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.

Memorize by Heart, Live by It -Titus 1: 1-4-

Posted on by
4

 

Titus 1

1 Paul, a servant of God and an apostle of Jesus Christ, for the sake of the faith of God’s elect and their knowledge of the truth, which accords with godliness, 2 in hope of eternal life, which God, who never lies, promised before the ages began 3 and at the proper time manifested in his word through the preaching with which I have been entrusted by the command of God our Savior;

4 To Titus, my true child in a common faith:

Grace and peace from God the Father and Christ Jesus our Savior.

How are you doing with this week’s memory verses? I must admit that for me it has not been easy. Normally the opening and greeting in the epistles are somehow easy to memorize; but this one has been tougher.

I have “broken” this set of verses in a manner that will help me understand with more clarity what the apostle is saying and at the same time memorize with ease:

Paul was two things: 

First of all: a servant of God

Second: and apostle of Jesus Christ


For what reason: 

1. For the sake of the faith of God’s elect (and here, as I have been repeating these words slowly as to eat them them without chocking, I see the doctrine of Divine Election. It is so clear. Faith belongs to those who have been elected by God!)

2. Their knowledge of the truth [which accords with godliness]

Now see this beauty, the faith of God’s elect and their knowledge of the Truth (yes, we must have knowledge of the truth, we must study the Word) accord with godliness. They go hand in hand with godliness, not with arrogance and a prideful heart, but with godliness.  When you meditate on these words, one by one, you see this, and let me share with you that the Holy Spirit has convicted me in some areas of my life in which I have professed to have the faith, and I certainly have the knowledge but clearly lack godliness.

The saints can persevere in godliness because of the hope of eternal life which God, who never lies, promised before the ages began. Do you see this? WOW! I get all excited when I read these words. We are not hopeless, we don’t desperately mourn the loss of those whom we love and have gone to be with the Lord, because of this hope. We can live like many saints have lived before us, without fearing death, because of this hope. We have hope of eternal life. God’s elect have hope in the eternal life He has promised. And He never lies.

He never lies.


He never lies.

Now verse 3 tells us the incredible way God has chosen to make known his Word, and that is through the preaching of it. I pray God will give me a heart that burns within in me to preach the gospel to those who have not heard it. I fear that sometimes I am more worried to have a sound doctrine -and defend it- than to reach for those who have not heard the gospel yet.


And the closing line in these verses: 

Grace and peace from God the Father and Christ Jesus our Savior. 

Grace: what makes this word so special is that there is another one on the other side: guilty. We can not be amazed by God’s grace if it were not because He has taken away all guilt and sin from us.

Peace: True peace is only found when Grace has met us. First comes grace, then peace, in that order.

“Grace began in eternity, and it extends to eternity. we don not have to worry about exhausting the supply of God’s mercy because of the duration of grace: forever.”         Bryan Chapell

Under His sun and by His grace,

Becky

Grateful for Our Love Story

Posted on by
8

Because it is February and “love is in the air”…

I woke up close to my man, and as he noticed that I was awake he held me closer. And just being there, in my favorite place to be, I kept thinking with my eyes half closed.

Isn’t this why waited? To wake up together in bed.

Isn’t this what we dreamed of?  To sleep side by side all nights, all of our lives.

Isn’t this the story we desperately wanted to live?

And now we are in it, we are living it. It is for real.

After all these years we are still making and living our love story, and I don’t want to forget that.

The dreams we dreamed many years ago. The words we spoke. The promises we made. The Yes-I-Do. The growing old together. All this is actually happening and I want to enjoy every second of it; after all, it is our love story. I am the wife and I am married to the man of my dreams.

Who have thought that the “And they lived happily ever after” is true, not because happiness is easy to have, but because the trials are many. The living-happily-ever-after, happens because together we have fought dragons, and walked through valleys of desolation, and have seen not only our physical nakedness, but our naked souls. Because we have not only said to each other “te amo” a thousand of times, but because we have also forgiven each other more than a thousand of times.

Somehow, when one has been married for several years, it is easy forget that we are living the love story we dreamed of. Why? When did we stop seeing the daily routine as the frame in which our love would grow stronger? In what page number of our story did we stop looking intensely at each other’s eyes? In what chapter did we stop getting excited to listen to each other’s voice over the phone, and long for a long embrace at night?

