Category: Uncategorized

Our world is messed up
God is fixing things
We get to help

When I talk about fixing our world, what goes through your mind?

I would honestly like to know.

I believe that fixing our world is part of the Great Commission. Jesus said, “Go, make disciples of all nations… teaching them to observe all things I have commanded you.” To me that’s bigger than getting people saved, packaging them up, and getting ready to ship them off to heaven.

It says to me: Wait a second! The gospel (which means good message) has the power to fix any human problem. It says to me: We are ambassadors of heaven; we bring heaven to earth. We carry the presence of God with us, and wherever we go, the presence of God has a transforming effect on human experience.

It says to me: We were sent here to set things right.

I’m crazy. I fully admit that. But I somehow never got too old to think that God can do amazing things through ordinary people like you and me. If He wants to.

So I posted this 20-minute video on 4 Amazing ways you and I can fix our world. It’s all about stuff that swims around in my head all the time and finds its way into my books.

I don’t know if you want to watch it, but if you do, you can find it here.

Dwight

Next time: The door with many locks. (At least, that’s the plan.)

Merry Christmas!

I hope this is a wonderful day for you, and I want to share a little gift.

I wrote a book—mainly for my family—but I thought it might have some meaning also for you. It’s all about the people in our lives, and how we make a difference for one another. If you’d like, I’ll read it to you here on YouTube. It’s 23 minutes long, and, as I say, I thought you might like it.

If you’re interested, here’s the book:

Much love from our home to yours!

Dwight

It’s that time of year. The holidays are here, and with them come family gatherings. You’ll probably mingle with relatives you haven’t seen in a while, maybe not for years.

And family gatherings can be a many-splendored thing. They can be sweet reunions, or you could be watching the clock on the wall praying for deliverance. I’ve had my share of both.

Here are a few thoughts that help me:

(1) Pray before you gather. For me, praying in the days leading up to a gathering really seems to help things go much more smoothly. I pray that God will be present and honored during the gathering, that he will guide our conversations and activities, that everyone will get along great, that God will protect those who are traveling, and so on. If it works in the context of the gathering itself, I will pray, inviting God into our conversation and into our lives.

(2) Determine to elevate the other person. Years ago, when I was young and dumb, I wanted to be the most important person in the room. Now I see that it works so much better if I can work hard to make the other person the most important person in the room. I’m not a sparkling conversationalist, but even I have learned a few things about asking others about the things that are important to them, and celebrating their wins with them.

(3) Don’t take the bait. Someone is probably going to say something offensive, controversial, political, or whatever. Take a step back, look at the big picture, and decide what the moment is really all about. Is it about winning an argument? Or is it about building a relationship?

(4) Use any negative feelings that come up for your own growth. Sometimes, despite our best efforts, something can still happen that leaves us feeling diminished, annoyed, hurt, or embarrassed. When that happens to me, I take those feelings to God. I get His perspective and His healing. In the end, I’m stronger and more at peace as a result.

Hope these thought help. Wishing you the very best as you gather with family and friends!

Dwight

PS. Do you know anything about app development or are you savvy with technologies for connecting and educating? If you do, and if you care about ending toxic polarization, would you get in touch with me? I need some help figuring something out. Thanks!

Whew!

A lot going on here…

Steve Freitag’s CrossCounsel Podcast

First of all, a BIG THANK YOU to Steve Freitage of CrossCounsel International Ministries for inviting me onto his podcast. We had a great conversation about the connection between personal transformation and ending the toxic polarization in our culture. To be honest, I wasn’t sure how it would go, but I listened to it this morning, and it was great. (Thanks, John, for editing out all my long pauses 🙂 )

If you’d like to listen, you’ll want the November 21, 2022 episode: End the Divide. Here are the links:

Google Podcasts

Apple Podcasts

Spotify

By the way, if you don’t already know—it’s a great podcast; I think you’ll enjoy other episodes as well.

 

Imagine heaven

As you may know, Pastor Bill Wineke graciously invited me to share a message at his church in Evansville on November 13. My topic was “Imagining Heaven,” and I have links to that presentation as well. You can watch it here on Facebook or it’s also available on Google Drive.

 

Family update

Many thanks for your prayers. Mom is home from the hospital and mending nicely. Kim pivoted and decided (with Mom’s approval) to host Thanksgiving there so she can continue to provide care for Mom and we can also have family in for the holidays. I’m grateful for those of you who have volunteered to help with Mom; we may take you up on that at some point.

