"God Deals with Some Pride"

I've shared before that I did not want to be a teacher, in fact, I was standing in line to walk in our graduation ceremony when a comment was said, “We all know what Misty is going to be… a teacher!” I responded with, “I’ll never be a teacher!” Well, I went on to be one, and you know what? God made me good at it! God gave me the ability to do it well! Do you know whatever you find yourself good at, that ability came from God! Not of your own doing. Jesus himself said, I can of my own self do nothing.

In Oklahoma we had at the time what was called P.A.S.S. These were our objectives that we were to teach at each grade level given to us by the state. There were many that were broken down by categories and listed in numerous outlines depending on what the main objective was. Well, I was a student! And I loved my profession and was always endeavoring to be better and better. I would study those things, and consider how to use them effectively in my classroom. Many times I wouldn’t even try to make one subject connect to another, but I often found that my lesson plans incorporated with these objectives, would flow right from one subject to the next. Honestly, you couldn’t have planned it more perfectly! But you know what, I never considered at the time it was not because I was so great, but it was just God. God that was making those plans work so perfectly fitted together.

Well, as the years went on I could rattle these objectives off pretty good. You could mention the number or letter and I knew exactly what it said, I didn’t even have to look at them anymore, I just knew them. And I honestly took pride in that, although I didn’t consider that was what I was doing.

When we moved to the Tulsa/Broken Arrow area I got a job in one of the largest school districts in the state. Those same objectives applied there too. However, when I would go to express all my knowledge about “Oh, it’s this, or Oh, that one says this”; no one seemed to listen or even hear me. After some time, I began to not seem to even be able to remember the specifics of those objectives. I found my own self having to look things up again and again. I couldn't understand any of it at all!!

It was so frustrating!

You know what was happening to me? God was dealing with my pride! I shared recently how God is after whatever is in our hearts. God will put us in situations to deal with our hearts, to expose them to us, to deal with the wickedness, to deal with those things that are not of him.

Jeremiah 19: 9 - 10 The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it? I the LORD search the heart, I try the reins.....
That’s where I was in my situation!

 

 

Then one day, my eyes were opened, and I saw that God put  me in that situation. I saw that I was put in those meetings to have those situations come up, so that God could show me my heart, and deal with the pride that was residing within it.  I began to see that the reason I could rattle those things off, the reason I had those “perfect” lesson plans at times, the reason I had gotten so many of my own pats on the back over the years, the reason I wanted to be acknowledged for what I knew, was pride in my heart. I saw that I was not so great, I was not so knowledgeable….it had all been, and was, all God. God that had allowed my success, and God that had given me my ability.

 

Psalm 100  tells says it is God that made us, and not we ourselves.

Proverbs 3: 11 - 13

My son, despise not the chastening ( correction ) of the LORD; neither be weary of his correction: For whom the LORD loveth he correcteth; even as a father the son in whom he delighteth. Happy is the man that findeth wisdom, and the man that getteth understanding.

When I began to understand that God was dealing with my heart, cleaning parts up, you know what? The way I "felt" wasn't there anymore, I wasn't bothered. And I was happier.

Hebrews 12:11

Now no chastening ( correction / instruction ) for the present seemeth to be joyous, but grievous: nevertheless afterward it yieldeth the peaceable fruit of righteousness unto them which are exercised thereby.

Then I was able to be a help, and not a hindrance.

God Bless!
Misty

I Won't Lose A Kid!

Years ago, when I was in my late 20’s;  I was teaching third grade at a school near my home in Stigler, Oklahoma. I had a young man who was nine, in my class. He was what someone might call “all boy”. And being all boy, he was rough and tough, a talker; and when he wanted to give his love, it was something that was always welcomed.

One of the best memories I have was picture day. He had asked if I would take a school picture with him along with a friend of his, and to be honest, I was “touched” that he would ask me, his teacher, to join him for his school picture.

I thank God for all the media devices we have today. I was someone who was always involved in my kids’ ( student’s ) lives, and I still am today. I am not sure if they’ll ever know how much I appreciate them emailing me, mailing me, visiting me, etc to still be involved in their lives.

Last fall however, at the age of sixteen, this same young man had an accident. I was preparing in my office to go out for the Sunday morning church service when I received some news that greatly troubled me. This kid, my kid, had been involved in a gun accident that left his life in question. It took my breath away when I received the news.  

