Author Archives: Becky Pliego

About Becky Pliego

I am grateful because God, in His grace, called me out of darkness and into his admirable light. When I did not look for Him, He found me. When I was in a pit of sin, He rescued me. I am not walking this road alone, my family is always with me, and we love Him, because He loved us first.

God’s Sovereignty -in the Gospel of Luke-

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Frans Hals, St Luke. mid-17th century

It amazes me how growing up in an Evangelical Arminian church, and being so involved in it, (even to the point of going to a Bible College with the same doctrine), I never saw God’s sovereignty. It was that my eyes were not yet open. My sight was blurry, I though I knew but now I understand that I did not know the Scriptures at all. I knew few verses here and there to support the teachings I received, but I did not study the Bible, I did not know my God.

But He called me out of the emotionalism, out of the ignorance and gave me light to see. This is the greatest miracle I have experienced! I was a passionate Arminian (even though I had no idea on what that meant, because who cares about terms where I was?) and now, I am a passionate Biblical believer, a paasionate Calvinist, Reformed, grateful from head to toe, from the inside out. I am grateful, forever grateful! Who am I that the Lord has set His eyes upon me and visited me?

God is Sovereign. And what does this mean?

“The sovereignty of God is the exercise of His supremacy.  God is the high and lofty One; no one is greater than He, equal to him, or any where near to Him.  And when this great God acts, when He goes about His divine business, then he does so in perfect freedom!  Sovereignty implies authority, and authority is the right to rule.  It is the right to do what one wishes, to decide what is good and evil, to impose one’s will on others and demand conformance;  authority is the right to reward obedience and to punish disobedience!  In close connection with this, soveriegnty is the freedom to do what one pleases without being answerable to anyone.  No one may question God as to what He is doing!”
Rev. D.H   Kuiper

I have been reading the gospel of Luke this week, and I have seen that God’s character, God’s sovereignty manifested clearly in several passages; but look at this particular one with me:

“And he came to Nazareth, where he had been brought up. And as was his custom, he went to the synagogue on the Sabbath day, and he stood up to read.  And the scroll of the prophet Isaiah was given to him. He unrolled the scroll and found the place where it was written,

“The Spirit of the Lord is upon me,
because he has anointed me
to proclaim good news to the poor.
He has sent me to proclaim liberty to the captives
and recovering of sight to the blind,
to set at liberty those who are oppressed,
 to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.”

And he rolled up the scroll and gave it back to the attendant and sat down. And the eyes of all in the synagogue were fixed on him. And he began to say to them, “Today this Scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.” And all spoke well of him and marveled at the gracious words that were coming from his mouth. And they said, “Is not this Joseph’s son?”  And he said to them, “Doubtless you will quote to me this proverb, ‘Physician, heal yourself.’ What we have heard you did at Capernaum, do here in your hometown as well.”

And he said, “Truly, I say to you, no prophet is acceptable in his hometown. But in truth, I tell you, there were many widows in Israel in the days of Elijah, when the heavens were shut up three years and six months, and a great famine came over all the land,  and Elijah was sent to none of them but only to Zarephath, in the land of Sidon, to a woman who was a widow.  And there were many lepers in Israel in the time of the prophet Elisha, and none of them was cleansed, but only Naaman the Syrian.”  When they heard these things, all in the synagogue were filled with wrath.  And they rose up and drove him out of the town and brought him to the brow of the hill on which their town was built, so that they could throw him down the cliff.  But passing through their midst, he went away.”
Jesus reads the great good news and every one is happy.
Jesus tells them that those good news, such a powerful prophetic Scripture was now being fulfilled in their hearing, the people are not only happy now, “they all spoke well of Him and were marveled at the gracious words that were coming from his mouth”. 
And here is where I stood, where I stopped reading. This is the gospel I grew believing and no more. It seems that I never read what was next. 
Jesus, has not finished his speech. He goes on to say that God is a Sovereign God, and as a Sovereign God He will not free every captive in the world, He will not free every poor, He will not give liberty to every single person in bondage, He will not give sight to every blind, He will not deliver every oppressed person, in sum, the “greatest good news” were not the “greatest good news for every one” 
The people’s reaction? They were all mad, furious, they were filled with wrath!
And this was my reaction too eight years ago when I heard this, when I read this for the first time, when I stood before a Sovereign God, and I did not want to believe.
But He had mercy on me, just as He had mercy towards one of the many widows in Israel, Zarephath, in Elijah’s time; I was in a land of famine and my pride was so built up, that I did not even recognize the famine in which I was living. I thought I was well fed.
God had mercy on me, just as He had mercy towards the one leper, Naaman, in Elisha’s time. He looked at me. I did not look for Him, I though I was clean, I sang in the praise and worship team, I taught, I even played the tambourine! But I was filthy, all those deeds were filthy rags; lights in a scenary pointing towards you,  make it harder to see your own leprosy. 
All in the synagogue as soon as they heard Jesus talking about God choosing some to receive the good news and some not to, were filled with wrath, they wanted to kill the One Sovereign God. That is not the kind of God they wanted. 
Maybe you are filled with wrath as you read this post just as the people in the synagogue were when they heard Jesus; know that my prayer for you today is that God will have mercy on you and that He will open your eyes to see the famine that has come into your land, and the leprosy that fills your heart.
May the good news be for you, poor soul!
May you hear His voice proclaiming liberty to your soul which is a captive of sin !
May you recover the sight!
May you be set free!
If you hear His voice today, do not harden your heart.

