Before I share this amazing true story, which spans 26 years, let me first explain what a mezuzah is.

Three thousand five hundred years ago there was a commandment in the Torah:

“HEAR O ISRAEL: THE LORD OUR GOD, THE LORD IS ONE.
And thou shalt love the LORD thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy might.
And these words, which I command thee this day, shall be upon thy heart
and thou shalt teach them diligently unto thy children,
and shalt talk of them when thou sittest in thy house, and when thou walkest by the way,
and when thou liest down, and when thou risest up.
And thou shalt bind them for a sign upon thy hand,
and they shall be for frontlets between thine eyes.
And thou shalt write them upon the door-posts of thy house, and upon thy gates.”
(Deuteronomy 6:4-9 Jewish Publication Society translation)

The mezuzah, which means ‘doorpost’, is a parchment containing the words from Deuteronomy 6:4-9 (The Shema) and 11:13-21. In order to protect the parchment and the holy words from the elements, decorative cases were made.

The passage from the eleventh chapter of Deuteronomy promises blessing, if we love and serve the LORD, as well as a warning that our hearts not be deceived and we turn and serve other gods. There is a reiteration of Deuteronomy 6:8,9 in the Deuteronomy 11 passage. In Scripture, things are not repeated randomly…rather for emphasis.

Obedience to the LORD’s commandment promised multiplied days (long life) for oneself and one’s children in the Land of Israel. There is also a promise of the LORD’s blessing and protection.

I received a Mezuzah necklace when I was a teenager. It was in the shape of a miniature mezuzah case. Incidentally, while some see such jewelry as a talisman for good luck and prosperity, I wore mine as a reminder of God’s commandments.

Talismen are forbidden in Scripture. It is idolatry to ascribe power to objects.

There is a strong connection between ascribing power to physical objects (idols, talisman, jewelry worn to ward off evil spirits) and demons. Deuteronomy 32:16-17 declares:

“They roused Him to jealousy with strange gods (idols/statues),
With abominations did they provoke Him.
They sacrificed unto demons, no-gods,
Gods that they knew not,
New gods that came up of late,
Which your fathers dreaded not.”

The Hebrew parallelism is clear; the strange gods the Israelites sought after, and sacrificed to, were actually demons.

BACK TO THE STORY:

In 1978, I worked with a man who had previously been a bouncer in the largest nightclub in New York City, and had also been a successful businessman and an anti-Semite. His life was dramatically changed when he found Yeshua as his Savior. He came to love the Jewish people after he read, and re-read, the Bible.

One of our associates, also a believer, apparently had become offended by something we had done. However, we had no idea what that could have been.

The Scripture exhorts us to speedily get reconciled with people.

So, the right thing to do was to call the offended party. As the person lived less than a mile away, I walked over. I spoke with him and his wife, and we cleared the matter.

Then he said, “I’ll drive you to the subway.” I thought to myself: Hey, it’s almost two in the afternoon. Who starts going to work at that hour?

But I let him drive me there.

If he had taken me home instead, I would have walked in on a robbery! Evidently three men had climbed through a sixth floor kitchen window into our basic middle class apartment. There was no fire escape and they got in through a hallway window that was catty-corner to the kitchen window. What they were looking for, I had no idea.

My mother came home to find the place completely ransacked and robbed. She didn’t know where I was.

They took three items…a sentimental, but not particularly valuable, necklace of my mother’s, an unusual gold heart that contained a tree of life with miniature gemstones, and my mezuzah necklace.

Fast forward twenty six years to 2004. The location changes 1,400 miles.

I was making a left turn onto a main road, when I had this thought: Pray for the Jewish people from a particular country, many of whom have come to the States.

I uttered a quick ten second prayer.

Then I thought: That’s an anemic prayer…God’s not going to answer that.

Four days later, my husband met a Jewish man in his late sixties from that country. He took a liking to us and we became friends. He came to love our family and considered himself a member.

Months later, he took us out to dinner for my birthday. He handed me a small box. I thought, what could be inside?

I opened it and gasped!

There was a mezuzah necklace on a beautiful gold chain.

“This had been my grandmother’s in _______,” he said (mentioning the same country whose Jewish population I had prayed for a few months before.) It was obviously very old, as he himself was about seventy.

It wasn’t any mezuzah necklace.

It was the exact replica of what had been stolen twenty six years prior, plus a beautiful gold chain, and was from a place of awesome history!

Every time I wear that necklace I am reminded of the power of prayer, even very short prayers. I also think about God’s promises of restoration.

When we intercede for others, even people and people groups we don’t know personally, we have no idea what is set in motion.

Have you come to a place in your life where you are involved with the most exciting thing in the world? Derek Prince said it best, in the title of his book on prayer: Shaping History Through Prayer and Fasting!

Who are you going to pray for today? What are you going to set in motion?

We’ll find out in eternity…if not before, as I did!

Recently, on a beautiful sunny, breezy day, I was walking into a building and noticed the name tag of the security guard.  The first and middle names were strong German ones.  The last one was my maiden name! (My paternal grandfather was a German Jew).

I asked where he was from.

“East Germany.”

“When did you come here?”

I can’t remember the exact year that he told me, but it was decades ago.

“How did you get out of East Germany, since there was a wall?”, I inquired.

“I escaped before they built the wall.  I was lucky.”

“Well, it really wasn’t luck.  Someone was watching over you.”

I asked him, “How old were you during the Holocaust?”

He then proceeded to tell me that he was eleven when Kristallnacht happened.  For those of you unfamiliar with Kristallnacht, it means “The Night of Glass,” when the Nazis smashed the glass windows of Jewish homes and businesses, and went on a murderous rampage.  It happened November 9-10, 1938.

With a painful look in his eyes, he said, “It was terrible.”

Since we shared a generally Jewish surname, I asked if he was Jewish.

“No.”

Then I asked if he had been a member of Hitler Youth.

“Yes, we had to be.  I was sixteen.  They would have hurt us if we didn’t join.”

Then, in a distinctly broken voice, he shared how he had been in Dresden:  “They bombed us three months before the war ended.”  You may recall from the history of World War II that Dresden was decimated.

“How did you survive?”

“I hid underground for months.  I was lucky.”

Again with “lucky.”  “No, Otto, Someone was watching over you,” I countered.

I then asked if he was Lutheran, which many Germans are.

He replied that he had no faith.  This is not unusual for those who lived through the hell of World War II.

I began to share the Good News with him.  Unlike the nonsense propagated in the 1960’s, that everyone was good and there really wasn’t a thing called ’sin’, it wasn’t hard to introduce into the conversation the idea of evil, because he had seen it firsthand.

I explained that a Holy God must punish sin–there is a cost to sin, a price to be paid.  It just doesn’t go away.

“You know, the Living God, the God of Abraham, was watching over you all these years.”

I could have used the generic, “Lord” or “God”, but I wanted to relate to him that the Almighty, who is in covenant with the Jewish people, had also seen every painful event in the Holocaust.  I wanted Otto to know this merciful God of Abraham had protected him as a young man, even though he had participated in evil against His people.

