Author: Dwight Clough

"I was sent only to the lost sheep of Israel. … Your request is granted." — Matthew 15:24,28Again, the Lord changes a "no" to a "yes." In today’s passage, it isn’t so much a cry or a plea that the Lord honors, but rather persistent, creative faith. The Canaanite woman begs Jesus to deliver her demonized daughter. He brushes her off not once, but twice. Yet she understands that the love of God is big enough to include her family, so she doesn’t quit, she asks a different way, and He grants her request.This reminds me of a story I…

"… you will not recover … I will add fifteen years to your life." — Isaiah 38:1,5King Hezekiah became ill. The prophet informed him that this was it, he wasn’t going to recover. Soon he would be dead. But Hezekiah wept and prayed, and the Lord healed him and added years to his life.I’m glad this story is here. For one thing, it makes me feel a little better about all the times I say "no" to my children, and then listen to their appeals and change my mind and say "yes." But more than that, it shows me that…

"… whoever is not against us is for us." — Mark 9:40I have seen many brands of Christianity. Each franchise believes it has the doctrine, the experience, the incantation that makes you a real Christian or a first-class Christian. Those who don’t fit it are sometimes quietly disdained or publicly maligned. In this passage, Jesus gently reminds His disciples that you don’t have to be a member of the club to be a member of the family. God’s work in each Christian is unique to that child of God. Yes, it is the same Jesus, the same Bible, the same…

… I will give him … a new name … — Revelation 2:17When I was a ten-year-old boy living in Carolina Beach, North Carolina, I gave my dad the nickname “Hubcap.” Somehow the nickname stuck, and that’s what we ended up calling him for the rest of his life. From that point on we never called him “Dad” or “Daddy” or “Father,” but, instead, “Hubcap.”So much hinges on a name. If I could go back in time, I would nix the name “Hubcap” and call him “Dad” instead. I almost wanted to do that before he died, but somehow I…

"Everything is possible for him who believes." — Mark 9:23What is "everything"? "Everything" is the power to call into being the plan of God and the patience to wait with expectation while everything we see contradicts what God says He will do.It is perseverance that goes beyond the borders of this life."Everything" is the awakening that tells us we don’t belong here, and that really is okay.Whose faith does God commend? He commends the faith of those who did not receive what was promised. (See Hebrews 11:39.) Those are the heroes of faith. They kept on believing God even when…

And the leaves of the tree are for the healing of the nations. — Revelation 22:2How can leaves heal? This is my question for the Lord.Leaves can heal because they are connected to the tree, the tree to the root, the root draws from the water of life that flows from the throne of God and of the Lamb.What a lot of healing is needed! One of the things I do is pray with people who are living with the after effects of childhood abuse. Often the stuff that happened is so painful that we don’t even want to go…

Peter took [Jesus] aside and began to rebuke Him. — Mark 8:32Sometimes the gospel is discordant to human ears. We would all like to hear a gospel that promises us Cadillacs, mansions, and oodles of servants to pamper us day and night. But instead there is a streak of suffering that goes through the story of the redeemed. Nobody likes that. Job’s friends didn’t like it; it messed with their theology. Peter didn’t like it. We don’t like it either.We all wonder why. And "Why?" is such a big question that most of the answer doesn’t fit inside a single…

For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for Me and for the gospel will save it. — Mark 8:35God isn’t into erasing; He’s into transforming. Give Him a handful of fish and bread, and He feeds the multitudes. Hand Him a coin and He baffles the religionists who tried to trap Him. Give Him an ocean and He creates a path for His people. Give Him a giant bully, and He creates an unforgettable story of triumph.Give Him our mortal lives, and He hands back eternity.Some of us will hand over our…

"Why does this generation ask for a miraculous sign? I tell you the truth, no sign will be given to it." — Mark 8:12What a balancing act God must maintain! The clerics asked for a sign. Jesus refused. For, if God should open the heavens for even one second, there would be no more atheists, no more agnostics, no more followers of false religion. There would only be those who love God and those who hate Him. In every generation people have taunted God, daring Him to act, mocking Him when He doesn’t. But God ignores them. He knows that…

… without faith it is impossible to please God … — Hebrews 11:6What about doubt? What about those little voices that tell us that God won’t come through for us, that God isn’t really kind, that God is going to leave us hanging, that God as we know Him doesn’t really even exist?The disciples knew those voices of doubt. "Lord," they said, "increase our faith."Jesus didn’t seem to be troubled by their request. Instead, He said, "If you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can …" Every doubt is an opportunity for God to show up in…