Latest / Fulfilled with Rebecca Sheehan / “He’s Worth It”: Kicked Out at 16 for Following Jesus | Ep. 24

Transcript

“He’s Worth It”: Kicked Out at 16 for Following Jesus | Ep. 24 · Fulfilled with Rebecca Sheehan

0:00
[music]
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SPEAKER_00: Hey everybody, welcome to Fulfilled.
0:11
SPEAKER_00: I'm your host, Rebecca Sheehan.
0:13
SPEAKER_00: Now I am so excited about today's guest.
0:17
SPEAKER_00: When I stumbled upon her story, her faith testimony, it literally brought me to tears.
0:22
SPEAKER_00: So I had to have her on my show and I cannot wait to share it with you guys.
0:26
SPEAKER_00: Tristan Tice is a youth ministry leader, content creator, and most importantly,
0:32
SPEAKER_00: Jewish believer in Jesus.
0:35
SPEAKER_00: And one thing is clear, she is on fire for the Lord.
0:39
SPEAKER_00: Tristan, welcome to the show.
0:41
SPEAKER_01: Thank you so much for having me.
0:44
SPEAKER_01: I'm so thankful to be here and just get to share some of my story.
0:49
SPEAKER_00: So we were joking before we started that you're like my mini me.
0:52
SPEAKER_00: We look similar and from a Jewish background too.
0:55
SPEAKER_00: Yes.
0:56
SPEAKER_00: Are you also in Florida? Yes.
0:59
SPEAKER_00: I'm wearing a long sleeve shirt today, like pretending that it's cold out, but.
1:03
SPEAKER_00: To dress for fall.
1:04
SPEAKER_01: Yes.
1:06
SPEAKER_00: But yeah, let's get started with your faith testimony,
1:09
SPEAKER_00: just how you found Jesus as a Jewish person.
1:13
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, so I was raised Jewish and it was definitely more Reformed Judaism.
1:20
SPEAKER_01: So we would go to synagogue for the high holidays,
1:24
SPEAKER_01: but it wasn't something part of our weekly rhythm.
1:27
SPEAKER_01: We weren't going every Friday sundown to Saturday sundown for Shabbat to observe that.
1:34
SPEAKER_01: I was bat mitzvahed.
1:35
SPEAKER_01: I have triplet brothers.
1:37
SPEAKER_01: They were bar mitzvahed.
1:39
SPEAKER_01: And... It was part of our upbringing that our identity is we're Jewish.
1:44
SPEAKER_01: So definitely just part of our culture. My mom's Jewish.
1:47
SPEAKER_01: Her mom's Jewish.
1:48
SPEAKER_01: Her mom's Jewish.
1:50
SPEAKER_01: So being Jewish, I like to call it, you know, like Jew-ish.
1:54
SPEAKER_01: Like we were kind of Jewish for what it's worth from what I understood.
1:58
SPEAKER_01: It was never about a faith in God, but more so culture and traditions of how I was raised.
2:07
SPEAKER_01: So I ended up sleeping at a friend's house on a Saturday night and she said,
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SPEAKER_01: you're welcome to sleep over,
2:14
SPEAKER_01: but I have to go to church in the morning and you can either come with me or sleep
2:18
SPEAKER_01: in whatever you want to do.
2:20
SPEAKER_01: And I was like, well, I'm not going to sleep in your house
2:23
SPEAKER_01: while your whole family goes to church.
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SPEAKER_01: I've always been told we're Jewish.
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SPEAKER_01: We don't believe in Jesus.
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SPEAKER_01: So don't even ask about him.
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SPEAKER_01: Jesus is for Christians.
2:33
SPEAKER_01: And so even me going to church was just sort of me thinking, okay, well, I'm at your house.
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SPEAKER_01: I'll go with you to be there with your family,
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SPEAKER_01: but I already know this isn't for me because I'm Jewish.
2:44
SPEAKER_01: Well, I go and I'm listening to the pastor talk about Abraham,
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SPEAKER_01: Isaac, Jacob, Noah,
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SPEAKER_01: the stories, David, that I know about in Judaism, the things I know,
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SPEAKER_01: the people I know from Torah and In the Tanakh, and I'm like, wait, I'm at church.
3:05
SPEAKER_01: How do they know my people?
3:09
SPEAKER_01: Like, these are my Jewish people that I know, but yet the pastor is talking about them?
3:14
SPEAKER_01: And maybe that's my own ignorance, to be fair.
3:17
SPEAKER_01: But I genuinely thought that being Jewish
3:22
SPEAKER_01: and then being Christian were two totally separate religions,
3:26
SPEAKER_01: not that Christianity was built upon religion.
3:31
SPEAKER_01: Judaism.
3:33
SPEAKER_01: Because the New Testament is all the continuation from the Old Testament.
3:38
SPEAKER_01: So all that to say, I was mind blown.
3:41
SPEAKER_01: So I'm sitting in church.
3:43
SPEAKER_01: I'm listening to them preach and talk about Jesus and how he is the Messiah.
3:48
SPEAKER_01: And I know the Jewish people are waiting on the Messiah to come,
3:52
SPEAKER_01: but they're saying that he came and it's Jesus and So I just have tons of questions,
3:58
SPEAKER_01: but I'm crying and I can't explain why I'm crying.
4:02
SPEAKER_01: I don't understand it.
4:04
SPEAKER_01: But I was just so moved.
4:06
SPEAKER_01: And scripture tells us that it's like the veil is removed from our eyes.
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SPEAKER_01: That I didn't believe I was blind, but now I see.
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SPEAKER_01: And I don't have the answers.
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SPEAKER_01: I don't have the theological reasoning for that.
4:18
SPEAKER_01: All I know is what I felt, which was the purest form of love I'd ever felt in my life.
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SPEAKER_01: And I just needed to know more about Jesus.
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SPEAKER_00: Like how Paul was blinded and then he could suddenly see again and saw Jesus.
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SPEAKER_01: Yes. Or that story in scripture with the blind man that the Pharisees call him
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SPEAKER_01: in and like, you were blind. He's like, look, I don't have the answers.
