Joe Barnett

How sweet are your words to my taste.                          —Psalm 119:103 This week we are pinpointing a few people and the text that changed their life. Catherine Booth: “My grace is sufficient for thee” (2 Corinthians 12:9). James Chalmers: “The Spirit and the bride […]

I trust in your word.    —Psalm 119:42 In the 1920s, F.W. Boreham wrote four books about people whose lives were changed by a single text. This week let’s look at a few of them: not their stories, just the texts that changed their lives. Martin Luther: “The just shall live by faith” (Romans 1:17).

[W]ho are you to judge your neighbor?                       —James 4:12 In Durham, North Carolina, he was known as the “Street Fiddler.” He could do it all: Bach, Mozart, Hank Williams, Texas swing. His name was Dave, but only a few old-timers knew that. Hardly anyone

The rain came down, the streams rose . . . and beat against that house.”        —Matthew 7:27 Hundreds of thousands of Houston-area residents have built or bought homes in floodplains. Some weren’t warned about the risk by officials or builders. Others knew the danger and moved in anyhow. In the backwash of

[D]o this in remembrance of me.     —1 Corinthians 11:24 During the Passover meal the night before his crucifixion, Jesus gave his disciples bread, representing his body, and told them to eat it “in remembrance of me.” He gave them the cup, representing his blood, and told them to drink it “in remembrance of

These stones are to be a memorial to the people of Israel forever.          —Joshua 4:7 Finally, after forty years in the wilderness, the Israelites were on the verge of entering the Promised Land. But between their camp and Canaan, the Jordan River roared at flood stage. Joshua ordered the priests to

Celebrate this day as a lasting ordinance for the generations to come.       —Exodus 12:17 On the night of Israel’s emancipation from slavery, Moses instructed them to kill a lamb and brush its blood on the doorframes of their houses. Then they were to prepare and eat the Passover meal, so named because

[M]ay the whole earth be filled with his glory.   —Psalm 72:19 After viewing earth from space, Payload Specialist Charles Walker said: “I felt strangely unfulfilled. Here was a tremendous visual spectacle, but viewed in silence. There was no grand musical accompaniment, no triumphant, inspired sonata or symphony. Each one of us must write the

I know my sheep and my sheep know me.                             —John 10:14 “Jesus loves me, this I know, for the Bible tells me so.” These words, written by Anna Warner in 1860, quickly became, and remain, one of the best-known and most-loved

My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?                    —Matthew 27:46 In Gethsemane Jesus prayed to be delivered from the agonizing ordeal coming at him. Silence. A few hours later he was impaled on a cross. “He trusts in God,” slanderers sneered; “let God deliver him