Good Word for Today!

The Lord Be With You Today!

Isaiah 57:13
"When you cry out for help, let your collection of idols save you!

(The Lord throws out a challenge to His people, daring them
to depend on the idols in their time of need
that they have run to and worshiped,
fully knowledgeable of their complete impotence.)
The wind will carry all of them off, a mere breath will blow them away.

(The Lord states what needs to be the obvious
to those who have placed their trust in idols,
and who have been unfaithful and disobedient to Him,

reminding them that their misplaced worship is meaningless

and will not serve them when they need God's intervention.
The idols can refer to the whole array of foreign idols the people had collected
or to the various people on whom they had called for help, all to no avail.

With nothing more than a slight breath able to make them all disappear,

the Lord emphasizes the idols' lack of power and ineffectiveness.
The same is true for us when we foolishly put our trust
in anything or anyone other than the Lord, all of which will crumble
into complete nothingness at the first real challenge we face.)

But whoever takes refuge in Me will inherit the land
and possess My holy mountain."

(Yet, in the Lord's persistent call to us, He reasserts
that He is faithful in all His ways and promises
to hear and answer His people when they cry out to Him for deliverance.
He reminds us, eagerly invites us, to find refuge and safety
and deliverance and hope and provision in Him.
He even promises more than safety.
He promises a reward for those who depend on Him.
As we turn to Him, He causes us to inherit our birthright,
to be able to come freely into the mountain of His presence

and to exercise rights of domain there in the places He gives us.)

May the Lord richly bless you this day!

In Christ's love,
Blessings!

Sally
513 254 3874

[category word for today]

Good Word for Today!

The Lord Be With You Today!

Isaiah 57:11-12
"Whom have you so dreaded and feared
that you have not been true to Me,
and have neither remembered Me nor taken this to heart?
(The Lord challenges His people to look at where they have put their trust.
As incredulous as it seems, Israel had sought alliances
with foreign leaders and had set up idols to worship
rather than seeking after God, and, yet, that's what we still do today
when we place our trust in our own foreign alliances and idols.
We, too, seek to exercise our own control over people and situations.
We put our trust in our bank account, the title following our name,
the people with whom we are in relationship, the right address,
our own plans and desires, the way we dress, and, sometimes,
even in such attitudes as unforgiveness or jealousy or anger.
We foolishly and stubbornly try to find all kinds of places and things
in which to trust rather than giving ourselves to the God
Who has declared Himself to be our One True God.)
Is it not because I have long been silent that you do not fear Me?
(Like Israel, we often interpret God's silence, His seeming inaction,
as tacit permission and approval when, in fact,
it only points to His great mercy and long-suffering.)
I will expose your righteousness and your works,
and they will not benefit you."
(The Lord assures His people that He will reveal the worth
of their own endeavors and efforts outside of His purposes for them
and show them that those efforts crumble into insignificance.
And He reminds us the same today, that our own works
are empty and gain us nothing.
Only as we look to the Lord today, only as we commit ourselves to Him,
only as we exercise the true fear and respect and honor due the Lord
will we achieve that for which we long, to have worth and purpose.
When we find our significance in the Lord,
He gives us lasting and true worth.)

May the Lord richly bless you this day!

In Christ's love,
Blessings!

Sally

513 254 3874 

[category word for today]

Good Word for Today!

The Lord Be With You Today!

Isaiah 57:7-10
"You have made your bed on a high and lofty hill;
there you went up to offer your sacrifices.
Behind your doors and your doorposts
you have put your pagan symbols.
Forsaking me, you uncovered your bed,
you climbed into it and opened it wide;
you made a pact with those whose beds you love,
and you looked with lust on their naked bodies.

(Comparing idolatry to adultery, the Lord accuses His people
of being unfaithful to Him, of turning away from Him,
of unholy commitments to idols they have set up in secret.
We, too, are susceptible to the very real temptation
to put our hopes and commitment in the temporal things of the world,
in our performance, our achievements, our status,
our financial sheet, our networks, our connections, our address,

and, by so doing, engaging in adulterous unfaithfulness to the Lord.)
You went to Molek with olive oil and increased your perfumes.