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SPEAKER_01: I don't know what to tell you. All I know is I encountered Jesus.
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SPEAKER_01: I was blind. He told me to see.
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SPEAKER_01: Now I can see. That's all I got.
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SPEAKER_00: I love that. That's you.
4:50
SPEAKER_01: That's all I got.
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SPEAKER_00: With the parents who didn't want to admit that it was Jesus, right?
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SPEAKER_01: Yes. Yes.
4:57
SPEAKER_01: So I go home and I had a family friend.
5:01
SPEAKER_01: She was our neighbor growing up and she was a Christian
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SPEAKER_01: And I was just telling her I went to church.
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SPEAKER_01: They're talking about Jewish people.
5:10
SPEAKER_01: I don't get it because I'm Jewish, but they're also talking about Jesus.
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SPEAKER_01: Also, Jesus is Jewish.
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SPEAKER_01: The disciples are Jewish.
5:17
SPEAKER_01: I'm just confused, but also so excited because I feel like I'm learning new things
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SPEAKER_01: that I had never been exposed to before.
5:24
SPEAKER_01: And she said, that's the Holy Spirit that you encountered that revealed to you
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SPEAKER_01: that Jesus is the Messiah.
5:31
SPEAKER_01: So she gets me a Bible and And she just said, read it.
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SPEAKER_01: Get to know Jesus.
5:37
SPEAKER_01: And you don't have to have all the answers right away.
5:39
SPEAKER_01: You're not going to have the answers.
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SPEAKER_01: And it's a lifelong journey.
5:42
SPEAKER_01: We're never going to have all the answers.
5:44
SPEAKER_01: But I want to encourage you to just have this Bible and get to know the life of Jesus.
5:49
SPEAKER_01: She started talking to me about how the Gospels are Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John.
5:55
SPEAKER_01: And kind of trying to explain the Bible a little bit.
5:58
SPEAKER_01: Because I can understand at first it's a bit overwhelming. It's this huge book.
6:01
SPEAKER_01: And where do I start?
6:03
SPEAKER_01: Well, I get this Bible and I am just on fire for God. I'm reading.
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SPEAKER_01: I'm learning.
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SPEAKER_01: I am so excited about all the things that I'm learning about Jesus.
6:16
SPEAKER_01: Well, I'm meeting with the pastor of the church
6:21
SPEAKER_01: and weekly I had set up these like reoccurring meetings to ask him some
6:24
SPEAKER_01: of my hard questions.
6:26
SPEAKER_01: Why don't Jews believe in Jesus.
6:29
SPEAKER_01: What about all the religions in the world?
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SPEAKER_01: Why do bad things happen to good people and good things happen to bad people?
6:36
SPEAKER_01: And just asking all these questions and he is explaining things to me. I'm learning.
6:41
SPEAKER_01: I'm just continuing to read scripture and I decided
6:46
SPEAKER_01: to basically Take the scriptures
6:50
SPEAKER_01: and live them out.
6:52
SPEAKER_01: Essentially, I would read it and it would say that you can lay your hands
6:56
SPEAKER_01: on the sick and they would be healed, that you can pray for people.
6:58
SPEAKER_01: You can carry one another's burdens.
7:00
SPEAKER_01: You can tell people about Jesus, go into all the world and preach the gospel,
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SPEAKER_01: make disciples, baptize them.
7:07
SPEAKER_01: So if I'm in, I'm a very zero or a hundred.
7:09
SPEAKER_01: Like if I'm in, I'm in this.
7:12
SPEAKER_01: So I would go out and pray for people on the streets and be in the grocery store with my mom.
7:17
SPEAKER_01: Mind you, my mom is Jewish.
7:19
SPEAKER_01: My whole family is Jewish.
7:21
SPEAKER_01: I am on this, you know, exploring Jesus, following Jesus path.
7:26
SPEAKER_01: So I'd be in the grocery store with my mom and be like, wait, mom, one second.
7:29
SPEAKER_01: Like, I just have to go talk to that person over there.
7:32
SPEAKER_01: And my mom's like, well, do you know them?
7:33
SPEAKER_01: And I'm like, no, I have to tell them about Jesus.
7:35
SPEAKER_01: How
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SPEAKER_00: old were you at this point?
7:39
SPEAKER_00: Sixteen.
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SPEAKER_00: That is so precious.
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SPEAKER_00: She must have thought you were crazy.
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SPEAKER_01: Oh, she – well, it gets better, really.
7:46
SPEAKER_01: She definitely thought I was crazy.
7:48
SPEAKER_01: So I'm going out.
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SPEAKER_01: I'm praying for people.
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SPEAKER_01: I'm telling people God loves them.
7:52
SPEAKER_01: I'm like, look, I know this might be so random,
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SPEAKER_01: but I just felt the Lord highlight you to me,
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SPEAKER_01: and I just hope you have a beautiful day.
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SPEAKER_01: Is there anything I could be praying for you for?
8:01
SPEAKER_01: And often they would say yes and be receptive and be like, wow, like, thank you.
8:06
SPEAKER_01: Even if they didn't really believe or they're like, I don't know, they'd still be kind.
8:10
SPEAKER_01: Or they'd be like, yeah, sure. Yeah. My family.
8:13
SPEAKER_01: And I'm like, yeah, I'm definitely going to keep you in prayer.
8:15
SPEAKER_01: Actually, can I just pray with you right now?
8:17
SPEAKER_01: As I'm like already putting my hand on their shoulder.
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SPEAKER_01: They're like, sure.
8:21
SPEAKER_01: So I'd be praying for people.
8:23
SPEAKER_01: My mom, like you said, thought I was crazy.
8:27
SPEAKER_01: And so I was getting ready to go to youth church camp with my church.
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SPEAKER_01: And my dad signed the papers.
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SPEAKER_01: My parents are divorced.
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SPEAKER_01: My dad signed the papers.
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SPEAKER_01: And I'm getting ready to walk out the doors.
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SPEAKER_01: And my mom said, where are you going? I didn't tell her.
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SPEAKER_01: In hindsight, I probably should have communicated to her that I was leaving
8:51
SPEAKER_01: for a week to go to youth church camp.
