Dale Cresap's blog

Daily Journaling Devotionals

Heavenly Gems in Daily Bites: CWG Ministries Life-Engaging Blogs

Dale Cresap is a Certified CWG Facilitator posting daily devotional blogs of two-way journaling. (What is two-way journaling?) Enjoy and be encouraged!

recovering sinners?

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Participants in the Alcoholics Anonymous program will describe themselves as alcoholics even if they have been sober for 30 years. Does it seem that this is no longer a valid description if it no longer applies? Yet they insist on it as part of a successful recovery program. Some Christians refer to themselves as sinners saved by grace. Are they still sinners if they are saved? Do you see a parallel here? Recovering drunks are more successful if they hold no illusions about their past identity and weaknesses, and you are more successful in not being a sinner if you know that you rely on me for grace, strength, and righteousness. 

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imputed?

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Abraham believed me and it was accounted to him for righteousness. I called him my friend. Do you think I was very selective in choosing him? He tried to pass his wife off as his sister because he was afraid for his own life. Do you find this to be admirable behavior by any standard? Yet I imputed righteousness to him for his faith and this concept is central throughout the Bible and in the Christian faith. Your unbelieving friends will not accept your righteousness as imputed. They look for actual performance. Do you find the same thing in your believing friends? Come to me for I am rich in mercy and the only one who will account your faith for righteousness.

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too popular?

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My word warns you to beware when all men speak well of you. How many people do you know who are on guard against becoming too popular? Do you want to ‘have it all’? The Bible implies that you can be well-received in this world, or the world to come, but not both. Blessed are those who sorrow now, for they shall be comforted, but woe unto those who are full now. Lazarus was poor on earth but he was comforted in heaven while the rich man was in torment. Do you believe that all things work together for good for those who love God and are called according to his purpose? This is true even if you have to wait for it. 

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attractive?

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Humanity in general and your culture in particular places a high value on outward appearance. This works to the advantage of those who have it. Everyone wants to look their best. Some put more effort in than others, and some have more raw materials to work with. If you don’t you can take comfort that you are in good company, for I had no form or comeliness that I should be desired. I was not tall or handsome. You know that I was despised and rejected by those who should have recognized me. Part of that was about doctrine and expectations, but some just couldn’t get past the fact that I wasn’t tall and handsome. Learn to see my presence in the least of these. 

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prayer priorities?

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Do you categorize prayer needs by the worthiness of the recipient? Who is in greater need of prayer – a devout person who is diagnosed with cancer, or a struggling believer whose life is ravaged by alcohol? Doesn’t the alcoholic have the greater need? Yet how often will the cancer victim get more fervent prayer because you assume they did nothing to contribute to their situation? You are called to abstain from judgment. If this is true universally, then how much more diligent you should be to not let judgment interfere with your prayer life? You can give top priority to the lost sheep even as I did. 

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Reminders

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What reminds you of me? Do you think of me when you see a church? What about a sunrise or sunset? When you take food for nourishment do you do so with a sense that I provided it? Do not despise these little everyday occurrences for life consists of them. Many were looking for my first advent and missed it because they expected magnificent grandeur, and I came with simplicity and humility, speaking with illustrations of everyday things. My words infused them with glory. Take this lesson to heart. Look for the transcendent and divine in everything you see and you will find it. Let everything you encounter remind you of me. 

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light shine!

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Do you think of me as the light of the world? But I said that you are the light of the world. How can this be? I placed my light within you and when I ascended you remained as my witnesses to testify of that light. Therefore I told you that lights were not meant to be hidden under a bushel, but put on a lampstand or candlestick that they may fulfill the purpose for which they were lit. So I told you to let your light shine before men, for this is the purpose for which I placed my light within you. Do you see how this is another way of stating the Great Commission? Let your actions and words work together that those who see and hear may know me and glorify me. 

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life and death

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Conventional wisdom is that you live until you die. My word teaches that you are dead until you die to yourself, and only then can you really live. These are nearly opposite concepts.  Yet my word describes those who are dead in trespasses and sins, and are dead even though they live. So the Biblical concepts of death and life are different from those of medical science. Both are correct within their own realm, but the spiritual view is one of transcendent truth. Do not fear the death that is involved in your salvation and transformation, for only in this way can you really live. Every life ends in a medical death, but those who enter eternal life can never die. 

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Die to Live

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My word teaches you to lay down your life and pick up your cross and follow me. He who seeks to save his life will lose it, but he who loses his life for my sake will find eternal life. Do you understand that you have to die to live? Have you met people who were self-absorbed, for whom nothing had meaning apart from how it affected them personally? You describe such people as being ‘all about them’ and in a sense they have failed to die to themselves enough to take on the larger perspective needed for a full and abundant life. In failing to die they fail to live. It is out of my love that I invite you to lay down your life that you may live. 

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as you think in your heart

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Psychologists have discovered that the human brain’s responses to an imagined event are the same as if the event had actually occurred. I knew this years ago when I declared that if a man looks at a woman to lust after her he has already committed adultery with her in his heart. This principle is not limited to adultery. Are you diligent to avoid the commission of sin? How well do you control your thoughts? It is easy to stand in judgment against those who fall. Yet how many of those who judge enjoy their sins vicariously? As a man thinks in his heart, so he is. Keep it with all diligence for the issues of life flow from it. 

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