 

And finally… guinea pigs wanted

Have you ever wanted help hearing the voice of God, forgiving someone who is difficult to forgive, overcoming bad habits, making sense of the Bible, or just getting more out of your relationship with God? If so, I have two things for you:

(1) a free gift (How to hear the voice of God), and
(2) a coaching service.

You can find the details here.

I’m doing things a little different. I’m providing email coaching. Since this is a brand new thing, I need some guinea pigs to try it out. The price for the first session is super cheap. Once we get it all figured out, the cheap price goes away, and I’ll charge a regular coaching fee.

Why do I charge? Two reasons. (1) People don’t value what they don’t pay for. (2) Nobody pays me a salary to this; money from book sales, coaching and other fees is how I make a living.

Good enough. If you’d like to be one of those guinea pigs, check out this page, or ping me in reply.

A very Happy Thanksgiving to you and yours!

Much love!

Dwight

I wanted to let you know I was recently interviewed by Dr. Timothy Blake and will be featured along with 19 other Christian leaders in an online summit Becoming a Godly Man of Freedom, available 11/28/22 to 12/12/22. In my recorded conversation with Dr. Blake, we discussed the difference between freedom and try hard religion, why so many men can’t get free of life controlling issues, experiencing God for yourself, and, of course, I told a few of my crazy stories. It sounds like the other speakers will be covering everything from sexual health to near death experiences. If you’re interested, access is free (although there is an optional up charge if you want the workbook and ongoing access). Here’s the link: https://www.becominggodlyman.com/

For those of you who have been asking about my Imagining Heaven message that I shared in Evansville last weekend, it was recorded, and I’m hoping to get a link from the church in the next few days.

And a big thank you to those of you who have been praying for my mom and my wife. In case you don’t know, Mom fell and broke her hip and wrist on Sunday. She was released from the hospital on Wednesday and will need 24/7 care for a while. Kim is staying with her at her home in Madison. Kim’s cancer surgery in August appears to have been 100% successful as far as they can tell. She’s recovered nicely, although she did put her back out a couple weeks ago, but is feeling much better now. If you’d care to pray for Kim and Mom, I know they’d appreciate it. My mom’s name is Jeanette.

Many thanks. I have much more to share, but I don’t want to overload this. I’ll try to catch you again here in a few days.

Dwight

(I posted something like this on Facebook; I wanted to share it here.)

Today, here in the US, we vote.

I’m not going to tell you who I’m voting for or try to convince you to support my candidates.

But I am going to tell you about a decision I made.

I’ve decided not to demonize our candidates or our leaders. I won’t badmouth current or former presidents. Or any of our other elected officials. Not in public. Not on social media. Not in my private conversations. Not at all.

No, I don’t always agree with their actions, their words, their policies. But I won’t apply derogatory labels to them as people.

I just won’t.

Let me tell you why.

When someone assumes or aspires to public office, they don’t lose their humanity. They’re still someone’s son or daughter, mother or father, sister or brother. They’re still created in the image of God, sent here to earth for a purpose, much loved by God Himself.

It’s not okay for me to deface the image of God.

If my life—or yours—were held up to the same public scrutiny that a president’s life is, what would would people be saying about us? How would those remarks feel?

And how well do we really know these people we judge? I don’t know any of them personally. I have no idea who they really are. I don’t have access to the same information they do. I don’t know the pressures they face.

All I have is the carefully constructed narrative that my favorite media outlet tries to spoon feed me about this person. And I have no idea if that narrative is reliable.

Jesus said, “Judge not lest you be judged.” I don’t think He’s saying that we can’t have political opinions—because we can and we should. I think He’s saying when we take the limited information we have and use it to condemn or devalue another human being, we have sinned, and we’re inviting others to do the same toward us.

The early Christian writer James wrote, “There will be no mercy for those who have not shown mercy to others. But if you have been merciful, God will be merciful when he judges you.” (James 2:13 NLT)

I’m not saying that all our leaders have good motives. I’m just saying I don’t know what their motives are. And I’m not saying they’re all good; only God can say whether someone is good. I just won’t demonize them as people.

Neither will I hero worship. Leaders are just people, sent here to do a job, ultimately answering to God for the job they do, just like you and I are.

While I won’t demonize or hero worship our leaders, I will pray for them. I will pray that God grants them the wisdom, courage, and motivation to make righteous decisions, even in the face of bullies. I will pray that truth triumphs over deception, that justice and mercy triumph over injustice, and that understanding, respect, trust, and love triumph over polarization.

