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 and of what He has done,
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

 

Good Word for Today!

The Lord Be With You Today!

Isaiah 43:18-19
Forget the former things; do not dwell on the past.
(As this New Year unfolds before us, the Lord reminds us
not to brood over the failures and hardships of the past,
but to look toward the new, forgetting what lies behind
and pressing on to what lies ahead.)
See, I am doing a new thing!
(The "new" before us is best seen as we behold with admiration and awe
the mighty work of God in our lives today,
as we contemplate Him and His preparation and provision for us
to step out into the new He holds for us.)
Now it springs up; do you not perceive it?
(While this new thing the Lord brings about through His unlimited power
silently and inexorably opening forth and blooming into fullness,
we can only stand in awe as we focus our full attention
on what the Lord promises for us.)
I am making a way in the wilderness and streams in the wasteland.
(Whatever our past has created for this present,
whatever actions have brought us into the wilderness today,
just as the Lord provided for the Israelites 
as they traveled through their difficult wilderness journey,
God also paves a road for us through the wilderness areas of our life
and carves out rushing rivers of water in the desert places
to guide us and sustain us and feed us and refresh us
and to lead us into His never-failing purposes for us
with His complete provision for 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 77:11-15
I will remember the deeds of the Lord;
yes, I will remember Your miracles of long ago.
(As we contemplate the coming year,
what better way could we make use of our time
than to turn our minds to focus on what the Lord has done for us,
to remember the ancient boundaries the Lord has laid out for us
so that we rest in pleasant places He has created for us,
places of hope and peace and mercy and forgiveness
and safety and victory!)
I will consider all Your works and meditate on all Your mighty deeds.
(Only as we consider and meditate on God
do we more fully come to know Him and His character
and to more fully understand and interpret His actions
and how He desires His declarations and actions to impact us.)
Your ways, God, are holy. What god is as great as our God?
(Because we so often try to fit God into a human-sized box,
to fit Him into our own capability to understand,
we often jump to conclusions about those challenges that come into our lives,
misjudging them and the God Who may, at times, send or allow those events.)
You are the God Who performs miracles;
You display Your power among the peoples.
(This God we serve is a God of wonders,
of wondrous and beautiful and amazing creations,
of other-worldly happenings, of triumph and victory, of love and mercy,
of redemption and salvation, of forgiveness and hope!)
With Your mighty arm You redeemed Your people,
the descendants of Jacob and Joseph.
(This God has saved His people, delivered His people,
and rescued His people Israel through His unsurpassed strength and power.
If He has accomplished these feats before,
we who have been adopted as co-heirs of Christ
can be assured that He will continue delivering and rescuing us today!
May we look to and welcome this New Year today
through the lens of God's character
and His past interventions in the lives of His people!)

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 65:1-13
Praise awaits You, our God, in Zion;
(As we stand at the threshold of the New Year,
our first and foremost priority is to exalt God
Who has Himself provided us with these next days.
Our praise and honor and acclaim and tribute
belong to the Lord because nothing less befits Him.)
to You our vows will be fulfilled.
(As we stand in the place of rest
under God's provision for today and this year,
all He has already accomplished for us
renews in us an overwhelming sense of God's majesty and sovereignty,
making our commitments to Him the only possible answer
to this God Who is above all and over all
and full of goodness and righteousness and holiness.)
You Who answer prayer, to You all people will come.
(Not only is He good and holy,
but He chooses to hear us and provide for us.
He hears us before we call and answers us before we even speak.)
When we were overwhelmed by sins, You forgave our transgressions.
Blessed are those You choose and bring near to live in Your courts!
We are filled with the good things of Your house, of Your holy temple.
(The foundation of His relationship with us
is the atonement and redemption that He provided
through His plan of salvation in Jesus.
Today as we prepare for this New Year, we stand forgiven and made righteous
because of His provision and His favor toward us,
and He has even invited us to be His dwelling place.)
You answer us with awesome and righteous deeds, God our Savior,
the hope of all the ends of the earth and of the farthest seas,
Who formed the mountains by Your power,
(His magnificent earthly symbols reveal to us a small bit of the picture
of God's Own mighty immutable strength and immense power.)
having armed Yourself with strength, Who stilled the roaring of the seas,
the roaring of their waves, and the turmoil of the nations.
(He calms and overcomes at His command
the ravages of the life storms that assail us.
If He controls the roaring seas and the nations' turmoil,
can we have any doubt that He is in control of the places in our lives
that are roaring and heaving in turmoil.)
The whole earth is filled with awe at Your wonders;
where morning dawns, where evening fades, You call forth songs of joy.
(He speaks forth the marvel of the successive days and nights of our lives
to allow us to see Him through the wonder of His creation,
as a way to reassure us that He is present and absolutely omnipotent
and faithful to guard us through each of our days.)
You care for the land and water it; You enrich it abundantly.
The streams of God are filled with water
to provide the people with grain, for so You have ordained it.
You drench its furrows and level its ridges;
You soften it with showers and bless its crops.
You crown the year with Your bounty,
and Your carts overflow with abundance.
The grasslands of the wilderness overflow;
the hills are clothed with gladness.
The meadows are covered with flocks
and the valleys are mantled with grain; they shout for joy and sing.
(As we look out toward this New Year
and as we see how He cares for the earth and its needs, through such care,
He reveals to us how He also cares for our needs,
watering the desert places in our lives,
bringing forth the harvest of the work of our hands,
crowning us with the harvest of the prosperity of His bounty,
and clothing us with the beauty of His favor and right standing with Him.
He has endowed, equipped, and readied us
for all we need as we step into this New Year.)

