Good Word for Today!

The Lord Be With You Today!

Isaiah 43:25
"I, even I, am He who blots out your transgressions,
The Lord, even God, God Almighty, God Immortal, God Eternal,
God Redeemer, God Savior, God Himself,
has provided such a rich salvation and redemption for us
that our sins, our failures, our unworthiness, our wrongdoing,
our disobedience, our offenses, our wrong thinking and wrong attitudes,
everything within us and about us that does not reflect
God's holiness and righteousness is erased and removed
and replaced with His Own Son's holiness.)
for My Own sake,
(He provides this rich salvation and deliverance and rescue and release
from the sin and darkness that afflicts us,
not because of anything we have done or been or thought,
but only and solely because of Who He Is,
because of His great love and affection for us,
a love that causes Him to reach out to us
because of His own holy and righteous Name.)
and remembers your sins no more."
(Through the salvation that He provides for us,
He not only removes our sin that imprisons us
in the darkness of evil and self-destruction,
but, as a second, added value and benefit to us,
He also wipes our sin out of His memory, out of His record book,
out of His documentation about our fallen, human state.
He extends that forgiveness for us the very moment
when we call on His Name,
and He eagerly and gently asks us to call on His Name 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!
Psalm 118:1-4
Give thanks to the Lord, for He is good; His love endures forever.
Let Israel say: "His love endures forever."
(Let us His people, His Israel, let us proclaim
the enduring and eternal faithfulness and love of God toward us.)
Let the house of Aaron say: "His love endures forever."
(Let us His house of Aaron, His priests who are called to serve Him,
proclaim the enduring and eternal faithfulness and love of God toward us.)
Let those who fear the LORD say: "His love endures forever."
(Let us who love and worship the Lord, who honor and revere Him,
proclaim the enduring and eternal faithfulness and love of God toward us.
We praise You Lord because You have singled us out, You have chosen us,
You have called us by name, and You have claimed us as Your very Own.
You have put Your mark on us that says we belong to You!
We celebrate with Thanks-Giving to You Lord, our great and loving God!)

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!

Psalm 92:1-5
It is good to praise the LORD
and make music to Your Name, O Most High,
(As we reflect on our many blessings,
we have the high privilege during this Thanks-Giving season
to give praise to the One Who is worthy of all praise
and Who is the Source of all our blessings--

not because He needs our praise,
but because our act of praise helps us,
focuses us on truths about The Most High
that reveal to us our absolute and fundamental need of Him.)

to proclaim Your love in the morning
and Your faithfulness at night. . . .
(We are blessed with His love to guide us through each day
and with His faithfulness to protect us through the dark of night.)

For You make me glad by Your deeds, O LORD;
(His extraordinary deeds of provision, of salvation,
of redemption in our lives, redemption of even the blackest situations
and the most desperate challenges give us hope
and pour over us all the blessings of the riches of His glory.)
I sing for joy at the works of Your Hands.
How great are Your works, O LORD.
(The mighty works of the Lord abound around us
as we see the beauty and magnificence of His creation.
His works also show forth in us
through His rich and glorious blessings of salvation,
salvation that is revealed in all the areas of need in our lives.
We as His Own sons and daughters
are also the mighty work of His Hands,
and He invites us to walk out His remarkable purposes
in our lives 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!

I Chronicles 16:8-12
Give thanks to the Lord, call on His name;
make known among the nations what He has done.
Sing to Him, sing praise to Him; tell of all His wonderful acts.
Glory in his Holy Name;
let the hearts of those who seek the Lord rejoice.
Look to the Lord and His strength; seek His face always.
Remember the wonders He has done, His miracles,
and the judgments He pronounced. . . .
(As we prepare for the national Thanksgiving holiday this week,
instituted from the early beginning of our history as a nation
where we as a people pause to give thanks
to the One Who gives us life and breath,
provides for us through trials and hardships,
and sustains us with His strength,
may we also prepare for a personal time of Thanksgiving
where we raise our hearts in Thanks-Giving to Him
to Whom all our praise belongs.
May we pause to give Him honor and glory for all He has done.
May we give special thought this week to Him and think on Who He is.
May we rejoice in the beauty and power of our God
and the blessings He has bestowed on 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!

