Good Word for Today!

The Lord Be With You Today!

Isaiah 59:9-10
So justice is far from us, and righteousness does not reach us.
(There is only one instance, one situation, when the Lord's justice
for His people and against their oppressors is not in effect.
There is only one instance, one situation,
when the Lord's righteousness does not cover His people.
When Israel or we today make conscious choices
to walk into darkness and sin, we block His protection and provision for us.)
We look for light, but all is darkness; for brightness, but we walk in deep shadows.
Like the blind we grope along the wall, feeling our way like people without eyes.
At midday we stumble as if it were twilight; among the strong, we are like the dead.
(In our persistent attempt to live life our way,
to define right-living and righteousness in our terms,
to formulate for ourselves how we approach God,
to make gods for ourselves out of things and people and situations,
as long as we persist in these endeavors, we miss God.
We walk in a darkness where we call light dark and dark light.
Though blind and vulnerable, we act as if we see, as if we are indomitable.
The righteousness of God that justifies us, that protects us from oppression,
the light that dispels shadowed darkness and reveals a clear path ahead
become our strength when we repent of our foolish rebellion,
when we seek the Lord's forgiveness and submit to Him.
Then we are covered in all God's great provision for us today.)

May the Lord richly bless you this day!

In Christ's love,
Blessings!

Sally
513 254 3874

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Good Word for Today!

The Lord Be With You Today!

Isaiah 59:3-8
For your hands are stained with blood, your fingers with guilt.
Your lips have spoken falsely, and your tongue mutters wicked things.
(The Lord is speaking not to pagans who don't profess any faith in Him,
not to the evil people of the world who are in rebellion against Him,
but to His Own, to the people with whom He is in covenant,
to those who are called by His people.)
No one calls for justice; no one pleads a case with integrity.
They rely on empty arguments, they utter lies;
they conceive trouble and give birth to evil.
They hatch the eggs of vipers and spin a spider's web.
Whoever eats their eggs will die, and when one is broken, an adder is hatched.
Their cobwebs are useless for clothing;
they cannot cover themselves with what they make
Their deeds are evil deeds, and acts of violence are in their hands.
Their feet rush into sin; they are swift to shed innocent blood.
They pursue evil schemes; acts of violence mark their ways.
The way of peace they do not know; there is no justice in their paths.
They have turned them into crooked roads;
no one who walks along them will know peace.
(In an unrelenting, harsh, and unremitting indictment against His people,
the Lord reveals their evil and unrepentant ways.
He is describing in the starkest terms the reality of man's sinful nature.
Without Him, this is who we are still today.
We may, like Israel of old, try to put a mask over our true inner being,
to hide our real selves with an occasional outward show of religious virtue,
but inside we are filled with greed, self-aggrandizement,
attempts to control and dominate people and situations,
selfishness, self-centeredness, and violent words and attitudes.
At other times, we may throw off all constraints
and try to seize all we can at whatever cost from whoever is in our way.
As unpleasant and difficult as it is to admit, left to ourselves, this is who we are.
Only through the Lord, only through His salvation, His forgiveness, His mercy,
only through Him today can we be transformed into His righteousness.)

May the Lord richly bless you this day!

In Christ's love,
Blessings!

Sally
513 254 3874

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Good Word for Today!

The Lord Be With You Today!

Isaiah 59:1-2
Surely the arm of the Lord is not too short to save,
nor His ear too dull to hear.
(When we have not received an answer to our calls for help,
when we have not witnessed answers to our prayers that we have sought,
it is not because the Lord is weak or unable,
nor is it because He is uncaring or refuses to hear us.
When we don't receive the kind of answers to our prayers for which we hoped,
we need to remember that the Lord is always at work
and brings about His purposes in the situation.)
But your iniquities have separated you from your God;
your sins have hidden His face from you, so that He will not hear."
(We also may need to examine, first, the nature of our prayers,
and, second, the condition of our heart.
Here the Lord clearly explains why He has not answered His people's calls,
why they have remained in exile, why they have experienced such pain.
The people had tried to put on an outward show of devotion
by observing religious rituals, but their inward attitudes
were far from sincere and far from God.
Today, we, too, still need to examine ourselves before the Lord
asking Him to reveal any wayward ways in us
so that we can repent, accept His forgiveness,
and receive His provision for all our needs.)

