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.

“Come and hear, all ye that fear God, and I will declare what he hath done for my soul.”* (Psalm 66:16)

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From the Old Life to the New

The Salvation Testimony of Abigail Spinks

I want to give my salvation testimony to the benefit and encouragement of others and may all the glory go to my gracious Redeemer.

In May of ’94 we took in two girls, Missy and Jenny (then 12 and 8, respectively). Our family has long been baby-sitting many children, but this was our first experience at having children in our home day and night, and basically part of our family. I was nine at the time, and Coquetta was soon to be thirteen. We had always jealously guarded our time as a family, for our whole days were filled with other children, except for weekends, of course.

One of the parents whose girl we baby-sat took in Missy and Jenny for one year before we did, and as we baby-sat their daughter, we would also watch them. Then the time came when these folks decided they had had enough and could no longer take care of Missy and Jenny (whose parents were in jail for dealing with drugs), and they asked us if we would. So, after much prayer, Mommy and Daddy agreed that they would take them.

I don’t remember much about this time, but I do know that I was angry at my parents for their decision. Missy and Jenny were starved for love, Jenny especially, and were very needy children. I didn’t have the love of the Lord in my heart, and had no love for them whatsoever. I’m sure my parents knew how I felt, even though I tried my best to cover my feelings. I had not given my heart to Jesus and the load of having Missy and Jenny here stripped me of all my best veneer; I got angry, lost my temper, and Jenny and I fought almost all the time. It truly was a difficult time, as I’m sure my parents would tell you. If ever I needed a shelter in which to hide it was then, because everything bad I expected to happen came to pass and more. I was horribly unhappy, not the least reason being was that the Lord was dealing with me all those long summer months. I would not yield. I was full of pride and considered myself to be on a higher level than Missy and Jenny as the Lord had graciously placed me in a Christian home, even though repeatedly I saw how ugly I, in myself, really was. That pride kept me going. Of course there were times I selfishly enjoyed myself, but my life was void of anything of worth, much less being happy.

Well, things progressed over the summer. School started. We were not allowed to home school them as we’d hoped, so they returned to public school. Missy couldn’t stand the pressures there and, to shorten a very long story, ran away. She was brought back two hours later, but her mother, who sided with her, wanted them placed in different hands.

So two days later came the night I will never forget. Our home had settled into a strained atmosphere. It was late at night. I could not sleep and as I tossed and turned on my bed, I could see the light in Missy’s room, where she was packing her things. Missy had been closer to me than Jenny, and her running away had been hard on me. I couldn’t understand why she ran away, and yet I could. It had been because of anger, because of peer pressure, because she didn’t have a Savior to fill her with peace through the trying days we were all experiencing. Suddenly I saw myself in that situation, as no better than she who came from a broken home where wickedness and evil reigned. I saw for the first time how coming from a Christian home did not insure that I would not end up just like her and her people. I couldn’t keep back the tears as I told the Lord that I didn’t want to end up running away from home and ruining my life—I could see clearly by the choice she had so recently made that she was making a step downward into the awful darkness of the world. I desperately wanted the peace in my life that I saw evidenced in my parents lives as they had been pummeled on every side…. I wanted something better than I had had all summer long. And as I prayed, the Lord came down and He gave me what I so longed for and needed. He gave me an indescribable peace and a love for everyone. I felt as one of our songs says, “Stepped from the old life to the new.”*

Truly then I began a different life. I couldn’t contain the joy in my heart, so I jumped out of bed and ran into Missy’s room. I remember the look of heartache on her young face, the sadness there, and then the amazement as she looked at me. I remember crying, “Oh, Missy the Lord has saved me!”

And she looked at me and said, “Oh, I wish I could be, too.”

I replied, “Oh, you can, you can.”

But she simply said, “No, I’ve gone too far.”

I pleaded with her, but to no avail. And finally returned to my room, a saved person, a newborn daughter of the King. Since then there has been trials—many trials—as there always is and will be, but my Father has been with me, patient and ever ready to help and give and give and give more grace, more faith, more strength, more love, as I need it. I’m so thankful for His mercy and His persistence in dealing with me.

I still continue to pray for the salvation of my dear, foster sisters. They are both out in the world now and lost in sin, but I know there is power in prayer and I want to keep praying for them! I so appreciate the people that kept praying for me, as I manifested a strong resistance all summer to that which was holy and pure, so much under conviction was I. I believe it was because of their prayers that the Lord continued to deal and deal and deal and tarry long with me… the Lord hears the prayers of His dear children.

