J. Zook

I was a “hard-boiled” sinner, who had roamed all around this country working here and there as a railroad man. I worked in one place for a while and then quit and went somewhere else. I was a man who cared for nothing and nobody. I would swear at anything and anyone—it didn’t matter who. If the superintendent came around, I would just as soon swear at him as anybody else. I was a hard sinner, a “rough-neck” switchman—and you don’t find saints among those people.

I used to go to churches back East once in a while, just to be going somewhere. They didn’t have amusements in the state where I came from. I didn’t go for any good, I had too much of the devil in me.

In 1923, I became crippled. If it takes the loss of a leg to get one into the Gospel, I say, “Amen,” and “Thank God for it.” While in the hospital, not knowing whether I was going to pull through or not, I prayed, “Let me live to take care of my family.” In a few days I began to improve.

I was in that hospital for eighteen weeks after losing a limb and being burnt nearly to death with a third-degree burn. Eleven thousand volts of electricity had gone through me. The doctors said I would be in that hospital for a year and a half, but God took me out sooner.

After that, God led me into an Apostolic Faith meeting. I had been in many places of worship but never in one like that. When I stepped inside the door I could feel the peace of Heaven. A little saint of God, down on her knees praying before the meeting started, brought conviction on me, and everything else that happened after just loaded on that much more. The testimonies were like daggers to my heart. I had never heard such things in my life—how God could pick up people who had been down and out and put them on a level with those who had been in the upper walks of life. What put the climax on it all was when a minister said he had had to get on his knees and seek God for salvation in order to make Heaven his destination. I thought, I am lost.

I didn’t take the way that night after hearing those wonderful testimonies, but a song stuck with me. The people of God had sung, “Jesus will help, if you try.” I had heard it before but there never was the Spirit back of it like there was that night. The next morning while I worked, I was singing that song while the testimonies from the night before rang in my heart. About two in the afternoon, the thought came to me, What is the matter with you? You are not swearing. I was a man who couldn’t talk to anyone without cursing and swearing, but God had taken it out of me. And that was just while under conviction!

Eleven thousand volts of electricity had gone through me.

While I was driving home from work that evening, a distance of about fifteen miles, I just kept thinking about the song and that God could help me. Then, He spoke right out of Heaven to me and said, “This is the way, walk ye in it.” I answered, “I will walk in it!” There was no hesitation about it, either.

When I got home, I sat down at the supper table and got to talking about the Gospel. I said, “At other churches you can’t get ‘em up to testify, but down at the Apostolic Faith, you can’t keep ‘em quiet.” I had been in lots of churches back East, but never heard anybody testify like at the Apostolic Faith.

Soon, the pressure of conviction came down on me in that little shack of mine and I said, “I can’t stand it any longer; let’s pray.” My family never heard me pray—nor anybody else. Down on the old kitchen floor on my knees, it was pretty dark, but Jesus put a light in me that is still burning today. I asked God to be merciful to me a sinner. He put the real thing in my heart, and I knew it. No one had to tell me. Not only that, but He saved my whole family. They are all under the blood.

I was a man who had married into adultery; I was married to a woman whose husband was still living. God gave me the grace to step out of that life. Many people have criticized me for it, because I don’t live with my family. I love my family, but according to the Word of God, it was wrong to live the way I was living.

Before I made the decision, the enemy of my soul asked, “What are you going to do with those two children?” That stopped me praying for a moment, but a still small Voice said to me, “God will take care of them.” And He is taking care of them. He gives me the strength and health to make a living. I get up in the morning and my old knees hit the floor, and I lift my heart to God. The Bible says that if any provide not for his own house, he is worse than an infidel (1Timothy 5:8). I don’t want to be an infidel, much less worse than one.

God sanctified me wholly after He saved me. I will never forget how the fire fell when the Lord sanctified me. He baptized me with the Holy Ghost and fire, too. I wasn’t able to go to the meeting one evening as I was taking care of a neighbor’s sick cow. At eight o’clock, I got down to pray, and oh, how I prayed! I received the baptism the next morning. I got it in a little old cow barn. I went over to the neighbors to check on the cow; I milked it and fed it. Then I threw the milk bucket in the hay pile and got down in the hay pile myself. God baptized me right there.

I thank God for the power in the blood that can come into a man’s life and change him from a “hard-boiled” sinner and make him clean. I have the glory of God in my soul, and I thank Him for the old-time religion.