¡Hola, hola! Welcome to week 4 of our Bible Reading Challenge, friends. In His kindness, God has continued giving us hunger and thirst for His Word and in His goodness, He has not let us go unsatisfied. He feeds us, and like a good Father, He wants us to be well nourished and strengthened! So as we have been coming to Him, He continues to give us more of Himself on the pages we read. How wonderful is this?

This week we will finish reading the gospel of Matthew. Picking up on chapter 13 we will start reading the parables Jesus told. Don’t miss the purpose Jesus tells us He had when He spoke in parables, and don’t be surprised to see that it was not to make things more understandable, but actually to hide meanings from men “whose heart had grown dull.” This is huge because it is an important reminder to us that when we read the Bible we are not reading just another book. No, the Bible is God’s Book and unless the Holy Spirit opens our eyes to see and ears to hear, we won’t understand. This is very encouraging, because our understanding of the text doesn’t depend on our IQ level, it depends solely on God’s grace to enlighten our eyes so that we may understand and believe.

We will read about the two times Jesus fed crowds of thousands. Let me share with you that every time I read those I think of this BRC and how it started. It was born from a small idea, yes, but you know what was the “behind of scenes” of this whole thing? The Father saw you and had compassion on you. He knew many were starving and He wanted to feed each one of you. So what came next? Orders from our Lord. Put this plan together, spread the word, invite women to join the banquet,  encourage them to come and sit and join the feast. No one will go away hungry. Not one. And so here we are, all of us, enjoying this banquet and filling our baskets with bread to give to our children, our neighbors, our friends, so that they can taste and see how good our God is and then come and sit themselves and eat with us at the table. This is how the Kingdom of God will continue to grow, more coming, more eating, more being satisfied with Christ alone. Ah! Taste and see how good the Lord is to us!

Get ready to turn pages and be amazed at the stories we will be reading this week. Use your imagination, see the scenes Matthew is describing for us, read and think on what a gift it is that we can actually read about the life of Jesus Christ. Sisters, we are actually reading the words He spoke when He was walking among us. We are reading the life of the Messiah, we don’t have to imagine a Jesus, we can know Him because He has given us the Scriptures and the Holy Spirit to teach us all things. What a privilege, right?

We will read of the death of our Redeemer on the cross, but we will also read of His resurrection. Don’t read it lightly. This are the events in history that have the power to change your own story. The application? Repent and believe. Believe that Christ’s sacrifice on the cross is sufficient to cleanse you from all sins. Only in Christ there is true hope, only in Christ can we find true freedom.

On Friday we will read the epistle of Paul to the Colossians. Chapter 1 is wonderful to read after a gospel. Try to read and remember what we read in John 1 and in the first epistle of John. So many connections that will bless your soul!

Those of us doing the extra readings will be reading Philippians twice and Titus. I will just limit my comments to this, please pay attention to Phil. ch. 2:16 and its immediate context. Notice how there is no other way for us to “live as lights in the world” in the “midst of a crooked and twisted generation” except by “holding fast to the word of life.” Running in vain starts the moment one starts neglecting holding fast to the word of life, and who wants to run in vain? To live a vain life? Take the Book and read it and hold fast to each word written in it.

J.C. Ryle rightly wrote, “Let us read our Bibles reverently and diligently, with an honest determination to believe and practice all we find in them. It is no light matter how we use this book. Eternal life or death depends on the spirit in which it is used.

Above all let us humbly pray for the teaching of the Holy Spirit. He alone can apply truth to our hearts, and make us profit by what we read.”

So why don’t we take his advice and pray with the Psalmist, “Open my eyes, that I may behold wondrous things out of your law.” Ps. 119:18 ESV

Under His sun and by His grace,

Becky Pliego and the Christ Church Ladies Fellowship

Read Full Article

¡Hola, hola! What a joy it has been to take up the Book of God and read it these past few weeks with you all. In the middle of our daily summer routines we have been working on doing the will of God, that is, to know Him. Have you thought about that? Since the beginning, the Father has always made Himself known to His people, He wants His people to know Him, to love Him, to obey Him. And when we come to the Word of God, we come to the exact place which God has appointed to teach us all that we need to know about Him, about ourselves, our neighbors, and this world. How are we not going to take the Book and read it? Where else can we go to find life? Our daily Bible reading is more than a discipline we cultivate, it is our life line.

I want to share today a wonderful quote from Thomas Watson on the subject of the Scriptures:

“Be thankful to God for the Scriptures. What a mercy is it that God has not only acquainted us with what His will is, but that He has made it known by writing! The Scripture is our pole-star to direct us to heaven, it shows us every step we are to take; when we go wrong–it instructs us; when we go right–it comforts us.

Adore God’s distinguishing grace, if you have felt the power and authority of the Word upon your conscience; if you can say as David, “Your word has quickened me.” Christian, bless God that He has not only given you His Word to be a rule of holiness–but His grace to be a principle of holiness. Bless God that He has not only written His Word, but sealed it upon your heart, and made it effectual. Can you say it is of divine inspiration, because you have felt it to be of lively operation? Oh free grace! that God should send out His Word, and heal you; that He should heal you–and not others! That the same Scripture which to them is a dead letter–should be to you a savor of life!” ^[1]

So, Friends, by grace through faith, this coming week, we will take the Book of God and read it because we want to know God, to love Him and worship Him more!

This week we will finish reading Revelation and will start the gospel of Matthew. In the gospel of Matthew, we see how the apostle tells us over and over again how Jesus is the Son of David, the Promised One who would come and sit on the throne of David forever.  He comes teaching with authority, and comes to advance His Kingdom.

