Joe Barnett

No immoral, impure or greedy person … has any inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and of God.                                  —Ephesians 5:5 Immorality and impurity. Bad stuff! Choosing to live in those ghettos instead of in God’s neighborhood can get you […]

Be kind and compassionate to one another.                        —Ephesians 4:32 Kindness begins with right thinking. The sleazy mindset of vicious thinking is sordidly displayed on tabloid covers at the grocery checkout. Refuse to sink into scandal-sheet thinking. “In your hearts do not think evil of

Get rid of all bitterness, rage and anger.                    —Ephesians 4:31 “Inside of me,” said grandpa, “a ferocious fight is going on between two dogs. One is hostile—bristling with anger, hatred, envy, greed, and resentment. The other is peaceful—brimming with joy, love, generosity, serenity, and kindness.” “Which

Do not let any unwholesome talk come out of your mouths, but only what is helpful for building others up.                          —Ephesians 4:29 Life is a marathon, not a sprint—a long, demanding race. Someone needs your encouragement and support to negotiate it; to endure,

Be made new in the attitude of your minds.                           —Ephesians 4:23 A rotten attitude is toxic, poisoning from inside out. It contaminates relationships and sabotages happiness—turns life into a mental garbage dump. Take ownership of your attitude. Stop blaming others for your

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