Colossians 1:15-20
He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation.
(In this season of Thanks-Giving, Lord God, we praise You
that Jesus, Your firstborn, is everything we need to know about You.)
For by Him all things were created:
things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible,
whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities;
all things were created by Him and for Him.
He is before all things, and in Him all things hold together.
(Thank You, Lord, that Christ, Your Word, spoke all things into existence,
and thank You, Jesus, that Your authority reigns over and above all creation,
even down to the very fabric of our daily lives!)
And He is the Head of the body, the church;
He is the beginning and the firstborn from among the dead,
so that in everything He might have the supremacy.
(Thank You, Jesus, that You have even conquered
the physical death that lies before all of us
and given us eternal, abundant, and whole life in You!)
For God was pleased to have all His fullness dwell in Him,
and through Him to reconcile to Himself all things,
whether things on earth or things in heaven,
by making peace though His blood, shed on the cross.
(Thank You, Jesus, that You were obedient
even to death on the cross to make atonement for us
so that we can walk in the Presence of God Almighty
clothed in Your robe of righteousness!)

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!

Philippians 4:6-7
Do not be anxious about anything,
(Today, even in the midst of trials and hardships,
even in the middle of brokenness and need,
the Lord reminds us not to be anxious or fearful
about any of the circumstances surrounding us.)
but in everything, by prayer and petition,
present your requests to God.
(Rather than spending time and energy being anxious,
as we pray and bring our specific requests to the Lord,
by so doing, we are inviting Him to take control of our lives
and the situations in our lives over which we have no control.)
with thanksgiving.
(Being careful to give God thanks is vital
because practicing a habit of expressing our gratitude
is a constant reminder to us of Who our mighty God is
and of the One to Whom we make our requests known
and the One from Whom we receive
both answers to prayers and our many blessings.
May this time of Thanks-Giving be a reminder to us
to develop the habit of praise and to practice giving the Lord thanks
for His immeasurable and countless blessings!)

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!

Ephesians 1:3
Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ,
(As we approach this season of Thanks-Giving,
help us be mindful of the deep gratitude that is due You.
We praise You Father God and lift our voices to speak aloud
our worship and adoration to You Who have mercifully provided salvation
and graciously adopted us as Your very Own through Your Son.)
Who has blessed us in the heavenly realms
with every spiritual blessing in Christ!
(Through our relationship with Your Son,
You have extended to us today every blessing
that is available in Your Kingdom, bother on earth and in the heavenly realm!
You have made us Your honored beneficiaries
of all that You have to offer us from Your endless riches in glory
through Your greatest blessing of Jesus’ salvation and atonement for 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!

Isaiah 43:23b-24
I have not burdened you with grain offerings
nor wearied you with demands for incense.
You have not bought any fragrant calamus for Me,
or lavished on Me the fat of your sacrifices.

(The Lord reminds His people Israel of their inattention to Him
at a time when their relationship with Him depended upon
their careful observance of His offerings.
Today, our offering is different, but still very relevant
to our relationship with God.
Now, because we no longer offer Him grain and animal sacrifices,
the Lord invites us to lay down our lives before Him.)
But you have burdened Me with your sins
and wearied Me with your offenses.
(When we fail to set Him as our priority, to give Him the honor He is due,
to offer ourselves as the best and most we have to offer,
we act as if He doesn't notice the dishonor to Him,
the sin, the self-centeredness, the selfishness, the self-absorption,
the mean words we say to others,
and the harsh and unkind ways we treat those
whom the Lord has entrusted into our lives.
His message to us today is the same as then,
that even though His burden is easy and His yoke is light,
we have been cavalier and careless in our relationship with Him.
Though the Lord has not made demands on us that we can't fill,
though He has remained patiently and mercifully steadfast toward us,
yet we still persist in unfaithfulness and rebellion.
Here, His words and the longing in His Voice remind us
of His extraordinary mercy as He pleads with us
to honor Him and to turn our lives toward 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 43:22-23a
“Yet you have not called on Me, Jacob,
you have not wearied yourselves for Me, Israel.
(As the Lord declares His loving provision for His people
and His intervention on their behalf in their time of great need,
still they foolishly fail to acknowledge Him, to seek Him, to follow Him,
or to fatigue themselves in prayer and supplication to Him.
Rather, as this second line may be translated,
they "have been weary of Me."
They have tried to go it on their own.
How often when we are faced with difficult situations today
do we try to manage on our own, try to self-direct, try to be self-sufficient,
depending upon our own performance and abilities,
rather than calling out in desperation to the Lord
Who has lovingly invited us to allow Him to be strong on our behalf.)
You have not brought Me sheep for burnt offerings,
nor honored Me with your sacrifices."
(Just as Israel failed to respond in thanksgiving and praise
for the Lord's provision through the desert places,
even as He provided supernatural and miraculous streams in their desert wandering,
just as they failed to seek Him for their desperate needs,
even after the Lord has saved us from certain defeat in our own lives today,
how often, do we simply go on with our own self-absorption
rather than calling out to Him, rather than seeking Him,
rather than giving ourselves and our lives over to Him.
Today, our burnt offerings and sacrifices are our very lives we offer Him
in submission to His will, in submission to His plan for us.
He calls us today to honor Him with the living sacrifice of our own lives.)

