Me From the Inside Out

Thanksgiving 2020

Posted on November 28, 2020November 28, 2020 by

In everything give thanks: for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you.
1 Thessalonians 5:18

What a year we have had! Different from any other than we have known – which may be said of any year – but let’s be honest – not with quite the magnitude of 2020! It’s been filled with a pandemic that’s included confusion, fears, deaths, arguments, economic struggles, and disasters, loss of lives and jobs and sanity – and the list goes on. We have watched riots of various degrees and reasons, and political chaos, not to mention all of the individual happenings in our own lives.

So how, in this crazy messed up world, can we be thankful? And, for what can we be thankful? As I was typing these questions, a song I heard and sang often growing up in church came to mind. Count Your Blessings, was just a hymn in those days but little did I know that the words were teaching me a lesson I would use throughout the course of my life. I don’t know when it happened, but for as long as I can remember it has actually been a ‘go-to’ for me in times of trouble or sadness. I have used its underlying principle of naming my blessings whenever life is challenging, or disappointing, depressing, discouraging … well, you get the picture. Since any of those words could easily sum up 2020 it isn’t surprising that it comes to mind now.

In looking up the lyrics – so that I could make sure to include all the right words and the writers name, I came across this quote published in a “Story Behind the Song“, in the St. Augustine Record. Since it goes to the heart of the issue that led to me writing today’s post it seems very fitting to share here –

All too often, in this great land of America, we seem to lapse into a state of ingratitude, taking for granted all of the blessings and comforts we enjoy. We revert into an attitude of self-satisfaction, expecting that peace and bliss will always follow us. During those times we should, with sincerity of heart, count our blessings!”
Posted November 20, 2014

The author of the quote, whose name I could not find, hits the proverbial nail on the head with saying that – “we seem to lapse into a state of ingratitude”, though, I would add self-entitlement to the reasoning of “self-satisfaction”. Here’s why, the word attitude is defined as – “a settled way of thinking or feeling about someone or something, typically one that is reflected in a person’s behavior.” Let’s face it – if our gratitude is dependent on self our preconceived satisfaction and entitlements will always fall short and leave us, ultimately, in some form of despair. However, when our settled way of thinking and feeling about anything is based on God, who He is and what He’s done, we will always find something to be thankful for. Ann VosKamp said it like this, Joy is a function of gratitude – and gratitude is a function of perspective. Yes, even in this epic year there is something to be thankful for. I encourage you – here and now – name one blessing – one thing in 2020 that you are thankful for … then another and another. Count them – name them one by one – I promise you will be surprised at what God has done – in your life, in another’s, or in our world. Stop and take a minute to comment below with one thing you’re thankful for … you might just inspire a list of gratitude in someone else.

No amount of regret changes the past,
no amount of anxiety changes the future,
any amount of gratitude changes the present.
– Ann VosKamp

Count Your Blessings Lyrics

Everlasting Covenant: The Blessing of Christ

Posted on November 27, 2020November 27, 2020 by

Today’s Scripture: Genesis 22:15-18; Ephesians 1:3-14 (S.O.A.P. Ephesians 1:11-12)

Genesis 22:15-18 New Living Translation

Then the angel of the Lord called again to Abraham from heaven. ¹⁶“This is what the Lord says: Because you have obeyed M and have not withheld even your son, your only son, I swear by My own name that ¹⁷I will certainly bless you. I will multiply your descendants^[a] beyond number, like the stars in the sky and the sand on the seashore. Your descendants will conquer the cities of their enemies. ¹⁸And through your descendants all the nations of the earth will be blessed—all because you have obeyed Me.”

Ephesians 1:3-14 New Living Translation

Spiritual Blessings

All praise to God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly realms because we are united with Christ. ⁴Even before he made the world, God loved us and chose us in Christ to be holy and without fault in his eyes. ⁵God decided in advance to adopt us into his own family by bringing us to himself through Jesus Christ. This is what he wanted to do, and it gave him great pleasure. ⁶So we praise God for the glorious grace he has poured out on us who belong to his dear Son.^[a] ⁷He is so rich in kindness and grace that he purchased our freedom with the blood of his Son and forgave our sins. ⁸He has showered his kindness on us, along with all wisdom and understanding.

