Good Word for Today!

The Lord Be With You Today!

Isaiah 45:1
“This is what the Lord says to His anointed,
to Cyrus, whose right hand I take hold of
(God names a Persian King Cyrus some 200 years
before the man even comes on the scene
as the one He would use to deliver His people
from the captivity of the Babylonians.
The long-standing animosity between Iraq and Iran is rooted in history.
The message for us today is that
the Lord often foretells His plans and they always come to pass.
He uses people whom we would never expect to fulfill His purposes,
even people who are unbelievers, even people like you and me
who may feel inadequate and unprepared.)
to subdue nations before him and to strip kings of their armor,
to open doors before him so that gates will not be shut:"
(Through Cyrus, a foreign king, God overcame the Babylonians.
He chose Cyrus, a man of the world
who did not even profess belief in God.
And He caused Cyrus to be victorious over the mighty Babylonian army.
If the Lord can use men who do not even walk with Him,
He wants us to know how much more He can use us
who are called by His Name.
He declares to us today that the "nations" facing us in our lives will be defeated,
such "nations" as financial hardship, sickness, relationship brokenness,
unconquered sin in our lives, wounds from our past,
that all such captivity will be subdued and stripped of its power,
that doors of opportunity and hope will be opened
that cannot be shut by either human or spiritual forces.)

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 44:24b-28
I am the Lord, the Maker of all things,
Who stretches out the heavens,
Who spreads out the earth by Myself,
(The Lord teaches us here a little of Who He is.
The power of the Lord God Almighty has created
both the world in which we live and the heavens above and beyond it,
and He alone has accomplished this feat and none other was with Him.)
Who foils the signs of false prophets
and makes fools of diviners,
Who overthrows the learning of the wise and turns it into nonsense,
(No matter what the worldly, so-called religious experts say,
the Lord scoffs at their foolishness.
The power of the Lord God Almighty stands above
our often useless declarations and our vain attempts
to elevate ourselves to the level of God.)
Who carries out the words of His servants
and fulfills the predictions of His messengers,
(The Lord speaks through those who submit themselves to Him.
The power of the Lord God Almighty empowers us
to be the vessels through which He speaks and reveals Himself.)
Who says of Jerusalem, ‘It shall be inhabited,’
of the towns of Judah, ‘They shall be rebuilt,’
and of their ruins, ‘I will restore them,’
(The city of God had been destroyed by the Babylonians
and God's people carried off into captivity in Babylon.
Even when the destruction in our lives seems overwhelming,
He replenishes and restores.
The power of the Lord God Almighty declares His purposes
even in the face of a humanly impossible situation,
when, by the world's standards, the place of devastation is beyond repair.)
Who says to the watery deep, ‘Be dry,
and I will dry up your streams,’
(Even nature is subject to His commands,
and He even opens the path for His people through the depths of the sea.
The power of the Lord God Almighty
suspends His Own natural laws to meet His purposes.)
Who says of Cyrus, ‘He is My shepherd
and will accomplish all that I please;
he will say of Jerusalem, “Let it be rebuilt,”
and of the temple, “Let its foundations be laid.”’
(The Lord causes even the rulers and inhabitants of the world
to be subject to fulfilling His purposes in the earth.
The Lord God Almighty even calls forth the worldly powers of that day
to walk out His purposes to rebuild His city.
He causes us to do His bidding today, as well,

repeatedly reminding us that He is so much more
than we can think or imagine.
He helps us refrain from fencing Him into a corner in our lives
and, in His mighty Sovereignty, shows how He overcomes
that which we consider impenetrable and impossible.)

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 44:24a
“This is what the Lord says—your Redeemer,
Who formed you in the womb:
I am the Lord, the Maker of all things. . . ."
(God Almighty is speaking to us today to remind us of Who He is,
that He redeems us from sin and brokenness and failure
and redeems us into a life of freedom and joy and release,
that He redeems us from disease and hopelessness
and redeems us into a life of healing and hope in Him.
What lies before us today is not the conclusion or the end.
What lies before us today is under His control and sovereignty.
He tells us that even who we are, our origin, our personality,
everything that we are comes from Him,
that He knit us together in the womb, tenderly nurturing us into life
mindful of the most microscopic cells and details of which we are made.
Still as mindful of the smallest details in our lives,
He tells us that, as the Maker of all things,
nothing that affects us is outside or beyond His power.
Nothing comes to us except that which the Lord already has power over
and that He knows He can use to grow and mature us,
to make us show forth His glory and love to the world around us,
to the world in which He has called us,
in Him, to live and move and have our being.)

