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.

If the e-mail text you receive is encrypted at all, just scroll down to the end of all of the text and click on Lena’s Journalin’ , which will take you directly to the web-page where you will be able to read the text quite clearly in it’s purposed form.

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 Translation


~ Lena’s Journalin’~
Love is best expressed by obedience to God, whether directly or indirectly. We love God by loving people. The greater love is shown to those who DO NOT deserve it. So, how is the deserving gauged anyway, by us, or by God? Who truly deserves love? I can answer that, those whom God loves deserve love. So who deserves obedience? Only the obedient and kind? This is what the world has told us.
Don’t obey them if they don’t deserve it, they have to earn the giving of our obedience, right? Did you have to earn God’s great love? No way. We love as He loves; as demonstrators of His great love, we obey even those who have not earned our obedience, because we see beyond the here and now. We see into the realm of unconditional love, where our obedience here to natural men is offered up to God as a living sacrifice, a sacrifice of love and obedience.
Love the unlovable today in action, in word, from the heart that loves God unconditionally.
Each person stands before God for their responses and reactions. They do not stand before us. Yes they should do this or that, but that is their responsibility before God, they account to Him in this. Yet in love, we can encourage one another to stand before God now in behavior offered, reminding one another of the great and sacrificial love of Christ Jesus.
Such as is pictured here- it goes from the weaker to the stronger. Like when it is saying, children obey (or love) your parents, then it reminds parents, who may be hard to love and obey, please make it easier on your children to love and obey you. This “weaker to stronger” principle applies in any and every situation. The children will stand before God for their requested action, and so will the parents. This applies to slaves and masters also, but each cannot take the other into the presence of God with them, saying he or she caused me to not obey/love. That won’t work. Love is a command and a decision. It stands alone, there are no excuses.
Notice it goes beyond here, stating that in obeying God’s commands to love and obey, we are not just to offer it as a have to, but with the expression of willing love before God, and we know God sees all things, especially the heart. This means we may need to cry out to God for a heart change- continually.
How in the world can one behave and live this way? Love is a decision, because of the great and sacrificial love of the Father who sent His Son to die for and unlovely world, we choose love. That revelation of the depth, height and breadth of the magnificent love of God leads us. We believe what God has said, we trust and rely on Him, we dress ourselves to look like and be as He is in this world. He is no longer physically present in this world, but we are. We are the ambassadors of His love. We are the only Christ-like ones the world has to look at now. They so hope we look like our Father-God. They hope they can someday look more like Him too. We are the hope for the world.
The best part of this chapter is the reality of eternity. We’re offering to God a lifestyle of love, which will part spiritual seas and move spiritual mountains! God needs a people in demon-stration of Him to set Him on high displacing principalities, powers, mights dominions, and names, that have come to try and rule the earth in our place, in His place.
Are we, God’s children, going to allow that? Or will we choose love? Let’s dress up in the full armor of God! Today.


Daily Meditation/Recital/Question
Isaiah 58:12 (New Living Translation)
12 Your children will rebuild the deserted ruins of your cities. Then you will be known as the people who rebuild their walls and cities.