Immediately upon hearing, with boldness, and in all humility, I said  to the Lord, “I WON'T LOSE A KID!!” I just kept telling him again and again,  and headed out to the church service.

I continued to check in daily with anyone I could reach at the moment. Here he was in a life threatening injury that had a bullet entering in through his chin and throughout facial areas, lodged close to the brain in the temple, along with a shattered voice box. I did not want to see him paralyzed, mentally challenged, or unable to speak! We kept praying and I kept reminding the Lord, “ I will not lose a kid.”

After a 5 hour or so trip in an ambulance crossing state lines, much of the swelling had gone down. He began shortly upon arrival being able to write on paper, which encouraged me that  his mind was fully operating. A person close to the family spent their time reading the scriptures to him as his small rural hometown continued praying, along with this former third grade teacher.

After surgery, and within two weeks he was up moving, eating, and breathing on his own, but there was still a concern with no speech. But then one Saturday morning rolled around. While still in the hospital lying in his bed, a friend continued to read scriptures out of Jeremiah and Isaiah to him. He would write down the prayers as he listened. After some time of this routine, he was asked a question; and expecting to respond on his notepaper with the answer, he instead responded with a voice! He has not stopped talking since!

.

He went on to stand on the side lines of his football team as they entered the end of their season that fall, but was fully suited up and ready to play for basketball season by that December; and has done some occasional bull riding this spring in the local rodeo.

I watched the Power of God be demonstrated in his life, and the goodness of the Lord towards him, as well as a whole town. I thank God for my friend, and all those who were praying, believing, and saw the power of God operate in his life; and I thank him for letting me share his testimony. 

"No Special Education"

 I was a school teacher for 14 years, and taught grades 1 - 6 except 2nd, at various times throughout those years. A particular year I had a situation arise that tried me, a time when I had to stand alone believing God!

It was somewhat customary to have a reading specialist in our classrooms; however, when I received one in my room, I saw we had very different styles/beliefs about teaching.

The day came when it was suggested that special education was inevitable for one of my kids. I totally disagreed. I found myself setting in a room with administrators, specialists, psychologists, fellow teachers, a counselor, a whole team of people; and here I was the only soul believing what I believed, believing that this "diagnosis" was incorrect. It was a scary place to be professionally. Having the opportunity, I refused to sign off to have the student tested, in the end knowing I probably looked crazy. 

Without my permission, the student was signed up to be evaluated. I continued to pray, bless individuals, and stand believing God with this whole situation, continuing to refuse to sign off on anything needing my approval. I believed the group I had was who God had given me, and they were my responsibility, and I was after what was right for each one.

As the year was ending, I never heard any more about it, and kept asking what had been found out. The student had been pulled for a series of tests, but no one seemed to know a thing when I would ask. The following year I was to be traveling with this same group for their next grade level.

 The next year was now upon us, and I decided I needed to investigate more about the previous year's findings. I was told all the paper work was lost, then I was told they ran out of time to test, and they wanted to start again, but I could say no, and stop the whole process. So with that, I responded with "No." That wasn't the right answer.

I was on the back porch one evening, and things had been heating up a bit regarding the situation; and I was talking to the Lord. I told the Lord I could humble myself and sign off on this and finally agree; but I could also look like a complete idiot and fight this! A friend I knew once said, "It doesn't matter if the whole world thinks your crazy and you're the only one who believes something is God, just believe." Well that was where I found myself! I just had to keep believing that this was God directing my steps.  

Within a couple weeks they found all the paper work that was suppose to be "missing", and I was called in and told that they would not be doing any more testing due to the fact that the scores showed the student learned too quickly, and did not qualify. Thank you Jesus!!

I thank God for this gospel that I share with you regularly, it is the power of God in every situation you have in our life!! If I didn't believe it, and didn't believe on the Lord Jesus, I'd be running around saying, "What am I going to do!!?? " ( And yes, I have been there!!!) But you and I have the opportunity each day to believe! And when we believe, when we believe the gospel, we can expect it to work in every area of our lives!

I thank God for those times the Lord walked me through! I used to say how the Lord was always reminding me that if I could learn to believe him within those four walls of my classroom, I could believe him outside of them too!

As always, I encourage you to believe on the Lord Jesus, confess him Lord of your life, call on his name, and believe what he accomplished for us all through his death, burial, and resurrection! There is victory in Jesus!!