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 44:23
Sing for joy, you heavens, for the Lord has done this;

(Even the heavens sing a song of rejoicing in the work of its Creator.

Today, we rejoice because of the Lord's redemption.
We rejoice and joyfully lift our voices in praise
because of what He has done for us and in us.)
shout aloud, you earth beneath.
Burst into song, you mountains,
you forests and all your trees,

(Even the earth sings a song of rejoicing in the work of its Creator.
The created cannot help but respond to its Creator.
We cannot help but respond in joyful praise to our Creator.)
for the Lord has redeemed Jacob,
He displays his glory in Israel.
(Today, the Lord God Almighty,
He Who made a covenant of love with us,
declaring that we belong to Him
and that He has chosen to be our God, has redeemed each of us.
The very idea of redemption carries the idea
of deliverance and rescue and liberation from a dire and disastrous position.
Today, He has brought us up out of the darkness
and hopelessness of our situations
so that He can reveal His glory to us and show the world His love.)

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 44:22
I have swept away your offenses like a cloud,
(The Lord looks on us today as being righteous
because He has covered our sin nature with His righteousness.
In the same way as an airplane flies above the clouds
and the cloud cover completely blocks out the earth below,
the righteousness of Christ blocks out the sin and failure of our sin nature.
Because of His provision of love and forgiveness and mercy and salvation,
He no longer “remembers” our sin,
but has put them as far away as the east is from the west.
Our sin, our failures, our unfaithfulness have no place in His memory,
not because of anything we have or have not done,
but because of His salvation covenant and provision to redeem us.
He has covered us with the righteousness of His Son!)
your sins like the morning mist.
(He sweeps away sin just as the morning dew disappears
under the warmth and influence of the sun.
Under His redemption, He melts away our sin and causes it to disappear.)
Return to Me, for I have redeemed you.
(He calls to us to come to Him for all our needs.
He has rescued us from the death of sin.
He has bought us with a great price.
Even though we drift away from our walk with Him,
He calls us back to Himself. He pleads with us to turn away
from whatever keeps us from our walk with Him,
from past failures, from false shame and guilt,
from our own attempts to control our life,
and to turn to walk with Him so that He is able
to redeem our life from the pit and redeem us to life 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 44:21b
"I have made you,
(The Lord God reminds His servant Jacob that He Himself has formed him,
that He Himself has shaped and crafted him.
Today, the Lord reminds us that it is He Who has designed and crafted us,
that it is He Who has sculpted us as His work of art, His masterpiece.
you are My servant;
Because of His authorship, because He is our Creator,
because of the great price He paid for us,
He has laid claim to our life and exercises His right to make demands on us.
He has the right to commission us to His work,
and this title deed to our lives gives Him the license
to make us an extension of His purposes and His work,
even as He generously invites us to serve with Him and alongside Him.
He has chosen us as His messenger, as His witness,
and as a testimony of His love and grace.)
O Israel, I will not forget you."
(Put your name here. Each person's individual name goes here.
We are His. Though we are lowly, a mere servant,
He has vowed never to put us away from Himself,
never to walk away from us, never to abandon us.
He "remembers" us every moment of every day.
We are close to His heart and the apple of His ever-watchful eye.
He will never leave us or forsake us or leave us alone.
He has elevated us to a position as His adopted child
and a sibling of Christ 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!

Isaiah 44:21a
"Remember these things, O Jacob,
(Put your name here. Each person's individual name goes here.
Each one of us is God's chosen "Jacob," who is, at times,
like the man Jacob, sinful and deceitful and tries to control our own destiny
through our own devises and means.
The Lord is telling us to remember how foolishly prone we are
to forming tangible idols from the craftsmanship of our own hands
and even forming intangible idol beliefs from our own vain imaginings.)
for you are My servant, O Israel."
(Put your name here. Each person's individual name goes here.
Each one of us is God's chosen "Israel," whose name, like Jacob,
has been changed by God to indicate our new calling,
our new nature, our new standing in the sight of God
brought about by God's visitation with us.
Today, the Lord God Almighty, the Lord of the universe
has chosen to visit us to declare He has chosen us as His attendant,
His very Own servant to birth His very purposes in us today.
One of the reasons the Lord calls us a servant
and honors us with that position is that He has work for us.
As a servant has tasks and purpose and a calling,
so we as one of the servants of the Most High God
have a calling, a purpose, for our life.
The Lord gave Jacob a new name, a covenant name,
an honored title pointing to his position as the father of the people
whom God had foreordained to be His people.

