Author: DwightClough

 

I saw…someone “like a son of man” Revelation 1:12-13

 

Wait a second! Isn’t this the apostle John writing this? Couldn’t you argue that he was the closest friend Jesus had on earth, the most intimate apostle, the “disciple whom Jesus loved”? Now Jesus shows up, and John doesn’t even greet Him by name? In a way, John hardly seems to recognize Him. He just spends five verses describing what He looked like and then, in verse 17, he “fell at His feet as though dead.”

What’s going on?

When God shows up, He blows apart all our preconceived ideas about who He should be. In the First Century, the Jews were expecting a military messiah to throw off the Roman yoke and establish a sovereign Jewish state. Jesus came along and showed no inclination to pick a fight with the Romans. He told His followers to help the Roman soldiers carry their bags. And when He finally met with the Roman authorities, He simply said, “My kingdom is from another place.”

Now we live in a world where most people have Jesus pegged to be a wimp, a feminine creature with a soft and glowing face who hides in his churches and whines, “Why can’t we all get along?”

Most people are in for a major surprise.

God seems different today than He seemed yesterday not because He changed—He didn’t—but rather because our minds and hearts and situations weren’t big enough to contain all of Him yesterday, and they won’t be big enough today. That’s why we get the gift of eternal life, because only eternal life is big enough to contain the full discovery of God.

Dwight

PS. Sooner or later, it’s going to happen. A Christian leader you respect, trust, even depend on will disappoint you. How do you handle it when a Christian leader falls? That’s our topic 7/13/2019 in Inner Wealth.

 

The revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave Him to show His servants what must soon take place. Revelation 1:1

 

It’s a big world out there. And things get bigger, much bigger, when God steps in to bring history to a screeching halt. Like a great wave, humanity’s hatred of God rushes in, but, like any other wave, it breaks on the shore of eternity and it is no more.

The day of evil is coming to an end.

How do we wrap our minds around the enormity of God’s plan? How do we find room in our hearts to contain the majesty, the wrath, the holiness of God? I’m not sure that we can.

Yet God chooses to share His plans with us.

I remember sitting in my brother-in-law’s hot tub on a cold December night looking up into a clear starry sky trying to comprehend the magnitude of what I saw.

The book of Revelation is a gift to God’s servants. It is a gift to know that God has seen everything, and now He responds. It is a gift to know that that the full power of evil has no more ability to stop God’s plans than a blade of grass has the power to stop my lawn mower. It is a gift to know that our prayers matter, that our suffering counts, that our deeds are measured. And it is a gift to know that we are—all of us—children before the One who towers over the earth like the stars on a clear December night.

Dwight

PS. Sooner or later, it’s going to happen. A Christian leader you respect, trust, even depend on will disappoint you. How do you handle it when a Christian leader falls? That’s our topic 7/13/2019 in Inner Wealth.

 

Then their eyes were opened. Luke 24:31

 

The disciples were walking through sorrow like none they had ever experienced before. Their Lord was dead, and no explanation could account for it, no theology could soothe their aching hearts.

Pouring out their grief to a stranger as they walked along the road to Emmaus, they wrestled with their world gone mad. Nothing made sense. All their hopes were shattered.

Then their eyes were opened.

So it is with us. There are no answers, no reasons to account for all that has gone wrong in our lives. Each of us has walked through bewildering times when it seems that our Lord has left us all alone. But then, as we pour out our sorrows to the One who seems a stranger, our eyes are opened. Then we learn the truth. We discover that He was there all along, walking with us, comforting us, telling us the truth, responding to our invitation for Him to enter our lives and make His home with us.

Dwight

PS. Somewhere between 25% and 50% of all adults are survivors of sexual abuse. In many ways it is the elephant in the room. On 7/6/2019 in Inner Wealth we look at 5 things every survivor of sexual abuse should know. In addition, I also address marriage and Inner Wealth, as well as other avenues of healing.

 

…but we had hoped that He was the one who was going to redeem Israel… Luke 24:21

 

For years my wife suffered from panic attacks. Things went from bad to worse until panic was 24/7 for her. Things got better when she finally went on medication.

Then on September 13, 2001, she had a half hour prayer session with Steve Freitag of CrossCounsel. In that prayer session, she was miraculously delivered from panic. The next morning, she put away her medication, and lived virtually panic free for the next 18 months. She also began a journey of meeting with God in a deep and meaningful way. During this journey, it became clear that this panic was connected to trauma she had suffered as a child.

