¡Hola, hola! Welcome to week 15 of our Bible Reading Challenge, Friends! This coming week is the last week we will meet for our Webinar this year (Monday, 18 at 10:00am PST), but we will back on January 8th. I am still hoping, however, to send you an email or two to encourage you and somehow remind you that we are together persevering in this challenge. But… I am not promising anything (insert smiley face here, Friends).

I am so happy for the holidays this year as all my children will be home. We won’t have a white Christmas, but we will for sure have one full of laughter and good conversations around the table. And I am so very grateful for that.

This week we will finish reading the second book of Samuel, Psalms 18 and 54 and then, on Tuesday we will have a very welcome catch-up day. I want to suggest two options for that day:

1. Divide Monday readings in two. The chapters are a bit longer this time, so I’m thinking that you can read the two Psalms on Tuesday.

2. You can read John 1-3 and Matthew 1-3. If you choose this option, you will be reading, in the same week, the three accounts of Jesus’ birth recorded in the Gospels.

After our catch-up day we will start Micah and the gospel of Luke (who also wrote the book of Acts).

Micah was a prophet around the same time as Hosea and Isaiah, and as any other prophet of the Lord, he points to the sins of the people, calls them to repentance and reminds them of God’s lovingkindness and willingness to forgive their sins. When reading Micah, keep your eyes open to see God at work in the midst of judgement: how in His perfect justice He deals with sin, but how in His perfect mercy and compassion, He extends the possibility of reconciliation, of restoration, and of peace. And so we find in this book one of the greatest prophecies about the coming of the Messiah, of Jesus Christ. Now, when you get to chapter 7, be ready to find a passage that will for sure drive you to pray the Scriptures.

Luke was travel companion of Paul and a physician. He also authored the book of Acts, which is like the sequel of his epistle (both are addressed to Theophilus). It is interesting to note how much Mary’s song of praise will make us think of Hannah’s song back in 1 Samuel 2 -and we will talk more about how fascinating this is on our webinar on Monday.

In Luke 19:10 we find the heart of the gospel: “The Son of man came to seek and save the lost.”  and when the time came, “He set his face to go to Jerusalem.” (9:57). Jesus was determined to seek and save the lost, and in many verses you will read how he did that, what strategy He had to find them. Hint: eating and drinking were involved (Luke 7: 34).

This week our readings are wonderful. They are the stories we should be reading in Advent, the stories that make our story make sense. Because of these stories, we put lights all over our homes, and make cookies, and gather with family and friends, and sing with joy. Christ has come, Friends! No more waiting!  And we cannot remain quiet, we cannot be spectators in this huge narrative. We must go tell it on the mountains, over the hills, around our neighborhood, on social media, and everywhere that Jesus Christ is born!

¡Feliz Navidad!

Under His sun and by His grace,

Becky Pliego and the team of Christ Church Ladies Fellowship

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Dear sisters,

¡Hola, hola! Isn’t it wonderful to know that we are actually “preparing Jesus room” in our hearts every day as we come to His Word? Isn’t it wonderful to know that no matter which devotional book we have chosen to read this Advent season, we are not missing out reading the best Book to read this season? Isn’t it wonderful to know that every time we come to the Word, we come to the living Word of God that never returns void? Isn’t it wonderful that when we open the Word of God, Immanuel is truly with us? This is truly a wonderful season!

This week we will finish the first book of Samuel and start the second. We will also read Psalms 34, 54, 57, 13, 20, 21, 51, 3, 4, 5, and 7. Yes! It is not a mistake! We will be all over the Psalms because I tried -as much as possible- to pair the Psalms that David wrote when he was going through different circumstances. For example, on Friday we will read 2 Samuel 12 and in that chapter we come across the time when Nathan the Prophet rebukes David for the grievous sin he committed with Bathsheba and the murder of her husband. And then in Psalm 51, we read the psalm that David wrote to confess his own sin. We continue reading the same day and come to chapter 15, and we find the tragic story of Absalom’s conspiracy against his own father, King David, and so we read Psalm 3 (again), a Psalm David wrote when he was fleeing from his own son.

