WOW! A Jewish Lawyer and Leader in Her Synagogue Turned to Jesus in a Supernatural Way!
I was born in Columbus Ohio, and I'm Jewish. My parents are Jewish, everyone I know in the family, ancestors, are Jewish. And as a matter of fact we were four pretty argumentative little kids and my my mother used to say, 'Can't even get a word in edgewise around here!' And what was funny is that we all grew up to be lawyers and when that happened at one point member she said, 'Well, at least I'm vindicated that I couldn't get a word in edgewise with you guys.'
So I remember with my grandmother in particular. She grew up in the old the old country and anti-semitism was just such a visceral part of the upbringing that she said, 'Now, you're going to school, and it's so Christmas time of year and they're going to do those Christmas songs ... now don't make a big deal about it, but you can't say His name.'
so I went in this bookstore, I was visiting my brother at the time and checking out the New York Times best sellers, and there's this book, 'Rabbi Jesus,' by Bruce Chilton, and I was attracted to the title, because 'Rabbi Jesus' would not be a very common title for a book, at least in my world.
So I picked it up and my brother came over, he says, 'Would you read that book?' And I said, 'You know Alan, come on, you know I'm an educated woman. I don't even know who this person is and He changed history if nothing else, you know.' So I'm just curious. I just want to read the book. Well I see a little bit more about who Jesus is and so bought the book, got on the plane and headed back to Columbus.
I sat down on the plane and I'm sitting in there reading my book, Rabbi Jesus, and this woman kind of appears over my shoulder anda said, 'Oh, what are you reading?' And I said, kind of defensively, 'I'm Jewish, but I'm I'm just curious who Jesus is.' And she said, 'Well what do you want to know? I've written books about Him.' And I was pretty shocked, and she started talking to me about some of the books and some of the information about Him.
And at the end of all this, I said, 'You know, I'm not going to change my religion, but if I were to read the New Testament, do you have one that you'd recommend?' And so she recommended one to me and then she said, 'You know what I'm going to send you my book, so give me your address, let me send you my books.'
during this time, shockingly, my marriage of 28 years came to an end, and it had happened, it had been building over a long time. To me raising my children is like the most important thing that you can do in life.
I had this dream about I think it was a Zephaniah passage: 'He will delight with you in song,' like it was - I just woke up one morning, 'What was that? where did that come from?'
I was by myself. This was spring of that year and came home from work one day and took the mail in and there was this yellow package. So I opened it up, and there was a book in it. And the book had a card and I actually have a card we came with a book, and it said, 'Dear Diane, I haven't forgotten my promise to send you this book. It just has been slow in getting to you. This book is part of my life story; in the midst of great pain, Jesus walked alongside me. I have been praying that whatever you go through in your life, that He will find you and comfort you as He blessed me. Blessings and Shalom, Laurie hall.' Then she wrote Zephaniah 3:17, 'He will delight in you with song.' And I'm just like I'm just in shock. I'm in shock at so many levels that this card and this book arrived at this time.
So I called my sister, who is living out in Massachusetts the time. I said, 'Wendy, you are not going to believe this!' And I told her how this person that I didn't know sat down next to me like 6 months ago on the plane that we're driving back and forth from Boston to Columbus, and I never had spoken to her about my personal - I've never said a word. I had only asked her about Jesus.
And so I'm telling Wendy who this woman is and I this card in the book, and there's like dead silence on the phone, just nothing .... 'Wendy...' She goes, 'Did you say Laurie Hall?' And I said, 'Yes,' and she said, "I'm holding a magazine in my hand, and it's 'Christian Led woman,' and they're doing a review of Laurie Hall's book." And it's this very book, that she sent to me, at this moment, to me it was so profound, the God was absolutely in my life.
Late August of 2001 my sister and I were were together and she invited me to church, because a friend of hers was going to become a pastor. so we were going to support. I was supporting my sister, my sister was supporting her friend.
So we go to a church service, and I was shockingly surprised at how beautiful and moving it was. And I have to say at the moment though I felt that I loved the music. This is like amazing music, and so I really really I got goose bumps and was really into the service, which was surprising. I was Jewish woman, I've really not attended church before, this was good.
At the end of the service, she said, 'I want you to meet the pastor's here and they were both Jewish.' And so I talked to these two guys, they grew up in New York, and I'm just like, 'How how do you grow up Jewish and you're a pastor in a church.' It just blew my mind.
There I'm standing there, so this woman scame over to me and she said, 'My pray for you.' She takes my hands like this and I pray for you and I said, 'I just want understand more about Jesus, which all I wanted.'
But God ... God just ... He just zapped me. I feel like if there's such a thing as good electricity, it was like my body was just filled with love and and warmth and electricity. It was like an electric ... electrical love, hug of proportions. I can't even imagine. I just felt this, huge sense of truth of who Jesus is. I felt it. I could feel it. And the person that was praying for me said, 'The Holy Spirit is on you.' And as a Jewish woman I have to admit I had no idea what she meant by that and she said, 'Will you accept Jesus as your Messiah?'
After this happened, I'm an upstanding member of the Jewish community on the board at my synagogue. And had a lot of interaction with the rabbi's my community. And the subject came up, you know, I believe in Yeshua now. And the reaction was, 'What happened to you? How could you do this?' I was like a traitor, you know, like, 'What ... what ... how would you possibly? All these years believe that, after being a Jewish woman and a leader in our community, how could you believe it, Jesus is the Messiah?'
And the beauty of how this happened to me is that I was so hit with the truth of it it's such a deep level, that all I could answer was with great conviction, I can't explain why but it is true. I know it is true. I know it is true in my heart, and I have the rest of my life to read scripture and understand the why, but I know it is. It is the truth.
Source:
- Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me. - (John 14:6).
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