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My mom went public. She told the whole family that she now

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believed, and still believed, that Yeshua was the promised Messiah.

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And my dad told her to either renounce that faith or he would leave her.

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I was furious with my mom for breaking up our family.

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I thought she had betrayed not just her people, which

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was big enough, that’s a big issue.

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To believe in Jesus, in Yeshua, was a betrayal of the

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Jewish people, I thought. But

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to break up her family over this seemed ridiculous to

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me.

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Both my parents were Holocaust survivors.

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My dad had lost his first wife, five children,

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his parents, four of his siblings at Treblinka and

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Auschwitz. My mom

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was a German Jew, and she had lost her parents, her

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brother, grandparents at Auschwitz.

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They both made their way as fast as they could

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to West Berlin. My dad had remarried.

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His wife died in childbirth, and there he ran

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into my mom, who was working as a nurse at the hospital.

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My dad had a premature baby. He didn’t know how he was going to raise this child

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without a wife, and so he arranged for my mom.

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He went to her and said, “I need you to marry me.” And

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my mom agreed, really for the sake of the child.

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When she was 12 years old and Hitler came to power, my mom was

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placed in an orphanage, and it was run by Lutheran deaconesses, sort of

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like Protestant nuns. And these Lutheran deaconesses were

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very caring for her, and they would also send her to the

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rabbi every afternoon. When they were teaching Bible to the kids in their

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orphanage, they sent her to the rabbi for Hebrew school,

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for religious training. However, when she was 16, because of the

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testimony of these women, she had become a follower of Yeshua

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herself. When my dad asked my mom to marry him,

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he knew that she believed in Yeshua, but once they were married, he told her that

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if she ever told anyone about her faith or if she ever practiced

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it openly, he would divorce her. And so my mom became a

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secret follower of Yeshua from that day

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after World War II, about 1947,

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up until 25 years later. In 1950, they

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moved to the United States, and

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that’s where I was born, in the holy land of Brooklyn.

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And

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living in Brooklyn,

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I was raised in an observant Jewish home.

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In my home, we spoke Yiddish, which was the language of Eastern European

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Jewry. We wore a kippah. We kept kosher.

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We were very committed to the state of Israel as a

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family. When I was a freshman in high school,

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apparently my parents were starting to have some trouble in their

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relationship, and it caused my mom to seek out

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a Messianic congregation in Brooklyn, and

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she began to attend there, and she was being taught Bible studies by

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a woman named Hilda Koser.

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And ultimately, my mom went public.

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She told the whole family that she now believed, but was

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openly believing, that Yeshua was the promised Messiah.

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And my dad told her to either renounce that faith or he would leave her.

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And so my dad left her, and ultimately divorced her,

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and then moved to Israel.

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I was furious with my mom for breaking up our family.

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I thought she had betrayed not just her people,

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which was big enough, that’s a big issue.

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To believe in Jesus, in Yeshua, was a betrayal of the

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Jewish people, I thought. But to

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break up her family over this

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seemed ridiculous to me.

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My sister and I once had to pick up my mom from

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Bible study. We were in my sister’s car, and we went

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there and, of course, met Hilda Koser.

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She came out to talk with me and meet me, and something hit me at that point was

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that maybe I should engage with her, and that if I could

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convince her that Yeshua wasn’t the Messiah, this

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Bible teacher, then my mom would give up on this naivesheit, this

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foolishness that she was in. And so I

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actually began to go to Coney Island and meet

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with Hilda Koser to discuss Messianic prophecy.

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And I had a book that gave me all the answers about what these passages meant, and

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we began to study Messianic prophecy and argue about it, and

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that’s really what we would do. We’d have the Bible there in front of us, and we’d

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be standing over it and arguing over the meaning of passages.

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Even though I felt I had the official good

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answers and interpretations of some of these passages of

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Messianic prophecy, I thought her explanations seemed to

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fit better. They seemed to make more sense. Well, one day, Ms.

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Koser asked me what did I do when I sinned, and I told her,

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“I really don’t sin very much.” She said, “What do you mean you don’t sin?” And

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I said, “Well,” I was a high school student.

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When everyone else was trying drugs, I wasn’t.

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When young people were sleeping around,

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I wouldn’t do that. I wanted to be a nice Jewish boy, get good grades,

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go off to school, become a famous attorney.

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That’s what my goal in life was, and I was not

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really a bad kid. But she said, “But everyone sins.” And she asked me if I ever

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told a lie, and I said, “Everyone lies.” She started asking me questions from the

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Ten Commandments, and I said, “Yeah, I’ve done that.

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I’ve done that.” And so she said, “So what do you do for your

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forgiveness?” And I said, “Well,

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I fast on Yom Kippur. That’s enough.” And she

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showed me from Leviticus 17, where it says, “I’ve given you the

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sacrifices on the altar to make atonement for your souls.”

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And she was really emphasizing that there needed to be a sacrifice to

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experience forgiveness. And I said, “Well, that was when the temple stood.

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Now the temple’s destroyed, and we can’t do that.”The

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outcome was that she showed me Isaiah 52:13

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through 53:12, which I knew

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officially, what I’d gotten the interpretation that this was

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about Israel, not about the Messiah.