One of the verses of one of my favorite songs is:

My Jesus, I love Thee, I know Thou art mine;
For Thee all the follies of sin I resign;
My gracious Redeemer, my Savior art Thou;
If ever I loved Thee, my Jesus, ’tis now.*

If you are happening to read this and have not the love and grace and peace of the Lord burning in your heart, I would plead with you to let go of your pride and all that is keeping you from having peace with God. Nothing is worth not being able to say, “It is all right between Jesus and me.”

I’ve found my Lord and He is mine,
He won me by His love;
I’ll serve Him all my years of time,
And dwell with Him above.

No other Lord but Christ I know,
I walk with Him alone;
His streams of love forever flow,
Within my heart His throne.

He’s dearer to my heart than life,
He found me lost in sin;
He calmed the sea of inward strife,
And bade me come to Him.

My flesh recoiled before the cross,
And Satan whispered there,
“Thy gain will not repay the loss,
His yoke is hard to bear.”

I’ve tried the road of sin and found,
Its prospects all deceive;
I’ve proved the Lord, and joys abound,
More than I could believe.

Refrain:

His yoke is easy, His burden is light,
I’ve found it so, I’ve found it so;
His service is my sweetest delight,
His blessings ever flow.*

—by D. S. Warner

In His love,
Abigail

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Marvelously Healed

Reprinted From a 1942 Tract

“Bless the LORD, O my soul: and all that is within me, bless his holy name. Bless the LORD, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits: Who forgiveth all thine iniquities; who healeth all thy diseases.”* (Psalm 103:1-3)

His benefits to me have been wonderful. He has always been so good to me. My mother was a Christian and lived to what light she had, so always taught us children to pray. The dear Lord began to strive with my heart when I was about 9 years old, and I went to the altar to seek the Lord, but my father thought me too young to seek the Lord, so wouldn’t let me go back to meeting; but the dear Lord continued to knock at my heart. At about 13 years of age, I was out in a field under a pecan tree praying for my father. He had the drink habit and I was almost always praying for him. Then the dear Lord sent conviction on me for my salvation. I cried out to my God, and He heard and answered, bless His dear name! Yes, He took every stain of sin away and satisfied my longing soul. I went to the house shouting praise to God and telling my mother I was saved. But my father said I was not, for I had not been baptized. This bothered me, for I wasn’t where I could be baptized just then; but as soon as I could, I went and joined the Christian Church so I could be baptized.

The preacher gave me a Testament. Thank God for that Testament! It was a little red-backed Testament. Oh, how I did love it. I had received many presents before this, but never such a wonderful present as that. I said I surely was going to read it through, so I began to study the precious little book; and what wonders I found in it!

I was very sickly, had never been strong. I had always had bad stomach trouble and spinal trouble and by that time had very bad heart trouble and a complication of diseases setting in. In this dear little book I read that Jesus healed when on earth, and read in James what to do when sick. Dear reader, turn to the 5th chapter of James and you can read it, too. I read where Jesus washed his disciples’ feet and said we ought to wash one another’s feet. I asked the preacher why we didn’t wash feet. I wanted them to come and pray for my healing, but of course they didn’t believe in that part of God’s Word.

But I would read it again and again. It was God’s Word, and I must believe it, even if the preacher didn’t. Oh, how can I ever praise the dear Lord enough, as I lay sick for four years, for talking to my heart and teaching me as I read the precious treasure, the little, red Testament that He had given me through someone who did not believe it all himself. He opened the scriptures to me. Oh, how good and precious He was to me. How constantly He stayed with me, how many dreams and visions He sent he, because He knew I had no one else to teach me.

One disease after another set up on my already frail body. I had spinal trouble, rheumatism, heart trouble, female trouble, and such awful nervous trouble. The blood would rush to my head and I would be unconscious for several days at a time. I was suffering almost everything at the hands of doctors, different surgical treatments, and bad medicine; yet through it all, everyone that saw me said I was the most patient sufferer they ever saw, and almost every time I was conscious I would call children around my bed and read the precious little book to them and talk to them about the goodness of God.

Oh, dear readers, it wasn’t in my own strength I had this patience and courage, it was because I was hid away in Jesus. Oh, what a friend He proved to me! What if I had not found Him? Oh, what would I have done without Him? But He had found me, a little sick girl, and He was caring for me until He could teach me to fully trust Him, so He could heal me. I kept the precious little book under my pillow and read it as long as I could use my hands to hold it. I read in the dear Book where we should not wear gold or pearls (1 Peter 3:3), so I took off my rings. Anything I read in God’s Word I measured up to.

