Cleora Colt

Until I was twenty years old I knew nothing about Jesus. Brought up in infidelity, I was taught there is no life after death: just live the best you can and then die like the animals of the field.

I was taught that the Bible is a book of myths and fairy tales; and in a college course I was taking I tried to prove to myself that this was true. But God convicted me and made me to know that there is a God in Heaven, and that the Bible is true. Still I did not have the honesty and sincerity to follow the teaching of the Word of God. I turned my back on the Lord. I thought there was no use for me to pray for I did not believe the Lord would answer my prayer. I knew I deserved Hell.

Worldly pleasure allured me, and I sought with all my heart the things that money would buy. God let me have them, but with it all, I had a broken heart. Trying to get a little peace, I studied false religions: Spiritualism, Occult Science, and Christian Science. I tried to reason away the effects of sin in my life, but I couldn’t. The anguish of Hell was still raging in my heart.

God let me have them, but with it all, I had a broken heart.

My companions were doctors, lawyers, and other professional men and women of this city, and they considered me a good woman. But many times I would look into the faces of my three little children, weep bitter tears, and say, “O God, I am not worthy to be called their mother!” My load of sin was so heavy that I finally felt I could bear it no longer.

I had picked out the darkest spot on the old Morrison Street Bridge, and said, “One of these days very soon I will go over the banisters. I will hide my sins and troubles in the waters of the Willamette River before I’ll ever confess them.” This would mean that I would leave my husband, my many friends, my good job, and the beautiful home that had just been built in the suburbs. My three innocent children would be motherless, and I knew also, that it would mean Hell for my soul.

But I thank God for the day I was invited to an Apostolic Faith meeting by a young man who worked where I did. He recently had been saved and wanted to share his joy. I told him, “That is wonderful for you, but there is no hope for me.”

However, I did attend one of their services, and when I listened to the testimonies of what God had done for others, I believed them. Yet as I walked down the stairs with tears in my eyes, I said, “God will never do that for me.”

I am glad those people did not forget me. They prayed and God answered their prayers. He softened my hardened heart. He caused me to open my neglected Bible, and He showed me a Scripture I knew was meant for me—“Come now, and let us reason together, saith the LORD: though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool” (Isaiah 1:18).

Peace and rest came into my soul, and the guilt was gone.

I closed the Book and said, “God that means me. I believe it.” Later, at my work in the heart of the business district, God spoke to me, “Choose you this moment whom you will serve!” I laid down my arms of rebellion.

Right there I prayed for mercy, and the Lord rolled away my burden of sin. He took away all my grief and sorrow. That very moment I became a happy woman. Peace and rest came into my soul, and the guilt was gone. I lifted my face toward Heaven and began to sing, “When the roll is called up yonder, I’ll be there!”

This wonderful salvation has been real through the years. I never again longed for the theater, the grillrooms, the dance halls, and the ballrooms. Worldly friends, diamonds, and the finest of clothes and fashions held no attraction for me. After I was converted, God saved my husband and united our home, which was on the verge of a breakup. He gave us happiness instead of sorrow and trouble in the home.

I also proved Jesus to be the Healer of the body. For seven years before I was saved, the doctors pronounced an affliction on my body as incurable. But after I was saved, the first night I came and knelt at the altar to pray, the Lord both sanctified my soul and healed my body. That was a miracle!

Many years later, I had a stroke, but my faith was in the Lord. The ministers came and prayed for me, and God raised me up. In less than three weeks I was back in church.

I can say there is no case too hard for the Lord. I love to tell others that Jesus is very the best Friend one can have. He rescued me from the black midnight of sin and sorrow, and for more than a half century He has given me wonderful peace and happiness in my soul. There is a purpose in my heart to be true to Him and to see the end of a Christian race.