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Bible Challenge #13

Becky Pliego on November 24, 2017

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

Bible Challenge #12

Becky Pliego on November 17, 2017

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

Bible Challenge #10

Becky Pliego on November 10, 2017

Dear sisters,

¡Hola, week 10! Today we will start our 10th week of this Bible Reading Challenge, Friends! Praise God for all the answered prayers and for blessing us with this plan. God has been so kind to us!

My dear friend, Rachel Jankovic shared these encouraging words on our Facebook page this week and I thought that she said exactly what we all need to hear. So here you go, be encouraged by her words:

“The goal of this challenge is to help women truly become women of the Word. It is not about getting a gold star beside every chapter of every OT book, or about doing a better job than our sisters at finding the time. The goal is to pursue the Word, be shaped by the Word, and to be women who are habitually in the Word.

There are two challenges that we will face doing this, and most of us have probably already faced both – the flesh, and the devil. The flesh gets tired, gets annoyed at other women who seem to be doing better, feels sorry for ourselves, frustrated, rolls it’s eyes at Deuteronomy, or generally lets us down. The devil wants to encourage every one of these tendencies of the flesh and will give us all ample opportunities to let these little sparks fan in to flames.

But who is for us? This goal of this challenge is a goal that we know beyond a shadow of a doubt God loves. It is His Word we pursue, it is His shaping we are asking for. This is His good work that He has begun in us, and He will complete it.

So keep these things in mind. God is perfect, but He is not a perfectionist. Do not let perfect be the enemy of good. Do not let your ideal performance of reading the Bible keep you from coming to the word at all. When we have said just jump in on today, that is not an out for the losers or training wheels for the weak, or some kind of lesser way. The reason that we are saying to do that is because that is the whole point of this challenge. To be women who habitually come to the Word. That is itself the discipline – not letting petty things come between you and what you should be doing.”

Isn’t that encouraging? So, now we are ready to talk about what we will be reading this week. We will finish reading Deuteronomy and Mark, we’ll read Psalms 1 and 2, Proverbs 26, and Hebrews 5 (again!). On Wednesday we will find a surprise catch-up day in the middle of week. How nice is that? And because I know that many of you want suggested readings for that day, I say that if you have the time, you can read Galatians 3, Romans 8, and Hebrews 12. Warning: Bring Kleenex.

On Thursday we will start another pairing of books that will make your heart sing: Joshua and Acts. We will be reading in the book of Joshua how God will equip and lead His people through different battles to take possession of the Promised Land, and in Acts we will see how God will equip and lead the New Testament Church to posses the land, to advance the Kingdom of God.

In both stories God’s people will encounter big and real enemies, the inhabitants of the Promised Land were fierce and the civil government and religious system that the church faced were merciless. But in both cases, God was bigger than His enemies, and in both cases His Presence and His promises went ahead of them. Joshua and the apostles prayed and God answered them, not by removing them from the battle field, but by increasing their faith. God made them bold and through His Spirit made them courageous and fearless. They knew Who had called them and knew that He was able to give them the victory. And in both cases the end is the same: God wins, Jesus reigns and God’s will prevails.

I pray that this week you will find much encouragement in the Word and that in your trials you will see, by faith, the end: God wins.

May our prayer this week be, “ God, this week, help us to devote ourselves to prayer and to the Word. Bless our coming to You, we pray.” (Acts 6:4)

Under His Sun and by His grace,

Becky Pliego and the team of Christ Church Ladies Fellowship

Grace & Peace: Revelation 76

Douglas Wilson on November 7, 2017

“At thy right hand there are pleasures for evermore” (Ps. 16:11)

“And the seventh angel sounded; and there were great voices in heaven, saying, The kingdoms of this world are become the kingdoms of our Lord, and of his Christ; and he shall reign for ever and ever. And the four and twenty elders, which sat before God on their seats, fell upon their faces, and worshipped God, Saying, We give thee thanks, O Lord God Almighty, which art, and wast, and art to come; because thou hast taken to thee thy great power, and hast reigned. And the nations were angry, and thy wrath is come, and the time of the dead, that they should be judged, and that thou shouldest give reward unto thy servants the prophets, and to the saints, and them that fear thy name, small and great; and shouldest destroy them which destroy the earth. And the temple of God was opened in heaven, and there was seen in his temple the ark of his testament: and there were lightnings, and voices, and thunderings, and an earthquake, and great hail”
Revelation 11:15-19

And the seventh angel blew the seventh trumpet, and the signification of this trumpet blast is declared in heaven by “great voices.” It is fitting that the declaration that follows instantly evokes that great musical theme that Handel assigned to it in The Messiah—music indeed worthy of great voices. The seventh trumpet indicates the formal establishment of Daniel’s fifth kingdom, the rock that struck Nebuchadnezzar’s great statue on the feet, and which then grew to become a mountain that filled the entire earth.

