Wondering how God can use the events of your life for His glory? Putting our trust in the Messiah is only one step in our spiritual journey. God is always at work, making us more like His Son, Yeshua. In this episode, we hear from three Messianic Jewish believers.

·     Len Rosenberg grew up in a family where there was a lot of anger. The Messiah taught Him how to forgive.

·     Vanessa Leef came from a Messianic Jewish family. When God called her to make Israel her home, though, she was unsure what to do.

·     As a teenager, Toby Mann got involved with alcohol and drugs. A coworker helped him discover the abundant life that Yeshua offers.

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- Welcome to "Our Hope",

a production of Chosen People Ministries.

On this podcast you will hear inspiring testimonies,

learn about Messianic apologetics

and discover God's plan for Israel and you.

Wherever you're listening, we hope you lean in,

listen closely and be blessed.

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Discipleship is a lifelong process.

Wherever we are in our spiritual journeys, we must grow.

Following Yeshua means living for Him wholeheartedly.

After all, He taught that the greatest commandment

is to love God with all our heart, mind, soul, and strength.

Going through dark and difficult times

often reveals our need for God,

demolishing the lie that we can get by on our own.

God can work through any event in our lives,

however painful or unexpected.

In this episode,

we will hear three Messianic Jewish believers

share how following Yeshua has shaped their lives

day by day.

God used each of their unique backgrounds for His glory.

First, we will hear from Len Rosenberg.

He grew up in an Orthodox Jewish home

where there was a lot of anger.

As a child, Len felt unloved.

He moved out after finishing high school,

but the anger and resentment he had toward his family

followed him.

When angry outbursts threatened his marriage,

someone suggested he read the Bible.

Len came to one particular verse

that began his journey toward healing.

Let's listen to his story.

- My first language was swearing and cursing,

then I learned Yiddish and finally I learned English.

My father would say,

Lenardo you're the cause of all the trouble in this house.

He's probably right.

And my mothers would say (speaking in foreign language)

which is you have a mean soul.

And she was probably right.

My mother's family came from Minsk.

They escaped from the pogroms

and they brought their Orthodox Jewishness to America

and that's how I grew up as an Orthodox Jew,

with the bar mitzvah, Hebrew school

and all that went with that.

Love didn't seem to be a part of the picture.

Our whole household was full of anger,

throwing things, yelling, slamming doors.

I was not loved nor was I loving.

As soon as I could, when I finished high school,

I moved out of the house.

I went to California, got married, had two children.

I learned how to become an architect.

People thought I was a very wonderful person

but at home I was terrible.

Well, I used to throw chairs

and I would say, I hate you, I hate you, to my wife.

Just violent and angry, harsh words. Ugly that way.

The anger and absence of self-control was awful.

I wanted to stop but I could not.

Growing up I learned nothing about Christianity,

nothing about Jesus.

I didn't learn too much about God either.

When I was about 19 years old,

somebody recommended I go into town in San Diego

and buy a Bible.

I opened it up and it said, "I've told you",

meaning God speaking, "I've told you what is good

and what I require of you.

To love justice, to be merciful and to be humble."

This is the word of God

and I'm not doing one of those things,

not humble, not merciful, and not just.

In the New Testament I saw that Jesus said,

"Come to me, all of you who are heavily burdened,

who have trials and troubles,

come to me and I will give you rest."

And I realize without the help of God,

the love of God, and the healing of God,

I couldn't get there.

I couldn't make things better.

I think that was the greatest experience in my life.

That understanding.

I saw that Jesus loves the Jewish people.

He was born Jewish. He lived as a Jew.

He preached and taught to the Jews.

I started to move back to loving the Jewish people,

my people who I had rejected

and I saw that Jesus was rejected

but He continued to love back.

I had no idea about this idea of forgiveness

and Jesus gave His life for mankind, for the world.

That's how much He loved us.

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- The Messiah's call showed Len that he was indeed loved.

As he saw how Yeshua forgave those who rejected Him,

Len found the strength to overcome anger and forgive.

In Yeshua, Len came to embrace his Jewish people.

We'll be right back.

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- During these difficult times

we know how hard it is to hold on to hope

and we want you to know

that Chosen People Ministries is here for you.

If you have any prayer request,

our prayer team is standing by to receive them.

You can submit your request to chosenpeople.com/pray.

Again, that's chosenpeople.com/pray.

- Shalom, this is Mitch Glazer

with Chosen People Ministries.

I know that you're concerned

about what's happening in the Ukraine right now.

Russia has been on the attack and it seems unrelenting.

So many people are suffering

and among that group of people who are suffering

are well over 200,000 Ukrainian Jewish people.

We've already sent aid, food, water, all sorts of materials

as well as Chosen People missionaries

to the border between Ukraine and Poland,

and we're having an act of ministry there right now.

We're also in touch with the 10 or 12 congregations

that we work with in Ukraine itself

and we've been sending in a little bit of funding

where we can get it in, but keeping in touch with them.

So please pray for the Ukraine

and for Chosen People Ministries.

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- Like Len, Vanessa Leef grappled with her Jewish identity.

