomplished by education? Have you found that the most educated people are transformed? In scientific terms transformation is a quantum leap. You can no more achieve transformation by education than you can jump to the moon. Yet it is still possible. Transformation is accomplished by encounter with me.

Are all of your prayers spoken? You can pray silently in your thoughts and I will hear them just as well, but speaking your prayers aloud may help you to remain engaged. Are there other alternatives? The Bible refers to groaning too deep to be uttered. Have you ever experienced this? Paul saw things in heaven that he said were not lawful to utter, or perhaps they were inexpressible. Is the essence of your being the sum of your thoughts, or is there a place of pure presence that transcends even that? Are you prepared to be silent in my presence to find out? I will meet you there. 

Do you have an end-time scenario? A timeline? Both of them are wrong. I promised to return and I will. Are you familiar with the disastrous history of predicting this event? This alone should make believers wary of trying again. Have you seen anything that causes more division between believers than differences over end-time scenarios? If your view of the end times isn’t making you a better person today then you can throw it out because it isn’t helping you. You should know better.

Have you ever been hurt? This is a universal human experience. Are you constantly feeling hurt? You know people whose emotional pain is constant, from an endless series of offenses. Woe unto the world because of offenses, and by those from whom the offenses come. But offenses require two parties, a giver and a receiver. Is it as bad to eagerly receive offenses as it is to give them? So if you are constantly being hurt, is it because of others, or because of you? Can you reduce the level of offenses in the world by reducing your own sensitivity to emotional pain?

Do you live a life of gratitude? What is the basis for this? Do you have an overwhelming sense that you are getting better than what you deserve? This involves a sense of reasonable expectations and an awareness of the blessings you are a recipient of. Gratitude is the opposite of entitlement and privilege. If you have unreasonable expectations and only an awareness of them, how will you be grateful for what you have? Do you understand how many blessings you have by default?

Who is the easiest person for you to deceive? You are. Can you be too wrapped up in your own life to see it clearly? Is it possible not to be? The Bible passages about communion teach you to examine yourself when you partake of this sacrament. You can see that this is appropriate, but how do you carry it out? How do you put enough distance between your acting self and your observing self to get an objective evaluation? I promised that my sons (and daughters) would be led by the Spirit. Can you submit to a spiritual observation from beyond yourself to get accurate results?

Do you study to show yourself approved? Do you study the Bible in the same way you study other books, or the subjects you were taught in school? Can you acquire insights from the Bible the same way you do in class? This is possible, but you get uninspired results, and you can tell the difference between messages based on academic inquiry and messages from God. The prophets of old said that the word of the Lord came to them. Has this ever happened to you? Does this seem like a passive rather than active means of inquiry?