Joe Barnett

Envy rots the bones.   —Proverbs 14:30 Bette Midler said: “The worst part of success is trying to find someone who is happy for you.” Some find it easier to weep with those who weep than to rejoice with those who rejoice. Love isn’t envious of the success of others; it delights in their talent […]

Be kind and compassionate to one another.                            —Ephesians 4:32 We’ve all known Christians whose résumé could read: Devoted. Loyal. Involved. Faithful. Moral. Unkind. Paul said if we have mountain-moving faith but don’t have love, we are nothing. Nothing! That’s the ground on

Love. We talk about it, write about it, sing about it. But the real power of love is what we DO about it. In 1 Corinthians 13, Paul’s well-known chapter on love, he says that without love we are nothing. Nothing. In verses 4–7, he gives the ingredients of love: what it is and does

I bring you good news of great joy.                          —Luke 2:10 What if your Bible ended with Malachi—if you turned the last page of the Old Testament and there was nothing more? There would be no Luke 2:10–11. “I bring you good news of

Do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God.                    —Ephesians 4:30 Someone reading these words is grieving over a son or daughter who has broken their heart. A desire to make our parents proud of us and a determination to avoid disappointing them incentivize honorable behavior. Ken

Wisdom is supreme; therefore get wisdom.                                       —Proverbs 4:7 In Paul’s list of nine Spirit-given gifts, the first two are wisdom and knowledge (1 Cor 12:8). Sometimes the two coexist, but not always. All of us have

This, then, is how you should pray.                        —Matthew 6:9 Do you ever get your prayers upside down? I do. I sometimes put the things that should be last first and the things that should be first last. Here’s what I mean. My prayers usually

We know that . . . we have a building from God, an eternal house in heaven. —2 Corinthians 5:1 In the early days of our country, letters between parties in the U.S. normally took three months for delivery; foreign correspondence commonly required six months. So, the result of an election, congressional vote, or foreign

We brought nothing into the world, and we can take nothing out of it.                    —1 Timothy 6:7 Satan doesn’t encounter much resistance in enticing us to focus on money—even conning us into using it as our standard of judgment. “What’s he worth?” doesn’t require translation. We

I have learned to be content.         —Philippians 4:11 When I’m out for exercise, I sometimes encounter a stretch of road where cars line both sides of the street for a block or so. I know what’s up—the trail is going to end at a yard sale where someone is getting rid