Teaching Team
Close Call
Jennifer seemed to be an answer to prayer. I met her last spring at a church Passover seder-ish event. Eager to share her story with a kindred spirit (me), she wept and explained how lonely she felt, stranded between Christianity and Judaism. She really thought that she was the only person to both believe in Jesus as Messiah and believe that the Torah was for her. She had never heard of First Fruits of Zion or any other Torah believing organization or person.
The following week she joined our family for Passover, and we bonded in person and on the telephone over the next few months. She was eager to share more of her life and walk and faith with me, and I was eager to share the abundance of resources I'd accumulated during the Torah believing leg of my faith journey (both life experiences and FFOZ materials).
She seemed to soak up whatever I was able to share, and it appeared as if her strong faith in Messiah, which she had received as a young girl, was being renewed. Although I heard her articulate questions that many of us have wrestled with ("if Christianity was wrong about this 'Jewish' stuff, what else might it have gotten wrong...?"), I figured they would pass. But just as quickly as she appeared in my life, she was seriously considering converting to Judaism and renouncing Messiah.
Like a long-time soldier who was finally seeing battle, I found myself trying to explain why we needed to believe that God would require a human sacrifice--his son no less--in order to be in right relationship with him. The need for any sacrifices for that matter? What about the ties to paganism? Who do we pray to?
I failed to adequately answer her plethora of intelligent questions, so I decided to take the indirect route: explaining why I, as someone raised Jewish, so firmly believed in Yeshua. I shared how all the feasts fit together and so clearly tied in with Yeshua. The aspects of Jewish tradition that point to Yeshua. The need for an intercessor so clearly spelled out throughout the Torah. But with every attempt to share my faith, I was bombarded with literally dozens of questions, verses and reasons why Yeshua is not Messiah, and some statements even questioning God's existence.
Near the end of a recent meeting I told her that I was out of answers for her, but I had one resource left: First Fruits of Zion's "To Whom Shall We Go?" audio series. She seemed genuinely interested in it, so I sent her off, praying she'd actually listen to it, since it was designed with someone exactly like her in mind.
We met again two weeks later, and when she placed the CDs on my couch she did so with a big smile and a "thumb's up" sign. She listened to the CDs multiple times, and while she still had some questions, she was again firmly grounded in Messiah, and confident in her place within the people of Israel. Hooray!
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Visitor Feedback:
Excellent, Hope! I'm so glad you didn't jump down her throat or condemn her to eternal hell fire instead of lovingly trying to answer her questions.
It's interesting that her doubts had to be fully formed and she seemed to be moving away from Messiah before she could absorb the answers she needed. Anything less might have left her open to future doubts.
MJ
MJ Belko | July 29, 2009 3:59 PM
Baruch Hashem!!! Thank you for sharing. Now I have to check out the "To Whom Shall We Go" series. :D
Danny Angelo Fluker Jr | July 31, 2009 8:16 PM
I have found it just as common in Messianic circles as I found it to be in Christian ones that people staunchly defend Jesus/Yeshua without understanding him as Savior, personal savior, at all. Having been raised Catholic I knew the stories as well as anyone. Twenty nine years later I "got it" that Jesus was God's gift to me. And about 12 years after that, I finally got it how important it is that Yeshua is literally our Passover Lamb. That blood shed for me, for you, for each and every one of us, is just so precious that only now do I truly begin to understand the term "priceless." But it was a woman way back when I first understood God's Son, the Son of David, who answered all my stupid questions, all my wonderings, how to find answers in the Bible, showed me how much fun it is to trip on through the Bible, to love God's written Word, that set the foundations upon which my entire post pagan life has been. You did right.
Angela | July 31, 2009 10:58 PM
It is wonderful that you really let the spirit lead you with regards to this young woman. It is so sad to see Jewish people who do believe as Christians or whatever (I'm not using the term Chrisitian as a dirty word-so many do these days) come to the understanding that Torah is still valid today and then go on to reject the Messiah. I've also seen those who have come to the knowledge of Yeshua, yet continually doubt. Was He the Way? Have they been decieved yet again? I see them stop reading the New Testiment, start reading other Jewish writings and seem to only focus on the Torah itself. This should not happen. We need the whole word of God.
Jude said, "But you beloved ought to remember the words that were spoken beforehand by the apostles of our Lord Yeshua Messiah," We must have the words of our Master and the words of those who where so near and dear to Him. They were taught directly by Him and we must not forget such writings. I'm afraid this is happening too often.
Mountain Woman | August 1, 2009 10:09 AM
Been there, done that. That particular set of teachings is, in my mind, the most important FFOZ has ever produced. It would have saved me a lot of pain.
Good job on not giving up!
Connie | August 4, 2009 2:48 PM
Hope,
We are to seek the lost and lead them to the Messiah. We must also help those of our own household of faith. I thank God that you were sensitive and loving enough to gently help her with good teaching and prayer.
Debra (R) Tillman | August 5, 2009 7:10 AM
What good news! I am happy I stumbled across this blog post :)
Another helpful resource along the lines of "To Whom Shall We Go" which I have recently come across is the five-volume set of books entitled "Answering Jewish Objections to Jesus" by Dr. Michael L. Brown. They are available at askdrbrown dot org.
Wanda | November 1, 2010 3:58 PM
Hi, Wanda. I love those books, too. They really impacted my faith in Yeshua at a critical time, some years ago. Oh, and he mentions Holy Cow! in a footnote in volume 4, so that's nice, too. :)
Blessings,
Hope
Hope Egan
|
November 1, 2010 5:18 PM