I am a Jewish believer. I came to faith in December of 1990. When I reflect on the way in which I came to accept Y’shua as my personal saviour, that which is greatly worthy of commenting upon is the way in which the Lord uses His servants as a network to minister to the unsaved. In fact over a period of some twenty years, people were, unbeknown to me at the time, doing the work of the Lord in order to bring me to a point of the acceptance of truth, that Y’shua is the Jewish Messiah.
I was raised in an orthodox Jewish family. My primary and secondary schools were attended by predominantly Jewish children. I lived in a Jewish neighbourhood. As such, my contact with Gentiles was restricted, and my understanding was that if you were not Jewish, then you were Christian. My understanding of the basis to Judaism was also limited. I attended Friday night services with my family, as well as celebrating the High Holy days annually. I was not well informed as to the background and meaning of these festivals. I never studied the Old Testament and was unable to follow the services in Hebrew. My religious education was limited to the bible education which I received at school. In high school, these teachings of the Old Testament were all presented by Christian teachers.
In spite of my frugal spiritual insights, I lived in awe of the Lord and strongly desired to live a righteous life. At a very young age I was politicised and fervently rejected the injustices of the political and social systems in our country. I could not reconcile that God, creator of all, could allow and bless such blatant injustices. This was deepened by my rejection of the teaching that as a Jew, I had immediate salvation as I belonged to the Chosen people. I was concerned about the destiny of all those who were not Jewish. In short, I loved people around me, regardless of race or religion.
Having completed my tertiary education, I proceeded to teach history at secondary school level. It was here that I met my husband, a gentile. My family could not reconcile that I could consider marriage outside the faith and refused to meet my future husband. In these circumstances I married without the blessing of my family, who only met and were reconciled with my husband one year later.
As a Jew and a Gentile, we had in common an awe and love of God, but we never spoke about Jesus. However, spiritual issues became more and more pressing as we raised our family of two young sons, Adham and Asher. It was agreed that they would take on the Jewish faith. We raised our children with great passion, using biblical principles and teaching them to pray and acknowledge God in all things. We were also committed to raising children who questioned, sought the truth in all circumstances, and were colour blind.
It was these very principles that became the cornerstone for our salvation. Praise God, both children had Christian teachers at school who taught about Jesus. Both Adham and Asher wanted to know why we did not believe in Jesus. My response was that Jewish people simply do not believe in Jesus. They, having been taught to question, found this unacceptable, and wanted to know why we did not believe in Jesus.
I was now faced with an awesome challenge. I had to seek an answer to this question. I turned to a friend who had for seven years been our neighbour. He was a pastor in a large church. We visited and I raised the question…Ed, I want to know why don’t Jews believe in Jesus?….Ed was very gentle in his approach, he presented me with a pile of books and sent me away to read. So began my journey through the old and new testaments. It was the turning point in my life. The issues which had concerned me about the salvation of all mankind were resolved through an understanding of Jesus and his crucifixion. I was truly astounded by the power and grace of Jesus, I had not even known he was of Jewish descent. I poured over the book of Isaiah and was mortified that these teachings had never been linked to the fulfilment of prophecies in the New Testament.
I was so excited with this discovery, I had such a sense of liberation. It was shortly after this that a Jewish Believer contacted me and invited me to attend a Messianic bible study on a Friday night. This was no coincidence. She was a friend of Ed’s, but we had attended primary and high school together. My husband and children joined me at this Friday meeting…we were blessed to receive anointed teaching on Y’shua…that He is the light of the world. This message was delivered at the time of the celebration of Hannukah, the festival of lights. We were all moved by this wonderful revelation, and as a family prayed to accept Y’shua as our personal saviour. We were all baptised in April of 1991.
I give thanks to the Lord for the way in which He used people to direct our paths, pray for my family and disciple us once we came to faith. He has blessed us so richly as we have served Him. My husband is presently headmaster of a state school which he governs according to Christian principles. My children have strong testimonies for the Lord and both were acknowledged as student leaders in their matric year. I have the privilege of facilitating a student group in a very secular high school environment, and in truth, the Lord is using me as a Jewish believer to bring His word to unbelieving Gentiles.
I pray that all who read this testimony will be encouraged to be bold for the Lord. Share His word with unbelievers, speak of His love and His Grace, proclaim His sovereignty. We live in a time in which increasingly, people are ignorant and in darkness. May the Lord empower you by His spirit to bring the truth and light, to Jew and Gentile. Y’shua is the light of the world.