Good Word for Today!

The Lord Be With You Today!

Isa 43:10c
"Before Me no god was formed, nor will there be one after Me."
(The Lord God Almighty proclaims the reality that He is the only God,
the One Who was and is and is to come.
He is the One, the True, the Only, God.
His existence is from eternity past with no beginning,
is in the eternal present with no limit,
and into eternity future with no ending.
Before His existence there was no existence of anything, of any being,
in the whole of the entire expanse of the universe.
He was initial, first, earliest, primary, from everlasting past.
Outside His eternal present, there is no existence of anything, of any being,
in the whole of the entire expanse of the universe.
Outside His eternal future, as the present stretches forever into eternity yet to come,
there will never be any existence like Him of anything, of any being,
in the whole of the entire expanse of the universe.
He is the Forever, the Eternal One, the Self-Existent One,
the God Who Has No Ending, the Everlasting One.
Today, when we begin to fear or doubt
when we are tempted to hold anger and resentment against someone,
when we feel weak and unable,
when we begin to believe the lies of our own negative self-talk,
this is the very time to remember our God
is The One in Whom we can place our complete trust.)

May the Lord richly bless you this day!

In Christ's love,

Blessings,

Sally
513 254 3874

 

Good Word for Today!

The Lord Be With You Today!

Isa 43:10b
“and [you are] My servant whom I have chosen,
(The Lord has chosen you and me, has singled us out, has called us,
has appointed us, has set His seal on us, has favored us,
has deemed us acceptable, has given us the honor of serving Him
as His servant, His agent, His Own representative,
to be His beloved, His trusted envoy.
What a high calling! What a high honor!)
so that you may know and believe Me and understand that I am He."
(Part of His great purpose for us is to convey
His truths, His love, His forgiveness,
His message of a salvation so encompassing and comprehensive
that even our very lives are completely and forever changed
when we receive Christ as Savior.
Now from this position of redemption, we are the testimony of God made flesh
that He is knowable, trustworthy, loving, and present.
He calls us to see Him as Who He really is
so we can know Him personally and intimately.
He desires that we believe Him to be the God above all else
and to trust Him to fulfill all that He is.
He gives us the understanding to comprehend
that He is God Who is different, completely other, and distinguished
and set apart from and over all other entities on earth or in our experience,
that He is I AM, self-existent, without beginning, without end.
Surely, today, this is a God
in Whom we can place our complete faith and confidence
as we walk out our servant-hood to Him today!)

May the Lord richly bless you this day!

In Christ's love,

Blessings,

Sally
513 254 3874

 

Good Word for Today!

The Lord Be With You Today!

Isaiah 43:10a
"You are My witnesses,” declares the LORD,"
(As we stand in the courtroom of the Lord's presence,
having been invited there to settle the question
whether any of the gods we serve have any merit,
and experiencing the revelation that all of them
are lifeless and powerless and a delusion,
the Lord turns to us and declares He will use us as His very Own witnesses,
witnesses to His Name, to His Character, to His Word!
In an amazing, blazing display of mercy and love and of trust in us,
the Lord God Almighty has chosen you and me to be His witnesses,
to give witness about the God of the universe to others whom He loves.
He has entrusted us with being His witness
to those around us whom He brings into our lives.
Our witness, our life, contains the life-giving message
of God's very character, of His love, of His forgiveness,
of His power, of His redemption and salvation,
a message not only delivered in words, but in our actions.
He has chosen us, by our speech and behavior,
to reveal God in all His glory and truth and love today!)

May the Lord richly bless you this day!

In Christ's love,

Blessings,

Sally
513 254 3874

 

Good Word for Today!

The Lord Be With You Today!

