Jay McCarl

  • How to Be Miserable (and Not)

    How to be miserable: “Think about yourself. Talk about yourself. Use “I” as often as possible. Mirror yourself continually in the opinion of others. Listen greedily to what people say about you. Expect to be appreciated. Be suspicious. Be sensitive to slights. Never forgive a criticism. Trust nobody but yourself. Insist on consideration and respect. Demand agreement with your own views on everything. Sulk if people are

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  • Remind Me

    O, God, remind us always… “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 soul, and each time it wakens, should not remind us of what we have committed but of what Thou didst forgive, not of how

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  • Last Words of an Old Preacher

    On June 7, 1891 the “prince of preachers”, C.H. Spurgeon ascended into the pulpit for the last time. These are the closing words of that sermon… “Those who have no master are slaves to themselves. Depend upon it, you will either serve Satan or Christ, either self or the Saviour. You will find sin, self, Satan and the

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  • Pray for Your Pastor

    Pray for Your Pastor

    You may not even go to church, but pastors are still a presence in your neighborhood. They’re (mostly) holy-men, people you seek out when the world goes wrong or when God comes knocking. They’re also human—and the devil hates them. Behind all the spirituality there’s a battle going on… “Pray for your pastor: 97% of pastors have

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  • Things Are Not As They Seem

    Since you’re reading this, it means you’re on the internet, which means you’re up-to-date on the latest headlines. Our senses are assaulted as fear and uncertainty rage from post to tweet. We roar but we’re quite helpless to control the bedlam. But wait… “Things are not as they seem. Evil, though widespread, is not winning. Faithfulness, though costly, is not futile. Affliction, though

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  • Better Than UPS

    We call them “Gifts of the Spirit”, and every follower of Jesus has at least one given to them by Him. But the gift He handed us isn’t for us. Read the tag—it has someone else’s name on it, and Jesus expects us to deliver it. The Apostle Paul said, “Having gifts that differ according to the grace given

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  • I love the fact that God didn’t ask us to figure Him out. We can’t. Even living eternally with Him, I doubt we ever could—and we might not even want to try. As analytical Westerners, we naturally task ourselves to explain things like how God came to be, how He made the universe, and what the end of the world will

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  • You Won’t Find It Here

    With so much to search in this vast non-world of the internet, there’s something we’ll never find because it’s just too big—too big for the internet, too big for all the brains of humanity, too big for everything, everywhere. Yet it’s the greatest search of all… The proper study of the Christian is the Godhead. The highest science, the loftiest speculation, the mightiest

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  • Another Poem

    Another Poem

    One of my great discoveries in life was when I spent my day making life better for someone else, it was always a good day—and when I spent my day trying to make life better for me, I went to bed wondering if I’d really accomplished anything valuable at all. We were made for God, and it seems He

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  • My Son Would Do That

    My Son Would Do That

    What is righteousness? It’s when God sees what you did and says, “My Son would do that.” Of course, that’s impossible, so God works on us to make us like His Son, and then He even treats us like Him. We have an amazing family. Blessings! —j

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