A Father’s Love

Watching the love and care that my son-in-love, Alex, has for Quinn, the newborn baby that he and Samantha have brought into this world, has become one of my greatest joys. It just feels so right. I am sure that this depth of feeling comes from the fact that due to the dysfunction in my household while I was growing up, I never felt the assurance of my father’s love. A feeling of abandonment permeated my entire life due to my parents’ constant arguing and the lack of the expression of love between them.

One of my favorite quotes, by Theodore Hesburgh, a Roman Catholic priest; and a former President of The University of Notre Dame. He said, “the most important thing a father can do for his children is to love their mother.”

I think most people don’t realize that children are like sponges. They see and feel things that we are hardly aware of and therefore we have no idea how distress in the household creates an enormous crater in their hearts.

When I first became a God-follower 45 years ago, this verse, written by King David, had my name written all over it, “Even if my father and mother abandon me, the LORD will hold me close,” – Psalm 27:10.

There were reasons my parents had to get married and they were ill prepared for marriage and caring for children. Sadly, the homes of many children have grown far worse as children today suffer, in monumental numbers, as a result of divorce, abandonment, anger, and fear in their own homes.

The world has become a cauldron of overlapping families in which most children get lost in the mix. The vast majority of families have multiple steps – stepmothers, fathers, sisters, brothers, aunts, uncles and cousins. Many young people are being raised by family members who are not their parents and don’t even know it. Imagine the anger and confusion when the truth becomes known to them. The sad reality is that many children do not have parents who care for them by loving, encouraging and supporting them. Is it any wonder that many young people are angry and full of rage? Who would not feel anger, embarrassment and despair for having been abandoned? The definition of abandonment, “To withdraw protection, support or help from,” says it all.  

These are the children and teens who cannot function in school, who fight, who show disregard for authority and who won’t listen to anyone. Surely their self-worth has been decimated with the message that they have no value, that they are unwanted and unloved. They have been violated at their very core and we somehow seem surprised when everything inside of them screams for attention and validation any way they can get it. We were created to be loved, cared for, protected and nourished and when that does not happen, we are like lost children on a playground crying to be found.

Scientific research has proven that an infant must experience love and nurturing, otherwise the brain will not develop normally. If these needs are not met during the critical developmental first year of life, abnormalities result and children lose the ability to form attachments with others. It is because the cells in the brain, not receiving sufficient and appropriate stimulation, begin to die and atrophy from disuse, just like a muscle if not used. Despite the presence of all other life requirements, such as food and water, without loving contact, infants will fail to thrive. Those who have not been loved as children, don’t feel lovable and can not love themselves or others.

This became apparent to me as many of my friends have fostered and/or adopted children who were deprived of love early in their lives. No matter how much love, kindness, and support that my friends showered upon their children in later years, it was never enough. In many instances, the children ended up in jail or on drugs or dead from suicide, causing my friends to blame themselves for not doing enough. I have tried to encourage them by telling them that they did everything they could to give their children good homes and lots of love and, yet, the hole in the hearts of these children was an abyss too great for even the best parents to fill. 

I do know of some households with adopted and fostered children who have succeeded in life. My hope is that my general prognosis of these situations is more wrong than right.

The amazing truth about God is that He loved us even before we were born. And even if our mothers and fathers have forgotten us, He never will. We are even tattooed on His hands! 

As the prophet Isaiah says in the Hebrew Bible, “Can a mother forget the baby at her breast and have no compassion on the child she has borne? Though she may forget, I will not forget you! See, I have engraved you on the palms of my hands …” –  Isaiah chapter 49, verses 15 and 16.

The best thing husbands and wives can do for their children is to love each other. Children flourish and feel secure in loving households. And when other people see this kind of love and lifetime commitment, they see how beautiful love can be and they also see the way love was meant to be. 

And that is why Alex’s tenderness towards Quinn stirs my heart. I am overwhelmed with joy knowing that my grandson will be showered with love and affection from his parents and from the rest of his family. It just can’t get any better than that.

Homeless in New York City

In recent blogs, I have shared a lot about my mother, Grandma Maxine as she was lovingly known, whose impact upon the life of our daughter, Samantha, was monumental.

