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Author
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Topic: A true testimony of faith in JESUS !
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helpforhomeschoolers
Advanced Member
Member # 15
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posted
I did catch it BHl. I mailed this testimony around. I would love to hear this lady speak!
I too believe He will be coming in clouds in my lifetime; No, No date setting, but we are to know the season! I believe the season is soon.
Revelation 1:7 Behold, he cometh with clouds; and every eye shall see him, and they also which pierced him: and all kindreds of the earth shall wail because of him. Even so, Amen.
Yes, even so. Amen!
Posts: 4684 | From: Southern Black Hills of South Dakota | Registered: Jun 2002
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becauseHElives
Moderator
Member # 87
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posted
Homeschooler,
I don't know if you caught it , but the LORD told this lady when she was just a little girl, that the next time she saw HIM, HE would be returning in the clouds. Betty is now about 77 years old.
2002 Now
-1940 Armistice
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62
+14 was her age on Armistice
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76 would be her approximate age
If this is a true testimony, and from all indications it is, she will not die before the LORD returns.
No date setting here, just an observation.
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Strive to enter in at the strait gate:for many, I say unto you will seek to enter in, and shall not be able. ( Luke 13:24 )
Posts: 4578 | From: Southeast Texas | Registered: Jun 2002
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helpforhomeschoolers
Advanced Member
Member # 15
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posted
Wow, What an incredible testimony. How many of us would have faith such as this in spite of what the doctors had to say or in spite of how things looked in "real life" as some would call it.
How sad that just as in the days that Jesus walked the earth there were some who saw and still have not followed Christ!
Thank you for sharing this with us BHL. I will be passing it on!
Posts: 4684 | From: Southern Black Hills of South Dakota | Registered: Jun 2002
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becauseHElives
Moderator
Member # 87
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posted
I hope this will bless all that read it. The LORD brought this story to my memory last night. It was a great encouragement to me as a new believer.
THE BETTY BAXTER STORY
As told by herself
As far back as I can remember I wasn’t normal like other boys and girls. My body was twisted and crippled and deformed. I guess I will never forget that awful feeling of no hope. I know how it feels to have the family doctor look in my face and say, "Betty, there is no hope." Also to be carried from one hospital to another and see the specialists shake their heads and say, "There is nothing medical science can do."
I was born with a curve in my spine. Every vertebra was out of place, the bones were twisted and matted together. As you know the nerves are centered on the spine. The x-rays showed that the bones were twisted and matted together, therefore, my nervous system was wrecked.
One day as I lay in the University hospital in Minneapolis, Minnesota, I began to shake all over. It was sort of a trembling at first but soon I was shaking violently from head to toe. I shook out of my bed and fell on the floor. The doctor rushed in and put me back on the bed. He said, "This is what I have been expecting. She now has St. Vitus dance and there is nothing to do but send her home."
They took wide straps and strapped my body to the bed. It didn’t keep me from shaking but it did keep me from falling out of bed. they kept me strapped to the bed day and night, only removing them long enough for my nurse to bathe me. When the straps were removed my body would be raw and blistered.
I know what it is to suffer. I lived in pain. The doctors kept me on dope so I could endure the pain. When I came into the world my heart was not normal and under the power of dope it grew worse. Eventually I came to have a heart attack about every week.
At last my body became so accustomed to the dope that it couldn’t take full effect. I would bite my lips to keep from screaming while the hypo took effect and then when the pain would not go I would scream for another injection. Only after two or three injections could I get any relief from the torturing racking pain.
I remember the day the doctor took me off dope. He said to mom, "Mrs. Baxter, it isn’t doing her any good. Her body is accustomed to it." He removed everything from my bed and said, "Betty, I’m sorry but I can’t keep giving you morphine injections. That’s all I know to do." I was only nine years old at that time. Oh how long the nights were as I lay racked with pain. Many times I would twist in the bed struggling for a little relief and feel myself blacking out. Then for hours I would lay unconscious.
I was raised in a Christian home. My parents were not full gospel as I am today, they were Nazarenes, but they loved Jesus. Mom had taught me ever since I can remember the story of Jesus. My mother believed the Bible and told me that Jesus was the same Savior today as He was when He walked the sandy shores of Galilee and that He still heals today if people will only believe and have faith in Him.
Before I go further into my story I want to say that the greatest miracle that ever took place in my life was not when Jesus healed my crippled, twisted, deformed body but when He saved my soul from sin. As long as I had Jesus in my heart, I could go to heaven even though I was crippled and deformed in my body. But not if I was not saved by the blood of Jesus.