Dwight

(I posted this on Facebook, but thought I would share it here also.)

A good friend told me he avoids social media because it just makes him feel down on himself. Other people get the opportunities that passed him by. They have the big houses, the nice cars, the fancy vacations, and, by comparison, his life seems drab.

I get it. And, if that’s you, this post is for you.

Let me tell you about me.

The car I drive was made in the last century and it has 418,000 miles on it. The cottage I live in is the size of a modest two-bedroom apartment. I always wanted to travel, but I’ve never been on a fancy vacation. Never.

You’re probably younger than I am. You’re almost certainly prettier than I am. I cut my own hair; I looked at this photo and laughed. My teeth have problems. There are issues with my body that I don’t even want to discuss.

Most nights—and days—every week my wife is caring for my mom 45 minutes away. I would love to put all three of us together on one property, but I don’t have the money to do it.

I’m not famous. Most people can get away with not being famous, and they’ll be just fine. I’m an author. I need to be famous in order to make a decent living. But I’m not.

While I’ve had some successes, I’ve also fallen flat on my face time after time.

Please understand why I’m telling you this. I’m not complaining. I love my life. I am content and happy. I’m just writing this so if you feel tempted to compare yourself with someone, compare yourself with me. You can say, “At least I’m not as bad as Dwight Clough.”

It’s okay. I won’t mind.

In fact, I’m happy whenever you win. That’s a win for me. If you get to go on a fancy vacation or drive a nice car or live in a big house or capture the spotlight or whatever, I’m happy for you.

But I also know down deep inside underneath all the trimmings of this life, you and I are the same. We both want to be loved. We both want to be respected. Hopefully, we both want to leave our world a little better place than it was when we got here.

And I’ll tell you a little secret: God likes me. It took me decades to discover that, but once I did, all these other things stopped mattering so much. God likes me. And I think He likes you too.

Years ago some famous actress or model published a picture of herself in her underwear in a magazine. No make up. No glitz. Hair a mess. She did it because she wanted to send a message. Underneath all the glamour, she was just like everyone else.

Be at peace, my friend. You are okay.

You really are okay.

Dwight

In a few days I turn 65. As I think back over the last six decades, I’ve been blessed with a good life, but it hasn’t been without challenges. We’ve been homeless. We were hungry. We went bankrupt. Businesses failed. People I love experienced cancer, addictions, overdoses, violent crimes—and some of the people I love died. I’ve been slandered, excluded, marginalized, and my reputation has been trashed. I know what it is to spend hours yelling at God because, at times, my life made no sense.

Over the years, the book that has brought me more comfort and perspective than any other has probably been the book of Job from the Bible. It’s an ancient book, a beautiful book, and a much misunderstood book. I’ve seen Bible teachers and Bible critics alike completely miss the point the book was trying to make.

Since I’ve found it to be so rich and so meaningful, I thought I’d pull you aside for a few minutes and attempt to explain it.

The book of Job answers the question: What kind of love do good people have for God? Is it a hired love, like that of a prostitute for a client? Are God’s friends “fair weather” friends who abandon Him at the first sign of trouble? Or is our love for God real? Is it genuine?

Is our righteousness just a show to get a prize? Or is it who we really are?

Is God bribing people to love Him? Or do people love God because something has happened inside to transform them into genuinely good people?

The only way to find out is to take away the prize and see what happens. When God’s “blessings” are removed, we show our true colors, don’t we?

That’s what happened to Job. His wealth was taken away. His children were killed in a tornado. The respect he had in his community vanished, and he became the butt of jokes. And his health was ruined. All he had left was his wife who urged him to “curse God and die.”

Then Job’s friends came to “comfort” him. But their “comfort” took the form of kicking him while he was down with their armchair theology. God rewards the righteous and punishes the wicked, they reasoned. You’re not being rewarded. You’re being punished. Put 2 and 2 together. Come on, Job. ‘Fess up. What did you do? What sin did you commit to land you in this mess? If you would just admit that you’re a rotten sinner, God would rescue you from your mess.

Job’s friends remind me of so many Christians I’ve talked to over the years.

Throughout this exchange, heaven, eternal life, the afterlife—none of this appeared on the radar except for a brief mention by Job that he expected some kind of resurrection someday. Other than that, the focus was squarely on what happens in this life.