Today, the Lord has also called us to glorious purpose, to significant task,
and to the work He has purposed for us to fulfill.
He has chosen us as His envoy, His ambassador, His emissary, His messenger,
to become the foundation of, the source for, the "father" of,
His new life in us and for those around us whose lives God touches through 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 44:15c-20
"[H]e [a carpenter] makes an idol and bows down to it.
Half of the wood he burns in the fire;
over it he prepares his meal, he roasts his meat and eats his fill.
He also warms himself and says, “Ah! I am warm; I see the fire.”
From the rest he makes a god, his idol;
he bows down to it and worships.
He prays to it and says, “Save me! You are my god!”
They know nothing, they understand nothing;
their eyes are plastered over so they cannot see,
and their minds closed so they cannot understand.

(Here the carpenter elevates the result of his own busyness,
of his own industriousness, of his own satisfaction and well-being,
to a thing he decides is worthy of worship.
We so often mistakenly and sadly look to the work of our own creation,
whether our creation is something tangible we can hold in our hands
or something intangible like a worldview that we form in our minds,
as something worthy of worship, as something that will respond
to our deepest needs and longings.) 
No one stops to think, no one has the knowledge or understanding to say,
“Half of it I used for fuel; I even baked bread over its coals,
I roasted meat and I ate.
Shall I make a detestable thing from what is left?
Shall I bow down to a block of wood?”
Such a person feeds on ashes; a deluded heart misleads him;
he cannot save himself, or say, “Is not this thing in my right hand a lie?”
(What a picture of the extent and effort
to which we attempt to be like God through our own efforts.
What a picture of the silliness to which we yield time and time again.
As human beings, we have such a capacity for creativity, truly a God-given gift.
We also have great capacity for delusion and self-promotion and self-enhancement.
As we look today to the places within us where we may harbor tendencies
to bow before what we have ourselves created,
the Lord reminds us here that He alone is God,
that He alone rises above the realm of our own thinking and abilities
to reveal Himself as True God, as Mighty Lord, as God Above All gods.)

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 44:14-15b
He cut down cedars, or perhaps took a cypress or oak.
He let it grow among the trees of the forest,
or planted a pine, and the rain made it grow.
It is used as fuel for burning; some of it he takes and warms himself,
he kindles a fire and bakes bread.
But he also fashions a god and worships it;
(The Lord describes the work of a carpenter
to show us that we as carpenters use the gifts that God Himself
has provided to us for legitimate and worthwhile needs in our lives,
but, also, sadly, for foolish gestures to shape and form idols
and to engage in direct rebellion against God.
We forge the raw materials at our disposal into shapes
made out of our own hands and from our own works.
We seize the raw materials of cedars and pines
that God Himself has created and grown and completely re-purpose them.
In the same way, we take the "cedars" and "pines" of our gifts and talents
that the Lord Himself has instilled within us,
and we try in vain to make something that is beyond ourselves
from the very giftings God has provided for us and in us.
We turn a thing we have created into gods we worship
rather than the Giver and Creator of all these gifts.
The Lord shows us here through His example of the carpenter
about the futility and vanity of our attempts
both to form a god and to try to play the part of a "god" creator.
He shows us today that our very humanness causes us
to see our fundamental and vital need to look to Him
and how inadequate and fumbling and foolish are the ways
we try to find a substitute for Him,
of Him Who is the ultimate reality and truth 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 44:13
The carpenter measures with a line and makes an outline with a marker;
he roughs it out with chisels and marks it with compasses.
He shapes it in human form, human form in all its glory,
that it may dwell in a shrine.
(Like carpenters who take raw materials and shape them into a thing,
we try to do the impossible, to craft out of the work of our own hands,
out of the vain imaginations of our own thinking,
a human form, a human shape, with great power,
and we try to reshape the God Who Is into a form of our liking,
into something that looks like us,
into something to which we think we can more easily relate,
even into something we think we can manipulate
The only pitiable god image of which we can conceive
is something or someone that looks like us.
The Lord calls for us today to spend our efforts,
not in worshiping the pitiable work of our hands, but in worshiping Him,
the One Who is beyond our human comprehension,
the One Who is so completely Other,
that we cannot even formulate His likeness in our thinking.)