God Bless You,
Misty

"The Old Haybarn"

Charles was about 13 years old when he began playing music and by the age of 14, he soon found himself playing in the night clubs. By his 20’s he was trying to hold down his day job at the foundry making engine parts, as well as continue the nightclub scene playing music. He found he was unable to do both, and keep up, so he looked to find a better way to do so. Although an occasional drinker, Charles was now beginning to drink the hard stuff, pop some pills, and smoke marijuana. He had seemed to find others along the way doing the same things, it seemed to make it easier to join along, it seemed to provide relief.

Charles said, “ It got to where I couldn’t hold down my job…. I ended up losing it, and  I was asked not to come back. It got to where I couldn’t even play music anymore I had gotten so messed up. I started working odd end jobs trying to make money.”

By now he had come to a place where every day he needed to have a drink. Things seemed to be getting worse. There came a night when he was leaving a bar, very drunk. As he was walking across the street to his vehicle a car came out of nowhere and almost hit him.

Charles said at the time, “ I wished it had hit me. I hated what I was doing, but I couldn’t seem to let it go, it had such a hold on me.”

One morning he had gotten up, got him a good ol’ drink, smoked marijuana, and decided to get in his vehicle; not knowing where he was going.

He ended up in Muskogee, Oklahoma near a lumber yard that headed toward the old fairgrounds. There he saw a sign that read, “Cabinet Shop ”; he thought, “Shoot, I know how to do that!” Years earlier at one time, he had done some cabinet building and he felt confident he could do this job.

He met a man there by the name of James Amos. After talking with him a bit, James offered him a  job and asked when he could start. Charles was now living with his parents in Porum, Oklahoma. James suggested that since he came through there himself, he would just stop by and pick him up. They agreed that Charles’ first day would be that following Monday morning.

Charles said, “ That Monday morning I didn’t drink or smoke. I don’t know if it’s because I didn’t have anything, or if I just chose not to.”

When Charles got there that morning he saw a man that he knew from years ago, who was a preacher. And he introduced him to some of his friends. Charles said,
“ All around me were a group of men who were all born again. I didn’t have a chance.”

He had made it known he wasn’t interested in the Lord, and didn’t want to hear about him. He wasn’t even real to him, and he didn’t need to hear about any of it. But God had not forgotten about Charles. And as time began to pass, things began to change.

Every morning when Charles would go to work, he would watch this group of men from afar. They would often have doughnuts and their coffee in the mornings while settling in, and would begin discussing the things of the Lord.

Charles said, “ I would set and watch these men. They looked so happy. My world was like night; so dark and dim. They seemed to have so much going for them.” “ They would just set and talk about the Lord, things I didn’t even understand, and every day I started moving a little closer to hear what they were saying.”

Those men kept their word and never bothered Charles with the things of the Lord, but they didn’t let his unbelief stop them from talking about the Lord Jesus they knew. One day, Charles decided he was going to ask a question. He asked, “How do you get saved? How do you do that?” They shared with him that he needed to ask Jesus to come into his heart, and how he will have to turn his life over to the Lord Jesus.

Well, that didn’t make Charles jump up and do it right away, he had to consider what all that might mean. He set on those statements for 4 or 5 months. He was still making some rounds at the nightclubs with the guys; but one evening he came home, and decided maybe he should try what those men he worked with were talking about, maybe he should try the Lord.

Charles said, “I went out by the haybarn my dad had. I asked Jesus to come into my life.  As soon as I did, it was like warm water began at my toes, up through my legs, all through my body to the top of my head. There was no one that could tell me after that, that I wasn’t saved, and that the Lord wasn’t real.”

Charles said it was one of the biggest experiences he ever had in his life. He knew not everyone’s experience was like that, and didn’t have to be; but he knew the Lord had done what he needed to do to get him to believe him.

But as soon as Charles had given his life to the Lord, the devil soon showed up!

A group of his buddies pulled up, and wanted him to jump in with them, so they could go do what they did best. “ I told them I couldn’t go, I got saved.” They said to me, “ Who’d you get saved from?” I went on to tell them, “ I asked Jesus to come live in my heart.”

