(Christian Biographies for Children) Eugenia Price read

Alright, I'm going to read, tell you the story about a lady named Eugenia Price. Eugenia Price, so she lived in the 1900s and I was challenged, I didn't know much about her until I read this in the book. So, here's Eugenia Price, her nickname was Jeannie, so we'll call her Jeannie.

Jeannie Price lived in the mid-20th century, so that was in the 1900s. During the early part of her life, she was an unbeliever. She was not born in a Christian home.

She pursued a selfish, ambitious career in journalism and script writing for radio and television. She was starting to become quite famous in writing stories for radio and television. But when she was converted to Christ, her life was so radically changed, even she could hardly recognize herself.

Soon she realized that Christ was calling her to a life of service for him. Her life then became one of deep fellowship with God and helpfulness to others. Sometime later, however, she went through a period of confusion.

This is after she was born again. Her circumstances, which were beyond her control, pushed her into a corner. So something happened into her life, we're not told, we don't know what it was exactly, but it caused her to go through a period of great darkness, pushed her into a corner.

But this was exactly how God brought her to an end of herself. And in one of her books, the book is called He Is My Victorious Life, speaking about Jesus, she writes, she describes it. She had been a believer in Jesus Christ for a little over five years when something happened that plunged her into a darkness that seemed even greater than the darkness she had been in before she came to Christ.

She seemed like she was in a darker place than even before. It felt like that, at least. This time, she had not caused the trouble, but she was the victim of it.

In other words, somebody had done something to her that caused her to go into this great darkness. She threw questions at God, and that turned into rebellion against God. For two weeks in September 1954, she spent most of her time sitting and staring at the floor in her room.

She had three more weeks before her work schedule would get really busy, and she still had to write and direct a radio program once a week, so she still had her job. But other than that, whenever she would come back home in the evening, she just sat locked up in despair and depression. This happened shortly after Jeannie had written her autobiography called The Burden Is Light.

She had already written a little book about her autobiography, and after that, this happened. She hadn't yet learned that our warfare, our battle, is not against flesh and blood, but against spiritual forces of wickedness. And often, when a bold testimony for Christ is given, as she had done in this book, there comes a deep testing of one's faith, and that's exactly what happened to her.

A close friend of hers, Ellen Riled, had been trying to reach her through a mutual friend named Anna Moe, but Jeannie avoided her. She was in such depression that she didn't answer anybody's phone calls. Then one day, she happened to answer the phone accidentally, and it was her friend Anna.

And during the course of that conversation, Jeannie poured her heart out at how horrified she was at herself. She was depressed and angry at herself because she couldn't believe how much of a failure she was. She practically yelled into the phone that all that she had put her faith in couldn't possibly be true if she felt such despair.

Her friend Anna just laughed as she listened to Jeannie, and that made Jeannie even more angry, but it also caused her to stop her rant and listen to what Anna said. And Anna said this, when you testified about Jesus in your book, you weren't just testifying before the world, you were also testifying before Jesus himself, and nothing changes him. He is the same yesterday, today, and forever.

No matter how much you feel like you have stopped believing, Jesus Christ never changes. He'll still be there waiting for you to be done with your doubting and to come back to him. And that word from her friend really encouraged Jeannie.

After that conversation, Jeannie's darkness lifted a little bit, but it didn't bring complete light. It left everything feeling a little bit gray, you know, not dark, not white, but gray. Yet in the grayness, something seemed to be moving.

There was a start of some change in her life. The next day, she received a card from her friend Anna, whom she had talked over the phone, which said simply, the Lord is risen. So her friend had sent her a card, and the only thing written on that card was, the Lord is risen.

After that, Jeannie stopped complaining, she tried to stop complaining, and she learned to cope with her life a little bit better. But nothing really changed in her situation, and nothing seemed to change in herself. She still seemed to be the same person.

She set up a prayer time every afternoon and used every prayer technique that she could to batter God, that means to fight against God. She told him that he had to do something about her problem. She told him it was his fault, but nothing happened at all.

And she finally ran out of techniques, prayer techniques. Then she finally told God that she was tired of talking. And it seemed as if God said, good, you're done talking.

Hearing no voice, she was suddenly convinced that God cared more about her problem than even she did. Somehow in that silence, even though God was silent, she came to slowly realize that God cared more about her problem than even she did. But she continued on with her life one day at a time, and even though nothing happened at all, she stopped complaining and stopped trying to confront people about whether Jesus Christ was real.

