¡Hola, hola! Are you ready for a new week in this Bible Reading Challenge? Are you behind in your readings? I have good news for you: jump in on today’s reading! Yes, yes, yes, don’t listen to the perfectionist inside of you and just do it. No more excuses, no more putting it off for another day, for another less busy season, just take the Book of God and read it today. Are you current in your readings? Wonderful! We are so happy to know that many of you are. God has been so incredibly kind with us and our project. We are praying for you and trusting that God will continue to work in you as you draw near to Him through His Word.
This past week our friend Rachel Jankovic shared something on our Facebook page that was really good, so I want to share with you this quote from what she wrote knowing that you will find it encouraging:
“Reading the whole Bible gives us that kind of view of God’s work in the world and all of history and in our salvation. We see it as it is – alive, full of beauty and dimension, full of glory. If you distill the gospel into one pamphlet (without loooong genealogies or laws and details) you could think that you have captured the essence. That all of these extra tidbits about beams and things was unnecessary. But when you do this you are drawing the stick figure to stand in place of the real thing. If you want to know God, read His word. See Him! Because the word of God is real and full of all kinds of different angles. It is a living Word. We need to train our minds through constantly feeding on His word to see more and more of what has been revealed to us in it.
“For the word of God is living and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the division of soul and spirit, and of joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.” – Hebrews 4:12-14
This passage speaks of scripture not only as a living thing, but as one that is more living than us. It pierces us in ways that nothing human could. In the soul and spirit, in the thoughts and intentions of the heart. And it changes us in a way that no idea could.
So keep on reading! Keep on looking to Christ as you read the sections that feel unimportant. Read in faith, knowing that your heart and mind are being changed such that you can more fully see His glory.”
And so we will take the Book of God and open it prayerfully trusting that God, through our exposure to the Scriptures and the work of the Holy Spirit in us, will change our lives, our loves, and our thoughts.
I also want to share -again- with you today the information about our Grace Agenda Conference on April 13th and 14th in Moscow, ID. Friday, April 13thwe will have a Pre-Conference for women: Women in the Word: What We Learned in The Bible Reading Challenge. The speakers will be Nancy Wilson, Rebekah Merkle, Rachel Jankovic, and myself. You can find all the information here. We really hope you can come!
Now it’s time to talk about our weekly reading, and let me tell you that I am super excited about the books we will be reading this week. We will be reading Ezra and Nehemiah which seem to have been one same book in the Hebrew Canon – and maybe even one with Chronicles. In these books we will see how the promises of God and His faithfulness carry His people through the exile, through the consequences of their sins, and hears their cry of repentance from the land of captivity. A new Exodus is in front of us. The people of God will come back to the Promised land and God Himself will restore their relationship with Him through the exposition of the Word and right worship. We will be, I pray, encouraged to take the Book of God and keep read it diligently and worship Him biblically, because only when we do that can our lives be transformed.
We will also read Psalms 33, 35-41, and Proverbs 15-19. I trust that the Lord will bless your prayer time as you pray these Psalms back to God.
May our prayer this week be, “Your name, oh Lord, is a strong tower. Help us all, your people whom you have cleansed by the blood of the Lamb, to run into it and be safe. And how will we come if it is not through your Word?” (based on Proverbs 18:10)
Have a most blessed week, Friends! See you on Monday at 10:00 PST in our webinar!
Under His sun and by His grace,
Becky Pliego and the Ladies Fellowship team from Christ Church
