Changed Lives

Helen Goldberg

O LORD, you are my God; I will exalt you and praise your name, for in perfect faithfulness you have done marvelous things planned long ago. – Isaiah 25:1

 

I was raised in Montreal in a middle class traditional Jewish home, celebrated the High Holidays and attended synagogue only when required to. 

At 22 I married.  It was a bad marriage almost from the day go.  I had two wonderful sons, the lights of my life and stayed in my marriage for 12 years hoping that it would get better.  It did not; in fact it only got worse.  I finally found the courage and strength to walk away and concentrated on raising my two sons.  Shortly thereafter I entered into a financial nightmare which lasted 18 years.  At that point, I hit bottom. Approximately a year later I began to see a light at the end of the black tunnel; I reached down deep into my soul and pulled out some hope.  Little did I know that it was Him who pulled me from my despair.

The fall of 2003 He sent His first messenger.  She spoke carefully to me of the spiritual world; she planted the seed and so it began.

In November 2004 He sent His second messenger, a kind and loving Christian man who spoke to me of God and Jesus.  I explained to him that I was Jewish and I do not believe in Jesus.  He said he knew that.  He would read the bible to me and slowly began to fill me with the Word of the Almighty.

In July 2005 He sent His third and final messenger, a Gentile believer who I worked with.  I asked her, “what is our purpose in life, why are we here?”  She gently smiled and replied, “Do I have a book for you!”  From her briefcase she pulled out the “Purpose Driven Life” by Rick Warren.  I began to read the book and by the third chapter my eyes, ears and heart began to open, but I still had not welcomed Yeshua into my life.  I felt that if I did, I would be committing treason against my people, as believing in Yeshua was not the Jewish thing to do.

I began an internal battle and began to educate myself on what it meant to be a Messianic Jew.  I struggled with it and though I did not completely understand the dynamics of it all, I felt a tugging at my heart.  After much conflict, I prayed to God through His loving Son; it did not feel comfortable and I once again took up the conflict of spiritual warfare.  Several days later I smugly challenged God; I will hand over my burdens if You show me Yeshua.  And He did.  For several moments I felt as if my world had been draped with a silk sheet, hand woven by Him; a sense of undefined quiet and indescribable peace engulfed me.  July 17, 2005, a moment in time that will always be with me.

With an open heart I wept and welcomed His loving Son Yeshua into my life. I have come full circle. I have learned that my purpose is for His glory, I have learned that my blessings are His gifts and His gifts are my blessings.  I have learned to appreciate the blue sky, the stars, the sun, beauty, joy and yes, sorrow; for without sorrow I would not appreciate joy. I have learned that I must learn.  I have learned that all that I have, all I am is because of Him. I have learned about hope, faith, miracles and that nothing is impossible if you believe.  I have learned that arrogance, envy, greed, lust and profanity come with a price. I have learned how and when to forgive and to do it with grace.  I have learned that He is my provider, protector, healer and peace of spirit, body and mind. I am still learning and what an incredible journey it has been thus far. I am a toddler now and He is teaching me to keep my balance but I know for certain that should I lose my footing or fall off the path that He will be there to catch me before I hit the bottom.  He has showered me with diamonds, consoled me when I have cried and has celebrated with me my joys.  He is my joy.
 

Rabbi Jeffrey Forman

I was raised in a Jewish home in suburban Philadelphia. It was a Jewish neighborhood where most of my friends were Jewish. At the age of 13, after attending Hebrew school for two years, my twin brother and I had a Bar Mitzvah. That summer, my parents sent me on a two month tour of Israel with dozens of other Bar Mitzvah kids from all over the country. It was one of the most memorable summers of my life. There, my identity as a Jew was solidified forever. After that, our family remained culturally Jewish, but not very religious.

When I was about 20, my sister and mother both became believers in Yeshua. At first I thought they were crazy. I felt they had abandoned Judaism and embraced a non-Jewish religion. Soon after, they began to attend Beth Yeshua, a Messianic Jewish Congregation in Philadelphia. They finally convinced me to attend a service. It was nothing like what I had imagined it would be – no statues of Mary, no crosses, no priests with white collars. On the contrary it was quite Jewish - Jewish people singing and dancing the hora to Jewish music.