All good stories are worth reading over and over again. And when we don’t understand a part of it, we must go back and re-read, and find the missing pieces to try to understand. Why not going back… a few pages or maybe a few chapters and see what is it that we have missed?

Maybe a long kiss has the magic to bring fire to that love story again…

Maybe a yes…

Maybe a note…

Maybe an embrace when he gets home…

You know how you started your story with the one you love; reread the beginning and find, please, by all means find whatever it takes to keep the fire on. Do whatever it takes to keep dreaming and writing, and living your love story.

Today I am grateful, deeply grateful to my God and my husband…

#1489  for our beautiful love story. I want to keep on writing it with him… living it at his side.

Becky

Praying the Psalms -Psalm 119: 25-32-

Posted on by
2

 

Shiloh Photography

 

Psalm 119:25-32
(ESV)
Daleth
25 My soul clings to the dust;
give me life according to your word!
26 When I told of my ways, you answered me;
teach me your statutes!
27 Make me understand the way of your precepts,
and I will meditate on your wondrous works.
28 My soul melts away for sorrow;
strengthen me according to your word!
29 Put false ways far from me
and graciously teach me your law!
30 I have chosen the way of faithfulness;
I set your rules before me.
31 I cling to your testimonies, O LORD;
let me not be put to shame!
32 I will run in the way of your commandments
when you enlarge my heart!

Lord, I come to you, to your Word, still clinging to the dust, to my humanity, to my weakness. My sin is in front of me, and I want to be pure of heart. God, I need your Word. I need your Word to change my life, to turn my thoughts, the way I see life, all of it turn it upside down. O LORD, give me life according to your Word. Set your eyes on me and give me life as I read the Word, as I memorize and meditate on them. Give me life as I consider one by one your words.

Answer my prayer, Lord. Teach me, please, teach me your statutes, help me to live by them, to treasure them, to make them mine. To be able to see all through the lens of Your Word.

Make me understand the way of your precepts, and I will meditate on your wondrous works. That is the only way my soul will find rest when sorrow comes. O Lord, strengthen me according to your Word. Strengthen my inner being, so that I can fight effectively with the Sword in my hand and in my mouth, against my flesh, against the assaults of the devil, against this world and all the pleasures it offers me.

Have mercy on me, LORD, and put false ways far from me and graciously teach me your law! Give me grace to learn obedience and deliver me from evil.  Oh Father, I have chosen the way of faithfulness; I want to set your rules, Your Word before me. I do not want to depart. I want to abide in you, in your Word. Help me, Lord.

Lord, I cling now to your testimonies, let me not be put to shame. Help me live what I memorize, help me be a doer and not a fool that disobeys.

Enlarge my heart, Father, and I will run in the way of your commandments.

In the name of Jesus Christ, the Word made flesh,

Amen

Becky

Why Two Words are Better than Three -A Short Spanish Lesson-

Posted on by
5

Words have the power to bring life or death; joy or sadness; clarity or confusion; liberty or captivity. It is just amazing how much of our lives are built upon the words we have said and the words we have heard.

It is true then, that to know which words are better to use, and when to use them, is not an easy business. Now, if you happen to know more than one language you will find it very interesting to see how some words that are not part of your mother tongue are the perfect fit for a certain occasion, and no matter how hard you try to find a substitute for them in your own language, all seem too short.

For me this has been true, especially with one phrase, a powerful one: I love you

In English we love our cars, our new shoes, our country, our brownies, our coffee in the morning. In Spanish we like those (we could even be “enchanted” by those, as in the phrase: “Me encanta el café y el chocolate”).

In English we love our friends, our neighbors, our husband, our God. In Spanish we don’t.

We have two different phrases that help us distinguish between the way we love some of our friends and the way we love, for example, our husband.

In Spanish we have two ways of expressing our love:

Te quiero
 
 Te Amo

The difference?

Te quiero is a phrase that you would use to express your love for a good friend, for example.

Te amo is a totally different story.  

Te amo is special.  

Te amo is never said lightly.
 
Te amo is more intimate.

Te amo are the two words that are spoken softly in the ear of the wife.

Te amo are the words that a wife uses to sign a love letter for her husband.

Te amo are the words that a mom whispers to her baby in the arms, and the ones she says on the phone to her son living in another country.

