Christ Church

Bible Challenge #5

Becky Pliego on

Dear sisters,

How is the reading going for each one of you? We want you to always remember that it is our desire that each woman who signed up for this challenge will finish strong. And one of the things we want to encourage you to keep in mind as we enter week 4 is that if you miss a day or two, or ten, of the Bible Reading Challenge you should not quit. By all means, please don’t quit! Just jump in on the day we all are on.Take The Book and keep reading.  Be encouraged! God wants you to come to His Word and He will not let you go empty.

This week our readings are going to be pretty amazing. Reading Galatians after just having read Genesis and before we start reading Exodus is going to be like entering into a vault filled with precious stones. Each one will shine in such a way that will bring some unique light to the passages we have been reading and the ones we will be reading next. For many of you, this will be the first time that you will see in a very clear way how the New Testament is the best commentary on the Old Testament, and you will be amazed by its radiance! For others, this will be amazing in a different way, you will have more light to see with more clarity some things that you had not seen before and you will treasure the Scriptures even more. Be ready to be dazzled, Friends!

Are you ready to open the Book and read about the way God redeems a people to Himself? Are you ready to read about the way God will destroy a nation and its gods (Egypt) and build a new one (Israel) for Himself? We will read of the first Passover, and how a Lamb’s blood was required to protect God’s people and save them from His judgement. We will read the crossing of the Red Sea, and the songs they sang (like Psalm 90). And we will read how quickly God’s people forgot their mighty deliverance and started to murmur and complain. We will read how they forgot that they were delivered to be God’s people and to worship Him alone. We will read how they forgot that God is faithful and just and merciful. But we will also read that God will not forget them. Even in their grumbling He will lead them, and He will feed them, and will give them water. And we will see Jesus there: the Bread of Life in the manna and the Living Water flowing from the Rock, which is Christ (1Cor.10:4). And of course, after reading this, we will be brought to a point in which we will need to repent from our grumbling, or burst in thanksgiving before God. Or both!

We will read how God’s law was given in the context of His amazing grace, and in the epistle to the Galatians we will read why the law was needed and was given. And as we keep reading we want to remember that obedience to the law was only expected as a result of gratitude to God for His great deliverance. As you read all the given laws, always keep in mind Ex. 20:1-2 and meditate on the words of the Psalmist in Psalm 146.

1 Peter 1 and 2 are wonderful readings to do as you read more about God’s laws and directions about the Tabernacle and the priests in Exodus. And guess what? Ready for some good news? 1 Peter has only 5 short chapters that I think that those of you who may have 15 extra minutes on Sunday to sit down to read, will love reading in one sitting.

Friends, I hope you can join us on Monday at 10:00AM Pacific Time to watch our Webinar live here: (https://www.christkirk.com/biblechallenge). If you can’t join us at that time, remember that all the webinars are being recorded so that you can watch them at your own convenience later. You can find them here:
(https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCnTDQ1ggnV_wdm6JsHVBAaQ).

May our prayer this week be, Father, thank you for the work of your Spirit in my life. I ask you to continue working in my heart so that I may find my delight in Your commandments, which I love, and meditate on them day and night.” (Psalm 119: 47.48)

Happy reading!

Under His sun and by His grace,

Becky Pliego and the Team of Christ Church Ladies Fellowship

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Grace & Peace: Revelation 71

Ben Zornes on

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

“And the voice which I heard from heaven spake unto me again, and said, Go and take the little book which is open in the hand of the angel which standeth upon the sea and upon the earth. And I went unto the angel, and said unto him, Give me the little book. And he said unto me, Take it, and eat it up; and it shall make thy belly bitter, but it shall be in thy mouth sweet as honey. And I took the little book out of the angel’s hand, and ate it up; and it was in my mouth sweet as honey: and as soon as I had eaten it, my belly was bitter. And he said unto me, Thou must prophesy again before many peoples, and nations, and tongues, and kings” (Revelation 10:8–11).