I didn’t know if he understood the power of the message of the Good News of Messiah…that Messiah paid the price for all of our sins.

“Otto, are you familiar with the Jewish holiday, Passover…it was just celebrated?”

“Yes.”  I was a bit surprised.

I then briefly reviewed the story.  The Israelites had been enslaved in Egypt for 430 years.  God had sent nine plagues into Egypt as judgment.  The final plague, the tenth plague, was the slaying of the first born of the Egyptians.   The Israelites were told through Moses to take a one year old, unblemished male lamb, examine it, slaughter it and place some of the blood on the two doorposts and the lintel of the houses in which they ate it.

For God would send the Angel of Death through the land of Egypt on that night, to strike down all the firstborn there, “both man and beasts.”  Everyone who was in a house with doorposts covered with the blood would be spared, for the LORD said, “When I see the blood I will pass over you.” (Ex. 12:3-7,12-13)

I then explained that in the New Testament Yeshua (Jesus) is called “the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world,” and “Messiah our Passover!”

So here I was, a Jewish believer who had lost relatives in the Holocaust, speaking to a man who had the identical last name as my maiden name…and he had been in Hitler Youth.  How do I communicate?

I knew the love of God was in the whole situation, for who else could set up this type of unexpected encounter?

I asked if he wanted to receive forgiveness for his sins by believing in the Messiah’s finished work on his behalf; the Messiah, I assured him, who even bore all the sins of the Nazis, in His body on the tree.

“No.”  But it was said with gentleness.

Well, I went into my appointment and came out about one hour later.  I saw Otto again.

My husband said to me, “You really need to share this verse of Scripture with him, ‘For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through Him might be saved.’” (John 3:17 KJV)

I told him those words and gave him some literature which he received with thankfulness.  We said goodbye.  I did not sense a shred of hostility from him, only a broken gratefulness.

Do you need His mercy today?  We all do.  The fact that the LORD reaches out to people we would deem ‘unworthy’ proves how gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and of great kindness…” (Joel 2:13 KJV) He is.  That’s a “whole ‘nother discussion” about the redemption of deeply evil people.

We must remember that there is no sin which Yeshua did not bear in His Body on the tree when He provided atonement for us all 2,000 years ago.

None of us really knows the depth of evil in our own hearts.  We are all capable of evil acts. Of course, many evil people already have a seared conscience and are unable to respond to the Gospel.

But the Scripture says, For thou, Lord, art good, and ready to forgive; and plenteous in mercy unto all them that call upon Thee. (Ps. 86:5 KJV)  “And it will come about that whoever calls on the name of the LORD Will be delivered.” (Joel 2:32 NASB)

Even a former Hitler Youth!

When I was a college student, the Messiah of Israel found me, though most believers like to say we found Him.  I really was “minding my own business” when He began to draw me into His magnificent kingdom, the Kingdom of God, on the same day the Yom Kippur War began in 1973.  Five weeks later I received Him–I was alone when the Ruach HaKodesh, the Spirit of God, revealed the truth and love of Messiah, my need for forgiveness, and His provision of atonement.  After I prayed, I literally felt unseen chains break off.  I was free.

I learned there were 400 believers on our campus of 15,000.  There I met a fellow believer named Mike B.

Fast forward thirty years. My husband and I moved to another state.  A neighbor across the street invited us to his fellowship.

While looking at the announcements in the bulletin I noticed that the speaker for the evening was a man named Mike B.  Same name.  Could it be the same person? I didn’t remember Mike as being the “type” to be serving in some far off place.

We returned early that evening to see if it was Mike.  Sure enough, twenty eight years after having last seen him, there he was.  He had served the LORD in Africa and was now in Eastern Europe.

Mike had a hard time recognizing me in my salt and pepper hair!  But we hugged and rejoiced at the miracle that had just taken place.  Neither of us had ever been in that fellowship before, as I had moved to that state the week before, and he had been living in Africa and then Eastern Europe over the past twenty five years.  He had just gotten back to the States  a week or so before, and this was a speaking engagement that had been arranged for him.

We marveled at the encouragement the LORD us–that He has directed every step of our lives, and knows the times and the seasons of our lives.

I met his dynamic wife, Kathy, and asked her to tell me about the transition to Eastern Europe…to the same country and city where my grandmother was from!

“The ground is really hard there.  It’s a predominantly Catholic country.”

She spoke of the profound hardness of heart that she and Mike encountered there to spiritual things.  This is not difficult to understand.  World War II ravaged the entire continent.  The suffering was unspeakable. Volumes have been written on the subject.

I had a thought…should I tell Kathy why there might possibly be hard hearts or resistance to spiritual things?  Or, would it be interpreted as self serving?

I knew I had to speak.  “You know, Kathy, during the war, a large majority of the people of that country strongly participated in helping the Nazis destroy its Jewish population.  There is a covenant in Scripture, the Abrahamic Covenant. (Genesis 12:1-3; Genesis 17)  Here, the LORD promised the Patriarch Abraham three things:  Land, seed, and blessing.  He also stated that “I will bless those who bless you, but I will curse anyone who curses you.”  This covenant and promise was reaffirmed to Isaac in Genesis 26; to Jacob in Genesis chapter 28:13-15; 35:9-12; 48:3-4.  Numbers chapter 24:1-9 is very clear:  “Blessed is everyone who blesses you (Israel), and cursed is everyone who curses you (Israel).”

“I am wondering, Kathy, if the way to have softened ground in the country where you are laboring is to join the other believers in confessing the very serious sin of anti-Semitism that led to hundreds of thousands of Jewish deaths.  Innocent blood has been shed in that land…the innocent blood of God’s covenant people is on the soil and on the hands of their ancestors.  Perhaps there is a curse on the land spoken of in Genesis 12.  In addition, the sin of hatred that generations of people in that country have participated in has opened a big door to the enemy of their souls:  Satan.  The people are indeed in bondage.

Kathy listened.  Kathy agreed.  She left to join her husband.

Then it was time for Mike to give the message.  I was amazed.  He had changed the talk he had planned to give, to one that would address what I had shared with Kathy.  He requested prayer for the nation where he was serving…for a spirit of repentance to be granted for the sins that nation committed against the Jews during WWII.

Reader, does it sound strange that the sins of ancestors can have such an impact a generation or two later?

It is not strange, for the Scripture speaks of the principle of curses going to the third and fourth generation (Deuteronomy 5:9), and the blessing of lovingkindness going to a thousand generations (Deuteronomy 5:10) to those who love Yahweh (The LORD) and keep His commandments.

One of His commandments is to bless, and not curse Israel!

So, what can we get from this true encounter?

