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!

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.

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.”

Last year, my elderly cousin, a Conservative/Orthodox Jewish woman, whom I will call Ida, asked me if there was an afterlife.  She had asked the same question of her rabbi and a pastor at her grandson’s wedding (it was an intermarriage).

Here’s what I wrote to Ida…

It’s always wonderful to speak with you!  I am glad Sam and Angela had a beautiful wedding.

You told me a few weeks ago that you asked your rabbi if there was an afterlife.  Then you told me you also asked the same question of the pastor that officiated at the wedding.

Here’s what the Hebrew Scriptures teach:

When King David had a son with Bathsheba (before Solomon) and that first baby was very ill, King David fasted.  Then the baby died.  Afterward King David ate food.  He said to his servants, “While the child was still alive, I fasted and wept; for I said, ‘Who knows, the L-RD may be gracious to me, that the child may live.’  “But now he has died; why should I fast?  Can I bring him back again?  I will go to him, but he will not return to me.”  (2 Samuel chapter 12 verses 22-23)  King David obviously knew that the baby went somewhere after his death, and after his own death, he would also go there.

Furthermore, in the twelfth chapter of Daniel the Prophet it says, “Now at that time Michael (the archangel who protects Israel), the great prince who stands guard over the sons of your people, will arise.  And there will be a time of distress such as never occurred since there was a nation until that time; and at that time your people, everyone who is found written in the book, will be rescued.  Many of those who sleep in the dust of the ground (i.e. who are dead) will awake, these to everlasting life, but the others to disgrace and everlasting contempt…  Go your way, Daniel, for these words are concealed and sealed up until the end time.  Many will be purged, purified and refined, but the wicked will act wickedly; and none of the wicked will understand, but those who have insight will understand…But as for you, go you way to the end; then you will enter into rest and rise again for your allotted portion at the end of the age.”  (Daniel chapter 12 verses 1,2,9,10,13)

King Solomon wrote in Ecclesiastes 3 verse 11, “…He has also set eternity in their heart…”

Because He has set eternity in your heart, Ida:  That is why you are asking if there is an afterlife.  Generally we are distracted by daily chores, worries, activities, and fulfilling dreams in this life, and rarely, if ever, think about eternal matters.  However, you have asked one of the most important questions that can be asked!  Yes, there is an afterlife.  The issue is:  Will you, according to the Prophet Daniel, spend eternity in the Holy One of Israel’s presence, or in a place of disgrace and everlasting contempt? What is the basis of “rising to everlasting life” vs. everlasting separation from the Living God?

Here is the answer!

Two thousand years ago there were some Jewish siblings: Lazarus, Martha and Mary.  Lazarus was sick.  Yeshua (Jesus) knew about this.  Then Lazarus died.  “Now Bethany was near Jerusalem, about two miles off; and many of the Jews had come to Martha and Mary, to console them concerning their brother.  Martha then said to Yeshua, “Lord, if You had been here, my brother would not have died.  Even now I know that whatever You ask of God, God will give You.”

Yeshua said to her, “Your brother will rise again.”

Martha said to Him, “I know that he will rise again in the resurrection on the last day.”

Yeshua said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life; he who believes in Me will live even if he dies, and everyone who lives and believes in Me will never die.  Do you believe this?”

She said to Him, “Yes, Lord; I have believed that You are the Messiah, the Son of God even He who comes into the world.”  (John chapter 11 verses 18-27)

Then, Yeshua proved who He said He was by raising Lazarus from the dead! 

Also, a young Jewish ruler asked Yeshua, “Rabbi, what must I do that I may obtain eternal life?” (Matthew chapter 19 verse 16)

Clearly, two thousand years ago the idea of eternal life and the kingdom of heaven was part of Jewish thought.  The liberal rabbis of today, who discount the authority of the Scriptures, have dismissed this…possibly because of the agony of the Holocaust and the subsequent feeling of being abandoned by the G-d of Israel.

Nicodemus, the Teacher of Israel, came by night to Yeshua, afraid to be seen by his peers in the Sanhedrin.  After telling him that he must be born from above (born again), Yeshua said, “As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness (Numbers chapter 21 verses 9-21) even so must the Son of Man be lifted up so that whoever believes in Him will have eternal life  (John chapter 3 verse 15)  Yeshua takes an event from Jewish history to explain what He came to do.  You see, fifteen hundred years prior, some Israelites were bitten by vipers and died in the wilderness.  Moses was told to make a bronze serpent and set it on a standard.  “And it came about, that if a serpent bit any man, when he looked to the bronze serpent, he lived.”  Messiah was lifted up on the tree (cross), raised from the dead, and gives eternal life to those who look to (believe in) Him.

Yeshua continues to tell Nicodemus:  “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.“  Truly, truly I say to you, he who hears My word, and believes Him who sent Me, has eternal life and does not come into judgment, but has passed out of death into life.” (John chapter 5 vs. 24)

What is this judgment?

“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, everyone 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 (Revelation chapter 20 verses 11-15)

All people have sinned and fall short of God’s righteous standard.  The composite of all the sins in this world is reflected in a world that is out of control with pain, violence, separation, poverty, injustice, etc.

However, the good news is the Messiah bore our sins in His body on the tree when He purposefully came to provide atonement for us.  His blood atonement covers our sins, just like the Passover lamb’s blood on the lintel of the doorpost spared every Israelite firstborn who came inside the house, on whose doorposts the blood had been applied. (see “Post #1!”)

“For the penalty of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life through Yeshua the Messiah.” (Romans 6:23)  Yeshua is the Passover Lamb who delivers from condemnation, all and only those, who believe in Him.

Ida, The Scriptures are clear that there is no other way to obtain eternal life.

During Hanukkah two thousand years ago, Messiah Yeshua said, as recorded in John chapter 10 verse 18, “No man takes My life, but I lay it down on My own initiative. I have authority to lay it down, and I have authority to take it up again.  This commandment I received from My Father.” So much for the outrageous history of blaming Jews for the killing of Christ. Incidentally, please read Acts 4: 27-28 which clearly states who is indeed responsible, humanly speaking, for His death–”Herod (a convert to Judaism; Pontius Pilate–a Gentile; the Gentiles, and the people of Israel to do whatever Your hand and Your purpose predestined to occur.”  Wow!  The God of Israel predestined the Messiah to be put to death for the sins of all people.

This correlates with what we read in Isaiah chapter 53:  “It pleased Yahveh to crush Him, putting Him to grief; if He would render Himself as a guilt offering, He will see his offspring, He will prolong his days…”  This Messiah would be the guilt offering for Israel and the nations.  He would then see and have his days prolonged, clearly speaking of resurrection!. 

There is a lot here, Ida.  The main thing is the Good News:  The God of Israel loves you and your family.  He is offering you and them eternal life.  But an offer does not take effect until there is an acceptance of that specific offer.  This is a legal transaction resulting in grace and eternal life!  If anyone would come to Him, it must be completely on His terms and not our own! His terms are stated in Romans chapter 10, “That if you confess with your mouth Yeshua is 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 Hebrew Scripture says, ‘Whoever believes in Him will not be disappointed.’”

For thirty four years I have prayed for you, almost daily.  If the nature of life and death; and these issues of eternal life and appearing before the Living God, either on our own merits/good works which are insufficient because they are tainted, or in the merits of Messiah’s perfect work on the tree, weren’t so serious, I wouldn’t be praying for you, nor would I have written you about what you could see as offensive.

I know if you humble yourself and ask the God of Israel if Messiah Yeshua is in fact the means by which you, Ida, can know you have eternal life when you pass from this place of pain...He will show you.

I love you!