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SPEAKER_01: Well, anyways, I didn't tell her because I told my dad.
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SPEAKER_01: And I said, mom, I'm going to church camp with my church.
9:03
SPEAKER_01: And she said, church camp? No, you're not.
9:06
SPEAKER_01: Who signed your papers?
9:08
SPEAKER_01: And then I told her my dad signed the paper.
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SPEAKER_01: That threw her for Another looping.
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SPEAKER_01: It's cool to be able to have joy about it now, eight years later, mind you.
9:17
SPEAKER_01: But at the time, it was definitely very, very hard because you're misunderstood.
9:22
SPEAKER_01: It's my mom and she feels I'm betraying our family.
9:27
SPEAKER_01: She feels that I'm just totally going against her.
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SPEAKER_01: It's disrespectful.
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SPEAKER_01: How could I do this to my grandma?
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SPEAKER_01: What about everything that the Jewish people have gone through?
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SPEAKER_01: And the things Christians have done that's evil in the name of Christ,
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SPEAKER_01: like it was very, very hard for her.
9:46
SPEAKER_01: And she said, if you walk out those doors right now, you are not coming back home.
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SPEAKER_01: And I said, okay, he's worth it.
9:53
SPEAKER_01: And I left.
9:55
SPEAKER_01: So my mom essentially kicked me out of the house for believing in Jesus
10:01
SPEAKER_01: and accepting him as my Lord and Savior.
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SPEAKER_00: What was going through your mind at the time? Yeah.
10:07
SPEAKER_00: When you walked out that door and she said, don't come back.
10:10
SPEAKER_00: I mean, were you just a wreck?
10:12
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, I think – well, I got on the bus when I was going to camp and, you know,
10:17
SPEAKER_01: the friends I had met.
10:19
SPEAKER_01: And I said, guys, I think I just got kicked out of my house.
10:24
SPEAKER_01: Actually, I know I just got kicked out of my house.
10:27
SPEAKER_01: But I said – I've been reading the Bible and I see that God comes
10:31
SPEAKER_01: through for his people and that he will provide for me.
10:34
SPEAKER_01: And the Bible tells me that God loves me and he cares about me and the flowers,
10:41
SPEAKER_01: something about he cares for the flowers.
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SPEAKER_01: Like, I don't know.
10:44
SPEAKER_01: Like he is going to take care of me, right?
10:47
SPEAKER_01: And my friends who I just meet were like,
10:51
SPEAKER_01: God is going to come through because you have faith and God is never going
10:55
SPEAKER_01: to be letting the righteous people go forsaken.
10:58
SPEAKER_01: And I'm like, amen.
10:59
SPEAKER_01: That's what I believe too.
11:01
SPEAKER_01: But we don't really know.
11:02
SPEAKER_01: We're literally 16.
11:05
SPEAKER_01: And I don't know what it was.
11:07
SPEAKER_01: It had to have been supernatural grace from God.
11:10
SPEAKER_01: Maybe it didn't hit me either in the moment.
11:12
SPEAKER_01: Like, oh, I'm going to go home in a week and not be able to go home in a week.
11:17
SPEAKER_01: However, I just felt so Full of faith
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SPEAKER_01: and just thankful that I was obedient to God
11:28
SPEAKER_01: and I knew what I believed.
11:29
SPEAKER_01: I knew what I experienced.
11:31
SPEAKER_01: And yeah, sure, maybe I'm being persecuted,
11:34
SPEAKER_01: but consider it pure joy when you go through trials and tribulations of many kinds
11:38
SPEAKER_01: because you know the testing of your faith produces perseverance and endurance
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SPEAKER_01: and it builds your character.
11:45
SPEAKER_01: And so I just had faith and hope.
11:48
SPEAKER_01: That the Lord genuinely and truly did have hope and a future for my life and my family's life.
11:54
SPEAKER_00: It just shows, I mean, you can't please everybody.
11:56
SPEAKER_00: And when you make a decision, the right decision with God,
12:01
SPEAKER_00: it makes sense that you still felt comforted because you knew you made the decision
12:06
SPEAKER_00: that was right.
12:07
SPEAKER_01: Thank you. Yes, 100%.
12:10
SPEAKER_01: When you know Jesus and his love, It just,
12:16
SPEAKER_01: I felt that first love feeling like I could lose everything and he's still worth it
12:20
SPEAKER_01: because I have him.
12:21
SPEAKER_01: And if I have nothing but I have Jesus, I have everything that I need because I have him.
12:27
SPEAKER_01: And so I go and I'm growing in my faith for this week at camp.
12:31
SPEAKER_01: And my friend that I had met told her mom that I got asked to leave my home
12:37
SPEAKER_01: for putting my faith in Jesus.
12:39
SPEAKER_01: So her and her mom took me in to live with them.
12:43
SPEAKER_01: And so through that rest of summer until I was going into my senior year
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SPEAKER_01: of high school, I lived with them and they discipled me.
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SPEAKER_01: They taught me what it is to read, to pray over my meals,
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SPEAKER_01: to change how I act and what I say and how I dress.
13:00
SPEAKER_01: But it wasn't like just outward development of becoming a Some type of way,
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SPEAKER_01: but rather showing me the heart of God.
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SPEAKER_01: And the more I was around them, the more I was learning, the more I was changing.
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SPEAKER_01: And they just were discipling me and loving me.
13:15
SPEAKER_01: They took me in to live with them when I was kicked out.
13:18
SPEAKER_00: Seems like it was God's plan for you to live with them as hard as it was at the time
13:22
SPEAKER_00: because you learned so much.
13:24
SPEAKER_00: I mean, what if you had been living at home with your mom?
13:27
SPEAKER_00: I mean, things could have gone a different direction, I guess.
13:31
SPEAKER_01: 100%.
13:32
SPEAKER_01: That would have been, I think, really hard and a lot more questions, a lot more confusion.
13:36
SPEAKER_01: But through that summer, for those two months, that was a grace period,
13:39
SPEAKER_01: kind of like you're saying, where the Lord opened that door for me to be there
13:44
SPEAKER_01: and feel loved and encouraged in my decision and poured into.