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 43:20-21
The wild animals honor Me, the jackals and the owls,
because I provide water in the wilderness and streams in the wasteland,
to give drink to My people, My chosen,
the people I formed for Myself that they may proclaim My praise.
(As the Lord leads Israel out of exile in Babylon,
He promises to provide such an abundance of water
there in the desert wasteland of their journey
that even the dumb animals see His intervention
and will give Him the honor and praise due Him.
The Lord provides for these people
whom He has chosen and called His Own
for the express purpose of their being able to stand as a testimony
to His love and faithfulness and provision.
Today, the Lord has called us His Own, as well,
and not only leads us through desert wastelands in our own lives,
but also provides rich stores of refreshing waters
while we travel those places of desolation.
As we remember that He has formed each one of us as His very Own,
perhaps what we see as the most difficult hardships in our lives
are a privileged opportunity for Him to show forth
His mighty love and provision for us,
knowing that He has promised never to give us more than we can bear
or that He can use to grow and mature us in His purposes.)

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 43:19b
I am making a way in the desert and streams in the wasteland.
(Though the Israelites were exiled from their own land
and could not bring about their own deliverance from Babylon,
the Lord promised miraculous provision and escape for them.
The Lord makes a way for us still today where there is no way,
where no effort on our part can bring about our deliverance.
What an awesome promise of provision!
He causes us to be able to travel
through the deserts and wastelands in our lives
by providing the refreshing and restorative water
that He miraculously creates there for us.
Then, even out of the desert wasteland of hardship and difficulty,
He not only leads us through those places,
but actually provides the sustenance for us to endure and overcome them.
He doesn't leave us without His support and provision, ever!
As we look to Him, He tells us that He, not we,
is doing something completely new and different today in our lives
to empower us to follow Him as He makes a way!)

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 43:19a
See, I am doing a new thing!
(The Lord tells us to look forward through His plan
and past our current situation
because He is always at work in us,
doing something entirely new and different in our life.
We are no longer confined to the status-quo,
because He has redeemed us from our chains of sin
and attitudes of self-sufficiency and independence from Him.
Today, the Lord brings newness and life to us,
a work that is entirely His work and His doing in us.)
Now it springs up; do you not perceive it?
(Just as the seed that bursts forth in spring
must first have died and been buried in the ground,
so what the Lord is bursting forth in us
comes out of the plantings of hardship, burial, and dormancy.
This new thing, this new planting, is barely seen and fragile at first.
Only after we see it and watch the Lord tend it to make it grow
do we really take in the magnificence
of what the Lord has grown in us and for us.
Then we carefully nurture what the Lord is doing in us
and listen for His still, small Voice the garden of our life.)

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 43:18
Forget the former things; do not dwell on the past.
(These are the Lord's instructions to His people
who were even then in a place of great difficulty and hardship.
Even there, the Lord tells them to forget what is behind them,
what has brought them there,
to forget the current despair they feel, and to let it go.
When we find ourselves in trouble,
too often we fall prey to self-accusation and finger-pointing,
to blame and regret, all of which,
after being submitted to the Lord for His forgiveness,
are a waste of effort and only agree with the enemy's lies over us.
We are to forego replaying in our mind
all those former places of betrayal and abandonment,
of striving and struggle, of attempts at self-sufficiency
and forget those places of past failure and despair,
those places of false security where we formerly had put our hope.
Instead, after receiving the Lord's forgiveness,
as we look to Him, He tells us that He, not we,
will do something completely new and different.
Like Paul, we are to strain "toward what is ahead,
[and to] press on toward the goal to win the prize
for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus!")

