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To the angel of the church in Laodicea write: “These are the words of the Amen, the faithful and true witness, the ruler of God’s creation. I know your deeds, that you are neither cold nor hot. I wish you were either one or the other! So, because you are lukewarm—neither hot nor cold—I am about to spit you out of my mouth. You say, ‘I am rich; I have acquired wealth, and do not need a thing.’ But you do not realize that you are wretched, pitiful, poor, blind and naked. I counsel you to buy from Me gold refined in the fire, so you can become rich; and white clothes to wear, so you can cover your shameful nakedness; and salve to put on your eyes so you can see. Those whom I love I rebuke and discipline. So be earnest, and repent. 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. To him who overcomes, I will give the right to sit with Me on My throne, just as I overcame and sat down with My Father on His throne. He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.”—Revelation 3:14-22

 

Jesus has a plan for the Laodicean church. The Alpha and Omega looks beyond our arrogance, our blindness, our independence and sees far into the future. He envisions what can be, what is still possible, what He deeply desires for us.

What does Jesus mean when He says that He will give us the right to sit with Him on His throne?

Let’s be real. If you had a choice between having lots of power and not having any, what would you choose? If you had a choice between having plenty of influence and having none, what would you choose?

I’ll tell you what Jesus chooses for us. He chooses power. He chooses influence. God’s plan is for us to rule with Him. God’s plan is for us to be in that place of wonder—in the very throne room of God—seeing the face of Christ—being in on the counsel of God—filled with wisdom—offering ideas and suggestions that will flavor all of eternity. Jesus wants us with Him. He doesn’t just want to play catch with us in the back yard once a week. He wants us where He is. He wants us in on everything that is important to Him. He wants to give us the place of greatest honor.

I don’t know where you are in your Christian life. You might think you’re pretty hot stuff. Or you might think you have failed miserably. But I can tell you this: God has an eternal plan for you. Take the most generous, the most wonderful future you can imagine. Multiply it by a thousand. And it doesn’t even come close.

This is the place we need to start. If we don’t know how good it is, we’ll never pay the price to get it.

Dwight

PS. Can we trust our feelings? What role does emotion play in our faith? Does God care how we feel? What are our feelings good for? We’ll be addressing these questions and more on 8/3/2019 in Inner Wealth.

 

To the angel of the church in Laodicea write: “These are the words of the Amen, the faithful and true witness, the ruler of God’s creation. I know your deeds, that you are neither cold nor hot. I wish you were either one or the other! So, because you are lukewarm—neither hot nor cold—I am about to spit you out of my mouth. You say, ‘I am rich; I have acquired wealth, and do not need a thing.’ But you do not realize that you are wretched, pitiful, poor, blind and naked. I counsel you to buy from Me gold refined in the fire, so you can become rich; and white clothes to wear, so you can cover your shameful nakedness; and salve to put on your eyes so you can see. Those whom I love I rebuke and discipline. So be earnest, and repent. 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. To him who overcomes, I will give the right to sit with Me on My throne, just as I overcame and sat down with My Father on His throne. He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.”—Revelation 3:14-22

 

The Laodicean church is a pleasant place. The greeters smile. Beautiful music fills the plush sanctuary. Orthodox and inspiring preaching can be heard every Sunday. Everything is in place, running smoothly under the direction of a competent church board and a pastor with vision. The ushers almost sing as they work their way through the crowd collecting cash for the Kingdom. The Laodicean church is Bible-based, conservative, liberal, Catholic, Protestant, evangelical, charismatic, and purpose-driven.

So perfectly disguised is this church that they themselves have no inkling as to their identity.

Few can match their accomplishments. They’ve sent missionaries around the globe. They’ve fed the poor. They’ve marched to save whales, and they’ve marched to save babies. Theologically strong, they churn out intellectual giants who dazzle us with their knowledge. They set goals and achieve them. Their parking lots are filled with shiny new cars. They have it made.

It takes a lot of courage to look at these verses. But if we are willing to take the risk, I believe we will find that this is one of the most powerful and relevant passages in all of scripture. I want to spend the next few days looking at it and discovering the wonderful hope that Jesus offers when we finally become willing to get real with ourselves and real with Him.

Dwight

PS. Can we trust our feelings? What role does emotion play in our faith? Does God care how we feel? What are our feelings good for? We’ll be addressing these questions and more on 8/3/2019 in Inner Wealth.

 

I stand at the door and knock… Revelation 3:20

 

There is an imaginary line that runs through the middle of our hearts. On one side of the line, we find “yes,” and on the other side of the line we find “no.” This heart represents your inner self and mine. Each of us have places in our hearts where we have said “yes” to Jesus. And each of us have places in our hearts where we have not yet said “yes” to Jesus.

There are two main ways to live the Christian life. Both have some validity. We can live on the “yes” side. Or we can take Jesus to the “no” side.

The first way—living on the “yes” side—is comparatively easy. Here we build on what we have already agreed to with Jesus. Here we say, “Sin is bad. I don’t want to sin. I want to worship God. I want to do what’s right. I want to please God. I will avoid temptations.” And so on.

