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.

Praying the Psalms -Psalm 11-

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©Shiloh Photography

 

Psalm 11
To the choirmaster. Of David.
In the Lord I take refuge;
how can you say to my soul,
“Flee like a bird to your mountain,
for behold, the wicked bend the bow;
they have fitted their arrow to the string
to shoot in the dark at the upright in heart;
if the foundations are destroyed,
what can the righteous do?”
The Lord is in his holy temple;
the Lord’s throne is in heaven;
his eyes see, his eyelids test the children of man.
The Lord tests the righteous,
but his soul hates the wicked and the one who loves violence.
Let him rain coals on the wicked;
fire and sulfur and a scorching wind shall be the portion of their cup.
For the Lord is righteous;
he loves righteous deeds;
the upright shall behold his face.

Father of all Comforts, I come to you with a most grateful heart because you have opened a way for your children to approach you. You have invited us to come and lay our hearts open before you. Thank you for opening a way to your Throne of Mercy through Jesus Christ our Lord and Savior.

Father, so many times when the trials come, and I cannot see clearly what is it that you are doing, and the hand of my enemies, those sins that hunt me, rise with fury against me, my heart wishes to flee.

And I see this same things happens to my fellow brothers and sisters; when the devil attacks, many times we just want to flee away. How fool of us! Instead of running to you, instead of praying more and reading the bible more, and meditate on it even more. Instead of running to our Strong Tower, we long to flee! And then we found ourselves in a desolate place where all is cold and quiet; and there in the hiding place we have made ourselves, we cry to You and ask why You are not close, why You feel so distant. We are full of fears, full of doubts and the longer we stay there, the farther you seem to be, and yet we don’t open our Bibles, we don’t pray, we just grumble and despair. Our foundations seem to fall apart, our faith is weary. What can we do now? Father, we are yours, we cannot remain in the dark of own hiding place much longer, we belong to you, O Father of Light, help us see that every time we flee from our enemies, if we don’t flee towards You, the pain will only grow deeper and become unbearable, and our faith will start to shatter into a thousand little pieces. O Holy Spirit draw us to the Father!

Wonderful Father, you have shown us where to find You, you have opened the way for us, You have bid us to come to you. Many situations may swirl around us, and yet You remain the same. Sovereign God, always sited in your throne, in your holy temple. Nothing moves You, nothing can hinder your plans. You are above all of us reigning sovereignly. Your eyes are watching us, even there when we are alone in that secret hiding place that we have foolishly made “far away” from You. You see us and test us. How long until we come to our senses and understand that is in You, only in You that we will find rest? It is only when we abide in your presence that we can fight and conquer sin. It is not in running away from You with shame and guilt that we will be safe; but it is only when we come to you in prayer, asking forgiveness for our sins, that we will be safe, that we will be strengthen, that our foundation will not be destroyed but made even stronger.O Father, draw us near to the cross, draw us to Jesus, draw us to see to empty tomb and our Savior risen! Strengthen our faith, O Lord!

We pray, destroy our enemies, O Lord, and help us fight the good fight of faith. Help us hate all wickedness and love righteousness. Help us run to you in times of need.

O Lord, that we may behold your face.

Amen

Becky

On Titus 3: 1-15 Living Out Grace

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Remind them to be submissive to rulers and authorities, to be obedient, to be ready for every good work, to speak evil of no one, to avoid quarreling, to be gentle, and to show perfect courtesy toward all people. For we ourselves were once foolish, disobedient, led astray, slaves to various passions and pleasures, passing our days in malice and envy, hated by others and hating one another. But when the goodness and loving kindness of God our Savior appeared, he saved us, not because of works done by us in righteousness, but according to his own mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit, whom he poured out on us richly through Jesus Christ our Savior, so that being justified by his grace we might become heirs according to the hope of eternal life. The saying is trustworthy, and I want you to insist on these things, so that those who have believed in God may be careful to devote themselves to good works. These things are excellent and profitable for people. But avoid foolish controversies, genealogies, dissensions, and quarrels about the law, for they are unprofitable and worthless. As for a person who stirs up division, after warning him once and then twice, have nothing more to do with him, knowing that such a person is warped and sinful; he is self-condemned.