I read that we should be holy, so I sought the Lord for a holy life, and He sanctified my nature. Remember, dear reader, I had never heard any of this preached, but I read it in God’s Word, and was glad to measure to God’s Word. The trouble with so many people, instead of measuring to God’s Word they are trying to turn it around to suit themselves. We read, “And whatsoever we ask, we receive of him, because we keep his commandments, and do those things that are pleasing in his sight.”* (1 John 3:22)

My parents spent all they had and all they could make for doctors, but I got no better, but worse and worse. Twenty-two doctors, in all, gave me up. But, thank God, while my body was getting worse and wasting away, I was learning more, and my dependence was on God. Finally, paralysis of the muscles and nerves set in. I lost use of myself; also control of most all the organs of my body, and was in this condition about eleven months. I could slide my right hand and roll my head on the pillow, and that is all the use I had of myself. The doctors all quit. I could stand no more treatments nor bad medicine. Just the scent of it would cause me to faint away. I was cold all the time from my breast down, and wrapped in woolen blankets all the time, winter and summer; and fanned in the face most of the time, day and night, to help me get my breath. I smothered all the time, and would sink away, and they would have to shake me and call me. I would struggle for my breath and still live.

At last a few months before I was healed I gave my little Testament away. I told my mother one day that before I died I wanted to give it to someone and pray for it to do them some good as it had me. So I soon gave it away, for I thought I was going. Thank God, I was ready to go, but the dear Lord had it planned otherwise. It would have been sweet to have gone home to Jesus then, but it will be better still to stay and take a few others with me when I go. Dear reader, if you are not saved, won’t you give Jesus your heart and go with me to heaven?

The last place my parents took me was to Dallas, Texas. The last two weeks I lived in this condition, I was so low I could not be allowed to sleep more than a minute or two at a time, or I would quit breathing, for I had to struggle for every breath. The folks would shake and call me, telling me to get my breath and I would begin to struggle for breath again. But praise our God, on the 28th night of April, 1902, the dear Lord let me sleep, my folks said about an hour, and He sent me a dream. I dreamed I was in a large building which was on fire, and Jesus helped me out and said, “Essie, whatever you trust me in, I will help you, now and forever.” When I awoke the first thing I thought of was of what Jesus had said, and I thought, “Now I am going to trust him to make me walk.” I couldn’t tell anyone, for sometimes I could whisper and sometimes I couldn’t; but I don’t think I could at this time, so I just prayed a very short prayer. About all I said was, “Jesus, You said whatever I would trust You in, You would help me now and forever. Now, Lord, I am going to trust You to make me walk.” I mentioned just a few of His promises in the Bible and that was all, but I knew when I said Amen, I was well.

My sister was sitting by me just then, for I was never left alone a minute. I said out loud, “Dolly, tell Mama to come here.” Mama was on the porch just outside my room. So she went and said. “Mama, Essie called for you out loud.” This excited her. She came and I said, “Mama stand at the foot of my bed, I want to tell you my dream. She stood there and I told it to her, “and, Mama, I prayed and Jesus has healed me, and I can get up and walk.” She said, “Honey, do you want Mama to try to raise you up?”

I said, “Mama, you can’t raise me up. And she couldn’t, for one couldn’t bend my back to raise me up, but I said, “God can raise me up. But I want you to go tell the neighbors. I want to show you all what God has done.” So she ran out telling the near neighbors how I was talking. One began to tell another, and the house was soon almost full.

My mother and most of the others thought I was dying, and the Lord was just giving me marvelous strength in my dying hour because I was living so close to Him. Most wanted to come to my bed, saying, “Do you want me to try and raise you up?” I would answer, “No, you can’t raise me up, but God can. Don’t come to me. God has healed me and God will get the praise. I don’t want a human hand laid on me. There are here Christian Scientists, Magnetic healers, and others that would like to have the praise for this.” My mother would say, “Please let me come to you.” But I would answer, “No, Mama, I am coming to you this time. You have come to me long enough. Have everyone stand back and let me alone; and you stand right in that door and God will help me out of this bed and I will come to you.

