Our Guest Peggy Joyce Ruth
Sid: You know you don’t have to be a mental giant to know that there is a spirit loose in the world and it’s called a spirit a spirit of fear with the… ever since 9/11. And then you throw in the movies that are going on with the New Age. And what’s going on in the schools, and what’s going on with the morality from television and it just breeds fear. Recently I heard a wonderful sermon on fear and how to overcome it, but you know what, he didn’t say how to overcome it. He told he said pray, read your Bible but I need something more tangible I don’t know about you but I need something more tangible than just a generic read your Bible. I have on the telephone a friend that has been on previously Peggy Joyce Ruth. She is speaking to me from her home in Brownwood, Texas. She has devoted the last 25 years of her life studying Psalm 91. And if I know one thing I know this it’s more important to digest the word of God than to even read the word of God. You can have a speed contest of reading your Bible, but if you don’t literally digest those words and get them into your spirit all it is is black ink on white paper. That’s why God said to Joshua “You must meditate on My word day and night.” And in the Hebrew the word meditate means to mumble and mumble it out loud and personalize it. And so that’s why I was so excited when Peggy wrote a book on Psalm 91, but she has just come out with a new book that I know will be far more important than even her previous book. It’s Psalm 91 for young people, for children. Peggy, for those that aren’t familiar with you, how did you happen to do such an intense 25 year study of Psalm 91?
Peggy Joyce: Well 25 years ago I was under the care of a physiatrist and I was so terrified I was afraid of cancer, and I was afraid of car accident, and I was afraid of losing a member of the family and…
Sid: And speaking about diseases and things everything every time I pick up the newspaper they say something that use to be healthy for you is now unhealthy for you, you don’t know what to eat.
Peggy Joyce: Exactly and I had come to the place that it had put so much fear on me that I literally was… I had taken shock treatments, all the shock treatments that they could give me. They had given me all kinds of antidepressants. So one day I just cried out to God and I said “Is there any way that we could escape the evils that are coming on this earth or do we just take our chance with everybody else or whatever will be will be?” And I laid down across the bed and I had a dream, the dream only lasted about 5 minutes. But it was a really unusual dream and God supernaturally quoted to me out of Psalm 91. Now I did not know my Bible 25 years ago, I didn’t have any idea that what was being said to me was even out of the word of God. But the Lord just supernaturally then took me to Psalm 91 and there it was the very thing that He quoted to me in the dream. And it was the answer, the answer for every single thing that I had ever feared. And I started studying it, I mean when you’re talking about digesting it your right it doesn’t do any good to just read. It’s when we take that word in and every word has meaning. And I was so excited to find out that there’s promises of protection all through the word. But this is the only place that where all the only promises of protection are gathered together in one collection.
Sid: You know that’s so important Peggy Joyce please make that statement again.
Peggy Joyce: There are promises all through the word but this is the only place where all of the promises are gathered together in one collection in a covenant. Every extreme evil known to man will fall into one of four categories. And those 4 categories are listed in Psalm 91 verses 5 & 6 and it tells us that we do not have to be afraid. And it names the four categories it says “It will not approach us.” And I got so excited about that that I started saying “Lord can this possible? You know it’s going to be going against the entire world to start to believe this because 25 years ago I’d never even heard the word Psalm 91 mentioned, you know we hear it all the time now, but 25 years ago you didn’t. And the Lord… this has been the most exciting 25 years I’ve been teaching this now and not only to our church but I’ve taught it in different conferences. And finally that’s when the Lord had me write the book because it could reach so many more people. And the Lord showed me in Romans 5:20 that “Where evil abounds the grace of God is in greater abundance.” And I tell you the world is definitely… evil is definitely abounding in the world. But I believe that God showed me that His covenant promise of His protection in Psalm 91 is the grace that is in greater abundance for our needs in the area of protection.
Sid: You know Peggy they think that the line of all of those wonderful things in protection of Psalm 91 are wonderful, but the thing that excites me most about Psalm 91 is the very last line. God say with long life I will satisfy him. In other words, someone can have a long life but not be satisfied.
Peggy Joyce: Exactly.
