Gilbert Olson

I was born and raised in a Christian home. I was brought to church and Sunday school every Sunday and taught the right way to go. But I found out when young that it took more than that to make a Christian out of me. I was a moral young man—I could name a whole list of sins that I never committed, but I still had to get down at the altar and pray the same prayer as the deep-dyed sinner. When I was ten years old, I knelt by the altar at the church on Sixth and Burnside and asked the Lord to be merciful to me a sinner. I felt God could make a change in my heart. A Chinese brother, Brother Lee, prayed with me and the Lord came down and made that change. It wasn’t such a big outward change, but it was real in my heart.

I found out that no matter how weak you might be in yourself, if you keep your hand in the Lord’s hand, He will lead you right every time. You don’t have to worry about failing. God can keep a person. He can make a change on the inside and put a backbone in you and give you power to go out and live the life before the old crowd. I have been able to prove it under many circumstances.

God kept me through the rest of my school days. That was a good place to prove the Gospel. I found out that was a real testing place. If He could keep me through that, He could keep me anywhere.

I spent four years in the service—almost two years overseas. I am thankful I could take the old-time religion with me and could live a Christian life under difficult circumstances. I couldn’t be in church every night, but when the rest of the fellows were out doing the town, I was in the barracks. God had put something in my heart to keep me from those things. It wasn’t that I had someone looking over my shoulder telling me what I could or couldn’t do. It wasn’t a code of ethics tacked up on a wall; it was a standard of Christianity that God put down in my heart.

If a person wants to be kept, God will keep him. He kept me while raising a family of six children, pastoring a church, and out in the business world. While working in Portland, Oregon in a large machinery office, I could let my light shine for God. I didn’t have to step back and take a backseat. Then I worked in a sales job. I traveled around the state, more or less, and saw people out in the world. Even the ones that had money didn’t have what I had. I worked for the same people for twenty-four years and I figured I would retire there. Well, one day I found that I didn’t have a job anymore. Then in a period of a little over a year, I had three jobs. So I found out that the things of the world, no matter how wonderful they might seem, are intangible. They come and go. I am glad the old-time religion is something real.

The old-time religion has proved to be a match for every circumstance. One spring, in California, we did a combined Easter program with the Sacramento and San Francisco churches, and I learned pages of script that had to be recited by memory. The day came to drive to San Francisco to do the program, and I became deathly sick. There I was, writhing in agony. I told my wife, “We’ve got to go back to Sacramento.”

I had never taken so much as an aspirin in my life, and I didn’t want to trust in the remedies of man. As I was back home in bed, suddenly the verse, James 5:14, came to me: “Call for the elders of the church . . .” I said to my wife, “Phyllis, call for Brother LeRoy and Brother Peter.” They came and prayed for me, and the Lord instantly—not in ten minutes, not in twenty hours, but instantly—took that pain away. I said, “Who is going to drive me to San Francisco?” We got there with twenty minutes to spare.

The Lord is real today, not only years ago when He saved me, but today He is real in my heart! I am glad for the old-time religion. I know that if I am faithful it will lead me straight to Heaven.