Christ Church

Bible Reading Challenge (for Dudes)

Ben Zornes on

Ladies Fellowship has launched a Bible Reading Challenge geared specifically at building fellowship and encouragement for women to read God’s Word. Now, this obviously does not mean that at Christ Church we don’t care about men reading the Bible. As so many ladies have eagerly joined the Ladies Fellowship Bible Reading Challenge, some dudes have begun clamoring, “Hey, we’d like to join in the Bible reading fun, too!” So, for the guys hoping to piggyback on this reading challenge, here’s a version of the plan without all the floral arrangements.

Happy reading, gents!

READING PLAN FOR GUYS

BOOKMARKS FOR GUYS

LADIES BIBLE READING CHALLENGE

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Bible Challenge #1

Becky Pliego on

Dear sisters,

We are now in September and eager to start our Bible reading plan on the 13th.  We are loving seeing all the excitement that is building up. We are grateful to see all the women from all over the world joining us. God is at work and He is already doing an amazing thing among us: He is drawing us to Himself and we draws His people to Himself good things happen.

We will be sending out weekly emails to encourage you to persevere and remind you of the weekly readings and Webinars that we will have. Our desire is to see every single woman who does the first reading on September 13 to finish strong on May 31. We are in this together!

More information about how to login to watch the Webinars live (or the recordings) will be sent out soon, meanwhile we want to encourage you to download and print your Bible Reading Plan (or get the App on your phone) and invite other friends to join us. Maybe you can print extra plans and bring them to your friends at church, your neighbours, other moms at the homeschool co-op or those that you see every week at the kids soccer and ballet practice. This is good thing and like Rachel Jankovic has said, “What can go wrong when you have a plan to encourage more women to be in the Word?”

As you prepare yourself to start this challenge, I want to exhort you to consider that this challenge we are starting on September 13 is a life-giving, faith-builder one. It is a challenge about living against the grain and exposing the lies of the devil.

Are you too exhausted to read? The Word will revive you! (Psalm 19)

Are you too busy and with many cares? Come, read and hear Jesus inviting you to leave all your daily worries and anxieties at His feet. (Mt.11: 25-30)

Is your to-do list too long? Come and read the good news:  When you seek the Kingdom of God first, all things will be added unto you! (Mt. 6:25-34)

Are you in the midst of a situation that seems hopeless? Read the Word, all of it!, Paul tells us that through the encouragement of the Scriptures we can have hope (Rom.15:4).

His Word is sure and His promises are all yes and amen in Jesus Christ! I love the way David said it, “IF your law had not been my delight, I would have perished in my affliction.” (PS.119:92).

Are you struggling with sin in your life? Come to the Word and learn how by the Word and the power of the Spirit working in us we can mortify it (Rom.8:13 and Eph.6:17)

Open the Word and let it bring life to you! Let it be sweet to you. Let it be your joy. Let it be the grounds for your hope!

Today is a good day to take The Book and open and read it.

Under His sun and by His grace,

Becky and the Team of Christ Church Ladies Fellowship.

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Grace & Peace: Revelation 68

Douglas Wilson on

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

“And the rest of the men which were not killed by these plagues yet repented not of the works of their hands, that they should not worship devils, and idols of gold, and silver, and brass, and stone, and of wood: which neither can see, nor hear, nor walk: Neither repented they of their murders, nor of their sorceries, nor of their fornication, nor of their thefts” (Rev. 9:20–21).

We sometimes like to imagine that the damned in Hell would gladly repent, if only given the ghost of a chance. But yet here we have a harbinger of Hell, a hell-on-earth, and though you might think that would be an inducement to repentance, it turns out that repentance is a gift of the sovereign God. There really is a mystery to lawlessness, rebellion that makes no sense whatever.

The survivors of the previous plagues should have taken the fierce reality of those plagues into account—but did not. Notice that it says that they refused to repent of the works of their own hands. They crafted their own sinfulness; it was handmade idolatry. This is another place in the New Testament where idolatry and devil worship go together. “But I say, that the things which the Gentiles sacrifice, they sacrifice to devils, and not to God: and I would not that ye should have fellowship with devils” (1 Cor. 10:20). Sacrificing to idols is sacrificing to demons, and sacrificing to demons is having koinonia-fellowship with demons.

The material that is used to fashion the idols can vary—gold, silver, brass, stone, or wood—but the immaterial substance being invoked is always the same, which is devilish and demonic. John tells us that those these idols are made from many different materials, but it does not matter. None of them are alive. They cannot see, hear, or walk. And because those who make them have become like unto them (Ps. 115:4-8), it follows that these idolaters cannot see, hear, or walk either.

