Author: Dwight Clough

Brothers, if someone is caught in a sin, you who are spiritual should restore him gently. But watch yourself, or you also may be tempted. — Galatians 6:1I like chocolate. It has become a joke among those who know me well. I contend that chocolate is a great weight loss food because if you’re hungry for chocolate and you eat something else, you’ll eat and eat and eat and never get full.If I’m hungry for chocolate, I’ll sometimes dip pretty low. I’ll even eat generic kids snack chocolate that tastes more like plastic than the real thing. But give me…

Brothers, if someone is caught in a sin, you who are spiritual should restore him gently. But watch yourself, or you also may be tempted. — Galatians 6:1If you take away sin, what is left?Think about it. I think this is a very important question that most people haven’t considered, yet it is the reason so many people have so many problems.I think most Christians would say that if you take away sin you are left with righteousness or obedience or goodness. But I disagree. If you take away sin, you are left with a vacuum. You are left with…

Counting on GOD’s Rule to prevail, I take heart and gain strength. — Habakkuk 3:19 The MessageThere are a few truths we need to come back to, and this is one of them. God’s work isn’t finished. Justice may seem like a joke, but sooner or later everyone comes face to face with God. The rope may be long, but it will hang the evildoer in the end. Many things in life seem true, but aren’t. It may seem that God doesn’t care, that He is on vacation, that we are all alone. But even though those things may seem…

… who will get what you have prepared for yourself? — Luke 12:20In the Disney version of Peter Pan, Peter is puzzled because Wendy cannot fly. He cannot figure it out, until it dawns on him that she was never sprinkled with pixie dust.Like Wendy before pixie dust, money keeps us earthbound until it is given to God. Like tentacles reaching up from the grave, so also the lies we believe about money twist and tangle around us, until we cannot escape their gravitational pull without God mercifully hacking us free. What do we truly believe? Money is the meter…

This was the sin of the house of Jeroboam that led to its downfall and to its destruction from the face of the earth. — 1 Kings 13:34Twenty-five times in scripture we come back to the sin of Jeroboam. I don’t think any other name in the Bible is more often associated with sin than his. The sin of Jeroboam led to the fall of nine successive dynasties and the destruction of the Northern Kingdom of Israel. Eight kings were assassinated; the sin of Jeroboam was a factor in every one.Again and again, the LORD sent prophets to warn these…

For my friends in the US: This is not a day for godly people to stay home. Pray, listen to God, vote, come home and pray some more.Elijah went before the people and said, "How long will you waver between two opinions? If the LORD is God, follow Him; but if Baal is God, follow him." But the people said nothing. — 1 Kings 18:21There is a limit to what theology can do. Nobody in his right mind is going to give away his life for a creed. Nobody is going to die for a doctrinal statement.The people said nothing.…

"I have not made trouble for Israel," Elijah replied. "But you and your father’s family have. You have abandoned the LORD’s commands and have followed the Baals. Now summon the people from all over Israel to meet me on Mount Carmel. And bring the four hundred and fifty prophets of Baal and the four hundred prophets of Asherah, who eat at Jezebel’s table." — 1 Kings 18:18-19Where does Elijah get his courage? He flatly contradicts King Ahab. He sets the record straight. He accuses Ahab of ruining the country. And then he issues an order to the king, and fully…

Taste and see that the LORD is good … — Psalm 34:8How do we taste and see that the Lord is good? Sometimes our mouths are full of the disgusting, distasteful ingredients of life. Sometimes we are so intent on these things that we don’t realize that we have a choice. We can hold up to God all that is bitter and sour in our lives. In fact, we must. If we don’t, we will never be able to taste and see that He is good. We will be stuck in a double bind: trying to create a paradise we…

Taste and see that the LORD is good … — Psalm 34:8Some of you have tasted and seen that life is bad. Life is cruel. Life is unfair. But the Lord extends an invitation to experience something bigger than life. Taste and see that the LORD is good.In our book, Amazing Faith, my coauthor Thomas Shaw tells the story of a woman who experienced one bad thing after another until finally she was flat on her back with a broken back and in great pain. A Christian radio station was on, but instead of bringing her comfort, it only brought…

Taste and see that the LORD is good … — Psalm 34:8Why does the Lord invite us to taste? Why does He not say, for example, "Take it by faith: The LORD is good."? Why doesn’t He structure this verse as a promise: "Someday you’ll find out that the LORD is good."? Or a conditional promise: "If you obey, you will someday find out that the LORD is good."?Notice also, that God does not say: "Comprehend My goodness." There will always be things about God that we cannot comprehend or explain. This is why we need eternal life — it…