⁹God has now revealed to us his mysterious will regarding Christ—which is to fulfill His own good plan. ¹⁰And this is the plan: At the right time he will bring everything together under the authority of Christ—everything in heaven and on earth. ¹¹Furthermore, because we are united with Christ, we have received an inheritance from God,^[b] for He chose us in advance, and He makes everything work out according to His plan.

¹²God’s purpose was that we Jews who were the first to trust in Christ would bring praise and glory to God. ¹³And now you Gentiles have also heard the truth, the Good News that God saves you. And when you believed in Christ, He identified you as His own^[c] by giving you the Holy Spirit, whom He promised long ago. ¹⁴The Spirit is God’s guarantee that He will give us the inheritance He promised and that He has purchased us to be His own people. He did this so we would praise and glorify Him.

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Ephesians 1:11 Reference

Ephesians 1:12 Reference

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Everlasting Covenant: The Promised Land

Posted on November 27, 2020November 27, 2020 by

Today’s Scripture: Genesis 15:7-21; Hebrews 11:8-10 (S.O.A.P. Hebrews 11:9-10)

Then the Lord told him, “I am the Lord who brought you out of Ur of the Chaldeans to give you this land as your possession.”

⁸But Abram replied, “O Sovereign Lord, how can I be sure that I will actually possess it?”

⁹The Lord told him, “Bring me a three-year-old heifer, a three-year-old female goat, a three-year-old ram, a turtledove, and a young pigeon.” ¹⁰So Abram presented all these to him and killed them. Then he cut each animal down the middle and laid the halves side by side; he did not, however, cut the birds in half. ¹¹Some vultures swooped down to eat the carcasses, but Abram chased them away.

¹²As the sun was going down, Abram fell into a deep sleep, and a terrifying darkness came down over him. ¹³Then the Lord said to Abram, “You can be sure that your descendants will be strangers in a foreign land, where they will be oppressed as slaves for 400 years. ¹⁴But I will punish the nation that enslaves them, and in the end they will come away with great wealth. ¹⁵(As for you, you will die in peace and be buried at a ripe old age.) ¹⁶After four generations your descendants will return here to this land, for the sins of the Amorites do not yet warrant their destruction.”

¹⁷After the sun went down and darkness fell, Abram saw a smoking firepot and a flaming torch pass between the halves of the carcasses. ¹⁸So the Lord made a covenant with Abram that day and said, “I have given this land to your descendants, all the way from the border of Egypt^[a] to the great Euphrates River— ¹⁹the land now occupied by the Kenites, Kenizzites, Kadmonites, ²⁰Hittites, Perizzites, Rephaites, ²¹Amorites, Canaanites, Girgashites, and Jebusites.”

Hebrews 11:8-10

It was by faith that Abraham obeyed when God called him to leave home and go to another land that God would give him as his inheritance. He went without knowing where he was going. ⁹And even when he reached the land God promised him, he lived there by faith—for he was like a foreigner, living in tents. And so did Isaac and Jacob, who inherited the same promise. ¹⁰Abraham was confidently looking forward to a city with eternal foundations, a city designed and built by God.

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Hebrews 11:9 Reference

Hebrews 11:10 ReFERENCE

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Everlasting Covenant

Posted on November 25, 2020November 25, 2020 by

Today’s Scripture: Genesis 15:1-6; Galatians 3:15-18 (S.O.A.P. Genesis 15:6)

The Lord’s Covenant Promise to Abram

Some time later, the LORD spoke to Abram in a vision and said to him, “Do not be afraid, Abram, for I will protect you, and your reward will be great.”

²But Abram replied, “O Sovereign LORD, what good are all Your blessings when I don’t even have a son? Since You’ve given me no children, Eliezer of Damascus, a servant in my household, will inherit all my wealth. ³You have given me no descendants of my own, so one of my servants will be my heir.”

⁴Then the LORD said to him, “No, your servant will not be your heir, for you will have a son of your own who will be your heir.” ⁵Then the LORD took Abram outside and said to him, “Look up into the sky and count the stars if you can. That’s how many descendants you will have!”

⁶And Abram believed the LORD, and the LORD counted him as righteous because of his faith.

