How many loaves do you have? —Mark 8:5 Back-to-back unachievable demands had the apostles perplexed. Jesus was telling them to do the impossible. According to Mark 6, he told them to feed an enormous crowd. Impossible! “How many loaves do you have?” he asked. “Five—and […]
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Father, forgive them. —Luke 23:34 The first of Jesus’ seven statements from the cross was, “Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing.” The callous centurion who supervised Jesus’ death had seen many grisly crucifixions. But he saw and heard things that day that he had never seen or
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Night is coming, when no one can work. —John 9:4 Henry Buckle was writing his History of Civilization when he was zapped by a debilitating fever. In his delirium, he repeatedly moaned, “Oh, to finish my book!” Cecil Rhodes, British
Now is the day of salvation. —2 Corinthians 6:2 URGENT! A June letter said I needed to renew a gift subscription immediately—even though the expiration date wasn’t until December. URGENT! A July alert said I needed to renew my magazine subscription immediately—even though I was paid up through January. URGENT! An August
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Gus Niblack was already elderly when I met him; one of the best men I’ve known. When I’d ask how he was, he’d stiffen his spine, throw his head back and say, “The Lord has been partial to me!” I don’t doubt it. God has often singled out specific people for favor. In Old Testament
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There are different kinds of gifts, but the same Spirit. —1 Corinthians 12:4 At checkout, the young lady at my local Subway presses her index finger to a pad that unlocks the cash register and credit card terminal. Hers is the only one that will work the magic, for no two fingerprints are
We are God’s workmanship, created . . . to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do. —Ephesians 2:10 “Find what you like to do, and do it so well that people will pay you to do it.” That old
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Be kind and compassionate to one another. —Ephesians 4:32 He was on the median at FM 1960 and Cutten Road, holding a cardboard sign: Vietnam Veteran. Out of work. When a stalled car created gridlock, he limped through the chaos, got behind
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He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all. —Romans 8:32 Remember when you left your child at school that first day? And the day she backed out of the driveway and headed off to college? Gulp! Every year you had to give up a
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Come down from the cross and save yourself! —Mark 15:30 “Those who passed by hurled insults at him . . . ‘save yourself! Come down from the cross, if you are the Son of God!’” (Mt 27:39, 40). “In the same way the chief priests, the teachers of the law and the
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