13:48
SPEAKER_01: So then going into my senior year,
13:50
SPEAKER_01: the friend who took me and ended up going to college, she was one year older,
13:54
SPEAKER_01: and I still had my senior year of high school.
13:57
SPEAKER_01: And my mom had said, I miss you.
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SPEAKER_01: Come back home. I'm sorry.
14:01
SPEAKER_01: Can you just spend your senior year with me for school?
14:05
SPEAKER_01: This felt like a big decision
14:07
SPEAKER_01: that you made abruptly and now you're praying
14:12
SPEAKER_01: for people and you're going to church camp and you're betraying our family.
14:18
SPEAKER_01: But I love you and I'm trying to support you.
14:21
SPEAKER_01: I don't get it, but I love you.
14:23
SPEAKER_01: Can you please come back home?
14:26
SPEAKER_01: And I said, yes, honor your father and mother.
14:29
SPEAKER_01: And if my mom is asking me to come back home, then I'm going to go.
14:35
SPEAKER_01: And I went back home.
14:37
SPEAKER_01: The fruit of my life spoke for itself.
14:40
SPEAKER_01: Scripture tells us that you'll know a disciple of Jesus by their fruit,
14:44
SPEAKER_01: by the way they live their life.
14:47
SPEAKER_01: It's not just preaching Bible verses at my mom.
14:50
SPEAKER_01: It's not trying to fight her with different scripture.
14:53
SPEAKER_01: No, it's the way that I love, the joy I carry, the kindness I show to her and to other people.
15:00
SPEAKER_01: That's what led my mom and my family ultimately, spoiler, to come.
15:04
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, spoiler.
15:06
SPEAKER_01: Spoiler, to come to know the Lord.
15:08
SPEAKER_00: It's the tearjerker part.
15:10
SPEAKER_01: It's really, yeah, what led my mom to know Jesus.
15:14
SPEAKER_01: And so I was living back home and she would throw a book on my bed
15:19
SPEAKER_01: when I'd come home from school and it would be like, betrayed,
15:22
SPEAKER_01: Jewish person believes in Jesus.
15:25
SPEAKER_01: Or send me things throughout the school day that are articles
15:29
SPEAKER_01: of 47 reasons Jewish people don't believe in Jesus and be like, read this,
15:35
SPEAKER_01: like you need to learn and you're confused right now.
15:40
SPEAKER_01: And she'd just bring up different scriptures that she would Google and send them
15:44
SPEAKER_01: to me or bring them up and put me on the spot.
15:47
SPEAKER_01: Again, I am not a theologian.
15:51
SPEAKER_01: I'm a high school girl trying to figure it out.
15:53
SPEAKER_01: Yet, if I'm honest,
15:56
SPEAKER_01: I didn't feel anything frustrating in that moment.
16:01
SPEAKER_01: I felt so excited every time my mom brought up
16:06
SPEAKER_01: a verse or sent me an article or...
16:10
SPEAKER_01: Through this book on my bed,
16:12
SPEAKER_01: I loved that I had the ability to then talk about Jesus
16:16
SPEAKER_01: because it wasn't me bringing it up and trying to force something on her.
16:21
SPEAKER_01: She would bring things up to me or challenge me.
16:26
SPEAKER_01: And again, I didn't know everything.
16:28
SPEAKER_01: And so if I didn't know, I would just say, I don't know,
16:30
SPEAKER_01: but I'm going to ask my pastor and I'll get back to you.
16:33
SPEAKER_01: However, I do have a question for you.
16:36
SPEAKER_01: Isaiah 53.
16:37
SPEAKER_01: Can you read this for me?
16:39
SPEAKER_01: And she would be like, sure, like I'll read, what is it?
16:43
SPEAKER_01: And I'd show it to her.
16:46
SPEAKER_01: And she'd be like, I don't want to read things about Jesus.
16:48
SPEAKER_01: And I'm like, mom, this is Old Testament.
16:51
SPEAKER_01: That's my point.
16:53
SPEAKER_01: Like the suffering servant peers for our transgressions who bears the sins of the world.
16:58
SPEAKER_01: Who is that?
16:59
SPEAKER_01: Who is that to you?
17:00
SPEAKER_01: And we would just have these conversations.
17:03
SPEAKER_01: And so I'm like uno reversing on her like, wait, but mom,
17:07
SPEAKER_01: I actually have a question for you now that you asked me one.
17:10
SPEAKER_01: What do you think about this?
17:12
SPEAKER_01: And we were having these conversations about Judaism and Christianity and Jesus
17:18
SPEAKER_01: and it was opening her eyes and And I felt unwavered.
17:24
SPEAKER_01: I felt steady, firm, and secure no matter what she threw my way,
17:28
SPEAKER_01: no matter what could have hindered.
17:30
SPEAKER_01: I felt so firm and secure and steadfast in my faith in the Lord.
17:34
SPEAKER_01: And so when she persecuted me,
17:37
SPEAKER_01: I really welcomed it because I knew it was more opportunity for me to preach
17:41
SPEAKER_01: the gospel to her.
17:42
SPEAKER_00: Kind of fun.
17:44
SPEAKER_00: Like sometimes I proactively seek out, okay, what's the Jewish argument against this?
17:48
SPEAKER_00: In Psalm 22, I believe it also talks about suffering someone being pierced
17:53
SPEAKER_00: and were able to like look into that wasn't
17:56
SPEAKER_00: the original word used it was like devoured by lions but then the more
18:00
SPEAKER_00: and more I researched it the words look similar in Hebrew but it turns out
18:04
SPEAKER_00: the Dead Sea Scrolls version says pierced So,
18:08
SPEAKER_00: you know they might have an argument but if you dig deeper I know we're right.
18:14
SPEAKER_01: Right and that's so amazing that you were able to like look into that and research
18:18
SPEAKER_01: that because You're Jewish as well, right?
18:21
SPEAKER_01: Which is just so cool that we've always been told we're Jewish.
18:26
SPEAKER_01: We don't believe in Jesus.