My conversion happened when I was only nine years old after hearing our Nazarene pastor, Brother Davis, tell what he said was the "Greatest Story in the World." It was the oldest story in the world; yet it is ever new: the story of Jesus.
Beginning at Jesus’ birth in the manger, Brother Davis told the beautiful story, finally ending with the cross and the Resurrection. He told how with His two precious hands He touched the blind eyes and they saw; how He touched the deaf ear and if was unstopped; how He cleansed the leper, how He fed the multitude with a little boy’s lunch; how His feet carried Him over the hot blistering sands of Galilee while He preached the gospel to the people; how He walked on the water and did not sink.
He told how the people after all this took Jesus and pierced His two precious hands with nails, and thrust a spear in His side and when they pulled it out, blood and water gushed out of His side and flowed down His limbs, the Royal blood spilling on the ground. He said this blood had power to save from sin and heal our bodies from affliction today.
It was the best story I had ever heard. he began singing in his beautiful tenor voice:
"Softly and tenderly Jesus is calling,
Calling for you and for me;
See at the portals He’s waiting and watching,
Watching for you and for me.
"Come home, come home,
Ye who are weary, come home.
Earnestly, tenderly Jesus is calling;
Calling, O sinner, come home."
Tears began trickling down my cheeks. I found myself kneeling and asking Jesus to save me.
As I knelt, I saw a vision of my heart and Oh, it was black. I knew I couldn’t get to heaven with a black heart, full of sin.
Then I saw a vision on a hill far away an old rugged cross. I saw shaping up above the cross bright, sparkling letters, these words which I read:
"HE DIED FOR YOU."
I said "Jesus, now I know that you did and I want you to save me from my sins."
I saw before me a big door in the shape of a heart, Jesus walked up to that door and listened in. There was no knob or latch on the outside. (You must open the door). Then Jesus knocked once and listened, then the second, and the third time He knocked the door flew open; Jesus walked in and I knew I was saved. I felt the great burden of sin roll off of me. Jesus is still in my heart today because if he had gone out I would have known it.
I told Brother Davis I was going to be an evangelist. Then he gently put his hand on my head and prayed a blessing over me. Later he told my parents: "Don’t ever let this girl get away from the call of God. I have never seen a child her age have such an experience with the Lord as she has."
But the hand of affliction began to cut my life short. The only relief I got was through my mother’s prayers. My daddy did not have the faith in Jesus to heal my body as Mom did but he was a good dad to me and never hindered Mom from praying for me.
My mother loved Jesus with a great love. I believe she understood Jesus better than anyone I ever knew. She seemed to know how to make my faith in Him for Him to heal me someday.
My darkest hour came while they were wheeling me down the hospital corridor on a stretcher. The doctor walked up, stopped the stretcher, looked down at me and said, "Betty, we have x-rayed your spine. Every vertebra is out of place, the bones are twisted and matted together. Also you need a new kidney, as long as the old kidney remains you will have pain."
Dad said, "No, I am going to do everything in my power to make my child well again but never shall a knife tough my child." I have never had an operation except the one when Jesus did the operating and He doesn’t leave any scars. How wonderful it is when Jesus does something for us; it is always perfect and never leaves any bad effects.
"Well, Mr. Baxter," the doctor said, "we can never hope to untangle that mass of bones in Betty’s body. Take her home and let her be as happy as possible."
I was eleven years old at that time and had no idea that the doctor was sending me home to die. I looked at him, "Yes, Doctor, but someday God will heal my body. I will be well and strong then."
I had faith then for Mom had read God’s Word to me and talked to me about Jesus so that my faith was strong. One of Mom’s favorite scriptures in those days was, "If thou canst believe all things are possible to him that believeth." Also, "Nothing is impossible with God."
They took me home where the doctor said I would soon die. I grew worse. The pain I had suffered before was nothing compared to what I began to feel after I returned home.
I would go blind and for weeks could not see; I would become deaf and could not hear; dumb and could not speak. My tongue would swell, then would be paralyzed.
Then the blindness would leave, also the deafness and paralysis of the tongue. It seemed I was caught; some awful power was trying to destroy me. But each day Mom would pray with me and tell me God was able to heal my body.
I can’t count the many times that for day after day I saw no one but Dad, Mom and the doctor. As I lay there during those years of loneliness, isolated from the world, I found out one thing: doctors can isolate you from your loved ones, they can take friends from your bedside but they can’t isolate you from Jesus because He promised, "I will never leave you nor forsake you."
