Joe Barnett

I have called you friends.        —John 15:15 I was asked to say a few words over an anonymous corpse in Llano Cemetery, where Potter County, Texas, buried its unknown dead. No family or friend had been found. Professional musician Jay Boy Adams’ father told him he didn’t have enough friends to serve […]

Come near to God and he will come near to you.     —James 4:8 “Very early in the morning, while it was still dark, Jesus got up, left the house and went off to a solitary place, where he prayed” (Mk 1:35). Jesus needed time with the Father—just the two of them. You need

Help carry one another’s burdens.                 —Galatians 6:2 Nine-year-old Marlee Pack returned to Meridian Elementary School in Broomfield, Colorado, following a year of cancer treatment. Bald. Her best friend, Cameron McLaughlin, told her she was going to shave her head. Cameron’s commitment ballooned into a school-wide event: on

Let your gentleness be evident to all.                 —Philippians 4:5 Burton Coffman’s cancer was detected early, treated successfully, and he was declared cancer-free. Years later—nearing his 100th birthday, and not feeling well—Burton underwent a battery of tests, then asked his doctor, “Is the cancer back?” “Yes,” he said,

Write them on your doors.     —Deuteronomy 6:9 Anthropologist Anthony Graesch, co-author of Life at Home in the Twenty-First Century, says your refrigerator door reveals what is important to you. The thirty-two families these researchers studied had an average of fifty-five objects on their fridge doors—everything from family photos to the plumber’s number. Here’s

He calls his own sheep by name.                  —John 10:3 “Flashing a thumbs-up, Jenn said, “My professor remembered my name.” Jenn’s happy reaction sent me scouring my shelves for my old copy of Dale Carnegie’s How to Win Friends and Influence People. Surfing its pages, I found the

The old has gone, the new has come!        —2 Corinthians 5:17 Chris Baker, an Illinois tattoo artist, uses his talent to help people make changes in their lives. Chris transforms tattoos of former gang members, reformed sex workers, victims of human trafficking, and others who have been branded; converting the old symbols

The Lord will hold me close.         —Psalm 27:10 Erich Segal’s Love Story is about Ollie and Jenny, whose life together was cut short when Jenny was diagnosed with leukemia at age twenty-four. On her deathbed, she asked, “Would you do me a favor, Ollie? Would you please hold me very tight?”

The word of God is alive and active.                     —Hebrews 4:12 Do you think Abraham had an advantage over us because God spoke personally to him? Don’t forget that Abraham lived through long periods of silence. When Jehovah told him he would make him into a

It was necessary for Jesus to be in every respect like us.       —Hebrews 2:17 An article in USA Today described how David Dillard schools his young architects to understand the residential needs of older people. He sends them on twenty-four-hour “sleepovers” in a senior living center. They put on pajamas, wear earplugs