1. The Living God, the God of Israel, is in the business of doing wondrous things.  He literally directs steps/paths of those who seek Him.  It is thrilling to be led by the LORD.
2. When hearts are closed to spiritual things we can’t prejudge and just say, “Oh, they’re not open to Biblical truth.” Such people need us to be the intercessors to help “break up fallow ground” (Hosea 10:12), confessing the sins of a nation or city or people group, so other prayers can be heard on high.  Please note that Daniel, Nehemiah, Ezra, Isaiah all cried unto God, saying, “I have sinned, and my fathers/people have sinned.”  No one exists alone spiritually.  Sin in our lives affects others, including a nation’s destiny.
3. Anti-Semitism is not just a current topic with political implications.  The spiritual ramifications for hating the Jewish people are borne out in history–in nations, as well as, in individual lives.

Dare I ask if you come from a heritage of hate, a heritage of specifically hating the Jewish people?  If so, confess the sins of your ancestors and any residual anti-Semitism that may exist in your heart.  This may be a key to possible breakthrough in your own life.

Shalom!

It was an hour before sundown when Passover would begin this year.  I still needed a few items for our Seder.  For those of you who are unfamiliar with a Seder, “seder” is Hebrew for “order”.  Passover has been observed continuously by the Jewish people throughout the world for approximately the past 3500 years.  The modern seder involves the recounting of the Exodus story, including the essential elements of bitter herbs representing the bitterness of slavery, unleavened bread (matzah), (the bread was unable to rise because the Israelites had to leave Egypt in haste), and the shank bone of the lamb, symbolizing the slain Passover lamb, described below.

The Feast of Passover is an eight day long feast that the Jewish people were commanded to observe throughout their generations (Exodus 12:7).  We learn of the history of the Israelites’ enslavement, leading up to their deliverance,  in Exodus chapters 1-11.  Please note that the command to observe this as a perpetual statute was given before the giving of the Law (also known as “The Torah” or “instruction”) found in Exodus chapters 19 and 20, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy.

Back to my true story.

I went to the dairy aisle to get cheese, as I thought I could make “Matzah pizza” (only unleavened bread is to be eaten during the eight days of Passover).  There was a woman pushing a cart loaded to the brim with frozen pizzas.  I thought, “Well, I know she’s not Jewish and certainly not observing Passover.”

Then I heard her literally crying to someone on her cellphone.  “This is the first time in all my years that I haven’t had a Seder.”  The woman was about seventy years old.

I waited until she completed her call and said, “I’m sorry, but I overheard what you said about not having a Seder.”

She explained that she was visiting from another country.  She had just had the flu.  Her husband, a Holocaust survivor, was a doctor who was back home with his medical practice.  There was really no one to join her here.

We started to chat.  I empathized with her plight of loneliness, particularly during a significant holy day.  I thought about having her to my home, but she was still a bit sick, and I was a bit hesitant to expose my husband and me to her illness.

“You know, I have been in the same situation, Sylvia.”

I tried to comfort her that the same One who delivered our people from bondage is near to her broken heart. (Psalm 34:18)  She continued weeping and wiping her tears.

I then began to talk to her about the primary significance of Passover.

“You know, Sylvia, it’s not just about the Seder.  It’s about the fact that the deliverance of our people was real. Consider what the God of Israel required for such deliverance and for the sparing of the firstborn son of each family…blood upon the door!  He said, “‘For I will go through the land of Egypt on that night, and will strike down all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, both man and beast; and against all the gods of Egypt I will execute judgments–I am the LORD.  ‘The blood shall be a sign for you on the houses where you live; and when I see the blood I will pass over you, and no plague will befall you to destroy you when I strike the land of Egypt.” (Ex. 12:12-13)

We decided to exchange phone numbers.  I happened to have some literature in my purse entitled, “How would you recognize the Messiah?”  The graphics on it showed a large fingerprint, for indeed there are many clues in the Hebrew Scriptures describing the Messiah’s birth, life, purpose, death, burial, resurrection.

Sylvia then said two things that startled me.  She asked, “Have you ever read the Zion Chronicles?”

I replied, “Oh, the historical novel series by Bodie Thoene?  No, but I bought one of those books as a gift for someone.  I know they cover the period from WWII to the establishment of the modern State of Israel.”

Sylvia, amazed that I had heard of the series, said these words:  “Well, I read all of them.  Afterward, I was thinking of converting.”  Those were her words!  Implied in the word “converting” was her impression that she had to leave her Jewish heritage and adopt a new one.  The Biblical usage of the term, “to convert” really means “repent” ( “t’shuvah (Biblical Hebrew–’to literally turn around’).  It applies to both Jewish people and Gentiles, for all people need to have a change of heart with respect to who the Messiah is;  and how they can become rightly related to a Holy God.  As God Himself has said through the Prophet Isaiah:

“Let the wicked forsake his way
And the unrighteous man his thoughts;
And let him return to the LORD,
And He will have compassion on him,
And to our God,
For He will abundantly pardon.” (Isaiah 55:7)

So, though Sylvia obviously thought she would have to switch “religions”, actually she needed to discover that the “converting” she considered is actually the universal need for rebellious mankind to “turn” from their wicked, sinful ways, and “return” to a Holy, sinless God, and receive salvation through the precious, sacrificial blood of the pure and spotless Lamb of God — the Messiah of both Israel and the whole world.

To my surprise, she then added, “And who is this pastor…?”  She couldn’t remember his name.
I suggested she might be speaking of the very pro-Israel Pastor John Hagee.

“Yes, that’s him!”, she exclaimed.  “My husband and I watch him every week!”

Well, the ground of her heart was prepared.  I told her, “You weren’t able to have a seder tonight, but God sent a Jewish believer in Messiah to tell you about The Passover Lamb.  Do you know that Yeshua of Nazareth was called the Lamb of God (John 1:29) and The Passover Lamb in the New Testament ( 1 Corinthians 5: 7)?

She did not.  I explained the prophetic significance, how the blood on the door of the Israelites’ homes protecting their firstborn sons relates prophetically to the blood of Messiah protecting us from the consequence of our sin — eternal separation from the Holy One of Israel.

She understood.  She was smiling.

She remarked, “This is amazing.  I was crying before, but now I am not sad anymore.  Thank you.”

I told her, “Don’t thank me, thank the One who arranged this meeting, knowing your loneliness, sadness and frustration…He’s the same one that planned the deliverance of the Israelites, and whose eye has been upon you, and who has sought to comfort and encourage you with His personal love.”

We planned to get together before she returned to her country.  I thought I would simply give her some of my Prophetic Prints and that we would chat for ten minutes.

We met the next weekend.  I brought an Isaiah chapter 53 print, matted in her favorite color – blue, and these other prints:  “The Lord is near to the brokenhearted and saves those crushed in spirit.“  (Psalm 34:18), “A Father of the fatherless is God in His holy habitation.” (Psalm 68:5).  The latter print was particularly appropriate for her husband, about whom she had previously spoken.

“My husband lost his dad during the Holocaust.  His father was killed by the Nazis.  When my husband was thirteen, he was forced to board a cattle car to Auschwicz.  Someone told him and his family to move to the last car.  When the train pulled out, the last car remained; someone had detached it from the rest of the train!!

Then Sylvia continued, “I was three when my father died.  My mom was left to raise many children alone.”

