Scripture

He will keep in perfect peace all those who trust in Him, whose thoughts turn often to the LORD.

~Isaiah 26:3, TLB

Quote

Insane Asylums are filled with people who thought excessively about themselves and never or rarely thought of God or others.

~W. F. Graham

I like Billy Graham and his son Franklin. I am reading and enjoying Dr. Graham’s devotional DAY BY DAY WITH BILLY GRAHAM. I love his stories and insights. He is a remarkable man. He recommended the NLT which is one reason why I use and he often quotes the Living Bible which is something most preachers will not do. I like paraphrases and I love Dr. Taylor’s paraphrase of Psalms. Today’s verse is out of Isaiah and reading it in the LB gave me some insights I had never had before. Isaiah 26:3 in the NKJV reads..You will keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on You, because he trusts in You. Let me ask you a practical question: can you keep your mind on the LORD constantly twenty-four-seven? I cannot. I think about the LORD a lot but not all the time. This is why I like the LB…He will keep in perfect peace all those who trust in Him, whose thoughts turn often to the LORD. Whereas our focus should always be on the LORD, it seems impossible to me to think about Him all the time. My thought do turn often to the LORD. I believe I think of Him more than ever but I could never honestly say that I never think of anything else.

Dr. Graham says, “We all have an ego–a self–a consciousness of being an individual. It is impossible not to think of yourself but this does not mean that we worship our self, or to think constantly about our self and certainly, not think entirely of our self. Common sense tells us that we will be miserable if we think exclusively about our selves.” Have you ever seen a happy hypochondriac? Hypochondriacs are never well regardless to their phsyical condition. It is their way of drawing attention to themselves, but in reality, it does not draw, it repels. Jesus is infinitely more concerned about our well being than we are and He wants us to be happy; this is why He challenged us to deny our self and take up a cross and follow Him. It is in dying that we will live. You will never discover your true self until you yield your life to JESUS.  Paul said to the Colossians,Think about the things of heaven, not the things of earth. For you died to this life, and your real life is hidden with Christ in God. And when Christ, who is your life, is revealed to the whole world, you will share in all his glory. You will never know the self you were created to be a part from Christ. You can choose to live without Jesus but it will not be your best life and it will never lead to a greater life.

Extra

You have to check out this months IMPRIMIS. There is a movement to replace our local district attorney’s with what they call ROGUE District attorneys. Of course, it is sponsored by a group of Sadduccees {fifty rich Jews} like George Soros {real name Gyorgy Schwartz}, Mark Zuckerberg {Facebook}, and Dustin Moskovitz. The Rogue Attorneys have already been elected in Chicago, Philidelphis, Los Angeles and St. Louis. The statistics reveal that in all these blue cities crime in on the increase. Misdemeaners like shop-lifting are not prosecuted at all unless that exceed $1,000. This has caused many retail stores to close in the Blue cities. In all these cities violent crimes like murders has increased dramatically and 83% of the victims are black. I thought black lives mattered to the Marxist. Alicia Garza[a.ka. Alicia Schwartz] spoke at an international gathering of Marxist in 2015. She said, “It is impossible for a world to emerge where black lives matter if it is under capitalism” {free enterprise}. She is the co-founder of BLM and a big proponent of Rogue Attorneys. These people openly profess to be Marxist. Read the IMPRIMIS.

It looks like we are going to have another beautiful day. Let me remind you that today in the NATIONAL DAY OF PRAYER. Local prayer services are conducted across America but here in Morgan County, they are not well attended. The MBA sponsored service is at Liberty Baptist Church on Lane Road in Hartselle at 11:30. You will not be called on to prayer aloud. There is a brief program and several prayer times in the program. I don’t think we have ever had more than 50-75 and half of the crowd is preachers. We need everyone. A lot of this is my fault because I forget to promote it. I think Falkville has their own service. This is what every community needs to do.

Have a good day and thanks for reading the blog.