18:28
SPEAKER_01: He's not for us.
18:29
SPEAKER_01: But Jesus is Jewish. The disciples are Jewish.
18:32
SPEAKER_01: And you can be Jewish and follow the Messiah that the Jewish people are still waiting on.
18:39
SPEAKER_01: We just accept him.
18:41
SPEAKER_01: We recognize him as the Messiah.
18:43
SPEAKER_00: I can argue it's even more Jewish. Right.
18:46
SPEAKER_00: Right.
18:47
SPEAKER_00: Before we finish your story,
18:49
SPEAKER_00: you were talking earlier about how your mom said that you were betraying your people
18:53
SPEAKER_00: and sort of turning your back on Judaism.
18:56
SPEAKER_00: Do you think that is a major barrier for a lot of Jews to even open
19:01
SPEAKER_00: the New Testament or entertain the idea of Jesus,
19:04
SPEAKER_00: even if they're not really feeling much in their hearts when it comes to Judaism?
19:10
SPEAKER_01: 100%.
19:12
SPEAKER_01: I would say that that might be One of the biggest factors for Jewish people
19:18
SPEAKER_01: to put their faith in Jesus is just what their family would think
19:21
SPEAKER_01: and the persecution that they'll endure and turning their back on family
19:27
SPEAKER_01: because Jewish is also traditions and family and culture.
19:32
SPEAKER_01: And I really do believe that it can feel very scary for somebody who's Jewish.
19:39
SPEAKER_01: They're literally told, don't believe in Jesus.
19:43
SPEAKER_01: Like whatever you do, Don't believe in Jesus.
19:47
SPEAKER_01: And so to make that decision feels very uncertain for what the future looks like.
19:53
SPEAKER_01: Again, they can be cut off from their family.
19:56
SPEAKER_01: They're going to go through persecution, lots of questioning, feelings of betrayal.
20:03
SPEAKER_01: And so 100% it can feel very,
20:06
SPEAKER_01: very scary to not even accept Jesus, you know,
20:10
SPEAKER_01: as their personal Lord and Savior, but To even look into it, research it,
20:15
SPEAKER_01: get a Bible and start reading.
20:18
SPEAKER_01: Like how do you know you don't believe in Jesus unless you read about him for yourself?
20:24
SPEAKER_01: That's something that always... Confused me.
20:27
SPEAKER_01: It's like, so you're not thinking for yourself?
20:30
SPEAKER_01: Like you're just told that your Jewish don't believe in Jesus?
20:34
SPEAKER_01: Well, why don't you read the New Testament for yourself and then make your own decision?
20:40
SPEAKER_01: That's okay if you read and you decide, I don't want to believe in Jesus.
20:44
SPEAKER_01: I'm reading, but I just don't believe it's not for me. Fine.
20:48
SPEAKER_01: That's your personal decision.
20:50
SPEAKER_01: But I really would love
20:51
SPEAKER_01: to encourage maybe there's somebody listening right now who's Jewish
20:54
SPEAKER_01: that is listening and kind of confused or concerned, but also curious.
20:59
SPEAKER_01: Like, I just want to encourage you to think for yourself and then make
21:05
SPEAKER_01: an educated decision about whether you do believe that Jesus is the Messiah or not.
21:10
SPEAKER_01: I'm not here to persuade you or convince you.
21:13
SPEAKER_01: This is just my testimony.
21:15
SPEAKER_01: This is what I did and how I learned.
21:17
SPEAKER_01: And if you want to do that for yourself, I'd encourage you to do that.
21:20
SPEAKER_01: Just literally learn, read, and then make a decision.
21:24
SPEAKER_00: I don't know about you, but I never read a word of the New Testament
21:28
SPEAKER_00: until my heart was open to it and I became a Christian.
21:33
SPEAKER_01: Right. Me neither.
21:35
SPEAKER_00: I think that's the case for a lot of people.
21:37
SPEAKER_00: It's like you'd feel guilty even opening the Bible somehow. Right.
21:42
SPEAKER_00: So maybe we can continue with your testimony and then we'll talk about – Yes.
21:48
SPEAKER_00: So kind
21:52
SPEAKER_01: of left off with the persecution at home and I was leaving to go to college
21:59
SPEAKER_01: where I went to Southeastern University and I got my degree in Christian ministry.
22:04
SPEAKER_01: So I studied theology and But I was going to college and my mom had said,
22:10
SPEAKER_01: I'll go to church with you for the last two weeks before you leave to go to college.
22:16
SPEAKER_01: And I was like, okay, mom, thank you for just coming with me and sitting with me
22:20
SPEAKER_01: before I leave to go off to college.
22:23
SPEAKER_01: And I ended up leaving.
22:25
SPEAKER_01: Well, come to find out my mom had continued to go to church with the people
22:30
SPEAKER_01: who took me in, Sophie and her mom, Didi.
22:33
SPEAKER_01: Didi led my mom to the Lord while I was away at college.
22:37
SPEAKER_01: The family that took me in when my mom kicked me out led my mom to the Lord.
22:43
SPEAKER_00: That is the most Christian thing you can do.
22:45
SPEAKER_00: So this family that took you in because your mom kicked you out,
22:49
SPEAKER_00: they should be like, we don't want anything to do with her.
22:52
SPEAKER_00: But instead, they wanted to introduce her to Jesus.
22:55
SPEAKER_00: That's so cool.
22:56
SPEAKER_01: Like love her.
22:59
SPEAKER_01: She didn't know.
23:00
SPEAKER_01: Like Jesus up on the cross, forgive them.
23:02
SPEAKER_01: They don't know what they're doing.
23:03
SPEAKER_01: My mom just didn't know.
23:06
SPEAKER_01: And she loved me.
23:08
SPEAKER_01: She didn't want me making a decision that I was going to regret
23:10
SPEAKER_01: if I didn't know what I was doing.
23:12
SPEAKER_01: And I just love my mom so much.
23:15
SPEAKER_01: And so she ended up, her story is kind of funny because in church,
23:19
SPEAKER_01: the pastor will say, if you want to accept Jesus in your life,
23:23
SPEAKER_01: you can just repeat this prayer after me.
