Category: JOHN D. BARRY

  • I LOVED YOU, I LOVE YOU NOW

    Connect The TestamentsHosea 11:1–12:14; Acts 5:1–42; Job 16:10–22 “When Israel was a child, I loved him, and out of Egypt I called my son” (Hos 11:1). This line is beautiful if read alone, but it is sad when read in context: “When I called them, they went from my face. They sacrificed to the Baals,…

  • THE DISCOMFORT OF SCRIPTURE

    Connect The TestamentsHosea 6:1–7:16; Acts 2:42–3:26; Job 15:21–35 Most of the Western world operates in the spirit of individualism. Christianity does not, though we often attempt to adapt it and make it more comfortable. It’s much easier to think about “God’s role in my life” than to reflect on “my role in God’s plan” to…

  • AN UNUSUAL PORTRAIT

    Connect The TestamentsHosea 1:1–2:23; Acts 1:1–26; Job 15:1–9 “At the beginning when Yahweh spoke through Hosea, Yahweh said to Hosea, ‘Go, take for yourself a wife and children of whoredom, because the land commits great whoredom forsaking Yahweh.’ So he went and took Gomer daughter of Diblaim, and she conceived and bore him a son”…

  • WALKING WITH JESUS

    Connect The TestamentsIsaiah 65:1–66:24; Luke 24:13–53; Job 14:11–22 Imagine encountering Jesus on the road to Emmaus. It would be a surreal experience. You’re walking to the next town, and you start a conversation with a man beside you, only to find out later that you’ve been talking with the resurrected Son of God. Even more…

  • BECOMING A SAVED PEOPLE

    Connect The TestamentsIsaiah 60:1–62:12; Luke 22:63–23:25; Job 13:13–28 For Luke, Jesus is the fulfillment of the prophet Isaiah’s message. At the beginning of Jesus’ ministry, according to Luke, Jesus opened the Isaiah scroll in a synagogue and proclaimed that the words in Isa 61 are about Him (Luke 4:17–19): “The Spirit of the Lord Yahweh…

  • MY MOMMA DONE TOL’ ME

    Connect The TestamentsIsaiah 55:1–57:21; Luke 21:25–22:23; Job 12:13–25 I went through a phase when I was obsessed with the blues. Something about the soul was at work in the music—a genre created late at night while reflecting on hard times. The music was written more for the songwriter than the audience because the audience had…

  • RIDDLE ME THIS

    Connect The TestamentsIsaiah 50:1–51:23; Luke 20:1–40; Job 11:12–20 Jesus’ enemies regularly attempted to make Him look foolish or to disprove His authority. The absurd questions they concocted to discredit Him are rather amusing. The Sadducees posed one of the most preposterous questions about the resurrection of the dead and its relevance to divorce (Luke 20:27–33):…

  • GOD THE INNOVATOR

    Connect The TestamentsIsaiah 45:14–47:15; Luke 18:9–19:10; Job 10:11–22 Innovators often say they learn more from their failures than their successes. The successes come as a result of repeated failures, whether in business or in life. We must learn from our mistakes if we are to expect a different, brighter future.God expects us to learn from…

  • TRANSITIONS

    Connect The TestamentsIsaiah 42:10–43:28; Luke 16:1–17:10; Job 9:25–35 Life is marked by seasons—times of great difficulty and times of great joy. Usually we focus on making the transition from pain to relief as quickly as possible, but in the process, we may forget the significance of the transition itself. A transition is an opportunity to…

  • THE COST OF COMFORT

    Connect The TestamentsIsaiah 39:1–40:31; Luke 14:1–35; Job 9:12–19 “ ‘[You all] comfort; comfort my people,’ says your God. ‘Speak to the heart of Jerusalem, and call to her, that her compulsory labor is fulfilled, that her sin is paid for, that she has received from the hand of Yahweh double for all her sins’ ” (Isa 40:1–2).…