Hi welcome to my first Blog Post.  I am very happy that you are here.  On the first Blog I want to let you know who I am and why I started this Blog.  My hope is that this Blog will give people comfort in the difficult days we are going through.  And that people can find faith or strengthen their faith in my story.  I would like to particularly reach fellow Jews; and encourage them there is hope to find peace within.

I am going to discuss my faith (not an easy topic to discuss) but I want to let you know why my faith helps me in times of crisis.  I am a Messianic Jew; a Messianic Jew is someone who believes in the Messiah of the Christian faith. Some Messianic believers, like myself, also believe in following some of the laws of the Old Testament, e.g., keeping the Sabbath.   I do consider myself Jewish; although I know there are many who would debate this label.  As a Jew, I would understand if by now you have tuned out or decided not to read my blog because of the mention of the Messiah.  I pray you will give me a chance as I get it, I have been in your shoes.

 Talking about my faith; particularly to Jews is not something I generally do.  I am a reserved person and I have always allowed people of other faiths to express their own religious sentiments.  So why am I choosing this time to talk about it?  I believe the times we live in are going to be very difficult (I hope to write more about this) and I believe G-d wants me to encourage other Jews to have faith in the Messiah.

 How did I come to faith in the Messiah?   I will first discuss briefly my Jewish background. I grew up in a Jewish household; a reformed upbringing.  We went to Sunday school and upheld the religious holidays.  As an adult, I believed in the G-d of my Jewish faith and I was very uncomfortable when Christians spoke to me about the life and death consequences of believing in the Messiah. I had guilt about not believing in Him; yet I also felt guilt about the possibility of believing in Him.  I felt if I believed in the Messiah; I would be punished by G-d.  This struggle was constant in my adult life.

 No one was more surprised than me when five or six year ago, I became a believer in the Messiah.  Three years prior, I was in a bookstore and I was drawn to a book by Dr. Charles Stanley called “Finding Peace, G-d’s Promise for a Life Free of Regret, Anxiety, and Fear”.  I was struggling with life and needed the comfort the book offered; and was willing to overlook the part of the book on the Messiah. Three or four years later, during a time when I was desperate; I chose to believe in Him.  Feeling desperate was the only way to get me to believe because I was so scared about it.  I am very happy now I made that decision as it changed me for the better.

What have I gotten from believing in the Messiah?  Strength and hope and amazing comfort.  I could write a lot about my struggles as my life has not been easy; in some ways it has but in other ways it has been very difficult.  In the last few years, I went through a break up of a 12-year relationship and did not feel I could be alone.  Throughout my life I always had trouble being alone. 

 My testimony of faith is that I live alone today and I am doing well despite being alone in my home (during the quarantine).  I am not really alone though because I find strength in G-d through the Messiah; He gives believers His peace and this gives us great comfort.  He has transformed my heart in ways I would not have thought possible. He wants us to be in His image.  Oh my gosh, I am not there yet but I am closer than I have ever been. I used to focus on others to be my peace.  That does not work.  Now I feel peace through Him. 

 I pray in reading my story you will find some comfort (in my second blog I will let you know in more detail why I came to believe in the Messiah) and you will come to know it is possible to have joy and peace in the Messiah. And even if you are not ready to believe, that is okay too.  I am just glad you are here so that you can know there is hope.