So the print was obviously appropriate.

The ten minute conversation turned into two and a half hours, as we sat on the bench outside the grocery store where we had originally met.  She shared her amazing history.  She grew up in a place where I did not even think any Jewish people lived.  Her family was part of a small, thriving Jewish community there.  I also learned that her mother and my grandmother were from the same city in Eastern Europe.  Her history was richly woven, with much pain and much blessing.  There was interaction between her family and the non-Jewish neighbors.  After her mother had been orphaned, a little non-Jewish girl had compassion on her; upon seeing her difficult situation, she loaned Sylvia’s mom her school books overnight.  The two remained friends into their eighties.  The woman’s son later became famous in that country.

I also learned that Sylvia had been a scientist. A searching one at that!

Finally, she wanted to know how I prayed.  I found this interesting.

“Do you just pray the Shema?”  (“Hear, O Israel! The LORD is our God, the LORD is one!” – Deut. 6:4), she inquired.

I explained the life of prayer. I don’t pray rote prayers.  I talk with Abba, the Heavenly Father.  I pour out my heart to Him about everything and anything…at any time, in any place!

Then we got back to the Passover.

“Sylvia, remember we spoke about the Passover lamb’s blood protecting the Israelite firstborn son?  Eternal life depends on believing what THE Passover Lamb did for you two thousand years ago on the tree (1 Peter 1:17-20; 2:24).  Even as it says in Exodus 13:8, “You shall tell your son on that day, saying, ‘It is because of what the LORD did for me when I came out of Egypt‘.”

“Would you like to receive Him now?”

“I’m not ready.”

“I respect that.”

It turns out she just thought of sin as the biggies:  Murder, adultery, theft–which she had not committed.  She did not understand that we are accountable for sins of the spirit:  Hatred, coveting, bitterness, etc.  If we don’t see that we have the sickness of sin, we certainly won’t seek to have the Great Physician’s remedy for this sickness.  In other words, why seek a savior if we don’t think we need to be delivered from anything?

Once that was explained, it seemed like a light went on.

Sylvia, our hearts lie open before Him to whom we will have to give an account (Acts 17:30-31).

“Ooooh, now I understand.”

But she was not yet ready to pray.  That’s OK, because no one can make this life changing decision for another.  We must individually understand, and be convicted of the awfulness of sin, and the awfulness of eternal separation from a Holy God.  A parent can’t do this transaction for a child, a husband can’t do this for a wife, and a friend can’t do this for a friend.

That is uniquely the role of the Ruach HaKodesh (The Holy Spirit) — to “convict the world concerning sin and righteousness and judgment.”  (John 16:8)

She still wanted to ponder the truths I had shared.  She mentioned her interest in the Book of Revelation, which addresses events in the last days.  I ”just so happened” to have a copy of the Book of Revelation on CD in my purse and gave it to her.  She was amazed!

We parted as friends.  Sylvia will be back here in a few months.  She volunteered her home address and phone number, and asked that we keep in touch.

I just love watching the LORD at work, drawing people to Himself…designing appointments that are so personal to the one is ordained to hear the Good News.  That’s the business He’s in!  And, the Messiah told us to pray and ask that more laborers be sent into fields (of people) to gather in the harvest.  The hour is very late.

*Image courtesy of datafox from Wikipedia Commons. Image was resized to 250×300 pixels.

We were in a Walmart Superstore by the dairy section.
My husband remarked, “This yogurt has 45 grams of sugar. That’s a lot of sugar!”

A heavy set man chimed in, “Hey, in three hundred years it won’t mean a hill of beans.”

I reflected on his answer and quietly prayed to the LORD.  What can I say to him?
I asked him his name and spiritual background.

“Peter.  I’m Catholic.”  He intellectually knew the facts about Yeshua–you know, “He died for our sins…”, but I did not sense there was a heart commitment.

How could I reach this man?

He had just dismissed the conversation with a quick and easy answer by reciting what he remembered from his childhood religious training. Then a thought came to my mind that I knew could help me demonstrate how urgent and relevant the Gospel was for him at that moment.

“Have you ever had a lawsuit, Peter?”

“Yes, I am actually having issues with my divorce and an old injury.”

I followed with the question, “Have you ever heard of pre-paid legal?  You know it’s a service where you pay about a hundred dollars a year and if you have some minor situation, or need a lawyer’s letter, they help you.”

“Yeah, I’ve heard of it.”

Peter, which do you prefer–representing yourself or having an attorney represent you?”

Then I quoted what the Apostle John wrote about in his first letter (1 John).
“My little children, I am writing these things to you so that you may not sin.  And if anyone sins, we have an Advocate with the Father, Yeshua (Jesus) the Messiah, the righteous.”  (1 John chapter 2, verse 1)

I told him that the word “advocate” actually meant “attorney”.

“You know Peter, some day you will have an appointment in God’s court.  You will be standing before a holy and just Judge.  That Judge will have reviewed your life and cited all you have done–good and bad.  He says that “the penalty of sin is death” (Romans 5:8), that is, separation from God forever.

What I’m telling you about is The Pre-Paid Eternal Legal Service.  You sign up to have the legal services of the Attorney who knows all about you and wants to represent you before the Judge.  He not only wants to represent you before the Judge, but He already paid what you owed when you sinned against the One who is Master of the Universe. And besides, he doesn’t even charge you a fee, since He already paid for it two thousand years ago when He gave His life a ransom for many. (Matthew chapter 20, verse 28)

Or, you can come to the Judge on your own merits.”

Peter “got” the analogy.

I asked, “Would you like to pray now, acknowledging that when you come before a Holy God, you want Yeshua the Messiah to be your attorney.  That he already paid your debt for sin in full, and will forever represent you?  That you can then know for certain that you have eternal life and forgiveness through the Messiah?”

“No!”, he replied.

“Would you mind if we prayed for you?”, I persisted, knowing that this man’s eternal destiny was at stake.

“No!”, he said calmly.

So my husband and I prayed for him…for his family and his physical ailments.  He thanked us and we went our separate ways.
We occasionally prayed for him after that.

Several months later I bumped into him in the same Walmart.

He said, “Hey, I went home and prayed to receive the LORD that same day!”

I sent him a Bible and “The LORD is Near to the Brokenhearted” Prophetic Print because he truly was a man with heartache.

Peter will never have this appointment in Court:  The Great White Throne Judgment mentioned in Revelation chapter 20 verses 11 -15:

“Then I saw a great white throne and Him who sat upon it, from whose presence earth and heaven fled away, and no place was found for them.  And I saw the dead, the great and the small, standing before the throne, and books were opened; and another book was opened, which is the book of life; and the dead were judged from the things which were written in the books, according to their deeds. And the sea gave up the dead which were in it, and death and Hades gave up the dead which were in them, and they were judged, every one of them according to their deeds. Then death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire.  This is the second death, the lake of fire.  And if anyone’s name was not found written in the book of life, he was thrown into the lake of fire.”

Are you scheduled for your day in Court…or has that appointment been erased by your having signed up for Messiah’s Pre-Paid Eternal Legal Service?