Because before that, she kept going to people and saying, how do you know that Jesus Christ is real? And she had so many questions because of the darkness she was in, she stopped doing that. She stopped turning this direction and that, stopped spitting her pointless questions at people who already had enough problems of their own. And even though she hated doing it, she still got up at 630 every morning for her hour with the Lord.

She got nothing out of it. And she told the Lord also that she got nothing out of it, but she still kept doing it. She realized later that every little bit of the word of God that she was reading during those times was a drop into her subconscious mind.

And it stayed there and became a usable part of her, even though she didn't seem to understand it with her conscious mind. Let me explain that, that she was just reading and she was sincere. And in the midst of that reading, she was in a dark phase, but she just kept reading God's word.

And she realized later on in her life that during those times when she kept reading, even though she didn't fully understand it, just the fact that she was reading God's word deposited, put something into her subconscious mind that later on became a help for her. You know, I'll tell you, brothers and sisters and children, that's my testimony as well. Sometimes when I don't understand God's word or I don't feel like reading it, I just read it.

And I found later on that verse that I read, and I didn't think I understood it because I obeyed in faith that God was going to help me understand it. Later on, I understood it. And this is what she also testifies to.

When it can enter our subconscious mind, subconscious means you're not fully aware of what's happening or what you're reading, but later on, that can come out and be useful. Then the story continues, the time of crisis hit and it caught her by surprise. On September 24th, 1954, at 8.55 a.m., she remembered, so she was in her time of prayer, she remembered that she had promised to wake up her housemate, Ellen.

Ellen was now, they were living together in a house. And she had told her friend, Ellen, I'll wake you up. Her friend, Ellen, had asked her to wake her up at nine o'clock and she had said, okay, I will.

And here it was 8.55. She looked at the, it was 8.55 and she decided to let her friend, Ellen, sleep for another five minutes until it was nine o'clock. And so she just sat in her chair with no particular direction to her thoughts. She just let her thoughts wander aimlessly.

She wasn't asking God for anything. She was still in that grayness and still felt empty and very unspiritual. And as tends to be the case when our thoughts are not focused, her thoughts immediately went to the big heartbreaking problem in her life at that time.

Then she reflected on her entire life as a Christian. Suddenly she said aloud to the Lord, what does it mean to have a new life? What does it really mean? My life doesn't feel new. She didn't receive any direct answer as such.

But for some length of time sitting in that chair, the Holy Spirit began to lead her through the scriptures to one surprising verse after another, including some references that which she could not have found otherwise without her concordance. In other words, these were scriptures that she would not have known the reference offhand. She would have had to use her concordance to find it, but she seemed to turn to it almost supernaturally and she records here in a book, here are the scriptures and what they meant to her that morning.

So I'm going to have a little exercise for you children or somebody, maybe a junior class can help me out with this. Can somebody turn to Acts 4 verse 31, Acts 4 verse 31. So we'll have the junior class help me out with this, Acts 4 verse 31.

And if you have it, you can either turn your video on or just simply unmute and read Acts 4 verse 31. While they're doing that, somebody else can turn. Can I read it? Yes.

Yes. Yes. You can read it.

Yes. Okay. And when they had prayed, the place where they had gathered together were shaken and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak the word of God with boldness.

Okay. That's Acts 4 31. Now the next verse I'm going to ask is for somebody to turn to John 14 verse 23, John 14 verse 23.

But here's what Jeannie writes about Acts 4 verse 31. Nothing shook for her. You know, it says the whole place was shaken in Acts 4 31 and she's saying nothing shook for her, but she believed she was directed to this verse so that she could see that the believers had been filled again with the Holy Spirit.

See, this isn't the first time. This is a later time, maybe the second time or some other time after that. It wasn't the first time.

And what spoke to her from this verse that this was another filling of the Holy Spirit. And this expanded her understanding from the limited experience she had of the potential of increasing filling and increasing access to God. She had opened herself in obedience to the Spirit up to that point, as far as she understood.

But reading this verse seemed to suddenly fill her with a new desire and expectation to be filled again, to want more of God's Spirit. The movement she had felt in the grayness started to speed up and she felt very excited as she seemed compelled to turn to the next passage, which is John chapter 14. Does somebody want to read John 14 verse 23? Yep, Kezia, you can go again then.

Jesus answered and said to him, if anyone loves me, he will keep my word and my father will love him and we will come to him and make our abode with him. Thank you, Kezia. So what Jeannie writes about, she said, she writes the entire chapter, the entire chapter of John 14 seemed to be there just for her at that moment.

She had read it many times before, but Jesus was real in a new way. And she seemed to be aware that he himself was saying to her, I will come to you. You know how it says, we will come to him and make our abode with him.