We don’t know how long his friends badgered him, but it may have been weeks. Long days, sleepless nights, unrelenting pain. Through it all, Job refused to confess to crimes he didn’t commit. He refused to admit he had sinned because he hadn’t sinned. And he refused to allow his pain to become an excuse for doing evil.

It wasn’t because he was wrong that this happened to him. It was because he was right. He was good. One of the best men who ever lived.

Going through this, Job tried to make sense of what was happening to him. What happened to the friendship I had with God? Where did God go? Why is God allowing this to happen to me? Can’t God see how unjust and unfair this is?

In the end, God shows up—speaking to Job, ironically, from another tornado—the same kind of storm that took the lives of Job’s children.

I’ve heard Bible teachers and Bible critics alike say that God yelled at Job. But I don’t think that’s true, and I don’t think that’s fair.

Instead, God was saying, in effect, “Okay, if you want to understand Me, here’s what it takes to understand Me. If you want to play in the same league I play in, here’s what it takes. Do you have what it takes?”

And Job answered, “No, I don’t.”

In the process God took Job’s eyes off his painful sores and put them on the stars. He gave Job a gift, a peek into God’s perspective. In the process, He showed Job (and us) that even when our lives make no sense to us, there is a God in heaven who knows what He’s doing, and we can trust Him to do what is good.

After speaking to Job, God confronted Job’s friends. “Job in his pain understood Me better than you did in your comfort. If anyone here deserves to be punished, it’s you. But my servant Job will pray for you, and I won’t deal with you according to your folly.”

After Job prayed for his friends, he was restored. He was healed. He took seed money from caring relatives and rebuilt his fortune. And God gave him a new family—seven sons and three daughters. We don’t know anything about his sons, but we know the names of his daughters, and we are told that they were the most beautiful in the land.

A beautiful ending to a powerful book.

Later in the Bible we read about a faith that overcomes the world. What is that faith? I believe it’s the deep, deep knowledge that God is good, even when everything and everyone in our lives says that He is not.

Dwight

I am an ambassador of heaven.

I was sent here to earth to bring eternal good into many lives. Every step I take carries the presence of Jesus with me to the place of need. There we heal what is injured, fix what is broken, and show our world a higher path.

When I speak, I speak words of healing, of help, of hope. My name means “light in the valley,” and I have been sent here to earth to bring light to dark places.

Am I perfect at all of this?

No. Of course not. But the work of God in me is so much stronger than all my limitations, and the work of God will ultimately triumph.

This is who I am. This is my identity. This is my mission. This is my why.

How about you? When you ask God who you are, what does He tell you?

Dwight

 

PS. Book deal and a favor: How would you like a free copy of any two of my books? Be happy to send them to you; I just need you and a few friends to leave an honest and hopefully positive review on Amazon for End the Divide. Someone left a mixed/negative review, and it looks like she only read part of the book and didn’t really understand it. So I don’t want her comments to keep people from reading a book that could be life changing for them.

Pastor Warren Heckman emailed me regarding this book and said, “I just finished reading your book [End the Divide]. It is provocative, insightful, biblical and challenging. I wish the whole world could read it, especially leaders & politicians.”

Ping me back if you’re planning to leave a review, and I’ll watch for your review, and be happy to send you the books you want.
Wondering what to say? Obviously, be honest, but this recent review might give you some ideas. Or here’s another one.

Here’s a counter-culture thought for your weekend:

“Is someone treating you unfairly? Wish them well. Pray for everyone’s well being, and don’t wish harm on anyone. If someone is happy, be happy with them. If someone is sad, feel their pain. Be at peace with those around you.

Don’t be stuck up. Be friends with the people the world throws away. Don’t be arrogant.

If someone wrongs you, don’t try to get even. Always take the high road. As much as you can, live at peace with everyone. Don’t plot revenge. Turn that over to God. God knows what He’s doing. If someone deserves to ‘get it,’ God will take care of that. Rather, when those who hate you are hungry, feed them; when they’re thirsty, give them a glass of water. By doing this, even your enemies will see you are living life at a much higher level.

Don’t let evil get the best of you. Instead, overcome evil with good.”

—Romans 12:14-21 paraphrased by Dwight Clough

 

This passage, more than any other, inspired me to write my latest book, End the Divide.

If you, like me, think it’s not okay for good people to hate each other, I would love to share a few thoughts with you.

Have a super weekend!

Dwight