If you, like Peter, would like to know for certain that you are not scheduled for judgment, that the penalty for your sins is already “covered”, here’s what to do:

1. Speak to the Creator.  His name is Yahveh…the God of Israel…the God of the Bible.  The call is free!
2. Agree with Him that you deserve to be judged for actions, thoughts and/or words that you have done that have violated His law.
3. Tell him about those actions, thoughts and/or words.  This is what the word “confession” means:  “to agree with”; you agree with Him that these things violated His Holy standard and are worthy of judgment. Reviewing the 10 Commandments may help jog your memory. (See Exodus Chapter 20 verses 1-17)
4. Acknowledge your rebellion toward Him and that in many respects you did not realize that in HIM you live, and move, and have your being.
5. Believe that Yeshua the Messiah, loved you so much that He gave His sinless life for you.  Acknowledge that His work alone, not your good deeds, are sufficient to soothe a Holy God, who, though HE IS LOVE, must punish sin.
6. In prayer, receive Messiah Yeshua into your life and heart.  (Say audibly:  “Messiah Yeshua, I believe you died for my sins and I receive you now into my life and heart”)
7. Tell someone else what happened.  For it is written in Romans chapter 10, verse 9 – 13:  “that if you confess with your mouth Yeshua as Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved; for with the heart a person believes, resulting in righteousness, and with the mouth he confesses, resulting in salvation.  For the Scripture says,  “WHOEVER BELIEVES IN HIM WILL NOT BE DISAPPOINTED.”  For there is no distinction between Jew and Greek; for the same Lord is Lord of all, abounding in riches for all who call on Him; for “WHOEVER WILL CALL ON THE NAME OF THE LORD (YAHVEH) WILL BE SAVED.”

Several years ago we were moving and did not want to keep a treadmill.  So we placed an ad in the local newspaper.  We got a call from a German man who had slurred speech.  Evidently he had had a stroke, so his wife got on the phone to complete the call.  They wanted to see the treadmill and said they would come over.

They had given me their last name, a long German one.  It complemented their pronounced German accent.  I wondered, “What is their feeling toward Jews?”  You see, in the nineteen eighties I had been introduced to a friend of a friend, who after speaking with me a while, confided, “My dad is a Nazi.”  Thus, I was a bit wary.

This older couple came to our home.  I don’t know why the wife, out of the blue, began to mention Jesus as a master.  I surmised she was into New Age thinking.  I spoke about deception; that people are searching for truth, and in their openness open themselves up to lies.  I explained that the true Jesus, Yeshua, was not a founder of a religion, or a means to some form of peace, but was the One who proved to be the Messiah and Savior of the world, by fulfilling the prophecies of the Hebrew Scriptures, rising from the dead, and afterward appearing to more than five hundred people; clearly He has been setting millions of people free from bondage over the past two millennia.  He is the Prince of Peace, not merely the means to peace.

Then she told me her story.  She was Jewish and was one year old when the Nazis came into power.  She had been hidden in a subway for an entire year as an infant!  I began to cry because of the pain she related.  I also felt badly because I had presumed. I had been wrong.

Her heartache caused her to search for meaning.  Unfortunately, her vulnerability emotionally and spiritually drew her into a pit–the pit of deception.

We spent four hours talking.  It was a profound time.  I had the privilege of telling them about the Messiah, who heals the brokenhearted and bore our sins in His body, on the tree.  I told them Messiah surely bore their griefs and carried their sorrows. He carried all the sorrows of the Holocaust.   What love, what compassion.  But there is even more amazing thing to contemplate:  That Messiah bore the profound evil that every Nazi committed against the Jews and all humanity…”He died once for ALL, the just for the unjust to bring us to God.”

I gave her a biography I had just read about a Jewish doctor who likewise learned not to prematurely judge people.  During the Holocaust this doctor had a very moving experience.   While in a monastery to which he fled after escaping Sobibor, a concentration camp, he masqueraded as a Catholic for several months.  He finally went to confession and told the priest.  To his great surprise and comfort, the priest led him in the Shema, in Hebrew! (Shema Yisrael Adonai Eloheinu, Adonai Echad–Hear, O Israel, The LORD our God the LORD is one.)  The priest had suspected all along that the doctor was Jewish!   The doctor never expected this Polish priest would have a special love for the Jewish people!

Back to the treadmill story:  I did not expect that the potential buyer for my treadmill was a Holocaust survivor.  I also did not expect to hear her German Gentile husband  speak of his deep love and compassion for the Jewish people, which he did that day.

There are times we simply judge situations too quickly and do not  know to whom we are talking. The LORD is leading us in paths of righteousness for His name’s sake, and everyday events are the context for His gaining glory!

Well, the couple bought the treadmill and we drove thirty miles to get it to their home.  We set it up.  We prayed together.

We had touched history, and the God of all comfort had touched each of us!

How to get off the treadmill of searching here and there for peace and truth and meaning, and get onto the sure road of life:

1. Speak to the Creator.  His name is Yahveh…the God of Israel…the God of the Bible.  The call is free!
2. Agree with Him that you deserve to be judged for actions, thoughts and/or words that you have done that have violated His law.
3. Tell him about those actions, thoughts and/or words.  This is what the word “confession” means:  “to agree with”; you agree with Him that these things violated His Holy standard and are worthy of judgment. Reviewing the 10 Commandments may help jog your memory. (See Exodus Chapter 20 verses 1-17)
4. The first commandment says, “I am the LORD, you shall have no other gods before me.”  Tell Him about other gods–false religions or other types of idols you may have had in your life.
5. Acknowledge your rebellion toward Him and that in many respects you did not realize that in HIM you live, and move, and have your being.
6. Believe that Yeshua the Messiah, loved you so much that He gave His sinless life for you.  Acknowledge that His work alone, not your good deeds, are sufficient to soothe a Holy God, who, though HE IS LOVE, must punish sin.
7. In prayer, receive Messiah Yeshua into your life and heart.  (Say audibly:  “Messiah Yeshua, I believe You died for my sins,(Your death atoned for my sins), and I receive You now into my life and heart”)
8. Tell someone else what happened.  For it is written in Romans chapter 10, verse 9 – 13:  “that if you confess with your mouth Yeshua as Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved; for with the heart a person believes, resulting in righteousness, and with the mouth he confesses, resulting in salvation.  For the Scripture says,  “WHOEVER BELIEVES IN HIM WILL NOT BE DISAPPOINTED.”  For there is no distinction between Jew and Greek; for the same Lord is Lord of all, abounding in riches for all who call on Him; for “WHOEVER WILL CALL ON THE NAME OF THE LORD (YAHVEH) WILL BE SAVED.”

*Picture above is of the Sobibor Railway Station. Picture from the Wikipedia Commons, courtesy of Jacques Lahitte.

We recently went to a wedding out of state.  We prayed that the trip would be a blessing and that we would be used by the Living God to touch lives.

While traveling from the wedding ceremony to the reception, we passed a church called Mars Hill Baptist Church.

