¡Hola, hola! Welcome to week 20 of our Bible Reading Challenge. Isn’t that great? We have been learning how to wear this new habit, every day we feel more comfortable wearing it, and I trust that people around us are starting to notice how we are wearing it every day. Because this is what this challenge is about: owning our time in the Word and in prayer. It is not about feeling guilty for not having read a day, but about not wanting to miss a day. It is not about checking boxes, but about the joy of taking the Book and reading it, one more verse, one more chapter, one more book. This is not a challenge about feeling good about ourselves for reading the Bible consistently, but about realizing that coming to the Word every day is our life line.
This past week I was thinking about a few books I have recently read, and how each author retells what the Word of God did to them. Rosaria Butterfield in her book “Openness Unhindered” talks about how reading her Bible, in large chunks of whole books at a time, transformed her and set her free from her sins. She makes it clear that the more she read the Bible, the more the Bible worked in her. It impressed me as a vivid testimony of what the Lord said of Hs Word: “so shall my word be that goes out from my mouth; it shall not return to me empty, but it shall accomplish that which I purpose, and shall succeed in the thing for which I sent it.” How encouraging, Friends. Let’s keep reading the Word of the Lord, Friends, knowing that every time we open it, it is accomplishing something in us. The other book I want to mention is one by my friend Hannah Grieser, “The Clouds Ye So Much Dread.” In her book she narrates how, when her family endured the hard Providence of knowing that one of her sons had been diagnosed with Leukemia, she pleaded with God for him: “The Psalms and hymns that I had sung for years and committed to memory -sometimes without much thought – were now surfacing in my head and heart and providing to be both priceless and indispensable. All this pictures as God as a refuge, as a fortress, as a rock, as a tower, as a physician, as a friend now meant something far more concrete. Here was comfort beyond imagining. Here was peace beyond understanding.” How this testimony should encourage us to persevere in the Word! The Word of the Lord is food for us today but we must not forget that when we read it, and pray it, and mediate on it regularly we are filling our head and heart with it so that, when difficult times come, the Holy Spirit will draw it back to our memories to strengthen us and give us hope. So Friend, be encouraged! Take the Book and read it!
This week we will continue reading the book of Kings. We will finish I Kings on Wednesday and Thursday we’ll start with II Kings. We will read some Psalms (140 and 139) and Proverbs (4-7). Note that on Tuesday, we will be reading James 4-5. That is not a mistake. I purposely decided to do that because I want you to keep seeing how the Bible is all unified. James is, in a way, the Proverbs of the New Testament. In Proverbs 5 we will read Solomon’s warnings against adultery and the same day we will read James’ warnings agains worldliness, covetousness, and and anxiety. Keep your eyes opened to see how all these warning are intrinsically related.
It will be a great week filled with great readings. We will read of the lives and ministries of Elijah, a type of John the Baptist, and of Elisha, a type of Christ. Also, Friends, pay attention when you read James 5, because in it we’ll see what is the lesson we must learn form Elijah. Isn’t it wonderful to know that the New Testament is the inspired commentary of the Old Testament?
May our prayer this week be, “Yes, Lord.”
Under His sun and under His grace,
Becky Pliego and the team of Christ Church Ladies Fellowship