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 44:12
The blacksmith takes a tool and works with it in the coals;
he shapes an idol with hammers, he forges it with the might of his arm.
He gets hungry and loses his strength; he drinks no water and grows faint.
(This is a picture the Lord says fits us in our foolish pursuit
to find another god to which to give our commitment.
Since Adam and Eve, we continue to chase after other gods,
in their case—themselves, as well as in ours.
They and we set up a target other than God
and declare we can achieve perfection on our own,
that we can "make it" and "be like God" out of our own endeavors.
We try to find a god that we can control,
that we can forge into a human-sized tangible,
that we can wrap our head around and understand in human terms,
we take the tools of our lives and forge a thing
that we can see and touch and feel.
We make idols from the works of our hands, from our performance,
from our relationships, from our material possessions,
from our need to be in control, from our titles and standing in the world,
even from our hurts and wounds, even from our unwillingness to forgive,
even from fear or bitterness or anger.
Whatever form our idols eventually take,
when we look to the God Who is our Creator and Savior,
we see that our efforts to fashion something to which we can hold
are futile and drain and destroy us.
The Lord calls us today to turn away from idols in our lives
and to trust Him, allowing Him to be everything He desires to be in 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 44:8c
"Is there any God besides Me?
No, there is no other Rock; I know not one.”
(Out of His great love for us, out of His faithful pursuit of us,
out of His desire to make us come to terms with Him in our lives,
the Lord still asks us this question today to remind us of Who He is,
to focus on His being, on His character.
The resounding answer in response to His challenge
is a clarion trumpet blast of truth,
that our only God is God Almighty, Jehovah God,
the Great I AM Who I AM, the Beginning and the End,
the Source of Everything, omnipotent, omniscient, omnipresent,
the God Who Sees Me, the God Who Provides, the God Who Heals,
the Bedrock upon Whom, with confidence and assurance,
we build our foundation of faith and trust,
a stronghold in Whom we take refuge and where we find safety,
an impregnable fortress Who is inaccessible to anything
that comes against us today, Who, quite simply, is able
and Who leads us and helps us overcome
everything that we face 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 44:8b
"You are My witnesses."
(The Lord reminds Israel of this charge that He has given them,
not while they were victorious conquerors,
not while they were on "easy street" enjoying the easy life,
but while they were in the very throes of bondage and captivity,
while they were exiled from their homeland
and all that was dear and familiar to them,
to remind them that their present situation was not the end,
that their present was not forever, that their present was not their only.
Just as Israel was chosen to be a witness to Who God is,
so we, too, are called to be truth-carriers of Who He is,
of God's purposes, of His character, of His power, of His sovereignty.
We are the most effective witnesses when we are in the very trials
that we often think are signs of our defeat,
when, in fact, they proclaim the power and might
of the living God in our situations.
We reflect Who God is because of Who He is in our lives,
because of what He does in our lives,
because of His deliverance from situations that beset us.
He gives us the awesome privilege today
of bearing witness to Him and His works.)

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 44:8a
"Do not tremble, do not be afraid.
(This Hebrew word for afraid is only used this one time in the entire Bible.
The Lord well knows our propensity to be paralyzed by fear,
so here He is forcefully commanding us,
speaking to us as if He were cupping both sides of our face in His hands
so we will focus on Him and on what He is saying,
to encourage us not to be deceived by what we see before us,
by the seemingly impossible situations that loom around us,
and not to be astounded or distracted with fear or dread.)
Did I not proclaim this and foretell it long ago?"
(He reminds His people Israel that even in their Babylonian bondage
He had foretold to them these very situations would come to pass
and that if He as God had told them before of what was to come
they could be confident He had the present situation well in hand.
Today, the Lord reminds us that He has known our future
from the beginning of time,
that the seeming twists and turns of our lives are merely the direction
He already knew would happen
and that nothing is beyond His oversight and control.
If He knew of them before they happen,
He has them well in hand.)