In this blog, “Homeless In New York City,”  I am going to share an incredible, true, miraculous story that took place when my mother came to visit for the holidays a few months before Samantha was born. This story is also a chapter in my book, “Chesed (Mercy – A Jewish Woman’s Discovery of God’s Mercy”).

It was December of 1990 and my mother came to Ohio to celebrate the holidays with us. She stayed in the beautiful home of my husband’s parents who were very gracious and generous people. She had planned to return to New York at the end of the holidays. The problem was, however, that she had no home to go to. To this day, it is hard for me to believe that my mother was one of the hundreds of thousands of homeless people in the United States. And, sadly, the problem of homelessness has grown exponentially since that time.

After my parents divorced in the late 1970s my mother moved to Greenwich Village in Manhattan, where she was a successful New York business woman. She was part of the ‘in crowd’ of famous sports personalities, politicians, and others. She worked at very prestigious businesses in Manhattan and seemed to have it all together.

Sadly however, during this time she got very sick and was in constant, undiagnosable pain. She went to dozens of doctors and pain clinics with no relief. Because she was a hardworking and proud woman, she refused (for a very long time) to give in to the pain, always convinced that she would be better the next day or the next or the next.

A diagnosis finally came after years of suffering and her inability to work. The diagnosis was post-polio syndrome, a condition which had not been previously identified by the medical profession. As a child, she had what was considered a ‘mild’ case of polio, however, she once told me that she fell frequently. It could have been much worse because she could have been paralyzed or died from the disease. A polio vaccine was developed in 1955 and with the polio vaccination, came relief from the dreaded virus that caused panic throughout our country. 

As a result of her chronic pain, my mother was unable to work. She was too proud, however, to seek government assistance for disability and, instead, rented her Greenwich Village apartment to friends who were visiting New York and then she lived in the apartments of others – couch surfing, as it is now called. At the end of December 1990, during her visit to us in Ohio, and with no home of her own to return to, she and I tried to find a solution to this impossible situation. She could not live indefinitely with my husband’s parents and she could not live with my husband and I for a variety of reasons. 

Facing this predicament, we did what all New Yorkers would have done in the same situation – we went out to lunch! As we were eating, I saw a friend of mine who came over to our table to say hello. I had written an article for the local newspaper about this man who was the ghost writer for the book, ‘Pressure’, about the life of former Cleveland Browns coach, Sam Rutigliano, who coached the Browns in the 1990s, when they were called the Cardiac Kids. Eventually, my mother and I became friends with Rutigliano who had grown up in Brooklyn and taught at the high school my mother attended.

But back to the miracle story. We explained our dilemma to my friend, and incredibly, he asked if we would be available that evening to meet his friends who were getting ready to leave northeast Ohio to spend the winter in Florida and had not been able to find anyone to house-sit their beautiful home while they were gone.

The rest, as they say, is history. God had miraculously directed us to eat at a restaurant and bump into a friend who just happened to know people who needed someone to house-sit their magnificent, beautiful and peaceful home for six months!

What an AWESOME God we serve!

During that time, I helped my mother apply for disability benefits which she clearly needed and deserved. The disability income was approved with benefits retroactive from the time she was unable to work. With $25,000 in hand, she began her new life in Ohio!

As a result of my mother and I coming to faith in the Jewish Messiah – Yeshua (Jesus) – during the last several decades of her life, we shared our faith with any and all who would listen. We annually presented Messianic Passover seders at churches and schools and, after Samantha was born, we had annual Hanukkah parties for our family and friends, including many of Samantha’s friends. When they reached their teenage years, I thought they might want to stop having these Hanukkah parties, to which the reply came, “What, no Hanukkah?!” Needless to say, the parties with potato latkes, other traditional Hanukkah foods, dreidel games, small gifts and the reading of the Hanukkah story continued as they have for many years. And I look forward to continuing these traditions now with my new grandson, Quinn!

One day my mother told me something I have never forgotten. She said that God had spoken quietly to her heart the following words:

‘Maxine, no matter where you are and no matter what your circumstances are, as long as you are with Me, you will always be home!’ I love the Bible verse from the book of Psalms, Psalm 90: verse 1, in the Hebrew Bible,

‘Lord, you have been our dwelling place throughout all generations.’

