It seems as though I have always known John 3:16. We had only been in our new home a few months when Father and Mother were both saved through the gospel preached in the City Mission in Erie, PA. It so happened (but I have since learned that nothing really "just happens," for God is back of the scenes and working to bring souls to the knowledge of His truth) that we had moved next door to a couple who gathered unto the name of the Lord alone, and showed real love and concern for their new neighbors.

Learning of my parents' newfound joy in the knowledge and assurance of salvation, they suggested that a servant of the Lord they knew would be happy to come to our house and help explain the Bible. This met with an immediate positive response. The servant of the Lord came. The result was that weekly meetings were held in our home for nearly a year. He used the "Chart of the Ages: From Eternity to Eternity." I remember sitting on the steps, for invariably quite a few others who were blessed, came to the meetings. Dad always had a list of questions, but week by week, all these were answered by the unfolding of the Word by the Lord's servant.

We started going to the assembly meetings and I remember being put into a Sunday school class for six year olds. My teacher was a very tender-hearted man whose love for the Lord and for his class was unmistakable. He could never finish a lesson about Jesus and His love without tears streaming down his face. Now, it was in that class I learned John 3:16, and I don't remember any other verse I must have learned.

After about six months attending the meetings, Dad and Mom started to remember the Lord in the Breaking of Bread. A new life really began in our home. Friends and relatives who came to visit soon found out that Wednesday and Friday were prayer meeting and Bible study nights. The entire Lord's day was filled with Breaking of Bread, Sunday school and evening gospel meeting. And those gospel meetings! What effect they had upon me, especially when the truth of the second coming of Christ was presented with words such as these: "If you are not saved, you will be left behind for judgment. Your mother and father will be gone to be with the Lord as well as all the saved ones." I heard this message for three years with deepening effect, thank God, for He gave me many opportunities.

At last, however, at the age of nine, I could no longer remain the same. Coming home from gospel meeting I could not sleep and called for Mother to come to my room. Never will I forget her kneeling by my bed. She simply said, "Donald, you know John 3:16 don't you?" Oh, how well I knew it! And I replied, "Yes, but I am still not saved." It was then she wisely said, "Just say the verse word by word after me, and put your name in the word 'whosoever' when it comes." Hesitatingly I did this, and when I had finished, the truth of what I had known in my memory reached my heart and I knew through John 3:16 that I was saved. God loved me and gave His Son for me; I simply believed and received everlasting life and would not be left behind when Jesus came.

Since then, the beauty and power of John 3:16 has had an increasing charm to my soul. Through the many years since then, I have seen its power in bringing many to the knowledge and assurance of eternal life through its message. It is still God's power to salvation to everyone who will accept God's only-begotten Son as Saviour and Lord. Is He yours?