1st and 2nd Samuel were originally one book, and I encourage you to read the story and use your imagination to follow along. Let the story captivate you. It is a real page-turner, Friends. And as you read, be careful how you read yourself into the story. Dare to see yourself, maybe as a woman who is being enslaved by envy -like Saul was. Maybe you are not seeking the Lord’s direction for all the affairs of your life, like Saul and at one point David didn’t.  Remember that David couldn’t see himself in the story when Nathan confronted him for his sin. David’s sin had blinded him to his own sin.  Pray to God and let the Holy Spirit show you the areas in which His Word needs to cleanse you, and repent and believe. Embrace God’s forgiveness and sing for joy.

We will be reading many Psalms and oh, what a gift they are to us! When we don’t know what or how to pray, the Psalms give us words of praise, words of mourning, words of hope, words of agony…words to pray. So let’s be praying this week. Praying much. Sisters, we have read Leviticus, we have read Hebrews, we can understand this exhortation from Paul even better now, “Let us therefore come boldly to the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need.” (Heb. 3:16) So, yes, let’s come before Him in the name of Jesus and pray.

Bonhoeffer wrote in a little book something that I would love to share with you today, “If we want to read and to pray the prayers of the Bible and especially the Psalms, therefore, we must not ask first what they have to do with us, but what they have to do with Jesus Christ. We must ask how we can understand the Psalms as God’s Word, and then we shall be able to pray them. It does not depend, therefore, on whether the Psalms express adequately that which we feel at a given moment in our heart. If we are to pray aright, perhaps it is quite necessary that we pray contrary to our own heart. Not what we want to pray is important, but what God wants us to pray. If we were dependent entirely on ourselves, we would probably pray only the fourth petition of the Lord’s Prayer. But God wants it otherwise. The richness of the Word of God ought to determine our prayer, not the poverty of our heart.” (Psalms: the Prayer Book of the Bible).

May the Lord bless you as you come to His Word, may your mouth sing His praises, and your heart burst in gladness as you draw near to Him.

I hope to “see” you next Monday in our weekly Webinar at 10:00 AM PST.

Under His sun and by His grace,

Becky Pliego and the team of Christ Church Ladies Fellowship

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Dear sisters,

¡Hola, hola! And hello, December! This month is going to be a happy, busy month! We all know that, right?  This means that we must be ready to anticipate some temptations that normally come along with busy times like these, you know? Like quitting our Bible reading because, well …”we will be super busy.” So be on your guard, Friends. Put on and wear well the habit of being in the Word; make sure the straps are well tied around your waist just like the apron you wear in the kitchen. Plan ahead. Don’t put it off for later, for after the party and the shopping and the cooking and the concert. Let the Word be your joy and strength this season. May the coming of His Word be your food, your very life. Hear it, sing it, pray it, let it be in your mouth. Christ came to us so that we can come to Him. So come! Let every heart prepare Him room!

This week we will read the book of Ruth, Song of Solomon, 1 Samuel 1-20, Psalms 8, 10, 150, and 50 (NOTE: I made a mistake and assigned the reading of Psalm 50 on Saturday, December 9, when I should have assigned Psalm 59 that day. You can change that on your plan and then go to April 14 and change it to Psalm 50).

After reading Judges, especially the last chapters, we will find the book of Ruth so incredibly comforting. And it should be that way, like the gospel: the bad news before the good news. The book of Ruth is a gospel-saturated story that blows my mind every time I read it. It starts saying,  “In the days when the Judges ruled there was famine in the land…” And now we know exactly what that means. We know exactly how the days when the Judges ruled looked. We know how terrible it all was, how everyone was doing what seemed right in their own eyes. The land was barren, like the people of God in those days, like Naomi (Mara), like Ruth the Gentile. But God was about to turn the story of two women, and a nation, and you and I, into something beautiful. Redemption, I dare say, is the name of this story. I hope you can watch Monday’s webinar in which we will talk more about how clearly we can see the Gospel in this book.