Isa 43:9
All the nations gather together and the peoples assemble.
Which of their gods foretold this and proclaimed to us the former things?
Let them bring in their witnesses to prove they were right,
so that others may hear and say, “It is true.”
(This is a command to the nations and peoples to assemble.
The Lord, first, gives us the opportunity to stand before Him,
an amazing privilege and blessing given even when we are in rebellion.
He then opens the floor for us to present our case before Him,
giving us a voice, even in our rebellion,
to speak before Him, another amazing privilege.
There He invites us to look together with Him
at the places where we put our trust,
to weigh them, to measure their power and ability.
His answer to our pronouncements is to challenge us
to look hard at all that which we worship
and even to provide evidence of the effectiveness of our worship.
For example, when we persist in worshipping at the altars of our own control,
or of so-called spiritual ideologies devised by man, or of getting and spending,
or even, perhaps, of anger and bitterness, or of self-condemnation,
He challenges us to prove this worship is effective
and that these idols product results, and we cannot.
Instead, He helps us see that such worship is only destructive and crippling,
and He help us to see that our worship belongs to Him and Him only,
that He alone is worthy of praise, that He alone holds our future,
that He alone guides us through the former things
into a place today of victory and strength in Him.)

May the Lord richly bless you this day!

In Christ's love,

Blessings,

Sally
513 254 3874

 

Good Word for Today!

The Lord Be With You Today!

Isaiah 43:8
"Lead out those who have eyes but are blind,
who have ears but are deaf."
(Referring, perhaps, to idols worshipped by Gentiles
or to Israelites who don't really see or hear the Lord's truth,
we can apply this command to our own blindness and deafness
and even to the idols we ourselves still worship.
This command implies that the people who are blind and deaf,
whether they profess to follow God or blind and deaf idols,
are brought out to stand in an assembly
where they will be judged and called to account
as to whether they are upright and genuine.
Still today, even in our blindness and deafness,
especially in our blindness and deafness,
far from being a dreadful thing,
what a blessing that He still calls us to account
when He sees us wandering away from Him,
when He sees us putting our trust in our own inner resources,
when He sees us harboring secret sin,
when He sees us holding on to fear and anger,
when He sees us in great need of healing, both physically and spiritually.
When we stand before Him in repentance, asking Him for forgiveness,
He eagerly and lovingly pours out over us
His judgment of pardon and mercy and complete exoneration.)

May the Lord richly bless you this day!

In Christ's love,

Blessings,

Sally
513 254 3874

Good Word for Today!

The Lord Be With You Today!

Isa 43:6b-7
"Bring My sons from afar and My daughters from the ends of the earth—
(The Lord lays His claim on us today
and calls us, His Own sons and daughters, back to Him
no matter how far away we may have strayed.)
everyone who is called by My Name,
(The Lord reminds Israel, a name signifying a prince or soldier of God,
that this people, this prince, belongs to Him.
What a gift of honor to carry the very Name of the Lord.
To be called by His Name means
that we are marked as belonging to Him,
that He knows every detail about our lives,
that we are seen as favored by Him,
that we bear the very family Name of God Himself,
that we are His emissary to carry out His purposes,
and that we reveal and manifest the very character of God.)
whom I created for My glory,
(Not only has He called us by His Name,
but He is our Creator, designing us in His very Image.
He created us specifically to be a reflection of His great Name,
of His holiness, of His love, of His mercy,
all of which only point to the glory of God to which no other can compare.)
whom I formed and made."
(In order for us to be that reflection of God that He desires,
He also shapes and molds us to perfect us, to grow us, and to mature us
into vessels He chooses to use as He carries out His sovereign plans.
He has called us, created us, and formed and made us,
action verbs that describe the process of our beginning in Him
all the way through to our ultimate ending in Him.)

May the Lord richly bless you this day!

In Christ's love,

Blessings,

Sally
513 254 3874

 

Good Word for Today!

The Lord Be With You Today!

Isa 43:6b
"Bring My sons from afar and My daughters from the ends of the earth—"
(The Lord commands the nations to which Israel has been exiled
to do more than let His people go,
but also to escort them back to the very land where they belong,
to the very land from which the invaders had first carried them off.
The once conquering enemy is now vanquished,
defeated to the point that it has to bring back the spoils
of its former victory to the very land it had earlier invaded.
Still today, no matter where we find ourselves,
no matter where we have wandered in exile,
the Lord commands the enslaving situations to let us go
and, in fact, that these very situations would be
that which ushers us into His presence as men and women who have grown
and matured through the trials and hardships we have experienced.
Though at times our seasons of hardships and "exile"
may seem endless and hopeless,
here again the Lord reminds us that He is always the ultimate Victor,
that He is sovereign even over that which attacks us today,
and that He will cause the very attack itself to come under our feet,
serving only to conduct us into the Presence of the One
Who perfects us through these difficult places!)

