Joe Barnett

He heals the brokenhearted and binds up their wounds.               —Psalm 147:3 You try to convince yourself that what brought you to the physician’s waiting room isn’t serious—all the while thinking it may be. Stripped of your bravado, most of your clothes, and all of your dignity, you wait. […]

I trust in your word.    —Psalm 119:42 Irv Gordon got his spot in the Guinness Book of World Records in 1998 when his 1966 Volvo clocked 1.69 million miles—the most ever driven by a single owner of a non-commercial vehicle. But Irv wasn’t done: in 2013, his Volvo’s odometer hit its 3-millionth mile. He

They will still bear fruit in old age.                        —Psalm 92:14 Change! Youth is too eager for it; older folks are too resistant to it. Young people will change careers with less concern than the elderly will change what they have for breakfast. Everyone knows

Grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ.        —Ephesians 4:15 I always asked Larry the same question: “How are you?” He always gave the same answer: “As well as can be expected for an old man.” Larry thought like an old man. Moved like an old man.

While it is daytime, we must continue doing the work of the One who sent me.                               —John 9:4 I had a college classmate who had enrolled to equip himself to be a preacher. He bought all the books and attended

Teach us to number our days.              —Psalm 90:12 As of this writing, the average life expectancy in the US is 78.4 years. Compressing that to a twelve-month calendar, if you are thirty years old, it is April 18; if you are fifty, July 21; if you are sixty-five, October

Everyone who is arrogant in heart is an abomination to the Lord.                  —Proverbs 16:5 He was a gym rat—looked like he’d been chiseled out of marble. The flight attendant said—for the third time—“Sir, please fasten your seatbelt.” Flashing an arrogant grin, he said, “Superman don’t need no

Moses my servant is dead.              —Joshua 1:2 In Hebrews 11—the Westminster Abbey of the Bible—the writer reels off a memory-jogging list of people whose work had ended and who now watched those who were carrying on where they left off. With those in mind, chapter 12 begins: “Therefore, since

Whoever has understanding is even-tempered.                                    —Proverbs 17:27 Are you considering leaving your marriage, location, job, or church? Is it an accumulation of many irritations and no apparent solutions? Or is it only an issue or two? Before you

We are more than conquerors through him who loved us.         —Romans 8:37 In Romans 8, Paul asks four sobering questions and gives four encouraging answers. Question: If God is for you, who can be against you? Answer: No one, because God sent and sacrificed his Son for you (vv. 31, 32).