Song of Solomon is a love poem between a married couple. And we know that  just as the Redemptive story in Genesis started in the Garden with a marriage, so the story ends with another marriage in another garden:  Jesus, the groom will be married to His bride, the church forever.

I pray that you will read the Psalms and see in them the prayers that can become your very own prayers. May we learn to pray as we read the Word, and pray the Word as we do our chores, Sisters, only by God’s grace.

Let our prayer this week be, “Thank you, Father because you are indeed mindful of me and care for me. This is too wonderful to comprehend! How you saved me! Open my eyes so that I may have eternal assurance of your love for me.” Amen.

I hope you can join us for the Webinar this coming Monday at 10:00 am PST (link below). It is always a joy to know that you are there, listening. Thank you.

Under His sun and by His grace,

Becky Pliego and the team of Ladies Christ Church Ladies Fellowship.

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Dear sisters,

¡Hola, hola!

How was your Thanksgiving break, Friends? I loved seeing pictures of all the yummy food that my American Friends and family made, so much goodness to make one’s heart glad. What a great way to celebrate Thanksgiving, always giving and aways making room for one more person at the table!  I am suspecting, however, that many of you got off track in the Bible Reading Challenge because of the Thanksgiving feasting! Am I right?  So if you are in this situation (caught between pie crust, apples, cranberries, all things pumpkin and turkey), I want to encourage you to stop right there where you are and don’t feel guilty about it, but instead take the Book of God and start reading it today! You will, God willing, come back at another time to the books of Joshua and Acts. This coming week, starting Monday, November 27, we will read Judges, some Psalms and Colossians.

Remember all of the times through the books of Deuteronomy and Joshua that God warned the Israelites about how horrible things would get of they failed to fear Him and obey His commandments?  Well, in the book of Judges we will see the Israelites decline pretty fast into total corruption. It took only one generation for the people to forget who God was and what He demanded from them. They quickly forgot the love of God for them and how He wanted their hearts too.

In Egypt the Israelites were slaves and ate the fruit of their slavery. In the wilderness, we read, the people murmured against God and longed for the food that they were served as slaves. God gave them Bread from heaven and Water from the Rock. He fed them with Himself, but they were not satisfied with Him. But God had made a promise and He would fulfill it. Now they are in the Promised Land and He had promised that if they remember Him and obey Him and keep His commandments in the Land, they would enjoy peace, prosperity, the best food, godly children, joy and feasting. But the problem of sin was still present in their hearts, and they longed for something else. So they went back and turned to idols. Here in the book of Judges we will see God fulfilling another  Promise He had made. His judgments fall on them and they are left to do what they had been longing to do: create idols for themselves. And as we’ll read, they will become not only like the nations they failed to drive out from the Land, but like the idols they made for themselves. We will read terrible and heartbreaking stories. Stories that came as a result of them living in times in which “there was no king in Israel and everyone did what was right in his own eyes.” (Judges 17:6)

In the epistle to the Colossians we will read how Paul urges His readers in chapter 3 to put to death all sinful desires and actions, all… idolatry! Do you see the connection already?

I encourage you, my Friends, to keep reading and keep asking the Lord to bless your coming to His Word. Let the Holy Spirit change you, and when you see that there is some sin in your life that you need to confess and repent of, don’t delay, come to the Father through Christ our High Priest. And remember, we don’t live in a world where there is no King! Jesus reigns!

Note about Psalm 3: this Psalm, you will notice, was written by David when he was fleeing from Absalom, so why are we including it now? I wanted you to see how the first two psalms -that we read last week- are tied together in this one. In Psalm 1 we see the psalmist’s love for God’s Word and in Psalm 2 we read the proclamation of the reign of Jesus. Here, in Psalm 3 we read that David prays according to the Word of the Lord (he knows it and loves it), and he is assured that God will rise to judge his cause because He is King over all!

