Testimony of Ray Marchetti
Testimony of Ray Marchetti
Good morning. My name is Ray Marchetti. I am 47 years old and moved here to Dutchess County 15 years ago from lower Westchester. I am married 25 years and have three girls ages 23, 21 & 16.
As a child I would lie awake at night thinking if I would die there would be nothing afterwards, just darkness. That fear would grip me greatly.
As a young boy I was brought up in the Roman Catholic faith. When going to church I would go through the motions not really caring or knowing what I was doing. I knew there was a God, and I had heard about Jesus, but I never put the two together.
As I got older and got married and had children, I would have my kids go to the CCD classes to further them along in the faith I wasn’t ever sure about or cared about. I knew nothing about what God said about sin. I lived my life the way I wanted just for me. I thought that to get to heaven I just had to be good and that pretty much if you were, you were in.
On 9/7/96 my friend, who was only 42, was killed in a car accident and he left behind 3 young boys and wife helpless. I was so mad at God. How could He take my friend from them and me? That is when I began to ask questions.
At this point I was going to a psychic so they could tell me where he was. But God had other plans. I have a Christian friend named Jimmy. He guided me to God’s word and shared with me that the answers are in God’s word. Since I had little understanding, I had a million questions. So every week he would sit down with me and try to answer my questions from God’s word.
Through years of reading God’s word I realized that I was a sinner, but I still only felt worldly sorrow. It was not until a few years ago when I was coming home from work I would listen to a show called The Way of the Master. They followed Jesus’ teaching and it showed me my sin was purely against God and God alone. The Ten Commandments revealed His perfect nature showing me how sinful I was. I learned that what I needed to do to be saved was repent and put my trust in the savior, the Lord Jesus, and that I must be born again and die to self and live for Jesus. He paid my fine on the cross so I was free to go out and spread the gospel. I felt that need to share it with everyone I met. Ephesians 2:8-9 - "For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, [it is] the gift of God; not as a result of works, that no one should boast."
