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Ronny Bishop

About Me

WHAT KIND OF TRACTOR DO YOU HAVE? My name is Ronny Bishop. I was born Nov.10, 1962 in a loving Christian home. I was raised in church and I thought everybody went to church. It just seemed natural. At the age of 5 my mother asked me if I wanted to be saved, I said yes. I didn’t even know what it meant, much less what sin was. But I repeated the words she told me to say, and she told me I was saved. I wasn’t any more saved than my dog. I knew nothing about repentance. So I grew up thinking I was going to heaven when I died. As I grew older I slowly started rebelling against all my parents taught me. At the age of 24 I was completely out of church and living the wild life, partying and still thinking I was going to heaven. But one Sunday afternoon mama called me up and asked me to go to church. I knew if I didn’t she wouldn’t leave me alone. Thank God for persistent mothers. So that evening I headed to church dreading it. About half way there I was thinking about the things I could be doing instead of wasting my time going to church. Then suddenly out of the blue something said “You know if you died right now you would go to HELL”. All through church I was terrified, just waiting for the invitation. As soon as Pastor J.D. Morris asked everyone to bow their heads I made a beeline for the altar. Brother George Hallman took the Bible and explained to me that I had to ask forgiveness for my sins and turn from them. That’s repentance. 2 Peter 3:9 The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness; but is longsuffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance. I got saved, but that’s not the end of the story. I got involved in the things of the church, thinking I was doing God a favor. Doing things for my glory not God’s. I read my Bible faithfully for a while, but I slowly started slipping away. Over a course of sixteen years I went from backsliding to running from God. I moved away met a nice young lady and got married. Never praying about it, I just thought it was what God wanted. Phil 4:6-7 Be careful for nothing; but in every thing by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God. And the peace of God, which passeth all understanding, shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus. A few short years and a child later, it all blew up in my face. I went through a divorce and started running even harder, not caring what I was doing to their lives. I got married again but only for lust. It lasted maybe a year and I was on the run again. Little by little I got further away from God. I sunk as low as working in a bar as a bouncer. All the while the Holy Spirit was tapping me on the shoulder saying “Ronny you don’t belong here”. I just kept running. Prov 13:15 Good understanding giveth favour: but the way of transgressors is hard. Early one Saturday morning God said “That’s enough”. I had just got off the phone cursing a lady out and climbed on my tractor. It was an 8N Ford farm tractor. Five minutes later it was upside down with the fender on my back. My neighbor Jason came running to help but there was nothing he could do. By the time he got to me I was out from under the tractor but not by my own power. I remember clawing in the dirt trying to pull myself out, but I was pinned down. The mighty hand of God reached down and pulled me out. Ps 46:1God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble. Just minutes later the E.M.S. pulled up. They started asking me questions but I could hardly breathe so I couldn’t answer them. Then I heard one of them say “He’s completely blue, he’s never going to make it. One person suggested to call a helicopter and fly me out. But the others agreed I would never make it anyway so they dropped that idea. It was decided to take me to the closest hospital, (Lincoln County) and try to kill the pain until I died. It was then that I looked up and said in my heart, “OK God I’ll serve you, whether it’s five minutes, five years, or however long I live. I didn’t try to make a deal with God. God doesn’t make deals. It’s his way or no way. 1 Chron 28:9for the LORD searcheth all hearts, and understandeth all the imaginations of the thoughts: if thou seek him, he will be found of thee; but if thou forsake him, he will cast thee off for ever. By the time I got to the hospital I was in such pain that the slightest bump I would scream out in agony. They put me through x-ray, bone scan, CT scan, and MRI. The doctor came in and said "Mr. Bishop I hate to tell you this but if you even live, you will never walk again". I had severe damage to my right kidney, my right lung looked like hamburger, I had eight broken ribs in my back, (Four on either side of my spine). One rib was a half inch from puncturing my heart. That would kill me instantly. So they knocked me out with pain killers and put me in Intensive Care. Three days later I woke up barely alive. I had developed pneumonia, infection was running all through my body causing me to run extremely high fever. I was freezing, and my bed was soaked with sweat. My family was called in and was told I would never make it through the night. Psalms 23:4 says "Yea though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for thou art with me; thy rod and thy staff they comfort me. It is said that when a shepherd has a sheep that keeps going astray, he will take and break his leg, then he will mend it and carry him until his leg heals. That way he develops a close relationship with him. God took me, broke me, mended me, and carried me through that valley. The next morning when I was supposed to be dead, I got out of bed and sat in a chair for about five minutes. Pretty good for a dead man, huh? On the fifth day I got up and walked around the nurses station once, then twice on the sixth day. One week after my accident my lung appeared to be healed, the infection was gone, and the pneumonia was clearing up. So I was moved out of the Intensive Care Unit and up to the forth floor to heal. I got up and just started walking as much as I could trying to get my strength back. Two weeks from the day of my accident I was released from the hospital. Talk about a miracle! But here's the kicker. My first week in the hospital I didn't eat at all, but my second week friends of mine who own the Chuck Wagon Grill fed me. So I didn't have to eat hospital food. God's grace and mercy, what more do I need to say? I left the hospital five pounds heavier than when I went in. Once home I started walking as much as I could, to try and get strong enough to go back to work. I had one hundred forty dollars a week coming in from disability insurance, only a fraction of what I needed to pay my regular bills and there were hospital bills on top of that. But I never missed a payment on any thing. Some friends paid my truck payment, others found odd jobs that I could physically handle and paid me much more than it was worth. One friend started collecting old lawnmowers, weedeaters, chainsaws, etc. and we started fixing them and we sold them and split the money. He did the heavy work and I did the tedious. God always supplies for His children. Philippians 4:19 But my God shall supply ALL your need according to His riches in glory by Christ Jesus. He did that and much more. I only missed eleven weeks of work. But two weeks before I went back to work, I received a letter from my company telling me that the plant was closing. Some employees would be transferred and others would be laid off. I went in that morning and asked the boss Bob Prestwood to go ahead and give me my paperwork so that I could get my unemployment payments started and he looked at me like I was crazy. He said "You're not going anywhere. You are one of my most faithful workers, I'm taking you with me. So I took a transfer. As I look back on my life I see that most of it has been wasted on worldly lust, and running from God. When there is something standing in the way of God's children keeping them from serving Him, He will bring a tractor in and remove it. For Jonah it was pride and disobedience, and his tractor was a whale. For Lot it was worldly lust, his tractor was the loss of his wife and destruction of the city where he lived. Mine was health and strength, and God took them both. I haven't had a pain free day since my accident, and I've had back surgery since. But I wouldn't trade it for anything. I've grown closer to my Lord and Savior, and learned to trust Him for everything. When I start to waiver He brings another tractor along. All I can say is thank God for the blessings and the trials, for the trials always turn out to be blessings too! Child of God, if you're not serving Him what kind of tractor do you, or will you have? You make the correction before God does. Take it from someone who knows. Ronny Bishop Permission is given to copy, but not to change the wording or content without contacting me. PLEASE share this with anyone who could be helped spiritually. Thank you, and God bless you. E-mail genrev8@yahoo.com

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