Author: Dwight Clough

The unfolding of your words gives light; it gives understanding to the simple. — Psalm 119:130 NIV"What’s happening to me doesn’t make any sense." Sometimes the troubles of life are beyond our capacity to comprehend. Sometimes even everyday stress can leave us in a fog of confusion. In our house we have four children. We are always looking for better ways to get our children on the same page with us when it comes to keeping organized. Shoes, for example, go in a certain place. If you leave one in the back yard and stuff the other under the kitchen…

You are already clean because of the word I have spoken to you. — John 15:3 NIV"Do not call anything impure that God has made clean." — Acts 10:15 NIV"I’m dirty and I’ll never be clean." Why do rape victims come home and take shower after shower? Because any of us can buy into the lie that we are defiled by someone else’s sin. We may know, theologically, that we are pure, but still feel so terribly dirty.Remember the leper who came to Jesus. He said to the Lord, "If You are willing, You can make me clean." "I am…

Those who look to him are radiant; their faces are never covered with shame. — Psalm 34:5 NIVI want to tell you something you might not yet know: Everybody’s deepest secrets are the same. If I told you everything I desperately don’t want anybody to know about me and you told me everything you desperately don’t want anybody to know about you and we compared notes, we would discover, at the foundation, that our secrets are the same.Yes, they may show up in different ways. Some of us may have life-controlling issues or memories that are deeply embarrassing, but, at…

God has said, "Never will I leave you; never will I forsake you." — Hebrews 13:5b NIVThere is a voice that says, "I’ve been left all alone." For many people, this is the deepest fear. Abandoned and forsaken. This is the voice that makes us cling, hoping to never be left alone again.But there is a Greater Voice that says, "Hey! I’m right here."I watched a woman (this is on a DVD – contact me and I’ll tell you how you can order a copy if you want) walk through a memory where she was dropped off with a babysitter…

So do not fear, for I am with you; do not be dismayed, for I am your God. I will strengthen you and help you; I will uphold you with my righteous right hand. — Isaiah 41:10 NIVThere are many voices in the world that need to be reckoned with. Some are "in your face." Some are loud. Many are clamoring to get through to you, past the clutter. Some are pervasive.But the most challenging voices that you will ever hear are the quiet voices inside your own heart that determine to undermine your faith.There is a voice, for example,…

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…

The Lord is my shepherd. — Psalm 23:1Sheep do not need to figure out how to get a shepherd to lead. On the contrary, shepherds figure out how to get the sheep to follow.That is a comfort to me. I want to follow God. Sometimes I wonder, "Am I doing the right thing? Am I doing what God wants me to do?" But God specializes in working out His plans in frail humanity. Jesus rose from the dead and then left the earth! Yes, I understand that His Spirit is here. But stop and think about it. He left the…

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…

There are those who rebel against the light … — Job 24:13In the light, we see things as they really are. It’s impossible to hide in the light. If we feel the need to hide, then the light is not our friend; it is our enemy. Why do we hide? Because we do not trust the One who is light. We believe that He will see our stains and mistake those stains for us.The darkness is an illusion that fools only us. God sees through the darkness just as plainly as He sees through the light. There is no real…

But if I go to the east, He is not there;if I go to the west, I do not find Him. — Job 23:8Why is God sometimes so elusive? Why, when we are in pain, does He seem sometimes out of reach?I am reminded of the second verse in the Bible. "Now the earth was formless and empty, darkness was over the surface of the deep … " the verse begins. Sometimes our lives feel that way – formless, empty and dark. Where is God? Why has He abandoned us?But the verse continues "… and the Spirit of God was…