When a young man invited me to an Apostolic Faith meeting, I told him I did not need salvation. I said, “I do not smoke cigarettes, drink, carouse around, or play cards.” I was not a thief, did my work faithfully, and thought I was all right. However, I am thankful that I did go to church with him.

That night my wife and I sat in the back row. When people testified, I thought, I would give my right arm if I could stand before a group of people like this and say I was saved! The Spirit of the Lord spoke to my heart, “It is going to take everything you have and everything you ever hope to have to get this old-time religion.”

My spiritual eyes were opened, and I found I was not so good. There was sin in my life. I had a covetous heart. Everything I got hold of I wanted to keep. I was too cheap to drink or smoke.

I deprived my little wife of things she could easily have had. She brought her check home from work, and I took it and put it in the bank. When she asked for something that she should have had, I said, “Do you need it?” Right then a quarrel was on. Our home was nearly broken up because of my covetousness.

In that church service, I realized a responsibility lay upon my shoulders. What was I going to do with the Gospel call? I felt condemned.

The next morning, someone asked me how I liked the service. I replied, “I didn’t like it at all. I didn’t like the singing, the testimonies, or the preaching, and I am not going back!” He said, “You might like it better next time.”

God’s people prayed for us, and months later my wife and I did go back to church. As we continued attending, God strove with my heart. One time I went out to my car, put my head on the steering wheel, and cried like a baby. My wife said, “If you want to go pray, I will wait here.” But I would not humble myself to do it.

The night finally came when I bent my knees at the altar of prayer and cried out, “O God, have mercy on my soul.” The enemy said, “You can’t get it.” I said, “I guess I can’t,” and got up to go. However, I could not find an easy way to go out, so I went back to the altar and dropped on my knees once more. I said, “Lord, sink or swim, live or die, I’ll serve You.”

In a flash, God saved my soul. The Lord put peace into my heart and took my sins away. The covetous heart was changed!

On Monday morning I went back to the same job with joy in my soul. The Lord helped me do the things I thought were going to be hard. I asked my employer to step into the back room and then told him, “Roy, I cannot work here any longer. I prayed and God saved my soul. I can’t sell tobacco anymore.” He said, “You won’t have to do it,” and he moved me to work in the meat department.

There was a man who came in our store building about every night who, in my estimation, was crooked. Before I was saved I had said, “I will beat him at his own game”—and I did. When God saved my soul, He showed me that man whom I had wronged, and I said, “Lord, give me grace and I’ll make it right.” He came into the store and bought his groceries. I followed him out to his car and said, “A long time ago I beat you out of some money, because I thought you were a crook. I am here to pay it back to you.” He would not take the money because he knew he was wrong—but my record is clear today. I have made many restitutions.

Before my conversion, I liked to hear the cash register ring. But when the Lord saved my soul, He took the love for the dollar out of my heart.

A little later, the Lord sanctified me. It was marvelous! I knew I was sanctified. After that I heard about the baptism of the Holy Ghost. I did not know what it was, but I said, “I want it, and with God’s help, I’m going to get it.” God baptized me with His Holy Spirit and empowered me for His service. That experience is as fresh today as it was when it happened.

These days are not gloomy for me. I am so happy I don’t know where to start praising God or when to quit. My soul is overflowing with His great joy! My wife and I would not have stayed together much longer if I had not been saved. But the Lord saved both of us, and we have been married almost forty-nine years. That is what God did for us. He took away our sins and set us free. We have a happy home, and we have had a wonderful time serving the Lord together these many years.

I’ve experienced many physical difficulties, have been sick and at the point of death, but I know that Jesus cares for me. He has been good to me. I am thankful that I cast my anchor in the right direction forty-four years ago, and it still holds.

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The Blessing of Christian Fellowship

An excerpt from a sermon preached by Lowell Montgomery at Portland Camp Meeting 1954.

There is nothing quite so sweet as Christian fellowship, but there is only one way to have it, and that is through deliverance from sin and by living the way Christ wants us to live. We read in 1 John 1:7, “If we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin.” Only the departure from darkness will bring that light. Only by walking in His light will we find that great love of Christ and the fellowship we need. Oh, let us walk together in His light! Let us experience fellowship one with another.

In Psalm 119:63 we read, “I am a companion of all them that fear thee [God], and of them that keep thy precepts.” The psalmist’s fellowship was with all of God’s people, not only a select few. God wants all His people to be as one.

The Bible also proclaims, “Where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them” (Matthew 18:20). Whether you are in a church congregation that is large or small, if you believe in His name, you can expect the presence of God to be there.

God’s Word says in Psalm 133:1, “How good and how pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together in unity!” Why is it that after a church service, many times it will be 11:00 or 12:00 at night before people leave the altars of prayer? It is because we love praying with and for one another. In Amos 3:3, we read, “Can two walk together, except they be agreed?” We receive answers from God as we have unity.

Fellowship with God’s people gets sweeter every day. If our hearts are banded together with love and devotion for Christ, we shall see great and marvelous things accomplished. It can be done if we will look to God in faith and believe that He will work through us.

There is no nationality barrier among God’s people. His love is for the “whosoever will,” so whether we are from North America, Asia, Africa, or any other place in the world, we can have wonderful fellowship with all our Christian brothers and sisters.

Malachi 3:16 tells us that a “book of remembrance” is written for those who speak often to one another about God. Hebrews 10:25 reads, “Not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as the manner of some is; but exhorting one another: and so much the more, as ye see the day approaching.” Clearly, Christian fellowship has God’s approval.

During a prayer service, when the ministers anoint the sick with oil and pray for that individual, our hearts unite in faith that God is going to hear and answer prayer. Faith will bring the blessing every time. How we love God for this wonderful way!

In the Book of Philippians, we read, “If there be therefore any consolation in Christ, if any comfort of love, if any fellowship of the Spirit, if any bowels and mercies, fulfil ye my joy, that ye be likeminded, having the same love, being of one accord, of one mind. Let nothing be done through strife or vainglory; but in lowliness of mind let each esteem other better than themselves. Look not every man on his own things, but every man also on the things of others. Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus” (Philippians 2:1-5). When we get to that place of esteeming others more than ourselves, how the glory of God floods our souls!

With God’s love deep in our hearts, fellowship with other believers becomes our joy. It is wonderful to see what God does when we look to Him and believe.