Sitewide 25% Off  – Christmas Coupon
God speaks through crazy dreams? Register for Free Video Event!

daily word - courage and strength

Dale Cresap's picture

What do you think that bravery and strength consist of? Do you think the bravest and strongest never back down? This is accepted conventional wisdom, but you may have observed from my teachings that I turned conventional wisdom upside down. I said that the first would be last, and the greater would serve the lesser. In this context, would the first one to apologize in a dispute be showing more bravery and strength than the one who was last to reconcile? Is the one who is first to value reconciliation over their own position the more courageous?

Add new comment

daily word - healing

Dale Cresap's picture

Do you think of medicine as pills produced by big pharmaceutical corporations? Have you ever been healed by something that wasn’t medicine in this narrowest sense? Then it was medicine for you. There are many dimensions for healing. Can you see how many ways you have received healing? What about being a healer yourself? In this broadest possible sense, what type of medicine do you provide for others? Let your imagination run on this to see the gifts that I have given you for healing, and be aware of them, and employ them with deliberate intention for effect. 

Add new comment

daily word - event or process?

Dale Cresap's picture

Do you see spiritual transformation as an event or a process? Another way to state this is, does it happen in a moment or does it take time? Theologians argue about this question in regard to salvation, but what does it look like to you in observable reality? Do people change in a moment? I declared that if you continue in my word, then you shall know the truth and the truth would make you free. I also promised to complete the good work I have begun in you. Both of these passages imply that transformation is a process. Be patient and stay with it.

Add new comment

daily word - outside

Dale Cresap's picture

Have you noticed that when people have a heavy emotional burden to carry, they often feel drawn outdoors to deal with it? Have you experienced this yourself, that the world of my creation is the only place large enough to hold your grief? Have you seen the same pattern in the scripture, that those who had encounters with me did so outdoors? There were fewer enclosed structures then than there are now, but it is still a valid principle. Wasn’t my ministry done outdoors? There are issues to deal with outside the camp. If you are facing something like this I will meet you there.

Add new comment

daily word - appearance?

Dale Cresap's picture

How does your church look to outsiders? Have you been immersed in it for so long that you are unable to see this? Does it look to you like a close-knit community of friends who do the right practices in the right way because they have special access to the truth and are right about everything? Does your church look this way to those from other churches, or from other faith traditions, or to those with no affiliation? If the above perspective was true, would more people be attracted to what you have? Do you ever visit other churches?

Add new comment

daily word - tested faith

Dale Cresap's picture

Do you want your children to question their faith? If you went to a lot of work to raise them up in the way they should go then you might be reluctant to see them call their faith into question, but they will do it anyhow. What is the alternative? To lead an unexamined faith that has not been tested? Would you want this for them? They will not become my disciples with a faith that they have not contended for. It will be painful for you to watch them wrestle with me, but who do you expect to win? Consider the history of those who wrestle with me.

Add new comment

daily word - prepared?

Dale Cresap's picture

Are you eager to serve me? Do you feel that you are prepared to do so? To declare a message of ultimate truth is a big responsibility. Do you feel that it is beyond your abilities? You could spend a lifetime increasing your spiritual knowledge and maturity and never feel that you were ready, and by then you would have lost a lifetime of opportunities. Perhaps thinking of your preparation as an academic credential is the wrong approach. You could view it as an apprenticeship program in which you work as you learn and gain experience.

Add new comment

daily word - injustice

Dale Cresap's picture

Do you see injustice in the world? Do you believe that you have the answers that would solve the world’s problems? Are you willing to volunteer to be the agent to bring about the necessary changes? Have you done or submitted to the changes required in yourself to make you capable of changing the system? Do you recall the story about the speck in your brother’s eye and the beam in your own? Is it possible that you have not yet done enough of your own internal work that you are able to implement large scale corrective changes in the system? I want you to be able to do this.

Add new comment

daily word - one way?

Dale Cresap's picture

Do you see yourself as being on a journey? You are familiar with the concept from your travels, and trips come in both one-way and round-trip versions since you normally want to return home. Do you see your spiritual journey as an excursion and return, or one-way? If you see this as a journey of transformation then you are changed in the process so going back isn’t really an option and there are Biblical stories that support this. Have you already experienced this? Do you ever feel that you are in limbo between a destination you can’t see and an origin you can’t return to?

Add new comment

daily word - false wisdom

Dale Cresap's picture

Do you know many wise people? Do you know many critics? Do you think these are the same? You live in a culture with real problems and even more critics to point them out. Do you find that a negative mindset is prevalent in politics, and within the church and without? Problems are generally obvious enough that it doesn’t take any special discernment to see them. This is regarded as wisdom but it is false wisdom. Godly wisdom has a positive and restorative perspective. Can you look at all the problems around you and see solutions according to redemptive purpose?

Add new comment

Pages