The photograph is of my mother and I, many years ago, in her apartment in Greenwich Village in New York City.

Ode To Samantha

In a recent blog, “Grandma Maxine … Grandma Deb,” I shared the emotional experience I am now having as a grandmother to our new grandson, “Quinn Emmanuel,” and how I desire to live up to the legacy that my mother had on our daughter, Samantha.

You have probably heard people say, don’t blink because before you know it, your little baby will have a baby of her own. I am here to confirm this as now all the memories and images of Samantha as a newborn, then a child, a teenager, a young adult, and then married and now a mother – are all flashing across my mind in warp speed.

The lyrics to “100 Years,” by Five For Fighting, which was played at Samantha’s high school graduation and then, again, at her wedding, brings me to tears every time. One stanza, “Fifteen, there’s still time for you, time to buy and time to lose, fifteen, there’s never a wish better than this, when you’ve only got one hundred years to live.” And, even now, tears are flooding down my face as I write this.

I wrote a poem, Ode to Samantha, on her first birthday and I dedicated it to parents and grandparents everywhere. It is a chapter in my book, “Chesed (Mercy) – A Jewish Woman’s Discovery of God’s Mercy.” I would like to share it with you.

Ode To Samantha

It was a cold winter day, not that far, far away

But the world has changed so much

Since we first saw your face, knew the tender embrace

Of your body so sweet to the touch.

We wondered aloud, both within and without

Not knowing what might be in store

And each watchful hour, both waking and sleeping

In God our hearts did implore.

There’s life so sublime, with no question of time

Or fear when your heart knows we’re near

For the love that we give is the life you now live

Sweet Samantha, our daughter so dear.

Now the days have gone by, like the stars in the sky

We wish for your world nothing more

Than the time in your life of no envy or strife

Only love filled with wonder

To treasure and ponder

A gift and a world filled with awe.

Your eyes tell the story of newness and glory

Your weight grows one ounce at a time

But there is no measure of a heart filled with pleasure

By loving and trusting so blind.

I think of the days when we just knew your name

And we waited to watch you unfold

You’ve grown now so fast, your first year has passed

To forever remember and hold.

It’s a jump start I’m told, to let you out in the cold

To a world known for love tossed aside

But we’ll have to be bold and let you grow old

With love and with God as your guide.

For in trusting we know

It’s in His love we grow

And in Him only love can abide.

I hope you have enjoyed this blog and that you will check out

my podcasts, “Passion and Purpose,” and my YouTube

channel, “Life, Love and Spirituality”. The YouTube link and

links to my instagram and facebook page are at the bottom 

of my home page on my website hisloveenduresforever.net.

My Story

Perhaps you have read my previous blogs or listened to previous podcasts and you know that I was born and raised in Brooklyn, New York. My family was culturally, but not religiously, Jewish. And you may know that I came to faith in Yeshua (Jesus) when I was a college student at West Virginia University in 1977.

I am going to summarize my story and how and why I became a Messianic Jew. But first I would like to say that the majority of Jewish people in the world do not believe that Jesus is the Messiah and here are their reasons why:

They do not believe that Jesus fulfilled Messianic prophecies. They also assert that Jesus did not embody the personal qualifications of the Messiah. In addition, they think that the Biblical verses referring to Jesus are mistranslations and they say that Jewish belief is based on national, not personal, revelation.

I will address all of these assertions in the future but for now I am going to share my story because my story and the story of hundreds of thousands of Messianic Jews have much in common. I also want to point out that Messianic Jewish congregations are increasing exponentially, with more than 150 Messianic Jewish congregations in Israel and more than 300 Messianic congregations in the United States.

But back to my story, which I am going to summarize briefly. If you want more of my story, please check out my book, “Chesed (Mercy) – A Jewish Woman’s Discovery of God’s Mercy,” which is available on Amazon and other national book sites.

I was raised during the 1960s, a decade of turmoil and instability in our nation. The assassination of President John F. Kennedy, on November 22, 1963, created both a fear and a dread of death deep within my soul as I watched my mother, who adored Kennedy, collapse in inconsolable grief when he was assassinated. In addition, my household was filled with dysfunction and distress. Although most people saw an outwardly happy and successful child and teenager, inwardly I was filled with sadness and despair.