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 44:7
"Who then is like Me?
(Because we are so prone to seeking out other gods to worship,
because we are so prone to worship at altars of our own making,
the Lord reminds us yet again that He is complete and total Other-ness,
that He is like no other.)
Let him proclaim it.
Whether we seek to bow to the altar of fear or lack of forgiveness
or anger or material possessions or titles
or whatever our special area of idolatry might be,
the Lord calls us to step into His Presence to see Him for Who He is
because He knows that when we really look to Him
we realize there is no other God.)
Let him declare and lay out before Me
what has happened since I established My ancient people,
and what is yet to come—yes, let them foretell what will come."
(As proof of His utter uniqueness,
the Lord dares us to look into His declarations and acts
to measure them, to judge them, to weigh them, to assess them.
Not only have His plans of old unerringly unfolded toward His people,
but the plans He has for our future are also unshakable.
His truths have been fulfilled from the beginning
and speak only to the future truth of what He says is yet to come.)

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 44:6
“This is what the Lord says—
Israel’s King and Redeemer, the Lord Almighty:
(The Lord has to remind us repeatedly Who He is.
We are so prone to forget that He is our King,
our Redeemer, our God Almighty.
When we really believe these words,
when we really internalize these titles of God,
our lives change, our outlook changes, our focus changes.)
I am the first and I am the last; apart from me there is no God."
(He has to remind us repeatedly that He is the only God and there is no other.
He is the Alpha and Omega, the Beginning and the End,
the One and Only, the Author and Finisher.
Whatever is first comes from and out of Him
and whatever is last comes from and out of Him.
First and last only exist in Him. He is God Alone.
For us today, these truths, these reminders assure us
that nothing can come against us today
that the Lord has not already known and seen and handled.
Since it is in Him in Whom we live and move and have our being,
we can know with complete and absolute certainty
that our lives are in His good hands and that He gives us strength
to walk out His perfect plan 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 44:5
"Some (or I) will say, 'I belong to the LORD';
(Today, as we remember to Whom we belong,
we can declare with confidence and joy that we are the Lord's.
As He reaches out to mark us as His Own,
what a gift to accept His invitation to belong to Him
and to be able to speak forth such truth.)
others will call themselves by the name of Jacob;
(The Lord specifically chose Jacob,
singled him out for His Own special purposes.
In the same way that we were also chosen by the Lord
for His salvation and redemption,
we, too, continue to be chosen daily and singled out by God
for His purposes still even today.)
still others will write on their hand, 'The LORD’S,'
(We are marked and labeled as being a special possession of the Lord.
By bearing His mark that we belong to Him,
that we are His and that He is our God,
we join in covenant with Him and confess to Him
our allegiance, our devotion, and our worship.)
and will take the name Israel."
(The Lord bestowed on Jacob the honored title of Israel,
the covenant name that He gave Jacob,
and made Jacob the father of all the tribes of Israel.
Today, the Lord has also named us with His covenant name Israel
to become the foundation of, the source for, the “father” of, His new life in us
and for those around us whose lives God touches through 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 44:4
They will spring up like grass in a meadow,
(The Lord declares our offspring, our descendents,
will be plentiful and lush.
Even though we may be in a dry desert today,
the Lord has promised He will pour His Holy Spirit
over us and over our descendents.
Whether these are literal children
or a more figurative reference to what we produce in our lives,
what we are planting today is our legacy to this world,
and, because of the Lord's blessing over our heritage,
our planting will be as lush and plentiful
as grass in a well-watered meadow.
His promised blessing will cause even our desert surroundings
to change into a grassland meadow
where we can flourish and prosper in His Presence.)
like poplar trees by flowing streams.
(He will cause our works, our efforts, our lives, our offspring,
to be as strong and visible as trees growing tall beside rivers of water
and whose roots drink deeply from the available wellsprings of water.
When the planting of our lives is rooted in the Lord and grown in Him,
the nourishment comes from the Spirit of the Lord
rather than from any effort on our part.
No grasses or trees can make themselves grow from their own effort.
They simply drink in the life-giving water provided by the Spirit of Life.
Because of Him, just as grass and poplars provide
a soft resting place and a shade for the weary,
our offspring plantings will be strong and deep-rooted gifts
beside the river of life for those around 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!