John hears a voice from heaven again, which instructs him to go up to the angel who is straddling earth and sea. When he gets there, he is supposed to take the little open book from the hand of the great angel. And so John obediently approached the angel and said, “Give me the little book.” Given that the angel was immense, the fact that John could take the book and eat it means that it must have truly been tiny compared to the size of the angel.

What happens here is a precise parallel to what happened to Ezekiel. That ancient prophet was addressing the destruction of Jerusalem (also), as accomplished by the Babylonians in 586 B.C.

“Moreover he said unto me, Son of man, eat that thou findest; eat this roll, and go speak unto the house of Israel. So I opened my mouth, and he caused me to eat that roll. And he said unto me, Son of man, cause thy belly to eat, and fill thy bowels with this roll that I give thee. Then did I eat it; and it was in my mouth as honey for sweetness” (Eze. 3:1–3).

The bitterness that John experienced is mentioned a few verses later in Ezekiel.

“So the spirit lifted me up, and took me away, and I went in bitterness, in the heat of my spirit; but the hand of the Lord was strong upon me” (Eze. 3:14).

This combination of sweetness and bitterness means that a message of judgment must be both.This combination of sweetness and bitterness means that a message of judgment must be both. The sweetness lies in the vindication of God’s servants. The martyrs under the altar will have their prayer answered. The persecutors will be utterly thrown down. Justice will be done, and the saints of God will say hallelujah. The only time that word is used in the New Testament is some chapters ahead of us in Revelation, when the saints exult in the fact that the smoke of Babylon ascends forever and ever (Rev. 19:3). But at the same time, we remember (also from Ezekiel) that considered in isolation, God takes no pleasure in the death of the wicked (Eze. 33:11). As a stand-alone reality, the stubborn willfulness of the rebel is a genuine tragedy. It is not a tragedy that God will allow them to use in order to emotionally blackmail those who do rejoice in the will of God, but it is a tragedy nonetheless.

The stubborn willfulness of the rebel is a genuine tragedy. It is not a tragedy that God will allow them to use in order to emotionally blackmail those who do rejoice in the will of God, but it is a tragedy nonetheless.We see in this passage that John is not just a simple observer. He is told that eating the book, tasting its sweetness, and having his stomach turned by the bitter results of the message, means that he, John, must prophesy again. This book eaten means that John is the prophet.

The book of Revelation continues as a condemnation of the city of Jerusalem, but we see here that the fall of the old system has ramifications for the whole world—the message is for “many peoples, nations, and tongues, and kings.” And this what the destruction of Jerusalem would facilitate—a gospel for the whole world.

Remember that the book of Revelation has three sets of seven. We have seven seals, seven trumpets, and seven bowls. There had been an interlude before the seventh seal was opened, and we are in the midst of a second interlude now, right before the blowing of the seventh trumpet. Before the hammer falls, there is a divine pause, the witnesses confirm their testimony, and then the judgment.

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Bible Challenge #4

Becky Pliego on

Dear sisters,

What a blessing this Bible Reading Challenge has already been! We are so very grateful to the Lord for the way in which it has pleased Him to draw so many of us at the same time to His Word. We are grateful for each one of you. Thank you for your enthusiasm and your faithfulness. We pray for you every day that the Lord will make you understand the way of His precepts, that you will meditate in His wondrous works as you read about them in the Bible, and see them every day around you (Psalm 119:27).

This week we will be reading Genesis 37-50 and Matthew 20-28. Then, on Friday, we have a catch-up day before we start reading the book of Exodus (1-4) and Galatians (1-2). If you are current in your readings, I would love to be able to persuade you to read Galatians in one siting either on Friday (our catch-up day) or on Sunday. Reading the epistles in one sitting is truly wonderful, I am sure you will agree with me after you try it once!

We will read this week the story of Joseph, and we will be surprised to read that even though all signs point to him, he is not the one through whom the Seed of the Woman will come. He endures, by God’s grace, horrible circumstances to preserve the line through which the Promised One will come. For now I will give you the name of a character that you need to pay attention to in our readings this week: Judah. We will talk more about them in this week’s webinar. I can’t wait to share more of that with you! I hope you can watch it live (or recorded!) here.