23:25
SPEAKER_01: You know, Jesus come into my heart be my Lord and Savior I repent of my sins Be
23:31
SPEAKER_01: the Lord leader savior of my life And My mom I guess would just like sit there
23:36
SPEAKER_01: And she's like repeating And well,
23:39
SPEAKER_01: Deedee and my mom were going to get lunch at Houston's and Deedee was like,
23:43
SPEAKER_01: so did you ever like say the prayer to accept Jesus in your heart?
23:47
SPEAKER_01: Are you still curious?
23:49
SPEAKER_01: Are you still, where are you at with what you believe about Jesus?
23:52
SPEAKER_01: And my mom's like, no, I believe.
23:54
SPEAKER_01: And I've been coming every week and really learning.
23:58
SPEAKER_01: I can see how it's Building off the scriptures of the Old Testament.
24:02
SPEAKER_01: And, you know, the pastor does say at the end, like, repeat after me.
24:06
SPEAKER_01: So I don't know. I just repeat after him when he says that.
24:09
SPEAKER_01: And he's like, but did you like make your own in your heart? She's like, I think so.
24:11
SPEAKER_01: When I repeat the prayer.
24:13
SPEAKER_01: And he's like, you know what? Just to be sure.
24:16
SPEAKER_01: Let's do it again together right now.
24:17
SPEAKER_01: So it's a real moment.
24:20
SPEAKER_00: They did it at lunch.
24:22
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, they did it at lunch together in the parking lot,
24:25
SPEAKER_01: which I just find to be so special that it was like, no.
24:28
SPEAKER_01: Let's make sure you really understand what you're doing, that Jesus is the Lord of your life.
24:32
SPEAKER_01: You're accepting him into your heart.
24:34
SPEAKER_01: And my mom did that.
24:36
SPEAKER_01: I ended up getting baptized and started reading and learning and growing
24:41
SPEAKER_01: and joining Bible studies.
24:43
SPEAKER_01: So my mom came to know the Lord because she had
24:47
SPEAKER_01: a vision of Jesus where There was
24:51
SPEAKER_01: a rod and a staff in his hand and he was at the top of a staircase and my mom was
24:56
SPEAKER_01: at the very bottom looking up at him
24:59
SPEAKER_01: and she would say there was this ominous clouds situation going on.
25:05
SPEAKER_01: She just knew it was in the presence of God and he said just go home And she felt
25:10
SPEAKER_01: so the fear of the Lord and she
25:17
SPEAKER_01: She knew that it was the scripture that says, it's in Mark, it says,
25:20
SPEAKER_01: go home to your people and tell them about the mercies that I've shown you.
25:26
SPEAKER_01: And she felt that she needed to tell our Orthodox cousins and our family,
25:32
SPEAKER_01: our Jewish community, that she's accepted Jesus into her heart.
25:36
SPEAKER_01: And it feels like that final last test from God to be like,
25:39
SPEAKER_01: if you deny me in front of your friends, I'll deny you in front of my father,
25:42
SPEAKER_01: where God was like, okay, so you believe in me.
25:46
SPEAKER_01: Well, You can't just keep your faith to yourself and being comfortable,
25:50
SPEAKER_01: afraid of what other people will think.
25:53
SPEAKER_01: Are you trying to please people?
25:55
SPEAKER_01: Are you trying to still please man?
25:56
SPEAKER_01: Are you trying to please God?
25:57
SPEAKER_01: Because if you're trying to please people, you're not a servant of Christ.
26:02
SPEAKER_01: And my mom ended up posting her whole testimony on Facebook, social media,
26:10
SPEAKER_01: and her getting baptized and was outspoken about her belief in Jesus
26:15
SPEAKER_01: and Her whole life completely changed
26:17
SPEAKER_01: and we would lead mother-daughter Bible studies.
26:20
SPEAKER_01: So now she's on fire for the Lord.
26:24
SPEAKER_01: Then my brother had sent me a text.
26:27
SPEAKER_01: I have triplet brothers.
26:29
SPEAKER_01: One of them said, I'll never be a Christian.
26:32
SPEAKER_01: The same way you know Christianity is for you is the same way I know I'm not
26:36
SPEAKER_01: a Christian and I never will be.
26:38
SPEAKER_01: So you don't have to try and force your beliefs or try to convince anyone your way is right.
26:44
SPEAKER_01: I know there is zero shot.
26:45
SPEAKER_01: I accept Jesus as my Lord and Savior.
26:48
SPEAKER_01: Does this really harsh text telling me That he's never going to believe in Jesus.
26:54
SPEAKER_01: And I screenshotted it.
26:55
SPEAKER_01: I put it in a folder called God's Promises in my phone because I knew
27:00
SPEAKER_01: that when the Lord encountered my family,
27:02
SPEAKER_01: that Dalton could preach this message one day from a platform
27:06
SPEAKER_01: about how Jesus is his Lord and Savior.
27:09
SPEAKER_01: And I just chose to have faith because faith is not by sight.
27:14
SPEAKER_01: You know, it's to believe without seeing.
27:16
SPEAKER_01: And I knew that the Lord would encounter my family.
27:22
SPEAKER_01: And so I would just pray and continue to pray and pray.
27:26
SPEAKER_01: I believe in the power of prayer.
27:27
SPEAKER_01: I believe that prayer changes things, not always circumstantially,
27:30
SPEAKER_01: but a hundred percent of the time in our heart.
27:33
SPEAKER_01: And as we continue to pray and seek the Lord, he moves and he responds.
27:37
SPEAKER_01: Well, two years later, he was asking me a lot of questions about God.
27:43
SPEAKER_00: And the fact that you prayed all that time and didn't give up,
27:46
SPEAKER_00: even though you got this anger towards you, it's amazing.
27:50
SPEAKER_01: We can't give up. We have to continue to have hope and have faith and believe.
27:55
SPEAKER_01: And so Dalton would ask me questions.
27:58
SPEAKER_01: And at first I was like, I'm never going to be a Christian in that text.
28:01
SPEAKER_01: But then it would be like, so Tristan, what does God say about this?
