Ephesians 6 ~ Honor your Father and Mother

 

Ephesians 6

1 Children, obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right.

 2 “Honor your Father and Mother”

 (this is the first commandment with a promise), 

3 “that it may go well with you 

and 

that you may live long in the land.” 

4 Fathers, do not provoke your children to anger, but bring them up in the discipline and instruction of the Lord.

5 Slaves, [bondservants] obey your earthly masters with fear and trembling, with a sincere heart, as you would Christ, 6 not by the way of eye-service, as people-pleasers

But as servants of Christ, doing the Will of God from the heart, 

rendering service with a good will as to the Lord and not to man,

Knowing that whatever good anyone does, this he will receive back from the Lord, whether he is a slave or free.

9 Masters, do the same to them, and stop your threatening, knowing that He Who is both their Master [Lord] and Yours is in Heaven, 

and that there is no partiality with Him.

10 Finally, be strong in the Lord and in the strength of His Might. 

11 Put on the whole Armor of God, 

that you may be able to stand against the schemes of the devil. 

12 For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, 

but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places. 

13 Therefore take up the whole Armor of God, 

that you may be able to withstand in the evil day, 

and having done all, 

to stand firm. 

14 Stand therefore, 

having fastened on the Belt of Truth, 

and 

having put on the 

Breastplate of Righteousness, 

And, 

as Shoes for your feet, 

having put on the readiness given by the 

Gospel of Peace. 

16 In all circumstances 

take up the 

Shield of faith, 

with which you can extinguish all the flaming darts of the evil one; 

and 

Take up 

The Helmet of Salvation, 

and the 

Sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God, 

18 praying at all times in the Spirit, 

with all prayer and supplication.

To that end keep alert with all perseverance, 

making supplication for all the saints, 19 and also for me, that Words may be given to me in opening my mouth boldly to proclaim the mystery of the Gospel, 20 for which I am an ambassador in chains, that I may declare it boldly, as I ought to speak.

21 So that you also may know how I am and what I am doing, Tychicus the beloved brother and faithful minister in the Lord will tell you everything. 22 I have sent him to you for this very purpose, that you may know how we are, and that he may encourage your hearts.

23 Peace be to the brothers and sisters, and love with faith, from God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ!

24 Grace be with all who love our Lord Jesus Christ with love incorruptible!

Love Incorruptible. 

Yesterday we talked about Mother's Day.  And we took our lives to the Lord with tender love. 

Today, we will talk about going before The Lord God Almighty.  There is probably a dynamic and completely engaging reason when the people of God meet the Angel of the Lord, they are not quite steady on their feet,  deciding if they are Meeting GOD or speaking with an Angel, an Archangel. Just awe and complete fright.

Do Not Be Afraid!

Archangel Gabriel, who boldly proclaims, he stands before the Lord God, went to two people in one planned era of God. One wanted a sign, the other said if God wants to shake up my world - He is God and I will go with Him. The mystery of the Gospel, one of the secrets to you has been given the secret of the Kingdom of God. God is really looking at hearts open to Him. 

Proverbs tells us God and our heart know each other quite well. 

God is going with the Earnest Heart to Him.

Ephesians 6 reminds us there is a spiritual battle. Larger than we are. In God's hands. Our part as children of God is to act with kindness, to be sincere, to work hard at the work God gives us, and to pray. To stay in our faith, to be ambassadors for Jesus Christ.

For His Incorruptible Love toward us. Father God.

Incorruptible - once you have been privileged to put on the armor of God, you never have to remove this. Jesus is Lord is a dart prayer acknowledging we are protected in Jesus Christ.  Calling His Name is a great and eternal call in Prayer. God says He is with us always.

And in examining the Scripture and Ephesians 6, we have found a living and active Word of God for honoring our Father.

John 1

The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it. 

Abba, Father,

 Psalm 139:17 

"How precious to me are your thoughts, O God! 

How vast is the sum of them"

Matthew 6:8

Your Father knows what you need 

before 

you ask Him.

John 15:3

Abide in

God's Love

I consider myself fortunate 

to stand before you today

Dwell in me,

Dwell in us,

Dwell in those we Love,

Help us to seek You first.

And we will finish well, 

in 

Jesus Christ. 

Father,

Help us 

to speak sincerely,

mercifully

Lovingly

Help us seek and find 

and bring,

to become,

 more Heaven

to this earth.