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Everlasting Covenant: An Unconditional Covenant

Posted on November 25, 2020March 11, 2026 by

Today’s Scripture: Genesis 9:12-17 (S.O.A.P. Genesis 9:12-13)

¹²Then God said, “I am giving you a sign of my covenant with you and with all living creatures, for all generations to come. ¹³I have placed my rainbow in the clouds. It is the sign of my covenant with you and with all the earth. ¹⁴When I send clouds over the earth, the rainbow will appear in the clouds, ¹⁵and I will remember my covenant with you and with all living creatures. Never again will the floodwaters destroy all life. ¹⁶When I see the rainbow in the clouds, I will remember the eternal covenant between God and every living creature on earth.” ¹⁷Then God said to Noah, “Yes, this rainbow is the sign of the covenant I am confirming with all the creatures on earth.”

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From the Insideout: Everlasting Covenant – Week 1, Tuesday

Posted on November 24, 2020November 25, 2020 by

The rainbow has been used in many different ways throughout history, such as an acronym, Roy G. Biv, for the sequence of hues commonly described as making up a rainbow: red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo and violet, or as a trademark in the advertisement of a popular cereal, and the infamous path to a pot of gold. However, it’s first use as a symbol precedes each of these by centuries and carries much more importance.

We find it mentioned for the first time as a sign of a covenant between Noah and all generations that followed. God said it was to signify that He would never again destroy the earth with a flood. He called it a guarantee, and to this day He has held true to His promise.

Then God said, “I am giving you a sign of my covenant with you and with all living creatures, for all generations to come. ¹³I have placed my rainbow in the clouds. It is the sign of my covenant with you and with all the earth.
Genesis 9:12-13

Since childhood, when I see a rainbow I’ve been intrigued. First of all – where’s it’s end and is there really a pot of gold there? (Ok, be honest, you’ve wondered the same thing.) However, having been raised in a Christian home and taken to church from birth – I learned very early on through Bible story books and flannel graph lessons (yes, I am that old) – that what I was seeing meant God had made a promise. Somewhere along the way, as I grew and matured in my understanding of that promise I moved from simple intrigue and being mesmerized by it’s beauty to giving thanks to God for His promise, and then to being humbled by His faithful grace and mercies to His people.

As I reread the passage today, I noticed three things –

He gave a sign for Noah and all generations to come. God could have simply said, “I promise.”, but He’s a relational God and He chose to give His people a visible sign. He called it a guarantee, a term meant to imply or encourage trust in the one making the promise.

Then there’s the placement of the sign. “I will place My rainbow in the clouds.” When I think about clouds, I think of “looking up”, an act I immediately associate with “looking to God”. I think of Scriptures like Psalm 121: 1-2, where the Psalmist said he looked up to the hills because he knew his help came from the Lord, and of Luke 21:25-28 where Jesus, Himself, said that the people were to look up because their redemption was coming.

25 “And there will be strange signs in the sun, moon, and stars. And here on earth the nations will be in turmoil, perplexed by the roaring seas and strange tides. 26 People will be terrified at what they see coming upon the earth, for the powers in the heavens will be shaken. 27 Then everyone will see the Son of Man coming on a cloud with power and great glory. 28 So when all these things begin to happen, stand and look up, for your salvation is near!”
Luke 21:25-28

However, the thing I found most interesting is that Scripture doesn’t say that the rainbow is to be a reminder for Noah and the generations to come, I guess that’s a given since a sign is meant to be noticed. It does, however, say that He will notice it and remember it as the guarantee He made to His children. God is God – He is the omniscient – all knowing – God. Forgetfulness is not one of His characteristics, but just as He can declare that He will not remember our sins against us* – He can “claim the right” to remember a promise made. His statement, as the symbol itself, is an indication of the how serious He is about the promise.

*³¹“The day is coming,” says the Lord, “when I will make a new covenant with the people of Israel and Judah. ³²This covenant will not be like the one I made with their ancestors when I took them by the hand and brought them out of the land of Egypt. They broke that covenant, though I loved them as a husband loves his wife,” says the Lord. But this is the new covenant I will make with the people of Israel after those days,” says the Lord. “I will put my instructions deep within them, and I will write them on their hearts. I will be their God, and they will be my people. ³⁴And they will not need to teach their neighbors, nor will they need to teach their relatives, saying, ‘You should know the Lord.’ For everyone, from the least to the greatest, will know me already,” says the Lord. “And I will forgive their wickedness, and I will never again remember their sins.”
Jeremiah 31:31-34

God is serious about His promise so He gives His people a visible sign to confirm it, a sign that is a reminder still today. A symbol of trust that has not worn out with the passing of time. A symbol that awakens a fresh remembrance of a faithful and loving God. A symbol of hope, of grace, of mercy, and of love.

