Today's Daily Bread Ephesians 6 ++

Scripture selections are taken from the Rock Church Daily Bread Reading schedule for each month. “Lena’s Journalin’” are Lena’s comments on the specific passages from her Daily Journal.

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Ephesians 6:1-24
Children and Parents
1Children, obey your parents because you belong to the Lord, for this is the right thing to do. 2"Honor your father and mother." This is the first of the Ten Commandments that ends with a promise. 3And this is the promise: If you honor your father and mother, "you will live a long life, full of blessing." F12
4And now a word to you fathers. Don't make your children angry by the way you treat them. Rather, bring them up with the discipline and instruction approved by the Lord.
Slaves and Masters
5Slaves, obey your earthly masters with deep respect and fear. Serve them sincerely as you would serve Christ. 6Work hard, but not just to please your masters when they are watching. As slaves of Christ, do the will of God with all your heart. 7Work with enthusiasm, as though you were working for the Lord rather than for people. 8Remember that the Lord will reward each one of us for the good we do, whether we are slaves or free.
9And in the same way, you masters must treat your slaves right. Don't threaten them; remember, you both have the same Master in heaven, and he has no favorites.
The Whole Armor of God
10A final word: Be strong with the Lord's mighty power. 11Put on all of God's armor so that you will be able to stand firm against all strategies and tricks of the Devil. 12For we are not fighting against people made of flesh and blood, but against the evil rulers and authorities of the unseen world, against those mighty powers of darkness who rule this world, and against wicked spirits in the heavenly realms.
13Use every piece of God's armor to resist the enemy in the time of evil, so that after the battle you will still be standing firm. 14Stand your ground, putting on the sturdy belt of truth and the body armor of God's righteousness. 15For shoes, put on the peace that comes from the Good News, so that you will be fully prepared. F13 16In every battle you will need faith as your shield to stop the fiery arrows aimed at you by Satan. F14 17Put on salvation as your helmet, and take the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God. 18Pray at all times and on every occasion in the power of the Holy Spirit. Stay alert and be persistent in your prayers for all Christians everywhere.
19And pray for me, too. Ask God to give me the right words as I boldly explain God's secret plan that the Good News is for the Gentiles, too. F15 20I am in chains now for preaching this message as God's ambassador. But pray that I will keep on speaking boldly for him, as I should.
Final Greetings
21Tychicus, a much loved brother and faithful helper in the Lord's work, will tell you all about how I am getting along. 22I am sending him to you for just this purpose. He will let you know how we are, and he will encourage you.
23May God give you peace, dear brothers and sisters, F16 and love with faith, from God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. 24May God's grace be upon all who love our Lord Jesus Christ with an undying love.
FOOTNOTES:F12: Exod 20:12; Deut 5:16. F13: Or For shoes, put on the readiness to preach the Good News of peace with God. F14: Greek by the evil one. F15: Greek explain the mystery of the gospel. F16: Greek brothers.

Copyright Statement: Holy Bible, The New Living TranslationCopyright © 1996 by Tyndale Charitable Trust. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers. All rights reserved.

~ Lena’s Journalin’~ Today
Children can mean spiritual and natural. God made man and woman to reproduce natural and spiritual children and then to raise them both up in His ways. All children were made by God for God. They are really God’s “property” and man has been given the responsibility over them. (you know how I break up that word, response- ability, the ability to respond to God)
Our love for someone causes us to also love who they love. If we love God, we will love who and what He’s asked us to be responsible over. In loving we’ll respond by doing and being, so that the number ONE action expressed and remembered is the love of God in demonstration to one’s heart and life.
So, it says children obey your parents- IN THE LORD. That also puts a responsibility on the children to obey. Why would a natural or a spiritual child obey? Because they are confident in the love of their parents. They respond to that love by freewill obedience. Obedience is a response. That also puts a whole lot of action on the parent, #1 to be IN THE LORD, #2 to train IN THE LORD, #3 to show love IN THE LORD. If you are a spiritual child and someone has won you over to the faith of the Lord Jesus, or you’ve been brought under the specific house of a “father” in the faith or one who disciples you, you should obey them IN THE LORD, because of your love for God and for His work in your life through earthen vessels that He’s set in your life to help train you up.
I remember the first time I got this God idea, I was so sad that I’d been doing my own thing, I had to repent for always resisting a lot of the things those over me IN THE LORD had been telling me I should do to grow up strong IN THE LORD! I began to listen more and do more of what they said.
It also brought me to think about a scripture we used to teach our natural children in Proverbs. That scripture said to train your children to obey quickly, by disciplining them quickly, when they do not obey.
The “reason” for this is both natural and spiritual in nature. It is always about being kept from danger, always. (If you refuse to discipline your children, it proves you don't love them; if you love your children, you will be prompt to discipline them. Prov 13:24)
Say your small child darts out towards the street and you yell out, stop! but you have not trained them (and the word train mean rehearse many times over in their hearing and sight) to see consequences that come quickly and you’ve allowed them to get to understanding things first before they obey, you’ve allowed them to take their time and not heed your voice quickly, as if anything at all could happen to them. So now it comes to the street, and ya know maybe a car is not whisking by today, but if you don’t train them today about urgency, tomorrow when you are not around, they may not be urgent and may have needed to be.
Right now as I write this I hear my spiritual mother’s voice in my memory and I hear her speaking quickly at me or her other “children” and I’ve wondered why she’s spoken this way to us, whom she “loves”.
Ever feel like the way someone talks to you or instructs you or corrects you is not in love? Is it?
Love protects. Her voice right now in my memory is comforting to me, to know she’s training me about the seriousness of obeying quickly for my protection and the ultimate protection of His will in me here on earth.
Life on the earth is about doing God’s will, being protected inside of His will for the purpose of fulfilling His will on earth. The long life thing is about being inside of the will of God, we live a long life on earth to continue doing His will on earth as long as we live here, and even after we leave, we can continue His will by teaching others after us to continue in His will also.
How do we think we become strong IN THE LORD?
How do we think we can learn to put spiritual armor of protection and for warfare on us?
This one is easy, by obeying God, towards doing His will, which is to win in the fight against the evil realm which is after our faith relationship with God and is after God and any work He would have to do in this world. The work God has to do in this world is redeeming it and saving it from satan’s plight for children, to take with them to hell with him. He’s a very bad father. Don’t listen to or follow him, he lies all the time, is the father of lies. His children are those he’s lied to. All of his calls to men are to take men OUT of the will and obedience of God.
STAND up against his plight and join God’s plight against Him, by obedience because of love.

Proverbs 27:17-19
17 You use steel to sharpen steel, and one friend sharpens another. 18 If you care for your orchard, you'll enjoy its fruit; if you honor your boss, you'll be honored.
19 Just as water mirrors your face, so your face mirrors your heart.
Psalm 122:1
1 When they said, "Let's go to the house of God," my heart leaped for joy.