To be rid

of

Evil

hiding

lying

harm.

To end what is Unrighteous.

Harmful

Plotting

Absorbed by self in all manners

Malicious.

Lord Jesus Christ soon.

Invited to meet Jesus.

The Glory

of

the Paths of

Righteousness

Gift of God

Thank You

for

our first grandbaby

Arriving this summer,

All Your Love

Blessings upon

this little one.

You have 

Answered our

Prayers!

And in Jesus - This Hope.

Faith and Love - we will rise up Believing Jesus.

Thank You, Father.

Amen!

♔ Lord Jesus Saves †

Yes, The Lord Fulfills His Purpose

Thank You, Jesus The Lord

† 

Luke 7:1-10 ~ worthy to have you do this †

 

Luke 7:1-10

 After He had finished all his sayings in the hearing of the people, he entered Capernaum.

 2 Now a centurion had a servant who was sick and at the point of death, who was highly valued by him. 3 When the centurion heard about Jesus, he sent to Him elders of the Jews, asking Him to come and heal his servant. 

4 And when they came to Jesus, they pleaded with Him earnestly, saying, “He is worthy to have you do this for him, 5 for he loves our nation, and he is the one who built us our synagogue.” 

6 And Jesus went with them. When He was not far from the house, the centurion sent friends, saying to Him, “Lord, do not trouble yourself, for I am not worthy to have you come under my roof. 7 Therefore I did not presume to come to you. But say the word, and let my servant be healed. 8 For I too am a man set under authority, with soldiers under me: and I say to one, ‘Go,’ and he goes; and to another, ‘Come,’ and he comes; and to my servant, ‘Do this,’ and he does it.” 

9 When Jesus heard these things, He marveled at him, and turning to the crowd that followed him, said, “I tell you, not even in Israel have I found such faith.” 

10 And when those who had been sent returned to the house, they found the servant well.

When we compare the size of a mustard seed

to the Universe!

Matthew 11:30

For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light. 

Yesterday,  we thought about Mark writing the Words of God.  Mark and Luke are both part of the Light Jesus shines, not the original Disciples. And really we could add in from the "Saints of God Hymn" and I mean to be one too. This is part when Jesus said, "Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed."  And for us this is a wonderful part of the Good News. We blend into Luke and Mark. Jesus Christ making the Word of God better for us in 2026.

Like the Centurion, we see Jesus, His Love and Power, from a distance and yet just as hopefully.

Luke speaks the language of worthy. The dear and glorious physician has seen many births and just as many deaths as a doctor of medicine.  Luke considers Life. Peter and Mark discussed Mark's Gospel, and Peter, who announced to Jesus he was unworthy immediately was in personal prophecy, does not bring up being worthy in Mark's Gospel. Matthew who had been living as Jew as Roman tax collector, wants to discuss worthy. Seeing Jesus as living supremely. And the Scriptures acknowledge seeing mankind, Jesus Christ is Worthy. 

Good for Mother's Day.  I have been battling pink eye and this solved, but today came back with a painful vengeance. (We now think this has become a draining plugged tear duct, please ask the Lord God to heal me and end the pain quickly!) And we traveled around the city today seeking an outdoor place to have luncheon.  Usually in Church for Mother's Day, we passed a cemetery, and saw a tremendously busy cemetery during Mother's Day, for the first time. We were so moved by the love and honor upon the faces of the families in cemeteries on Mother's Day. Men helping and comforting. Real devotion seen from the street looking at the people arriving to visit their loved ones. 

Another interesting change for Mother's Day, the restaurant we generally go to for Mother's Day, had plenty of parking. Very unusual. And we hopped out with gladness to find - this restaurant was a packed as never seen before. Why? This year, Mom and Dad and cousin and aunt all rode together. Not just local visitors, but far flung.  And increase in airport travel, even as the Senate was dumping the TSA and plunging American airports into line hell of determined poor governance.  Loyalty. Pleasure. Love. Mothers carrying balloons, children carrying balloons and many flower bouquets. Joyful faces. 

One child, about 7 years old, was leaving the restaurant and said to his extended family, "I've never had a faster meal, that was too quick." His grownups laughed and did agree. Not your usual commentary from someone 7 years old.

