David Netti - Mansfield OH

David Netti

A Lamp
   by the side
       of the road

Travel with me as you read this to a small Connecticut town where the greatest event in my life took place. It was in the early morning hours as I sat and wept under a street lamp by the side of the road.

Although I had Christian parents I was no better than any other unconverted sinner. As a sinner, I was in need of a Saviour. Born in a godly home, the eighth of nine children, I was raised in favorable circumstance. My parents kneeled daily and prayed for their children’s salvation. Their prayers were answered as one by one eight of their family came to know the Lord Jesus as the One who bled and died for their sins.

While living away from home, the ringing phone in the dark and the stillness of the night brought me to an even quieter moment when my younger brother told me that he had just gotten saved. He was the eighth of the nine children to experience the joy of God’s redeeming grace. My thoughts that night troubled me as I realized that I could be left in my sins only to be eternally lost, with the family circle broken forever. From that moment, God’s dealings with me for the next two years were real, convicting me of my sin. I needed to know Christ as my Saviour, yet in spite of my privileged past, I could not find God.

As I continued to attend Sunday School and assembly meeting during the week, I could say like the apostle Paul said of Timothy, "From a child thou hast known the holy scriptures" (2 Timothy 3:15). I had committed scriptures to memory, yet in my heart I did not know God.

Thoughts of being in hell because of my sin produced fear in my soul. The possibility of being left in my sins at the coming of Christ troubled me. I wondered if God’s day of salvation had passed me by for the last time. Would I be left to cry out in fear forever, "Where is God my Maker?" Were the words in Isaiah 55:6; “Seek ye the LORD while he may be found, call ye upon him while he is near,” no longer true for me? Was it now too late?

I often remembered of one night kneeling on the cold basement floor of the Methuen Gospel Hall, with tears streaming down my face. I wondered if God’s mercy had passed me for the last time. I remembered an occasion as a boy, when I was unable to find my mother in a large grocery store. Terror struck my soul, as I thought the Lord had come and that I was left to die in my sins. I promised myself that if the Lord had not come, I would tell my mother my desire to be saved. I never kept that promise. Countless times I had heard the gospel, but my heart was hardened and I put off God’s salvation for another day. Nineteen years had passed - yet I remained unsaved. With a yearning desire to be saved and to know the joy others were experiencing because of sins forgiven, I kneeled before my bed each night and cried to God, “Do not pass me by.”

Following a Bible conference in the fall of 1953, upon leaving the home of Christians in Wilson, Connecticut, a young man asked me about being saved. When he suggested a conversation, the thought struck me that this might be my last opportunity. Opening the Bible, I read the word of God, under a street lamp by the side of the road. Midnight passed and I was no closer to God. Yet I was determined that before leaving that spot, this matter of my sins must be settled forever. The young man sought to make clear the words of John 3:15; “That whosoever believeth in Him, should not perish but have eternal life.” My ”trying” to be saved was in vain.

At 1:20 that Monday morning, September 28, 1953, with tears and a burdened heart weighted with sin, I cried out to God in my lost and helpless condition, “There’s nothing I can do to get saved.” It was at that moment that the light of God’s word filled my soul and the Spirit of God revealed the truth of the work of Christ on the Cross. I saw that there was nothing I could do to be saved, for it had all been done at Calvary, when Jesus died for me. Those precious words of John 3:15;”That whosoever believeth in Him, should not perish but HAVE eternal life” flooded my soul and I cried out, “I’m saved.” In simple faith I received the message of God’s grace. Joy and peace filled my heart. I had found Christ, the Son of God. I was born again.

The young man beside me asked how I knew I was saved. I simply pointed to those precious words, “should not perish but have eternal life,” and said, “it’s right here and God cannot lie.” I had found peace with God.

At 4:30 that same morning, I knocked on the door of my parent’s home in Massachusetts. My brother answered the door and I was now able to tell him the same words that he had proclaimed to me two years earlier, “I got saved tonight.” My parents came into the kitchen of the old home and we praised God in those early morning hours. The last of nine children was safely home. The family circle was now unbroken forever.

Friend, do you know the joy of sins forgiven? Are you ready to meet God? Can you go back to a time and a place in your life where you received Christ as your Saviour? If not, you are yet in your sins and on the way to hell. Consider the precious words of our Lord Jesus Christ in John 3:15. “That whosoever believeth in Him, should not perish but HAVE eternal life.” You can have peace and joy today and know all your sins forgiven. Rely on Christ, who finished the work at Calvary. Receive the Lord Jesus Christ as your Saviour and HAVE eternal life.

David Netti
For more information write to:
3514 German Church Road
Mansfield, OH 44904
U.S.A.

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