You sent your ambassadors far away;
you descended to the very realm of the dead!
You wearied yourself by such going about,
but you would not say, 'It is hopeless.'
You found renewal of your strength, and so you did not faint."

(God's people had gloried in their successes, spreading their influence
through their determined endeavors and drawing their strength
from a precarious place of their own performance and successes.
In so doing, they were descending further and further into idolatry,
into unfaithfulness, and away from their God.

As we look at what we are about today and where we put our efforts,

the Lord still calls us to let go of anything that dilutes our devotion to Him,

to walk in faithfulness and obedience to Him,
and to relish our joyful and devoted union with Him.)

May the Lord richly bless you this day!

In Christ's love,
Blessings!

Sally
513 254 3874

[category word for today]

Good Word for Today!

The Lord Be With You Today!

Isaiah 57:3-6
"But you—come here, you children of a sorceress,

you offspring of adulterers and prostitutes!
Who are you mocking? At whom do you sneer and stick out your tongue?
Are you not a brood of rebels, the offspring of liars?
You burn with lust among the oaks and under every spreading tree;
you sacrifice your children in the ravines and under the overhanging crags.
The idols among the smooth stones of the ravines are your portion;
indeed, they are your lot. Yes, to them you have poured out drink offerings
and offered grain offerings. In view of all this, should I relent?"
(The Lord gives a pounding description of Israel's attitudes and actions,
pointing out the people's unfaithfulness to Him, their adultery,
their mockery of Him and His ways, their lascivious lusts, their idolatry,
and their unholy and horrifying sacrifices.
Though they seem to be acting with impunity,
He is far from ignorant about what they are doing
and here He calls them to account,
and His rhetorical question implies that their judgment is inevitable.
This is a clear picture to us still today of what the Lord abhors
and of His unvarnished view of who and what we are.

Even in His judgment, He speaks to us,
and implicit in His injunction against what society calls right and good
is His plea to us to turn away from what the world deems right,
to shun the evils that lure us into the lies of the enemy,
and to turn wholly to Him and to His mercy and forgiveness.)

May the Lord richly bless you this day!

In Christ's love,
Blessings!

Sally
513 254 3874

[category word for today]

Good Word for Today!

The Lord Be With You Today!

Isaiah 57:1-2
The righteous perish, and no one takes it to heart;
the devout are taken away, and no one understands
that the righteous are taken away to be spared from evil.
(Here is a truth about which the Lord reminds us,
a truth hard for us to understand and accept,
that those He takes to an early and seeming tragic death
are really under His merciful protection and care for them,
that in His omniscience, He knows what lies ahead for them
and in His great mercy chooses to spare them from it.)
Those who walk uprightly enter into peace;
they find rest as they lie in death.
(The Israelites were blind to what was happening all around them,
in this case, that those who were living upright lives,
those who were speaking forth God's truths to the people,
were dying off, literally. The Lord was sparing those faithful ones
from the assault that evil had made on their world,
and was lovingly bringing them into His rest and peace.
Today, when the words of the righteous are stilled
and go unnoticed and unheard, their truths die off
and evil is able to make a yet firmer foothold.
Then the lies of the world, the lies of the enemy,
become the only input we hear and the foundation
for the ways we think and live our lives.
Today the Lord is calling those who walk uprightly to enter His peace,
to die to self, to speak His truths into our world
so that the voices that speak the wisdom of the Lord are not stilled
and so that the repeated rejection of truth does not prevail.
If we don't allow the Lord to speak through us in our words and actions,
the result is a tragedy where those voices of truth are no more.)

May the Lord richly bless you this day!

In Christ's love,
Blessings!

Sally
513 254 3874

[category word for today]

Good Word for Today!

The Lord Be With You Today!