She grew up in a messianic family,

but did not know if she truly shared her parents' faith.

Vanessa went to Israel for college

but did not especially like the country.

Still, she strongly felt the Lord calling her

to make Israel her home.

Take a listen to find out what she did.

- I don't really need to prove who I am to anybody.

I am fully Jewish and I fully believe in Yeshua.

So, my mom went to go get her tubes tied.

The doctor said to her,

you can get your tubes tied in nine months

after you have your second child.

Here I am.

My mom's not Jewish. My dad's Jewish.

There was so many identity issues

that I just was not understanding celebrating all holidays.

And am I Jewish? Am I not Jewish?

Who am I?

I really loved my grandfather,

it was really important for him to be dedicated

and to walk out his Judaism

and he would wrap tefillin and pray three times a day

and everything with the Passover Seder had to be perfect,

everything.

I remember even asking sometimes

why do you do this?

And he was like, well, 'cause my father did it,

this is just what we do.

That was it. It was that simple.

When I was six years old

I got sick and ended up in the hospital.

The doctors thought that I had spinal meningitis.

They went to my parents

and basically said we don't think she's going to make it.

My mom, after hearing this news about my life

she prayed to Jesus 'cause that's all she knew to do,

and said to the Lord if he were to spare my life

that she would raise me to know God, no matter what it took.

All of a sudden, within an hour

I completely turned around and I was fine

and the doctors were stunned.

They had no idea what had happened

but my mom knew exactly what had happened.

My dad didn't want to go to church.

He was always trying to hold on to his Judaism.

We're Messianic Jews. We're not Christians.

I was not allowed to go to the actual church on Sunday,

I was only allowed

to go to the youth group on Wednesday night

'cause we didn't meet in the church.

But I needed a story of my own.

I wanted to know that my faith was,

that I believed in Yeshua for me

not because my parents raised me in this.

I just didn't understand the importance of being Jewish,

I just thought it was a part of me

and I celebrated the holidays,

and all of a sudden I started to wake up

with these dreams and visions

and started to get drawn to Israel.

I knew that God cared about Israel,

it's in the Bible everywhere,

but I didn't really know

that there was a place for me there.

So one day my father gets this returned phone call

from Israel College of the Bible.

Vanessa, I got this phone call from Israel.

I had called inquiring about going to school there.

Ah, they weren't supposed to call the home number.

Next thing I know I was there.

I didn't love living there at all,

I actually really didn't enjoy Jerusalem at all.

Everybody has this like, oh you lived in Jerusalem.

Oh my gosh, it's the Holy City.

Israel's hard. Jerusalem is heavy, it's intense.

It's a lot to take in

and God really had to change my heart about it.

He just kept drawing me and drawing me and drawing me

and I all the more just kept feeling

so much more a part of it,

like this was a part of me and I didn't understand it.

I was like, what is going on?

So, I remember one day I was looking at a map of Israel

and I just started crying.

I knew in that moment

that the Lord was speaking to my heart,

that this was now my home.

And that was really, really hard for me

because I didn't want it to be my home.

I couldn't run away from it anymore

and there was something that was so strong in my heart

that knew that that was where He was leading me to,

that that was where I belonged

and I was supposed to be there.

I actually got denied twice in getting my citizenship.

And finally I just went back at God,

you are the one that told me to do this.

You are the one that's drawing me here.

I didn't ever want this.

And I was just done, I was like, I'm going home, that's it.

So, the next day I get a phone call

from the Minister of Interior and he says,

Vanessa, I need you to come in

because you are now officially an Israeli citizen.

I finally got to the point where I love being Jewish

and now I love being an Israeli,

but at the end of the day, it's about the love of Yeshua

and now I know who I am in God.

- Vanessa clearly saw God working in her life,

from healing her as a child

to making a way for her to stay in Israel.

Through it all, she learned that being a follower of Jesus

was most pivotal to her identity.

Like Vanessa,

Toby Mann also came from a Messianic Jewish family.

As a teenager, however,

he got involved with the wrong crowd.

He began smoking, getting drunk at parties, and doing drugs.

After one night of drinking,

Toby woke up covered in snow on the side of the road.

Listen to discover how God turned his life around.

- I remember one night in particular it was snowing out

and I was coming back home from, it was a club

and I drank, I shouldn't have been driving, I was driving,

and I remember I was coming around a bend

and I must have fallen asleep.

But when I woke up I was in this embankment

and it was just a pile of snow

and I remember waking up

and the first thing I thought of is thank you, God.

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I always looked forward to Passover

'cause my mom would make her matzo ball soup

and nothing compares to her matzo ball soup.

I love it.

Growing up in a believing home it was hard

because I always believed in God

but it was almost as if it was my parents' faith,

it wasn't mine.

I always felt a little different.

I always believed in Yeshua. I believed in Jesus.

One time, our congregation we had a parade

where we marched through.

It was a Labor Day parade

and we were holding the banner to our congregation

as we walked through the street.

And this Jewish guy,

he came up to me in a very hostile, belligerent way

and told me, you need to pick which side you're on.

You need to choose who you believe in.

