HOW I CAME TO KNOW MY MESSIAH THE LORD JESUS CHRIST
By Helen
I was born into a warm, loving Jewish home in the East End of London. My dad went to synagogue every Friday evening and Saturday morning, whilst the women of the family attended on festival days for Passover, Rosh Hashanah, Yom Kippur (Day of Atonement), weddings and bar mitzvahs. We were not orthodox but were traditionally Jewish – we ate different foods to my non-Jewish friends, gefilte fish and chicken soup with lockshen, bread pudding and olives and pickled cucumber. We had Chanukkah instead of Christmas. I attended weekly Hebrew classes, where I learnt to pronounce Hebrew, never understanding what I said!
I remember a childhood full of love and fun. However in my early teen years I started to ask questions. In the synagogue I read the English of the Hebrew prayers, wondering why this amazing God was so little spoken about in our daily life. I questioned the rabbi – he thought I was rebellious and not submitting to Jewish life. But I was inquisitive and wanted answers.
I never heard the name of Jesus or who He was until a young man came to our local secondary school to preach the gospel. His words went deep into my heart and I wept, sorry for my sin.
Word soon got round that this Jewish girl had been converted. A teacher who I thought was a Christian (she did too!!) explained that I need not turn my back on my family and follow Jesus Christ – that all roads lead to God.
It was the excuse I needed. My family had been devastated about my commitment to Jesus and I hated to see them distressed. So nothing changed in my life outwardly, though that seed had been planted……….
At 18 years of age at a Billy Graham meeting in London, I went forward to respond to the salvation call. Still nothing changed outwardly in my life – in fact I had turned my back on Jewish life.
I worked in London and spent many an evening in the basement bars drinking wine and having endless hours of conversation about the meaning of life, forgetting all about Jesus and my Jewish roots.
Then came 1974/1975. A close girlfriend died of stomach cancer, followed by my mum’s tragic death at 47. Something died in my heart and I was angry towards God – I began a life of rebellion. I could have ended up dead, or abused, but God’s protection was over my life.
I met David Christmas 1975 – we married in January 1978 and had our first son May 1979. In 1981 we put our son’s name on waiting lists for schools. We were told the only good school was a Church of England school and you had to go to church to get a place. I said to David I was Jewish and Jewish people did not go to church! David said he would go, even though he hadn’t been to church for years. So off we went each week, me in the crèche, and David in the church. Each week the girls said why didn’t I go into church, that I couldn’t always stay in the crèche. To shut them up, I agreed to go in once.
When the Rector began the words, “For God so loved the world that He gave His only Son that whosoever believes in Him shall have eternal life”, my heart melted and the tears flowed – I remembered the young man preaching the Gospel those years ago.
One day young people from the Jews for Jesus came to Chislehurst. As they sang the Hebrew songs and danced with joy I wept and knew that God loved me as a Jew. The closer I grew to Jesus, the more Jewish I felt and He has birthed a supernatural love in my heart for my Jewish family and friends.
God placed amazing people around me to nurture me and to introduce me to the Holy Spirit. Once free to worship Him in Spirit and truth I knew I had found my destiny.
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