28:07
SPEAKER_01: What about cursing?
28:08
SPEAKER_01: What was a curse word back then?
28:10
SPEAKER_01: How do you even know?
28:11
SPEAKER_01: And we would talk about it or like, okay, so I'm just asking, like,
28:16
SPEAKER_01: you're really waiting till marriage.
28:18
SPEAKER_01: I'm like, I am now, you know, like, yes, yes, I am doing that.
28:23
SPEAKER_01: And just ask questions.
28:25
SPEAKER_01: That was definitely making him think and be like, hmm, like, okay, I understand that.
28:31
SPEAKER_01: I don't agree with that, but I see that.
28:34
SPEAKER_01: His girlfriend one year, because he was starting to ask about God.
28:39
SPEAKER_01: She got him a crystal and was like, look, I know you're on this, you know,
28:44
SPEAKER_01: asking about God journey.
28:47
SPEAKER_01: And so I got you this protecting crystal.
28:50
SPEAKER_01: And I was at college and he texted me and said,
28:55
SPEAKER_01: uh, Grayson got me a crystal.
28:59
SPEAKER_01: And like, what do you believe about that?
29:01
SPEAKER_01: What is like the Bible and God's word say about that?
29:05
SPEAKER_00: And I told him like, throw that thing away right now.
29:09
SPEAKER_01: No, I told him, like, don't, you know, entertain those things because we just believe in God.
29:15
SPEAKER_01: We don't seek our healing or our hope in crystals, in tarot cards, in palm readers.
29:22
SPEAKER_01: This isn't just a new age spiritual journey.
29:25
SPEAKER_01: This is Jesus only.
29:27
SPEAKER_01: He is our hope, our faith.
29:29
SPEAKER_01: Our faith is in the one true God.
29:31
SPEAKER_01: But that's what I believe.
29:32
SPEAKER_00: That's what the Bible says. So, I mean...
29:35
SPEAKER_01: And he literally told her to return it.
29:38
SPEAKER_01: And he was like, I talked to Tristan and she said that this isn't good
29:42
SPEAKER_01: and I shouldn't entertain this.
29:44
SPEAKER_01: And so I don't even want this.
29:45
SPEAKER_01: I don't want it. And they returned it.
29:47
SPEAKER_01: And that's when I knew, oh, he might not know fully what he believes.
29:52
SPEAKER_01: And he's on this journey to kind of figure it out.
29:54
SPEAKER_01: But he respects me and he believes what I say about God's word because he's seen
29:59
SPEAKER_01: the fruit of my life change and how I'm living.
30:04
SPEAKER_01: Well...
30:05
SPEAKER_01: Dalton ended up having an encounter with Jesus through,
30:09
SPEAKER_01: his story is really interesting, through a child who had special needs.
30:16
SPEAKER_01: So he goes to this Gary V convention where he meets Matt, the kid with special needs.
30:21
SPEAKER_01: And as Dalton was walking up to him to give him a hug goodbye,
30:28
SPEAKER_01: he had this flashback moment memory.
30:31
SPEAKER_01: We grew up going to a Jewish daycare.
30:34
SPEAKER_01: And...
30:36
SPEAKER_01: I guess in one of his classes,
30:38
SPEAKER_01: a teacher told a parable to the kids to encourage kindness and love.
30:44
SPEAKER_01: Where the story goes, there's a bunch of kids playing on the playground
30:48
SPEAKER_01: and one kid walks up and sees the whole crowd playing on the swings,
30:53
SPEAKER_01: going down the slide, having fun on the playground.
30:56
SPEAKER_01: But one kid has special needs and he's off
31:01
SPEAKER_01: to the side and no one's really paying him any mind.
31:05
SPEAKER_01: The kids aren't inviting him to come play with them.
31:07
SPEAKER_01: He's the outcast.
31:09
SPEAKER_01: And so this kid who's walking up to the playground has the choice to go and be
31:14
SPEAKER_01: with the crowd and be with everyone else or to go and show love and care
31:19
SPEAKER_01: and compassion to the one who's set aside.
31:24
SPEAKER_01: And so this child had the choice to choose what to do.
31:28
SPEAKER_01: And he went to show compassion and to play with the kid who had special needs and was set aside.
31:35
SPEAKER_01: All to find out that that child was actually an angel in disguise sent from God
31:42
SPEAKER_01: to test the heart of people.
31:45
SPEAKER_01: And Dalton got so emotional thinking about that story because he loved Matt.
31:50
SPEAKER_01: And like he's at this conference, there's all these people, there's all the crowds,
31:53
SPEAKER_01: but that was who he chose to spend his time with.
31:56
SPEAKER_01: Well, he gives him a hug goodbye and Dalton says he had a speech impediment,
32:01
SPEAKER_01: but when he hugged him, He heard this thundering,
32:04
SPEAKER_01: he would say like fatherly voice from Matt say, I see you. I love you.
32:10
SPEAKER_01: I'm proud of you. And I need you to stay positive like I am.
32:14
SPEAKER_01: And then pulled away from him and the speech impediment and the mannerisms came back
32:19
SPEAKER_01: and Dalton was emotional.
32:21
SPEAKER_01: He felt the presence of God.
32:23
SPEAKER_01: It was this voice that was not Matt.
32:28
SPEAKER_01: And then from that moment, something shifted in him.
32:31
SPEAKER_01: Where he would go out at the conference and pray for people in the name of Jesus.
32:36
SPEAKER_01: Just like that.
32:37
SPEAKER_01: He walked up to someone and he goes, I don't know what I'm doing,
32:41
SPEAKER_01: but I believe in God and I'm having this moment with Jesus.
32:46
SPEAKER_01: Like I've seen my sister go out and pray for people on the streets.
32:50
SPEAKER_01: Can I pray for you?
32:51
SPEAKER_01: And the guy said, sure.
32:53
SPEAKER_01: And he fell on his knees under the power of God crying as Dalton prayed for him.
32:59
SPEAKER_01: And now Dalton has an online ministry and he leads people to the Lord and he teaches the Bible.