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!

Matthew 2:1-3, 9-11
After Jesus was born in Bethlehem in Judea,
during the time of King Herod,
Magi from the east came to Jerusalem and asked,
"Where is the One Who has been born King of the Jews?
We saw His star in the east and have come to worship Him."
(As these Magi sought after the One and Only,
let's begin our own journey to seek the King Who is the Savior in our lives.
We are all deeply in need of Christ's saving grace and forgiveness.)
The star they had seen in the east went ahead of them
until it stopped over the place where the Child was.
When they saw the star, they were overjoyed.
(As we seek Him, God always shows us the way to find Him.
He will always provide signposts for us so that we can find Him,
and He has promised He will not be hard to find.)
On coming to the house,
(By this time, Mary and Joseph had moved from the place of Jesus' birth
to another location, although it is not known where.)
they saw the Child with His mother Mary
and they bowed down and worshiped Him.
(In the same way, our only action and response
upon coming into the presence of the Lord
is to bow before Him in joyful, reverent worship!)
They opened their treasures and presented Him
with gifts of gold and of incense and of myrrh.
(The gifts are symbolic, with gold representing
the great value and royalty of this new-born King.
Frankincense, accompanying the priests' sacrificial offerings,
symbolic of the sacrificial fragrance of the sin sacrifice
and the prayers accompanying such offerings,
both of which are pleasing to the Lord,
represents the deity of this new-born King.
Myrrh, used in burial ceremonies, represents the later death of the Savior.
The Magi's gifts foreshadow Jesus' family's need for funds
that the gold would provide them
so they could leave the land and relocate to safety in Egypt.
The frankincense reflects on Jesus' later sacrificial death
that would be an acceptable and pleasing sacrifice to the Lord for mankind's sin,
and the myrrh, the spice used for burial purposes, is symbolic of Jesus' sufferings.
Like the Magi, let us bring our most prized treasure to Jesus today.
The most priceless treasure we can give to the Lord is to bring to Him our lives,
a far more highly prized gift than even gold or expensive spices.
He gave Himself and now asks for nothing less from us.
As we prepare for the New Year opening before us,
our greatest gift to the Christ is to give ourselves and nothing less,

a gift that is of priceless value, a gift that is a sweet-smelling sacrifice to the Lord,

and a gift that speaks of our death to self and our dedication to the Lord.)

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!

John 1:14a
And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us,
(The very Word of God, His communication of Himself,
His revelation of Himself, His expression of Himself,
first unveiled His creation of man, then His covenant with man,
then His Law, then His tabernacle,
then His Son as God With Us, as Emmanuel,
then the Holy Spirit within us,
and then a Book of His Own Word, of His Own story.
He became flesh, both God and man.
His Word, His revelation of Himself, did not become a tree,
or a building, or a mountain, or a rock, or a monument,
but became flesh and blood.
God Himself became man, one of us,
to fully communicate to us Who He is,
to show us what He looks like as a living, breathing Man,
to reveal as much about Himself as we can comprehend,
not so He could know what it is like to be us.
He already knows that and everything about us
and everything we feel and know and are. He is God.
But, so that we could more readily relate to Him,
so that we could see Him as One to Whom we could draw toward
and with Whom we could be at ease,
He became flesh. He is "God With Us," God Who dwells with us.
But He became Flesh for more reasons than even those.
A spirit does not have skin and sinews and flesh and blood.
God as Spirit is not flesh and blood.
Since the life of a human is in the blood,
for Him to save and redeem us, He Himself had to put on flesh and blood.
Our blood is not sufficient to redeem us.
He had to become blood in order to finish the work of His creation,
to redeem His creation, to bring us to Himself.
The celebration of His birth today is first and foremost about His death
and the work of His Blood to redeem 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!