Let our prayer this week be, “Lord, use our lives to ‘cause your name to be remembered in all generations…” Ps. 45:17a

I have so many wonderful things to share with you about our weekly readings, so I really hope you can join us this coming Monday at 10:00am PST on our weekly webinar.

Under His sun and by His grace,

Becky Pliego and the team of Christ Church Ladies Fellowship

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Dear sisters,

Happy Thanksgiving week! Impossible to recount God’s goodness toward us, His gifts, His mercies, all has been grace. And here we are, ready, and with hearts overflowing with gratitude for this Bible Reading Challenge. We will start week 11 next Monday and I want to encourage you to take the Book of God, and read it. Today. Yes, today, not yesterday. Today, not tomorrow. Today is a good day to come to His Word and be fed, nourished, and strengthened. Come, let your heart be enlarged with gratitude as your come to His Word.

I want to share with you today this quote from J.R. Miller (1840-1912) that I am sure you will find encouraging:

“Many of the blessings we seek in prayer, can come to us only through the Word of God:

We ask to be kept near the heart of Christ — but our Master tells us that only those who keep His commandments shall abide in His love. In order to keep His commandments, we must know them — and we can know them only by reading and re-reading them.

We ask God in the morning to guide us through the day, and in one of the psalms is the prayer, “Order my steps according to Your Word.” That is, God leads us by His Word. If then we do not read the words of God, how can we get His guidance?

The leading He promises is not general, by long stretches — but by little steps. The Psalmist says, “Your Word is a lamp unto my feet.” It is not said that prayer is the lamp — but the Word. We must carry it in our hand, too, as one carries a lantern to throw its beams about his feet.

We pray to be kept from sin, and in the Scriptures one says, “Your Word have I hid in my heart, that I might not sin against You.” Our prayers to be kept from sin, can be answered only by getting the Word of God into our heart!”

Isn’t that a much needed and wonderful reminder? Let’s be in the Word and in prayer, Friends. We will be surprised to see how much we will grow and how much we will love.

This week we will finish reading Joshua and Acts (I absolutely love this pairing of books!). In Joshua we see God commanding His people to possess the land through warfare, in Acts we see God commanding His people to possess the nations, to advance the Kingdom, through Evangelism.

Both, the Israelites and the early church will face great opposition, but both advance strongly because they are grounded in God’s Promises. God’s promises enables them to be strong and courageous so that they can have the kind of faith that faces enemies and doesn’t shrink back.

I think these two books are especially important for us to read and meditate upon, considering the times in which we are living. We live in a time in which opposition is real and can look very frightful, and we need to learn from these two books how God tells these kinds of stories. We want to learn how God uses ordinary and not so ordinary means to bring victories; we want to learn how God expects us to live, to respond in situations like these. We want to make sure we know how they were tempted, so that we may be able to anticipate temptations and overcome them. We want to advance the Kingdom of God. And as we read, we will see how it is impossible to do it without being in the Word of God, leaning on His promises, and praying fervently.

God has not promised us a life without trials, but He has promised us, His people, that He will be with us through those. So as we read, let’s pray asking God to help us persevere in the Word so that we can be indeed strong and courageous to do the next thing He puts in front of us to do -even when, at the moment, that “next-thing” may look pretty much like our daily, ordinary life.

May our prayer this week be this, “Father, help us to be very careful to love you and trust in your Promises, knowing that not one has ever failed, and not one will ever fail.” (Joshua 23: 11-14)

Reminder: Our weekly Webinar meets at 10:00AM PST. Find it here:
https://www.christkirk.com/biblechallenge/

Under His sun and by His grace,

Becky Pliego and the team of Christ Church Ladies Fellowship

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