I commented to my husband, “I really love how Rav Shaul (The Apostle Paul) gave us a plan for how to communicate with people who have no knowledge of the Bible or the God of the Bible.  Paul addressed pagan Greeks in Athens at Mars Hill (the Areopagus–’Hill or Ares’, the god of war) in the Book of Acts chapter 17.  While we drove, I opened my Bible to Acts and outlined the principles Paul delineated in sharing the truth with people who were totally disconnected from Judeo or Judeo-Christian thought.

Here’s what I told my husband.  First, please read what I told my husband; then see how, later that evening, the Chinese waiter we met found great fortune!

Acts 17:16-23:  A Summary

Paul was in Athens waiting for his companions, Silas and Timothy.  The Scripture says that “…his spirit was being provoked within him as he was observing the city full of idols.”  He was reasoning in the synagogue with the Jews and the God-fearing Gentiles, and in the market place every day. Epicurean and Stoic philosophers were conversing with him and saying, “What would this idle babbler wish to say?”  Others, “He seems to be a proclaimer of strange deities,” — because he was preaching Yeshua (Ieosus in Greek, Jesus in English) and the resurrection.”

They brought Paul to the Areopagus (the Hill of Ares, the Greek god of war) wanting to know what this new teaching was.  They told Paul he was “bringing some strange things to our (their) ears; so we (they) want to know what these things mean.”  So Paul stood in the midst of the Areopagus and said, “Men of Athens, I observe that you are very religious in all respects.  For while I was passing through and examining the objects of your worship, I also found an altar with this inscription, “TO AN UNKNOWN GOD.’  Therefore, what you worship in ignorance, this I proclaim to you.”

Paul’s Style and Wisdom In Communicating

• First, his radar equipment was on — “his spirit was being provoked within him as he was observing a city full of idols.”  Are you provoked when people are deceived — spending their time, talent, energies & money worshipping idols/false dreams/false gods, etc.?
• Then, he built a bridge. He acknowledged what was important to these people and their culture:  Religion.
• He spoke after studying their interests and told them that he checked out what was important to them (“examining the objects of your worship.”)
• He did not shrink back though he was with “sophisticated” thinkers: Epicurean and Stoic philosophers — knowing that the Truth of the Word, the Gospel, is stronger than the most sophisticated or arrogant thoughts of man.
• He also did not take offense and get sidetracked by their nasty words, having been called an “idle babbler”.  Instead, he had a spirit of boldness, stood in the midst of this famous place and began to speak.

The Principles (Acts 17: 24-31)

• Paul distinguishes the God of Scripture from their gods:
  1. He lays the foundation that God created the heavens and earth and He is in charge!: “There is a God who made the world and all things in it.  He is Lord of heaven and earth.”
  2. This God is different than their gods for He does not dwell in temples made with hands.
  3. This God does not have needs (as opposed to pagan gods which need to rest, be fed, be fashioned and be fastened down!
  4. This God is not provincial:  He gives to all people life and breath and all things.
• Paul discusses how this God relates to them
  1. God made every nation of mankind from one man, establishing the unity amongst us…we are all related! (And, as he states a bit later, we all need to repent or we each will face judgment.)
  2. God determines appointed times and boundaries of their habitation.  These are not random boundaries, neither is this determination for random purposes, but in order “that people would seek Him if they might grope for Him.”
• Paul states mega-truths about God’s relationship to people:
  • God is not far from each one of us — no matter what our nationality or thinking system is!
  • In HIM we live, move, and have our being (exist).  Every breath comes from Him.  We are not our “own person”.
• Paul relates truth to their own Athenian experience to build an intellectual bridge:
  • “Even as some of your own poets have said, “For we also are His children.”
• Paul builds on their experience to distinguish truth from pagan thought:
  • “Being children of God we ought not to think that the Divine Nature is like gold or silver or stone, an image formed by the art or thought of man.”
• Paul moves into the principles of the Gospel:  People will give an account for their lives and must repent
  • “Therefore having overlooked the times of ignorance, God is now declaring to men that all people everywhere should repent.”
• Paul declares that judgment is coming:
  • “He has fixed a day in which He will judge the inhabited earth in righteousness.”
• Paul reveals who the Judge is:
  • “…He will judge the inhabited earth in righteousness through a Man whom He has appointed.
• Paul proves why the Judge has authority to judge: The Fact of the Resurrection
  • “..having furnished proof to all men by raising Him from the dead.”

Some people, upon hearing about the resurrection of this Judge from the dead, sneered.  Some wanted to hear more.  Paul left.  He didn’t beg people.  He didn’t argue.  He also did not want to engage in fruitless conversation where people are “forever learning and NEVER coming to a knowledge of the truth.”

The Chinese Waiter

A few hours after the wedding reception we got hungry.  The weather was cold and damp.  Chinese food with hot Chinese tea sounded great.
We found a restaurant close by, went in, and ordered.  We asked for chopsticks.  I know about five or six Chinese words, and said, “thank you” in Chinese.  The waiter asked where I learned how to use chopsticks and the few Chinese expressions.  I shared that I have had Chinese friends since high school.

“Where are you from?” I asked.
“Beijing.  But, I lived in Chinatown in NY for a little while.”

“What is your religious background?”
“My parents are Buddhist.”

(He did not take ownership of that religion.)

“May I share something with you?”

I then took him through as much of Acts 17 as I could remember.  I told him how God loves him and though He spoke the universe into being, created the boundaries for the nations and knows the number of hairs on his head.  The waiter marveled at this truth about God knowing the number of hairs on his head!

“He does?”

“Yes, He does.”

I shared as much of the rest of the above principles as I could remember and gave the waiter opportunity to receive forgiveness from the Judge, because the Judge also paid the penalty for the waiter’s sin.

I don’t do easy believism stuff – “Ask Jesus into your heart.”  Acts 17 and many other passages of Scripture emphasize repentance.  I took him through the Ten Commandments – a good thing to do – because even if people think they haven’t sinned since they haven’t murdered, committed adultery or stolen, who has not lied or secretly coveted what someone else has?  (Commandments 9 and 10!)

The waiter humbly bowed his head, eagerly confessed his sins and believed and confessed Yeshua as his savior.  He kept saying how thankful he was.
We sent him a Chinese New Testament and Psalms, and a Chinese book on apologetics.  When we called him to see how he was doing, he related how grateful he was.

What can we learn from this experience of reading the Scripture and seeing an immediate application?

Don’t categorize or prejudge people.  Don’t assume people aren’t open because they come from a culture whose thought is so radically different from Biblical thought.  Let your spirit be provoked as Paul’s was that people were in bondage to falsehood and would be facing an eternity separated from the Lord of heaven and earth.

You never know what God’s purposes are for you in everyday situations.  So, if you are a believer, remain open to whom the LORD of the Harvest wants to send you on a daily basis.