Luke 2:11
Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you;
(Christ's birth is historical fact,
a Child born in a specific place to a specific mother
under the care of a specific father;
the "today" of Christ's birth of yesteryear
is as present now in this day's circumstances
as it was in Mary and Joseph's time,
a present-day fact of today's reality.
Today we have the same promise
that a Savior has been born to us,
One Who is with us in real time, right now, today.)
He is Christ the Lord!
(As the Messiah, the Anointed One,
He is truly Lord of our lives,
Lord over the turmoil, the disappointment,
the hurt, the fear, the lack, the despair, the illness,
the job, the bank account, the relationships,
the Lord of every aspect of our lives.
He doesn't see us as compartmentalized segments,
separating one part of our life from its other parts.
He sees us as a whole, as we truly are, in all our need,
and He has chosen to make Himself
our Lord, our Savior, our Christ,
our Redeemer, our Promised One!
As we welcome the coming New Year and whatever it holds,
may we welcome Christ Jesus as Savior with gladness and joy
and open our lives to all of Him 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!

Luke 2:10
The angel said to them,
(The announcement of this extraordinary, supernatural, awesome invasion
of God's redemptive gift to mankind
is given to ordinary men out on a hillside,
to ordinary men who were engaged in ordinary work on an ordinary night,
not mighty men of high standing, not professionals,
not men of great means or advanced education,
but men who were uneducated, farm workers.
The Lord still sends His extraordinary, heavenly message today
to ordinary people, to you and me, to ordinary people in ordinary lives!)
"Do not be afraid.
I bring you good news of great joy
that will be for all the people."
(As we contemplate the coming year,
no matter what we may face today or tomorrow,
no matter what causes us fear or concern or dread or hopelessness,
the Lord is still shouting forth His high and holy message to us,
His Good News of great joy,
that His appearance means we have nothing to fear,
that His plans over our lives are sovereign,
that His salvation is for every one of us,
and that His provision is for every situation!
May we be as wise as the shepherds of old
and firmly believe and trust in the message of truth
with which we have been entrusted 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!

Luke 2:8-20
And there were shepherds living out in the fields nearby,
keeping watch over their flocks at night.
An angel of the Lord appeared to them,
and the glory of the Lord shone around them,
and they were terrified.
(What a wonder that the news of the Messiah,
the announcement to a world desperate for His appearing,
was made to a group of lowly shepherds,
rough men of the field who worked with their hands, common laborers,
who shared some of the lowest levels in the social hierarchy of the day.
The Lord still reveals His wondrous news today to us
who are unremarkable, average, unnoticed,
and undeserving in the eyes of the world.)
But the angel said to them,
"Do not be afraid. I bring you good news of great joy
that will be for all the people.
Today in the town of David, a Savior has been born to you;
He is Christ the Lord.
(This wondrous Good News is to us today as we put our own name here.
This same Savior has been born to us,
as well as to those shepherds and to the rest of the world!)
This will be a sign to you:
You will find a baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger.
(To make sure we find the One for Whom we are looking,
the Lord gives us clear and specific ways to recognize this Savior even today.
When we open our eyes to look for Him,
the Lord makes sure He will be found by us.)
Suddenly a great company of the heavenly host appeared with the angel,
praising God and saying, "Glory to God in the highest,
and on earth peace to men on whom His favor rests."
(The Lord's favor rests on us today,
and He grants His peace that passes all human understanding to us
in whatever situation in which we find ourselves today!
His favor, His strong and powerful peace
that guards our hearts and minds in Christ Jesus, are more than sufficient,
more than adequate, more than enough for whatever needs we have today!)
When the angels had left them and gone into heaven,
the shepherds said to one another, "Let's go to Bethlehem
and see this thing that has happened, which the Lord has told us about."
(Why would the angels announce the good news to shepherds?
How would these shepherds know what manger to hunt for and where to find it?
In those days right outside Bethlehem,
shepherds regularly raised and nurtured the choicest, finest sheep
to use in the priests' temple sacrifices,
and these shepherds knew well where the stable and manger were
because this was likely the place where they took the sheep
that were chosen to be sacrificed in the temple offerings.
The angels had trumpeted their good news
to the lowly, insignificant caretakers of the sacrificial lambs
used in the sacrificial offerings of the temple,
and the angels called the shepherds now to witness the birth of THE sacrifice!
What a gift! How God elevates the lowly to heights of honor!
How He still honors us with the good news of the Savior's birth!)
So they hurried off and found Mary and Joseph,
and the Baby, Who was lying in the manger.
(May we today be as quick to run to and seek Jesus
as were these uneducated, ordinary, and poor men
who left their fields and their agendas behind as they sought out the Lord.)
When they had seen them, they spread the word
concerning what had been told them about this Child,
and all who heard it were amazed at what the shepherds said to them.
But Mary treasured up all these things and pondered them in her heart.
The shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God
for all the things they had heard and seen, which were just as they had been told.
(Like Mary, who weighed, meditated on, and carefully guarded
all she heard and witnessed, may we meditate and focus on the revelations
that God shares with us in His Word and in our lives,
not forgetting the truth of His promises that guide our lives.
Although the shepherds returned to their flocks,
they would never be the same again. They were forever changed men.
We, too, are changed forever when we encounter the living God!
He chose to give us the most He could give,
the most wonderful gift of all of life, the gift of Himself!
What a God, the One who deserves all glory and all our praise!)

