Joe Barnett

Clothe yourselves with compassion.                 —Colossians 3:12 Jack Carter was driving slowly, cautiously. His rearview mirror told him the car behind him was close to his bumper and that the driver was irritated. The exasperated driver had no way of knowing that Jack’s beloved wife Nancy was lying […]

Those of you who do not give up everything you have cannot be my disciple.                  —Luke 14:33 Many fitness center owners are okay with people paying a membership fee, showing up a few times, and then becoming no-shows. Fitness trainer Jesse Jones isn’t. He terminates your membership

The greatest love a person can show is to die for his friends.        —John 15:13 On January 11, 2007, President George W. Bush presented the prestigious Medal of Honor to Corporal Jason Dunham. Posthumously. Corporal Dunham’s squadron was manning a checkpoint in western Iraq on April 14, 2004, when a grenade was

Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good.                         —Psalm 136:1 Ferocious wind. Torrential rain. Destructive hail. Then, power failure. Lights. Fans. Air conditioning. Computer. Television. Clocks. Refrigerator. Microwave. Keurig. Hot water. All kaput. Hours into this “lights out” ordeal, I prayed. You

Be careful not to practice your righteousness in front of others to be seen by them.                    —Matthew 6:1 The Pharisees had a ravenous appetite for human praise: “They loved praise from men more than praise from God” (Jn 12:43). As master pulpiteer Charles Spurgeon put it,

Thanks be to God for his indescribable gift.                      —2 Corinthians 9:15 The apostle Paul had a first-rate education and a top-notch vocabulary. But he couldn’t come up with an adequate word to describe God’s gift of Christ—he said the gift was “indescribable.” God gave us

Who are you to judge your neighbor?                          —James 4:12 Journalist Leslie Flynn noted that fifty-three residents of a Connecticut neighborhood signed a petition to stop speeding drivers on their streets. The police set a watch and caught five violators of the speed limit.

All are justified freely by his grace.                    —Romans 3:24 Dag Hammarskjöld said: “Around a man who has been pushed into the limelight, a legend begins to grow as it does around a dead man. But a dead man is in no danger of yielding to the

The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.    —2 Corinthians 5:17 Endings also bring new beginnings. The end of a year launches the beginning of a new one. The end of a pregnancy brings the beginning of a new life outside the womb. The end of an old life is the beginning

Blessed are the merciful.        —Matthew 5:7 Mercy has three elements: Conception—seeing the need. Compassion—being touched by the need. Consummation—meeting the need. In Jesus’ parable of the Good Samaritan (Lk 10:30–35), the priest and the Levite both saw the need (conception), but neither was touched by the need (compassion) nor met the need