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Back in the 1970s and early 1980s, I worked for the Ohio Adult Parole Authority. My main job was trying to make sure that the felons I supervised didn’t get into trouble again. That meant I drove around a lot, talked to a lot of people, and wrote a lot of reports.

Anyway, years later, I was cleaning out some junk in my home and I found 76 ink pens with “State of Ohio” written on them. Oops! With a pang of conscience, I wrapped them all up and mailed them back to my old employer.

“You shall not steal,” God says in the Ten Commandments. Theft—why does it matter to God?

Video here, and/or keep reading.

Like all the other Commandments, this one is also a window into God’s heart. I think God is saying two things about Himself here. First, he values your labor. The time, energy, and sacrifice you put into making a living matters to Him. Second, while our possessions do not provide ultimate security (that only comes from God), they do provide a measure of security. Without food, clothing, and shelter, we would be hurting. Without the means to make a living, we’d be hurting.

There was a time when I thought God’s requirements were arbitrary—they didn’t make sense to me. But the more I looked at the reason why, the more I see that God’s Commandments flow out of His loving heart toward us.

Dwight

PS. We make resolutions or set goals, yet sometimes something seems to be holding us back. Why can’t we lose weight, write that book, finish that project? What’s holding us back? Many times it’s hidden, inner barriers that God wants to remove from our lives. This week in Inner Wealth we’ll explore how that process works.

As we work our way through the Ten Commandments, we come to this command: “Do not commit adultery.” Why is this important to God?

Video here, and/or read on.

Every marriage goes through seasons; mine certainly has. Sure, there were moments when I was passionately, deliriously in love with my wife, but there were also moments when I wondered what drug induced me to say, “I do.”

Yet about marriage, God says, “Take good care of this. Don’t break it.”

Why does He care?

I’ve found that if you look carefully at the commands of God you usually find that God is watching out for the most vulnerable person in the room. In this case, His eye is on His precious children. He wants them to grow up in a stable, loving home. He’s also looking out for the marriage partners, of course. Who wants their heart torn to pieces by a spouse who isn’t faithful?

But I think there’s another piece to the puzzle here. People who have affairs are looking for something. The only problem is: You can’t find it in the other man/woman. It isn’t there. The foundational comfort, affirmation, and enjoyment of life that we’re looking for doesn’t come from other people; it comes from God. When people try to find it in a marriage partner, they will be disappointed. It’s easy to think that we just picked the wrong person, that we need to look for someone else. But that’s an endless search that will only end when we look heavenward and find our rest in Him.

Dwight

PS. We make resolutions or set goals, yet sometimes something seems to be holding us back. Why can’t we lose weight, write that book, finish that project? What’s holding us back? Many times it’s hidden, inner barriers that God wants to remove from our lives. This week in Inner Wealth we’ll explore how that process works.

Why does God tell us to honor our parents? What does that teach us about God?

Video here, and/or read on:

Most of us go through this kind of process. When we are small children, our parents can do no wrong. Then we get a little older, and our parents can do no right. Then we get older still, and we realize that our parents are flawed human beings that hopefully tried to do their best. They meant well, but sometimes carried out those intentions poorly. That is reality.

Yet, at every step along the process, God asks us to honor them.

There’s a lot that could be said here about family, about transmitting values from one generation to another, about learning from the voice of experience. But I think I’ll focus on this one small slice of the pie: My parents are a mirror that shows me myself.

I too am a dad. I too meant well, but didn’t always carry out those intentions very well. I too am a flawed human being. I have something to offer, and I want to be understood and respected for that, and I guess I’m hoping that others will have patience with my faults.

Maybe God is saying that He knows. He knows we have imperfect parents, but, even so, they are His gift to us. They gave us life. They watched over us when we were young. He knows too that we will be imperfect parents, but He wants us to know of His gratitude that we cared for the children we thought were ours but all along belonged to Him.

Dwight

PS. We make resolutions or set goals, yet sometimes something seems to be holding us back. Why can’t we lose weight, write that book, finish that project? What’s holding us back? Many times it’s hidden, inner barriers that God wants to remove from our lives. This week in Inner Wealth we’ll explore how that process works.

