Joe Barnett

I am with you always. —Matthew 28:20 “Nobody knows the trouble I’ve seen,” runs the old spiritual. There’s some truth in that: no one can get inside your head and heart and know your pain. Maybe some of the misery was your own fault: maybe you chose the wrong road . . . or the […]

Noah did everything just as God commanded him.       —Genesis 6:22 You won’t turn many pages in your Bible until you hear the voice of God telling you to move in a certain direction; to obey a certain command. And when you hear that voice you have to make a decision. God told

I will forgive their wickedness and will remember their sins no more.                 —Jeremiah 31:34 The old mystic told him that she and Jesus talked one-on-one every night, and that he told her about the shenanigans of people who thought their sins were secret. He was skeptical, but

Stop judging by mere appearances.                       —John 7:24 Sometimes I spout words that hurt. And sometimes I judge people in thought, even if not in word: loser; irrelevant; stupid. As if my opinion is worth beans. It isn’t. As if my assessment makes me superior.

Let us then approach the throne of grace with confidence.                —Hebrews 4:16 The writer of Hebrews holds Jesus up and asks us to have a good look: “Fix your thoughts on Jesus” (Heb 3:1); “Keep your eyes on Jesus” (Heb 12:2, TLB). Jesus is not out to get

Whom shall I send? And who will go for us?                                —Isaiah 6:8 You’re being pulled in a dozen directions by people and projects wanting—sometimes demanding—your time and attention. Life is zipping by more rapidly than you ever imagined. You alone

Faith is being sure of what we hope for.                      —Hebrews 11:1 Hedonists take the short view of life: eat, drink, and be merry, for tomorrow we die. Christians take the long view: weighing present decisions on future scales. Present pleasure may bring pain in the

God is not ashamed to be called their God.                          —Hebrews 11:16 God said, “Those who honor me I will honor” (1 Sm. 2:30). The patriarchs were far from faultless, but they took God at his word and were “still living by faith when

Jesus . . . for the joy set before him endured the cross.     —Hebrews 12:2 Your cross is the heaviest piece of furniture in the house, and sometimes you get tired of carrying it; exhausted from struggling with a problem that seems to have no solution and no end. The writer of Hebrews