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Everlasting Covenant

Posted on November 23, 2020November 22, 2020 by

Today’s Scripture: Genesis 9:1-11 (S.O.A.P. Genesis 9:11)

God Confirms His Covenant

Then God blessed Noah and his sons and told them, “Be fruitful and multiply. Fill the earth. ²All the animals of the earth, all the birds of the sky, all the small animals that scurry along the ground, and all the fish in the sea will look on you with fear and terror. I have placed them in your power. ³I have given them to you for food, just as I have given you grain and vegetables. ⁴But you must never eat any meat that still has the lifeblood in it.

⁵“And I will require the blood of anyone who takes another person’s life. If a wild animal kills a person, it must die. And anyone who murders a fellow human must die. ⁶If anyone takes a human life, that person’s life will also be taken by human hands. For God made human beings^[a] in his own image. ⁷Now be fruitful and multiply, and repopulate the earth.”

⁸Then God told Noah and his sons, ⁹“I hereby confirm my covenant with you and your descendants, ¹⁰and with all the animals that were on the boat with you—the birds, the livestock, and all the wild animals—every living creature on earth. ¹¹Yes, I am confirming my covenant with you. Never again will floodwaters kill all living creatures; never again will a flood destroy the earth.”

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Bible Refeence

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Bridge to Everlasting Covenant Week 2, Friday

Posted on November 20, 2020November 20, 2020 by

Question of the Day: According to verse 17, the law was given through Moses, but what was given through Jesus Christ?

Today’s Scripture: John 1:14-18 (S.O.A.P. John 1:14)

So the Word became human^[a] and made His home among us. He was full of unfailing love and faithfulness.^[b] And we have seen His glory, the glory of the Father’s one and only Son.

¹⁵John testified about Him when he shouted to the crowds, “This is the one I was talking about when I said, ‘Someone is coming after me who is far greater than I am, for He existed long before me.’”

¹⁶From His abundance we have all received one gracious blessing after another.^[c] ¹⁷For the law was given through Moses, but God’s unfailing love and faithfulness came through Jesus Christ. ¹⁸No one has ever seen God. But the unique One, who is Himself God,^[d] is near to the Father’s heart. He has revealed God to us.

The Prayer God Loves to answer

Don’t Let Me Miss the Glory

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Bridge to Everlasting Covenant Week 2, Thursday

Posted on November 19, 2020November 16, 2020 by

Question of the Day: Who does the phrase, “own people,” refer to in verse 11?

Today’s Scripture: John 1:6-13 (S.O.A.P. John 1: 10-11)

God sent a man, John the Baptist,^[a] ⁷to tell about the light so that everyone might believe because of his testimony. ⁸John himself was not the light; he was simply a witness to tell about the light. ⁹The one who is the true light, who gives light to everyone, was coming into the world.

¹⁰He came into the very world He created, but the world didn’t recognize Him. ¹¹He came to His own people, and even they rejected Him. ¹²But to all who believed Him and accepted Him, He gave the right to become children of God. ¹³They are reborn—not with a physical birth resulting from human passion or plan, but a birth that comes from God.

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Bridge to Everlasting Covenant Week 2, Wednesday

Posted on November 18, 2020November 16, 2020 by

Question of the Day: Verse 4 says, “In Him was life, and the life was the light of mankind.” Who is “Him” referring to?

Today’s Scripture: John 1:1-5 (S.O.A.P. John 1:4-5)

Prologue: Christ, the Eternal Word

In the beginning the Word already existed.
    The Word was with God,
    and the Word was God.
²He existed in the beginning with God.
³God created everything through him,
    and nothing was created except through him.
⁴The Word gave life to everything that was created,^[a]
    and his life brought light to everyone.
⁵The light shines in the darkness,
    and the darkness can never extinguish it.^[b]