The sinners will not let the sin go, and the sins will not let the sinners go.In what sense? They cannot see righteousness, they cannot hear righteous commands, and they cannot walk in righteousness. There is the idol in the material world, gold, silver, and so on. Then there is the spiritual idol behind the matter, which is the demon. And there is also the invisible idol in the idolaters’ hearts—the things they would have to surrender were they to repent. And these sins include murder, sorcery, fornication, and thievery. These heart sins are their “precious,” and they will not let them go. The sinners will not let the sin go, and the sins will not let the sinners go.

Remember that the bloodguilt of murder would include the bloodguilt of abortion, a sin common in the first century as it is in ours. The word for sorcery is pharmakia, from which we get the word pharmacy. The occultism here is related to drug use, and when drug use becomes rampant, occultism is never far behind. Fornication would include the same kind of corrupt desires that we celebrate on the Internet. And they governed their lives with thievery in their hearts, just as we do. And Scripture teaches that having your world collapse around you will not by itself bring repentance. In order for that to happen, the gift of God must be given (Acts 5:31; 2 Tim. 2:25).

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Grace & Peace: Revelation 67

Douglas Wilson on

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

“And the number of the army of the horsemen were two hundred thousand thousand: and I heard the number of them. And thus I saw the horses in the vision, and them that sat on them, having breastplates of fire, and of jacinth, and brimstone: and the heads of the horses were as the heads of lions; and out of their mouths issued fire and smoke and brimstone. By these three was the third part of men killed, by the fire, and by the smoke, and by the brimstone, which issued out of their mouths. For their power is in their mouth, and in their tails: for their tails were like unto serpents, and had heads, and with them they do hurt” (Rev. 9:16–19).

As mentioned earlier, the invading army consisted of “myriads of myriads,” symbolizing a staggering number. As happened earlier with the 144,000, John first heard the number and then he turned and saw. This is not simply a marching army of incredible size, but is a cavalry of mounted warriors. If taken literally, the number would be 200 million.

The cavalrymen were decked out colorfully—breastplates of fiery red, sapphire blue, and sulfur yellow. The horses were like nothing on earth, horses with lion heads. They breathed out fire, and smoke, and sulfur, a breath that had the power to kill a third part of all the men. The destructive breath of the horses appears to match the colors of their riders—fire red, blue smoke, and sulfur yellow. The horses had lion heads that breathed calamity, and their tails were headed serpents, with a venomous bite.

This is all connected to the sixth trumpet, the middle of the last three trumpets. We are not yet at the horrifying end of the Battle of Jerusalem. We are still in the build up to that climax.

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Grace & Peace: Revelation 66

Douglas Wilson on

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

“And the sixth angel sounded, and I heard a voice from the four horns of the golden altar which is before God, Saying to the sixth angel which had the trumpet, Loose the four angels which are bound in the great river Euphrates. And the four angels were loosed, which were prepared for an hour, and a day, and a month, and a year, for to slay the third part of men” (Rev. 9:13–15).

When the sixth angel sounded his trumpet, the Roman legions were released, described here under the figure of four angels of destruction. A voice came from the four horns of the gold altar, which means that the command for this to happen now was all within the divine order and plan. Remember that the martyred saints had prayed from this same altar, and now their prayer is being answered (8:3). God’s answer was already prepared. That is what we see in v. 15 also—the angels of destruction that were loosed had been prepared down to the minute. They were released then, at that moment in history, and not before. This was a scheduled event, a timed event (Dan. 9:24-26). They were prepared for the hour, the day, the month, and the year. This was no accident, no happenstance.

They were released to come across the Euphrates, which was the northeast border of the Promised Land. The 10th Legion, part of the destroying force, had been located on the Euphrates. Josephus records the Roman presence there (Wars 7.1.3). This had long been a troublesome border for the Jews—the Assyrians had come across it, as had the Babylonians, and the Persians. Now the Romans. The number of the invading army is translated literally as 200 million (v. 16), but the Greek is myriads of myriads. As Larry Ball points out, this is like our number gazillion. An innumerable host swarmed in to surround Jerusalem.

And all this fits with what Jesus had predicted would happen, and all within one generation. “Verily I say unto you, This generation shall not pass, till all these things be fulfilled” (Matt. 24:34). Not only so, but Jesus had also taught us that the destruction of Jerusalem was one of the central themes of all Old Testament prophecy—meaning that the apocalyptic imagery that John uses for it in Revelation is hardly overdone. “For these be the days of vengeance, that all things which are written may be fulfilled” (Luke 21:22).

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