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!

Luke 2:4-7
So Joseph also went up from the town of Nazareth in Galilee
to Judea, to Bethlehem the town of David,
because He belonged to the house and line of David.
(Although Joseph had no control over his ancestry,
the Lord had carefully and meticulously
carried forward each generation to fulfill the prophecies
that would ultimately end in the lives of the man and woman
He had chosen to parent His Son.
Although we are unaware of all that the Lord
has carefully carved out from our past
to bring us to this point in our present,
He carefully creates the exact timing
and the exact people and the exact places and the exact situations
in our lives to carry out His purposes in us.)
He went there to register with Mary,
who was pledged to be married to him and was expecting a Child.
(Just as He used ordinary people
in ordinary circumstances
walking out ordinary activities for His extraordinary purposes,
God still uses us, ordinary and unremarkable, in extraordinary ways
as we walk through our daily days
at work, at home, or in our interactions with others.
Today, the same expectant Hope that was conceived in Mary
is the same hope that the Lord conceives within us through His Word
and we can live as expectant of His presence and appearing
as did Mary bearing and finally delivering this Child.
May we be expectant with the sure hope
that He conceives and delivers within us today.)
While they were there, the time came for the Baby to be born,
and she gave birth to her firstborn, a Son.
She wrapped Him in cloths and placed Him in a manger,
because there was no room for them in the inn.
(Even in the ordinariness of our everyday lives,
even in the struggle and pain and labor of the day,
even in lowly, unpretentious circumstances,
may we experience the new birth Jesus offers to us today,
may we make room for Him in our lives today,
may we be alert to the ways God is using us today,
and may He birth within us all that He desires to fulfill in us
and all we need in 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!

Luke 2:1-7
In those days Ceasar Augustus issued a decree
that a census should be taken of the entire Roman world.
(This was the first census that took place
while Quirinius was governor of Syria.)
And everyone went to his own town to register.
(Joseph was from Nazareth, but the Messiah was to be born in Bethlehem.
How carefully God ordains even the smallest details
in Mary and Joseph's lives to line up with His purposes,
causing a national Roman decree to dictate Joseph and Mary's whereabouts
when God knew His Son would be born.
He does no less with all the details in our life,
even, and especially, those that seem random and impossible and harsh.)
So Joseph also went up from the town of Nazareth in Galilee to Judea,
(Ever an honorable man, Joseph is a man of obedience.

Just as Quirinius would have been completely oblivious
to the much wider and far-reaching effect of His words,
his decree deeply affected the lives of many,
including Mary and Joseph's next steps,

so today our own actions and words deeply affect the lives of those around us.
The Lord uses us to impact others even though we probably are unaware
of the connections between our seemingly independent action
and its wider and far-reaching effect on others.)

to Bethlehem the town of David,

because he belonged to the house and line of David.
(Though Joseph was a lowly and insignificant descendant of the line of David,
God chose him to be the caretaker of His Son.
Joseph was also a man whose hometown was Bethlehem,
an important detail that God carefully orchestrates as He brings His plan together.)
He went there to register with Mary
(As her espoused husband,
he takes Mary along with him on this trip of about 70 miles or so.)
who was pledged to be married to him and was expecting a Child.
(She was great with child, probably very near her delivery date,
but still made this, perhaps, three- to five-day trip with her espoused husband.)
While they were there, the time came for the Baby to be born,
(At just the right moment in history, at just the right place to fulfill ancient prophecy,
to just the right two people, the Baby Jesus was born of God and man.
God doesn't make mistakes. He has it all planned out in our life as well.
As we seek Him, He orchestrates our circumstances
to bring about His mighty purposes in each of our lives!)
and she gave birth to her first-born, a Son.
(What a miracle of God's great and holy purposes!
Not only in Mary's life, but in ours as well!
This first-born Son of Mary is as much a gift to us this very day
as He was to this precious young mother of long ago.)
She wrapped Him in cloths and placed Him in a manger,
(Travelers in ancient times often wore around them a cloth
that would serve many purposes,
among which could be a burial wrapping if unexpectedly needed
if someone or the wearer died during the travels.
The "swaddling" cloths that Mary used to wrap her baby Son
may well have been the "burial" cloth
she had wrapped about herself on her travels.
If such speculation is true, the Christ Child was from birth
wrapped in the cloth of His death,
foreshadowing His later sacrificial death for His people!)
because there was no room for them in the inn.
(What a monumental and tragic indictment!
Some anonymous, ordinary innkeeper will forever be known as someone
who didn't recognize the One Very Important Person in his full house that night,
the One Who needed the innkeeper to need Him that night.
The innkeeper was too busy to notice this was no ordinary situation,
too busy to notice that he needed to allow these people,
above all the other guests, into a place in his inn.
In our busy, packed lives, full of people and activities
and jobs and problems and celebrations,
we need to make sure we do not shut out the Savior from our life.
He is gently knocking and asking if we have room for Him in our life.
If all our busyness has left no room for Him in the inn of our life,
we need to make sure that we not only make room for Him,
but that we give Him, not just a side room, but central lodging in our life,
too often no small undertaking on our part.
Only with His guidance can we begin to give Him
the principal place in our lives that He asks for and deserves.
How we need to recognize our need of Christ as our Savior
and to invite Him in and make room for 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!