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But as I read it, it seemed that the suffering servant wasn’t Israel,

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because this suffering servant, “Died for the sins of my

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people,” it says. Well, how could Israel die for

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Israel? That didn’t make any sense.

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And so it seemed like it was the Messiah, and it talked about how all

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we, like sheep, have gone astray. All of us have turned to his own way, but the

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Lord laid on him the iniquity of us all.

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It says that he was pierced through for our iniquities, and the

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chastisement for our well-being was upon him.

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And she was saying the final, the perfect sacrifice

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for atonement for our sins was in the Messiah, Yeshua.

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She asked me that day

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if I would pray about this and ask God to show me if Yeshua

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was the Messiah. And I said, “I don’t need to because he’s not.” And she said,

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“Well, then what are you afraid of?” And so that night, I actually prayed

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about this for the first time, and it was the single worst prayer in the

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history of prayer. It was something like, “I know Yeshua isn’t the Messiah.

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I know Jesus isn’t the Messiah. But if he is, and I know that he’s not,

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would you show me? And I know you won’t because he isn’t.

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Amen.”

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Long story short, my mom was always inviting me to

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services,

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and I would always say no. And so she told me there was going to be a film

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about Israel, and I thought, “Well,

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I will go to that one, because if it’s about Israel, it can’t possibly

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have anything to do with Jesus. What does he have to do with Israel?” And so I

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went, and it was a film that began by talking about how

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the Hebrew prophets, the Jewish prophets, had foretold the return of the

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Jewish people to the land of Israel.

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I was, and still am, a very strong believer that God

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restored the Jewish people according to the prophets.

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I’m going, “Yeah, I agree with this.”

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And then

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the second half was how those same Hebrew prophets had foretold the Messiah,

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and it started recounting all these messianic prophecies that I had talked

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about with Hilda Koser. And I

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began to think, “What a hypocrite you’re being.

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The part you like about the prophets foretelling the

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restoration of Israel, that you agree with.

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Then this part where you don’t agree with it, you fold your arms and get really

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angry.” And I thought, “If the prophets

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foretold that Yeshua was the Messiah, then even if I was

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the only Jew ever to believe in him, I would still be a good Jew because that’s

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what the prophets foretold.” Well, the film ended, and these thoughts were rushing

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through my head, and a man who had come to show this film

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got up and gave something I had never heard of before.

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It was an invitation to believe in Yeshua.

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And I thought, “I would never do this in front of all these people.” And then he

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said, “Now everyone bow your heads, and this is the only ones that will ever

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know is the Lord and me and you. And

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so if you’re ready to put your trust in Yeshua as the Messiah,

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well, raise your hand.” And I thought, “I would never raise my

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hand in front of all these people.” But then, lo and behold, there it

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was. My hand was up. And I thought, “I’ll never tell a soul.

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This is just God, this guy who I’ll never see again, and me.”

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And before I could get my hand down, he said, “I see that hand in the back.”

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And one of my mom’s friends sitting in the front row, she was there,

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and

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she kind of peeked. And

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before I could get my hand down, she saw it was me, and she said,

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“Ah! It’s Michael.” So in front of about 250 people,

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I was completely busted. There I was. Everyone knew it was me.

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And afterwards, my mom was so excited. I said, “Get back, Mom.

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I’m not going to be a fanatic like you.” Ms.

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Koser came up and wanted to give me a Bible, and I said, “I have a Bible.” And she

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said, “What kind of Bible?” “Well, it’s got a silver cover. It’s in Hebrew.

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It’s got a lot of stones from Israel on it.” She said, “No, no, one with the New

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Testament.” And she came running and gave me a New Testament and signed it,

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“Lovingly, Hilda Koser.” And I had that Bible.

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But I told her, “I’m not going to be a fanatic.”

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And my sister came that day with me, and she was so angry

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with me because several times she had said she was really considering becoming

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a follower of Yeshua, and I had talked her out of it.

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And she said, “You rat.” She was so angry with me that I had made

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this decision and kept her from it.

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Which, by the way, that afternoon, she became a follower of Yeshua as

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well.

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Previously,

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I had been so focused on one day going

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to an elite college and then a great graduate school

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and becoming an attorney and becoming the

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next generation of great attorneys in New York.

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That’s really what I was expecting my life to be.

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And then that didn’t mean anything to me after I became a follower of Yeshua.

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I wanted to study the scriptures, I wanted to teach the scriptures,

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and I wanted to tell all people, but especially my people, about

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the Messiah. That was the big change of focus that

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happened in my life after I became a follower of Yeshua

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and became what I guess I would have termed a

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fanatic. I don’t know where you’re at, but if you’re watching this

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and you think, “I don’t know if I’m really

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interested in this,”

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just the very fact that this is before you, it might be the time to

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investigate, to examine the scriptures, to see

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what the Hebrew Bible actually says about the Messiah,

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to maybe offer a lame prayer like I did that

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would say, “God, if Yeshua really is the Messiah,

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then

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show me.” Because I’m convinced that when we put our

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trust in Messiah, he gives a sense of purpose,

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meaning, significance. Don’t miss the opportunity

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to investigate and see if Yeshua really is the Messiah.