Isaiah 56:10-12
Israel's watchmen are blind, they all lack knowledge;
(One clear reason for Israel's disobedience is their delusion,
lack of vision, failed discernment, and blindness.
When we lack knowledge and fail to pursue God's ways,
we are also blind and lack the foresight
to be careful guardians of and alert to His ways.)
they are all mute dogs, they cannot bark;
they lie around and dream, they love to sleep.
They are dogs with mighty appetites; they never have enough.
They are shepherds who lack understanding;
they all turn to their own way, they seek their own gain.
(Israel's leaders, as well as its people,
are negligent, indulged, lazy, and deluded,
without perceptiveness or judgment.
The lack of knowledge that also blinds us leads us today
to indulging in what feels good at the moment
and in our own easy ways.
Like Israel to whom the Lord was speaking,
our blindness often prevents us from fulfilling the call on our lives.
Instead, without knowledge of Him and His ways,
we seek our own advancement.)
"Come," each one cries, "let me get wine! Let us drink our fill of beer!
And tomorrow will be like today, or even far better."
(Israel has pursued its own indulgences and pleasures,
the people filling themselves with the foolishness of the world
and assuming they will never be held accountable.
Their own self-interests and their determination
to pursue worldly pleasures guide their paths
and lead their priorities, coming before anything else.
May the Lord help us today to hunger and thirst after His righteousness
and give us the wisdom and knowledge to lay aside the ways of the world
and to seek Him Who has promised to give us abundant 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 56:9
Come, all you beasts of the field, come and devour, all you beasts of the forest!
(After His open and welcoming invitation to both Israel and Gentile peoples,
in an unremitting and unrelenting rebuke to those
who do not choose to accept His invitation to His Kingdom,
as well as to His own people who refuse to repent and obey Him,
as He foretells their utter destruction if they continue in disobedience,
He also invites the nations to come to a feast of victory over His people
as part of the correction He has chosen for them
and for those who intentionally and persistently
turn away from the Lord's great mercy and salvation.
For us, how often we assume we will never be held accountable,
that life will always continue as it always has,
that we will experience no consequences
for our continued disobedience and rebellion against God's ways,
when, in fact, the Lord inevitably will bring us either into His salvation
or into the discipline and correction that our disobedience dictates,
and, today, the choice is ours.)

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!

Exodus 3:1
Now Moses was tending the flock of Jethro
his father-in-law, the priest of Midian,
(At 40 years old, after his unanticipated fall
from a privileged and lauded position as a prince of Egypt,
after his new insight to the plight of his own people,
after his failed and abortive attempt to intervene on behalf of those people,
after his flight from Egypt as a guilty fugitive,
the life journey he thought was his having completely dissolved,
Moses life had taken a sharp, unexpected left turn in his life.
Now, out of necessity, he had assumed a life of ordinary work.
After 40 years on the far side of the desert, now 80 years old,
Moses was a mere sheepherder, a humble and modest position.
His life had been forever changed and altered,
probably assuming this new life would be the life he would live out
for the rest of his days, ordinary and hidden away.)
and he led the flock to the far side of the wilderness
(His lot in life had led him, banished and in exile,
not to the cities of power and splendor, but to the far side of the desert,
a deserted and barren place of seeming nothingness
with no prospects of a future any different
from the ordinary life he presently led,
shut away from the glory and prestige and success
he had known in his former life.)
and came to Horeb, the mountain of God.
(Now living an ordinary life, on an ordinary day,
doing ordinary things, in an ordinary place,
Moses unknowingly and unexpectedly finds himself
in a very un-ordinary place, in an extraordinary,
astonishing, surprising, and special place.
While he thought he had failed in his earlier mission to help his people,
while he thought he was relegated to a life of ordinary work,
while he thought he was walking through a place
of uninhabited desolation and barrenness,
Moses's view suddenly took in the massive presence of God.
Moses doesn't just find God, not just a small manifestation of God's presence,
but he had been brought to the very mountain of God.
A short time later, the Lord further reveals Himself
in the blazing fire of His presence.
Here's the message for us: Like Moses, when we find ourselves
on the far side of the desert, demoted and tarnished, having failed,
having had to adopt an entirely different view of who and what we are,
rather than being deserted by God, in fact,
the Lord brings us through our flight out of overwhelming challenges
to cause us to see right in the midst of the desert and desolation
the mountain of His presence in our lives,
a mountain that was there all along, the whole time,
and proof that the Lord had been guiding us all along.)

