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Washing Judas’ Feet
Jesus said “Love your enemy—do good to those who hate you, bless those who cures you, pray for those who mistreat you” (Luke 6:27) He didn’t say “feel good” about people who hate you. Do. Others—enemies included—are the recipients of our good deeds, not as a reward, but because when we were His enemies, God treated us the same…
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The Strong Man
Don Talley, confined to a wheelchair by a difficult genetic condition, said, “So many afflicted people say, ‘God, if you won’t heal me, you can’t use me.’ Stop telling God what he can’t do. Our identity is in Christ, not our hurts and failures.” He said this to thousands, after speaking to thousands upon thousands…
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A Little Good, A Little Bad
Little things aren’t so small in a war… “Good and evil both increase at compound interest. That is why the little decisions you and I make every day are of such infinite importance. The smallest good act today is the capture of a strategic point from which, a few months later, you may be able…
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Holding Hands in the Dark
Sometimes God is hard to see. “Where is God in my darkness?” people cry, and understandably so. Yet even the night cannot contain Him… “As the rain hides the stars, as the autumn mist hides the hills, happenings of my lot hide the shining of Thy face from me. Yet, if I may hold Thy hand in the darkness, it is enough; since I…
anxiety, comfort, compassion, depression, doubt, fear, God, Jay McCarl, Jesus, joy, love of God, pain, peace, silence, trials, tribulation, worship
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Sometimes There Are No Roads
Had supper yet? Feast on this… “I have learned…to let God be the mystery that He is and, with eyes wide open, to pursue Him, not with the precision of a crossword puzzle fanatic but with the reckless passion of a pilot flying into the Bermuda Triangle. Following Christ is a wild adventure full of risk, frustration,…
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Weed Killer
No matter sin gets redefined, it can’t unring the bell. Ignore it, offset it with good or call it something else, the roots of guilt remain like an impossibly stubborn weed. What can we do? Start here… “Father in heaven! Hold not our sins up against us but hold us up against our sins, so that the thought of Thee when it wakens in our…
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Certainty (With Spoilers)
This week I buried my father-in-law; earlier this year I buried my mother. In-between I helped others bury loved-ones. There but for the grace of God we go? No, there we go. But a great certainty awaits. [Here comes a SPOILER] In the last book of C.S. Lewis’ The Chronicles of Narnia, the four children are killed. Tragic and bad,…
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No Spoilers Here
Sometimes I skip to the end of a book to see how things turn out, and occasionally, instead of a spoiler, I find a game changer. Here’s one. “Your real, new self (which is Christ’s and also yours, and yours just because it is His) will not come as long as you are looking for it. It will come when…
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Food and Happiness
I like food (one look at me and you know) and I like happiness. Apparently, so did C.S. Lewis… “God designed the human machine to run on Himself. He Himself is the fuel our spirits were designed to burn, or the food our spirits were designed to feed on. There is no other. That is…
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The One-Word Telegram
The following account may or may not be historical. Either way, it’s true. It was Christmas Eve, 1910. General William Booth, the founder of The Salvation Army was an invalid and near the end of his life—it was impossible for him to attend the Army’s annual convention. Someone near the General suggested that Booth send a…
Jay McCarl 