At that moment, as she was sitting in her chair, it felt as if Jesus himself was saying to you, I will come to you, Jeannie, and I will live with you. I will live in you. I will come to you.

It's like she heard the voice of Jesus. The next verse is John 15 verse 5, just a few verses down. The next verse she recalled was this.

Somebody read John 15 verse 5? Okay, Olivia. Yes, I am the vine, you are the branches. Whoever lives in me and I in him shall produce a large gravel fruit.

For apart from me, you can't do a thing. If anyone separates from me, he is thrown away like a useless branch, withers and is gathered into a pile with all the others and burned. Okay, we'll stop there.

So verse 5 reads, that's in the living Bible. I am the vine, you are the branches. He who abides in me and I in him, he bears much fruit.

For apart from me, you can do nothing. She stopped with, and I in him. He who abides in me and I in him.

That's where she stopped. And that seemed to grip her afresh that Jesus is saying, I will abide in you. The next verse is 2nd Corinthians 5 verse 17.

2nd Corinthians 5 verse 17. If somebody would like to turn to that, we'll read that. That's the next passage she found herself flipping to.

2nd Corinthians 5 verse 17. Xavier. Okay.

Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creature. The old things passed away. Behold, new things have come.

Okay. And the next verse, if somebody else wants to turn to is Romans 6 verse 13. While you're turning there, I'll tell you what she wrote about 2nd Corinthians 5 verse 17.

She had used this verse many times. See, by now she was already a Christian and she'd even written books about, like she wrote Christian fiction books, I think. She had used this verse many times in describing times when people are born again in her books and her plays.

But here it was new to her. That word new stood out. Everything pointed to newness.

She hurried to the next verse as she followed the direction of the spirit without even being aware that he was directing her at all. She was turning so quickly. She almost tore the pages out of her Bible.

She was being reminded of these other verses. And so she turned next to Romans 6 verse 13. And then the last verse, um, well, go ahead and read Romans 6 verse 13.

Who'd like to read that? Rayma? Yeah. Okay. Go ahead, Rayma.

And not go on presenting the members of your body to sin as instruments of unrighteousness, but present yourselves to God as those alive from the dead and your members as instruments of righteousness to God. Okay. That's Romans 6 verse 13.

And then the last passage, somebody can turn to a Psalm 73 verse 25. Psalm 73 verse 25. So here's what she wrote about Romans 6 verse 13.

You know, it talks about presenting the members of our body as instruments of righteousness to God. That's the last part of Romans 6 verse 13. As far as she understood, she wrote, she thought she had done this when she was born again.

She thought I gave my body to God when I was born again. But she only then realized that she needed to yield her new self to God. You know how it said in 2 Corinthians 5, 17, all things have become new.

Um, she realized that this command is also to present our new creature to Christ. God doesn't just want our old self to be given to him to put to death. When we are brought new, he says, give me the new life also.

So that means even though I was born again and gave my life to Christ many years ago, today, he wants me to give my new creature also to him. That's what she said. She needed to yield her new self to God.

Christ himself had come to live within her and was changing her already, but she needed to yield all the new things to him. She couldn't describe it, but she understood the meaning of the word new. There had to be a continual newness or it would be old again.

If she was not continually presenting herself every day, there had to be a continual newness, otherwise it would become old, you know, kind of like the manna, if you had yesterday's manna, it would be old. God gave them new manna. And there's a constant daily dying to ourself and presenting the life that God has given us as Christians to him that causes it to be new every day.

That's what she says. There had to be a continual newness or it would become old again. So she yielded right then calmly, no dramatics, no struggle, nothing spectacular, no feeling or her troubled heart was sick of struggle anyway.

Her need was so great that she made a simple decision on the basis of the redemption of Christ. She was specific about areas that only God and her knew, and she surrendered them to him. Then she kept on flipping the pages and came to a verse in the Psalms, which she otherwise would not have been able to find at all.

That is Psalm 73 verse 25. Would anybody like to read that? Maybe somebody who hasn't read yet. Psalm 73 verse 25.

Yes, Ed, go ahead. Whom have I in heaven, but you, and there is not upon earth that I desire besides you. Spoken from one who just had eye surgery a few days ago.

Glad to see your eyes are working well, Ed. Yes, spontaneously and almost matter of fact in response to this verse, which says, whom have I in heaven, but thee, and there is nothing I desire on earth besides thee, she found herself saying, oh yes, you, Lord Jesus, you are who I have and who I desire, suddenly she understood the simplicity of God's word. Because before that it had all been like a haze and complicated.