So it was during those years of loneliness that I got acquainted with the King of Kings and Lord of Lords. Many people have said, "Betty, why didn’t God heal you when you were a little child and had such great faith?"
I don’t know. God’s ways are not my ways. God’s ways are best. There is one thing I do know-during those awful years of loneliness and pain I really got to know Jesus. He lives in the Valley, my friend. He is the Lily of the Valley and you will find Him there if you look for Him. Standing in the shadows you will see Jesus.
Mom would bathe me in the mornings, then she would leave me. Sometimes I would hear a soft walk by my bedside and would wonder if Mom had come in the room while I was not listening. Then I would hear a soft voice that I learned to know. It was not Dad’s voice. It was not Mom’s voice. It was not my doctor’s voice. It was Jesus speaking to me.
The first time this happened He called me by my first name three times, very softly. he knows your name and where you live.
"Betty!"
"Betty!"
"Betty!"
He called me three times before I answered. I said, "Yes, Lord, stay and talk with me for a little while because I am so lonesome."
Would He stay and talk with me? Yes, He would. He said a lot of things but one thing I will never forget. I believe the reason He always told me this was because He knew it thrilled me most. This is what He always said: "Betty, I love you!" Jesus would look down upon me in my pitiful condition so crippled and deformed that when my daddy would stand me up I stood only as high as my little four year old brother. Large knots had grown on my spine, the first one at the base of my neck, then one right after the other to the base of my spine. My arms were paralyzed from my shoulders to my wrists. I could only move my fingers. My head was twisted and turned down on my chest. When I drank water I had to drink from a tube because I couldn’t raise my head. Yet in this condition Jesus whispered that He loved me. I said, "Jesus help me to be patient because I can do anything as long as I know you love me!" Many times He whispered, "Remember child, I will never leave you nor forsake you."
Listen friend, I am confident that He loved me just as much when I was crippled, forgotten by all the world, as He does right now when I am well and strong and able to work for Him.
I remember as Jesus stood by my bedside I would ask Him, "Jesus, do You know the doctors won’t give me any morphine for my pain? I wonder if you know how sharp that pain is in my back where the knots are?"
And Jesus would say, "Oh, yes, I know. Don’t you remember? One day when I hung between heaven and earth I took the pain and sickness of the whole world upon me there."
As the years went by I gave up all hope of ever being made well by a doctor. Finally my dad came in and took my crippled body in his arms and sat on the edge of his bed. he looked at me with big tears splashing down his rugged face. He said, "Honey, you don’t know, you don’t have the least idea what money is but I have given up everything, I have spent all I have and more too in order to get you well. Betty, your daddy has gone as far as he can go. There isn’t any hope anymore."
He took out his handkerchief and wiped his face dry. Then looking at me he said, "I don’t believe Jesus will let you suffer much longer. He going to take you to that place called heaven and when you get inside, stand there and watch everyone that enters. Someday you will see daddy coming through those gates. It won’t be long. The doctors say it will be soon."
I want to say right here that although I had given up hope as far as man’s help is concerned, I still had faith in God.
One day just before the sun went down I was struck with such unbearable pain that I lapsed into unconsciousness. Three hours later, my mother noticed my breathing was too slow and I scarcely had any pulse. She called the doctor. After an examination, he said, "This is the end. She will never regain consciousness." I lay unconscious for four days and nights. The family was called in and they took up the death-watch.
The fifth morning I remember opening my eyes. Mom leaned over the bed and put her cool hand on my burning forehead. I felt as if I was burning up inside. Knife-like pains were shooting through my spine. mother said, "Betty, it’s Mother, don’t you know me?" I couldn’t speak but smiled at her. She raised her hands toward heaven and began praising God for she felt God had answered her prayers and given me back to her.
As I lay there looking at her, I thought, "Which would I rather do - stay here with my mother and daddy or go to that place mother has read to me about, a place where there is no pain."
I remember mom used to say, Betty, there are no cripples in heaven. Everybody can walk in heaven." She said that in heaven there was no sickness or death and that God took His big handkerchief and wiped away all tears from the eyes.
