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

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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

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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

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Dear sisters,

Ready for another week of this Bible Reading Challenge? Ready to be stretched in your thinking? Ready for another week in which God, through His Word, will make you grow and sanctify you? As we keep reading we see that the hardest part of this challenge, of wearing this new habit is not necessarily finding the time to read, or fully understanding what we are reading. The hardest part might be seeing how some passages would be wonderful for our friend, or our husband, or our children to read, but forgetting that the Word is a mirror in which we ought to see ourselves first. The Word of God is for all His people, yes, but it is also for you personally. The Gospel message is powerful to change people -including you. So, let’s pray this week, as we come to His Word, that He will change us into His image. That He will show us the areas in our lives in which repentance is needed, that He will speak to us and humble us, and revive us and make us strong. He will hear and He will answer us.

This week we will finish reading the book of Numbers. Numbers started with directions for His people in the desert and will end with directions on how God’s people will need to live in cities. New rules, new patterns will be needed in their new life after the crossing of the Jordan River and again, God will not leave His people without directions. He will make His ways known to them. Matthew Henry says in his commentary on Numbers 36:13, “Whatever new condition God, by His Providence, brings us into, we must beg him to teach us the duties of it, and to enable us to do them, that we may do the work of the day in its day, the duty of a place in its place.”

We will also finish reading the 1st epistle of Paul to the Corinthians. In it we will read how we are to live as people of God in this world. And just like it was impossible for the Israelites to live according to all the laws, it is impossible for us to live according to God’s demands apart from the power of the Cross.  Paul in this letter, explains how we can live pure and clean lives, lives set apart because we believe in the power of the Gospel. Obedience is possible because Christ is risen and He is at work in us. The way of love is possible because He has given us His Spirit. Building each other up is possible because the risen Christ is what brings us together. The theme of the resurrection of Christ and the believers is an important theme in this epistle, so pay attention, you don’t want to miss all of the treasures in it!

After a catch-up day on Friday, we will start with the epistle of Mark and Deuteronomy, the last book Moses wrote in the desert on the plains of Moab before entering Canaan. It is important to note that in both, 1 Corinthians and Deuteronomy we will find many strong warnings against idolatry. God is God, and He is Holy and Zealous, and He has never changed. The gods people serve, the idols we make change. But God remains the same and His character remains the same.

Mark opens with a powerful phrase, “The beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God…” (ESV)  The same Gospel that later Paul proclaimed and we believe is true because God became man and conquered sin on the cross. Jesus starts His ministry doing what no one would have ever dared to do (and now we understand this much better!): He touched the unclean, the outcasts and made them whole. He also starts calling His disciples one by one, and we see that He chooses them to be His own, just like He chose Israel in the Old Testament out of the pure pleasure of His will.

Friends, we pray and trust that God will continue to bless you as you open His Word. May we have eyes to see His glory in the words we read and may we be transformed by it. Our prayer this week will be, “Father, help us this week to strive to excel in building up the church.” (1Cor. 14:12b ESV)

Under His sun and by Hs grace,

Becky Pliego and the team of Christ Church Ladies Fellowship

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Dear sisters,

¡Hola, hola! We did it! We finished Leviticus and Hebrews and we gleaned so much from our reading this past week, right? Isn’t it amazing how, when we start reading the whole Bible as one perfect story with one main theme at the centre our view of the whole is much better and we get to understand more? Praise God for the work the Holy Spirit is doing in our minds and hearts and lives.

If you are just joining us (or if you were behind and are now catching up with the rest of us), please, know that we are very grateful to have you in the group. We are praying for you because we know that sometimes we can be easily discouraged when want to prove ourselves that we finally have the willpower to keep up with a bible reading plan, but then fail -again. Friends, remember, this is not about trying harder, no! It is about wearing, about owning the habit of being in the Word. It is because we are weak that we come to the Word. It is because we don’t have a strong will power that we come to Christ and rely on Him. It is because we don’t understand why things happen the way they happen that we come to the Word. It is because we still sin that we come to the Word. So, Friend, be encouraged! Take the Book, and read it today!

This coming week we will start Numbers (1-25), read the 3 short epistles John wrote and start 1 Corinthians (1-4).

In Numbers we will encounter a book with engaging stories, more laws, and some genealogies. It starts, like Leviticus starts, with the Lord speaking in the tent of the meeting and the same central themes that started in Genesis are carried on in this book: 1) God is holy and wants to dwell with His people. 2) God wants to bless His people with the same promises He made to Abraham (many, many descendants, a Promised Land, and that through them all the nations of the world will be blessed) 3) But most importantly, God’s promise of giving Himself to His people, of becoming their God and making them His people continues.

We will keep reading and will keep learning by seeing God’s deeds, hearing His Word and His precepts, more of His perfect character. For example, we will continue to see how the people will insist on having a complaining attitude and will continue to murmur against God and His prophets, but we’ll see how He perseveres in loving them and in extending mercy to them. His grace abounds and that is remarkable! Our God’s goodness is higher than anything we could have possible imagined!

In the epistles of John, we see these same themes. God is holy and we are sinners. But because of Christ’s perfect sacrifice on the cross, because He shed His blood for us, we can find perfect forgiveness for our sins. The theme of cleanness and uncleanness that we find in Exodus and Leviticus is carried here too. We are cleansed with the blood of the Lamb and He can now abide in us and we can abide in Him. No more sacrifices are needed, the gospel message songs clear: Repent and believe. Salvation belongs to the Lord!

Be ready, also, to read a very well know passage in 1 Cor. 3:16, and understand it in a very different way.

So, yes, we still have so many treasures to find in God’s Word. Why wouldn’t we want to come and search diligently for them? So, this week, we will not put God’s Book aside, we will take it with us and open it and read it, and mediate on it, and make it our own. We want to be women of the Word, because only when we are women of the Word can we be truly called women of God.

May our prayer this week be, “Father, thank you for your Word, may we read it and find our joy complete.”

We are grateful to God for the way God has blessed us through this Bible Reading Challenge. He is indeed at work in us, and we praise Him for that!
We would love to invite you to watch the live Webinar this coming Monday at 10:00am PST here.

Under His Sun and by His grace,

Becky Pliego and the Team of Christ Church Ladies Fellowship

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