Today Our Daily Bread Eph 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.

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.
~ Lena’s Journalin’ ~
This law is a natural and a spiritual law of God. Can we read this another way defining it for our hearts rather than only our minds?
Paraphrase- “Those who are being nurtured by someone in some way, whether naturally or spiritually speaking, should be loving to those who’ve been set in their lives by God to bring them up, responding to them by obedience. Why? Because of your love for the Lord. Use this as a way to express your love to Him. Love obeys. It is the only true expression of a free will being to another. That expression of love comes out and rises against the rebellion satan started long ago, against God. It shows God we are with Him, and trust and believe Him enough to recognize and appreciate those He’s set us with to be formed and fashioned by. That is why it is the best thing to be participating in…” When you love this way and continually express love to God by loving His people and showing you trust Him, your life will be full of purpose overflowing over into generations beyond you, Your life will have been lived for God rather than yourself and that kind of seed will grow eternally!”
“And to those who nurture others both in the natural and in the spiritual WAY, don’t purposely do what makes those you nurture frustrated, lead them by displaying spiritual fruits of righteousness and right living, bring them into a living, close and intimate relationship with you, so that they can trust God by trusting you! Disciple them after the character of Christ, as you establish a face to face relationship with them.”
Ok what if you have no living face to face type relationship with someone, but you find yourself in service to them? I wonder if your service to them would at all affect their life? It depends on you. If you trust God and rely on Him rather than the acts of men, you could serve them as though you were serving Him. It would take a complete change of mind, which can come through a face to face relationship with Him. When this says earthly masters, I believe it speaks of the unsaved, those who do not nurture others in the Lord. Come up from underneath and support these as witnesses to win them over to God. Submission to them would be like being their platform to raise them to a higher place so they could see Christ. Being led by the Holy Spirit would be a must in these situations. Be able to display His righteous fruit would take a sold out relationship with Him. What a better opportunity to get closer and closer to God yourself!
Our lives here are so short in light of the life we will forever live with Christ and God. We have got to come up to the throne room and see this, or else we will continually find ourselves in the scuffle of this life and its miseries and torments. Our reward here is His presence with us carrying us through, leaving a trail of His presence wherever we go and have gone, a trail that is evident when we leave this place, He’s left here for others to have seen, so that no matter who they are, they may be able to find Him, receive Him, and come to that place of eternal change. Those who love (are patient, kind, long suffering, etc 1 Cor 13) Will have great reward in the eternal realm, which truly is only a blink away.
BUT HOW does one believe and live this way here, where there are scuffles everyday? They cannot without the Helper the Holy Spirit and His Divine influence upon one’s naturally lived out life. Without God’s presence we lose in adverse situations. Without the increase of the obedience to His will and to the nurture of His daily words, we ourselves cannot and will not succeed in anyway here in the walk of love. There is a call to God’s throne, the veil was rent in two for us to come through to that Heavenly place each and everyday. We have access to Our Father minute by minute and we can go there and see the full view of the picture of where we’re at. If we get up and outside of our natural eyesight and soar up in the heavenly places where we’ve been rightly seated with Him, FAR ABOVE the spiritual scuffle, FAR above the spirits that are at war against us, we’ll see and have the strength through Christ to do ALL things. In the throne room we can dress like God and therefore be transformed into His image and likeness by wearing His clothes and becoming who He is!
We receive and believe truth and we are Born Again! Salvation is the very beginning of that Christ-likeness. Our hearts and lives covered by the redemption of His blood, the righteousness of faith in His sacrifice, knowing He paid for me to be eternally minded, to have this heavenly view of life, and assurance that I’m eternally blood purchased is the next step of God clothing. When we know that for ourselves we are already equipped to go and tell as many others as possible about that, leading them into the same discipleship we’ve entered into.
When we’ve opened our mouths for the Gospel, and have taken it everyplace we go as true witnesses, we can then lift up a shield of faith against evil, we begin to take ground that belongs to our new Master. We give salvation out to others by who and what we now know, through our own discipleship. We are readied with the word of God to give the word of God as a gift, as a spiritual weapon against satan’s ploys for this world. The weapons are visible in the form of bringing salvation to others. Freeing them from the lies of the devil. Having enough truth to penetrate darkness, by freeing others. This armor of God is active and engaged. The warfare is not standing still waving a sword at an enemy and yelling out the name of Jesus. It is the active life of a saved person, it is that that person now establishes a relationship with God and he joins himself in fellowship of those older than he in this faith and he hangs around them enough to be a disciple, he prays to God and gets instruction straight from the Lord himself, then in response to his truly alive faith, he goes and talks to others about who he loves.
THAT is the spiritual warfare we are engaged in! ONLY that will take “land” for God. Sitting in a prayer closet and staying locked up for years while we yell and scream at circumstances and tell the devil where to go, are minimal in comparison to a living moving faith walk with evidence and fruit! The Commission to EVERY believer is GO! By ALL means go into the prayer closet, BUT come out with your shining armor, he’s crowned you king, He’s the king of kings, and the Lord of lords! He wants children, until there are no more children left to be had, that commission will fill each of our daily lives until the day we die. We cannot stay in the prayer closet alone for our lifetime’s here, we have to bring the prayer closet out with us and in us as we GO intio all the world and preach.
I’m sharpening you- today

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.