Three things stood out to me - the genuine sincerity of the people, the overflowing joy they had, and the powerful message that Rabbi Martin Chernoff gave. The Rabbi’s words seemed to go right through me as if my sinfulness was exposed. That night during the service my mind and heart flashed back to my trip to Israel and in an instant I knew in my heart this was true. However, I was not yet ready to yield my life to God and ran the other way like Jonah - for 5 years.

After graduating from Temple University, at the age of 25 I was searching for meaning in life and for spiritual reality. One night I had too much to drink and had a serious car accident in which I narrowly escaped. The very next day, early in the morning there were people at my door passing out pamphlets about God. At that moment I heard a voice in my heart say, “Jeff you have run long enough, there may not be another chance.” Suddenly I knew that God had protected me the night before and was again calling me to Himself.

Two weeks later, on January 10th, 1982 while out of town, I attended a worship service. At the end of the service, I fully renounced my sins and received Yeshua as my Messiah. When I did, I felt darkness leave me and was filled with rivers of joy for months following. I knew I had connected with the God of Israel through the Jewish Messiah.

I returned to Beth Yeshua where I began to learn what it meant to follow Messiah and live as a Jew. I met my wife Janet there and we were married in October of 1985. Shortly after that I was asked by David Chernoff to join the staff. David took over the Rabbinate after his father Martin passed away. I was trained by David in ministry and served there for close to 10 years. During that time God gave Janet and I three beautiful daughters, Yael, Shira and Dalya.

In 1994 Janet and I felt that God was calling us to move to Toronto to start a new Messianic Congregation. On September 1st, 1995 we moved and City of David was launched. God completed our family here and gave us a Canadian boy who we named Ari.
 

Rebbetzin Janet Forman

I grew up in a Jewish home in Philadelphia, USA. When I was 19, I went to Israel searching for the meaning of Judaism. Three distinct things took place in Israel that intensified my search. The first is that while walking alone in the Sinai I became aware of God’s tangible presence and the truth of the Old Testament. Second, I became conscious of sin in my life and my need to receive forgiveness from God. And third, a bomb went off near me in the Tel Aviv airport, killing two people and making me acutely aware of my own mortality. When I returned from Israel I began to read the Tanakh and attend synagogue services. Yet when I prayed there was silence. At the same time I met some non-Jews who explained that the way to know God was through Jesus (Yeshua). One night I cried out to Yeshua, asking, “If You are there, prove it to me!” because I didn’t believe in Him.

As soon as I prayed I knew in my heart that I had reached God. Shortly after that I met Eliezer, a Messianic Jew who had survived the horrors of the Holocaust, yet was filled with the love of God. Through Eliezer I understood that Yeshua was in fact the Jewish Messiah. We prayed together and I surrendered my life to God and received forgiveness of my sins through Yeshua’s atoning sacrifice. I finally found that my Judaism was not fulfilled through religious traditions but in a personal relationship with my Messiah. As a Messianic Jew I feel a deep commitment to the God of Israel, the people of Israel and the Land of Israel.
 

Marcia Sherman

My name is Marcia and I was born into a Jewish family here in Toronto. My sister and I were raised in a home that was not religious, though we did keep some of the Jewish traditions. I would sometimes pray to God as a child but I did not have a personal relationship with Him.

I was married from 1960-1982 in which time my husband and I raised two sons. We were members of a Synagogue, though, like many other Jewish families we only attended services on the High Holidays. Our children also attended United Synagogue Day School. Though we kept some of the Jewish traditions in our home, true spirituality was missing.

Our older son David had a non-Jewish friend who frequently invited him to his church. As a result of going there, David became a believer in Jesus. That was 22 years ago.

In that same period of time, my marriage was dissolving and my mother was slowly dying of cancer. I was in a state of grieving over my failed marriage and mourning for my dying mother. Furthermore, I thought my son was closing the door on his Jewish heritage and was converting away from Judaism. It felt like I was losing a son. It was a very difficult period of time for me.

It was then that I confronted my son about turning away from Judaism. He said, “Not so mother, I know more about my Jewish roots than ever before. The New Covenant is a completion of the original covenant God made with His people.” The question in my mind however was, “How can one be Jewish and believe in Jesus at the same time?” He continued to explain that all 12 apostles were Jews who followed the Jewish Messiah.