May the Lord richly bless you this day!

In Christ's love,
Blessings!

Sally
513 254 3874

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Good Word for Today!

The Lord Be With You Today!

Isaiah 58:13-14
"If you keep your feet from breaking the Sabbath
and from doing as you please on My holy day,
(The Lord established a Sabbath rest observance for His people,
both as a sign to them of His covenant with them
and as a sign for them of their obedience to Him.
The Lord Himself rested on the Sabbath,
not because He needed rest, but to model
the difference between work and the kind of holy rest
that He was making available to His people.
The word sabbath comes from a Hebrew word meaning intermission,
so the Lord has set a day apart as an intermission, a break for us,
from all the normal activities and routines that the other days hold.)
if you call the Sabbath a delight and the Lord's holy day honorable,
and if you honor it by not going your own way
and not doing as you please or speaking idle words,
then you will find your joy in the Lord,
(If we do, in fact, take a break, stop our normal daily routines,
and honor the day the Lord has set aside,
use the time to realign ourselves with Him and His purposes
and to intentionally focus our attention on Him
instead of pursuing our own willful ways,
when we redirect our thoughts and words to those
that are centered on holy and just expressions,
when we center our heart and mind on the Lord, He rewards us!
The result with be renewed confidence and restored delight in Him.)
and I will cause you to ride in triumph on the heights of the land
and to feast on the inheritance of your father Jacob."
For the mouth of the Lord has spoken.
(Always, always, when we center ourselves in Him and concentrate on Him,
as we align ourselves to His plans, He causes us to be victorious
in the land, the life, He has given to us.
His plans for us are to give us victory and to bring us
into the rich inheritance He has promised us.)

May the Lord richly bless you this day!

In Christ's love,
Blessings!

Sally
513 254 3874

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Good Word for Today!

The Lord Be With You Today!

Isaiah 58:12
Your people will rebuild the ancient ruins
and will raise up the age-old foundations;
(Generations before when the Assyrians
had invaded and laid waste their land,
and then again while God's people had been in exile in Babylon,
their homeland had lain in ruins, having been overrun by the enemy
and with no one to remain there to care for or rebuild the land.
Now, the Lord tells His people that He will return them to their home
so that they can rebuild what had been destroyed over the generations.
Now, today, the Lord tells us His people that He will cause us
to take back what has been stolen from us,
to return to that place where we had lived in strength and prosperity of soul
before our lives had been shaken by hardship and challenges.
Not only will we return to our former homeland of strength and purpose,
but we will rebuild out of that desolation and what seemed to be waste.
Here's His promise to us: What had been destroyed, we will rebuild.
Where our foundations had been broken and ruined,
we will dig again and rebuild.)
you will be called Repairer of Broken Walls,
Restorer of Streets with Dwellings.
(And, today, rather than being called Failure, Broken, Hopeless, Despairing, or Unloved,
the Lord gives us a new name of Victor, Delivered, One Who Prevails, and Restored.
As He returns us to the inheritance of life in Him that He originally had given us,
He will strengthen us to repair the breaches in the walls of our lives,
walls that had protected us from the enemy,
and to return to the roadways of prosperity and hope
where we had dwelt in homes of prosperity, peace, and safety.)

May the Lord richly bless you this day!

In Christ's love,
Blessings!

Sally
513 254 3874

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Good Word for Today!

The Lord Be With You Today!