They began to laugh at him, while continuing to tell him to get in and go with them. Charles got in, set down, and they took off with him in the vehicle. It wasn’t long before they ended up at a nightclub. Charles found himself in an all too familiar situation. “I could keep hearing a voice saying, you don’t have to do this; you don’t have to do this. But I gave in, and begin to drink; it didn’t do a thing to me though, it didn’t seem to have the same effect on me it had before.

A fight soon began to break out, and again Charles was hearing a voice continuing to talk to him, he finally decided this voice he kept hearing must be the Lord. The voice was telling him to leave. He trusted that voice, and left.

“ I was never told you could get saved, you could be born again anywhere. It didn’t have to be in a church, or at an altar; and I was saved that day at the back of my dad’s haybarn.”

This man Charles is someone who I came to know many years ago by the name of Charley, when I became his daughter in law. He has shared this testimony with me on a few occasions, and one evening a few months back I asked him if I could share it with the world. He gave me his permission, and that evening I sat down taking notes while visiting with him. He could still vividly retell his life and what the Lord had done for him as if it had just happened the day before.

And Charley was right, you didn’t have to be born again in a church or at an alter. The Lord Jesus will meet us all wherever we are at, he met Saul one day on the road to Damascus; and that day, he met Charley Reece at the back of a hay barn.

Romans 10:9 tells us:

That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved.

You, will be, born again.

Charley went on to walk with the Lord and at one time began singing with that same man he went to work for back in the cabinet shop, Mr. Amos. They along with some others recorded a record called, “ Songs We Sing For His Glory”.

Here is one of those songs sung here by Charley Reece  that I would like to share with you off their record, The Disciples called, “Too Many Times”.

 

God Bless You,
Misty                                      Click on picture to hear "Too Many Times"

Click on photo to hear song



No Wise Cast Out ( Audio )

I Timothy 1: 15 - 16
The Apostle Paul states....
This is a faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptation, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners; of whom I am chief. Howbeit for this cause I obtained mercy, that in me first Jesus Christ might shew forth all longsuffering, for a pattern to them which should hereafter believe on him to life everlasting.

Do you see the goodness of the Lord in that statement?

An example to us who were to believe on the same Lord Jesus therafter...

 

Click on picture to hear audio:
"No Wise Cast Out"

Click picture to hear audio

 

God Bless You!
Misty

" No Wise Cast Out "

I Timothy 1: 15 - 16

This is a faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptation, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinner; of whom I am chief. Howbeit for this cause I obtained mercy, that in me first Jesus Christ might shew forth all longsuffering, for a pattern to them which should hereafter believe on him to life everlasting.

Giving Thanks!

II Corinthians 4: 14 - 15
Knowing that he which raised up the Lord Jesus shall raise up us

also by Jesus, and shall present us with you. For all things are for your sakes, that the abundant grace might through the thanksgiving of many redound ( abound ) to the glory of God.

You may click to hear:
"Giving Thanks"

Click on picture to hear audio.

 

The Goodness of the Lord in the Land of the Living

Psalm 27:13
I had fainted, unless I had believed to see the goodness of the LORD in the land of the living.

 

I was reminded of my friend recently and something Jesus did for them!

My friend was many years older than me and their husband had passed. I would talk to them frequently seeing how they were, and they would often mention that they would be dead before too long themselves. I knew they missed their husband, and we're probably going through some loneliness, But they would continually say that their death was inevitable.

I would often fire back with, "That is not true. That is not going to happen!" Eventually they began to put a timeframe on it, beginning with five years; so in five years they began saying they were going to pass on. Well over some time, their five years turned into eight. Each time I would disagree reminding them, “NO! That wasn’t true!”

That was more than ten years ago. And you know what happened? You know who stepped in? Jesus!

One day those words stopped coming out of their mouth, and you know what started coming out? The goodness of the Lord! When things got tough they began to say how whatever the situation was, it would be okay, they started trusting the Lord, trusting that God knew it all, and that he would take care of them.

I spoke with them not long ago and they reminded me about their youth, and their conversation these days has turned into the living they still have, and intend to do because of the Lord.  

Thank God for Jesus!
The scriptures tell us the Lord heals the broken in heart.

Romans 10:13 says whosoever calls upon the name of the Lord shall be saved! That is shall be delivered, shall be made sound, shall be made whole.

Whatever your situation, know this! You can always call on the one person who can help!

That name is Jesus, there is no other name in which men shall be saved.

God Bless You!
Misty