Colossians 3:10
Put on the new self,
which is being renewed in knowledge
in the image of its Creator.
(In this season of reflection on the New Year
and welcoming this new beginning once again,
we have the opportunity to reflect on our life in Christ.
As believers in Christ made new and given new life in Him,
we have been and are being changed,
so that our attitudes, actions, and words
all reflect not only our new selves, but, more importantly,
so that they reflect the very character and life of Christ in us.
In the same way we regularly remove worn and soiled clothes,
now as new creatures in Christ,
we put on the new, clean clothing of our redeemed spiritual selves,
put away our former habits and practices,
and conform to our roles as citizens of the Kingdom of God.
Even when our new "clothing" in Christ is soiled
even when we slip back into our old ways,
we, still again, through receiving Christ's forgiveness,
"take off" that habit or sin and take on the pure clothing
of His righteousness once again, as many times as we need
to change into His forgiveness and His image.
Through the miraculous grace of the Lord,
we are being transformed and molded by the Holy Spirit
into a fuller and more perfect knowledge of Christ 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!

Ephesians 4:22-24
You were taught,
with regard to your former way of life,
to put off your old self,
(Here at the beginning of a New Year,
we who are born into the Kingdom of God
through our acceptance of Christ
can rejoice that we are no longer the same person
with the same life, the same heart, the same attitudes.
Rather, today, we are given the privilege and responsibility
of leaving behind our former ways of thinking and doing,
of leaving behind the old year and its failures,
and of receiving the new "self" that Christ offers us
and the new opportunities this new year opens to us.)
which is being corrupted by its deceitful desires;
(Our former lives, the former, unregenerate self,
were filled with corruption and the constant desire
to fulfill the deluded and foolish desires of the flesh
and were yielded to the empty lures of the world.)
to be made new in the attitude of your minds;
(With Christ, we are no longer prisoner to the failures
and enticements and the yesterdays that once held us captive.
Those things lose their control and appeal
because our mental and spiritual perspective is completely changed.
We exchange the old thoughts, the old ways, for a new attitude
and take the old and make it captive unto Christ
by replacing all we know of the past, present, and future
with Jesus and His truth, the truth of the Word of God.)
and to put on the new self, created to be like God
in true righteousness and holiness.
(Our God offers us not only a completely new beginning this year
with a new heart, and a new life, but still even more:
He offers us His covering of righteousness and holiness.
He begins us on a voyage past the event of salvation
and on to the journey of salvation where He helps us
to become more and more like His own Son,
people of uprightness and purity.
We can now face whatever challenges lie before us today
through the eyes of our new self, through our new mind in Christ,
where we can depend on Him to lead us
into righteous thinking and righteous responses!)

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!

Lamentations 3:20-24
This I call to mind and therefore I have hope:
(As we face this New Year,
when we are distressed, depressed, hopeless,

lonely, despairing, and doubting God,
regaining hope and being encouraged is possible
by recalling Who God is and what He is about,
by focusing on Him and on His truth.)
because of the LORD'S great love we are not consumed,
(Our evil, our failures, our selfishness,
our self-centeredness and self-interest,
our doubts and hopelessness
never deter the Lord's great love for us.
Rather than condemning us with a rightfully guilty verdict,
He, instead, lavishes us with
His great and relentless and passionate love and healing
as He grows and matures us in Him.)
for His compassions never fail.
(And He never gets tired of extending His love to us!
His mercies for us and to us never run low,
never run out, never are withheld, never are given grudgingly.)
They are new every morning; great is Your faithfulness.
(His mercies and loving kindness and provision and forgiveness
are just as available today as they were yesterday or decades ago,
or as they were when Christ sacrificed Himself on the cross to atone for our sin.)
I say to myself, "The LORD is my portion;
(We need to assert, affirm, and proclaim to ourselves
the truth of who we are in the Lord,
of who He says we are in Him, and of Who He is,
that He has given Himself to us, that He has chosen us,
and that we belong to Him.
When we recognize such great love, our only rational and possible response
is to receive Him as our Inheritance, as our Portion,
as our Victor, as our Savior, as our Hope, as our Forgiveness,
and to allow Him to be our lot, our destiny,
as He abundantly and lavishly rains His love down over us!)
Therefore I will wait for Him."
(As we wait on the Lord, as we practice persistence and faithfulness,
He is actively at work in us to will and to do His good will!)

May the Lord richly bless you this day!

In Christ's love,

Blessings,

Sally
513 254 3874