When I send Artemas or Tychicus to you, do your best to come to me at Nicopolis, for I have decided to spend the winter there. Do your best to speed Zenas the lawyer and Apollos on their way; see that they lack nothing. And let our people learn to devote themselves to good works, so as to help cases of urgent need, and not be unfruitful.

All who are with me send greetings to you. Greet those who love us in the faith.

Grace be with you all.

How we need these reminders, to be submissive to the authorities God has appointed over us, starting with our own husband, and keep an obedient heart is pretty easy to forget. And this is specially difficult when the wife seems to be the one studying and reading all the books, and even being more concerned for the spiritual life of the family. If this is your case, sister, I want to encourage you to get rid of a mind-set that wants you to rise above your husband. He is God’s authority appointed in your home. Always pray for him, honor him, give him your advice, share your thoughts but at the end, bless his decision and hold his hand tight.

Another word on submission and obedience is that we must be extremely careful not to give any kind advice to any of our friends against the authority God has placed over them.  If your friend comes and asks you some advice, make sure that she is not only trying to find in you an ally against her husband’s decisions. This is a very delicate matter. We don’t want to sow disagreement between our friend and the authorities God has placed over her. The same principle applies if a young woman asks you some kind of an advice only to find more support to rebel against her parents. The odds are that her parents know a side of the story that you don’t.

Next we have some characteristics that should govern all our relationships.  Attitudes through which we’ll show all others, Christians and non-Christians alike,  the Grace of God in our lives.

Consider them carefully:

* Be ready for every good work.
* Speak evil of no one.
* Avoid quarreling.
* Be gentle.
* Show perfectly courtesy toward all people.

The easiest way to live a life that is always giving grace, is remembering our own condition. Not forgetting how our former lives without Christ looked like will keep us humble, and always with a desire to give and serve more and more.

Don’t judge the one who denies Truth;
you once were fool like that.
Be merciful to the disobedient;
you once lived loving anarchism.
Don’t quit on those who are being led astray by false teachers;
you once were one of them.
Love those who are slaves to various passions and pleasures;
don’t forget how much you loved your own sins.
Don’t forget those who pass their days in malice and envy;
remember how you used to spend your days, your nights.
Give grace to those who only know how to hate;
you once hated the Light, Jesus.
Don’t forget how grace appeared to you in Jesus.
Don’t forget how goodness and loving kindness reached for you
when you were in the most desolate pit.

Don’t forget how “when the goodness and loving kindness of God and Savior appeared to save us not because of work done by us in righteousness, but according to his own mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit, whom he poured out on us richly through Jesus Christ our Savior, so that being justified by his grace we might become heirs according to the hope of eternal life.”

All this “remembering” is so that we may keep ourselves humble, grateful, and “so that those who have believed in God may be careful to devote themselves to good works.” It is interesting to note the words Paul chooses, “be careful to devote themselves…” If we are not careful, most likely we will soon find ourselves caught up in foolish controversies, genealogies, dissensions, and quarrels about all kind of Theological issues, while loving to stir up division and hating our neighbor in need by neglecting him. Sin of omission is real and it is very subtle, beware of its presence; it crawls in the heart and feeds on pride and arrogance.

Again on verse 14 Paul says it again, “let our people learn to devote themselves to good works, so as to help cases of urgent need, and not be unfruitful.” If it is mentioned twice, it must be urgent. Let us not forget that this is the way we live grace, devoting ourselves to good works, loving the unlovable, and reaching to the one in need. This is not easy, at least it is not for me. The excuses are always there, but light has shown in the darkest corner of my heart and now those excuses, have been exposed by God’s Word; I must repent and reach with grace towards those around me, in a more significant way.

Thank God, for His Word, and for the wonderful gifts He has given us: Memories to remember His Word, hearts in which to treasaure it and daily lives to practice it.

Grace be with you all,

Becky

Vanilla, The Totonac Lands and The Rest of the World

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I think I have not shared with you how much I enjoy reading books about food; so now that you know let me tell you that I am in the middle of a book -with a very beautiful cover- called Vanilla, Travels in the Search of The Ice Cream Orchid. Some facts are interesting enough to share with you, so here they go, enjoy reading them and then go get some vanilla ice cream!

“The vanilla orchid is not a showy flower; it has only a slight scent, with no element of vanilla flavour or aroma… The growing process lasts up to nine months, but only when the pods turn brown after being dried and cured do they develop the distinctive aroma we call vanilla.”

