Ray Hoople

I heard the Gospel story all my life, but instead of having my eyes on God, I had them on others. At an early age, I looked at people who said they were Christians, but whose lives did not show it, and decided, “If that is religion, I don’t want it.” I turned it all down, leaving God and all forms of religion out of my life entirely.

I took my own way, I sinned against God, and I reaped what I sowed. I was looked up to by a host of young people in this world. They called me a “live one,” but I was a “dead one”—dead in trespasses and sin.

It took drastic means for God to get me to the place where I would stop long enough for Him to reach me. When I was twenty-three, and when I should have been right in the prime of my life, a terrible affliction came upon me and stopped me in my wild, reckless career. The doctors saw me and said two hours would tell all. While I was in that condition, some Christian friends began to pray for this black sheep of the family. Some sinners seem to think that if disaster were to strike, they would pray before they died. Well, maybe they would and maybe they wouldn’t. I was not able to pray. It was all I could do to draw a little breath into these lungs of mine to hold body and soul together. And there was no desire within me to pray, either. All I wanted was to get out of my trouble and go back to my life of sin. Prayer changes things, though. When those Christian friends prayed, God had mercy. He spared my life and miraculously raised me up.

Afterward, just to satisfy my old gray-haired mother, I went with her to an Apostolic Faith tent meeting in Portland, Oregon. God had a different purpose for me being there that night. He began to talk to my heart, causing me to stop and consider my latter end. As He dealt with my wayward, sinful soul, all those reasons I had for not following Him faded into the background. This was the first time I had really came into contact with God in a personal way, and instead of looking at other people that night, I was looking at myself.

The greatest sin that stared me in the face was that I had rejected God’s love and mercy for all those years. As the preacher began to preach, it hit me right down where I lived, and I said, “God, help me!” The preacher went on a little further and I said, “God, help me!” That was all I could say. At the altar, I forgot all about the other people around me. I just wanted to be right with God. I prayed a simple prayer, making confession; I admitted I was bound by sinful habits and appetites. Then I gave the Lord my whole life. He heard my prayer and became more than real to me. He rolled my sins away, put peace in my heart, and made me a new creature in Christ Jesus.

While I was praying, I thought I was alone with God, but when I opened my eyes, I saw a whole band of Christian workers. They were singing, “Peace, peace, wonderful peace.” I could sing it with them, because God had changed the course of my wild life and made me a Bible Christian.

The next night, the young people who I had been running around with wanted to know what had happened. I told them I prayed and God saved me. They asked what I was going to do next and I said, “The only thing I know for sure is I am going back among the people who helped me pray my way out of sin.” I had thought I would have a terrible struggle in letting go of my sinful habits, but I found that God had delivered me from them. He had taken out every bad habit and set me free.

I have proved God in many ways for many years, and He has never failed me. I praise God for what He has done for me.