Joe Barnett

The Spirit helps us in our weakness.                    —Romans 8:26 All the Frey children had assigned chores on the family’s farm. Bill’s was to grub out the stumps of pine trees where the land had been cleared for planting. One day, his dad watched from a distance […]

He who has ears to hear, let him hear.                           —Mark 4:9 President Franklin Roosevelt loathed formal reception lines at the White House. “All show, no substance. People don’t hear a word you say,” he complained. One day, his mischievous side took over.

The wind died down and it was completely calm.             —Mark 4:39 Miami. Bob Forcum asked if I wanted to go deep-sea fishing. I said, “Sure.” By 10 o’clock the next morning, I had discovered it’s a great sport if you don’t mind being sunburned and seasick. I didn’t feed

Your sins are forgiven.            —Mark 2:5 Word on the street was that Jesus was back in town and that he was healing people. So, four compassionate friends loaded their paraplegic pal on a stretcher, and off they went. They wanted Jesus to heal their friend. Jesus would do that, but

When the Lord saw her, his heart went out to her.           —Luke 7:13 Jesus saw people: their circumstances, their hurts, their needs. He saw a harshly judged adulterous woman, chased away her accusers, and said, “Go now and leave your life of sin” (Jn 8:3–11). He saw a woman who

[God] delights in people who are trustworthy.                               —Proverbs 12:22 A plaque on Harry Truman’s desk in the Oval Office was inscribed: “The buck stops here.” President Truman wanted to be clear that he understood his responsibility as the nation’s chief

Jesus reached out his hand and touched the man.                                             —Mark 1;41 Jesus spotted a man in the synagogue crowd whose hand was hideously deformed, a silent sufferer, neither seeking Jesus’ attention nor asking

He is coming with the clouds, and every eye will see him.           —Revelation 1:7 In 1943, Thomas Watson, chairman of IBM, said he foresaw no world market for computers. The first general-purpose electronic computer, ENAC, weighed over 27 tons. In 1949, Popular Mechanics predicted that one day computers would weigh

When I find it convenient, I will send for you.     —Acts 24:25 Have you heard about the Procrastinators Anonymous Club? Meetings were rare because the secretary seldom got around to sending out information about where and when. Breakfast meetings never started before noon. They had their Christmas party in July. Some procrastinations are

Now is the day of salvation.       —2 Corinthians 6:2 Sam Levenson said, ‘I’m going to stop putting things off, starting tomorrow.” We procrastinators are fans of tomorrow. A lot of things that need to be done, like getting the oil changed, painting the bedroom, or mowing the lawn, can be postponed for