The only problem with this is that we have a whole other side of our heart that is saying things that are very much the opposite. And, since we can’t cut ourselves in half and throw away the bad half, we are stuck living with it. That creates a problem.

That’s why we need the second way to live the Christian life. We need to find the part of our hearts that is saying “no” to Jesus and bring Jesus into that part of our lives. This is not so easy. Most of us would rather face a firing squad than get honest with ourselves. It’s scary, and we don’t like being scared. It’s humbling. But, when we do it, when Jesus comes into those darkened places in our hearts, it is life changing. It is transformational.

That’s why God invests a great deal of time and energy getting each of us to the place where we are willing to “go there” with Him. We must find those “no’s”—those refusals—and ask ourselves why. Why are we saying “no” to Jesus? That’s what God needs to get at. The reason why. Behind each reason is a lie. It’s when we bring those reasons to God that He is able to reason with us, and bring to us the life-giving truth that melts away the disabling lies we believe.

Dwight

PS. What is spiritual maturity? I pondered over this for a long time, and then I asked the Lord. The answer I got was surprisingly simple, yet it changes everything. That’s our Inner Wealth topic on 7/27/2019.

 

If anyone hears My voice and opens the door, I will come in… Revelation 3:20

 

When we have visitors at our home, my wife and I want to have it all cleaned up and nice before our guests arrive. But that doesn’t always happen. Sometimes we don’t get all the cleaning done we want to. Our guests must see our home as it really is.

Deep inside we want to clean up for Jesus. But somehow that never works. We want Jesus in the nice clean living room, but He walks right in and asks to open the closet, or make a trip down into the basement.

It’s the way things are, folks.

Why is Jesus so willing to humble us? Because He knows that the Real Thing is so much better than the fantasy.

In humility and desperate neediness we turn to God. But when Jesus walks into a room, everything changes. Darkness gives way to light. Chaos turns to order. Grief turns to joy. And all is at peace.

Life-changing encounters with Jesus. We don’t outgrow them. We need them even if we’ve been a saint for fifty years. And Jesus is at work to enter our world and turn it upside down.

Dwight

PS. What is spiritual maturity? I pondered over this for a long time, and then I asked the Lord. The answer I got was surprisingly simple, yet it changes everything. That’s our Inner Wealth topic on 7/27/2019.

 

Here I am! I stand at the door and knock… Revelation 3:20

 

When was the last time you had a life-changing encounter with God?

Today? A week ago? A year ago? 30 years? Never?

Let me define my terms. By “life-changing” I don’t mean that you were hyped. TV commercials can get us hyped. Slick motivational speakers can get us hyped. Shallow evangelists who know how to work a crowd can get us hyped. Neither do I mean that you ended up sinlessly perfect. But I do mean that you walked away a different person.

This is not another spiritual chore. It is not: I go to church, I read my Bible, I pray, I share my faith, and, oh, no, now I have to do something else too…

But rather: When was the last time Jesus met with you and you walked away changed?

Dwight

PS. What is spiritual maturity? I pondered over this for a long time, and then I asked the Lord. The answer I got was surprisingly simple, yet it changes everything. That’s our Inner Wealth topic on 7/27/2019.

 

If anyone hears My voice and opens the door, I will come in… Revelation 3:20

 

We human beings really have only one power: to say “yes” or “no” to God. If we are righteous, why are we righteous? Not because we did righteous things, but because we said “yes” to God. If we are unrighteous, look around inside. Somewhere we closed the door in God’s face. Somewhere we said “no.”

We like to use Revelation 3:20 as a salvation verse. Open the door of your heart and let Jesus in. But it is also a Christian life verse. Once Jesus comes in the front door, He starts knocking at the other doors inside our hearts. There are many closets in our hearts that Jesus wants to clean out. Either we say “yes” or we say “no.”

It’s very important to understand that we don’t clean out the closet first and then open the door. Many sad and discouraged people are trying to do this. We can’t do this. We don’t have the power to do this. All we have the power to do is to say “yes” or “no” to God.

This is bad news for the self righteous, but it is wonderful news for the desperate among us who realize that we have no hope unless God comes in and cleans us up. And that is exactly what He will do, one “yes” at a time.

Dwight

PS. What is spiritual maturity? I pondered over this for a long time, and then I asked the Lord. The answer I got was surprisingly simple, yet it changes everything. That’s our Inner Wealth topic on 7/27/2019.

 

“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 3:20

 

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? Invite Jesus in. Are we trying to deal with illness or loss? Invite Jesus in. Not sure what to do? Invite Jesus in.

Now here’s the trick. We need to find the door where Jesus is knocking.

The rich young ruler had trouble with this. He thought Jesus was knocking on the door of his achievements. He thought Jesus wanted to come in and affirm what a wonderful guy he was for doing so many things right. Or perhaps Jesus would give him one more goal he could discipline himself to achieve.