May the Lord richly bless you this day!

In Christ's love,

Blessings,

Sally
513 254 3874

 

Good Word for Today!

The Lord Be With You Today!

Isa 43:6b

"Bring My sons from afar and My daughters from the ends of the earth—"

(The Lord has produced sons and daughters from His union with Israel,

having loved her from His first establishment of her as His people.

The union of Christ to His Bride has also produced sons and daughters,

each one of us who are now called by His Name.

No matter where the Israelites had been forced into exile,

no matter where or how far they had wandered,

the Lord beckons them back to Him, even from the ends of the earth.

He also calls us to return to Him

even when we have wandered into the ways of this world.

His beckoning also carries with it a command to the nations

whose enslavements have kept God's Own in bondage.

He commands the captors, not only to let us go,

but also to usher us out of their hold,

to release us in an escort of honor.

As we, His sons and daughters, respond to the Lord's authority over us

and come to Him from the ends of the earth,

precisely where and how we had once been held in bondage

now becomes the very thing that points to the power of deliverance

of our Father God Who brings us back to Himself.)

May the Lord richly bless you this day!

In Christ's love,

Blessings,

Sally
513 254 3874

 

Good Word for Today!

The Lord Be With You Today!


Isa 43:5b-6a
"I will bring your children from the east
and gather you from the west.
(Specifically, even though Israel had been exiled from their homeland,
a result of their sin and disobedience,
the Lord vows He will return them to their home
no matter where they have been exiled.
The Lord promises us, too, even in the exile of hardships and challenges
to bring us out of the east where we have wandered,
out of the west where we have been banished,
to a place of comfort and home and safety in Him.
If children are thought of in a broader sense as being the harvest of seed sown,
here the Lord tenderly reminds us He reaps
all that we have sown from our beginning days in Him,
from the beginning of our life in Him,
all the way through to our end in Him and to the end of our life in Him.)
⁶ I will say to the north, ‘Give them up!’
(Israel had been invaded by enemies from the north.

Even when we have been invaded and overcome by forces from the north,
the Lord requires those invading armies to give us back to Him.)
and to the south, ‘Do not hold them back.’"
(Israel had been enslaved by an enemy force in the south.
Even when we are brought into slavery,
the Lord delivers us and will not permit

the "Egypts" in our lives to keep us in slavery.)

May the Lord richly bless you this day!
In Christ's love,

Blessings,

Sally
513 254 3874

 

 

Good Word for Today!

The Lord Be With You Today!

Isa 43:5a
"Do not be afraid, for I am with you;"
(The Lord gives us a command here not to do something
that we are so prone to do,
a directive that is the most often repeated command in all the Bible
because we are so often consumed by and give in to fear.
Yet, He tells us not to fear, that we have no reason to fear,
for one very simple and concrete reason:
The I AM, the I MYSELF, is with us and where He is,
where His perfect and encompassing and powerful love is,
there His perfect and powerful love reigns supreme with no room left for fear.
It is impossible to fear once we embrace the Presence of the Lord,
once we fully realize what His Presence really signifies.
What a promise and assurance for us as we face this day
that we do not have to be afraid no matter what lies before us!
What a promise and assurance for us as we face this day
that Mighty God and the Great I AM, the I MYSELF, is with us today
no matter what lies before us!
Do not be afraid…put your own name here…,
for I am with…put your own name here!)

May the Lord richly bless you this day!

In Christ's love,

Blessings,

Sally
513 254 3874

 

Good Word for Today!

The Lord Be With You Today!

Isa 43:4b
"I will give people in exchange for you,
nations in exchange for your life."
(In countless ways through history and even still today,
the Lord has caused Israel's enemies to be defeated
because He cherishes the people He calls His Own.
He has chosen His people's survival and victory over all others.
For us today, as His prized people, His prized possession,
the Lord makes that same promise to us.
We have His Word.
Because of His enduring and endless and resolute love for us,
He will defeat those who come against us.
He will put the situations we face underneath us.
He will overcome our enemies, even though more powerful than we,
to favor and prefer and support us
and to carry out His covenant blessing over us.)

May the Lord richly bless you this day!

In Christ's love,

Blessings,

Sally
513 254 3874

 

Good Word for Today!

The Lord Be With You Today!

