Summer Bible Challenge #4

¡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

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¡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

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¡Hola, hola! Welcome to the Summer Bible Reading Challenge! We are so very grateful that you are joining us and look forward to hearing what the Lord will be doing in your life through this challenge – let us know through email or on our Facebook page!

Our plan is designed for us to abide in the Word of God with much intentionality through the summer. We have two plans running simultaneously: one will take you through the New Testament once reading only 4 chapters a day, and the second option will take you through several epistles three times and a few psalms, reading 6 chapters a day. Each week we have readings assigned Monday through Friday, and Saturdays are set apart for you to review and meditate on the Scripture passage that we will be considering closely each week (Saturdays are called “M-Days” and of course you can use them as catch-up days too!)

I recommend that you print your weekly memory/meditation card and have it ready by Monday. That week read it and meditate on it, pray it, and even try to memorize it by reading it 5-6 times a day. Don’t be intimidated by the idea of memorization. Keep it at hand and be intentional about reading it and meditating on it several times a day, and then on Saturday – our M-Day – you will be surprised to see how much you actually remember. Note that our plan is not organized following the order in which the books appear in our Bibles, but rather in a unique, well-thought order. We will start with the gospel of John, followed by his three epistles, and then the book of Revelation, which he also wrote. Pay attention to what John chooses to tell us in his gospel about Jesus and then see how these things closely relate to the doctrines he develops in his letters. Note themes like light/darkness, dead/life, confession of sin, repentance, loving God and His people (but hating the world!). Those of you choosing to do the extended plan will be reading almost twice this per week. I am sure you will find many connections with what we will be reading in John’s writings while at the same time finding so much encouragement in seeing how our justification is through grace by faith alone.

The meditation/memorization passages are chosen to tell one story if you put them together. In June we will memorize John 3:16-21, 1 John 1:5-10; and Revelation 21:1-4. If you take a moment to read them all at once you will see that we are going to be meditating on the gospel message: The Father sends His Son to the world to save the world, to bring many to the light, and God is the Light and in Him there is no darkness at all, so we must repent (instead of saying that we have no sin!) and believe and trust that only the blood of Jesus will cleanse us from all our sins. He is faithful and just to forgive us and not only forgive us but cleanse us from all unrighteousness! And then in the passage of Revelation we will read how, when we are in Him as part of His church, we will be in a restored relationship with Him. He will dwell among us, He will be our God and we will be His people forever! Sin will no longer have dominion over us, but all things will be made new in Christ Jesus! Alleluia!

As you meditate on each week’s passage, I hope you see how important it is to consider the immediate context of the text, and it’s context within the whole letter. This will make your meditation richer.

Friends, we are praying that you will be nourished as you come to the Scriptures every day this week. Remember that we don’t need more willpower to persevere, we need more hunger and more thirst, and we cannot produce those ourselves. Ask God to give you more hunger and more thirst of Him, He will surely answer you and draw closer to you as you draw closer to Him.

May our prayer this week be, “ Father, help us abide in your Word as your true disciples do.” (John 8:31)

Under His sun and by His grace,

Becky Pliego and the Christ Church Ladies Fellowship

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