Then a strange thing happened. We were in Chicago promoting a book I had just written, and while we were in the hotel, the panic returned.

Just as the disciples in this verse were bewildered by what seemed to be a disaster, we were bewildered. Why would God heal her and then allow the pain to come back? We had told so many people about the miracle—did we now have to eat our words?

One day I took my then eight-year-old daughter to the dentist. He numbed her tooth and started working on it. At first things were going along okay. But then it started to hurt. So he gave her a second series of injections to kill the pain. Again, things went along okay, but then the pain returned. Then, for a third time, he got out the painkiller and numbed her tooth.

As a father, I was watching this trying to figure out what was going on. “What’s the matter?” I asked the dentist. “Is she resistant or immune to the painkiller?”

“Not at all,” the dentist explained. “The painkiller is doing its job. This isn’t about the painkiller. This is about the anatomy of your child’s mouth. I just had to find all of the nerve fibers that led to the place of pain. Once I got them all, then she didn’t feel a thing.”

In the same way, when God does a genuine work in you, His work is permanent and effective. But that doesn’t mean that one encounter with Jesus is all inclusive. God desires a deep and ongoing relationship with each of us. Sometimes, He will allow us to experience real pain as a reminder of two things: 1. There’s still plenty of work left to do. And 2. God wants to meet with us again. And again. And again.

Dwight

PS. Somewhere between 25% and 50% of all adults are survivors of sexual abuse. In many ways it is the elephant in the room. On 7/6/2019 in Inner Wealth we look at 5 things every survivor of sexual abuse should know. In addition, I also address marriage and Inner Wealth, as well as other avenues of healing.

 

[Jesus] asked them, “What are you discussing together as you walk along?” Luke 24:17

 

This is an enormously important part of the Lord’s ministry to us. He is drawing us out. He wants us to talk to Him so that we can get our real beliefs out of the table for Him to deal with.

Jesus could have appeared before them in dazzling splendor. He could have materialized in their path and said, “Hey, it’s Me.” But He didn’t. He didn’t even make Himself readily recognizable.

When God goes about changing our deeply held beliefs, He does so with care, with thoughtfulness, with purpose. In this conversation on the road to Emmaus, Jesus builds a bridge from what they already know and trust to what they have not yet quite grasped.

The Lord is gentle with us. He knows how difficult it is sometimes for us to break out of our comfort zone and grow, so He takes on a journey of little steps until at last our eyes are opened and we realize that He was here all along.

Dwight

PS. Somewhere between 25% and 50% of all adults are survivors of sexual abuse. In many ways it is the elephant in the room. On 7/6/2019 in Inner Wealth we look at 5 things every survivor of sexual abuse should know. In addition, I also address marriage and Inner Wealth, as well as other avenues of healing.

 

Not a hair of your head will perish. Luke 21:18

 

I’m not as naive as I used to be…and Jesus certainly isn’t naive at all. But how can He say this? Terrible things happen to many who suffer for the name of Jesus.

Jesus is aware of the overwhelming physical and psychological damage that is done when families are torn apart and children, especially children, suffer unimaginable horrors for the sake the of the gospel. Yet He tells us plainly: The damage won’t last.

Here we enter into an arena that is way, way beyond me. Hardly a day goes by that I don’t pray for hurting and suffering people. Their pain is beyond my comprehension, yet God has it all in hand.

“Not a hair of your head will perish.” Nothing of importance will be lost. No one has the right to say this but the Savior who understands suffering, and who brings the message of the Father to all His children: It’s going to be okay.

Dwight

PS. Somewhere between 25% and 50% of all adults are survivors of sexual abuse. In many ways it is the elephant in the room. On 7/6/2019 in Inner Wealth we look at 5 things every survivor of sexual abuse should know. In addition, I also address marriage and Inner Wealth, as well as other avenues of healing.

 

[Jesus] also saw a poor widow… Luke 21:2

 

While everybody else was watching the show, Jesus was seeing what really mattered. The rich may have been able to show off with expensive gifts. But, in truth, a poor widow was leading the way, showing us all the heart of God. She gave to God without reservation, without boundaries. She was extravagant. She gave all she had.

Jesus levels the playing field. All of us, no matter how rich or poor, talented or dull, attractive or not have the same gift to offer or withhold from our God: everything we have.

And in this verse we learn that Jesus notices. He knows of your sacrifice, your gift of love to Him. You are not overlooked. Though no one else may notice, Jesus sees you.