Isaiah 58:11
The Lord will guide you always;
He will satisfy your needs in a sun-scorched land
and will strengthen your frame.
You will be like a well-watered garden,
like a spring whose waters never fail.
(What a powerful promise of the Lord!
He guides us! But He doesn't stop there! He guides us always!
When and where does His guidance lead us?
He shows us here that He leads us when the circumstances are worst,
when everything around us is hopeless in the barren places.
Not only does He give us guidance, but He also gives us strength for the day,
strength to follow Him through the sun-scorched situations in our lives.
Then He assures us that even in those difficult and challenging places
He will cause us to do more than just eek out an existence,
but He will cause us to prosper and to thrive,
to be watered, not by a shallow, wet-weather spring,
one which only appears to be a good water source
and then soon dries up after a brief rainfall,
but watered by a deep well of outpouring refreshing
that never runs dry, a deep river that never loses its impact,
but provides waters that pour over us and cause us
to be productive and fruitful for Him.)

May the Lord richly bless you this day!

In Christ's love,
Blessings!

Sally
513 254 3874

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Good Word for Today!

The Lord Be With You Today!

Isaiah 58:9b-10 (from the Amplified Bible)
"If you take away from your midst the yoke [of oppression],
(The Lord gives us a clear picture of His expectations.
Previously, He has just called His people to account,
revealing to them He saw their wicked ways,
one of which was to financially enslave and oppress their fellowmen
cheating them with such usurious rates of interest
that the borrowers were kept in bondage.
Now He tells them and us to refrain from such ungodly ways.)
the finger pointed in scorn [toward the oppressed or the godly],
(Now He tells us to stop judging others, to stop being critical and judgmental,
to stop being disdainful of others and putting ourselves above others.)
and [every form of] wicked (sinful, unjust) speech,
(We are to refrain from vain and unproductive talk,
to stop any form of lying and deceit, as well as hurtful and wounding words.)
and if you offer yourself to [assist] the hungry
and satisfy the need of the afflicted,
(After having told us what not do to, now the Lord tells us what to do,
that we are to reach out in concrete ways
to those around us who are in need.)
then your light will rise in darkness
and your gloom will become like midday."
(This will be the result of our obedience to Him.
When we stop being disobedient and begin being obedient to Him,
the light of our obedience will penetrate the darkness around us,
both the darkness of our own situations,
as well as the darkness of others to whom we reach out to help.
This thing that Jesus calls us to do, to love others as ourselves
is a powerful help to them, but also brings blessing to us.
As we become the hands and feet of Jesus,
as we show the world who He is by the way we love each other,
we bring the light of God's love and the Good News
into the darkness of our world.)

May the Lord richly bless you this day!

In Christ's love,
Blessings!

Sally
513 254 3874

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Good Word for Today!

The Lord Be With You Today!

Isaiah 58:9a (from the Amplified Bible translation)
"Then you will call, and the LORD will answer;
(When will He answer our call to Him,
when will the "Then" occur that frames this promise?
Here is the answer the Lord just gave in the preceding verses:
when we stop enslaving others through our dishonesty and mistreatment,
when we turn away from our judgmental attitudes and evil actions toward others,
when we stop indulging in insincere rituals of worship,
and when we reject the sin to which we have clung.
THEN He will lavish His full and mighty Presence on us and over our needs.)
You will cry for help, and He will say, 'Here I am.'"
(Even as He declared this promise to the Israelites of old,
the Lord gives us this assurance still today.
His promise is that when we call, when we cry out for help,
when we finally realize our intense and desperate need,
when we finally realize we have no one to whom we can turn,
when we turn to the only place, the only One Who can provide,
He will answer us and be present to us!
And this Person, this God to whom we turn
is not just any person, not just any god,
but He declares that He is, that He is here, and that He is present.
He is present to us in all the magnificent fullness of His identity and power.
He is present to us today as the Great I AM!)

May the Lord richly bless you this day!

In Christ's love,
Blessings!

Sally
513 254 3874

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Good Word for Today!

The Lord Be With You Today!