As time went on David and I had many conversations about spiritual things. Meanwhile, I was seeking happiness and fulfillment in all the wrong places. I also harboured bitterness and unforgiveness in my heart towards my ex-husband. Over a period of 15 years I became more and more discontented with my life and became a depressed person. Then, one night just prior to my 60th birthday, when my discontent and depression became overwhelming, suddenly, I heard an audible voice call out clearly saying, “Marcia, you are blessed.” I was quite shaken up by the experience but I knew it was God in His love who had come to lift me out of despair and give me hope.

An amazing thing happened the very next day at work. An unknown woman came into our store and after talking to me for a short time I knew that she was a believer in Jesus. All of a sudden, these words came out of her mouth, “Marcia, you are blessed,” and then she left. The very same words I heard the night before. Two hours later she returned with a long stemmed red rose for me. I knew that God was using this woman to confirm His message of love for me.

That night I called my son David and told him what transpired. We spoke for a long time and at the end I knew that I wanted to give my heart to the Lord and become a believer. After praying for me daily for 17 years, my son’s prayers were finally answered. That was December 1998.

Through Yeshua (Jesus), all my past sins have been forgiven. I have also forgiven my ex-husband. Now my life has taken on real meaning in fulfilling the purposes God has for me and not just living for myself. This gives my life great significance and value. I know also that my future is secure and that I will live eternally with God in heaven.

So, yes, I am blessed so that I can be a blessing to others. His truth has set me free from darkness and despair so that I could be a light to others. My prayer is that you may come to know the joy of Yeshua’s salvation. He truly is the Light of the world. Thank you for letting me share about this new life with you.
   

Nicci

It was during my last year of high school that I began to search for purpose and meaning in life.   I thought that there had to be more to life than studying hard so we can get good jobs so we can earn enough money for our children to be able to study hard so they can get good jobs. 

Growing up in a “Conservadox” Jewish home, I had always believed in God and prayed to Him, and so I began my search with Him.    I knew that I didn’t have the kind of relationship with Him that we read about in Tanach, nor, for that matter, did anyone else in shul, Hebrew school, or the Rabbi’s classes I attended, including the Rabbi; in fact, most people claimed that no longer existed.

Feeling further dissatisfied after my first year of University, I took some time off to “find myself,” and pursue my search for purpose.  I became more convinced that the answer to my questions lay in a deeper relationship with God.  During this time I met family whose lives had been amazingly transformed, and whose lifestyles exemplified a vibrant living Judaism.  Their enthusiasm about Shabbat and Tanach was neither manufactured nor purely theological, rather it stemmed from a living relationship with the living God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. 

They claimed that the only way to know God was through believing in our Messiah, Yeshua (Jesus).  Although I was highly offended that they should be so narrow-minded as to think that there was only one way to anything, I realised that this was a claim that I could investigate.  Either Yeshua is our Messiah, or He isn’t.  I wasn’t looking for another religion; I was hungry for a real, living relationship with my own God, the God of the Jewish people.

I read the New Covenant for the first time, while simultaneously re-reading the Tanach and was shocked.  Instead of finding Christianity I found Jewish Scriptures by Jewish authors about the Jewish Messiah.  In the Tanach I was even surprised to read about sin.  Sin and sacrifice had always been foreign concepts to me, relevant only on Rosh Hashannah and Yom Kippur.  The rest of the year we focussed on being good people.  Yet there in my Scriptures I read about how we had sinned against God and how our sins separated us from Him (Isaiah 59:1-3).  I asked God to show me the truth – is Yeshua our Messiah? 

I had grown up, as many of us do, with the understanding that “if you are Jewish you cannot believe in Jesus.”  Therefore, although I was beginning to see how the New Covenant and the Tanach lined up, I still refused to accept this in my heart.  

Through a process of asking God and reading the Scriptures, however, I came to a place of surrender where I agreed to believe what God would tell me.  I didn’t want to hear from people – each one has his/her own agenda – I wanted to know the truth from God, God who made me and who I believed could show Himself to me.  As I agreed to trust God, I one day received peace in my heart that I knew was from Him and I knew that what I read was true.  Yeshua is the Jewish Messiah.  I knew that God had answered me – that this is the truth. 

Since that time, God’s Word and His presence are increasingly alive to me.  Our traditions, practices, holidays, and our land – Israel - are more meaningful and important to me, as part of a real relationship with the real and living God.  I know that God has a purpose for each one of our lives, and that begins with knowing Him.  If you seek for Him, God promises us through the prophet Jeremiah that we will find Him when we search for Him with all of our hearts (Jeremiah 29:13).    

 


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