 

“The Aztecs, like the Maya before them, knew that the black pods could be dried and ground up as flavouring for xocoatl, the bitter liquid made from cacao, which we know today as chocolate. It was a drink reserved for the aristocracy, or for soldiers about to go into battle.”

 

“The vanilla story begins in the salt-thick air of Veracruz. Here, the first vanilla plants were cultivated and tended by the people who called themselves Totonac. These people found the wild orchids and called them xa’nat. The Totonac say that the flowers and their scented seed pods sprang from blood. Not just ordinary blood, but the blood of a princess who was so beautiful and so pure in spirit that her father decided she would never be possesed by any mortal man… According to the legend… Princess Tzacopontziza and her lover committed a mortal sin, and the priests decapitated them both… after some days a bush sprang from the ground where their blood had spilled. Very soon an orchid was seen growing among its branches. The plant grew… When the beans matured they darkened, eventually emitting an exquisite perfume more beautiful than anything the subjects of  King Teniztli had ever known before. People believed that the scent was the pure sweet soul of the dead Princess and the orchid that grew in the mountains was declared sacred.”

 

“More than half of all the world’s vanilla beans end up in the United States.”

What about those little specks you get in vanilla ice cream?

“That’s just cosmetic… It’s just a marketing thing; sometimes they don’t use the seeds just tiny specks of exhausted beans.”

“There are more than a hundred different species of vanilla orchid, and they grow all over the tropics with the exception of Australia… but only a few species bear the large aromatic pods which can be used commercially.”

 

“At the end of her life. Queen Elizabeth I developed a taste for puddings containing vanilla.”

 

“Vanilla planters cannot rely on natural pollinators to fertilize their orchids. They must do the job themselves.”

 

“If legend is to be believed, Cortés became the first European to taste vanilla, an ingredient in xocoatl, which Moctezuma presented to him in a gilded goblet carved from tortoiseshell.”

Well, I am off to read some more and find some vanilla ice cream as a mid-day snack.

Hope you are having a wonderful day!

Becky

A Prayer On the Necessities of Friendship

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The Necessities of Friendship from A Barclay Prayer Book

Keep us, O God, from all the things which make friendship impossible.

Keep us from
The sarcastic tongue;
The critical eye;
The ears which love malicious gossip;
The mind which thinks the worst;
The heart whose only love is self-love.

Give us the things which enable friendship to flourish.

Give us
The ability to bear one another’s burdens and to forgive one another’s faults;
The sympathetic, the unselfish and the understanding heart;
The temper and the tongue which are always under control;
The determination to treat others as we would have them treat us;
The tolerance which can always see the pint of view of others.

Help us to live remembering that in you we live and move and have our being,
and that life is always in your sight.

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Today I am making this prayer mine as I thank God for the friends He has given me, and as I ask Him to give me the grace I need to be a good friend to them.

Becky

A Prayer on the The Resurrection Day

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The Disciples Peter and John Running to the Sepulchre on the Morning of the Resurrection by Eugène Burnard
O LORD,
I marvel that thou shouldst become incarnate,
be crucified, dead, and buried.
The sepulchre calls forth my adoring wonder,
for it is empty and thou art risen;
the four-fold gospel attests it,
the living witnesses prove it,
my heart’s experience knows it.
Give me to die with thee that I may rise to new life,
for I wish to be as dead and buried
to sin, to selfishness, to the world;
that I might not hear the voice of the charmer,
and might be delivered from his lusts.
O Lord, there is so much ill about me -crucify it,
much flesh within me -mortify it.
Purge me from selfishness, the fear of man, the love of approbation,
the shame of being thought old-fashioned,
the desire to be cultivated or modern.
Let me reckon my old life dead because of crucifixion,
and never feed it as a living thing.
Grant me to stand with my dying Savior,
to be content to be rejected,
to be willing to take up unpopular truths,
and to hold fast despised teachings until death.
Help me to be resolute and Christ-contained.
Never let me wander from the path of obedience to thy will.
Strengthen me for the battles ahead.
Give me courage for all the trials, and grace for all the joys.
Help me to be a holy, happy person,
free from every wrong desire,
from everything contrary to thy mind.
Grant me more and more of the resurrection life:
may it rule me.
may I walk in its power, and be strengthen through its influence.
Give me the assurance that in Christ I died, in Him I rose,
in His life I live, in His victory I triumph,
in His ascension I shall be glorified.
Adorable Redeemer,
Thous who wast lifted up upon a cross
art ascended to highest heaven.
Thou, who as a man of sorrows wast crowned with thorns,
art now as Lord of life wreathed with glory.
What more could be done that thou hast done!
Thy death is my life,
thy resurrection my peace,
thy ascension my hope,
thy prayers my comfort.
Amen