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But as I got older, especially in my teenage years

is when I really started

to surround myself with the wrong crowd.

The first time I got drunk it was at a neighbor's house,

I was probably 13 or 14 years old.

It was just a gradual process that night,

just taking little by little, drinking, drinking.

And I just remember crashing the next day,

just feeling hungover, having such a bad headache

and it was just a slippery slope from then.

Drinking led to smoking,

and then led to getting into other drugs.

I remember one night I was laying in bed

and I was just so hungover, so sick,

and I just remember thinking is this this?

Is this, there's more to life than this.

One person who had such an impact on my life is Alma.

I used to work at the bank.

I would come to work many days hungover

and she used to come up to me and tell me,

I can smell the alcohol on you.

But one thing that Alma did

is she would always show the love of Messiah with me,

never once was she preachy or telling me,

oh, if you do this you're going to hell.

Or don't do this, don't do that.

She truly showed the love of Messiah.

At the bank she would talk to me

about certain scripture verses,

or she would share some Bible verses with me

and I'd tell her, ah, Alma, be quiet, I don't care,

I don't want to hear it.

And I was so hungover and I was helping a customer,

it was pretty graphic, but I had to throw up.

And so I remember running to the back room,

we had a break room, and I remember just throwing up

and I just remember feeling so low.

And Alma walked into the back room

and I just thought, oh, here it comes,

she's going to come preach to me

and tell me how I'm living in sin

and how I'm living is wrong.

She asked me if she could get me some soup

and I just remember feeling so low, so convicted,

but at the same time I remember feeling this love

that she offered, and it was this pure, genuine love

that I knew came from God.

But I remember those verses that she would share with me,

they'd be running through my head

and I couldn't get them out of my head.

And I hated it

because I remember being out at a club or at a party

and those verses would be running through my head.

I started to notice that things were changing in my life

where we were out in a club in DC

and usually I'd be out with my friends,

drinking, getting drunk and it'd be a good time.

But this night was different

because I decided I didn't want to drink anymore.

I didn't have that desire.

I started to feel almost sick,

physically sick when I would drink.

I saw the emptiness. I saw the loneliness, the sadness.

And to be honest everyone just looked like zombies,

just moving around,

and I remember just very vividly this feeling

that this is what I used to look like.

And I just remember, so clearly,

just this voice inside saying,

you don't belong here anymore.

This is not your home anymore.

(uplifting music)

That was the last time I went into a club.

It was one night in particular, we were at this Bible study

the youth pastor was sharing the gospel.

He started to share the gospel and it started to impact me,

it started to speak to me about the good news of Yeshua

and what God has done by sending His son,

and how much God loves us,

and how God wants a relationship with us.

Not just religion, not just a bunch of rules

where you have to do this, you have to do that,

you have to do that.

He wants relationship. He wants fellowship.

And I remember sitting there that night

just feeling so convicted,

how can a holy, righteous God love me?

And it was just this emotion that came over me

and it was almost as if for the first time in my life

I truly experienced the love of God.

And I just remember weeping and crying,

and I just felt just God embraced me and hugged me

and let me know that He loves me,

where I knew that this was real.

This wasn't just this religious high or this experience,

I knew that I had an encounter with the God,

the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, the God of the universe

who created the heavens and the earth

and I felt His love in such a personal, intimate way.

I always believed in God

and it was almost like I knew it up here

but I didn't know Him here.

I didn't believe it. I didn't experience it for myself.

But when I truly experienced the forgiveness,

the love that God offers, it transformed my life,

it changed my life.

I believe that believing in Yeshua, believing in Jesus

is the most Jewish thing I can do.

I believe that Yeshua is the promised Messiah

that we read about in Moses and the prophets.

I can't think of anything more Jewish

than to believe in the Jewish Messiah.

(joyful music)

- In His timing,

God showed Toby that his lifestyle was a dead end.

Toby saw that Jesus came

so that we can have abundant life,

and like Toby's coworker, we can extend God's love to others

and show them this abundant life.

We hope these stories encourage you

that God is working in each of our lives.

He is always bringing opportunities

for us to grow in our walk with Messiah.

Each day, the Lord is helping us

become more and more like His Son Yeshua.

Our circumstances may not make sense,

but God can use them in ways we could not have imagined.

As the apostle Paul wrote in Philippians 1:6,

"For I am confident of this very thing,

that He who began a good work in you will perfect it

until the day of Messiah Jesus."

If you've enjoyed this episode,

please leave us a review on Apple Podcast

or give us a rating on Spotify.

Let us know how this podcast has moved you.

We would also love if you can share it on social media

with your friends and family.

Thank you for listening

to this weeks episode of "Our Hope".

This episode was produced by Nicole Vacca and Grace Swee,

written by Rachel Larsen, and edited by Grace Swee.

This episode was also created thanks to: Dr. Mitch Glaser,

Abe Vazquez, Kieran Bautista, Jann Bautista,

and ifoundshalom.com in partnership with One for Israel.

I'm Nicole Vacca. Until next time.

(gentle music)

Thanks for listening to "Our Hope".

If you like our show and want to know more

check out ourhopepodcast.com or chosenpeople.com.

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