In 1977, I was a junior in college at West Virginia University, when I first had contact with people who believed in Jesus and who loved the God of my ancestors — the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. This seeming contradiction, as well as what seemed like something or someone directing me to attend a spiritual retreat, is where my life changed forever.

Up until that time, I had never been in a church, I had never heard the name of Jesus, and during the retreat, I wrestled with how a Jewish girl from Brooklyn, like me, could believe in Jesus.

The truth is that I was searching for Him my entire life and did not even know it. And, what I came to find out is that He had been searching for me my whole life as well. The decision to accept Yeshua as my Savior and Lord did not come without consequences.

When I shared the news of my newfound faith with my mother, she did what any good Jewish mother would do. She immediately came to Morgantown, West Virginia, to deprogram me from the cult that she thought I was in. She was also beyond devastated because she truly believed that Nazis were Christians.

She then proceeded to immerse herself in religious Judaism and yet, 10

years after I came to faith in Yeshua, she miraculously did so as well. Her story, as well as her mother’s (my grandmother’s) story of also coming to Yeshua, are detailed in the chapters of my book. In addition, my husband and I have an adult daughter who is also a believer – making four generations of Hebrew Christian women in my family.

I now realize that God was pursuing me my entire life even when I did not know who He was. This amazing revelation came after I asked God where He had been my entire life which, up until that point, had been filled with trauma and many near-death experiences.

One by one, God brought back memories (some of which had been deeply repressed) of when He had intervened in my life during the worst of times. I will share only one story with you as an example. I was 11-years-old when my grandmother, my father’s mother, died. Because I already had a dread of death, I asked my parents if I could go back to our apartment after the service in the synagogue. I did NOT want to go to the cemetery. They finally agreed and a good friend of our family drove me back to my apartment building. When we got there, she asked me if I wanted to go with her to her apartment rather than being all alone in my apartment. I was a sassy, 11-year-old girl and I told her that I would be fine. She then said that her daughter, who was my age, would be home shortly from school and she added that she would make spaghetti and meatballs for dinner.

Due to the fact that my mother worked, we hardly ever had home-cooked meals so I finally relented. Later that evening, when we returned to our apartment, we saw that it had been ransacked. Our beloved cat, Comet, was locked in the bathroom and had thrown up in the bathtub. God gently reminded me that had I walked into the apartment earlier, I certainly would have come upon the thieves and who knows what they might have done to me. God whispered this to me – ‘Debbie – I was in the spaghetti and meatballs.’ He began to show me that in each and every horrible situation that I had faced in my life that He was there protecting me from danger and even death.

I now share my story and the myriad of miracles He has done in my life with women’s groups, at Messianic synagogues and at churches. My overriding message is from the famous Psalm 23, which ends with the following words:

“Surely your goodness and faithfulness (chesed) will pursue me all my days, and I will live in the LORD’s house for the rest of my life,” – Psalm 23:6.

When I wrote my book with the word ‘chesed’ in the title, I honestly did not know the deep extent of its meaning. I have recently learned that ‘chesed’ is so expansive in meaning that scholars say that it has the largest range of meaning of any word in the Hebrew language and, perhaps, in any language. In fact, it is so rich with meaning that it cannot be reduced to one English literal word. Instead, it is the key to open the door to the entire world of God’s heart of love for us.

The word ‘chesed’ appears hundreds of times throughout the Hebrew Bible and the New Testament. And, just some of its meanings include love, lovingkindness, merciful love, relentless love, enduring love, extravagant love, love in action, dependable love, generous love, wonderful love, steadfast love, unfailing love, great loyalty, kindness, merciful kindness, everlasting kindness, compassion, faithfulness, and immense favor.

And all of this – every aspect of His chesed – has been and is pursuing you. It is my strong belief that God pursues all of us all throughout our lives but we are generally unaware of it. He does this because He desires to have an intimate relationship with us even more than we do with Him!