Matthew wants his readers – including you and I – to see how Jesus is the Messiah. To do so he points us to many Old Testament passages and tells us how Jesus came to fulfill what the prophets had written about Him. This is actually pretty amazing because we can see also how the OT and the NT are not independent, but dependent on each other. Each of the 66 books of the Bible are the inspired Word of God and given to us to know God and His way of salvation.

In this gospel we will also see how the same themes that ran through the gospel of John and his letters, run here. God is light and we ought to walk in light. And walking in the light is not something that happens in the darkness so that no one notices. When we walk in the light others should be able to see our good works, the fruit of our abiding in Christ. So we have the Beatitudes, and we learn how we ought to walk as children of light.

If you are doing the extended reading plan you will be reading the epistle Paul wrote to the Ephesians twice in a week. Ephesians is a wonderful book to see how our walking in the light looks like. Notice that the first three chapters tells us what Christ has already done of us. And then the next three chapters tell us how we, now that we have received all the benefits of God’s work on our behalf, should walk. It would be impossible for us to obey the last three chapters if we had not first received, by grace through faith, a great salvation. Our obedience always flow from His saving work in us. And that, my Friends, is super good news!

May our prayer this week be, “Father, we trust in Christ’s work for us. Thank you because He said, “It is done!” Thank you because we who are thirsty can come and drink from the fountain of life and and without paying anything ourselves have our thirst quenched. We want more of you, Lord, so we will come to your Word to drink more and be satisfied. In Jesus name, Amen” (Prayer based on Rev. 21:6)

Under His sun and by His grace,

Becky Pliego and the Christ Church Ladies Fellowship

Read Full Article

¡Hola, hola! What a blessing it was to read all the many testimonies of the first week of our summer BRC. Thank you for all the pictures and all the joy your shared with us. We are grateful for you and keep you in our prayers.

Last week we finished reading the gospel of John, a gospel that announces the gospel message and demands we respond to it with faith. Chapter 1 starts with a powerful scene that reminds us of Genesis 1: the Triune God separating light from darkness, moving, speaking, giving life. And just like God was the One who took the initiative to reach out to Adam and Eve when they fell in the Garden to bring judgement and mercy, here we see God again, reaching out to men. This time, however, He takes the form of a man: Jesus Christ, Immanuel, which means “God with us,” the Messiah, the One whom God promised to Adam and Eve that would come to crush the Serpent’s head, came into the world. The Word that spoke creation into being, became man and dwelt among us. And why did He come? To condemn the world that had been so unfaithful for centuries? No. He came to seek and save the lost, to bring light into the world, to make reconciliation with the Triune God possible through grace by faith (as we read in Galatians).

And here we are, reading this amazing story and we cannot pretend that we can read it and remain spectators in it. We are already in this story and have a role to play. We were born in this story, Friends. And we must respond to this Gospel message, to this love that is like nothing that we can compare or imagine by repenting of our sins and turning away from evil and believing and embracing full forgiveness in Christ. Isn’t that amazing? We can love Him, because he loved us first. We can respond  to Him because He called us first. We can repent of our sins, because it is “in His kindness that He leads us to repentance.” (Rom.2:4)  All of our salvation is by grace through faith. All of it is a gift. We read how Jesus called his disciples, and saw how all of whom He called came.  How His grace is indeed irresistible!  God loves to save sinners!

This week we will be continue reading the writings of John. His three epistles and the book of Revelation. See how the same themes that John brings up over and over again in his gospel, are present in his letters, especially in the first one.

John writes with the aim to help us believe so that we may have life as we see in John 19:35, 20:31, and 1 John 5:13. So, Friend, as you take the Book of God this week and read it, pray that the Lord will open your eyes to see Jesus in the text, to believe in Him and in His Word. To eat and be satisfied, to drink and not thirst, to walk in light and free from sin and free to obey and walk in light and love.

Don’t be intimidated to read the book of Revelation. Eat it and trust that the Lord will bless you as you read verse after after verse and chapter after chapter. This is also an inspired book by God and He gave it to us to nurture and strengthen our faith.  Reading larger portions in one sitting will make it easier for you to understand the big picture: The Victory of the Messiah over all His enemies and His reign over all nations and individuals. He is King of kings today and all things whether on earth or in heaven are being reconciled to Him (Col.1:19-21).

Those doing the extended version, will be reading the first and second epistles to the Thessalonians and will start Ephesians.

When you read the first letter of Paul to the Thessalonians, notice how he repeats that he is confident that the gospel, the Word perched in “much affliction” and “in the midst of much conflict” will bear much fruit. Paul reminds us of the power of the Word in the life of the Believers to help them persevere in the midst of great trials, because the Word of God is alive and always at work in the life of the people of God. So we pray that we will persevere in the Word in the happy days and in the days in which we are living in much conflict, and the Word helps us persevere in Christ. And now you are probably remembering what we read in John 15 (an amazing passage to meditate on!).

In the second letter to the Thessalonians, Paul calls us to remain faithful and to stand firm in the midst of severe persecutions, and the only way to do this is to stand strong in the Gospel of Christ. And we trust that our holding fast does not depend on us, we know that “the Lord is faithful. That He will establish us and guard us against the evil one.” (2 Thess.3)  So we take the Book and read it, trusting that His Word is at work in us and drawing us closer to Him each day.

Do not forget that you can always invite more friends to join us. No need to catch up with the rest and read the previous readings, just encourage them to jump in on the day we are at! (we will come back to the previous passages at another time!)

May our prayer this week be: “ Lord, direct our hearts to the love of God and to the steadfastness of Christ.” In Jesus name, Amen (2 Thess. 3:5)

Under His sun and by His grace,

Becky Pliego and the Christ Church Ladies Fellowship

Read Full Article