¡Hola, hola! Happy week 29 of the Bible Reading Challenge! Thank you to all who have shared your testimonies (on the Facebook page, personal messages or emails) of how the Lord has used this challenge to encourage you to persevere in the Word. One of the reasons I love hearing your testimonies is that, as I read your words, I can clearly see that it is really nothing that we are doing that is making the change in your life, it is the Holy Spirit through the Word of God who is doing ALL the encouraging. It is ALL His doing and for that we are immensely grateful.
And let me explain that when I say that we recognize that it is the Holy Spirit through His Word doing a wonderful thing in your life – and in mine – I am saying more than just a good, biblical phrase. I am affirming what Protestant Christians through the ages have believed and defended even with their own lives. So what do we believe about the Scripture, Friends? I want to mention here 5 important things that we believe about the doctrine of the Scriptures[1]:
1. We believe that its authority comes from God Himself. God the Father is the One who speaks the Word, Jesus is the Incarnate Word of God, and the Holy Spirit empowers His Word and vivifies it in the life of men.
2. We believe in the inerrancy and the infallibility of the Bible, which means that we firmly believe that there are no errors in it and that its teachings are all true, and that it “is completely trustworthy as a guide to salvation and the life of faith and will not fail to accomplish its purpose” (Westminster Dictionary of Theological Terms).
3. We believe in the necessity of the Scriptures. We believe that we need the Word of God to show us what sin is, to teach us how can we repent, how can we be saved and how can we live in this world. We need it and God in His kindness gave it to us. He has made Himself known to us not only in the Creation (that would not be enough for us to know the way to be a saved), but through the written Word so that we may know Him.
4. We believe in the clarity of the Scriptures. By this we affirm that anyone who can read or hear the Word of God proclaimed can understand the way to be saved. The only thing that can impede a man from understanding the Gospel message is his own sinful nature, but the Holy Spirit can always open the eyes of those who are blind so that they can understand it and repent and believe and come to a saving faith.
5. We believe that the Word of God is sufficient. In the Scriptures, God has given us all that we need for knowledge of salvation and how to live a life that is pleasing to Him. We don’t need to hear an external – or internal – voice to hear God’s voice. We can always read/hear what God wants to say to us in the Sacred Scriptures.
I hope that by reading these points you will find the desire to want to study more of the precious and important Doctrine of Scripture. We should want to know the Scriptures more, to love them more, to obey them more so that we may know our God better and worship Him better. We want to truly be women of the Word!
We have already finished reading Job and Romans and now this week we will be moving into Ecclesiastes, James, 1 Timothy, Romans 8, Ephesians 2, and Psalms 47, 69, 88, 105, and 130. If you allow me, I would like to suggest a little change on how to read these readings so that you will not have to cut the books so much (which is always the best option):
On Monday read James and Psalm 47, on Tuesday read Ecclesiastes 1-6, on Wednesday Ecclesiastes 7-12, on Thursday 1 Timothy, and Friday remains the same.
On Saturday we have a catch-up day and if you are up for a challenge within the challenge, read (or listen!) to the epistle of Paul to Romans in one sitting (or even maybe two… if you want to stretch it into Sunday).
May our prayer this week be, “Father, we are often afraid to pray, asking you to give us humble hearts, but we know that you give more grace to the humble; so we draw near to you through the Word and prayer, trusting that in our drawing near to you, you will continue to draw near to us -even in the midst of our trials and our humbling.” (James 4:6-10)
Under His Sun and by His grace,
Becky Pliego and the team of Christ Church Ladies Fellowship
[1] Read the Westminster Confession of Faith Question 1 to dig deeper into this question.