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 43:17
Who drew out the chariots and horses, the army and reinforcements together,
and they lay there, never to rise again, extinguished, snuffed out like a wick:
(As the Lord reminds the Israelites in their present exile in Babylon
of His earlier mighty intervention on their behalf,
He lists His achievements that are beyond anything
they could have accomplished or even imagined on their own.
He recalls to them how He Himself had earlier destroyed the army
in pursuit of them as they escaped slavery.
He not only saved Israel, but He completely destroyed their pursuing enemies.
This army that He utterly destroyed through a means
they themselves could never have mustered, was coming against a people
who had no military prowess, no weapons, and no battle strategies.
But Israel didn't need those elements because the Lord God Himself
would use His Own means to destroy this army,
a method far beyond their own resources.
For us today, we may be facing an army of darkness,
of hopelessness, of fear, of financial crisis, of weariness,
of enslavement to things in the world that we know are not of God.
Though we may even have experienced
the Lord's deliverance from dark places of Egypt before,
we are again desperate in this present place of Babylon exile.
This army of darkness may far outnumber us
and may be much more powerful and fleet of foot than we,
and we may have no battle experience or strategies
to combat the forces furiously pursuing us.
Today, the Lord draws together these very powers
and, like the Egyptian army of old, defeats them in His Own way
so they are never able to rise against us again.
He leads us into places where He shows Himself strong on our behalf,
so that what may look and feel like certain defeat
from the Egyptian army coming in against us is, in fact,
merely the Lord revealing that He, indeed, is trustworthy
no matter what is chasing after 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!

Isaiah 43:16b
He Who made a way through the sea,
a path through the mighty waters. . . .
(The Lord encourages the Israelites in their current exile in Babylon
by evoking their memory of how He Himself
had earlier delivered them from their overlords
and how He had then brought about their escape from Egypt,
opening a path forward through the seemingly insurmountable obstruction
of the Red Sea that lay before them.
Today, for us, even though He may have led us to face difficult waters
when He led us out of our Egypt before,
He led us through those waters miraculously on dry ground.
When we find ourselves in another exile in Babylon
and needing an escape route still again,
when the path before us seems an insurmountable obstruction,
we need to bring to mind the deliverance
the Lord has earlier provided in our lives
and to recall that history of His provision for us.
Today He is reminding us that He is still the One
Who creates the path forward for us in ways we could never imagine
and often through seemingly impossible barriers.)

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 43:16a
This is what the Lord says—
(God's people were in exile and in bondage again now to Babylon.
And the Lord is calling to His people to listen to Him.
Because of Who He is, He can demand their attention.
He wants their attention.
He speaks to them as their covenant Lord,
as their Creator, as their God.
He speaks to them when they are in trouble.
Today, when we are in trouble, the Lord still speaks to us.
He speaks to us out of the mercy of His love and grace,
out of His deep longing to catch our attention
and to focus our hearts and minds on Him.
He speaks with authority in the midst of our trouble.
He still has authority over our deepest troubles and difficulties,
over our finances, over our healing, over our needs, whatever they are.
His Voice, His Word still rings out with the truth of His presence,
of His power, of His sovereignty, in every aspect of our lives.
If He is speaking to us today, and He is, we need to listen closely 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!