God’s ways are not ours with respect to whom we think we are equipped to minister.  Remember, Paul was “advancing in Judaism beyond many of his contemporaries among his countrymen, being more extremely zealous for his ancestral traditions. (Galatians 1:13-16)  He was “A Hebrew of Hebrews, as to the Torah (Law), a Pharisee.”…yet with all his sophisticated Jewish learning, the LORD sent him to the Gentiles, to reach out to people who neither knew nor cared about Paul’s intense rabbinic training and knowledge of Judaism.  God’s economy often does not make sense.  Peter, an unlearned (in terms of Judaism, Torah, etc.) fisherman, was made the apostle to the circumcision (Jewish people).
You never know to whom you are talking, or to whom the LORD wants you to speak.

There is a rich harvest for Yahveh’s glory out there.  Yeshua said the fields were white unto harvest.  Therefore, beseech the LORD of the harvest to send laborers into the harvest…even into a Chinese restaurant!

If you are seeking to know the LOVE God has for you and the TRUTH and would like to cancel that “Judgment” appointment:

Perhaps you have searched high and low for “that crazy missing part”, knowing that something is missing in your life.  You may have dabbled in different religions and read all sorts of philosophies (as the Epicureans and Stoics of old – one indulging, hoping to find happiness, the other withholding and living stoically, hoping to find meaning).  Perhaps you have even paid money for self improvement seminars and have come away feeling even emptier.  Please consider what you have just read: that the Scriptures declare that all people have an appointment with the Judge of the whole earth.  Believers in Yeshua had that appointment, but they will never be judged for their sins because the Sinless Messiah was judged two thousand years ago on the tree (cross) for them.  He made atonement for their sins and yours… the difference is they took the offer of forgiveness, love and eternal life.

If you, too, want to clear your conscience, find LOVE that lasts forever, and have everlasting life, then:

1. Speak to the Creator.  His name is Yahveh…the God of Israel…the God of the Bible.  The call is free!
2. Agree with Him that you deserve to be judged for actions, thoughts and/or words that you have done that have violated His law.
3. Tell him about those actions, thoughts and/or words.  This is what the word “confession” means:  “to agree with”; you agree with Him that these things violated His Holy standard and are worthy of judgment.  Reviewing the 10 Commandments may help jog your memory. (See Exodus Chapter 20 verses 1-17)
4. Acknowledge your rebellion toward Him and that in many respects you did not realize that in HIM you live, and move, and have your being.
5. Believe that Yeshua the Messiah, loved you so much that He gave His sinless life for you.  Acknowledge that His work alone, not your good deeds, are sufficient to soothe a Holy God, who, though HE IS LOVE, must punish sin.
6. In prayer, receive Messiah Yeshua into your life and heart.  (Say audibly:  “Messiah Yeshua, I receive you now into my life and heart”)
7. Tell someone else what happened.  For it is written in Romans chapter 10, verse 9 – 13:  “that if you confess with your mouth Yeshua as Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved; for with the heart a person believes, resulting in righteousness, and with the mouth he confesses, resulting in salvation.  For the Scripture says,  “WHOEVER BELIEVES IN HIM WILL NOT BE DISAPPOINTED.”  For there is no distinction between Jew and Greek; for the same Lord is Lord of all, abounding in riches for all who call on Him; for “WHOEVER WILL CALL ON THE NAME OF THE LORD (YAHVEH) WILL BE SAVED.”

The answer is “jugo de manzana”, literally translating to: “Juice from (or of) apple.”

For a great story, please read on…

Several years ago, exhausted and slouched in a chair, I tried my best to be responsive to a family member.  He had just returned from school.  How was school today?  What did you learn in Spanish class?  He said, “We are working on how to say different foods in Spanish.”  I said, “Oh, like jugo de naranja, for orange juice.”  I had remembered a little from several years of high school Spanish.

My mind wandered.  I thought, “How do you say apple juice in Spanish?”  Has that ever happened to you…you know something; it just doesn’t come into your mind?  Thank you middle age!

Well, I decided to take a walk to check the mail.  Our mail was delivered to a central location about three quarters of a mile from the house.  As it was late fall, it was beginning to get dark.  I thought to myself, “You don’t start walking by yourself in the dark.”  I reasoned that I really needed to check the mail and get some exercise.  So I went.

For the first half mile not a soul was around.  I was picking up speed as the sun had set.  Finally I saw a woman walking slowly.  I said a quick hello as I rushed by.  Then in my heart I heard, “Go back and speak with her.”  I turned around and introduced myself.  She was an older woman with a Spanish accent.  She was from Puerto Rico.  She introduced herself and then she told me her last name.  It was German.  I asked her if her husband was also from Puerto Rico.  “No, he is from Germany.”  I made a quick assessment (wrong) that he could be one of those anti-Semites that went to Latin America and other Spanish speaking countries after World War II.

She interrupted my thoughts, “He is a Holocaust survivor.  He was six years old when his mother was sent to Auschwitz.  When she got out five years later and went to retrieve him at the orphanage, he did not recognize her.”

My throat tightened as I tried my best to hold back sobs.  Can you imagine being a mother and not have your child recognize you, particularly after years of devastation, deprivation, and degradation?

We changed topics and began to speak about politics.  I decided not to check the mail.  She said, “Would you like to meet my husband?”  I said, “Sure” and we headed back to her home, which was in the same direction as mine.

When her husband, George, opened the door, I saw a six foot man about seventy years old.  I burst into tears.  I did not see a seventy year old, but a six year old who had been devastated by the Holocaust.

The couple tried to comfort me.  I told them I did not need to be comforted.  I was sharing in the grief, the generational grief that my people have gone through.  I explained in English and Spanish that my tears were because of his pain, which I felt.

Maria then asked if I wanted something to drink.  She asked, “Would you like some apple juice?”  “Apple juice!  By the way, how do you say that in Spanish?”

“Jugo de manzana.”

Then I told them that an hour and a half before I sat tired in a chair thinking about how to say that.  They were amazed.  So was I.

Sometimes we think we are alone in our thoughts.  The Living God knows our thoughts…and showed me He “hears” me…whether I speak, cry, or think!

Three weeks later I came back to their house with the Prophetic Prints.  I gave them their choice.  “Choose as many as you would like.”  George selected “A Father to the Fatherless is God in His Holy Habitation.” (Psalm 68:5)  I insisted that he choose more than a 5 x 7″ print.  He then selected the lithograph, “The Prophetic Regathering of Israel.”

We chatted a little and I began to leave.  Maria walked me to the car.  I knew George was to have another print.  I felt I could not leave the driveway until he was given the framed “The Lord is near to the brokenhearted and saves those crushed in spirit” (Psalm 34:18)  that I had brought.

“Maria, the LORD wants George to have this.”  Maria happily took the framed print, confirming that she knew he was to have it.

I have since bumped into George on several occasions – in the grocery store, on a sidewalk… and at another amazing time which will be in an upcoming post involving another Holocaust survivor!

