¡Hola, hola! What a gift you all have been to us, Friends! We are so grateful for each one of you and to the Lord for the work of His Spirit in each one of us. God is so good!
We have a most wonderful week ahead of us. And especially after having read the Pentateuch, and 7 more books of the Old Testament, we now better understand how amazing it is to actually be able to celebrate that the Messiah has come. That The Promised One, the Son of God, became man and dwelt among us. There is no more waiting for us, no more shadows, no more types, no more longing, our Redeemer came as promised to Adam and Eve, to Abraham. Jesus came in the form of a human and died on the cross, and on the third day He rose again and is now seated at the right hand of God the Father making intercession for us. Let these truths fill your heart and make you sing louder “Joy to the world!”
This week however, will be a very busy week too. We will be busy doing all the good things that we are supposed to do. We will bake and cook, and wrap gifts, and visit with our family, and write notes and make phone calls, and laugh and sing. But we need to make sure that we set apart time so that we don’t end up neglecting the best thing that there is for us to do this week: Meet with God in His Word and in prayer.
Friends, think about this: Christ, the Promised One, the Messiah, the incarnate Word of God came. And now we have been given the Holy Spirit to teach us His Word. Now, through the Holy Spirit, we have been given eyes that see and ears that hear. Now, as we read the Bible, we can understand what a magnificent story this is and how we can be part of it! Isn’t that all together wonderful? Don’t you want to come and eat it and drink from it? Don’t you want to be drawn to it to find satisfaction in it? How can we choose to neglect coming to the fountain of life and joy?
This week, starting on Tuesday, December 26, we will finish reading the gospel of Luke, then read Ephesians on Wednesday, and then start Isaiah along with some psalms on Thursday.
Ephesians is a perfect letter to read this week. It is actually the best Christmas letter you will ever read. In it you will read of the greatest gift no one could have ever imagined (only God, of course!): salvation by grace through faith. You will read how we, Gentiles, can now be part of God’s grand story, of God’s grand redemptive plan, of God’s grand family because of Jesus Christ. And wait until you read this… we have to do nothing to earn this salvation. Nothing. From beginning to end, our salvation is a gift from God.
In Isaiah we will be reminded how even though our salvation is a gift from God, it was a very costly gift. Our Lord had to suffer, bear our sins, become a curse for us and bear on Himself the cup of the wrath of God – that cup that He asked the Father to remove from him. And all that time, through out all of it, God – the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit – was loving us.
Friends, you don’t want to miss these readings. You will be encouraged and your faith will be strengthened as you read these verses, these chapters, these books. Keep your heart and mind open to the work of the Spirit in you and be flexible with all the circumstances around you this week. Remember, our Lord came to serve and not to be served… this week is a great week to imitate Him on that!
May our prayer this week be, “Father, as we read your Word this week, may Christ dwell in our hearts through faith, so that we, being rooted and grounded in love, may have strength to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, that we may be filled with all the fullness of Christ.” (Eph. 3:18-19)
Under His sun and by His grace,
Becky Pliego and the Team of Christ Church Ladies Fellowship