We are living an unacknowledged uptick of family interest, joy and loyalty.  Multigenerational housing.  Love, Loyalty and Joy! Truthfully, we know family division and see 1/3 of adult children decide to leave their family. But the other 2/3rds are filled with Joy. There is no such virtue in family life as mercy, loyalty and forgiveness. Full honest disclosure,  Family loyalty has a component of loss in this post plague era. But worthy is the life of forgiveness and not allowing pain to fill us when this happens. And this we must preach to ourselves. 

Life is always teaching us more about Life in God's Paths.

This looks so like our Richardson Family Cemetery

in Richardson, Louisiana

almost everyone has a 1 in their tombstone day of Heavenly departure.

Meaning if Born in August, Died in July or September.

Or Born in year 28, then died on 27 or 29.

One.

My mother passed on and I said, OH NO, there isn't a one!

I was wrong, she died on the 7th and her birthday is the 18th.

This is an amazing Cemetery and our cousins invited us to be

buried here. 

My Wilson great grandparents died on the same day,

decades apart. 

We think this is a sign of their love and is 

morbidly romantic. 

Romans 16:1,2

 I commend to you our sister Phoebe, a servant of the church at Cenchreae, 2 that you may welcome her in the Lord in a way worthy of the saints, 

and help her in whatever she may need from you, 

for she has been a patron of many 

and of myself as well.

The Light continues to shine

 I commend to you our 

(Mother, Grandmothers, Great Aunts, Cousin, Great Grandmothers), 

as servants of Jesus Christ

That You  welcome her 

in the Lord 

in a way worthy of the saints, 

and 

help her in whatever she may need from You, 

for she has been a patron of many

 and 

of myself as well.

Let the Circle

be unbroken

by and by

Lord

by and by

Old Friends

Cherished Days

Giving Love

to the Living

as 

a Living Donation

Memory

Jude 1:2

May mercy, peace, and 

love 

be multiplied to you.

Jude 1:21

Keep yourselves in the love of God, 

waiting for the mercy 

of our Lord Jesus Christ 

that 

leads to eternal life.

♔ Lord Jesus Saves †

Thank You Lord Jesus 

† 

Mark 4:1-20 ~ the sea †

Mark 4:1-20

Again He began to teach beside the sea. 

And a very large crowd gathered about Him, so that He got into a boat and sat in it on the sea, and the whole crowd was beside the sea on the land. 2 And He was teaching them many things in parables, and in His teaching He said to them: 

3 “Listen! Behold, a sower went out to sow. 4 And as he sowed, some seed fell along the path, and the birds came and devoured it. 5 Other seed fell on rocky ground, where it did not have much soil, and immediately it sprang up, since it had no depth of soil. 6 And when the sun rose, it was scorched, and since it had no root, it withered away. 7 Other seed fell among thorns, and the thorns grew up and choked it, and it yielded no grain. 8 And other seeds fell into good soil and produced grain, growing up and increasing and yielding thirtyfold and sixtyfold and a hundredfold.”

 9 And He said, “He who has ears to hear, let him hear.”

10 And when He was alone, those around Him with the twelve asked Him about the parables. 11 And He said to them, 

“To you has been given the secret of the Kingdom of God, but for those outside everything is in parables, 12 so that

“‘they may indeed see but not perceive,

    and may indeed hear but not understand,

lest they should turn and be forgiven.’”

13 And He said to them, 

“Do you not understand this parable? How then will you understand all the parables? 14 The sower sows the word. 15 And these are the ones along the path, where the Word is sown: when they hear, Satan immediately comes and takes away the Word that is sown in them. 

16 And these are the ones sown on rocky ground: the ones who, when they hear the Word, immediately receive it with joy. 17 And they have no root in themselves, but endure for a while; then, when tribulation or persecution arises on account of the Word, immediately they fall away. 18 And others are the ones sown among thorns. They are those who hear the Word, 19 but the cares of the world and the deceitfulness of riches and the desires for other things enter in and choke the word, and it proves unfruitful. 

20 But those that were sown on the good soil are the ones who hear the Word and accept it and bear fruit, thirtyfold and sixtyfold and a hundredfold.”

John 21:24-25

24 This is the disciple who is bearing witness about these things, and who has written these things, and we know that his testimony is true.

25 Now there are also many other things that Jesus did. Were every one of them to be written, I suppose that the world itself could not contain the books that would be written.

And we find out one of the reasons the Scripture points one way to us and another to another. Yet always the Way of Jesus Christ.

