LAURA MAJID MAWER

A strong part of my identity is that I am a Jew. I think its true to say there is much variety in what Jews believe, but there is stone-solid consistency in  what they don’t believe:

Jews don’t believe in Jesus!

So what happened??

My friend Judi is Gentile and a believer in Jesus.  Through the years I watched her hold onto her faith as she went through some very difficult times. She always had this peace that made no sense in light of all I saw her go through. AND I wanted that peace.

I mark the day after Thanksgiving 1995 as the day I became a confessed believer in Jesus the Messiah.  The Sunday before Thanksgiving, my friend Patti invited me to hear a Jewish singer, Paul Wilbur.  When we got there I was surprised (and confused)  - he was a believer in Jesus. I thought him a traitor to my Jewish people – YET he was so bold in expressing his beliefs that I envied him, and in my brokenness I felt drawn to surrendering to Jesus. BUT I didn’t.  Why? To me, Jesus was just a non-Jewish, feel-good myth. 

On Tuesday evening of that same week I had a very disturbing phone call.  I hung up the phone and turned on the radio. How unusual that I  wasn’t able to  tune into any radio station but one – a station where Paul Wilbur was being interviewed!  When the interview was  over, I wrote a letter to God.

I asked Him to show me the way. I told God how strong my will was to not believe in Jesus - I just wanted to feel better. 

I spent that entire night reading all about Jesus.  It surprised me to learn from Jewish history books that the word Christ (such an emotionally charged word to a Jew) came from the Greek and meant Anointed One, or Messiah. The name Jesus came from the Greek, but in English is Joshua and in Hebrew Yeshua.  Next I read a short book that spoke of SIN. If you had asked me, I would have told you that I was a good person, not a sinner.  YET as I read, through the Spirit of God I could see that my sin was living separately from God. I had lived my whole life counting on myself and now God was calling me to count on Him.  From reading this book, I came to understand that to be one with God I had to be one with Christ. 

The next day Patti called and asked if I wanted to go to a Thanksgiving church service.  She was surprised at my “yes.”  And who did I end up sitting next to in that packed house of three thousand? – A Jewish Christian - and through conversation I learned that his family attended my synagogue. I saw this as a sure sign from God, and I was amazed and overjoyed to experience such a personal evidence of Him.

Later I was sitting in a coffee shop with Judi, sharing with her all the amazing things occurring.  Then a couple, Michael and Mimi Finesilver, came up to our table excited to see Judi.  They hadn't seen her for two years and they were both Jewish Christians!  I knew that God had caused this meeting to happen.  That night I prayed with Michael, confessing my separation from God and thanking Jesus for revealing Himself to me.  We all still agree that the Lord put us together at that time and place to show me that Jesus is real. And I am forever grateful.

That night, when I returned home, I looked up the Haftorah portion I read for my Bat Mitzvah. It was from the book of Zechariah, and I was amazed as I then reread some of the verses in English, which I had read only in Hebrew twenty-four years earlier. Here are some of them:

“Sing and rejoice, O daughter of Zion...for lo I come, and I will dwell in the midst of thee, saith the Lord... And many nations shall be joined to the Lord in that day and shall be my people... and I will remove the iniquity of that land in one day... Not by might, nor by power, but by my spirit, saith the Lord of Hosts.”
(Zechariah 2:10-4:6)

Although Zion refers to the people of Jerusalem, when I read those verses that night, I knew God was addressing me as His precious daughter of Zion. And I was amazed that He had arranged for me to read of the coming of Messiah twenty-some years before I would come to know Him personally.

On the day I first came to Olive Tree Congregation, where I’ve now been worshipping since that time, some of those same verses were quoted during the service. Again, I knew it was another loving sign from the LORD confirming that He is real and personally with me.

So, this is my story. My prayer for you is that God will use it as a blessing in your life.