Matthew 1:23
The virgin will be with Child and will give birth to a Son,
(In His plan to save the world, God chooses a lowly young girl,
unimportant and insignificant in the eyes of the world,
unknown, and without status or title, simply a young girl.
And a virgin conceives a child, as simple and as wondrous as that.
To create this Child to be part man and part God,
wholly man and wholly God,
the Lord steps into the course of human events,
and Mary conceives the seed of God
by the power of the Holy Spirit Who comes upon her.
Once again, as in so many ways in our lives,
God does the impossible.
Today, as insignificant as we are,
He chooses us and steps into our lives unexpectedly
and with great purpose to bring about new life in us.
Just as surely as He created the impossible in Mary,
He also conceives in us the impossible as well,
creating new life in us through His Holy Spirit,
causing us to be strong where we are weak,
courageous where we are afraid,
and redeemed where we are in bondage.)
and they will call Him Immanuel--which means, "God with us."
(As surely as the promise came to Mary long ago
that what she bore within her
would be called the presence of God Himself,
just as surely does God assure us today that He is in and with us,
that God Himself abides with us today,
that what was born into humankind long ago
would also be born into us in this present day
to reveal to us that God is truly and forever with 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!

Matthew 1:18-25
This is how the birth of Jesus Christ came about:
His mother Mary was pledged to be married to Joseph,
(A pledge of marriage, lasting for about a year,
in those days and in that culture
was tantamount to actually being married,
but excluded physical intimacy.
Their betrothal gave public knowledge
that this man and woman were husband and wife.)
but before they came together,
(Before any physical intimacy as husband and wife had transpired.)
she was found to be with Child through the Holy Spirit.
(The very Son of God and yet born of a woman!
This Child conceived of the Holy Spirit,
and, therefore, fully Mighty God, the Great I AM,
Whose Father was God, and Who also was God,
was also born of a woman,
and, therefore, fully human, fully Man,
truly Emmanuel, God with us!
Even as God created life in Mary, so He creates new life in us today
through the Holy Spirit to meet new situations and new challenges,
to engage in new relationships,
and to live out newly revealed truths that He gives us.
Like Mary, we also are given the high honor of carrying
the very life of Christ within us.)
Because Joseph her husband was a righteous man
and did not want to expose her to public disgrace,
he had in mind to divorce her quietly.
(What a shock this pregnancy would have been to Mary's espoused husband!
Because Joseph was a good and honorable man,
perhaps so that Mary would not be humiliated and disgraced publicly,
and perhaps even to avoid putting her in danger from death by stoning
if she were to be judged guilty of adultery,
he had purposed to divorce this young woman privately and quietly.
Unlike us often today when we make our perceived grievances public,
Joseph was an honorable man who chose to bear his hurt privately
and protect the woman whom he likely considered unfaithful to him,
Or, perhaps because Joseph was a good and honorable man
who truly believed his betrothed's marvelous revelation,
he decided he could not be the bearer of the father's name
of this remarkable Child Who was fathered by God Himself.
Unlike us often today, when we strive to take honor and prestige to ourselves,
Joseph was so attuned to the Lord's purposes that, to honor God,
he was humbly willing to step out of the relationship with Mary.)
But after he had considered this,
an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream and said,
"Joseph son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary home as your wife,
because what is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit.
She will give birth to a Son, and you are to give Him the Name Jesus,
because He will save His people from their sins."
(What a caring message for Joseph.
The Lord made sure He reached out to this chosen man
to lovingly relieve and reassure him.
Ever mindful of the hurts and distresses of His people,
the Lord gives Joseph personal reassurance and confirmation
that he could trust what was happening in Mary's life,
and that Joseph was also, in fact, a part of God's plan,
that He had chosen Joseph to be Jesus' earthly father,
to parent the Messiah and to nurture and love Him.
In the same way, the Lord communicates to us
His concern and love and care in a myriad of ways
as He walks out His purposes through us,
fully mindful of our confusion, waywardness, and frailties.)
All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had said through the prophet:
"The virgin will be with Child and will give birth to a Son,
and they will call him Immanuel"—which means, "God with us."
(What a promise to us, that God Himself chooses us,
chooses to be with us, chooses to lower Himself to become like us,
chooses to provide salvation and redemption for us!
What a Gift! The greatest Gift of all!)
When Joseph woke up, he did what the angel of the Lord had commanded him
and took Mary home as his wife.
But he had no union with her until she gave birth to a son.
And he gave him the name Jesus.
(A man of honor, obedient and submissive to the Lord,
Joseph surrenders to the purposes of God in his life.
Even though he had no way of knowing
what all the dream foretold for him and his life with Mary,
He obeyed, He trusted the Word of the Lord.
In the same way, when we struggle today
with impossible situations in our lives,
we need to listen to the Word of the Lord and to obey His commands,
the promises He has given us and that are clearly delineated,
and then trust Him, as Mary and Joseph did,
for the other parts that He does not choose to reveal to us at this time.)