Te amo are the words we say to our best friend, our brother, our sister who prays and cries with us through the darkest nights.

Te amo are the words a father tells her daughter every night.

Te amo are the words that I say in prayer to my God.

I am thinking that at times two words are better than three. Te amo and I love you will never mean the same. At least for me.

Learning to love,

Becky

Praying the Psalms -Psalm 63-

Posted on by
3

Psalm 63

    A Psalm of David, when he was in the wilderness of Judah.
1 O God, you are my God; earnestly I seek you;
my soul thirsts for you;
my flesh faints for you,
as in a dry and weary land where there is no water.
2 So I have looked upon you in the sanctuary,
beholding your power and glory.
3 Because your steadfast love is better than life,
my lips will praise you.
4 So I will bless you as long as I live;
in your name I will lift up my hands.
 5 My soul will be satisfied as with fat and rich food,
and my mouth will praise you with joyful lips,
6 when I remember you upon my bed,
and meditate on you in the watches of the night;
7 for you have been my help,
and in the shadow of your wings I will sing for joy.
8 My soul clings to you;
your right hand upholds me.
 9 But those who seek to destroy my life
shall go down into the depths of the earth;
10 they shall be given over to the power of the sword;
they shall be a portion for jackals.
11 But the king shall rejoice in God;
all who swear by him shall exult,
for the mouths of liars will be stopped.

God, my God, sometimes it is your will to bring your people to a dry land. Sometimes coming to the desert means passing through trials, other times it means that we feel as if You were distant and we were forsaken.

What to do Lord, in times like this?

What to do when the heat is burning, the mind can’t think clearly, the heart is weary and the eyes can’t see clearly?

What to do when You seem afar?

Should we hide ourselves under a rock in the desert, and just wait with the face hidden between the hands until the fiery sand storm passes by?

David was there, in the desert, running away to save his life. He was weary in a land where his thirst couldn’t be satisfied. But in that desolate place he called on you. In the wilderness he lifted up his eyes and looked upon you, in your Sanctuary, and saw your power and glory.

Jesus was also brought by Your Spirit to the desert, no water touched his lips for forty days, and yet in the driest land, where the Devil met him and tempted him, He found strength and vigor in your Word. You alone satisfied Him.

Father, I don’t ask that you won’t take me to a dry land. I just pray that when you take me there, I will call upon Your Name. That during the dry seasons, my flesh won’t fall into sinning seeking to be satisfied with other things rather than You and your Word.

God, don’t ever let me forget that your steadfast love is better than life. Better than breathing, better than all the beautiful moments I might live; better that the best gift it has pleased you to give me. Better than a song in the night and times of joy. Better than all the kingdoms of this world, better than all those things that promise me satisfaction but draw me far away from You.

Even when the winds blow hard against me, when the sand storm won’t let me open my eyes, I ask you, God, my God, lift my head and let me see your power and glory. Even when my eyes are cracking from lack of water and my mouth doesn’t find a way to pronounce a word because its dry, even then, let me sing your praise.

Lord, I will bless you as long as I live. And not because of my will power; not because I try hard, but because You have promised that nothing, not even the most dreadful deserts will be able to separate me from your perfect Love.

Thank you for hope, thank you because You don’t keep your people forever in the desert land. You always bring us to a time of feasting and rejoicing; a time when our soul eats at your table and is always satisfied. Thank you because you always provide times in which our lips can’t contain your praises. Times when joy overflows, and gladness is our companion.

Night comes, always, as a gift from Your hand that we may rest and think, and meditate on your Word and in all we have said and done. Night is a gift from you always. In the times of desolation as well as in the times of prosperity, night comes and we come to our bed and You are there.  And no matter, Lord, in which season of my life I am in the night, I always see how You have been my constant help. How you have kept me and my children in the shadow of your wings.

I cling to you, my God. I cling to you as much as a woman clings to her man; as much as much as a the baby to her nursing Mom. I cling to you in the desert and in the land in which honey and milk overflows. In both places I need you or I die. Uphold me with Your right hand. Sustain me when I am weak, hold me tight when I am fainting.  Hold me with Your mighty hand when temptation comes, when the devil tempts me.  Give me victory and fill my mouth with your praises, that I may rejoice in You and be satisfied in You alone, my God and King.

Amen

Becky