There is so much more than I want to say about God’s amazing love but time will not allow. In the future, I will share more incredible God stories in my life and how He wants to reveal His chesed to you and to heal you of your deepest hurts.

I would like to end with some thoughts from a verse from the incredibly amorous book, the Song of Solomon, in the Hebrew Bible, which says,

“You have stolen my heart, my sister, my bride; you have stolen my heart with one glance of your eyes,” – Song of Solomon 4:9.

We are the ones who overwhelm His heart with just one glance of our eyes. We are the ones who take His breath away by our beautiful heart that hopes in Him. He is the only One who can tell us the reason for our existence, our place in the scheme of things, our real identity. Like seeing our reflection for the first time, God will reveal to us the truth about who we are. We are the beloved. God is whispering to each of you now – “Will YOU allow yourself to BE – LOVED?”

Our Jewish Jesus 

In a recent blog, I shared several Hebrew scriptures about the birth of the Messiah that were fulfilled by Yeshua, the Hebrew name for Jesus. These are just a few of the more than 300 prophecies that were fulfilled by Yeshua. I also said that many Jewish people are probably surprised to learn that everything about Yeshua was Jewish.

Today’s blog, “Our Jewish Jesus,” is about a holiday, Passover, that Jewish people, worldwide, commemorate during the spring. The Passover story is rich with meaning and deliverance for the Jews from their enemies, which, we know, has even greater significance at this current, perilous time for Israel and Jews throughout the world.

For those unfamiliar, thousands of years ago, the early Jews, then known as the Israelites, lived in Egypt where they were harshly mistreated as slaves. The Egyptian pharaoh ordered that all Israelite male babies be killed because the Israelite population was growing exponentially. God heard the cries of His people and Moses, one of the most prominent men in the Hebrew Bible, entreated the Egyptian pharaoh to let the Israelites leave Egypt so that they could go to Israel (then known as Canaan) to worship the LORD.

Despite awful plagues that came upon the Egyptians, pharaoh refused to let the Israelites go. The final plague was the killing of the firstborn in Egypt, both man and animal.

God, however, instructed the Israelites to slaughter a perfect, spotless lamb and to place the blood of the lambs on the sides and tops of the doorframes of their homes. Animal sacrifices were commanded because, according to Jewish law, “ … the life of a creature is in the blood, and I have given it to you on the altar to make atonement for your souls; for it is the blood that makes atonement for the soul,” Leviticus chapter 17, verse 11.

In Exodus 12 it says that when God saw the blood upon the Israelites’ doorposts, He would pass over those houses and that the firstborn in those homes would be spared. He commanded His people to commemorate this Passover deliverance forever, which is why Jewish people celebrate Passover every year.

The firstborn has always been an important concept in Judaism. Following their deliverance from Egypt, the Israelites were instructed to consecrate the firstborn son to the Lord.

So, you may be wondering, what does Passover and all of this have to do with Yeshua?

In the book of Luke, in the New Testament, it says, “When Yeshua (Jesus) was born, Joseph and Mary took him to Jerusalem to present him to the Lord as it is written in the Law of the Lord, ‘Every firstborn male is to be consecrated to the Lord. ‘ ” Luke chapter 2, verses 22 and 23.

Also in the New Testament, we read in the book of John, who was Jewish, “The next day Yochanan (John) was coming toward him (Yeshua) and said, ‘Look! God’s lamb. The one who is taking away the sin of the world,’ ” – John chapter 1, verse 29.

Yeshua had to live a sinless life in order to be the perfect lamb who would be sacrificed for the sins of the world. Peter, a Jewish fisherman who followed Yeshua, said that it was the precious blood of Yeshua, a lamb without blemish or defect, who redeemed people from their sins – 1 Peter chapter 1, verse 19.

It might also surprise you to know that Yeshua celebrated the Passover with his disciples. 

Matthew, who was Jewish, records the following – “On the first day of the Festival of Unleavened Bread (Passover), the disciples came to Jesus and asked, ‘Where do you want us to prepare the Passover meal for you?’ ‘As you go into the city,’ he told them, ‘you will see a certain man. Tell him, ‘The Teacher says: My time has come, and I will eat the Passover meal with my disciples at your house.’ ” So the disciples did as Jesus told them and prepared the Passover meal there,” Matthew chapter 26, verses 17 and 18.