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!

Luke 1:46-49
My soul glorifies the Lord
and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior,
(When the angel revealed God's purpose for Mary,
she responded with submission and praise.
She reminds us that our purpose on earth during this Christmas season
is also to submit to what the Lord has called us today
and to give glory and honor to the Lord,
to rejoice in His many blessings to us,
knowing that His purposes for us are just as real and specific today
as they were for Mary in her season of life.)
for He has been mindful of the humble state of His servant.
(Though Mary was not a person of high standing in the world,
the Lord regarded and esteemed her even in her humble station in life.
Even yet today, the Lord is attentive to our lowly and needy condition.
Though our station in life may be ordinary and plain,
the Lord turns to us, thinks about us, regards us,
and calls us to His high purpose.
That He in all His majesty would be concerned with us,
that He places His high purpose in us,
only gives us more reason to praise Him.)
From now on all generations will call me blessed,
for the Mighty One has done great things for me—holy is His Name.
(Because the Lord has done great things for us,
we, too, are deeply blessed today.
He sent His Son to be born and, more than that,
to die in our place and, still more than that, to resurrect into new life
to be the Savior we so desperately need,
and, even more than that, to dwell within us through His gift of the Holy Spirit.
As He extends His salvation and redemption to us,
and continues to show His mercy to us,
He makes visible to us and to others the might and power of the Lord,
that He is a holy and loving God full of grace and truth
and that He purposes to do great things for us still 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!

Luke 1:46-56
And Mary said
(After the angel had announced to Mary
that she would give birth to the Son of God,
she went to visit her older relative Elizabeth
who was miraculously six months pregnant with John the Baptist.
When Elizabeth saw Mary, she hailed her as the "mother of my Lord."
Upon this reassurance from Elizabeth
that the angel's pronouncement to Mary had been true,
Mary expresses this song of praise and worship.)
"My soul glorifies the Lord and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior,
(Like Mary, during this blessed Christmas season,
let us, too, pause and give praise to our God and rejoice in His goodness.
He is Savior in our lives today in the fullest sense of the word.)
for He has been mindful of the humble state of His servant.
(The Lord is attentive to our lowly condition
and knows our deepest places of need today.
He remembers that we are dust and that we need Him in all ways.
Like Mary, we may be a "nobody" in the eyes of the world,
but He regards our lowly estate and He actually chooses us.)
From now on all generations will call me blessed,
for the Mighty One has done great things for me—holy is His Name.
(He has done great things for us as well, mighty things beyond comprehension.
No matter what we are going through today,
God's mighty blessings and provisions for us outweigh everything else.
His salvation and redemption are treasures and blessings beyond price.)
His mercy extends to those who fear Him, from generation to generation.
(The fear, respect, and awe of the Lord are the beginning of wisdom
and help us be aware of His mercies that cover and shelter us.)
He has performed mighty deeds with His arm;
(His power and might have saved us time and time again,
and He is our strong right arm even today.
Even when it is not apparent to us that God is at work,
He is always causing all things to work together
for the good of those who love Him.)
He has scattered those who are proud in their inmost thoughts.
(He draws near to the humble and to those who recognize their need of Him.
When we try to maintain and exert our own control over events and people,
we block what the Lord is trying to do in us and through us.)
He has brought down rulers from their thrones but has lifted up the humble.
(God sets up kings and He deposes them.
He places us where we are and makes us what we are.
When we humble ourselves before the Lord, He uses us for His purposes.)
He has filled the hungry with good things but has sent the rich away empty.
(When we come to Him hungering and thirsting after righteousness and His presence,
He fills us to overflowing, lavishing on us His love and provision.
We need to guard against thinking that the rich resources The Lord has given us
are the result of our own efforts and abilities.
We will remain empty and searching as long as we think and act
as if we can provide for ourselves, as long as we regard ourselves
as self-sufficient, not needing the Lord's provision.
What He has lovingly placed at our disposal is His Own rich supply.)
He has helped His servant Israel,
remembering to be merciful to Abraham and his descendants forever,
even as He said to our fathers."
(From ancient times, He has shown Himself strong
on behalf of His chosen people, who we are.
He has kept His covenant promise to us whom He has chosen from the beginning,
whom He chose to carry His seed and His message to the world.
Today, He lovingly provides for and watches over us
as we walk in all the purposes for which He has called 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!

