¡Hola, hola! Welcome to week 28, Friends! Do you realize that we are almost exactly 2 months away from finishing this challenge? Crazy, right? God has been so incredibly kind to us in drawing closer to us as we have been learning to draw closer to Him. Now, I must say I wish I could hear all the things that each one of you have been gleaning from this challenge. I am sure each story is wonderful!

This week I came across this article by John Piper, an article that was adapted from his book A Peculiar Glory (a book I absolutely loved!). And when I read these words in his book I remember thinking that they captured exactly my love and passion for the Scriptures, so I want to share them with you so that you may be encouraged too:

“Whenever I read the Bible, it was never like a masterpiece hanging in a museum that I viewed this way and that. Rather, it was like a window. Or like binoculars. My view of the Bible was always a view through the Bible. So, all along the way, my view was getting clearer and brighter and deeper, I mean the reality seen through it was getting clearer and brighter and deeper. Clearer as the edges of things became less fuzzy, and I could see how things fit together rather than just smudging into each other. Brighter as the beauty and impact of the whole message was more and more attractive. And deeper in the sense of depth perspective—I suppose photographers would say “depth of field.” Things stretched off into eternity with breathtaking implications—in both directions past and future. You could sum this up with the phrase the glory of God. That’s what I was seeing.”

And then he continues saying,

“This is where I stand with hope and joy and love. This is the window of the Word through which the vision of God has exerted its compelling power. I do not merely hold a view of Scripture. I am held. The glory of God shining through his Word has been an irresistible treasure. Nothing in this world comes close to the beauty and the value of God and his ways and his grace.”

This phrase, Friends, “I do not merely hold a view of Scripture. I am held.”  shakes my whole being. And the more we spend time in the Word, the more we come to understand this truth. The Word of God is holding our lives, in the most literal sense. Remember what we read in Hebrews? We read that Jesus “upholds the universe by the word of his power.” If the sun is in its place, shining and giving warmth, and the ocean is still obeying his Word and doesn’t spill over the earth, and the snow falls, and then Spring comes, and stars keep shining because of the power of His Word, then certainly our very existence is hanging on its power too. When we come to the Word, we come to the very Words of God. We don’t merely read words, we are sustained, held by each Word of God we read. And when we humbly come before His Word, He opens our eyes to see more of the glorious truths hidden as treasures in His Word. This is our God, a God that wants to be known, a God who has spoken, a God who has given us His Word so that we may be held by it. So if you feel like you need someone to hold you, come to Christ, come to the Word of God, He will hold you in the palm of His hand and sustain you with the power of His Word.

This week we will finish reading Job and Romans. We will meet Job’s last friend, Elihu who seems to get more than one thing right. And the reason we know that Elihu got things right is because God doesn’t rebuke him, and Job doesn’t try to argue against his case. So keep that in mind as you read his speech (six chapters!). At the end of the book, after everyone has had a chance to speak, it is the Word of the Lord that is last and the one that prevails. His Word sustained Job through these trials. His Word was honored. God wins.

Romans ends exalting God too. Jesus our Redeemer (Job’s, Paul’s, and ours) is exalted as the only One “who is able to strengthen us according to the gospel and the preaching of Jesus Christ (His Word!).” Then Paul reminds us that now through “the prophetic writings” (His Word!) this gospel has been made known to all nations, according to the command of the eternal God to bring obedience of faith – to the only wise God be glory forever more through Jesus Christ! Amen.” Oh! How the Word holds us!

Saturday we have a catch-up day, and I suggest that if you are current in your readings, you read the first epistle of Paul to Timothy.

May our prayer this week be, “Lord, hold me with your Word, with the gospel of Jesus Christ, every day.”

Under His sun and by His grace,

Becky Pliego and the Team of Christ Church Ladies Fellowship

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¡Hola, hola! Welcome to week 27 of the Bible Reading Challenge hosted by Christ Church in Moscow, ID. We are so very grateful for the opportunity the Lord has given us to serve you through this challenge and to be reading the Bible with so many women around the world. Aren’t you grateful to live on 2018 and to take advantage of all this technology to grow in Christ and advance His kingdom? God is clearly using all means possible to make His name known throughout all the nations! Alleluia!

