Joe Barnett

To him be glory in the church.        —Ephesians 3:21 By human measurement the church should have been doomed from day one. It began with just a dozen men, not near enough considering a world population at the time of 200 million. Mainly those guys were uneducated, poor, and powerless—slim chance they could […]

(He) is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine.            —Ephesians 3:20 God shapes us in various ways … Sometimes he tweaks, making minor revisions. Sometimes he skips minor revisions and goes for major makeovers. Sometimes he adds or deletes a chapter here and there. Sometimes he

But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far away have been brought near.                     —Ephesians 2:13 Before Christ came we Gentiles were a hopeless bunch: “… separate from Christ … excluded from citizenship … foreigners to the covenants … without hope and without God”

We are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works.               —Ephesians 2:10 In 2010 a Stradivarius violin, hand-crafted by Antonio Stradivari in 1697, sucked the breath out of an auction crowd with a top-bid of $3,600,000. Antonio allegedly said that God could not make Stradivari violins

I pray also that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened.       —Ephesians 1:18 Do you find your time and attention consumed with material possessions? Paul didn’t pray for the growth of his friends’ financial resources; he prayed that the eyes of their heart (their understanding, KJV) would be enlightened. He was

He chose us in him before the creation of the world.                                            —Ephesians 1:4 Ephesians chapter one is filled with thrill. It tells you that God has chosen you, adopted you, redeemed you, forgiven you,

At the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up.           —Galatians 6:9 Patience. Yawn … ZZzzz. Halford Luccock called patience the “ho-hum” virtue. John Chrysostom, on the other hand, called it “the queen of virtues.” Failure can more often be chalked up to lack of

A man reaps what he sows.          —Galatians 6:7 You harvest what you plant. It is that simple. And that certain. Some people limp through life feeling mistreated—by spouse, parent, child, teacher, employer, co-worker, friend. And maybe they are. You may have been dealt a sorry hand and have a long list

Carry each other’s burdens.          —Galatians 6:2 Some scriptures wait on us for their fulfillment. For instance, the words “encourage one another and build each other up” (1 Thess. 5:11) just sit on the page until we act on them and make them come alive. Here’s a way to breathe life into

Since we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit.                —Galatians 5:25 Murder, hatred, adultery, idolatry, envy, drunkenness, gossip, selfishness. Run your eye over that list and divide it into “Big Sins” and “Little Sins.” Murder and idolatry probably made your “Big Sins” list.