I prayed a prayer that day that I suppose many other people have prayed. "Jesus, I know that I am saved and am ready to go to heaven. Now Lord all these years I have prayed to be healed but I have been denied. Lord I have reached the end of the way and I’m not particular what you do. Please come and take me to that place called heaven." As I prayed a thick darkness settled over me. I felt coldness creeping through my body. In a moment’s time, it seemed, I was cold all over and completely surrounded by darkness. As a child I had always been afraid of the dark so I began crying, "Where am I? What is this place? Where is my daddy? I want my daddy."
But, my friend, there’s a time when daddy can’t go with you. There’s a time when mother can’t go with you. They can stand and see you draw your last breath but it takes Jesus to go the way of death with you.
As the darkness settled about me, I saw through the darkness a long, dark, narrow valley. I went inside this valley. I began to scream. "Where am I? What is this place?" and from a distance I recognized my mother’s voice speaking slowly, "Yea though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil for thou art with me."
I remember saying, "this must be the valley of death. I prayed to die and I guess to get to Jesus I will have to walk it," and I started through this dark place.
Friend, as sure as you live, every single one of you is going to die and when death comes upon you, you hill have to walk through this valley. I am confident that if you don’t have Jesus, you will walk it in the darkness alone.
I had barely got inside when the place lit up with the light of day. I felt something strong and firm take hold of my hand. I didn’t need to look. I knew it was the strong and nail-scarred hand of the Son of God who had saved my soul. He took my hand and held it tightly and I went on through the valley. I wasn’t afraid anymore. I was happy for now I was going home. My mother had said in heaven I would have a new body, one that would be straight instead of bent and twisted and crippled.
At last we heard music in the distance, the most beautiful music I ever heard. We quickened our steps. We came to a wide river separating us from that beautiful land. I looked on the other side and saw green grass, flowers of every color, beautiful flowers that would never die. I saw the river of life winding its way through the city of God. Standing on its banks was a company of those who had been redeemed by the blood of the Lamb and they were singing, "Hosanna to the King." I looked at them, not a single one had knots on their spine or a face marred and marked with pain. I said, "In a few minutes I’m going to join that heavenly band and the moment I step on the other side I will straighten up and be well and strong."
I was anxious to get across. I knew I wouldn’t have to cross it alone for Jesus would be with me. But at that very moment I heard the voice of Jesus and I stood at attention as I do when I hear the Master’s voice. Very softly and with great kindness Jesus said, "No, Betty, it’s not your time to cross yet. Go back and fulfill the call I gave you when you were nine years old. Go back for you are going to have healing in the fall."
As I stood and listened to the words of Jesus, I must confess I was disappointed. I remember I said, as tears rolled down my face, "When I’m so close to happiness and health why must Jesus deny me. I’ve never known a well day in my life, now when I’m so close to heaven, why can’t I go on in?"
Then I thought, "Oh, what am I saying?"
Turning to Jesus I said, "Lord, I’m sorry. Your way is better than my way. I’ll go back."
I slowly regained consciousness. Then the doctor said I would not last through the summer months. For weeks after that I could not speak. The knots grew larger. I would hear Mom say, "Dad, look, the knots are so hard and they are getting larger. She must be suffering."
I couldn’t tell her just how I was suffering because the words would not come. listen, I know what it is to be in such pain that I would bite my lips to keep from screaming with pain so that my mother could get some sleep.
Early summer came. Everyone in Martin County, Minnesota, knew the little Baxter girl was dying. Saints and sinners alike came to my bedside but most of the time I was unconscious. When I was conscious they would pat me on the shoulder, say a kind word, and pass on.
But during my moments of consciousness, I never gave up hope. I couldn’t speak out loud but in my heart I said, "Lord, as soon as fall comes I’ll have healing, won’t I Jesus?" I never doubted because Jesus never breaks a promise. Jesus is a man of His word. I kept believing He was going to heal me in the fall.
That summer on the 14th day of August my speech returned. I hadn’t spoken for weeks and I said, "Mom, what day is today?"
She said, "The 14th day of August."
My daddy came in at noon. I said, "Daddy, where’s the big chair? Please put the pillows in it and set me in the big chair." The only way I could sit in the chair was with my head resting on my knees and my arms hanging down at my sides. I said, "Daddy, when you go out close the door. Tell Mom not to come in for awhile, I want to be alone." I heard my daddy sob as he left the room and he didn’t ask any questions. He knew why I wanted to be alone. I had an appointment with the King.
My friend, I want to tell you that you can have an appointment with Jesus at any time you want to talk with Him. Any hour of the day or night, He is ready to talk to you.