The seventh trumpet indicates the formal inauguration of Christ’s reign on earth. Christ had ascended into the heavenly places forty years before, and had approached the Ancient of Days on the clouds of heaven (Dan. 7:13), where He was granted universal dominion. “And there was given him dominion, and glory, and a kingdom, that all people, nations, and languages, should serve him: his dominion is an everlasting dominion, which shall not pass away, and his kingdom that which shall not be destroyed” (Dan. 7:14).

In order to function as Christ’s body on earth, we needed the Spirit to empower us.But in order for this heavenly kingdom to have its earthly reality made manifest, two great things had to happen. The first is that the Spirit had to be poured out on the church, so that we could do the work of the kingdom in the power and authority of Christ. In order to function as Christ’s body on earth, we needed the Spirit to empower us. The second thing that had to happen was the removal of the old Judaic Temple. Before the Christian faith could become the holy Temple of God on the earth, the old shadow had to be removed. Had it remained, it would have been too great a distraction. “In that he saith, A new covenant, he hath made the first old. Now that which decayeth and waxeth old is ready to vanish away” (Heb. 8:13).

We saw back in chapter 4 that the twenty-four elders are representative of all God’s elect throughout history. They are the ones who fall on their faces and give glory to God. They worshiped the Almighty, the one who gathered great power to Himself in order to reign. The lament of the saints under the altar in chapter 6 is now heard. The nations were angry, but God’s wrath came upon them. This passage says that it was the “time of the dead,” which I do not take as the last judgment at the end of history. Rather, the lament of the saints had earlier asked how long God would delay His judgment, how long before He avenged their blood. The same word for judgment is used here—and this is the point where God gives His reward to His servants the prophets, and to the saints, and to those who feared His name, whether small or great. God would destroy those who destroyed the earth, and a new aeon, the Christian aeon, opened up.

The shadow Temple on earth was flattened so that the Temple in the heavens could be opened up to all mankind.The shadow Temple on earth was flattened so that the Temple in the heavens could be opened up to all mankind. “The temple of God was opened in heaven.” And just as the veil hiding the Ark of the Covenant was torn in two when Jesus died, so also the veil of the heavenly curtain was rent. The “ark of his testament” in the celestial realms was now seen. It is no longer hidden away. The mercy seat, the heavenly mercy seat, is no longer hidden in darkness for most of the year. The gospel of the new creation can be preached anytime, anywhere.

And to underscore and emphasize all of this, God italicized this great declaration, and He did it with lightnings, and voices, and thunderings, and an earthquake, and great hail.

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Grace & Peace: Revelation 75

Douglas Wilson on October 31, 2017

“At thy right hand there are pleasures for evermore” (Ps. 16:11)

“And after three days and an half the Spirit of life from God entered into them, and they stood upon their feet; and great fear fell upon them which saw them. And they heard a great voice from heaven saying unto them, Come up hither. And they ascended up to heaven in a cloud; and their enemies beheld them. And the same hour was there a great earthquake, and the tenth part of the city fell, and in the earthquake were slain of men seven thousand: and the remnant were affrighted, and gave glory to the God of heaven. The second woe is past; and, behold, the third woe cometh quickly.”
Revelation 11:11-14

We have surmised that the two witnesses are the totality of the prophetic witness throughout the Old Testament, and in this passage we see their final vindication. Their witness extended from Abel down to Christ. The attempt was made to extinguish their witness, and it appeared as though evil had triumphed. The ungodly had rejoiced at their defeat, but now they stood up on their feet, and the wicked were thrown into great consternation.

They had conducted their witness before the God of the earth (Rev. 11:4). They are here vindicated by the God of heaven (Rev. 11:13). Once again we have testimony to the truth that God loves cliffhangers. He loves to bring the stories He tells to the point of eucatastrophe. The Spirit of life from God entered into them, and their complete defeat was transformed into a complete victory.

When they stood, a great voice from Heaven invited them to ascend, which they did in a cloud. Their enemies saw all of this. What the great voice did was say the same thing that the voice like a trumpet had said to John earlier (Rev. 4:1).

At that same time, there was a great earthquake, which killed seven thousand men. This is a mirror image of what had happened in Elijah’s time—when seven thousand had been kept back from idolatry. Here seven thousand were slain for their idolatry. The number is likely symbolic, with seven representing completeness and one thousand representing multitudes.

Now this is not the final destruction of Jerusalem, that which happened in 70 A.D. We are talking here about the first siege of Jerusalem under Cestius. At the same time, the final destruction is still in view because God takes a tithe of the city. The tithe is not a partial payment for God, but rather is testimony to the fact that all of it is His. The entire city was dedicated to destruction. Immediately after this down payment, the population was frightened and gave glory to the God of Heaven. This was apparently not true repentance—otherwise the final outcome would have been different.

Josephus records some of the infighting that occurred in Jerusalem in the aftermath of an earthquake—the Idumeans together with the Zealots were able to make an entry into the city because of an earthquake, and then perpetrated a great slaughter.

This completed the second woe. The third was right on top of them.

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