Isaiah 58:8b
"Then your righteousness [or your Righteous One] will go before you,
(When God's people walk in purity of heart before Him, submitting to His ways,
and putting others' needs and interests before themselves, this is His promise,
that He will count our obedience to Him as righteousness!
He declares and decrees He will not look on our missteps, our failures,
or our inadequacies, but will see only His righteousness,
not any puny and unholy attempt at righteousness on our part,
but His Own righteousness, righteousness that He Himself has poured over us
and has chosen to credit to us as our own.
The Hebrew also alludes to a possible reading that the Lord Himself
goes before us to smooth our path, to be our advance guard, our forerunner.
Now, if the Lord Himself goes before us,
who or what could ever stop us or cause us to fear.)
and the glory of the Lord will be your rear guard."
(Not only does He provide the way forward, guarding us from a frontal attack,
but He also brings up the rear, guarding us
from any sneak attack we were not expecting.
Even as Israel stood at the brink of the Red Sea in their escape from slavery,
the Lord's pillar of fire stood behind them and between them and their Egyptian pursuers.
Even as the Lord ordered the tribe of Dan
to bring up the rear of His marching army of Israelites as they left Mt. Sinai
where they had received their marching orders and were proceeding to the Promised Land,
so that no stragglers could get lost nor any enemy sneak up and attack from behind,
so the Lord also still sets Himself and the heavy and powerful weight of His glory
as our rear guard as we march forward to possess the life to which He has called us
so that we can't wander off and so that the enemy can't sneak up and pick us off.
His presence and glory still guard us today where and when we aren't even on the look-out.)

May the Lord richly bless you this day!

In Christ's love,
Blessings!

Sally
513 254 3874

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Good Word for Today!

The Lord Be With You Today!

Isaiah 58:8a
"Then your light will break forth like the dawn,
and your healing will quickly appear;"
(God's people had dared to complain that He had not been responsive
to their fasting observances, that He had ignored their ritualized fasts.
His clear response to them was that their abstention from food
was utterly meaningless because they continued to live sinful lives,
to oppress their fellowman, to deal harshly with them,
and to cheat them in order to gain for themselves.
He is not interested in what we can do for Him.
However, the Lord here is promising His people that when they engage
in the kind of true fast that should accompany refraining from food,
the kind of fast that includes treating others as they would have others treat them,
then a new day of dawning light would burst forth into their lives,
a blazing light that would penetrate and dispel the darkness,
a light that would dismiss the blackness of their own blindness and sin,
blindness and sin that had oppressed and burdened them,
and that He would then prosper them, heal them, and hear their prayers.
He is not interested in what we can do for Him, but through Him.
When we realize that true fasting is more than going without food,
that it is also aligning ourselves with the Lord and submitting to His purposes,
then He is will prosper us and cause us to be light in the darkness around us,
and He will minister His powerful provision of complete healing to us.)

May the Lord richly bless you this day!

In Christ's love,
Blessings!

Sally
513 254 3874

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Good Word for Today!

The Lord Be With You Today!

Isaiah 58:7
^"Is it not to share your food with the hungry
and to provide the poor wanderer with shelter—
when you see the naked, to clothe them,
and not to turn away from your own flesh and blood?"
(The Lord continues describing the kind of true fasting
that He honors and that honors Him,
fasting that includes not only denial of food,
but fasting that includes His earlier injunction to avoid any kind of oppression
and now, here, this element of concrete outreach to meet real needs in people.
His call is to all of us is to reach out to others
and that call to fasting is not some negligible, bland profession of good will
toward those in real and desperate need.
Rather, the Lord instructs us to deal with others in specific ways,
to meet concrete and tangible needs--which is the way
the Lord meets our needs, in measurable, substantial ways.
He doesn't just blandly or condescendingly say to us
to go and be released from hunger, to be warmed with clothing,
to go and be healed, or to go and be saved..
Rather, He specifically and physically provided for our salvation,
even as He lovingly provides for our physical needs of hunger and clothing,
and now He calls us to act in the same loving and specific ways
to those He brings across our path who are in need,
not just to dismissively say to them who are hurting and destitute,
both physically and spiritually, to go and be comforted,
to go and be filled, to go and be clothed, or to go and be healed,
but for us to concretely reach out to the hurting around us.
We don't and can't become anyone's savior,
but when we do extend mercy and help to others,
as we become the hands and feet of Jesus,
we model the kind of love the Lord shows them,
and our kindness points them to the only Savior
Who can and will provide for and meet all their needs.)