For further study:

Theological Term of the Week @ Rebecca Writes
The Sovereignty of God in Salvation by A.W Pink
The Absolute Sovereignty of God: What is Romans Nine About? by John Piper

More Than Copy Work

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She is almost seven, and she is learning how to trace cursive letters. Sometimes, she has to go back and trace few more that were not as beautiful as the model, but she compares her last trace with the one she did before.

It is then when I insist, “Look at the model, do not look at the last letter you have traced. Keep looking at the model”

And as I hear my words, I find a gem, an opprtunity to teach an eternal lesson hidden in them, and I keep up saying,

“It is just like our lives, we should always follow the God given model for our lives, the Bible. We should always compare what are we doing, how are we doing things, and why are we doing things (or not doing things) with the Word of God.”

Lord, help me always compare myself against your Word. Help me to keep my eyes focused on you, and on the perfect model you have given me, Jesus.

Happy copy work!

Counting Blessings

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I keep up counting the impossible, the blessings from God; I still try to give them numbers and I always come short.

His goodness, His faithfulness, His eternal decrees, His hand over my head, His love, His Grace, His mercy, and I just find myself trying to count, to keep on counting, because I want my children and grandchildren to read, and join me in offering up thanksgivings to our God and Maker; because I know this is the only safe way to look back.

763. Angiosperms and Gymnosperms and a fun light hut project.

764. Life hidden in a seed. The works of His hand.

765. Clay pots.

766. A visit to the flower market.

767. My parents’ 40th wedding anniversary.

768. Beautiful cursive copy books.

769. Long embraces in the quiet.

This beautiful picture was taken by my precious daughter!

770. I am grateful, Lord, for all your plans for our family.

771. I thank you, because you know my prayers even before I open my mouth.

772. Lord, thank you, because you did not only open a way for me to come to you, but you have given me the faith to believe in you, and believe that you reward those who seek you. This is amazing! (Hebrews 11:6)

773. Thank you for watering my soul.

774. My husband’s diligence.

775. The reading of your Word at our family table every day.

776. Our oldest son playing hymns over and over on the piano.

777. A son willing to create the most amazing “roller coaster” for his 6 yo sister with a big empty cardboard box.

778. Great weather to sit outside in the evenings.

779. Our dreams in your hands.

780. My friend Fa, who taught me that hospitality means opening the door not only to friends, but to the wounded.

781. A newborn baby in a family who fears the Lord.

782. A new pair of glasses.

783. Candles.

784. The fellowship with the saints at Church.

785. Lord, I am also thankful, for the things that this week did not turn as we wished, thank you because you are building our lives.

786. Thank you because our lives are hidden in Christ.

“Continue steadfastly in prayer, being watchful in it with thanksgiving” Col. 4:2 ESV

What are you grateful for today, my dear friend?

A Prayer, On the Morning of the Lord’s Day

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“We bless Thee, Lord,who hath shewed us light, and that the light we see is the Lord’s; that we see one more of the days of the Son of man, a day to be spent on Thy courts, which is better than a thousand elsewhere.


We thank thee, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that the things, which were hid  from the wise and prudent are revealed unto us babes, even so, Father, because it seemed good in Thine eyes: That our eyes see, and our ears hear that which mant prophets and  kings desired to see, desired to hear and might not, that life and immortality are brought to light by the gospel.