I heard Dad click the door. I began to cry and sob. I didn’t know how to pray. All I knew to do was merely talk to Jesus but it got the job done. I said, “Lord, you remember months ago I almost got to heaven and you wouldn’t let me in. Jesus, you promised if I would go back that you would have healing for me in the fall. I asked Mom this morning what day it was and she said the 14th day of August. Jesus, I guess you don’t count this fall yet because it’s still awful hot but Lord I wonder if just for this one year you could call this fall and come and heal me? The pain is so bad, Jesus, I have gone as far as I can go. I can’t stand the pain any longer. I wonder Lord if you will call this fall and come and heal me?”
I listened. Heaven was quiet. But I didn’t give up. I pray differently than some people, I guess. If I don’t hear from heaven, I pray until Jesus answers. I listened a while longer. When there was no answer, I began to cry again. I said, “Lord, I’ll tell you what I’ll do. I’ll make a bargain. Now Jesus listen to me, I’m going to bargain with you. Jesus if you will only heal me and make me well inside and outside I’ll go out and preach every night until I’m ninety years old if you want me to.”
Listen, God knew I was sincere. I prayed again, “Lord, I’ll do more than that. If you will heal me so I can walk and use my arms and be strong and normal I’ll give you my whole life. It will no longer belong to Betty Baxter - it will be yours and yours alone.”
I listened after I made these vows. this time I was rewarded. I heard the voice of Jesus speaking audibly to me. He spoke these words: “I am going to heal you completely August 24th, Sunday afternoon at 3:00 o’clock.”
A thrill of hope and expectancy swept through my entire body and soul. God told me the day and the hour. He knows everything, doesn’t He?
The first thought that came to me was “Won’t Mom be glad when I tell her. just think how happy she will be when I tell her. Just think how happy she will be when I tell her I know the day and the hour.” Then Jesus spoke again and said to me, “Now, don’t tell this until my time comes.”
I thought, “I’ve never kept anything from my mother. How will I keep this from her?”
Before I got healed I walked softly before the Lord for fear I would do something that would displease Him. I was afraid to tell my mother I knew the day and the hour.
After Jesus told me this I felt like a new person. I didn’t mind the sharp pains any more or the violent throbbing of my enlarged heart. The 24th day of August would soon come and I would have relief. I heard the door open and Mom walked in. She knelt down on the rug and looked up in my face. I wanted to tell her what Jesus had told me. The hardest thing I ever did was to keep from telling her.
I looked at Mom. I thought, “Something has happened to Mom, She looks so pretty and young today.” Then I thought the reason she looked so different was that I knew the secret about my healing next Sunday. I looked at her again and I was convinced more than ever that something had happened to her. Her eyes had never shone like that before. Then all at once she leaned over me, pushed the hair back from my forehead and said, “Honey do you know when the Lord is going to heal you?” Oh, I knew but I wasn’t supposed to tell. I couldn’t say “No,” for I would not be telling the truth. So I said, “When?”
Mom smiled and said, “August 24th, Sunday afternoon at 3:00 o’clock.”
I said, “Mom, how did you know? Did I let it slip and tell you?”
She said, “No, the same God that talks to you talks to me.”
When my mother said that I was doubly sure God would heal my body the 24th day of August and make me well. I said, “Mom, am I getting straighter? Are the knots going away?” She looked at me and said, “No, Betty, you are getting more bent every day and the knots are growing larger.”
I said, “Mom, do you still believe God will heal me the 24th day of August?”
She said, “Sure I do. All things are possible if we only believe.”
Many people have asked how my mother knew the day I would be healed. While the Lord was talking to me, the rest of the family were in the dining room eating. My mother had taken a fork full of food and as she was about to put it into her mouth it dropped back on the plate with a clatter. Then she heard the inner voice of God speak and say, “I have heard your prayers and I am going to reward you for your faithfulness. I am going to heal Betty, August 24th Sunday afternoon at 3 o’clock, and she knows the same thing, as I have already told her.” So when Mom came in the room she already know that the Lord had told me the day and hour that I would be healed.
Part 2: A New Dress
http://www.geocities.com/bettybaxterstory/index2.html
The rest of the story can be found at the above link if you are intrested.
GOD BLESS YOU ALL
HE IS THE SAME YESTERDAY< TODAY< FOREVER
HE WILL NOT FAIL US< IF WE ONLY BELIEVE !
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Strive to enter in at the strait gate:for many, I say unto you will seek to enter in, and shall not be able. ( Luke 13:24 )
Posts: 4578 | From: Southeast Texas | Registered: Jun 2002
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