Please pray for this couple–for the love of God, the healing power of the Word and the Good News of salvation to enter their hearts and lives.  Surely, the LORD sets up these divine appointments with the purpose of showing His tender love and grace, wanting to fulfill what is written in Jeremiah 31:2-3:  “Thus says Yahveh, “The people who survived the sword found grace in the wilderness–Israel, when it went to find its rest.”  The LORD appeared to him from afar, saying, “I have loved you with an everlasting love; therefore I have drawn you with lovingkindness.”

Some twenty years ago while on business in a rural area, we passed a honey farm.  It was about 4:45 in the afternoon.  The owner said he was closing in fifteen minutes.  We got into a nice conversation, having learned that we attended the same university years before.

Ten minutes into the conversation, an orthodox Jewish man and his wife walked onto the farm.  I could not tell from his clothes if he was Orthodox or Hasidic.  He looked at me.  There I was in short sleeves and slacks.  Normally Hasidic men do not speak with women (other than those in their families), let alone one that is not “appropriately” dressed in a long skirt/dress and long sleeves.  Summoning the courage to speak with him, I asked: “Are you Orthodox or Hasidic?”.  He said, “Hasidic.”  I told him that my ancestors were Hasidic and mentioned the family name.  He said, “I just completed the artistic genealogy of that family name!”  “But, beside being an artist, I am also a rabbi”, he added.

Sensing I was in a “divine appointment” with a Hasidic rabbi in the middle of nowhere, I asked what he thought about Messiah.

“Messiah will come in on a white donkey,” he said firmly.  He then added, “But, we do not know when He will come.”

Tears came to my eyes.  The rabbi thought I was in need of his counsel.  I was overcome with emotion because I saw how my steps had been directed in the middle of nowhere to this rabbi, who under normal circumstances, might never have had the chance to hear about the love of God through Messiah Yeshua.

Through my tears I said, “Rabbi, Messiah has come.  His name is Yeshua.”  I then offered the English translation (Jesus), so he did not think I was speaking about a Messiah named “Joshua”.  (Please note that the names Joshua, Hosea and Isaiah all come from the same Hebrew root, and have the meaning “salvation” or “Yah saves”.  Incidentally, when I was growing up, I thought Jesus was his first name, Christ was his last name, and Mr. and Mrs. Christ had a son, Jesus.  ”Christ” is actually the anglicized form of the Greek “Christos”, which means “anointed one”.  This is translated from the Hebrew word for Messiah, “Mashiach”.  In another post I will discuss how Yeshua of Nazareth was so far removed from his Jewish roots after the first century, that many Jewish people could not recognize or embrace Him as one of their own.)

The rabbi was a little taken aback, but was not hostile.  I asked him, “How would you recognize the Messiah when He came?”  Are you aware that there are many prophetic clues in the Hebrew Scriptures that identify Messiah.  For instance, the Hebrew prophet, Micah, (who prophesied in the 700s BC (BCE))(chapter 5 verse 1 (Hebrew Bible; vs. 2 in other translations)) states the where of Messiah’s birth: “But thou, Bethlehem Ephrathah, which art little to be among the thousands of Judah, out of thee shall one come forth unto Me that is to be ruler in Israel; whose goings forth are from of old, from ancient days (literally, ‘eternity’–Hebrew word is “Olam”). The ruler of Israel, was said to be from eternity, and yet was to come out of Bethlehem.  It’s common knowledge that Yeshua was born in Bethlehem.  The Hebrew prophet, Daniel, (chapter 9 verses 24 -27) states the when of Messiah’s coming:  Messiah will be cut off, and then the city and the sanctuary will be destroyed. (summary)  The city is Jerusalem; the sanctuary is the Temple.  Both were destroyed in 70 AD (CE) by the Roman Titus.  Messiah thus had to be “cut off” before 70 AD (CE).  Yeshua was “cut off” in 33 AD (CE).

Back to the story…We spoke for a half hour.  I was able to distill down the main difference between a Messianic Jewish believer in Yeshua, and a Hasid or Orthodox Jew who did not acknowledge Yeshua as the Messiah.  “Basically,” I said, “it breaks down to two things:”

1. I KNOW I have the blood atonement (I know my sins are forgiven and on Yom Kippur every year I don’t have to hope that God forgives me for I have been forgiven completely and forever when I trusted Messiah’s atoning work on my behalf when he was led like a lamb to the slaughter 2000 years ago and died for me, “the Just for the unjust to bring me to God.”) 
2. I also KNOW I have the Ruach HaKodesh, the Spirit of God, living in me. This gift of the Holy Spirit was imparted when thirty five years ago I came into a personal relationship with Yeshua as my Savior and Messiah.

While acknowledging our differences, he then shared what had happened earlier that day:  “My wife took a nap in the afternoon.  About a quarter to five she awakened and insisted we go to the honey farm.  For sixteen years, every summer, we stay at a (Hasidic) camp next door to this farm. In all those years, we have never been to this farm before!”  I replied, “I know that happened because the G-d of Israel loves you and wanted you to hear about Messiah.”  He answered, “Maybe it was to bring you back to Judaism.”  I said, “On the contrary, I know whom I believe…I didn’t find a religion but a person.”

Seven years later I searched and located him.  I sent him one of my Prophetic Regathering of Israel lithographs and a Jeremiah 31 print (these can be seen in our gallery on this site). The latter print contains the words, “Behold, days come saith the LORD, when I will make a new covenant with the House of Israel and the House of Judah, not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day that I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt, which, my covenant, they broke.  But this shall be the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel:  After those days, saith the LORD, I will put my law within them, and write it in their hearts, and will be their God, and they shall be my people.  And they shall teach no more every man his neighbor, and every man his brother, saying, Know the LORD, for they shall all know Me from the least of them to the greatest; for I will forgive their iniquity and I will remember their sin no more.”  (Jeremiah 31:31-34 Jewish Publication Society translation.)  Clearly, the basis of “knowing” the LORD is to have the problem of personal sin dealt with.  The basis of forgiveness is through faith in the atonement provided through the death of Messiah Yeshua.

He responded by sending me a six page letter filled with hostility.  Most of it was not against me personally, but directed against the New Testament and people who believe in that book.  This is not hard to understand.  Please note that the Hasidic Jews have suffered greatly over the past few centuries, with whole populations wiped out in Europe during pogroms and the Holocaust.  Clearly this rabbi grouped the perpetrators of the crimes against our people, who claimed to be “Christians”, with the New Testament.  He never read that Yeshua wept over the Jewish people, as did Rav Shaul (also known as the Apostle Paul) who said “I am telling the truth in Messiah, I am not lying, my conscience testifies with me in the Ruach Hakodesh (Holy Spirit), that I have great sorrow and unceasing grief in my heart For I could wish that I myself were accursed, separated from Messiah for the sake of my brethren, my kinsmen according to the flesh, who are Israelites, to whom belongs the adoption as sons, and the glory and the covenants and the giving of the Law and the Temple service and the promises, whose are the fathers and from whom is the Messiah according to the flesh, who is over all, God blessed forever.”  (Romans 9:1-3)

Readers, I share the same grief.  Pray for the Jewish people, and all people everywhere, to find peace and healing through Messiah.