God is not a God of Chaos.  

Yet, so many aspects of Jesus are in the heart, we seem to catch hold of the aspect of the moment. Which is very necessary.  And proper. But can lead to the repetition of the Scripture and we do not glean something Alive and Willing and Loving. 

Jesus begins His Word explaining He teaches us by the Sea of Galilee. 

To see an Ocean is to feel how Vast God is.  Jesus is not just putting forth a reliable story about seeds we can repeat and repeat.  JESUS IS GOING FAR WITH THIS LIVING GOSPEL.

The path 

Jesus Christ traveled so many days on the Sea of Galilee. His Ministry accomplishing the Will of God, His Father and our Father.  And some of the Disciples writing His Gospel call the Sea of Galilee the Sea of Tiberias.  And this is largely an aspect of size and location. Large or small? 

More. Eternity. Larger than we can really imagine.

We can realize the scope of gardening in His Parable. 

In our path, we do like Einstein said we should Not, we repeat the paths given to us in this life.  And Jesus speaks of Seeds.  We have a different aspect of seed planting in our decades of life.  And yet, Sarah and Abraham were moved beyond what they did, and did not, expect.  As were Zechariah and Elizabeth.

God our Father does not intend for us to be stuck in the muck. 

Listening to the same life story we know and the years vanish.  

He intends us to look up. Rise up. 

Rise Up?

See something new in a Parable we know quite well.  Alive. 

Oh good. 

How? 

 Jesus would smile. 

His audience is us as well as His own chosen people from generations past. All of us, alive in Jesus Christ.

Given the Secret of the Kingdom of God. And they are stuck at corn. Ears to hear. Seeds. 

Given that Jesus is God and He blends: Oceans, Sea and Lake speaking of Seeds and Life. Jesus sitting in a little boat, changing the very world,  we can believe from John 21: There is more Planning inside God's Word than we will fathom. 

The Secret of the Kingdom of God.  

This is the Gospel of Mark, his Fourth Chapter.  Mark writes the Gospel Peter has told him to put forth. The History of the Romans asking about Jesus in the first century on the streets. And then in the catacombs. Under the dirt. Seeds. These are the pressing concerns of the oral history of Jesus as becomes what Jesus says,

 "It is Written."

So the Disciples know the Secret of the Kingdom of God.

?!?

Not yet, Mark reveals the divinity of Jesus in Chapters 6,8. 9, 14 and 15. And Chapter 1.  Jesus accepts with faith, the Disciples are not fully flush with wisdom and faith, but He feels certain as God, they will. 

The Disciples, us, we do not have a seen

 fact, but in faith the approval of these bewildered Children of God.  

Jesus is explaining the whole Parable to us with Love and Joy and Appreciation. The expectation within Jesus Christ of the completion of Faith.

Jesus is not only saying in this routine pattern of life

 

He is explaining in Mark 4, going forth until the end of the age. Jesus is explaining the Light of the world expanding millenniums of years, the ability to know even Billy Graham explaining Jesus as a candle seen in a Football Stadium. 

The Seeds of Eternity.

The meek inherit the earth. Grandparents explaining to their families about Love. 

Boldly and with life changing Love.  And in turn, the generations like Chronicles and Kings, explain God in our lives, hearts, ways, and choices.  

Not always with a homerun, but creating a life where the echo is heard again to resound

for God

in Jesus Christ

Savior of the world

His Hope is our Glory.

The Parable is not a plod along dog paths of familiarity. The Parable flies well past millenniums yet to unfold.  And in Jesus Christ, this is OUR STORY because HE has Given Us His Plan and Planned for us to Partake. 

Abba, Father God,

We pray the Blessing

of Love and Peace

Romans 8:31

"If God is for us, who can be against us" 

Profoundly we live to Rise knowing

Your

Promise of divine support, 

meaning our God is on our side, 

no ultimate opposition 

or adversary 

will prevail. 

God’s power and love are greater than any challenge, 

fear, or worldly threat.

God in

Jesus Christ

is

our

Hope for Glory!

Thank You

for

our first grandbaby

Arriving this summer

All Your Love

Blessings upon

this little one.

And in Jesus - This Hope.

Faith and Love - we will rise up Believing Jesus.

Amen

♔ Lord Jesus Saves †

Yes, The Lord Fulfills His Purpose

Thank You, Jesus The Lord

†