Where is God Amidst All This Chaos?
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knowing

Dale Cresap's picture

My word tells you to be still and know that I am God. This implies that there is a connection between stillness and knowing. Is this how you know other things? A diligent search for knowledge implies proactive involvement. You have many resources available to you for all the facts in the world. Yet knowing me is different. This is a journey in which you make greater progress by slowing down and calming down. The world and its distractions and your own racing thoughts are too prominent in your awareness. If you want to know the author of life, release those things and I will come to you. 

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Baggage

Dale Cresap's picture

Have you ever encountered people with ‘baggage’? In some people this is obvious but who in the course of life can avoid picking up some things along the way? The painful and negative things that you have experienced may leave you with burdens you would rather put down, but you carry them around anyhow. Your house is more comfortable and spacious if you clean out your junk now and then, and your life is the same way. Even in a materialistic culture you realize it is possible to have too much stuff, and this lesson applies to more than just material things. Throwing away junk is valuable in every realm of life. 

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come to me

Dale Cresap's picture

Do you love books? The written word has provided a very effective communication method for all of recorded history. In essence it connects a reader with an author. How do you regard the Bible? Is it an illustration of this principle too, or is it in a special category and exempt from this rule? In other words, is it possible to know the Bible without knowing the author of the Bible? If so this is not a desirable situation. I dealt with the same thing in my ministry on earth. The Pharisees knew the scriptures that testified of me but they didn’t recognize me when I was present with them. These things were written that you may believe and know the one the Father sent. 

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receive and give

Dale Cresap's picture

Parents want to foster the impulse of generosity in their children so they give the children the money to be able to buy gifts for their parents. Does this seem like a pointless exercise? Wouldn’t it be easier for the parents to buy those items themselves? The need for character development in the children trumps the arguments of logic and expediency. Why does this matter? You are my children, and I want you to be generous. What do you have that you didn’t receive? I give to you freely from my resources. If you understand this does it make it easier for you to be generous in turn? I love a cheerful giver. 

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Worship from a Place of Connection

Mark Virkler's picture

This blog and journaling are from Pastor Shawna M. Diehl, a doctoral student at Christian Leadership University.

Worship is a high priority at the church where I pastor.  In fact, I served for many years as a worship leader before planting Church on Fire. We have been blessed as a church to feel a strong sense of the presence of God as we gather for worship. However, lately something has seemed off.  I thought it was just me until one of our leaders brought it up at a meeting. I know that the people in our congregation love the Lord and were worshipping Him, but maybe the Lord was trying to lead us to a deeper understanding of worship.  So I asked Him about it, “Papa, something seems off in our worship experience. Can You help me to understand what we are missing?”

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talents

Dale Cresap's picture

I told a parable about talents in which different servants got different amounts to invest while their master was away. You understand this story was given to illustrate a larger principle. For you see the people around you and some are smarter, taller, more attractive and overall more capable than others. This seeming disparity is partly due to the fact that your culture values some talents more than others, but the differences still remain. It may be helpful to you in understanding this story to know that even one talent was an enormous amount of money. Even the least of these have more than enough to fulfill their destiny. leaving town for a few days.

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workers

Dale Cresap's picture

In the parable of the workers in the vineyard, the workers who showed up just before quitting time were paid the same as those who worked all day. Do you understand that this really isn’t a story about labor and wage practices? Some people spend a lifetime walking with me before passing beyond, and others squeak in under the wire. Are these to be envied by the others? Don’t you breathe a sigh of relief when you hear of such an event? The issue here is the perceived value of serving me. If you really understand it you won’t resent it but will be glad you worked all day. 

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poor and taxes

Dale Cresap's picture

Do you give to the poor? The Bible teaches you to do this. Do you pay your taxes? The state expects you to and the Bible supports this activity. Render unto Caesar. Do you see these as related activities? If you live in a country where government support for the poor is funded by taxes, you can claim that they are linked. Yet taxes are not donations, and compulsion can take the virtue out of giving, but it doesn’t have to. If you are called to be a cheerful giver in what you donate, would it make you feel better about paying taxes to know that some part of it goes to the poor? Don’t let your ministry to the poor be limited to this. 

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ideology?

Dale Cresap's picture

Do you see me as a liberal or a conservative? Liberals tend to see me as a liberal, and conservatives tend to see me as a conservative, so you should be aware of observer bias in your perception of me. I was not considered a conservative in my own time, but conservatives may rightly point out that I came to show the way that the Father had intended from the first. Be careful in the way you perceive transcendent truth. I am not owned by any ideological label. Let go of your own attachments that cause you to see me according to your own image, and let yourself be transformed into my image.

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