Dwight

PS. On 6/29/2019 in Inner Wealth I share clear and specific instruction on how to experience the transformation God desires for you. I also explain how to help someone else go through this process of transformation. I will be explaining the TPM (Transformation Ministry Process) as recently updated by Dr. Ed Smith. You will get a clear and concise explanation of a process that you should be able to use whether you are a TPM veteran or brand new to this type of transformation.

 

He is not the God of the dead, but of the living, for to Him all are alive. Luke 20:38

 

The resurrection is a necessity because God’s image is not disposable. God created us to reflect Him. Like a prism, each of us was meant to show a different shade of His light. We were not made to be discarded. From the moment He brought us into being, His eye has been upon us and it always shall be.

Again Jesus takes us out of our earthbound frame of reference, and shows us things from the Father’s perspective. How could He abandon the work of His hands? He doesn’t. While it is true that some will experience God’s eternal displeasure, this is only further proof of the intrinsic value God places on us image bearers. We were all created to forever experience Him.

Dwight

PS. On 6/29/2019 in Inner Wealth I share clear and specific instruction on how to experience the transformation God desires for you. I also explain how to help someone else go through this process of transformation. I will be explaining the TPM (Transformation Ministry Process) as recently updated by Dr. Ed Smith. You will get a clear and concise explanation of a process that you should be able to use whether you are a TPM veteran or brand new to this type of transformation.

 

[Jesus] said to them, “Then give to Caesar what is Caesar’s, and to God what is God’s.” Luke 20:25

 

If you want to know the truth, Caesar ends up on the short end of the deal. He can collect all the taxes he wants, but God gets everything of eternal value.

Put another way, there’s really no competition here. God is in a totally different league. He’s after the human heart, and He can have it whether Caesar takes the pocketbook or not.

Again and again, Jesus brings the eternal perspective into focus. He doesn’t dismiss the need to live in the here and now, but shows us how the royal family thinks, how “presidential” we are, how unconcerned we are with the trifling matters that can never get in the way of the eternal purposes of God.

Dwight

PS. On 6/29/2019 in Inner Wealth I share clear and specific instruction on how to experience the transformation God desires for you. I also explain how to help someone else go through this process of transformation. I will be explaining the TPM (Transformation Ministry Process) as recently updated by Dr. Ed Smith. You will get a clear and concise explanation of a process that you should be able to use whether you are a TPM veteran or brand new to this type of transformation.

 

Jesus said to him, “Today salvation has come to this house, because this man, too, is a son of Abraham.” Luke 19:9

 

Two rich men come to Jesus. One goes away empty handed, and the other goes away with eternal life.

In Luke 18, a rich ruler—a respected young man of standing—comes to Jesus trying to make a deal. “Good teacher,” he says, “what must I do to inherit eternal life?” For this young man, eternal life is just another acquisition, another deal, another commodity to be bought and sold.

Jesus sends the first man away empty handed. If you bargain with God, it will cost you everything you have. God doesn’t want to be part of someone’s portfolio. He wants to be God.

But in Luke 19, Zacchaeus, another kind of rich man comes to Jesus. Zacchaeus is rich but, as a tax collector, he is despised by most people. His small stature is a metaphor for his whole life. He doesn’t fit in—he can’t find Jesus as part of the crowd, but He wants to find him, so he climbs a tree. He doesn’t bargain with Jesus. He doesn’t even expect Jesus to acknowledge him. He just wants to see Him.

But Zacchaeus gets far more than he expected. He receives salvation.

The first rich man walks away without eternal life because he will not sell everything he has and give the money to the poor. But Zacchaeus parts with half (not all) of his wealth. He promises to make generous restitution to anyone he has cheated. And even though that falls far short of the requirement Jesus set for the first man, Jesus pronounces that okay.

Zacchaeus is given eternal life.

What’s going on?

I would like to suggest that Jesus cares more for our hearts than He does for our wealth. It took all the wealth of the first man to break open his heart for Jesus—a price the first man was unwilling to pay. But the heart of Zacchaeus was already broken open for Jesus. When Jesus entered his life, love, generosity and kindness flowed out.

Jesus gave him salvation and then He added another special gift. He told Zacchaeus that he belonged. “…this man, too, is a son of Abraham.”

Dwight

PS. On 6/29/2019 in Inner Wealth I share clear and specific instruction on how to experience the transformation God desires for you. I also explain how to help someone else go through this process of transformation. I will be explaining the TPM (Transformation Ministry Process) as recently updated by Dr. Ed Smith. You will get a clear and concise explanation of a process that you should be able to use whether you are a TPM veteran or brand new to this type of transformation.