Sid: Can you picture this this is a promise to someone listening to me right now it’s to whosoever, that’s you. You’re going to live and not die and declare the works of the Lord. With long life you won’t just have a long life; with long life you’ll be satisfied with such intimacy with God. You can’t you won’t be able to worry even if you tried. (Laughing)
Peggy Joyce: Oh, and I had the sweetest thing happen there was a little lady from Minnesota that called she was having her 100th Birthday. She told me when she read my book she got so excited because she had lived a close relationship with the Lord and she said “I have about 100 people coming to my Birthday party, she said I want to order 100 books because I want to give every family that comes a gift” because she said “I want them to know what I experienced all of these years.” (Giggling)
Sid: Now tell me about the book for young people, I have a burden in this I’ve got granddaughters and I see the type of thing they get from school and praise God I just purchased Sky Angel for them so at least we have the right thing coming out of that box called television. But how did you happen to write this book and why?
Peggy Joyce: Well, I’ve had parents from all over literally all over the United States who have asked for a book that would teach Psalm 91 to a child. See there’s quite a number of articles written on Psalm 91 encouraging parents to pray this covenant protection over their children and I fully agree with that. But I have not ever read anything teaching the child himself how to appropriate his protection covenant. And you know mom and dad are not always going to be there.
Sid: You know what age range would you use your book for?
Peggy Joyce: Okay, what I did I got a great many of mothers and children to read the manuscript ahead of time before it went to press to see what age it would really work for. We found that the reading age level for a child that’s going to read it for himself starts about 9 years old and goes on up through teenagers. In fact, I have a lot of adults that tell me they like this book a lot better than they liked the one for adults.
Sid: I’ve heard that also, but what about the ones that are even younger than 9 that can’t read themselves.
Peggy Joyce: I have a bunch of mothers who have children that are aged like 4, 5, 6 and they’ve taken the book and they say that they are just amazed at how much their little 4 years old are being able to get. So it’s written so simply that those that are too young to read for themselves that they can easily understand it when it’s read to them, but it’s amazing that it works for the young people on up clear through the teenage years. And a perfect example of this, is my little grandson Avery Adams. He’s 4 years old, he lives in Montana with his mother and dad and they’ve taught him they’ve taken Psalm 91. They’ve taught it to him they’ve taught in his own little way about his authority over sickness. And they’ve said now instead of running to his mommy every time he gets hurt they’ll hear him say “Devil you can’t hurt me by Jesus’ stripes I’m healed.” And he’ll say Psalm 91 he may not know it exactly what it means but he’ll say that. And they say now it’s unbelievable about how he’ll just go right on playing where he used to come running and crying. So he has a covenant of protection as young as he is.
Sid: You know we think that we’re the ones that we’re supposed to pray for these young people but the truth is, they’ve got so much faith when you tell them the truth that you’ll end up wanting the young people praying for you.
Peggy Joyce: Oh, listen I’d rather now have a child pray for me than an adult because they just pray with so much faith. And the reason that I wanted this book out is because these little children they can learn from another child’s experience. When they hear what other children have done and the miracles that other children have seen happening well, their excited. They’re ready to put it into practice.
Sid: You know the thought is crossing my mind that there are many house churches or house Bible studies but their normally for just adults. Wouldn’t it be great if 2 or 3 families get together and read 1 chapter each Bible study and discussed it as families to overcome fear and all the junk that’s happening on this earth?
Peggy Joyce: And I’ve had a lot of mothers write me or call and say that’s what they’re doing that their using the book. And that’s what they’re doing they’re taking a chapter at a time and their using that as their family devotional to teach it to their children. So I’m excited about that.
Sid: Now I know it’s brand new and you don’t have much feedback but the thing that I like so much is you teach and then you have testimonies of young people that have appropriate these promises line upon line.
Peggy Joyce: Exactly, it’s just filled with heartwarming stories of youth that have victoriously stood on God’s word. And it’s just overflowing with testimonies and ideas on how to apply the truth. And some really well done illustrations. I got this guy who is really good with illustrations and he’s illustrated different stories in the book. Then what the children are enjoying as much as anything I put a picture of them at the end…
Sid: Of the people that had the miracles…we’re out of time Peggy Joyce….