Isa 43:4a
"Since you are precious and honored in My sight,
and because I love you,"
(The Lord's relationship with us is not based
on some casual contractual arrangement based on convenience,
but on a solemn, eternal covenant of commitment
founded in His deep and enduring love for us.
He didn't have to make that covenant with us. He chose to do so.
Now, today, because He looks on us,
we are honored by His favor to us,
we are honored in His sight,
and we are made honorable in His sight.
He has chosen from long ago to honor us, to love us.
The word since here means more than because we are precious to Him.
Since also indicates that from a long-ago, earlier time, since the beginning,
despite our continued sin and rebellion against Him,
He has embraced us as precious and loved from an ancient time.
His love toward us is not something new or fleeting or wavering,
but He has seen us as precious and honored
and has loved us since the beginning.)

May the Lord richly bless you this day!

In Christ's love,

Blessings,

Sally
513 254 3874

 

Good Word for Today!

The Lord Be With You Today!

Isa 43:3b
"I give Egypt for your ransom, Cush and Seba in your stead.”
(The Lord had not chosen neighboring peoples to carry His Name,
even though they were more powerful than little Israel,
but had conferred on Israel the designation of being His very Own,
which meant that those nations would be defeated
in favor of and to bring about Israel's deliverance.
We, too, today, are the apple of the Lord's eye.
He chooses us as His Own
and will cause those more powerful situations and circumstances
that hold us in bondage to be defeated in favor of our deliverance.
The word ransom is a reference to a shelter or a cover
and the idea is that the Lord will ransom us,
cover over sin with the pitch of His atonement and protection
just as He instructed Noah to build an ark as a shelter
and to "pitch it within and without,"
a picture of the complete provision we have in Christ's sacrifice.
Today, He covers over the sin and failure in our lives
with the "pitch" of His redemption and atonement on the cross.
He chooses to deliver us, giving over the Egypt, Cush, and Seba in our lives.
Even though that which may come against us today is more powerful than we,
it is not more powerful than our God Jehovah.)

May the Lord richly bless you this day!

In Christ's love,

Blessings,

Sally
513 254 3874

 

Good Word for Today!

The Lord Be With You Today!

Isa 43:3a
"For I am the LORD,
(The Lord Himself is speaking to His people.
His Name is Jehovah God, the I AM,
the One Who has entered into a sacred covenant with them.
Yahweh is His Name.
He is the same LORD God Who speaks to us today
and Who has entered into a sacred, solemn, binding covenant
with each one of us, one which Christ Himself sealed
by shedding His Own God's blood.)
your God, the Holy One of Israel your Savior;"
God is His Title, and these are His characteristics:
He is holy, He is Israel's God,
and He is Israel's Savior, having saved them time and time again.
For us today, this same God still speaks to us in this moment.
He still retains His Title of God.
He is holy, He is our God, and He is our Savior,
having provided the way of salvation for us,
having saved us time and time again.
Today, He is still the Holy One of Israel,
and He is the Holy One of … "put your name here"!
He remains our Savior today
no matter what situations may confront us.)

May the Lord richly bless you this day!

In Christ's love,

Blessings,

Sally
513 254 3874

 

Good Word for Today!

The Lord Be With You Today!

Isa 43:2
"When you pass through the waters, I will be with you;
and when you pass through the rivers, they will not sweep over you.
When you walk through the fire, you will not be burned;
the flames will not set you ablaze."
(As the Lord leads us to our rightful heritage of life in Him,
He promises His presence and provision.
Though He knows we will encounter trials
and face difficult challenges and situations,
even seeing what lies ahead on our path far before we get to them,
He remains with us, guiding us, leading us, sustaining us,
to make sure we make it through safely.
He vows that when, not if, we face hardships,
He will walk us through the waters, the rivers,
and the fire of our trials and temptations and hardships,
the implicit promise being that He will see to it
that we get through to the other side of the issues facing us,
that they will not ultimately defeat us.
Because of His presence through the Holy Spirit in us,
those blocks and hazards we face today will not overcome us or take us out.
We will not be swept away nor be harmed by the flood or the blaze
because the Lord Himself promises
that He will remain with us through all of it
and that He will protect us through all of it!)

May the Lord richly bless you this day!

In Christ's love,

Blessings,

Sally
513 254 3874

 

Good Word for Today!