Isaiah 43:14-15
This is what the Lord says—your Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel:
(Declaring His deliverance for Israel,
the Lord calls Himself their Redeemer, Israel's God,
associating Himself and His Name with them
even in their exile and disobedience.
Today, even though we, like Israel, have rebelled
and failed in our dedication to the Lord, He still calls us His Own.)
“For your sake I will send to Babylon
and bring down as fugitives all the Babylonians,
in the ships in which they took pride.
(With deep love and forgiveness, to rescue them from the path
which resulted in dire consequences for His people,
the Lord proclaims He will deliver them.
He will overcome the forces that come against His people.
Today, the Lord is still defeating the "Babylonians" in our lives,
the formidable situations that confront us
and even the sometimes disastrous consequences of our disobedience.
He comes to our rescue for our sake, because of who He has made us,
simply because He cherishes us, His people.)
I am the Lord, your Holy One, Israel’s Creator, your King.”
(He wants us to know today that our deliverance is no coincidence,
no happenstance, no chance occurrence,
not accomplished by our own or others' endeavors,
but by the Lord God Almighty,
Whose ownership over us is evident by His choice,
first, to create us and, then, to create us in His Own image.
He has chosen to covenant with us
and to extend His loving salvation to us 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 43:13b
"No one can deliver out of My Hand.
(What absolute truth and comforting reassurance
that no one can redirect or change or obstruct
that which is under the Lord's power and direction,
and, today, He holds you and me resolutely and steadfastly
in His very own Hand, not just in His thoughts,
but in the very center of His authority and strength.
He holds all His purposes and His plans for us
in the very Hand that wields His power and might,
and those designs for us will stand no matter what!)
When I act, who can reverse it?”
(No one, no thing, no entity, no situation, no failure on our part,
no force or opposition, no resistance, no hindrance,
can alter God’s plan or His action toward us.
He acts in supreme sovereignty today in our lives,
and, because He loves us, because He is Love itself personified,
we can trust Him with every ounce of our being.
He is God and there is nothing today
that can alter the purposes He has for us 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 43:12b-13a
You are My witnesses,” declares the LORD, “that I am God.
(As He reminds His people of the predictions
and the fulfillment of those predictions
with which He has blessed them,
the Lord instructs them in the simple ensuing conclusion
that they now are witnesses to the fact that this God is, indeed, God.
For us today, because of the work
that He has promised to us through His Word
and the subsequent sacrificial act by His Son,
because of the work that He has accomplished in our lives,
the Lord proclaims that you and I are witnesses that He is God!
We declare the truth of Who God is both through our lives and our words
and by the work of God that others see has been accomplished in us.)
Yes, and from ancient days I am He.
(Our witness of this God is based on the sure confidence
that He is God and that He does not change.
With no beginning and no end,
He is the same in the distant past, yesterday, today, tomorrow, and forever!
Before the beginning of all time, before a day existed, He is I AM.
Because of that unchangeableness, because of His continued work in us,
because of what He has accomplished in our lives,
we bear witness to His presence, to His deliverance,
to His salvation and redemption in all the trials
we may face today or tomorrow.)

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 43:12a
I have revealed and saved and proclaimed—
I, and not some foreign god among you.
(To convey the futility of Israel's following after other gods,
to convey that He alone is Israel's deliverer,
and to convey the specious idea that any idol or sham of a god
could do what He has done,
the Lord first foretold His future deliverance of Israel from bondage and exile,
then He actually did what He said He would do
beginning in Egypt and others following,
and then He caused His people to see and bear witness
to the deliverance He has accomplished.
To remind us today that He alone is our deliverer,
the Lord employs the same three-phase action
to communicate to us in the places in our lives where He is at work.
First, He predicted long before today that He would provide
complete deliverance and salvation for us through Christ's atonement,
then in Christ's sacrifice on the cross,
He actually accomplished that salvation,
and now, through the revelation and proclamation of the Holy Spirit,
He reminds us that He is mightily present
to apply all that He has done to every situation of need in our lives 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 43:11
"I, even I, am the LORD, and apart from Me there is no savior,"
(This LORD, this Jehovah God, this God like no other,
is the only One Who can save us from sin and from ourselves,
from our continued tendency to embrace our sinful nature again and again,
and from the destruction of the curse of sin.
This Great I AM is entirely and absolutely unique,
a Being so matchless, so exceptional, so other,
that no one else, no other thing, can serve as our Savior.
Because He knew before the beginning of time
that His creatures, the very people He created,
would need a Savior because of their foolish choice
to embrace rebellion and disobedience,
the Lord designated His Own Lamb, without blemish or defect,
slain from the foundation of the world,
to establish and execute in due time His plan of salvation.
As we enter the day before us, we can be assured
that this incomparable, peerless Lord God Almighty
has the power to save and the will to invade our lives
with His great love and Presence
as He continues to extend His salvation to us
to bring under His saving grace all that we encounter today.)

May the Lord richly bless you this day!

In Christ's love,

Blessings,

Sally
513 254 3874