Luke 1:38
"I am the Lord's servant," Mary answered.
"May it be to me as you have said."
Then the angel left her.
(What a picture of submission and servant-hood.
After receiving the unprecedented and, in many ways,
frightening message from the angel of the Lord
that she would bear the Son of God,
her first response was to agree with God's plans for her.
Without question or complaint, she accepted the plan God had for her.
While this young woman was given a glorious privilege,
embedded in that gift would be deep trials and hardship as well.
As Mary's example shows us,
often buried within the gift of life and beauty each of us is given
are trials and challenges that we can also trust
the Lord has allowed and so, then, will provide us
with the strength to endure and overcome.
Mary's example also reminds us that
God calls us to submit ourselves to His purposes
and to accept His plan for our lives,
to be His servant in the world we live in,
not in a general, vague sense,
but to be His servant in every moment we experience today,
and to fulfill His plan for each of us.
His plan is for us to be His servant, to accept His purposes for us,
and to carry the Name of the Lord
into every situation, into every conversation,
into every attitude, and into every thought we have.)

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!

Luke 1:26-37
In the sixth month
(From the time of Elizabeth's extraordinary conception of John the Baptist.)
God sent the angel Gabriel to Nazareth, a town in Galilee,
to a virgin pledged to be married
to a man named Joseph, a descendant of David.
The virgin's name was Mary.
(Jesus' earthly parents, both Mary and Joseph,
were descended from King David,
and Mary would have known and held on to God's promise
to set David's descendant on the throne of Israel.
God had not spoken to His people for over 400 years,
and the people were desperate to hear from Him.
When we think God has forsaken us, that He does not see our plight,
here is yet another assurance that, though His timing is not always ours,
His timing is always perfect, and He is always at work,
mindful of us and working out His plans for our lives.)
The angel went to her and said, "Greetings,
(This word is Ave in the Latin Vulgate version
from which comes our phrase "Ave, Maria.")
you who are highly favored. The Lord is with you."
Mary was greatly troubled at his words
and wondered what kind of greeting this might be.
But the angel said to her, "Do not be afraid, Mary,
you have found favor with God.
(When an angel appears to people in Scriptures,
they are always frightened and overwhelmed.
Yet his message is as true for us today as it was to Mary,
that the Lord is with us and that we have found favor with God,
a miraculous and marvelous comfort as we go about our daily affairs.)
You will be with Child and give birth to a Son,
and you are to give Him the Name Jesus.
He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High.
The Lord God will give Him the throne of His father David,
(What an amazing announcement and priceless gift to this young woman,
beyond the bounds of any earthly threshold or human imagination.
Today this same Jesus is given to each of us,
birthing His new life in us,
insignificant and unimportant as we are,
to invade our lives in ways we cannot fathom.)
and He will reign over the house of Jacob forever;
His kingdom will never end."
"How will this be," Mary asked the angel, "since I am a virgin?"
The angel answered, "The Holy Spirit will come upon you,
and the power of the Most High will overshadow you.
So the Holy One to be born will be called the Son of God.
(Just as then, the Lord, through His Holy Spirit, is with us today
and the power of the Most High overshadows each of us
as the very Son of God meets us in whatever circumstances we face
to which the Lord has called us!)
Even Elizabeth your relative
(She could have been a cousin, aunt, or other relative.)
is going to have a child in her old age,
and she who was to be barren is in her sixth month.
For nothing is impossible with God."
(What a reminder of the power and might of our God,
to take our lack and emptiness and to fill us
with His plenty, His plans, His offspring, 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 9:6
For unto us a Child in born, unto us a Son is given,
and the government will be upon His shoulders.
And He will be called
Wonderful Counselor,
Mighty God,
Everlasting Father,
Prince of Peace.
(Hundreds of years before Christ was born,
Isaiah foretold the coming Savior—
using sublime words to describe the Indescribable One,
a Child born to grow into a Man
so He could become Savior, Redeemer, and Lord!
As we ponder and prepare to celebrate
this Christmas season and the birth of the Son
Who was born to be our rescuer,
a story is told of a group of beaten and tortured captives held hostage
and so battered and crushed that they lay in broken heaps,
bound and prostrate, on the ground, in a fetal position,
shattered, defeated, and destroyed,
so mentally and emotionally broken
that, even though a commander and his unit
had come to rescue them and to set them free,
the hostages were too terrified and fearful, too beaten down,
to believe the commander's urgent entreaty
for them to rise up and leave their place of captivity and bondage.
Convinced their captors were setting up an elaborate deception
that would only result in further torture
for what would be their abortive and failed attempt to escape,
out of fear, they refused to follow their rescuer to freedom.
However, with determined compassion and loving persistence,
despite the enemy's proximity and danger to himself,
the commander took off his helmet, laid aside his weapons,
and lay down alongside the broken hostages.
Mirroring their posture and drawing himself up
into the same fetal position of the captors,
he told them that he would lie there beside them
until they could believe that he had come to set them free.
Finally convinced, first one and then another hostage
stood to his feet to follow the commander who had come to save them
and walked into freedom with their liberator.
Today, Jesus is the living Commander,
the Wonderful Counselor, the Mighty God,
the Everlasting Father, the Prince of Peace,
Who has come to walk beside us,
to lie down beside us in our brokenness,
in our wounded bondage, in our pain,
to convince us that He has come to save us and to liberate us!
He has come to set us free from all fear and bondage,
and He has come to give us Life in Him!
The majestic and powerful Gift of God's Own Son gives us
an amazing, wondrous, splendid, glorious, and awesome
Christ-filled Christmas to celebrate God Who is with 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 9:2, 6a
The people walking in darkness have seen a great light;
on those living in the land of the shadow of death a light has dawned.
(In a world where our own way led to destruction and despair
and the darkness of death, where we had no hope in ourselves
or in which others could do for us,
we have been given life and hope, a new dawning of a new world