The Lord Be With You Today!

Isa 43:1b
“Do not fear, for I have redeemed you;
(Here, once again, the Lord commands us not to fear or to be afraid.
The simple explanation for why we can be without fear
is because of one foundational, all-encompassing reason:  God!
He our God is mighty and all-powerful Who, through Christ,
has redeemed us from the power of sin,
has bought us for an incalculable price,
has purchased us at a precious cost.
He has redeemed us out of the pit of our former life.)
I have summoned you by name; you are Mine."
(Put your name here as the one whom the Lord Himself
has summoned out of His Own good pleasure
and Who has declared that we belong to Him.
Here is God's Own pronouncement!
God, our God, calls us forth, sends for us, calls us out,
beckons us, commands us to come forward,
and He calls us by our own individual, personal name,
a name that He Himself gives us!
Among His many loving names for us?...
Beloved, Treasured One, Friend of God, Chosen,
Son of God, Daughter of God, Over-Comer, Forgiven, Blessed.
And He proudly places His seal on us proclaiming we belong to Him!)

May the Lord richly bless you this day!

In Christ's love,

Blessings,

Sally
513 254 3874

 

Good Word for Today!

The Lord Be With You Today!

Isa 43:1a
But now, this is what the Lord says—
(The Lord identifies Himself using His personal name of Jehovah God,
a Name denoting His Own identity, His self-existent and permanent nature,
the Great I AM, and His personal commitment to us
through His Own blood covenant with us,
a covenant in which He chooses to be our God and to adopt us as His Own.
To reassure His people that He Himself
had allowed them to be overcome and taken into captivity
so they would finally be desperate enough to repent and turn back to Him,
the Lord speaks to His beloved people to reassure them.
He also speaks to us today to reassure us
that what has come into our lives today is for the purpose
of focusing our attention on Him and to bring Him glory.)
He who created you, Jacob,
(Put your name here as the one whom the Lord Himself
has created out of His Own good pleasure.)
He who formed you, Israel:
(Put your name here as the one whom the Lord Himself
has formed out of His Own good pleasure.
Because He has made us, because He has given us life,
we need to listen to this One Who speaks,
to this One Who is mightier than we,
to this One Who speaks out of His great love and commitment to us.)

May the Lord richly bless you this day!

In Christ's love,

Blessings,

Sally
513 254 3874

 

Good Word for Today!

The Lord Be With You Today!

Isa 42:16
^"I will lead the blind by ways they have not known,

along unfamiliar paths I will guide them;
I will turn the darkness into light before them
and make the rough places smooth.
These are the things I will do; I will not forsake them."
(The Lord has just promised His people in their exile and bondage
that He would overpower their enemy and deliver them.
Now He reaffirms His continued faithfulness to His people
as He promises to lead them back to their homeland,
to make the journey passable, and never to forsake them.
For us today, the Lord also declares
that He will lead us out of our exile of trials,
that He will lead us into the place of our homeland abode in Him,
that He will open our blinded eyes
to the deliverance He has provided for us,
that He Himself will guide us on any unfamiliar paths,
that He will enlighten and teach us His ways,
and that He will remove encumbrances in us and in our path
that impede us in our walk with Him.
Most of all, today, we are assured by the Lord Himself
that He never leaves us, never forsakes us,
never leaves us without His support.)

 

 May the Lord richly bless you this day!

In Christ's love,

Blessings,

Sally
513 254 3874

 

Good Word for Today!

The Lord Be With You Today!

Isa 42:15
"I will lay waste the mountains and hills
and dry up all their vegetation;
I will turn rivers into islands and dry up the pools."
(Because of His great love for His people,
the Lord has held Himself back from delivering them
from their bondage and oppression
and to allow them, in fact, to come to a place where, out of desperation,
they fall before Him to repent and to cry out to Him for deliverance.
Because of His great love for His people,
the Lord now no longer restrains Himself from acting on their behalf,
but marches forward in mighty power
to defend and deliver of His people
and to destroy the enemy's strongholds in the land,
along with their crop plantings and water sources.
Still today, when we find ourselves in trials that seem overwhelming,
and realizing that the Lord even uses these very situations to draw us to Him,
when we cry out to Him in need and repentance,
He reveals Himself in those circumstances
in His full authority and power in our lives
to defend and deliver us and to destroy the enemy's power over us.)