We will be reading in the Bible and talking in our webinar about God’s Providence. We have been reading and understanding how God is Sovereign, which means that He does all that He pleases to do and that He chooses whoever he wants to choose to fulfill His purposes to bring glory to His name and good to His people.  Now, God’s Providence is the way in which God actually directs all circumstances so that His plans may be fulfilled. Both are fascinating doctrines because they bring so much hope, comfort, and rest to the soul of the believers. And in Ch. 50 of Genesis you will see exactly this. Joseph will wholly embrace the life God has chosen for him to live because he knows that God is good, that God is sovereign, and that God rules through the acts of His Providence all circumstances including the decisions of men.

In Matthew we will be reading how the Devil, the Serpent, continues to plot a way to kill the Seed of the Woman. We will see God exercising His sovereignty and how through His Providence will direct the hearts of men to betray Jesus, to mock him, to kill him; a series of events will fall into place and the Seed of the Woman, the Promised One, will be hanged on the cross because God -not the Devil- had planned and decided it that way. Jesus’ crucifixion was God’s “plan A” since the very beginning.

But the story doesn’t end there. God’s plan to redeem the nations through the Seed of the Woman will be fulfilled. Christ will not remain in a tomb. So once again we will take the Book and read. We will read what the Devil, the Serpent, never saw coming: the Son of God, the Promised One crushing his own head. The question he has asked to tempt many comes to him  as a powerful statement: God did say, Satan, that your head would be crushed! Our Lord Jesus Christ reigns! He is risen and risen indeed! Alleluia!

May our prayer this week be, Lord these circumstances are pressing me hard on my right, these others hard on my left, at times I feel crushed under the heaviness of them all, “But I trust in you, O Lord, I say, ‘You are my God.” My times in your hand, Sovereign God! May I keep, God, my eyes fixed on the risen Christ. Amen! (Psalm 119:14)

Happy reading, Friends!

Under His Sun and by His grace,

Becky Pliego and the Team of Christ Church Ladies Fellowship

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Grace & Peace: Revelation 70

Douglas Wilson on

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

“And the angel which I saw stand upon the sea and upon the earth lifted up his hand to heaven, And sware by him that liveth for ever and ever, who created heaven, and the things that therein are, and the earth, and the things that therein are, and the sea, and the things which are therein, that there should be time no longer: But in the days of the voice of the seventh angel, when he shall begin to sound, the mystery of God should be finished, as he hath declared to his servants the prophets” (Revelation 10:5–7).

We have identified this mighty angel with the Lord Jesus. He stands over the world, with His right foot on the sea and the other on the earth. He has the little book open in His hand. In this passage, He lifts up His hand to heaven in order to swear, in order to take an oath. This should resolve forever the question of whether it is lawful for believers to swear.

He swore in the name of the one who lives forever, the one who created heaven and everything in it, along with the earth and everything in it, and along with the sea and everything in it. That was the basis of His oath. What was the content of the oath?

He swore that there would be no more delay. The souls under the altar had been told to be patient for just a little while longer. They would have to be patient no more—the time has come. When the seventh angel sounds his trumpet, everything would be complete.

But what does that mean? There are two things expressed about this fulfillment. It is described as the “mystery of God,” and it was a mystery that had been declared beforehand to His servants the prophets. This gives us the content of the mystery plainly. Where the Scripture uses this phrase elsewhere, it is talking about the fashioning of one new kind of man—Christian—out of the old categories of Jew and Gentile.

“Now to him that is of power to stablish you according to my gospel, and the preaching of Jesus Christ, according to the revelation of the mystery, which was kept secret since the world began,” (Rom. 16:25).

“That their hearts might be comforted, being knit together in love, and unto all riches of the full assurance of understanding, to the acknowledgement of the mystery of God, and of the Father, and of Christ” (Col. 2:2).

“How that by revelation he made known unto me the mystery; (as I wrote afore in few words, Whereby, when ye read, ye may understand my knowledge in the mystery of Christ) Which in other ages was not made known unto the sons of men, as it is now revealed unto his holy apostles and prophets by the Spirit; That the Gentiles should be fellowheirs, and of the same body, and partakers of his promise in Christ by the gospel” (Eph. 3:3–6).