“Remember the Sabbath day by keeping it holy. Six days you shall labor and do all your work, but the seventh day is a sabbath to the Lord your God. On it you shall not do any work, neither you, nor your son or daughter, nor your male or female servant, nor your animals, nor any foreigner residing in your towns. For in six days the Lord made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and all that is in them, but he rested on the seventh day. Therefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy.” Exodus 20:8-11

What does the Sabbath teach us about God?

Video here, and/or read on:

Notice first that God says we are like Him at least in this way: We work, then we rest. There’s a rhythm to life that gives life meaning, dignity, humanity. We work hard, accomplish what we can, and then we stop, recharge, celebrate our accomplishments, renew, restore.

On top of that, this isn’t for the few, for the elite. No, it’s for all of us. God makes all of us equal on this count. God wants every person, great or small, to enjoy a time of rest, and to gain a sense of dignity.

I like that.

Dwight

PS. Starting Saturday 4/27/2019, in Inner Wealth, we’ll be looking at Transformational Prayer Ministry or TPM. We’ll look at what TPM is, how it helps, who it helps, where it comes from, and what you need to know if you want to receive—or provide—TPM ministry.

“You shall not misuse the name of the Lord your God, for the Lord will not hold anyone guiltless who misuses his name.” Exodus 20:7 NIV

I used to think this was about swearing. But God has a much bigger point to make.

Video here, and/or read on.

We are God’s representatives. We carry His name to the people of this earth. This is particularly true of parents of young children. How we conduct ourselves imprints on our children a lasting understanding of who God is. And we are the only version of God some people will ever know.

So God cares about His reputation just like we care about our reputation. God cares because when we misuse His name, that is, His authority, His reputation, we make it difficult for other people to find their way safely home to Him.

Hmm. That leaves me pondering…

Dwight

PS. Starting Saturday 4/27/2019, in Inner Wealth, we’ll be looking at Transformational Prayer Ministry or TPM. We’ll look at what TPM is, how it helps, who it helps, where it comes from, and what you need to know if you want to receive—or provide—TPM ministry.

“You shall have no other gods before me. You shall not make for yourself an image in the form of anything in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the waters below. You shall not bow down to them or worship them; for I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God, punishing the children for the sin of the parents to the third and fourth generation of those who hate me, but showing love to a thousand generations of those who love me and keep my commandments.” Exodus 20:3-6

Jealous? Punishing the children? I’m first—no one else. What kind of God is this?

It took me a while to figure this one out.

Video here, and/or read on:

Every decision we make—even in private—ultimately affects everyone else. Our decisions particularly affect those closest to us, and those who have the most to lose if we mess up our lives—our children and our grandchildren.

God knows this. That’s one of the reasons he calls on us to abandon the gods we carved from our own imagination (He knows they can’t save us in our day of trouble), and invite Him into our lives to be what only He can be. God wants to be first not because He has an ego problem, but because He cares deeply about us. He knows we suffer if we depend on our man-made gods to defend us. He doesn’t want that to happen.

Dwight

PS. Starting Saturday 4/27/2019, in Inner Wealth, we’ll be looking at Transformational Prayer Ministry or TPM. We’ll look at what TPM is, how it helps, who it helps, where it comes from, and what you need to know if you want to receive—or provide—TPM ministry.

What do the Ten Commandments teach us about God?

Short video here, and/or read on.

The Ten Commandments are like God’s calling card. In them He let’s us know who He is and what’s important to Him. And He starts with these words, “I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery.” (Exodus 20:2 NIV)

The first thing we learn about God from the Ten Commandments is this: He wants us to be free. What a contrast from how God is normally portrayed—as the God of rules, the One who wants to shackle us with unreasonable requirements!

No.

God wants us free to achieve our God-given potential, to live free from sin, addiction, life-controlling issues. He wants us free from our own self-destructive tendencies. And He is willing to go to bat for us so that we can be free.

I like that. How about you?

Dwight

PS. Starting Saturday 4/27/2019, in Inner Wealth, we’ll be looking at Transformational Prayer Ministry or TPM. We’ll look at what TPM is, how it helps, who it helps, where it comes from, and what you need to know if you want to receive—or provide—TPM ministry.

How do we see with new eyes?

See short video here, or read on…

Around 1970 my parents bought some new dining room chairs. They were covered with vinyl and had an abstract pattern printed on them. For a long time, I sat in those chairs and looked at those chairs every day. Flowers. That’s what I saw. There were flowers printed on those chairs.

