Joe Barnett

Impress [these commandments] on your children.                                 —Deuteronomy 6:7 Can you imagine what life was like 1,000 years ago? Or, if the Lord tarries, what it will be like 1,000 years from now? It’s hard to envisage what it was […]

There was no room for them in the inn.                                 —Luke 2:7 I watched as children gathered, waiting for the school bus. They gravitated to groups. Friends. My heart ached for a precious girl who was shunned: no clique had

Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brother’s eye and pay no attention to the plank in your own eye?                                           —Matthew 7:3 It doesn’t require the intelligence of a turnip

The Lord is my strength and my shield; in him my heart trusts.        —Psalm 28:7 During the American Civil War, the citizens of Vicksburg, Mississippi, found themselves surrounded by General Grant’s Union Army. The siege lasted more than forty days. No supplies came in. On the verge of starvation, the entire town

Trust in the Lord with all your heart.                        —Proverbs 3:5 A lady trapped in a blinding blizzard in Oregon’s Cascade Range was relieved when she saw a snowplow ahead of her. She inched along behind the big machine through twists and turns. After a

Cast all your anxiety on him because he cares for you.             —1 Peter 5:7 “How are you?” my friend asked. “Good. Fantastic!” I said. “Are you really?” “Yes, why do you ask?” “Because I don’t think you’d tell me even if you weren’t,” he said. Maybe. But really, I

Who dares despise the day of small things?                           —Zechariah 4:10 Helen Keller could neither see nor hear—but saw and heard better than most. I’ve lifted the following from one of her letters. “As we grow older, it seems to me that we

In the same way you judge others, you will be judged.   —Matthew 7:2 On boarding the cruise ship, the traveler was given the location of his cabin and the name of his cabin mate. After checking out both, he went to the purser’s quarters and asked if he could leave his watch and other

He will wipe every tear from their eyes. —Revelation 21:4 To the grieving widow, the chaplain said, “If they ran a culture on your tears, they would probably discover anger, fear, grief, and loss.” I imagine that describes the tears of the parents of their ten-year-old daughter when a convicted sex offender led police to