So she got them all quieted and she stood in the door. I threw the cover off, jumped out of bed and ran to my mother. Praise our God. I had prayed to walk, but the Lord always does more than we think or ask. I ran, leaped, and shouted, went rejoicing up and down the steps to the house. It was about 8 o’clock in the morning when I was healed. I went to the table at noon and ate my dinner, lay down about two o’clock; the next morning I walked six or eight blocks to prayer meeting, which was the first meeting of any kind I had attended in two years. I’d been so poorly, some of my backbone and hip bones were cut through.

My father had left early in the morning before I was healed, as he had some important business away and was late getting back. When he came home, my bedding was all out and a large crowd of people was there, so he thought I was surely dead, as that was what was expected all the time. He sat down on the back porch and was weeping. Someone told my mother and she said, “He thinks Essie is dead.” So she went to him, but I followed her, not realizing what a shock it would be for him. I went up behind him and spoke to him. It almost excited him to death. He was a man of very strong nerve, but he cried, “Who is this?” When told it was I, his Essie, he cried “No, it can’t be, she is dead.” He was so stunned he could not believe it though looking me in the face. He searched the house for my corpse then came and sat down just facing me, and wanted to be told all about it; he would cry loudly, “I can’t stand that!” then again would say, “Tell about it.” This he did many times, each time stopping us again. At last he called my mother into another room, and she told him all about it.

Then he came back and asked me if I could sing, which I used to do so much for him, but had not for at least two years. I told him I could, and he said, “Sing ‘Diamonds in the Rough.’ ” I sang it through. Then we all knelt, and I prayed. Then I would run out of doors and look at the beautiful stars, and praise God. Father would let me go as long as he could stand it, then call me and hold me as if afraid to turn me loose lest I should vanish and he could not keep me.

An hour or two after I was healed, someone phoned two doctors at Ft. Worth, 30 miles from Dallas, Texas. They had been over there a few weeks before and looked at me, but did not even come to my bed. They just looked at me and said they could not raise the dead. The one calling them over the phone said, “The sick girl prayed to walk and is up walking.”

“No, no,” they answered, “impossible!” But they were assured it was true. They answered, “We will not believe it unless we see it.

The other answered, “Take the inter-urban and come and see for yourself.” So they did. When they saw me, they said, “Well, you really are the girl that was so sick?”

I answered, “Yes.” They asked me to tell them all about it, which I gladly did. They said it was truly God that did it and that it was wonderful. They asked me to pray, and they and all the rest again knelt in prayer and praise.

All who saw me were so shocked and felt so much the power of God they wanted me to call on God for them. The man that became my husband later, had never seen me walk before. He said he thought he was a Christian, but when he saw so much of the power of God, he felt like he was the meanest man in the world. He sat down and couldn’t speak for some time, and when he could, he asked me to pray for him. He is now my husband and a child of God, and often says that was the most wonderful healing he ever saw and that God used me to save his soui.

Many souls were saved and convinced of God’s power to heal, so I feel a thousand times repaid for my suffering. To God be all the glory.

He has healed me of different things many times since, and His promise that “He would help me now and forever,” He has proven true so many times. I am determined by his grace to spend all my life in His service. He is still just as dear to me as He was the 29th day of April, 1902. I was 18 years old the first day of April and healed the 29th day of the same month. My name was Essie Birmingham before I married.

Bless the Lord, O my soul. He is so good to me and to all those that love Him! I love Him with all my heart. He is my life, my strength, my all, my Savior, my healer, my keeper.

Praise our wonderful Savior.

—Essie McDonald

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Redeemed by the Precious Blood of Christ

The Salvation Testimony of Amy Zander

When I was five years old, a neighbor invited me to her church’s Vacation Bible School for children. My parents allowed me to go one day. I mostly remember the activities—games, singing, crafts, etc., but the teacher also shared a story about Jesus. When I got home that night, I had many questions, and I got up on my Daddy’s tummy (he was in bed) which was my favorite “sitting perch” when I was young, and asked many questions. Who was Jesus? Why did He die? Was I going to hell? My father knew just what to say, and that night, September 5, 1986, I accepted Jesus as my Savior. I knew that I was a sinner who needed a Savior, and I asked Jesus to come into my heart and save me, forgive me, and cleanse me from my sins, and make me His child. How thankful am for salvation, the blessed, free gift from God! Never have I regretted becoming a Christian (how could a Christian regret it?). My desire is to serve and please my Lord all my days.

Scripture about salvation is very dear to me, and one of my favorite, special verses is 1 Peter 1:18-19, which says, “Forasmuch as ye know that ye were not redeemed with corruptible things, as silver and gold, from your vain conversation received by tradition from your fathers; But with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot.”

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