Dale Cresap's blog

My disciples returned from a trip to get food and I told them that I had food that they knew not of. They didn’t understand so I told them that my food was to do the will of God. Perhaps you have experienced the same thing. You have been cold and hungry and tired. Yet when you are fully engaged in something that you are passionate about do you notice these things? When you are fulfilling your destiny don’t these minor discomforts drop below your level of awareness? They still exist but you have more important things to pay attention to. You too can be nourished by the abundance of life. [departure delayed]

My word teaches you to give to the poor. Do you prefer to give to the deserving poor, or the poor of your own faith tradition? Do you make a strong distinction between the poor who are worthy and those who are not, and adjust your generosity accordingly? This distinction is yours rather than mine. Do you find it in my word? I told the story of the Good Samaritan as an illustration of an outsider who ministered according to this principle, based on need alone. The Good Samaritan went out of his comfort zone to meet a need. Are you willing to let go of artificial distinctions and do the same? Going to Oshkosh for 10 days

Do you hate to loan money? The Bible cautions against being a debtor, and you have valid reasons to be wary of being a lender as well. Yet the Bible does encourage lending in one case, in that he who gives to the poor lends to God. Note that it does not say he who lends to the poor gives to God. From your perspective you are to give to the poor expecting nothing in return, but I view this action as a loan to me. Are you more willing to lend to those you expect to pay you back? I have a good credit rating. If you give generously to the poor you can trust me to pay you back with interest. 

Do you get out of bed as soon as you wake up? Do you think that people are lazy if they don’t? Don’t be so hard on yourself. This may be the only calm time that you have during the day. The psalmist understood this when he said that he would commune with his own heart upon his bed. You can do the same thing. Before you face the day with its troubles that are sufficient unto it, spend a few minutes with me to be grateful for the new day and to be encouraged that I am present with you. This will give you a head start on your troubles and the peace to face them with my grace. 

How many things are on your prayer list? Do you assume that the longer it is the more spiritual you are? Yet can you do justice to a hundred different topics in prayer? Prayer can be a great way to find me, but you can also use it as a place to hide from me. I told Martha that she was careful and troubled about many things, but one thing was needful, and Mary had chosen the better part. Prayer can be an expression of the same principle. Have you noticed that Biblical accounts of prayer normally involve a single request? My yoke is easy. My burden of prayer is light as well if you will focus on one thing at a time. 

My word gives you the promise of victory. It speaks a great deal of success and triumph. It also speaks of laying down your life and picking up your cross and following me. Do these seem like contradictory statements? Dying and victory may seem like opposites, but I turned my own death into my greatest triumph, and left a pattern for you to follow. Not in the grand scale that I did, but the same principle applies in your own life. For he who seeks to keep his life will lose it, but he who loses his life for my sake will gain eternal life. Have you experienced this? How a series of small ‘deaths’ and ‘resurrections’ transforms you into my likeness?

You accept the fact that I am omnipotent as a matter of theology and doctrine. If you were responding to this question on a test you would get it right. Does this square with your experience of life? Do you see me as active and involved or distant and withdrawn? Do all the troubles of the world bother you, sin and sickness and death, while I appear to speak in a still small voice if at all? Is your perceived experience of me closer to omnipotence or impotence? Don’t mistake my patience for impotence. I am closer than you think, and more active, involved, and loving than you think. Open your eyes and see. 

Have you ever examined your life and been demoralized to realize how far you have to go? I am aware of this as well but your morale is important to me. I do not willingly grieve or crush the hearts of men. So I deal with your life in stages and comfort you during this process. I told my disciples that I had more to tell them, but they could not bear it then. I promised that the Comforter would lead them into all truth, and He will do the same for you as you are able to bear it. I call you to rejoice and want it to be possible for you. I want you to understand the difference between the desirable state of  brokenness and the despair of being crushed. 

My word teaches you that in Christ there is neither male nor female, Jew nor Greek, bond nor free. These distinctions may not hit you where you live, so realize that this list was not meant to be exhaustive. What divisions are more meaningful to you today? Liberal or conservative? Protestant or Catholic? Black or white? Where do you draw a line that places you and yours on the inside and others on the outside? Yet this passage implies that all such distinctions are transcended in Christ. The distinctions still exist, but in Christ they lose their power to divide. Are you ready to see them erased in my love?

Do you think it is an interesting concept, becoming as little children to enter the Kingdom of God, since you were already a child once? This implies that you have lost something you once had to make you who you are now. Do you wonder what you lost and how you may recover it to enter the Kingdom? Children are transparent and authentic, not having had the time to develop a false self for a public image. Just as it is hard for a camel to go through the eye of a needle so it is hard for a rich man and someone conflicted about who they are, who they think they are, and who they want others to think they are to enter the Kingdom of God.