And now, O that we may be in the  Spirit on the Lord’s Day! that we may call the Sabbath a delight, and may honour the Son of man, who is the Lord also of the Sabbath-day, not doing our own ways, or finding our own pleasure, or speaking our own words.”


Matthew Henry, A Method for Prayer.

Have a most blessed Lord’s Day, my dear friends.

You may want to read a Family Prayer for the Lord’s Day Evening here.

Because We Love Friends

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This is true, we love our friends.

Friends who cry with us, friends who need that we cry with them.

Friends who listen and friends who need to be listened to.

Friends who laugh and others who need our laughter.

Friends who encourage and others who need encouragment.

Friends who support us in prayer, friends who need our prayers.

Friends.

We women are especially willing to engage in deep friendships, we love to talk and encourage others and just be friends; but as I teach my daughters about friendship, I need to go deeper and teach them, really teach them, about this issue which can build them up or tear them down.

I have seen this, I have been at a Starbucks by myself trying to read a book and suddenly the conversation besides me  calls my attention. A group of women, all loud, all “friends”, and their words are only words that destroy their husbands and children. It is almost like a competition to see which one of their husbands is the worst, the meanest, the less preapared, and the least affectionate.

It is true, these women are probably not Christians, but I have also seen this particular way of conversing around a table in which the women around it call themselves Christians. The difference? They do exactly the same, but add the words “Please, help me pray for my husband or my children….”

Mary, a woman who found favor in the eyes of the Lord, learned from the beginning a valuable lesson that we, women who fear the Lord, must learn; the Bible says that  “Mary treasured up all these things, pondering them in her heart…” (Luke 2:19)

Who are our friends? What do we talk about around a coffee table? Is it about the weaknesses of our husbands or children? Are we gossiping in the form of  “prayer requests”? What is in our heart? Let us pray to the Lord and ask Him forgiveness if we have done this.

Every time we open up the secrets of our home over a coffee table, we are walking away from wisdom, away from prudence, away from understanding; in the book of Proverbs 2: 9-13, we read:

“For wisdom will come into your heart,
   and knowledge will be pleasant to your soul;
  discretion will watch over you,
   understanding will guard you,
   delivering you from the way of evil,
   from men of perverted speech”

Women dress up beautifuly to meet with their friends, yet they often forget what the Bible teaches about a woman who is not discreet:

“Like a gold ring in a pig’s snout
   is a beautiful woman without discretion.”
Proverbs 11: 22

I want to teach my daughters all these and now that they are young, they are already learning that it is not Biblical to talk about their parents’ or brother’s mistakes in the company of others. They are learning that certain things need to be kept inside our home.

If you are really in a desperate situation, don’t go over to a coffee table, go first of all to your husband, and then go to an elderly woman in the Church in whom you know you can trust.

Friends,  godly friends are a gift from God. I have been greatly blessed with many women in my life who love God and love their families so much that they do not come to our coffee table to tell the me all about the sins of their husbands and children. They honor them, they are grateful, they build wisely, and walk in prudence. For this I am thankful.

“Whoever goes about slandering reveals secrets,
but he who is trustworthy in spirit keeps a thing covered.”
Prov 11:13 ESV

I have also learned that if I want to honor my husband and our relationship, I should come always to him first. He is my Beloved, he is my best friend, he is the one who holds my hand in the night. I should never choose oher friends over his friendship. Whenever I share about a personal struggle with a friend, he knows about it. He is never left out.

My friends have helped me be a better wife, a better mom; they have encouraged me to good works, to grow in my sanctification, and for this I am grateful. 

We insist to our children about the importance of choosing excellent friends, godly friends? Do we hold the same standard for ourselves?

Do we choose wisely?

I pray I will always do.

“Whoever goes about slandering reveals secrets;
 therefore do not associate with a simple babbler”
Prov 20:19 ESV

“The righteous chooses his friends carefully
but the way of the wicked leads them astray”
Prov 12:26 ESV

May you find today beautiful opportunities to bless your friends.

The pictures were taken in a trip with my best friends, my husband and my sister with her husband. We had a wonderful time. It was a gift indeed!

A book which helped me grow into the woman I am now is this:

The Fruit of Her Hands

 
sign up here and read along! 
We will start the conversation Tuesday, October 12. 
Don’t miss it!

This post is linked to Raising Homemakers