Joe Barnett

I will rejoice in the Lord, I will be joyful in God my Savior.             —Habakkuk 3:18 The nation was in chaos: the economy was in the tank, and a war they couldn’t win was coming at them. Habakkuk was terrified: his heart was pounding, his lips were quivering, and […]

The Lord is good, a refuge in times of trouble. He cares for those who trust in him.                 —Nahum 1:7 Arthur Rank decided to do all of his worrying on Wednesdays. When he was worried, he wrote a note specifying what was troubling him and dropped it

What does the Lord require of you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God.                                              —Micah 6:8 Israel grumbled that God was too demanding: hard to understand

Jonah ran away from the Lord.                    —Jonah 1:3 God ordered Jonah to “Go to the great city of Nineveh and preach against it.” Jonah didn’t cotton to the assignment. Nineveh was the capital of Assyria, Israel’s despised enemy. So Jonah hightailed it in the opposite direction—went

The pride of your heart has deceived you.                              —Obadiah 1:3 The Edomites were a cocky bunch: “Who can bring me down?” they crowed. The answer? “I will bring you down, declares the Lord.” When Babylonian soldiers sacked Jerusalem, the Edomites signed

“You have not returned to me,” declares the Lord.                                        —Amos 4:6 The phrase “you have not returned to me” surfaces often in the book of Amos—five times in chapter 4. The Lord repeatedly reminded his wayward

Rend your heart and not your garments.                                      —Joel 2:13 Joel warned Israel they were going to pay a high price for ditching God: locusts would demolish their fields and destroy their crops. But that didn’t have to

As surely as the sun rises, he will appear.                                     —Hosea 6:3 “The soul of many a man has its eastward aspect,” wrote F.W. Boreham. He explained that most people experience long, dreary nights in life. And when

If we are thrown into the blazing furnace, the God we serve is able to save us from it.                                  —Daniel 3:17 Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego knew that God was able to save them, but didn’t know if he would.

This was the appearance of the likeness of the glory of the Lord.                  —Ezekiel 1:28 What will it be like when we see the Lord? Bart Millard wondered about that after the death of his father, and wrote a song about it: “I can only imagine what