Tag: JOHN D. BARRY

  • NOSTALGIA: MY OLD FRIEND

    Connect The TestamentsNumbers 14:1-45; John 19:17-42; Psalm 14:1-15:5 Regret and nostalgia can destroy lives. They are mirrored ideas with the same pitfalls: neither can change the past, and both keep us from living in the present. When we live wishfully rather than interacting with the present, we’re bound to miss out and hurt others. Since…

  • IN THE MOMENT OF WEAKNESS

    Connect The TestamentsNumbers 11-12; John 18:1-24; Psalm 11-12 All leaders have their moments of weakness. But without such times, they wouldn’t stretch themselves (and that would mean they weren’t really in God’s will). It’s not that these moments shouldn’t happen, but we should turn to God when they do. Moses dealt with more than his…

  • JESUS CHRIST (MEANT TO BE) THE SUPERSTAR

    Connect The TestamentsNumbers 10:1-36; John 17:1-26; Psalm 10:1-18 Andrew Lloyd Webber’s musical, Jesus Christ Superstar, is certainly incorrect (and rather heretical) in its portrayal of history, but it got one thing right: Jesus is meant to be the celebrity. He—no one else—is the Savior, the Christ, the Lord.And that’s why the celebrity pastor movement is…

  • PROFOUND AND CONFOUNDING

    Connect The TestamentsNumbers 8-9; John 16:5-33; Psalm 9:8-20 God’s provision in our lives is often hard to see. There are times when we follow His commandments and we’re able to visibly see His work. Such times are profound to the believer but can be confounding to the unbeliever. The ancients practiced remembering these events. They…

  • ODDITIES THAT MAKE SENSE

    Connect The TestamentsNumbers 5:1-31; John 13:1-20; Psalm 6:1-10 Some of the Old Testament laws seem so odd they’re difficult to understand. It’s easy for us to see why, in a day before medicine, God would send people with “a rash … a fluid discharge, and everyone … [who had touched] a corpse” outside the tribe…

  • IT MAY SEEM BLAND

    Connect The TestamentsNumbers 3:1-39; John 12:1-19; Psalm 3-4 Let’s just admit it: genealogies and lists, like the one in Num 3:1–39, are the most boring elements of the Bible. But they do something for us that other formats cannot—they give us a sense of history and lineage. With a genealogy, we can do more than…

  • A BOLD GOD, AND A BOLD PEOPLE

    Connect The TestamentsNumbers 1:1-46; John 11:1-27; Psalms 1:1-6 Imagine a God so bold that He would say, “Take a census of the entire community of the children of Israel according to their clans and their ancestors’ house … from twenty years old and above, everyone in Israel who is able to go to war. You…

  • NEON GODS

    Connect The TestamentsLeviticus 26-27; John 10:22-42; Song of Solomon 8:10-14 Idolatry seems archaic. Who worships idols anymore? We all know that in other countries, traditional idol worship of gold and wooden statues still goes on, but we often forget about our own idols. What does all our furniture point toward? Why do we care who…

  • THE DAY OF ATONEMENT

    Connect The TestamentsLeviticus 15-16; John 9:1-12; Song of Solomon 7:5-9 When it comes to the cost of sin, the average person probably thinks in terms of “What can I get away with?” rather than “What does this cost me and other people emotionally?” These calculations aren’t made in terms of life and death, but that…

  • GRACE AMONG THE GRAPHIC

    Connect The TestamentsLeviticus 9-11; John 7:53-8:11; Song of Solomon 6:6-10 “Then he slaughtered the burnt offering, and Aaron’s sons brought the blood to him, and he sprinkled it on the altar all around; and they brought the burnt offering to him by its pieces, as well as the head, and he burned them on the…