Joe Barnett

[God] has heard your grumbling.               —Exodus 16:8 It’s Thanksgiving week. Resolve to make it a week of thankfulness. Gratitude is a choice. So is grumbling. Numbers 13–14 shows us what God thinks about grumbling. It was a death sentence for hundreds of thousands of Israelites. The hike from […]

I will follow you, Lord; but first . . .                         —Luke 9:61 When Jesus says, “Follow me,” he is met with one of three responses: I will; I won’t; I will, but not yet. “Follow me,” Jesus said to Matthew. Matthew’s response was

When you are tempted, he will also provide a way out.     —1 Corinthians 10:13 The temptations of Adam and Jesus were vastly different. First, Adam was not deprived of food for even one day. Jesus, on the other hand, was denied food for forty days (Lk 4:2). Second, trees heavy with fruit permeated

The word of our God stands forever.                   —Isaiah 40:8 Before Blessed Lord, who hast caused all holy scriptures to be written for our learning: grant that we may in such wise hear, read, mark, learn and inwardly digest them, that by patience and comfort of Thy

I have stored up your word in my heart.                           —Psalm 119:11 Before Merciful God, who hast given us the Bible to be the revelation of Thy great love, and of Thy power and will to save: grant that our study of it

Be doers of the word, and not hearers only.                                    —James 1:22 Before Blessed Lord, by whose providence all holy scriptures were written and preserved for our instruction, give us grace to study them this and every day with

You were dead in your transgressions and sins.       —Ephesians 2:1 Unemployed, addicted, and deeply in debt, Ohio resident Donald Miller went on the lam in 1986, leaving behind a wife and two children. He was declared legally dead in 1994. He reappeared in 2005, discovered that he had been declared dead, and

Trust in the Lord and do good.                 —Psalm 37:3 Your mindset determines how you deal with life, and how you deal with life determines the outcome of life. Put your mind to it we’re told, and you can accomplish anything. “As you think, so shall you become,”

Love the Lord your God.            —Mark 12:30 In A General Theory of Love, authors Thomas Lewis, Fari Amini, and Richard Lannon wrote: “Where intellect and emotion clash, the heart often has the greatest wisdom . . . Who we are and who we become depends on whom we love.” Recitation

Lay aside every weight, and sin.                —Hebrews 12:1 Back in my Junior High days, there was a two-panel ad that was burned into every adolescent’s psyche. The first panel pictured a bully kicking sand in a scrawny weakling’s face. The second panel pictured the wimp, morphed into a