Author: Dwight Clough

… being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus. — Philippians 1:6 If you were going to make a chart of your spiritual journey, what would it look like? At what times in your life have you experienced the greatest spiritual growth?If spiritual growth were just a matter of spiritual disciplines, then the go-get-’em types would leave all the rest of us in the dust. But spiritual growth is not just a matter of setting goals and observing disciplines. We are in the…

After GOD had finished addressing Job, He turned to Eliphaz the Temanite and said, "I’ve had it with you and your two friends. I’m fed up! You haven’t been honest either with me or about me — not the way my friend Job has." — Job 42:7 from The MessageI like this rendering of this verse because it reminds us that God invites our struggle with Him. Job engaged God honestly. No, he didn’t have a clue about many things and neither do we. But Job didn’t settle for pat answers and comfortable theology. He led the way to authenticity.If…

What’s new… Updated article, "In Defense of Theophostic." http://www.dwightclough.com/theophostic_defense.htmlI lift up my eyes to the hills — from whence cometh my help? My help comes from the LORD, the Maker of heaven and earth. — Psalm 121:1-2I cannot read these verses without thinking about my grandmother. She lived all her life near the majestic bluffs surrounding the Mississippi River. During the last third of her life, she lived in a valley the locals call Sugar Creek. Every morning she would step outside her little cottage and look across the valley at the beautiful wooded hills of Crawford County, Wisconsin. And…

Moses listened to his father-in-law [Jethro] and did everything he said. — Exodus 18:24The silence of God. No one knew God like Moses. Moses spoke with God face to face, he had a relationship with Him unparalleled in his day. Yet God never told Moses how to organize a judicial system. He was silent on that point.Why? Because God wanted Jethro to tell Moses. Jethro had administrative insight to bring to the table. I’m glad that God has put Jethros in my life. One of the most important of these advisers is my wife. She has enough common sense to…

"Why bother the Teacher any more?" — Mark 5:35While Jesus was sailing through the storm, a 12-year-old girl was getting sicker and sicker. While Jesus was delivering the man afflicted with demons, she grew weaker and weaker. Her father was frantic. Where’s Jesus?Jesus finally returned, and the father pushed his way through the crowd. He rehearsed in his mind what he was going to say. "Yes, many people are sick, but you don’t understand. This is my daughter." In a race against time, this father pleaded with Jesus to hurry. But what did Jesus do? He dawdled. He paused. He…

Night and day among the tombs and in the hills he would cry out and cut himself with stones. — Mark 5:5Here is a man who was in torment. He had no rest day or night. He was driven away from people and had no one to share his suffering with. He was lonely and in terrible pain.Yesterday we looked at the storm from the perspective of the disciples. God brought them through the storm so they might see a clearer picture of who Jesus is.Today I’d like to look at the storm from the perspective of this desperate, demonized…

"Teacher, don’t you care if we drown?" — Mark 4:38I’d like to focus in on the word "care." We all know the story. The storm is out of control. Jesus is asleep. The waves are swamping the boat. The disciples are terrified.Where was God’s care? In a sense, that’s an unfair question, because we have a big advantage. We are looking at this storm 2000 years later. We know that God’s care was there all along. The disciples didn’t know how to stop the storm. So they did the only thing they knew how to do, they found Jesus inside…

Today is "Tell A Friend Day"If you like these devotionals, pass this on to a friend.http://www.dwightclough.com/discoveries/web_index.htmlWhen they walk through the Valley of Weeping,it will become a place of refreshing springs,where pools of blessing collect after the rains! — Psalm 84:6 NLTWe all want to meet God on the mountain top. We want to see Jesus transfigured before us, in dazzling white. We want a glimpse of heaven. But life changing spiritual growth occurs not on the mountain top, but in the valley. It is in the valley, where we are cold, lonely and miserable that God wants to meet us. …

Amaziah, however, would not listen, for God so worked that He might hand them over to Jeohash, because they sought the gods of Edom. — 2 Chronicles 25:20God doesn’t trust just anybody to lead His people. Sooner or later he will put that leader to the test, and that test will reveal the character of the leader.King Amaziah is a case in point. About 130 years after the nation of Israel divided into the northern kingdom of Israel and the southern kingdom of Judah, Amaziah becomes king of Judah. He attempts to consolidate his power by hiring a mercenary army…

The Lord is my Shepherd, I shall not be in want. — Psalm 23:1We imagine ourselves to be very busy and terribly short on time. We must understand that this is a lie. God is not stingy. He has not shortchanged us on time. We have time in abundance. It is a joy and a privilege to finish a task, but God will release us from every unfinished work that didn’t fit into His perfect plan. We have time for God-ordained interruptions, time for acts of kindness, time for wonder and reflection.As it says in Ecclesiastes 3, there is a…