But Jesus was knocking at a different door. He was knocking on the door of his security. “You’ve put your faith in all you’ve achieved and all you possess,” Jesus told him, “but these things will not save you. You need to let them go so you can put your faith in the only One who can save you.”

In the same way, don’t be surprised if Jesus finds a door that turns your world upside down. He is in the business of transforming us. But, behind that door that we may be afraid to open, we find life beyond all that we could ask or imagine.

Dwight

PS. “I’m not gullible, so I’m not deceived, right?” That’s what I thought for many years. Then I discovered how totally wrong I was. Smart, streetwise, good people are routinely deceived—I’m including myself, and I’m including you. On 7/20/2019, I’ll explain to our Inner Wealth subscribers why deception is so dangerous and how all of us have been deceived. I’ll explain how it’s possible to believe a lie even when you know it’s not true. And I’ll show steps you can take to get free from deception.

 

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 3:20

 

Jesus stands at the door and knocks. Why does He knock at the doors of our hearts? The Bible says that He wants to come in and dine with us. Let me suggest something. Jesus is bringing the meal with Him.

One day I drove by a homeless man who was climbing into a dumpster to find a meal. He was hungry and he was scavenging for the best food he could find.

The more we invite Jesus in, the more we feed on what He brings to the table, the more dumpster food looks, smells and tastes like dumpster food.

It makes little sense to criticize a homeless man for eating from the garbage. After all, that’s all he has. Instead, we may offer him something better.

We must understand that sin is the best food that most people can find. Most don’t know that Jesus offers something better. Even many Christians secretly want to sin because they are still feeding on leftover scraps from yesterday’s Jesus or somebody else’s Jesus, instead of hosting Him at the table right now, today.

All of this is wonderful news because we don’t need to wait. This moment was created for you and Jesus.

Dwight

PS. “I’m not gullible, so I’m not deceived, right?” That’s what I thought for many years. Then I discovered how totally wrong I was. Smart, streetwise, good people are routinely deceived—I’m including myself, and I’m including you. On 7/20/2019, I’ll explain to our Inner Wealth subscribers why deception is so dangerous and how all of us have been deceived. I’ll explain how it’s possible to believe a lie even when you know it’s not true. And I’ll show steps you can take to get free from deception.

 

He who overcomes will, like them, be dressed in white. I will never blot out his name from the book of life, but will acknowledge his name before my Father and his angels. Revelation 3:5

 

My name is Dwight Alan Clough. Like most of you, I had no say in what my name would be—it was given to me at birth. A few years ago, I decided to do some research and discover the meanings of the names of each of our family members.

My full name, if you put it all together, means “a handsome light in the valley.”

It’s funny how things work out. I never would have imagined as a young man that God would call me to be a winsome light to people going through valleys of sin, sorrow and discouragement. I wanted to write novels. I wanted to be a college professor. I wanted to be an artist. I wanted to be a successful entrepreneur. I wanted to make movies. And I didn’t want to go through valleys of pain and discouragement. I don’t especially like pain.

But I didn’t learn anything worth sharing on the mountaintops of my own talent, skills and intelligence. It was in the valleys of failure, sorrow, tragedy and loss that I found the Man of Sorrows walking beside me. It was in the darkness of my own humiliation and distress that the Light from above came into my life.

I didn’t choose my name or my calling. They were chosen for me. But, as life unfolds, I see the wisdom in those choices. And there is wisdom guiding your life also, though it may now seem senseless and unfair; give God time, He will make it right.

Dwight

PS. “I’m not gullible, so I’m not deceived, right?” That’s what I thought for many years. Then I discovered how totally wrong I was. Smart, streetwise, good people are routinely deceived—I’m including myself, and I’m including you. On 7/20/2019, I’ll explain to our Inner Wealth subscribers why deception is so dangerous and how all of us have been deceived. I’ll explain how it’s possible to believe a lie even when you know it’s not true. And I’ll show steps you can take to get free from deception.

 

“I know your deeds…” Revelation 2:2

 

Jesus knows our deeds. They are measured and they have value.

If you look at the great heroes of the Bible, they all had seasons in their lives where they lived in obscurity and were occupied with the tedious, the mundane, the monotonous. Joseph supervised prisoners, Moses and David watched sheep, Paul lived in the desert. Even Jesus worked a trade far from the public eye.

Why these seasons? Is it possible that the measure of a life is more than wealth and fame? The measure of a life is found in the smile of God.

Jesus knows your deeds.

Dwight

PS. “I’m not gullible, so I’m not deceived, right?” That’s what I thought for many years. Then I discovered how totally wrong I was. Smart, streetwise, good people are routinely deceived—I’m including myself, and I’m including you. On 7/20/2019, I’ll explain to our Inner Wealth subscribers why deception is so dangerous and how all of us have been deceived. I’ll explain how it’s possible to believe a lie even when you know it’s not true. And I’ll show steps you can take to get free from deception.

 

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PPS. For those of you who are interested, my latest book, Rethinking Our War On Poverty is now available here.