Joe Barnett

This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us.            —1 John 4:10 You don’t have to be perfect for God to love you. Your Bible shows people as they are, warts and all—and God as he is, loving them as they are. All through scripture you […]

All these people were still living by faith when they died.         —Hebrews 11:13 Before Darwin—and later evolutionary proponents—most people believed that God created earth for the benefit of humans; that people were God’s main interest. God was seen as a Father who loved every person, no matter how insignificant their position

Live by the Spirit. —Galatians 5:16 Here is Paul’s formula for spiritual growth: “Live by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the sinful nature.” A paragraph later he offers this “Fruit of the Spirit” bouquet of nine qualities: “love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control” (Gal. 5:22-23). Here

Why are you downcast, O my soul?                       —Psalm 42:5 Things sometimes go terribly wrong. That’s the world we live in. But before you throw in the towel because of an aggravating experience, take a deep breath and cool-headedly consider your options. Making a snap

I am coming soon! —Revelation 22:12 You ate at each other’s table. You talked over the backyard fence. You went places together. You laughed and cried with one another. Then one day you blinked back tears as you watched a moving van taking your friend away. The agony of absence is intensified when it has

Having been justified by his grace.                            —Titus 3:7 Just think of it! You have been justified—proclaimed innocent; declared righteous. “How can that be?” you ask; “I have sinned.” Yes you have. “All have sinned,” Paul wrote … but then rushed on to

Now that you know these things, you will be blessed if you do them.                       —John 13:17 Is your “do” as good as your “know”? It’s one thing to “know” what you should do; quite another thing to “do” it. Some scriptures wait on you

There are different kinds of gifts.              —1 Corinthians 12:4 In Rom. 12:6 Paul says, “We have different gifts, according to the grace given to each of us.” He names some of these gifts, and with each appends a pithy punch line about what to do with it … If

Not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these.                   —Matthew 6:29 On July 25, 2010, the corpse flower (it emits the stench of rotting flesh) came into bloom at the Houston Museum of Natural Science—only the 29th time that had happened in

God intended it for good.      —Genesis 50:20 “Every experience God gives us is preparation for the future that only he can see,” said Corrie ten Boom. Coming from Corrie, that’s a sentence worth listening to—she was the only member of her family to survive the Nazi death camps. “I wouldn’t have chosen the