May the Lord richly bless you this day!

 

In Christ's love,

Blessings,

Sally
513 254 3874

 

Good Word for Today!

The Lord Be With You Today!
Isa 42:14
“For a long time I have kept silent,
I have been quiet and held myself back.(To His people who have been suffering in exile for some time,
the Lord says He has had to refrain Himself
from coming to their rescue and delivering them from their oppressors.
In the larger historical sense, since ancient times,
the Lord has allowed our arch enemy to wield influence
in the world and in our lives
which has also required Him to restrain Himself.
For today, the Lord reminds us that for what may have seemed like
an interminable season for us and for Him
He may have permitted the forces of darkness to come against us,
while forcing Himself to allow that encroachment into our lives.)But now, like a woman in childbirth, I cry out, I gasp and pant."(The Lord gives us a graphic and beautiful picture
of His intensity and fervor toward us
through a powerful one of the passion and exertion of a woman in labor
as she responds to the insistence that wells up within her to birth new life.
Now, today, when the Lord sees the timing is right,
no longer requiring restraint on His part to hold Himself back,
no longer holding Himself back, but with focused intensity and passion,
He births His purposes of deliverance and victory in our lives.)
May the Lord richly bless you this day!

In Christ's love,
Blessings,

Sally513 254 3874

Good Word for Today!

The Lord Be With You Today!

Isa 42:12-13
Let them give glory to the Lord and proclaim His praise in the islands.
(The Lord has placed Himself in covenant relationship with us,
He has provided release today for us from bondage and oppression,
He has made deliverance for us His priority,
and His character and acts are the reason we give Him glory.
Because He is Who He is, the Great I AM,
the Omnipotent, Omniscient, Omnipresent Jehovah God,
we can do nothing except give Him glory.
The absolute wonder of our relationship with this God Whom we serve
is that He invites us to acknowledge Him.
He doesn't demand it of us.
However, when we really see Who He is,
we can do nothing except lift our praise to Him.)
The Lord will march out like a Champion,
(Because He has declared He is in covenant with us,
He has chosen and vowed to champion us, to champion our cause.
Our God is for us and not against us. He comes to our defense.)
like a Warrior He will stir up His zeal;
(As our Protector, He rouses Himself and stirs Himself to action on our behalf.
He rushes to fight for us at the first moment He sees our need or hears our cry.)
with a shout He will raise the battle cry
and will triumph over His enemies.
(When He enters the battle, we can be assured that He wins. He triumphs.
For us today, we know that He battles on our behalf
and are assured that He always wins. He never loses. Losing is not possible,
which means, because we belong to Him, we are on the winning side.
Because He is our Champion, because He is our own Warrior,
because He triumphs on our behalf, today we praise Him without reservation,
withholding nothing from Him, giving ourselves to Him completely.)

May the Lord richly bless you this day!

In Christ's love,

Blessings,

Sally
513 254 3874

 

Good Word for Today!

The Lord Be With You Today!

Isa 42:10
Sing to the LORD a new song, His praise from the ends of the earth,
(Because the Lord has predicted new hope for the future of Israel
and has promised to do new things for His people,
has promised deliverance and rescue,
the Lord invites His people to sing a new song to Him,
a praise that reflects His forgiving nature
and His desire to restore them to relationship with Him.
Because the Lord has accomplished great things in our world and in us,
because He has brought about salvation through His Son,
because He has made possible our reconciliation to Him,
because He has delivered us from the brokenness that incapacitates us,
because we He invites us to look to Him for today and tomorrow's needs,
we, too, today, can lift a song of praise to Him
that reflects the new work of deliverance and healing He is doing in us today.)
you who go down to the sea, and all that is in it,
you islands, and all who live in them.
Because the Lord is Lord and King and Ruler of all the earth,
no matter who we are, no matter where we live,
He calls us to acknowledge Him, to honor Him.
Today, He invites us to give Him our best and highest praise
by acknowledging His sovereignty and rule.
We make this acknowledgement best
by lifting up our lives to Him and living out His purposes for us,
which is the praise that results in greatest honor to Him.)

May the Lord richly bless you this day!

In Christ's love,

Blessings,

Sally
513 254 3874