During this Passover meal, Yeshua took some of the unleavened bread and blessed it and instructed his disciples to eat it. He also took a cup of wine (the cup of redemption – the third cup in the Passover meal) and instructed his disciples to drink it.

For those familiar with Christian traditions, this is now known as the Lord’s Supper (communion) which takes place in churches and Messianic synagogues throughout the world.

It is important for both Jews and Christians to understand the significance of this beautiful holiday of Passover which reminds Christians of the Jewish roots of our faith. 

Finally, I’d like to say that there are a growing number of Christians who commemorate Passover with seder meals. In addition to wanting to explore and emulate their Jewish roots, followers of Yeshua are drawn to Passover because they identify with the freedom (from sin and death) that God gave to the Israelites in delivering them from Egypt. Those who follow Yeshua, including me, also believe that the matzah, (unleavened bread) which has stripes, that is eaten during the Passover, represents the 39 stripes that Yeshua received as he was beaten and whipped resulting in stripes upon his body prior to his crucifixion.

We also believe that the blood on the doorposts of the Israelites’ homes was a foreshadowing of the blood that Yeshua, the Perfect Sacrificial Lamb, shed for all mankind for the forgiveness of our sins. And we see this parallel in the lamb bone that is on the plate of every Jewish seder meal. 

There are also other aspects of the seder that clearly point to the Messiah – his death, burial and resurrection. Passover is a prophetic and visual expression of Yeshua, the Messiah. At the end of every seder, these words are said, “Next year in Jerusalem,” which is a prayer of hope for Jews who wish to live safely in their Jewish homeland, Israel, and in God’s most beloved city of Jerusalem. Let it be so, dear Lord, let it be so.

Who Is Yeshua?

Earlier this week, millions of people throughout the world celebrated Christmas. For many people the holiday is all about family traditions such as baking and decorating cookies, gift giving and large family feasts.

Some recognize the religious aspect of the holiday as the birthday of Jesus Christ. But who was this man, whose Greek name is Jesus and whose Hebrew name is Yeshua?

Shockingly, during my entire childhood and teenage years growing up in Brooklyn, New York, I never heard this man’s name nor did I know anything about him. I once saw a homeless man in New York City, wearing a cardboard sandwich board with the words, “Jesus Saves,” which I thought was odd although I had no idea what it meant.

There were many churches, mainly Catholic, on every corner in Brooklyn, but they had no place in my life because I was Jewish. And although my family was staunchly Jewish culturally, we were not religious and we did not talk about God.

I will share my story of coming to God in a future blog, but for now I want to explore more about Yeshua. His envelopment of everything Jewish may come as a shock to many, as it did for me 40 plus years ago when, at the age of 19, I first heard about him. Because even though I knew nothing about him, I knew that we (Jews) should have nothing to do with him and that I should stay as far away from him as possible.

Yeshua means ‘Yahweh saves.’ Yahweh is the most Holy Name of God and is used throughout the Hebrew Bible.

Some scholars believe that there are more than 300 prophecies from the Hebrew Bible about Yeshua. These prophecies are specific enough that the mathematical probability of Yeshua fulfilling all of them is impossible — unless they are true. More than 350,000 Jews throughout the world, including thousands in Israel, believe that Yeshua Hamashiach is the promised Messiah of God.

In this blog, we are going to look at just a few prophecies about Yeshua’s birth.

The Messiah was to born of a virgin —

The Hebrew prophet, Isaiah, said,

“Therefore the LORD himself will give you a sign. The virgin will conceive and give birth to a son, and will call him Immanuel,” – Isaiah 7: 14.

In the first chapter of the book of Matthew in the New Testament, Matthew, who was Jewish, tells of the Messiah Jesus.

“All this took place to fulfill what the Lord said through the prophet, ‘The virgin will conceive and give birth to a son, and will call him Immanuel, (which means ‘God with us.’ )” – Matthew 1:22.

The Messiah would be born in Bethlehem —

The Hebrew prophet, Micah, said that the Messiah would be born in Bethlehem.