Then one day an amazing thing happened. I was looking at the chair and realized that I wasn’t looking at flowers. I was looking at cows. The pattern was pictures of cows.

What happened?

I experienced a paradigm shift. I saw the same thing a different way, and now I could never go back to seeing flowers again. From that point on, the chairs were covered with cows.

Paradigm shifts empower us to see the reality that was previously hidden from our eyes. God wants to use paradigm shifts to enable us to see everything through His eyes.

When we see ourselves, our world, our lives, our God through the eyes of Jesus, everything changes.

I once had the experience of walking through a restaurant and feeling the love God had for each person in that restaurant. It was amazing, almost overpoweering. Of course, I didn’t say or do anything weird, but it just gave me a whole new perspective on people around me.

More on paradigm shifts for Inner Wealth subscribers starting 4/20/2019.

Dwight

“Who touched Me?” Jesus asked. Luke 8:45

See short video here, or read on…

I hate making phone calls. I’m getting better with this, but I’d much rather email someone than call them, as a rule. Why? I hate interrupting people.

Maybe that’s because I hate being interrupted.

Jesus, of course, was interrupted constantly. If you read through the gospels, you’ll find that much—maybe most—of His ministry was responding to interruptions.

In this passage, Jesus is on a mission: to heal a dying twelve-year-old girl. I can imagine how urgent her father’s pleas were for Jesus to waste no time and come to his home right away.

Along the way, Jesus was interrupted—not once, but constantly. The crowd was jostling Him, throwing questions at Him, making requests, pressing in from every direction. Jesus ignored all those interruptions, save one.

“Who touched Me?” He asked.

This was the one interruption that Jesus sensed was different. This interruption merited a stop—even a stop on the way to heal a dying girl.

Why?

It’s a very human story. A woman’s personal physical problem was consuming her life. All she had was gone and her problem was worse instead of better. She knows that God will heal her if only she can touch the edge of the Master’s robe.

I can so relate to this woman. She didn’t want to interrupt the important Healer. She just wanted to sneak in, quietly get her miracle, and steal away. But Jesus said, “Why touched Me?”

In that moment, Jesus validates all of us who are afraid to interrupt. We are important too. He calls us out and He wants to hear our story. He wants to look at us. He wants to listen to us. He wants to speak to us. He wants to send us away with His blessing.

Dwight

PS. This coming week in Inner Wealth we’ll be discussing paradigm shifts—what they are and how God uses them to transform our lives.

As Jesus was on his way, the crowds almost crushed Him. And a woman was there who had been subject to bleeding for twelve years, and she had spent all she had on doctors, but no one could heal her. She came up behind Him and touched the edge of His cloak, and immediately her bleeding stopped.
“Who touched Me?” Jesus asked.
When they all denied it, Peter said, “Master, the people are crowding and pressing against You.”
But Jesus said, “Someone touched Me; I know that power has gone out from Me.”
Then the woman, seeing that she could not go unnoticed, came trembling and fell at His feet. In the presence of all the people, she told why she had touched Him and how she had been instantly healed. Then He said to her, “Daughter, your faith has healed you. Go in peace.”
Luke 8:42-48

See short video here, or read on…

This is so important. Consider this woman. Ponder what her life was like and you have a picture of nearly everyone who sits beside you in church, and, most likely, of yourself.

Nearly all of us have problems that we cannot talk about. Problems that keep us in the shadows. As we scramble from “solution” to “solution,” our hope fades, and our desperation intensifies.

If only Jesus would quietly, unobtrusively, secretly heal us, we pray. But a secret healing is not to be. Jesus brings it out into the light.

“Who touched Me?” He asks.

We want to deny it, but Jesus keeps looking at us until we step out into the light.

“Yes,” we acknowledge. “Yes, I had problems that I could not solve on my own. Yes, I appeared all together on the outside, but deep inside I was hurting. You have healed me.”

The rest of us take note. So, there is someone else, like myself. So, Jesus does care about my secret need. Maybe Jesus will heal even me.

Dwight

PS. For those of you enrolled in Inner Wealth, beginning 4/20/2019, we will be discussing paradigm shifts—how God uses them to transform us.