Examples to Follow

GODLY EXAMPLES

AN EXAMPLE OF TRUST: “My mother could get down on her knees and pray and get an answer. One day an insurance man came to our house wanting to insure the folks’ wheat crop. He said he insured against the acts of God. It appealed to my father; but when my mother heard about it, she said, “That’s ridiculous, insuring against the acts of God! How can they do that? Let me pray.” My father went back to the insurance man and said, “I guess we will not insure this year.”

Then the hailstorm came. The insurance was to cover that. I have seen tall corn beaten down to the ground in those hailstorms. You could hear it coming for miles. That mother of mine didn’t faint. She began to pray, as she always had. The storm kept coming. It looked as though we would be wiped out. The hailstorm came right up to our fence—and stopped! God forbade its passing over us.” – Vern Edmonds

AN EXAMPLE OF PERSEVERING IN PRAYER: “When I had been married two years, I gave my heart to the Lord. My husband was not a Christian, and for many years I prayed for him. I desperately wanted him to be saved. We had all the material advantages we needed, but more than once I told my husband that I would rather live in a shack with him saved than have all those material things.

“Twenty-one years after I was saved, while praying at church, God gave a wonderful promise to me. I was lost in prayer when I saw a vision of my husband kneeling at the foot of an old wooden cross. As I drove home that day, I remember praising the Lord as though my husband had already been saved. The burden was gone! My faith, however, was tested for the next fourteen years.

“Then my husband suddenly became seriously ill and was taken to the hospital. The doctor said there was little hope for his recovery but there was no fear in my heart, for I had a promise from God. When people asked about him, I answered that God was with us, and that I was just waiting to hear that my husband had been saved. As they were preparing my husband for surgery, he cried out to God for mercy. Thank the Lord, his cry was heard and answered. The Lord saved him, lying there on his hospital bed. What rejoicing for both of us! After thirty-five years of praying alone, I am so thrilled to have a praying home. – Emma Brown

HISTORICAL CONTEXT

Testimonies have always been an integral part of Apostolic Faith services. In nearly every service, real life accounts are given by people who have proved God’s power to transform lives, give guidance, heal, and strengthen believers. The memories of Gospel veterans in the faith provide those who follow after with precious examples.

A CLOSER LOOK

1. What character qualities in a person might we want to emulate?

2. Name three Biblical characters and identify a positive attribute in their lives that you would like to develop in your own life.

3. Why are good examples so important for us?

An Example of Standing True

God saved me when I was just a child, and He kept me in a home where I was severely persecuted. My young heart was sad and sorrowful because of conditions there. Many a time I was beaten without cause, in anger and blasphemy. There was no kindness shown me, but from morning till night there was abuse—all because I loved the Gospel of Jesus.

For some time I was not allowed to go to the meetings where God’s people were. My only comfort was to pick out promises in God’s Word and to pray. I had a little booklet made out of scraps of paper. I had a promise written for each letter of the alphabet except x and z. I cherished that little book. One day my mother took it away and held it over the open fire as though she was going to burn it. This just about broke my heart, but the Lord did not let her burn it.

I was even taken before the juvenile court with no other charge than that I wanted to serve God. I found that God’s grace was my daily strength, and that Jesus can solve every problem. I had found a Friend who stood by me in joy and sorrow, and that Friend was Jesus.

It has paid a thousand fold to live for Jesus, and I have the blessed hope of seeing His face some day. What a moment that will be! — Edna Crawford