Category: JOHN D. BARRY

  • A SENSE OF HISTORY

    Connect The Testaments1 Chronicles 1:1-54; 1 Timothy 2:1-15; Psalm 74:1-23 When I was in sixth grade, my teacher assigned our class a family genealogy and history project. At first it was frustrating. It seemed like unnecessary work. But eventually I became obsessive over it as I discovered our family stories. Many of us share this…

  • THE BIBLE IN THE DEVELOPED WORLD

    Connect The TestamentsRuth 1:1-23; 1 Timothy 1:1-11; Psalm 73:1-10 In our developed world, we don’t consider famines very often. If there were a famine in our lands, we could navigate through it because of our importing infrastructure. This isn’t the case for the developing world: famines mean walking miles to find food and water, and…

  • BEING GOOD AT WHAT MATTERS

    Connect The TestamentsJudges 20:1-21:25; Philippians 4:21-23; Psalm 7:1-20 Though prayer is important, it’s an area of our faith lives that we often neglect. But people of great faith in the Bible relied on prayer—and not just for difficult situations. From general direction to specific details, they turned everything over to prayer. God spoke to them…

  • SUCCESS DECEIVES

    Connect The TestamentsJudges 15:1-17:13; Philippians 4:2-9; Psalm 69:18-70:5 When leaders come to power, there are always people who become insistent on stopping them. It’s incredible how easy it is for people to justify envy or hatred for authority figures. Most of us have made the offhand remark, “I hate that guy.” And in those words,…

  • MAKING GOOD OUT OF BAD

    Connect The TestamentsJudges 11:1-12:15; Philippians 3:1-11; Psalm 68:15-35 God is renowned for working through unlikely means with the most unlikely people. During the period of the judges, there were few candidates less likely for God’s work than Jephthah himself: “Jephthah the Gileadite was a mighty warrior; he was the son of a prostitute, and Gilead…

  • BELIEVING IN THE IMPOSSIBLE

    Connect The TestamentsJudges 8:1-9:21; Philippians 2:12-18; Psalm 67:1-7 Too often, we’re cynical about circumstances. When people come to us for advice, we want to list all the reasons why they shouldn’t take a certain course of action. We want to dissuade them. But what if we had a little faith instead? In Judges, we find…

  • FALLING IN LOVE THE BIBLICAL WAY

    Reflections on Song of Songs I’m quick to fall in love; my wife takes her time. Luckily, this boded well for me. I fell in love with Kalene literally at first sight. Since I had planned for Kalene to be my bandmate—we were meeting for a music audition—I later tried to argue myself out of…

  • MAY GOD KEEP US FROM BEING LIKE THINKERS

    Reflections on Ecclesiastes Great minds don’t think alike. Leonardo Da Vinci didn’t paint the “Mona Lisa” by working like his predecessors; he made the uncommon move of focusing on her eyes and hands. Albert Einstein didn’t figure out the speed of light by focusing on the problems his peers were solving. Walt Whitman didn’t come…

  • IF LIFE WERE A MUSICAL

    Connect The TestamentsJudges 4:1-6:10; Philippians 1:19-30; Psalm 65:1-13 Maybe life should be more like a musical or an oratorio—like Les Misérables or Handel’s Messiah. How we feel is often expressed better in song or poetry than anything else. Literary criticism tells us that poets write verse because prose simply can’t capture the emotions they’re feeling.…

  • THEY’RE FUTILE; IT ISN’T

    Connect The TestamentsJoshua 22:10-24:33; 2 Corinthians 13:11-14; Psalm 60:1-12 If you knew it was time to die, to say goodbye for good, what would you say? How would your final hoorah sound? In an episode of Northern Exposure, Dr. Joel Fleischman is convinced that he is dying. Joel, who is usually conservative, begins risking everything:…