My name is Tony Ciaramello and this is my testimony of how I came to know the LORD JESUS CHRIST on a personal level. I'm not talking about head knowledge or just knowing who Jesus was, because I knew that and knew what he had done for me, but how I came to BELIEVE! I received the Lord as my Personal Savior on September 17th 1980 at around 9:00 pm.  It’s a day I will never forget because that was the day when the Lord changed my life and I became a new person or as the bible says, BORN AGAIN, BORN ANEW!

The Lord started calling me a few months before that or should I say I acknowledged him calling me, because I believe he is calling all of us everyday.  Some have ears to hear and some just don't.  But I thank God that my ears where open to hear.  So I guess it was some time in July.

I was living life in the fast lane just like the rest of my friends.  And God started calling me.  I wasn't aware of it then but now looking back I see the Grace and Mercy of God calling me to know him on a personal level.

I use to own a small discount store in the town I grew up in. While I was working one day in my store customers started to come in day after day and talk to me about being saved.  I was a little confused because as far as I knew I was a Catholic, I wasn’t the best Catholic, what ever that means. (This is not an assault on the Catholic Church, but this is what happened to me)Well in the Catholic religion you have to do 7 sacraments to make heaven your home and as far as I knew I was working my way because I did all the sacraments thus far that I had to do. But you know something? Deep down inside I did not know  where I would go if I died!  That was a scary thought. Because now I know that the bible says that you can know for sure if your going to heaven or not!

Well these different people started to talk to me. Then more people, then customers that I knew that were nice people started to talk to me about being saved! People I didn't know started talking to me about being saved!  So I started to read the Bible for answers.   I needed to know what they were talking about.   I’ve been going to church all my life and never heard this kind of stuff, being saved, Born Again, being converted etc.... So I kept reading and reading and I started to see in the bible that people had to get saved! People were getting saved all over the place in the bible.  I new I wasn’t saved. I didn’t feel saved! And I didn’t know if I died, if I would go to Heaven or Hell and this bothered me.

One day a lady from the neighborhood came in and asked me if I wanted to go to a bible study, I said no, I was busy that night.  So I kept reading the bible for myself.  The next week she came in again and asked me to go.  I made up some excuse and didn’t go.  It seems there was a bible study on every Thursday night.  She came in for the next few weeks and I said no.  I wasn’t ready for this.

One Thursday I said to my Girl friend which now is my wife, "I feel like I have to go to this Bible study, I don’t really feel like going, but something inside is telling me to go."

So we decided to go.  I took my bible and we went to this couple’s apartment.  We walked in the apartment and automatically I felt uncomfortable.  The Guy who’s apartment we went to was Jim and his wife I went to High School with.  Now I had to be there in front of people I new from years ago.   I felt really out of place and embarassed!

Anyhow we went in and made a little small talk.  They were really nice people!  Then we went into the living room and opened our bibles and the guy Jim started to pray.  It felt weird to hear people pray to God with such faith.   It wasn’t just words but I felt he was talking to someone.

We read the bible for an hour or so.  They showed me in the scriptures where Jesus died for me and that I needed my sins washed away and that there was not one thing that I could do to make myself saved.  I seen from the bible that it didn’t matter if I was baptized or confirmed or made my communion.  None of these things mattered to God, based on his word.  Ephesians 2:8 says: For by Grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: Not of WORKS, lest any man should boast.

So I would be saved not because I observed religious sacraments or anything.  It was just by the GRACE of God.  It was a free GIFT.  They told me that you don’t by a gift for yourself, but someone gives you one.  God gave me Salvation and I had nothing to do about earning it.  It was FREE!!!

They showed me where Jesus said you must be Born Again!   And where Peter said that we are Born Again not of a corruptible seed but of an incorruptible seed.

That sounded good to me.  We read many more scriptures and it started to seem clear to me.  We read scriptures that I read on my own and they were popping off the page at me.

Then after reading for about an hour and like I said they showed me that we all need a savior and we all need to be SAVED, they asked me if I wanted to accept JESUS into my heart and become Born Again like Jesus said, and to know without a shadow of a doubt that I would go to heaven, like it says in 1 John 5:13....That you may know that you have eternal life."  And my answer was SURE! Why not!

I could not think of a reason why I would not want God in my life!!  So they said they would say a prayer and I had to repeat it and that I was not talking to them but to God.  The prayer went something like this:

Father I come to you in JESUS name.  I ask you to forgive me for all my sins and to cleanse me from all unrighteousness.  I believe that JESUS died and rose from the dead. And I ask you to come into my life and make me a new creation and help me to be who you want me to be.  In Jesus name Amen.

After saying that prayer to God the Father and meaning it with all my HEART, WOW I felt brand new, clean as a whistle.  I can’t put into words what had happened to me.  It’s like me trying to tell you what a orange smells like. But the bible says that my spirit was Born Again and that Jesus came into my heart!   It was great!!

Now I Know that I am going to Heaven!  The bible says my Spirit bears witness with His Holy Spirit and you just know!!  I thank my Savior almost Everyday for my Salvation!