I thought I would take a break from spiritual matters and let you all know a little about me, and why I started this ministry.
If you prefer to watch a video, click on this link: Watch the video.
To start with, I was raised in a Reform Jewish home, but not very religious. I attended Shabbat services and went through Hebrew and religious school to prepare for my Bar Mitzvah (which I was able to have on my 13th birthday).
For my first 40 years or so, I knew something about Judaism and other religions, but I wasn’t spiritual or even ceremonially involved in worship. I had a prior life in a marriage that was not a good one, and at one point I was so down that I would drive home trying to figure out how to kill myself, but making it look like an accident so the wife and kids could get the insurance.
Fortunately, I figured out I should talk to someone before figuring out how to make the accidental-on purpose death plan work.
The marriage ended, the spiteful wife turned my two children against me, but I began to want to find the peace I saw in mature Christians God was putting in my life. I still wasn’t sure about God or this Jesus guy, who I had been taught all my life was a traitor to Judaism, but I was jealous for the peace of mind those Christians had, even though their life was difficult, too.
(By the way, it was a few years after separation that I met and married Donna, and we have been happily-no, really!- together now for over 30 years.)
It was during that down time I realized (not until later) that God placed those mature Christians in my life to show me how even in the midst of tsouris (troubles) God is there and can help me get through it. I was getting ready to want to believe.
I knew that if you smile when you are down you will feel better; thinking that might work with prayer, I prayed to God (still a little uncomfortable with “Jesus”) and thought that maybe it would increase my faith.
I found a Messianic Synagogue not far from our house and began to go there for Friday night Shabbat services. It was SO different from a “mainstream” Jewish service, what with all the hand raising and people yelling “Halleluyah!” and “Amen!” throughout the service, but after three months or so, learning about Yeshua and realizing that there was nothing new in the New Covenant, it being all based on the Tanakh, I decided to go up to the Rabbi for an anointing and that was when God rewarded my attempts to be faithful by giving me the Ruach HaKodesh (Holy Spirit), which I felt enter my body.
If you would like to see my testimony, here is a link to it from my messianicmoment.com website:
Steven’s testimony
Since then I have felt a need to learn as much as I can; I read the Bible every day, have received a Certificate of Messianic Studies from the Messianic Bible Institute, and even acted as Rabbi-pro-Tem when the Rabbi who I first studied with left our synagogue to start his own missionary work.
I have been told by more than just a few people that they believe I have a gift for teaching, which I have always done throughout my military and civilian careers- not as a certified school teacher, but by training the people I managed and teaching a continuing education class. I also have given the message at Shabbat services and taught Bible school in two different houses of worship I have been involved with.
So, during the past almost 30 years now since I became a believer, I have felt the need to share what (I believe) God has shown me with regards to understanding his word, especially to Gentile believers. I also wish I could reach Jewish non-believers, but that is a really hard sell. It took me 40+ years before I realized who Yeshua really is, and the difference between Yeshua the Messiah God sent, the one in the Gospels, and Jesus, the created Savior that Christianity invented who isn’t even Jewish, anymore.
I have written 5 books that I felt I had to write: it was more of a catharsis for me to get it off my chest than it was to teach people the truth about Yeshua and what God wants from everyone who professes to worship him.
I have had this ministry now for about 11 years, and although I don’t get millions of views, and I don’t have much more than a couple of hundred followers (all of whom I truly appreciate), I was never in this for the money: in fact, I have never asked for any, only accepting whatever little amount I get from book sales (and when I say ‘little amount”, I mean a really little amount!).
If I can help just one person realize what God wants from them, or teach them the truth about who Yeshua is and by doing so help them find their eternal joy, well….that would make it all worthwhile.
And that is why I do what I do- to help someone who is in as much need of him as I once was to find God and to know his real Messiah.
And to (hopefully) help my Jewish brothers and sisters realize that the Jesus they have been taught about is not the Yeshua who God sent, and that our Jewish Messiah is real, has been here, and will be coming back to finish the job he started.
One of the most important things I have come to know is the answer to the oldest and most philosophical questions mankind has ever come up with, which are: “Why am I here?” and “What is the meaning of life?”
The answer to both of those questions is this: We are here to determine where we will spend eternity.
The reason I do what I do is to help people know the way to find eternal joy in God’s presence.
If you think this is a good thing to do, then please help me by sharing these messages with everyone you know, even non-believers because, Hey!- you never know how fertile the soil is until you plant a seed in it.
And ya know what? Buying my books would be nice, too.
I hope this wasn’t boring. I will be back next week with my usual drash, so until then l’hitraot and (an early) Shabbat Shalom!