Time of Favor

Michael* a Christian friend of mine desired to study prophecies in the Hebrew Scriptures. He invited his Jewish neighbors in his community to participate. To his delight, several of them expressed interest in joining him in his quest for understanding the prophecies. He contacted me to see if I’d be interested in leading their study.

Conversion??

The Jewish men all agreed to having the study, but with the stipulation that I would “not try to convert them.” I could easily understand since I also grew up in a traditional Jewish family. The idea of “converting” is often misunderstood. “Converting” or “becoming a Christian” is understood by most Jewish people as going from being a Jew to becoming a non-Jew, that is, a Gentile.

Intellectual Curiosity

“Conversion” is not understood as a spiritual blessing that results from turning from sin to the Savior. It is considered a national betrayal, in turning from your people’s faith to the opponents’ faith, in a sense turning your back on your Jewish people and your heritage. These men wanted me to be certain that though they were intellectually curious, they had lived too long as Jews to think of changing sides now. And with this in mind, we decided to go ahead and give it a try.

“Unexpectedly Edifying”

During our weekly studies those from my side of the family (Jewish men) posed challenging questions, like: “Why is there anti-Semitism?” “Why is there sin?” Even though those questions might have seemed difficult, and were not part of my prepared studies, they certainly kept our time together even more interesting and often unexpectedly edifying for all involved.

Prayer for Salvation

One Jewish man who attended wrote to me: “We continue to enjoy the Bible study and look forward to it more than any other event in our busy retired life.”

My heart’s desire and prayer to God was and will always be for their salvation.

Yeshua in the Old Testament

I find great comfort in the truth that God’s Word will not return void (Isaiah 55:10). In fact, when Yeshua said in John 5:39, “it is these [Scriptures] that bear witness of Me,” He was referring to the Hebrew Scriptures. As I shared the Scripture and the truth of Messiah, I prayed that the Holy Spirit would speak to their hearts.

Pray for me…

Please pray for me as I continue to teach God’s revelation of Himself and His plan for Jewish people, and all humanity.

“Brethren, my heart’s desire and my prayer to God for them is for their salvation”  (Romans 10:1).

(Name changed to protect the individual’s privacy)