Joe Barnett

You are worth more than many sparrows.                                  —Luke 12:7 If you’ve been around a spell you know that life isn’t an unbroken string of fair weather. It has its seasons of storm and havoc. That’s when you must remember […]

You are worried and upset about many things.                                —Luke 10:41 “Don’t worry about anything,” Paul wrote (Phil. 4:6). Some of us do the opposite—worry about everything. We worry about war, terrorism, crime, road rage, global warming; about the economy, social

Go and do likewise.    —Luke 10:37 “What must I do to inherit eternal life?” he asked. You tell me, Jesus said; “What is written in the Law?” “Love the Lord your God … and love your neighbor as yourself,” he answered. You got it right, Jesus said. But “Who is my neighbor?” he shot

Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful.                              —Luke 6:36 The difference between mercy and grace is that God’s mercy refrains from giving us the condemnation that we deserve, while his grace gives us the salvation that we don’t deserve. Two

My eyes have seen your salvation.                        —Luke 2:30 Simeon was an old man. He had lived through painful shifts, seeing his world fall apart. His beloved homeland fell to foreign rule. Political corruption, brazen immorality, and distressing religious decay crushed everything decent. But Simeon

A Savior has been born … he is Christ the Lord.                                        —Luke 2:11 Jesus did not come because of your strength, but because of your sin; not because of your goodness, but because of your guilt;

Be on guard! Be alert! You do not know when that time will come.                —Mark 13:33 There have been self-declared prophets in every generation who have clucked that they have nailed down the exact date of the world’s end. They have all been wrong. No surprise there, for

I do believe; help me overcome my unbelief!                                       —Mark 9:24 There was mixture in this dad’s heavy heart—a hybrid of belief and unbelief. It wasn’t one person saying, “I believe” and a different person saying, “help

All these evils come from inside and make a man “unclean.”              —Mark 7:21 Jesus rattled the Jewish dietary cage when he told them to forget this “kosher” nonsense; it’s what goes into your heart, not your stomach that corrupts. It is the thought-life that defiles you. For from within,