Have you a Friend whose wondrous grace
Lights up with joy the darkest place,
Who to the end will still prove true?

“Tell What the Lord Has Done for You!”*

Oh, tell what He’s done for you,
Of His love, so strong and true,
Oh, tell, what He’s done, what He’s done for you,
Others may need Him, too.

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“Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved.”* (Acts 16:31)

This story took place in western Colorado, in the year of 1990.

I was four years old and had heard the gospel of salvation even before I was born.

Daddy and Mommy prayed that I would trust the LORD as my Savior at a young age. Daddy read me a picture Bible every morning and evening. Sometimes, at night, after both my parents had prayed with me, Daddy would sit on the floor by my bed and tell me the wonderful, true story, found in Revelation.

After Daddy had left, I would lie thinking about what he had told me. I knew that if the LORD came right then, to take all believers to Heaven, I would not be one of the people that would go to live with Jesus forever. I wanted to be one of God’s children.

One night, Daddy came into pray with me. I got out of bed and knelt down beside him. When it was my turn to pray, I started, stopped, turned to Daddy and said, “Daddy, may I ask Jesus to be my Savior?”

Daddy looked at me and said, “Yes, Ruthie!”

So that night I asked Jesus to be my Savior. He is my Savior; He is everything to me! When I was five years old, I was baptized by my father.

—Ruth A. Scott

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By Faith, Not Feeling

Growing up in a Christian home, it was usual to talk about Jesus and my need to get saved. When I was little, I used to be really shy, and so I would never get the courage to talk to my parents about it. Until one day, I was at my friends house, and she was talking to me about the end times. This really scared me! So after a couple of days trying to get the courage, I finally talked to my Dad. He showed me all the truths, but for some reason I thought being saved was to rely on your feeling, and it was so surprising in the following days, when I would still be doing the same old things I did before I supposedly got saved, and then the old doubts and fears started tugging at me again.

It wasn’t until the summer of 1996, while my church was holding a VBS… and I went. Being 12, at that time, I was in the group with the young teenagers, and to me that was so fun, and I thought I would have a very fun week! But I was wrong… that whole week I kept on doubting again if I was really saved or not. So on July 24, 1996, I talked with my leader, and that day, she showed me how to get saved. I realized that I couldn’t get saved by relying on my feelings, for they are always prone to change, but by faith that Jesus can love me so much that He died and rose again. And to just believe that He can wash away my sins was so awesome! And I accepted His gift.

Even now when I am saved, I still get those doubts occasionally, but all I need to realize is that it is just Satan trying to tempt me into thinking that! Praise God I can never lose my salvation if I keep my eyes on Jesus! That day I received Christ, I was learning a verse, which has been so much to me since then: “Choosing rather to suffer affliction with the people of God, than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season.”* (Hebrews 11:25)

—Christina Garza

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Redeemed by the Blood of Christ

Dearest Friends,

Hello in the wonderful name of Jesus! As I sit wondering what to write and what not to mention, I can’t help but think how blessed I am to be friends with you all. How has our dear Lord and Savior been working in your lives?

I debated sharing the most important thing that has happened to me in my life, but my gracious Redeemer showed me it was only pride which was keeping me from opening my heart with you. I was afraid of what you might think because… I have always professed to be a Christian. But I will now share with you so that you might rejoice with me!

For two years I wanted to go to a one-week Youth Bible School (ages 16-25) in PA, but until this November, it had not worked out. When I again asked in July if I might go, and my parents said yes, I went through a long month of agonizing over if I really wanted to go or not (I now believe it was the Lord who guided me) and finally just in time sent in my application. The first morning there (November 16, 1998), Brother Denny Kenaston preached his first message on “The Spiritual Man” (or woman), and the main thing he was trying to impress upon us was that you cannot become spiritual if you have not had a clear conversion. It so unsettled me (the Lord was convicting me). I for so long had doubted my salvation (a simple prayer when 4 1/2 asking Jesus to come into my heart and forgive my sins). I am in no way saying this is not all that might be needed in some people, but for me I had never had peace that I truly was saved since about 12 years of age. The last few years, I had just been continually buried all the misgivings and promptings of my spirit, telling me things were not right with God. I hardly ever read my (now) precious Bible—it was always a chore, which I knew I should do.