Because in Him we live,

Becky

*From the Valley of Vision’s prayers: Resurrection and, Crucifixion and Resurrection.

Repentance Should be Noticed -Notes from my Reading Corner-

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Buy at Monergism Books

I have been reading these past few days Dan Phillip’s book, The World-Tilting Gospel, and I have certainly enjoyed it very much. This is a book that I recommend to anyone who professes to be a Christian but cannot explain the basics of his faith: what is the Gospel for example,  and what does it mean -and why it matters so much- to have a Biblical worldview. On the other hand, it is a book that I  recommend to those who already know the answers to those questions, but love the Gospel so much that reading about the wonderful truths in it is always a joy, a refreshment. It is like taking the time to sit back on a lovely day and be reminded of all its beauty, and once more, fall in love with it.

Yesterday I read what Phillips writes about repentance; and it made me think about the beauty of it. O what a wonderful gift it is to us! Yet, just like we do with many other of the gifts we receive from God, at times we despise it.  How many times have we used this word only as an excuse to hide the sin we love? We say “I repent, forgive me,” only to keep on doing exactly the same thing, over and over again; making no effort to kill that sin; making no attempt to mortify the sin that wants to rule our conduct and destroy our relationships.

Phillips says,

“Sticking with just the words translated “repent/ repentance” in the Greek NT, we start with the term’s fundamental idea: ‘Change your mind.’ However, I must issue an immediate warning: Beware mistaking ‘change your mind’ as meaning simply ‘shift an opinion or two.’ The ‘change’ is a radical, top-to-bottom change; and it is the ‘mind’ that must change, not merely some individual notion.”

 

“Maybe a better explanation of repentance would be a transformed mind, or a transformed way of thinking that issues in a transformed life.

We are exposed to the Word of God; and as a result, the way we look at and think about everything is transformed.”

“Everything is transformed,” this just hits hard. If we are still in this body, we are still struggling with our sinful nature, that is true. But, if we are true believers, repentance should be part of our daily walk with the Lord, which in turns means that we should be transformed every day in all things, in our attitudes, in the way we see things, in the way we look at the world. Always walking forward toward the goal: our sanctification.

Change and transformation must be part of our daily life. I don’t want to be the same person that I am today in ten years, or two months, or three weeks from now; not even when I go to bed tonight.

Phillips explains, taking the example of the Churches at Ephesus and Thessalonica, how when they repented, “their fundamental beliefs changed, and their loves changed -in costly, practical ways.” “They turned from the dead false idols they served, and to the living and true God, to a life centered around their hope in the Lord.”

“One cannot seek God or turn to Him without by that act turning away from sin. it is impossible to lie in the arms of sin as lover, or serve sin as master, and at the same time love and serve God. One cannot turn to God without turning away from sin.”

And this truth not only refers to the first time we are called out of darkness into His admirable light. This is true for today, in our Christian walk. Today I cannot turn to God without turning away from sin.

Today as we look at the Cross and take time to examine our heart, I pray we will truly grasp by the Spirit of God, what true repentance means so that, in turn, we may be changed into his likeness.

Under His grace,

Becky

If you are interested, you can read a more thorough review of this book at Douglas Wilson’s Blog.

More on repentance:

“All too frequently repentance is either not taught at all or it is in the fine print. We somehow feel that if we get a person to “receive Christ as their personal Savior” it will automatically change their heart. We don’t bother to find out if the person wants a changed heart. The Greek word for repentance simply means to change your mind. Do the people we “lead to Christ” want HIm to change their minds? Sad to say, frequently they do not. Too many people today think that it is possible to believe in God and be a Christian without turning to God and away from their sin. This is not the gospel message of Paul.”
Douglas Wilson, Beginning with Repentance

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