The mystery, given to the prophets down through the ages, but now unpacked and made manifest through the gospel, is that Gentiles are going to be made fellow heirs together with Jews.

The answer is that as long as the Temple in Jerusalem stood, there would be standing pressure for the Gentiles to become Jews as part of becoming Christian.This is all very well, but what does all that have to do with the seventh angel blowing his trumpet? The answer is that as long as the Temple in Jerusalem stood, there would be standing pressure for the Gentiles to become Jews as part of becoming Christian. This was the great controversy of the first generation in the church, and that controversy would continue as long as the Temple continued. The dominant identity of the church was going to be Jewish as long as the Temple remained.

When the seventh angel sounded, Jerusalem was done.

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Bible Challenge #3

Becky Pliego on

Dear sisters,

Isn’t it great to know that we are ready to start week 2 of our Bible Reading Challenge?  Week one was already a huge blessing and now as we go into week two we will be amazed about the story God is writing.

This week we will read Genesis 12- 36 and Mt. 8-19. Some of the chapters in Genesis are a bit longer, so you may want to divide your reading in two parts. Maybe read Genesis in the morning and Matthew in another window of time you open in your day. Yes, opening God’s Word will feel like opening a window of fresh air in your day! The days will never be quiet enough for you to read your Bible, especially if you are in that season of life in which your littlest are making messes in the bathroom and your teenagers are coming back from school really hungry. But it is there, in the midst of it all, that we can meet God in his word. Stop for a second and think about what you just read. You can meet God in the middle of your day in His Word. That is true and that is huge. Come!

We will be reading this week about Abraham and Sarah and God’s Promise. Isaac is born and God shows himself faithful -again. God will keep revealing Himself as the God who keeps Covenant in spite of all the sins we will see great men of God commit.

We will read about Isaac and their sons, and Jacob and his sons; and we won’t be able to put the Book down. Because, really? How is God going to keep the line of the Seed of the Woman alive if those He chooses are definitely not flawless characters?

In Matthew the story continues when Jesus comes down from the mountain and crowds start following him.  He heals many because that is what God wills to do. And He doesn’t tell us why the Man with leprosy was suffering, or why the servant of the Centurion was paralyzed, etc. No,  He sees beyond that and sees their faith and hears their cry for mercy and He chooses to heal them. Your faith will be encouraged for sure as you read those stories!

Jesus will call Matthew and the rest of the disciples just like God called his servants in the stories we are reading in the OT : Out of the pleasure of His own will! Don’t miss that. One of the ways God exercises his Sovereign will is by choosing men to fulfill His purpose and bring Him glory.

We will read some puzzling parables, like the parable of The Sower that Jesus tells to confuse his critical hearers. Parables, after all, Jesus tells us, are not to make the meaning of his teachings as clear as water. We can only understand them when the Spirit opens our eyes to see.

When you read the question Jesus will ask his disciples in chapter 16: 13-20, be ready to have a response. Every single human has to face that question and only the Holy Spirit can help us give the right answer that opens the door of Heaven.

Jesus will go up again on a mountain. But this time He will not be preaching, He will be transfigured and have a reunion with Moses and Elijah that a few of the disciples (He chose who) will witness. And guess what? It is recorded for us so that we may read and meditate upon, so take the Book and read it!

We will finish with a powerful question and statement that will shake your bones, strengthen your faith, and give you hope. Keep reading you will find it on Chapter 19 of Matthew verses 25-26 (don’t peek ahead!)

May our prayer this week be, “I come to you Jesus, labored and heavy laden, trusting that you will give me rest as I come to you in the Word.”  (Based on Mt. 11:28-30)

A little note to answer a question we believe you may want to ask: all webinar recordings can be found on the Christ Kirk YouTube channel – https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCnTDQ1ggnV_wdm6JsHVBAaQ 

Under His Sun and by His grace,

Becky Pliego and the Team of Christ Church Ladies Fellowship

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