I have been thinking about this wonderful principle of having the Word of God abide in us. We see it throughout the Scriptures, but especially in the gospel of John, in the Psalms, Proverbs, and Ezra and Nehemiah. But what does it mean to have the Word abide in us? Does it mean to read it over and over again so that we can check the boxes of our Bible Reading plan? I am sure you know that the answer has to be something bigger than that. It has to do with believing the Word of God. We read it believing that God will use it to change us. We read it believing that it will give us life. We read it believingthat it will make the simple wise. We read it believing that it will comfort our weary souls. We do not simply read it; we believe it. And when we believe it, it bears much fruit in our lives.  In John 5 we read the words of Jesus that say exactly this, “and you do not have his word abiding in you, for you do not believe the one whom he has sent.  You search the Scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life; and it is they that bear witness about me.”

Friend, if you have been reading along but you find unbelief in your heart, know that unless you repent, your heart will continue to be hardened. Cry to God today, repent of your unbelief and ask Him to open your eyes to see Jesus, to give you a new heart that cries, Abba, Father! and to seal you with His Holy Spirit. He will not turn away from your cries. He loves to reveal Himself to those who repent and call on Him. He will always come and meet you and show you the Father. He alone can make His Word take root in you. Come to Christ today!

This week we will start with catch-up day (Yay for catch-up days on Mondays!). If you are current in your readings my suggestion is that you read the epistle of James. In James 5:11 we find the key to understanding the book of Job which we will start reading on Tuesday.  I also hope you can watch this week’s webinar (Monday at 10:00 am PST) in which we will be talking more about this.

We will also read Psalms 42 and 56 (wait until you see how well they fit in with the other readings!), Philippians and Romans (ch.1-8). Now why did I choose this order? Why Philippians and why Romans along with Job? Well, we will see in the book of Job that his friends clearly failed to encourage him and to come alongside him, and in the epistle of Paul to the Philippians we will learn from Paul how to walk through suffering with other believers. Another thing that we see in the book of Job is that he is clearly in need of a mediator, someone who would come and declare him righteous. He finds himself in a puzzle, and by the grace of God he believes that His Redeemer lives and will indeed judge his case rightly. And in the epistle to the Romans we will read how we, who are in great need of a Mediator can be made right with God. Job’s Redeemer is our Redeemer too and by grace through faith we too have been declared righteous before God. The Accuser is defeated and in Christ nothing can separate us from the love of God.

As you can already see, this week’s readings will be super encouraging. Persevere in the Word and have a plan to come to it every day!

May our prayer this week be, “Why are you cast down, O my soul, and why are you in turmoil within me? Don’t you have the Word of God in front of you to read of His great deeds and steadfast love? Don’t you have His Spirit in you? Hope in God; for I shall again and again and again praise Him, my salvation and my God.” (prayer based on Psalm 42:5)

Under His sun and by His grace,

Becky Pliego and the team of Ladies Fellowship from Christ Church.

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¡Hola, hola! Are you ready for a new week in this Bible Reading Challenge? Are you behind in your readings? I have good news for you: jump in on today’s reading! Yes, yes, yes, don’t listen to the perfectionist inside of you and just do it. No more excuses, no more putting it off for another day, for another less busy season, just take the Book of God and read it today.  Are you current in your readings? Wonderful! We are so happy to know that many of you are. God has been so incredibly kind with us and our project. We are praying for you and trusting that God will continue to work in you as you draw near to Him through His Word.

This past week our friend Rachel Jankovic shared something on our Facebook page that was really good, so I want to share with you this quote from what she wrote knowing that you will find it encouraging:

“Reading the whole Bible gives us that kind of view of God’s work in the world and all of history and in our salvation. We see it as it is – alive, full of beauty and dimension, full of glory. If you distill the gospel into one pamphlet (without loooong genealogies or laws and details) you could think that you have captured the essence. That all of these extra tidbits about beams and things was unnecessary. But when you do this you are drawing the stick figure to stand in place of the real thing. If you want to know God, read His word. See Him! Because the word of God is real and full of all kinds of different angles. It is a living Word. We need to train our minds through constantly feeding on His word to see more and more of what has been revealed to us in it.