Suddenly she remembered the time and she looked at her, her, her watch. It seemed like it could have been noon by now. It had been so long.

She had been turning to these verses and she had promised her friend Ellen that she would wake her up at nine o'clock. Remember, she had only five minutes. She looked at her watch and it was exactly nine o'clock.

This entire experience that she had had, all this had taken place in five minutes of earth time, what seemed like an eternity, when Ellen was awake enough to talk, she went and woke up her friend Ellen. And when her friend Ellen was awake enough to talk, Jeannie told her about it, what had just happened. And as she told it though, it seemed to her friend as though nothing more than just a very good morning quiet time had taken place, but over time, her roommate Ellen began to notice a change in Jeannie that she became easier to live with since that morning.

Not a good testimony that when Jeannie was filled with the Holy Spirit, Christ came upon her, she became easier to live with. A lot of people say, oh, you'll speak in tongues or you'll have this gift or that gift. I really believe that when we're filled with the Holy Spirit, we become easier to live with for our husbands, for our wives, for our children, for our brothers and sisters.

Jeannie describes herself as simply being settled and rested. She still had all of her troubles. The problems didn't go away, but one glorious fact had become clear to her out of the grayness, which she had fought.

This is a quote, in Jesus Christ himself was everything I needed for everything in my life. Let me say that again. In Jesus Christ is everything I need for everything in my life.

As a result, many things became new in her life. There was a new level of understanding with Jesus, a complete willingness to let him be himself in her life. I love that phrase.

Let Jesus be himself in your life. And I've made that the prayer of my heart. I want Jesus to be himself in my life.

Her testimony became more about the Savior than about her salvation. That is a wonderful thought too. When people ask you for your testimony, are you more excited to tell them about the Savior, or do you want to tell them about your salvation? A lot of people give their testimony about their salvation, and that's good, but it's even better to give the testimony about the Savior.

She describes it this way. I did not consciously feel proud, but I felt secure in God's love for me. And simplifying, I didn't need to label what had happened.

I didn't need to put a label on it theologically. I wouldn't have known how to do that anyway. She got new insight into the word of God and through that into the person of the Lord Jesus Christ.

God opened up new fields of service and new energy and strength for the needs around her. There was a greater capacity for God in her life, which she described this way. I made room for him.

He knew where I was in the confusing process of September 24th, 1954. Only he knew exactly how much had been recreated in my debts. She understood Christ in a new way, having found in him a reality in the fiery furnace of affliction.

She found Jesus to be with her in every testing, just as truly as the three young Hebrews experienced his presence with them in Nebuchadnezzar's furnace. As the furnace rose, roared around her through prayer and tears, she wrote a book of daily devotional readings entitled Share My Pleasant Stones. She also learned that no one is a special case to the Lord and that nothing is too difficult for him.

Best of all, she found that Jesus himself is her victory because listen to this, victory is somebody, not something. Victory is somebody. It's the person of Jesus, not something.

That awareness and assurance did not come instantly and automatically to her, but it was learned in the daily walk and talk with Christ. So it came over time. It doesn't happen instantly.

On that September morning, God had settled her and established her in himself so that she could say, my experience of the next three years caused me to be at home with Christ and with Christians like I had never been before. The thought of life without him for even one hour became detestable to her. Let's listen to that again.

The thought of even one hour without God became detestable to her. She hated the thought of even one hour without God. God had used the three years of trial before that, and especially the deep darkness of that last year to show her.

She writes four things. First of all, he meant it when he said that he would be with me always. Jesus said, I will be with you always.

And he meant it. Secondly, I need to be melted into being willing to be victorious. In order for me to become victorious, I must be melted to become willing.

Thirdly, my need is the most, my need is the most glorious possession I have outside of Christ himself. Listen to that carefully. Jesus Christ is the most important possession I have.

She writes that she realized that the second most important possession she had was her need of Christ. And she valued that need. She wanted to always remain needy of Christ.

She writes it this way. My need is the most glorious possession I have second to Jesus himself. And fourthly, she wrote his love is so much greater and so much more re-creative than we can possibly imagine.

And we experience it when we stop resisting him. His love is so much greater and so much more re-creative. That means it creates new things in us.

She continued to face testings until the end of her life. She remained single. She never got married, but the Holy Spirit continued to show her the reality that in all these things, we are more than conquerors through him who loved us.

This is truly a fulfilled buoyant. Buoyant means living above our circumstances. This is a buoyant life, life that's lived above our circumstances.

Out of the confusion and darkness into the blessing of moment by moment fellowship with the strong son of God. That's the story of EJ.