Author: Dwight Clough

Doom to you who legislate evil, who make laws that make victims — Laws that make misery for the poor, that rob my destitute people of dignity … — Isaiah 10:1-2One thing I have discovered in life is this: Fortunes can quickly change. We may think that security comes in the form of a good job, a late model car and a nice home in the suburbs. But those things can quickly disappear.I’m struck by this passage in Isaiah because of what God wants for the poor and for the destitute. He wants justice and dignity. I think God knows…

Reassure the righteous that their good living will pay off. — Isaiah 3:10 The MessageFrom Genesis to Revelation, this message permeates the scripture. To Cain, God says, "If you do what is right, will you not be accepted?" At the conclusion of the Bible, Jesus declares, "My reward is with Me, and I will give to everyone according to what he has done." Why repeat it here in Isaiah? This verse is like a fish swimming upstream. All around it are pronouncements of woe and judgment, of God’s wrath poured out on a nation gone mad with sin. But as…

Quit scraping and fawning over mere humans, so full of themselves, so full of hot air! Can’t you see there’s nothing to them? — Isaiah 2:22 The MessageI used to say that I didn’t care what people thought about me. Of course, I was lying to myself. I cared a great deal. I wanted everyone to like me. I wanted everyone to approve of me. When someone criticized me or insulted me, I might not have shown it on the outside, but inwardly I was crushed.One day someone in a place of authority in my life told me that I…

Seated in a window was a young man named Eutychus, who was sinking into a deep sleep as Paul talked on and on. When He was sound asleep, he fell to the ground from the third story and was picked up dead. — Acts 20:9I’m glad the Lord included this story in the book of Acts. Notice how the inspired word of God includes several details. It was the middle of the night. Paul was talking "on and on." Several lamps were burning, robbing the room of invigorating oxygen. And Eutychus was young. Was the Lord making allowances for this…

When you spread out your hands in prayer, I will hide My eyes from you; even if you offer many prayers, I will not listen. Your hands are full of blood; wash and make yourselves clean. Take your evil deeds out of My sight! Stop doing wrong, learn to do right! Seek justice, encourage the oppressed. Defend the cause of the fatherless, plead the case of the widow. — Isaiah 1:15-17In the end, God Himself will rise up on behalf of the defenseless. Meanwhile, He offers us the opportunity to do His work. Hidden in this rebuke of a nation…

But thanks be to God, who always leads us in triumphal procession in Christ and through us spreads everywhere the fragrance of the knowledge of Him. — 2 Corinthians 2:14Where are we in life? Are we troubled? Are we discouraged? Are we pressed far beyond our ability to endure (2 Corinthians 1:8-9)? Are we bored? Are we distracted?Only one thing will cut cross ways through all that commands our attention and allegiance. Only one thing will free us when everything else puts us under the sentence of death. That one thing is the knowledge of God. Knowing God is not…

… so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves have received from God. — 2 Corinthians 1:4I want to focus on the word "any." Why can we comfort those in "any" trouble? Because we have tasted and seen that the Lord is good. Because now that we are comforted, we no longer need to rush in with all the answers. We don’t have all the answers. Let’s face it: We don’t have most of the answers. But we do have this: Comfort that shows up every time we are in distress.Here’s why we don’t…

… the God of all comfort … comforts us in all our troubles so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves have received from God. — 2 Corinthians 1:3-4Human suffering provokes a whole range of responses. Job’s "comforters" added to his torment by assigning blame where it didn’t belong. They thought they were helping, but disapproval should never be mistaken for a solution.Some sympathy is merely thinly veiled contempt. Some "comforters" want to feel better about themselves by pretending to care about others. Some people empathize — they feel pain with the sufferer, usually…

This righteousness from God comes through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe. There is no difference … — Romans 3:22Why do we sin? There may be many reasons, but I think one reason is this: Deep inside, we are convinced that God is irrelevant. God doesn’t know about my desires. He doesn’t care about my hurts. He is too big and holy and religious to have any interest in where my heart is right now.All of these thoughts are lies, of course. But they all create a vacuum inside. Because of these lies, there is a place in…

"Come now, let us reason together," says the LORD. — Isaiah 1:18God is reasonable. Years ago I went off to Bible college unprepared for what would meet me there. I thought I would become a pastor or an evangelist, but when I finished school, I was so disillusioned that I barely kept my faith. I drifted. I was afraid to let go of God altogether, but I was disappointed in what I saw in the church and I wanted out, somehow.I probably would have stayed on the fringes forever, but God reasoned with me. He listened to all my objections…