A Jew Finds Jesus

by Stan T.

I was 50 and my wife and I had it made. I had two fantastic daughters, a 6,000-square-foot house, four BMWs and a country-club membership. So why did I want to die? My daughter, Judy, a student at Boston University, called and told me she had accepted Jesus as her Messiah and Lord.

The Jew and the Christian

‘Judy, you are Jewish,’ I kept saying. ‘You can’t believe in Jesus. You can’t go north and south at the same time.’ She argued that Jews have always believed in Jesus. When I got off the phone, Ethel and I fell into each other’s arms and wept. How could this happen to us?

To me, the words ‘Christ’ and ‘Christian’ belonged with the Crusades, the Inquisition, the Holocaust and the anti-Semitism I had experienced. I wanted to stay as far away from them as I possibly could.

Now my first-born, Judy, was telling me she had just joined the enemy!

The Jewish Messiah

When Judy came home from college, we argued for 10 days. She explained what had happened to her. Finally, she said, ‘Daddy, would you read the Bible for yourself?’

So the night she left, I picked up the New Testament and began to read the book of Matthew. I expected to find a book of hatred against the Jewish people. I wasn’t prepared for what I found: a book written by a Jew for other Jews about the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob and about the Messiah He sent.

I came to the story of Peter, a Jew, preaching to Cornelius, a Gentile, about the Jewish Messiah. In Acts 10, Peter says, ‘How can this be? The Messiah is for the Jews, not for them.’ I closed the Bible and wondered how Jesus had gone from being a Jews Messiah to a Gentile’s Messiah. I had to know for myself.

Answering hard questions

I had some hard questions to answer. First, did I believe in God? I decided I did.

The second question was harder: Did I believe the Bible was divinely inspired or merely the story of the Jewish people? How could they have been written so long ago and be fulfilled today unless there was truth there?

Third, does the Old Testament predict a coming Messiah? I focused on 40 prophecies. What was the probability of one man fulfilling those prophecies?
I decided to attend an International Convocation of Messianic Jews. I debated with everyone. I was beginning to believe and I was in terrible inner turmoil. The last thing I wanted was to believe that Jesus was our Messiah!

The power of truth

One morning at the conference, I ended a prayer saying, ‘In Jesus name.’ I knew it was true. The power of the truth erupted from me.

I laughed and cried and called my wife. We had decided to each do our own study on the Messiah. My wife told me that both she and our second daughter had also become believers. I wept and wept.

God in His wisdom chose the Jewish people. We tend to think it’s because we’re so special. No, He chose us because we were the least of all nations. In our weakness, we receive His strength. And Jesus is that One, sent by God, to deliver His people. He is the brilliant jewel in the crown of Israel.

Take a look at your life. How would you describe it? Contented? Rushed? Exciting? Stressful? Moving forward? Holding back? For many of us it’s all of the above at times. There are things we dream of doing one day, there are things we wish we could forget. In the Bible, it says that Jesus came to make all things new. What would your life look like if you could start over with a clean slate?

Living with hope

If you are looking for peace, there is a way to balance your life. No one can be perfect, or have a perfect life. But every one of us has the opportunity to experience perfect grace through a personal relationship with God through His Son, Jesus Christ.

You can receive Christ right now by faith through prayer. Praying is simply talking to God. God knows your heart and is not so concerned with your words as He is with the attitude of your heart. Here’s a suggested prayer:

Lord Jesus, I want to know you personally. Thank you for dying on the cross for my sins. I open the door of my life to you and ask you to come in as my Savior and Lord. Take control of my life. Thank you for forgiving my sins and giving me eternal life. Make me the kind of person you want me to be.

Does this prayer express the desire of your heart? You can pray it right now, and Jesus Christ will come into your life, just as He promised.

Is this the life for you?

If you invited Christ into your life, thank God often that He is in your life, that He will never leave you and that you have eternal life. As you learn more about your relationship with God, and how much He loves you, you’ll experience life to the fullest.

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Further Reading:
Hanni Gebauer
Basil Good
God and Science Collide