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!

Exodus 3:1-2, 4
Now Moses was tending the flock of Jethro
his father-in-law, the priest of Midian,
and he led the flock to the far side of the wilderness
and came to Horeb, the mountain of God.
(Moses never expected to be on the far side of the desert,
away from all he had known and accepted,
rejected by his own people as well as his adopted people,
cut off from everything that was familiar to him,
separated from loved ones and the privileged life he had known,
and doing a job he never expected to be doing.
Living now in an unknown place, in lowly circumstances,
no longer a prince, but now only a mere shepherd,
he was trying desperately to make a new life from nothing.
His life had been turned upside down and inside out,
completely and irrevocably changed.
We may find ourselves in a similar place today
on the far side of the desert wilderness,
in an unfamiliar and unwelcoming and hard, hard place.)
There the angel of the Lord appeared to him
in flames of fire from within a bush.
Moses saw that though the bush was on fire it did not burn up. . . .
When the Lord saw that he had gone over to look,
God called to him from within the bush, "Moses! Moses!"
(Moses discovered in that deserted, remote desert place
that the Lord Himself was right there with him.
All he had to do was look and see.
God Himself appeared to Moses. He had been there all along.
Not only did He make Himself known to Moses,
but He appeared to Moses in a powerful display
of the blazing fire of His mighty presence.
All Moses did was look up and see Who was before Him.
Today, the Lord is present with us in the desert places.
As we look up, as we look to Him, He displays Himself to us
in the fire of His presence and calls us by name.
He hasn't forgotten us. He hasn't left us. He hasn't deserted us.
He makes Himself known to us and calls to us,
inviting us to walk into His presence
and to listen to His words of truth for us and His 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 56:8
The Sovereign Lord declares—He Who gathers the exiles of Israel:
(The Lord promises He will gather His people
from their scattered and dispersed places,
even from their Babylonian exile.
He also gathers us back from the scattered places
where we have either gone on our own misguided choices
or from the places to which we have been exiled
because of life's unexpected challenges.
He makes a solemn and unalterable promise
to gather all of us back into His presence and provision.
He never lets go of us even when we have strayed from Him.)
"I will gather still others to them besides those already gathered."
(Here promising to include the Gentile nations
who had not formerly been called by Him,
not only does the Lord gather to Himself His Own people
and deliver them out of bondage and exile,
but He also extends His purposes to other peoples as well.
He declares He will include as a part of His chosen family
those who formerly have not been His people,
but who also need His deliverance and rescue.
His promise to us today who are among the "other nations"
is that even though we may not have previously been a part of the family of God,
He has made a place for us and eagerly invites us into His chosen gathering.)

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 56:6-7
"And foreigners who bind themselves to the Lord to minister to Him,

to love the Name of the Lord, and to be His servants,
all who keep the Sabbath without desecrating it
and who hold fast to My covenant—

(While we all have been foreigners to the Lord's Kingdom,
strangers to His ways and purposes,
once we accept His invitation to acknowledge and obey Him,
now we are adopted into His family,
and He covers us with His covenant of love.

Initially given as an invitation to God's chosen Jewish people,

now He has expanded His invitation also to us Gentile foreigners
whom God has declared part of His beloved people as well.)

these I will bring to My holy mountain
and give them joy in My house of prayer.
Their burnt offerings and sacrifices will be accepted on My altar;
for My house will be called a house of prayer for all nations."

(The Lord has established His house as a place of prayer
where He answers prayer and that He has invited all peoples
to come into that place of prayer to be heard by Him.
He has promised that He will bring us into His very presence,
into His kingdom, into His circle of beloved, into His inner circle,

and that He will accept us and be heard by us.

He invites us into His very dwelling place,
giving us special access into His Own house of prayer,
a place where He invites us to bring our needs before Him,
and chooses to hear our pleas and meet our needs.)