To make a long story short, I struggled inside with so many things during that day and night (at the Bible School). I came to the realization that I did not know the Lord personally, I hadn’t had my sins forgiven, and I truly had not wanted the Lord to be in complete control of my life. Many tears were shed at that thought! The next day, I was wonderfully counseled by three dear godly people (Colossians 2:11-15—this is such a dear portion of scripture to me now!), explaining to me the condition of my own heart. For so long I had believed I was saved, so I needed to be shown all over again what it meant to be born again. I then came to where I knew I must repent and ask forgiveness for all my sins and ask the Lord to come into my heart and be saved. I saw that Jesus died on the cross for my sins that I might be rightly related to Him once more if I only believed. Oh, dear sisters, what a peace I had and have that my sins are forgiven and my life is hid in Christ! I have no doubt, now, that I have been born again. Oh, that I will walk worthy of my precious Savior who forsook all that I might have life everything.

Oh, that I might gain mastery over my flesh (my not wanting to get up early) and live after the promptings of the Holy Spirit that I might be fed by the spirit and filled by the spirit day by day in time alone with God. Above all, during 1999, I want to strive to listen to the voice of the Lord and obey His promptings—how hard it is for me to lean not on my own understanding, however, I am nothing, and Christ is everything!

“And the very God of peace sanctify you wholly; and I pray God your whole spirit and soul and body be preserved blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. Faithful is he that calleth you, who also will do it.”* (1 Thessalonians 5:23-24)

In Christ’s wonderful love,
A sister redeemed by His blood

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Snatched from Death

Three years ago last June, I was supposed to be dying. I was a wreck in soul, mind, and body. I could feel the chilly hand of death upon me. I had been seriously ailing six months and had two doctors. The last one we called examined me and asked me if I knew I was in a serious condition. “Yes,” I answered, “but can’t you cure me?”

“No,” he said, “there is not a doctor in this world that can raise you up.”

He told me that my stomach had dropped down out of place (this was caused by a fall), and that the first hearty food I ate, I would be a dead woman. He advised me to try to take a little milk or broth; but it seemed my stomach had given completely out, and everything distressed me. I had heart-disease in the worst form. The doctor said my heart beat more than four times as rapidly as it should. When the heart-spells would come on, it just seemed as if my heart would bound out of my body. I would gasp for breath. All sleep seemed to leave me, and the least noise gave me much distress.

I thought of my husband and six children—three helpless little ones, the baby being only eleven months old. What would become of them? I thought, too, of my lost condition, but was afraid my friends would laugh at me if I mentioned that to them. I was professing and had been a member of the Baptist church twenty-five years. On the morning of June 6, 1906, I felt that my time had come; my friends thought so, too. I felt death closing in upon me. I was growing weaker; my speech seemed to be leaving me; and, oh! the judgment loomed up before me. The thought of meeting God unprepared was too dreadful to describe. I told my husband that I was dying and that I was not prepared to meet my God. He asked me whom I wanted to send for; I said Mr. Tuttle. I had heard him preach the truth a year and a half before this, and I had found fault with it. This troubled me. This brother, who lived about five miles away, came as soon as he got the word.

It seemed an age before he came, though it was not more than two and one half hours. I told him I was not ready to meet Jesus and was dying. He opened the Bible and read the truth to me and asked me if I was willing to accept it. I said I was willing to do anything. “Well,” he said, “we will ask the Lord now to forgive you.” He prayed, and I did, and I felt that the burden of sin was gone, and joy and peace filled my soul. Also, I felt much stronger in my body.

Then the elder asked, “Don’t you believe that the Lord can heal you?”

I said, “Oh, no! The doctor said no doctor could raise me up.”

He turned to the precious Word again and read that God’s power never changes—the same Lord yesterday, today, and forever. After much talk on the brother’s part, I could believe with all my heart that the Lord could heal me. He said, “We will now ask the Lord for your healing.” Kneeling, we asked the Lord to restore me to my home and children and to give me complete healing; and, oh, I felt God’s healing power pass through my body. I was satisfied the Lord had heard and answered our prayers. The brother anointed me according to James 5:14-15.

After resting a little while I got up and dressed. This was about four o’clock in the afternoon. I walked out in the kitchen. Just then the doctor came. He asked me what I was doing out there. I told him that I didn’t need him any more, that I had taken the Lord for my physician. He told the rest that it was only excitement and that they would see where I would lie three days from then. I sat that evening at the supper table with the rest of the family and enjoyed a cup of cocoa, and that night I slept well—the first time I had for months. The next morning I got up and ate what I wanted for breakfast. For a while I felt as if I could not get enough sleep, I had such sweet rest.

A week later, I walked to see one of my neighbors—a distance of over half a mile—and back, and in three weeks, I went to the camp meeting at Bliss, which was a blessing to my soul. When I returned, I could eat anything a healthy person could eat, and without the least distress. My stomach has continued in this good condition.

I had all my remedies burned when I was healed, and I have never taken a drop of medicine since.

Georgiana Proctor
Cheboygan, MI
December 26th, 1909