“But you, Bethlehem Ephrathah, are the smallest town in Judah. Your family is almost too small to count, but the ‘Ruler of Israel’ will come from you to rule for me. His beginnings are from ancient times, from long, long ago,” – Micah 5:2.

Matthew, in the New Testament, wrote,

“Jesus was born in the town of Bethlehem of Judea during the time Herod was king,” – Matthew 2:7.

The Messiah would descend from the lineage of Abraham and David –

The prophet Isaiah wrote,

“For to us a child is born, to us a son is given, and the government will be on his shoulder. And he will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. Of the greatness of His government and peace there will be no end. He will reign on David’s throne and over his kingdom, establishing and upholding it with justice and righteousness from that time on and forever,” – Isaiah 9:6-7.

Again, Matthew, in the New Testament, wrote,

“This is the genealogy of Jesus the Messiah, the son of David, the son of Abraham,” – Matthew 1:1.

These Bible verses, from both the Hebrew Bible and the New Testament, are just the beginning of the prophetic fulfillments about Yeshua.

I will close with these thoughts, which, I believe will surprise many.

Yeshua was born to observant Jewish parents who loved God. From his first day on earth, Yeshua was obedient to the Jewish law. All of his friends, associates, colleagues, and disciples were Jewish. He regularly worshiped in Jewish synagogues and preached from Jewish text – the Hebrew Bible.
When I became a believer in Yeshua, it was the most Jewish thing I had ever done. Now, nearly 50 years later, it is my honor and privilege to tell others about our Jewish Messiah. If this is new information to you, my hope is that you will consider what I am saying.

We are living in a time when Judaism is under attack throughout the world. Some say that this is the result of ancient Biblical legacies that are being played out in front of our eyes.

In future blogs, I will provide more prophetic insights about our Jewish Jesus as well as why this message needs to be shared and understood by all people, everywhere, today.



Why Never Again is Now 

As the war in Israel rages on, I believe that it is important to understand why Israel, and the vast majority of Jewish people, believe that there can not be a premature ceasefire while the terrorists have openly stated their intention to repeat horrific attacks upon Israel until the nation is completely destroyed and every Jewish person annihilated.

A quick history lesson will explain why Jewish people feel so strongly about this. Jewish people, including myself, have been absolutely horrified and, quite frankly, in disbelief, at the support that the terrorists have received while antisemitism on college campuses, in cities throughout the nation and the world is both blatant and skyrocketing.

We, the Jewish people, have been here before as the Nazi rage against Jews was known as ‘The Final Solution.’ This policy of deliberate and systematic genocide of all Jewish people, began across German-occupied Europe and was intended to reach beyond the European continent. 

During the Holocaust, two-thirds of the Jewish population in Europe were murdered, including 90 percent of Polish Jews. Perhaps a comparison of the number of Jewish people before and after World War II throughout Europe will put things into perspective.

In 1933, the number of Jews in Poland was 3,300,000. In 1945, it was just 297,000. Jews living in Ukraine in 1933 numbered 1,500,000, and in 1945, Jews numbered only 600,000. And in Germany, the Jewish population was decimated from 330,000 to only 40,000 following the war. Had the United States and other countries not stepped in to combat the Nazi butchery, Hitler might have accomplished his stated goal – to eradicate the world of Jews. History is certainly repeating itself with the mindless mantras of total destruction of Jewish people in Israel and elsewhere.

I am sharing this because most Jews would love nothing more than to be allowed to live in peace and freedom. Every Jewish person in Israel is, in one way or another, being detrimentally impacted by this war. Jews around the world, including those in the United States, have determined that we can not sit idly by and permit another Holocaust.

As I have shared in recent podcasts, my faith in the God of the Jews – the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob – is the glimmer of light that sustains me during this perilous time. In spite of worldwide opposition, Jews and Christians are united in support of Israel. 

As King David said in Psalm 31:21, “Praise the LORD, because he showed me how wonderful his faithful love is when the city was surrounded by enemies.” 

I am continuously reminded that although the Jewish nation is surrounded by its enemies, and although Israel must do everything to prevent another Holocaust, ultimately, we must trust Almighty God for victory and vindication. This is my challenge and my commitment. Please consider whether you will do the same.