May the Lord richly bless you this day!

In Christ's love,
Blessings!

Sally
513 254 3874

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Good Word for Today!

The Lord Be With You Today!

Isaiah 58:6
"Is not this the kind of fasting I have chosen:
to loose the chains of injustice and untie the cords of the yoke,
to set the oppressed free and break every yoke?"
(The Lord says the first requirement for fasting, along with denial of food,
is to abstain from any kind of oppression.
Breaking off the yoke of oppression is a reference to freeing slaves.

The idea is also a reference to the yokes
that were fitted over the necks of oxen to carry heavy loads.

Rather than adding to people's burdens, we are to cut off
the bindings over people who are burdened down with injustice
and to enlighten them with the Good News that sets them free of oppression.
After having just earlier upbraided His people for their religious hypocrisy,

their so-called "fasting" where, although they abstained from food,

at the same time, they treated their fellowman with contempt,

greedily striving for gain at whatever cost to others,

employing usurious rates of interest to keep people financially oppressed,

and completely missing the real intent of fasting,
which was to help them focus on the Lord and to examine their own ways
to ensure their actions were aligned with their God.

Now the Lord describes the kind of "fasting" He does expect,
fasting in the truest and holistic sense of the word.

He desires His people to accompany their fasting from food

with the kinds of actions that honor the Lord's mercy and love toward His people,

not to add to others' burdens, but to help free them by treating them
with the same mercy that the Lord gives us.)

May the Lord richly bless you this day!

In Christ's love,
Blessings!

Sally
513 254 3874

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Good Word for Today!

The Lord Be With You Today!

Isaiah 58:3b-5
"Yet on the day of your fasting, you do as you please
and exploit all your workers.
Your fasting ends in quarreling and strife,
and in striking each other with wicked fists.
(In a searing indictment of His people, the Lord accuses them
of deep hypocrisy as they execute their so-called religious acts.
We, too, often say we are believers and Christ followers
while, at the same time, acting in ways that are far from godly.
Even in our religious settings, we quarrel and gossip and judge others.)
You cannot fast as you do today
and expect your voice to be heard on high.
(The Lord reminds Israel of old and us today
that He sees through our religiosity
and does not respond favorably to such outward and meaningless shows.)
Is this the kind of fast I have chosen,
only a day for people to humble themselves?
Is it only for bowing one's head like a reed
and for lying in sackcloth and ashes?
Is that what you call a fast, a day acceptable to the Lord?"
(Even in the face of our attempts at duplicity,
the Lord assures us that He seeks only true devotion,
true obedience, true faithfulness.
He asks us to lay our lives down,
not just in words or in name only, but in fact.
The acceptable day of the Lord
includes our complete acknowledgement of Him
and a commitment to walk out His truths
in practical and honorable ways,
to be His people of highest integrity.)

May the Lord richly bless you this day!

In Christ's love,
Blessings!

Sally
513 254 3874

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Good Word for Today!

The Lord Be With You Today!