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 56:4-5
For this is what the Lord says:
"To the eunuchs who keep My Sabbaths,
who choose what pleases Me and hold fast to My covenant—
(Even though we all were once outside the Lord's presence
He tells us here that He still gives us the sure hope
that we have access to Him through His covenant mercy.
The Lord's invitation to His chosen people
extends even to those of us at the bottom rung of society's hierarchy,
to all who have been formerly shut out of society,

and to those of us who cannot produce effective results on our own.
Once we give Him our inability and our inadequacy,
once any of us chooses to eschew our own will,
once any of us chooses to obey the Lord and His ways,
He chooses us and adopts us as His Own.)
to them I will give within My temple and its walls
a memorial and a name better than sons and daughters;
I will give them an everlasting name that will endure forever."

(When we surrender our lives to Him,
not only does the Lord assure us that He chooses us
and makes a place for us in His presence,
but He declares that He rewards us
with what we could not give ourselves or produce for ourselves.

Though we could never produce offspring,
never produce lasting achievement,
through Him we achieve honor and favor, a progeny, offspring,
that is far better than anything we could ever have achieved.)

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 56:3
Let no foreigner who is bound to the Lord say,
"The Lord will surely exclude me from His people."
(The Lord's invitation to be a part of His family extends to all of us,
even to those who might have been unknown and excluded before.
We never have to fear we are not good enough,
we are not special enough, we are beyond His love, or we have failed too far.
He calls each of us into relationship with Him as His chosen people.
When we submit ourselves to Him, when we commit ourselves to Him,
He declares we belong to Him.)
And let no eunuch complain, "I am only a dry tree."

(He declares that even those who were considered
among the least respected in society,
those who had been considered of little worth,
those who were barren and unproductive,
are welcomed into the Lord's embrace.
He is no respecter of persons,
and He is the One Who binds us to Himself.
And, wonder of wonders, He causes even us who have nothing to offer
and who are without successes to which we can point,
to be productive and useful in His Kingdom!)

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 56:2
"Blessed is the one who does this—
the person who holds it fast,

(The Lord is challenging His people even while they are in captivity
to do "this" -- to hear Him and His promises, to obey Him,
to be encouraged, and to look for the revelation of His salvation
which, He says, is close at hand.
The command for us today is to do the same,
even in the midst of great trial, to put our faith in Him
and to remember His promises.)
who keeps the Sabbath without desecrating it,
and keeps their hands from doing any evil."

(Since they were in captivity at the time of the Lord's message to them,
since they had no access to the normal ways they would have worshiped the Lord,
since they could not go to the Temple or make sacrifices there,
the Lord tells His people to do what they can do,
to obey His command about the Sabbath and to refrain from evil.

Though we may be constrained in all kinds of ways today

because of life's challenging situations,

the Lord still calls us to obey Him, not to focus on what we are unable to do,
but to walk out all that we can do as He leads us into all the purposes
that He has for us even and, especially, in the midst of trials.)

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 56:1
This is what the Lord says:
"Maintain justice and do what is right,

(To His people in Babylonian captivity the Lord gives this command,
one usually referring to maintaining integrity with others.
His command here may also refer
to their relationship to God Himself, that they are to make sure
their interactions with Yahweh are pure and blameless.

Today, we still need to ensure our interactions with others are upright

and that we maintain a right relationship with the Lord.

Today, inherent in His command is a choice we are given.
We are invited to obey Him and to do what is right before Him.)

for My salvation is close at hand
and My righteousness will soon be revealed.^"
(When we feel discouraged and tired, feeling that our relationships,
both with others and with our God, are failing,
He gives us this encouragement.
We can continue to maintain justice and righteousness
only and simply because He provides salvation and His righteousness for us.
His salvation is in the Person of Jesus, in the Word made flesh,

is totally complete and as close as the breath we breathe.
When we are at the lowest places, His powerful reminder to us today
is that He has revealed Himself to us and that that revelation
assures us that His righteousness will prevail over anything confronting us.)

May the Lord richly bless you this day!

In Christ's love,
Blessings!

Sally
513 254 3874