Author: Dwight Clough

"I know your deeds…" — Revelation 2:2Here is where we start. Jesus knows our deeds. This is a great comfort. Because Jesus knows our deeds, we don’t need to hide. The One who knows our deeds knows how helpless we are to do anything good apart from Him. So we always rush to Him, whether our deeds are good or bad. On one level, it makes little difference. Have we sinned? We cling to Jesus. Have we done well? We cling to Jesus. That becomes our instinct, our reflex, our automatic response to everything. "Jesus, here I am, helpless without…

I will never admit you are in the right; till I die, I will not deny my integrity. — Job 27:5Job’s counselors had failed. They failed terribly in their goal to "sympathize with him and comfort him" (Job 2:11). And they failed to convince him that his sins were "endless" (Job 22:5). Until God shows up, we are mired in the mud of conflict and broken relationships. Our differences seem irreconcilable. Job and his friends had reached an impasse. If God hadn’t intervened, I believe their friendship would have ended. They would have gone through life condemning his assumed hidden…

How then can a man be righteous before God? — Job 25:4Job’s three friends are searching for Job’s sin but cannot find it. This is their last attempt. Bildad says in essence: "You cannot be righteous because no one can be righteous." Job must be dirty. Yet when God described Job to Satan, He called Job "blameless" and "upright."Many Christians seem to take up Bildad’s search for sin in every believer. You must be dirty. And if I turn you upside down and shake you long enough, sin will fall out of your pockets.But how does God describe us? "Becoming…

I rescued the poor who cried for help, and the fatherless who had none to assist him. The man who was dying blessed me; I made the widow’s heart sing. — Job 29:12-13Job was longing for the days when he was in his prime. He remembered how he came to the aid of those who were weak, hungry and needy.When I was in college, we studied something called "apologetics," or arguments in favor of Christianity. To me, the most powerful apologetic is the character of God. Though He has all power and can do anything He wishes, he deals gently…

The LORD works righteousness and justice for all the oppressed. — Psalm 103:6We must understand that what is true in the short run can be, and often is, false in the long run.For example, many people are eager to teach their children that life isn’t fair. This is a short term truth. Many times life isn’t fair. Horrible things are done to people for no good reason. This is not fair. It is not good. It is not right. But I would like to suggest to you that life is fair because God will make it fair. There is no…

But the father wasn’t listening. — Luke 15:22 The MessageTo me, this is one of the most moving moments in all of scripture. The prodigal son had ruined his life. He was returning home, a failure for all to see. When he met his father, he was begging not for his rights as son to be restored — he knew he could never dare ask for that — but rather that he might be taken on as a hired hand.But the father wasn’t listening. Eugene Peterson in his paraphrase The Message, captures the spirit of this verse so well with…

Can a man be of benefit to God? — Job 22:2Yes. The answer is yes. Eliphaz assumes the answer is no, and structures his argument around it. But he is wrong.As this conversation between Job and his three friends continues, they seem to become more and more disconnected with who Job really is and who God really is. Eliphaz paints a picture of a stern God aloof from human existence, intervening only to provide swift and terrible justice. Pastor Cho of South Korea said, "Most people think God has no needs. They are wrong. God is love. Because He is…

And God said, "Let …" — Genesis 1:3Jesus replied, "Let …" — Matthew 3:15In the Bible, God’s first word is "let." Permit. Allow. Give room for. Break free. God, the One who is so often characterized as the narrow-minded maker of restrictions, opens the universe with the word "let." God permits His plans to unfold. He allows His creation to take shape. He gives room for free moral agents to come into being, some to choose Him and others to reject Him forever.In the Bible, Jesus’ first word is also "let." "Let it be so now …" Allow things to…

"Go, sell everything you have … " — Mark 10:21"The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy … " John 10:10"You shall have no other gods before Me." Exodus 20:3Our treasures will destroy us until we give them to God. In fact, as I look around, I see the enemy unleashed in the lives of people to take what they love and to ruin their lives with it.In The Lord of the Rings, "the precious" consumed Smeagol until he became Gollum, a ruined caricature of his former self. Likewise, the enemy has access only to the part of…

My intercessor is my friend. — Job 16:20To me, one of the most comforting promises in the Bible is that the Holy Spirit and Jesus pray for us (Romans 8:26-27, Hebrews 7:25). If you heard some of my prayers, you would know why that’s a comfort! Many times I don’t have a clue how to pray. I just know that the situation is beyond my ability to figure out or to do anything about it. But I rejoice that Someone knows how to pray for me and He knows how to pray for others who are in much bigger messes…