Isaiah 58:1-3a
"Shout it aloud, do not hold back. Raise your voice like a trumpet.
Declare to My people their rebellion and to the descendants of Jacob their sins.
(The Lord is challenging His faithful ones to be a voice of truth to His people
to shout out loudly and forcefully to those
who have continued in rebellion against God and His commands.
He wants those who are disobedient to hear His truth
and that He always sees sin in our lives.)
For day after day they seek Me out; they seem eager to know My ways,
as if they were a nation that does what is right
and has not forsaken the commands of its God.
They ask Me for just decisions and seem eager for God to come near them.
(In only external shows of devotion, God's people had hypocritically acted
as if they cared about Him and His ways.
In reality, their hearts were far from Him, and their religious attendance
was in form only and without true conviction.
They were willfully bent on reinterpreting the Lord's demands
through their own skewed and distorted construct.
How often do we also find ourselves just going through the motions,
lacking true and heartfelt commitment and piety,
diluting the Lord's commands with our own rationalizations,
and acting as if the Lord cannot discern the difference.)
'Why have we fasted,' they say, 'and You have not seen it?
Why have we humbled ourselves, and You have not noticed?'"
(In hypocritical and arrogant protest, they put the blame on God
for not responding to their outward show of devotion.
We, too, often accuse the Lord of being inadequate and insufficient,
of being too little too late, and of not caring.
We often try to live only a partial life of obedience to Him,
with each foot on both sides of the fence
that marks the boundary of selfless devotion and self-centered willfulness.
The Lord reveals to us here that He sees the motives behind our actions,
He knows our hidden and unspoken thoughts, and detects falsehood.
The beauty of His rebuke here, though, is that He still calls us His people
and He still wants us to hear His message clear and unmistakable
that He desires for us to repent and come to Him wholeheartedly
and without any reservation.)

May the Lord richly bless you this day!

In Christ's love,
Blessings!

Sally
513 254 3874

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Good Word for Today!

The Lord Be With You Today!

Isaiah 57:20-21
But the wicked are like the tossing sea, which cannot rest,
whose waves cast up mire and mud.
(Though the Lord extends mercy and forgiveness
to those who repent and cry out to Him,
lovingly inviting them into the freedom of His peace and rest,
those who choose to remain in disobedience and sin,
like the constantly roiling, restless sea,
live turbulent lives that are tossed about in turmoil
and covered in the muddy mire of their sin.
they have no peace or cleansing from their agitation and confusion
because they remain separated from God.)
"There is no peace," says my God, "for the wicked."
(Those who continue to live in rebellion against God,
because of their wicked choices to go their own way,
have no peace with their conscience, no peace with the Body of Christ
with whom they have not joined in relationship and fellowship,
and, most importantly, they have no peace with their Maker
Who longs to extend His complete and saturating shalom peace to them.
For those of us who do yield our lives to the Lord,
He extends the peace that passes all human understanding,
that guards our hearts and minds in Christ Jesus,
that fills our lives with steadfastness and steady perseverance
in the face of trials and troubles in life.
He is the God of peace and, when our lives are secure in Him,
nothing can shake us from that place of peace in Him.)

May the Lord richly bless you this day!

In Christ's love,
Blessings!

Sally
513 254 3874

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Good Word for Today!

The Lord Be With You Today!

Isaiah 57:18-19
"I have seen their ways, but I will heal them;
(God knows everything about us, our faults, our failures,
our flaws, our frailties, our disobedience, our rebellion, our sin.
He sees our every rebellious attitude and thought,
and yet, and yet, He chooses us and promises
that He will heal and restore and reclaim us.)
I will guide them and restore comfort to Israel's mourners,
creating praise on their lips. Peace, peace, to those far and near,"
says the Lord. "And I will heal them."
(As disobedient, as unfaithful, as undeserving as God's people had been,
as disobedient, as unfaithful, as undeserving as we are at times today,
as filled with despair and regret for our attitudes and actions as we may be,
the Lord declares that His mercy for us always prevails.
He never gives us the punishment that our actions and attitudes truly deserve,
but rather generously pours out over us what we could never earn,
what we would never deserve, what we could never achieve on our own.
He declares His peace over us, His full and complete well-being over us,
a peace that passes all human understanding,
a peace that bridges the impassable gulf between God and man
that we could never cross on our own.
Today He gives us His incredible peace, His full pardon and healing in Him.
Out of His great and mighty love, He gives us
His guidance and restoration and comfort and encouragement.)

May the Lord richly bless you this day!

In Christ's love,
Blessings!

Sally
513 254 3874

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