“For the word of God is living and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the division of soul and spirit, and of joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.” – Hebrews 4:12-14

This passage speaks of scripture not only as a living thing, but as one that is more living than us. It pierces us in ways that nothing human could. In the soul and spirit, in the thoughts and intentions of the heart. And it changes us in a way that no idea could.

So keep on reading! Keep on looking to Christ as you read the sections that feel unimportant. Read in faith, knowing that your heart and mind are being changed such that you can more fully see His glory.”

And so we will take the Book of God and open it prayerfully trusting that God, through our exposure to the Scriptures and the work of the Holy Spirit in us, will change our lives, our loves, and our thoughts.

I also want to share -again- with you today the information about our Grace Agenda Conference on April 13th and 14th in Moscow, ID. Friday, April 13thwe will have a Pre-Conference for women: Women in the Word: What We Learned in The Bible Reading Challenge. The speakers will be Nancy Wilson, Rebekah Merkle, Rachel Jankovic, and myself. You can find all the information here. We really hope you can come!

Now it’s time to talk about our weekly reading, and let me tell you that I am super excited about the books we will be reading this week. We will be reading Ezra and Nehemiah which seem to have been one same book in the Hebrew Canon – and maybe even one with Chronicles. In these books we will see how the promises of God and His faithfulness carry His people through the exile, through the consequences of their sins, and hears their cry of repentance from the land of captivity.   A new Exodus is in front of us. The people of God will come back to the Promised land and God Himself will restore their relationship with Him through the exposition of the Word and right worship. We will be, I pray, encouraged to take the Book of God and keep read it diligently and worship Him biblically, because only when we do that can our lives be transformed.

We will also read Psalms 33, 35-41, and Proverbs 15-19. I trust that the Lord will bless your prayer time as you pray these Psalms back to God.

May our prayer this week be,  “Your name, oh Lord, is a strong tower. Help us all, your people whom you have cleansed by the blood of the Lamb, to run into it and be safe. And how will we come if it is not through your Word?” (based on Proverbs 18:10)

Have a most blessed week, Friends! See you on Monday at 10:00 PST in our webinar!

Under His sun and by His grace,

Becky Pliego and the Ladies Fellowship team from Christ Church

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¡Hola, hola! Friends, welcome to week 25 of our Bible Reading Challenge! Welcome to another week of expectation as we open our Bibles to nourish our souls and trust that the Holy Spirit will open our eyes and hearts to know God more, to love Him more, to worship Him more.

I am aware, as I am writing this email, that many of us are going through severe trials. And all trials, we know, are meant to make us grow, to refine us, to increase our faith, to help us know God more and to love Him more. Yes, and amen. But the road that takes us through trials is sometimes pretty long and, honestly, very exhausting. How can we walk through it?  Where can we find the strength to persevere? Where can we find power to do the next thing we ought to do cheerfully?

Friends, the only place where we can find this strength, this sustaining power, is in the Word of God. God gave us His Word and His Holy Spirit to fight and win. In Christ we have all that we need to persevere and come out the other side of the trial with much rejoicing.

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¡Hola, Hola! Friends, can we even start to count the many blessing the Lord has bestowed on us as we have come together to read His Word these past months? So many blessings, right?  And do you want to know what makes me even more grateful? That the secret of the success of this project lies not on the Bible Plan itself, nor the webinars, neither on the Facebook community, but in God who gives the increase. We absolutely love what the Lord has put in our hearts to do and we do it with much joy and put great effort into it to make sure it blesses you. But the truth is that you don’t need *this* plan to grow in your relationship with God. You need Christ. And this is -and always will be- the heart of the matter. However, we believe in a Sovereign God who governs all our lives through the Hand of His Providence, so we believe that He has planned for you and I to be doing this thing together, this year. And that, Friends, makes me -literally- sing for joy. Our God is good indeed!

We did a survey about the BRC and about 350 of you took the time to answer it. Thank you. And you know the one thing, generally speaking, that you all like most about this plan? The fact that you can “jump back in” anytime without feeling guilty! Well, praise God for that and praise God for each one of you who have jumped back in many times instead of quitting. We bless the Lord who leads us in His Kindness towards Him and never uses an “I-will-make-you-feel-guilty” approach. The Holy Spirit doesn’t accuse us, but in His kindness leads us to repentance when we fail to come to the Father in prayer and in the Word, and then ignites in us the desire and the hunger to keep coming!

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