I was born in Yonkers, New York to parents of different nationalities and different religions. I was sprinkled by water as an infant. When I was a boy, I walked to church with my Mother each Sunday and was baptized by water immersion in order to join that church. I remember that it was a very large building with big beams and beautiful stained glass windows.
I spent a lot of time with my good friend, Tom, who lived up the street. We were like brothers, doing everything together, except on Sundays. On that day his life was different; he went to ‘meetings’ as he called it. And every Friday he consistently invited me to come hear about the Bible at “Children’s Meetings”. For years I felt he pestered me to attend and I always refused.
In June of 1959, when we had just finished the sixth grade, Tom invited me to two weeks of summer “Children’s Meetings”. Surprisingly, I agreed to attend. The guest speaker was a happy, friendly kind of man with a shiny head! Each day he opened up the Bible and told us what the Bible said, not just what he himself thought.
We were all told that each person who learned ten Bible verses could get a New Testament. I quickly realized that I couldn’t do that since we did not have a Bible in our house. Tom’s mother gladly offered to type the verses on some paper for me and so I was able to memorize them. From these verses and the speaker, I learned about sin, the need to be saved and the Saviour. I found out that baptism does not wash away sins nor ensure a place in heaven. I had never heard of these things, but I realized that they were truths from the Bible.
God had begun to speak to me. I understood that I was still in my sins and was not ready for heaven. I wanted to be “saved”, but I had no idea how I could be “born again” or “saved” as the Bible said.
In the fall, Tom still faithfully invited me to the Friday night meetings. I wanted to be saved, so I attended the meetings. One night at home in my bedroom, knowing that I was a sinner who deserved God’s punishment, I realized that what the Lord Jesus did on the cross was for my sins and I simply rested on that. I took God at His Word and Jesus as my Saviour. My burden of sin was gone and I became a new person in Christ.
The verse from the Bible, John 3:16, was a real help to me. “For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life”. Another Bible passage assured me that I had eternal life: “And this is the record that God hath given us eternal life, and this life is in His Son. He that hath the Son hath life; and he that hath not the Son of God hath not life” (1st John 5:11, 12).
The years have come and gone and I can gladly say that God’s salvation is real. It lasts and is available to anyone who will trust Him as Saviour. Will you come to Him? He said, “Him that cometh to Me, I will in no wise cast out” John 6:37.
