Author: Dwight Clough

"Here I am! I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears My voice and opens the door, I will come in and eat with him, and he with Me." — Revelation 3:20Big Idea #4. If you want God to transform your life, find the door where Jesus is knocking.Nothing of any importance happens until Jesus shows up. We can do religious things but they won’t help anybody — they will just clutter up the space God needs to work in. What are we trying to do or to be? Are we trying to win someone to the Lord? …

"… apart from Me, you can do nothing." — John 15:5Big Idea #3. God expects the impossible … but He doesn’t expect it to be achieved without Him.We are instructed to carry the life transforming presence of Jesus Christ into our world. It is expected that we will touch people’s lifes and their cowardice will be turned to courage, their trembling fear into perfect peace, their anger into love, their shame into radiant joy and purity, their death into life. That’s a tall order.In the meanwhile, we are expected to rejoice in the middle of trouble and suffering. We are…

"Neither this man nor his parents sinned," said Jesus, "but this happened so that the work of God might be displayed in his life." — John 9:3Big Idea #2: God’s goodness is more important than our badness.This is the foundation upon which this devotional rests. We will be further ahead if we put our focus on what God is doing right instead of what man is doing wrong.This is one of the many lessons I learned the hard way. Years ago all I could see was the wrong — the wrong in me and the wrong in everyone else. I…

Peter declared, "Even if all fall away, I will not." — Mark 14:29Ten big ideas have changed my world. Here’s the first.Big Idea #1: You and I are in the same boat: We both need God.Years ago, I went off to Bible college as a naive 17-year-old who believed he would find perfection in the form of teachers, staff and students at this Christian institution. I was mistaken, of course. The people around me were about as perfect as I was: not very. Nobody explained to me that Christian leaders are made out of clay. Of course, in those days,…

But the angel said to them, “Do not be afraid. I bring you good news of great joy …" — Luke 2:10This story has become a Discoveries Christmas tradition. Enjoy and Merry Christmas!I remember my first Santa Claus doubts. How could a fat man get down a skinny chimney, not just at our house, but at the houses of little boys and girls all over the world? I mean there must be hundreds.Then came the fateful day when I learned the Truth. Two truths, in fact. My mother was cleaning something in the living room and she said, "You know…

After Jesus was born in Bethlehem in Judea, during the time of King Herod, Magi from the east came to Jerusalem and asked, "Where is the One who has been born King of the Jews? We saw His star in the east and have come to worship Him." Matthew 2:1-2Why is it that some can recognize the presence of Christ, while others miss it entirely?All my life I have been fascinated by the "Wise Men," the Magi. Who were they? How far did they travel? And how did they know? How did they know that this was no ordinary king? …

But the angel said to him: “Do not be afraid, Zechariah; your prayer has been heard…." — Luke 1:13Sometimes our lives are defined by a single prayer. It may be a prayer for a child, as was the case with Zechariah and Elizabeth. It may be a prayer for healing or deliverance. It may be a prayer for blessing, as was the case with Jabez. I want you to think about your prayer. Look at what the Lord did. Zechariah and Elizabeth could no longer have what they longed for. They were too old. Their dream had died. It may…

… [Zechariah] was chosen by lot … — Luke 1:9In our lives, many things are uncertain and beyond our control. From a human point of view, life seems like a lottery — by chance you are born to parents who are good or evil, rich or poor, healthy or sick. By chance, you find good opportunities and live a blessed life, or, by chance, your life seems cursed. By chance you live in a prosperous and powerful nation or in a nation that is not prosperous or powerful. By chance you live now in this generation.As Christians, we are taught…

In Him was life, and that life was the light of men. — John 1:4I recently saw the movie, The Nativity Story. I liked the movie for several reasons, but here’s one of them: In the middle of all this bullying that was going on during the Roman occupation of Palestine, God steps in and does what He wants to do. Yes, there is madness all around. But it somehow doesn’t slow God down at all.The truth is: We live in a messed up world. The reality is sometimes worse than our worst nightmares. Into this darkened world, Jesus was…

In your anger, do not sin … — Ephesians 4:26I’ve refereed many fights between my children, and I want to focus on this one that happened a couple years ago."Why does Hans hate me?" my then thirteen-year-old daughter cried to me about her eleven-year-old brother. I was tired of being the referee, so I decided to make up a checklist — things you gotta do before you bring your fight to Dad. Things like listen to the other person and restate their position and their feelings in your own words, etc. I thought I could get away with just handing…