where we have life and life abundantly.)

For unto us a Child in born, unto us a Son is given . . . .
(God so desires to communicate Himself to us,
He so desires to reveal Himself to us,
He so desires to make Himself known to us,
He so desires to reveal Himself as Emmanuel, as God With Us,
that He joyfully and wholeheartedly gives us
a gift from Himself, a part of Himself, His Own Son,
His only begotten Son, His beloved Son,
His Son Who would take on human flesh
so that He could show us as much of Himself, as much of His Father,
as we could humanly comprehend and take in.
As we focus on this Christmas season
and celebrate this Son born into humanity,
fully human and fully divine,
fully Man, perfect Man, and fully God, God Almighty,
Who satisfies our every longing
and Who shows us today how deeply and passionately God loves us,
we know if God has provided to us this Jesus,
we know, then, we have everything we need today
in every situation 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 55:9
"As the heavens are higher than the earth,
so are My ways higher than your ways
(The Lord has earlier just vowed to forgive the wicked for their rebelliousness,

and here is making a reassertion that His ways, His forgiveness

is far different from ours, so different that it is completely beyond our comprehension.
We set limits to the extent of what we will forgive.

We monitor the number of times we will forgive.

We sometimes even refuse to forgive.

The Lord's forgiveness is unconditional and forever.

He is slow to anger and quick to forgive.

I would not offer to give my own son as a sacrifice
for even the so-called best of us, much less for the worst among us,
yet the Lord has paid the highest price, His only Son,
magnificent and glorious beyond anyone in our human comprehension,
far beyond any cost we can possibly imagine,

to provide the means for His forgiveness.)
and My thoughts than your thoughts."
(Even our limited and limiting thoughts,

filled with vain imaginations, are different from His.
His thoughts are far different from ours, omniscient, sublime, infinite,
with no limits to His knowledge, no lack of knowing,
filled with righteousness, wisdom, mercy, holiness, and love.

Yet, today, He the Creator chooses to give us mortals, the created,
the very Mind of Christ Himself to change our ways and thoughts
so they align with His powerful and blessed purposes and plans 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 55:8
"For My thoughts are not your thoughts,
neither are your ways My ways," declares the Lord.
(In the earlier verse, the Lord has just implored the wicked
to forsake their evil ways and turn to Him,
promising that if they do He will freely pardon them.
Now, He reminds us that as God Almighty, Savior and Lord,
He does not think or act as we do.
Rather, unlike us when we are given the opportunity to forgive,
when we are given the opportunity to do the right thing,
we often fail to meet the challenge,
preferring, instead, to act in our own self interests
and try to act independently of God.
Setting Himself in contrast to us Who are created in His likeness,
but who fail to walk out His holy and righteous Character,
He offers His free and complete forgiveness
even to those of us who have rebelled the most,
even to those of us who have failed the worst,
even to those of us who have strayed the farthest.
He doesn't treat us either the way we treat others or even the way we deserve,
but is merciful and good, declaring He loves 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 55:7b
Let them turn to the Lord, and He will have mercy on them,
and to our God, for He will freely pardon.
(The Lord calls to all of us who have rebelled against Him
and turned away from His ways and graciously invites us
back into relationship with Him.
Only turning away from wickedness and disobedience,
from rebellion and lack of trust, will do no good, though,
unless we turn to the Lord and His salvation.
When we do turn away from the sin and disobedience
that so quickly and easily besets us, we can be assured
that God Who is rich in mercy will eagerly and tenderly embrace us
and enfold us into His redemption and salvation
from whatever situation, whatever problem, from whatever fear,
from whatever attitude, that separates us from Him.
When we turn to the Lord, His response is always His everlasting mercy
accompanied by His freely-given forgiveness
and pardon from sin and wrong thinking and wrong doing.
He doesn't hold back His forgiveness for failures, mistakes, wrong choices, or faults,
but eagerly covers us with His redemption and salvation!)

May the Lord richly bless you this day!

In Christ's love,

Blessings!
Sally
513 254 3874