33:04
SPEAKER_01: He got baptized. He's on fire for Jesus, married to the girlfriend.
33:08
SPEAKER_01: She came to know the Lord.
33:09
SPEAKER_01: And before they got married, she got saved.
33:12
SPEAKER_00: The crystal girlfriend.
33:13
SPEAKER_01: The crystal girlfriend. Perfect.
33:15
SPEAKER_01: Is on fire for Jesus.
33:16
SPEAKER_01: She got baptized.
33:18
SPEAKER_01: So that's all shifted.
33:20
SPEAKER_01: Amazing.
33:24
SPEAKER_01: And the last little part of my family puzzle here.
33:29
SPEAKER_01: Is my other brother Landon.
33:31
SPEAKER_01: He had said he is atheist, doesn't want anything to do with Jesus.
33:35
SPEAKER_01: Well, he met a girl and the girl is Christian.
33:40
SPEAKER_01: And he would tell me, which I just find to be so sweet, that when he met her,
33:46
SPEAKER_01: he said, Tristan, you would love her.
33:48
SPEAKER_01: She reminds me of you.
33:50
SPEAKER_01: Like she's Christian and she's so sweet.
33:53
SPEAKER_01: I can't wait for you to meet her.
33:55
SPEAKER_01: But I do have a question.
33:57
SPEAKER_01: Like, so...
33:59
SPEAKER_01: She, you know, doesn't want to do things before marriage.
34:04
SPEAKER_01: And she, you know, believes this.
34:07
SPEAKER_01: And she brought up this Bible verse about like loving people who are your enemies.
34:11
SPEAKER_01: But I don't really get why you would do that.
34:15
SPEAKER_01: But I don't want to tell her that.
34:16
SPEAKER_01: So can I call you and just kind of talk about some of these things with you
34:19
SPEAKER_01: and then talk to her?
34:20
SPEAKER_01: So he was coming to me.
34:23
SPEAKER_01: To help have his questions get answered and see what I think and what I believe about it.
34:28
SPEAKER_01: So my whole family started to seek Jesus and the Lord just allowed me
34:33
SPEAKER_01: to literally be his vessel in my family.
34:36
SPEAKER_01: And none of this is by me because all of who I am is Jesus.
34:40
SPEAKER_01: Like I just love the Lord.
34:43
SPEAKER_01: And I love my family and I only ever want to point them to him.
34:48
SPEAKER_01: Like I did nothing except love God and love my family.
34:51
SPEAKER_01: And God did all the rest to save my family.
34:55
SPEAKER_00: So two brothers now saved.
34:58
SPEAKER_01: Two brothers now saved.
34:59
SPEAKER_00: What about the third?
35:00
SPEAKER_00: The story's not over yet.
35:03
SPEAKER_00: God's still writing it, I guess.
35:05
SPEAKER_01: God is still writing.
35:07
SPEAKER_01: And my third brother...
35:08
SPEAKER_01: He is not living for the Lord just yet.
35:12
SPEAKER_01: I do believe that God will encounter him and meet him in the Lord's timing,
35:17
SPEAKER_01: but he currently works at a gay bar and he was doing drag
35:23
SPEAKER_01: for a little bit and kind
35:26
SPEAKER_01: of still figuring out what he believes about God.
35:29
SPEAKER_01: He loves the idea of And I would say he believes in something,
35:36
SPEAKER_01: a higher power for sure.
35:37
SPEAKER_01: He just doesn't quite know what name he believes.
35:41
SPEAKER_00: It can be a really tough barrier.
35:43
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
35:45
SPEAKER_00: With that lifestyle, I think.
35:47
SPEAKER_01: Yes.
35:47
SPEAKER_01: It's not for him about the Jewish roots aspect as much as it is how...
35:57
SPEAKER_01: Poorly at times Christians can reflect the heart of God to the LGBTQ community.
36:04
SPEAKER_01: Not to say we need to love and accept homosexuality because scripture draws
36:11
SPEAKER_01: a very clear line that that is wrong and that is sin.
36:14
SPEAKER_01: And I will say that my brother knows that I believe that,
36:18
SPEAKER_01: that I believe that homosexuality is sin and I love him.
36:22
SPEAKER_01: And he is so much more than just My gay brother.
36:27
SPEAKER_01: He is a son. He is my brother. He's a friend.
36:31
SPEAKER_01: He's full of love and kindness.
36:32
SPEAKER_01: He has hobbies.
36:34
SPEAKER_01: There is so much more to my brother than his sexuality.
36:39
SPEAKER_01: And so when we talk and he calls me and we catch up, we just talked last night.
36:44
SPEAKER_01: He would say, like, he's closest with me out of anyone in his life.
36:48
SPEAKER_01: And he knows that I love him.
36:50
SPEAKER_01: He knows where I stand and But I don't have to agree with the lifestyle to love the person.
36:56
SPEAKER_01: And he knows that.
36:58
SPEAKER_01: So God's still working and God's still writing his story for sure.
37:02
SPEAKER_00: And I'll pray for him for sure.
37:04
SPEAKER_01: Oh, thank you.
37:05
SPEAKER_00: Yes.
37:07
SPEAKER_00: So now you are leading youth ministry at, is it that same church?
37:11
SPEAKER_01: It's not the same church.
37:13
SPEAKER_01: It's a church down the street though, but still so close with the church that I got saved with.
37:17
SPEAKER_01: And, you know, we're all community, capital C church.
37:20
SPEAKER_01: But yes, it's not a different church that I was doing their young adult ministry
37:24
SPEAKER_01: for a year and a half.
37:26
SPEAKER_01: And just a couple months ago, I switched over from young adults to youth ministry.
37:31
SPEAKER_00: I'm sure you're having a tremendous impact there.
37:34
SPEAKER_01: Thank you, Rebecca. That's so sweet. Yeah.
37:37
SPEAKER_01: Just to be able to pour into the next generation and Teach them about God
37:41
SPEAKER_01: and help them grow in their faith.
37:43
SPEAKER_01: Know that God loves them, has a plan for them and encourage them in the things of God.
37:51
SPEAKER_01: I am so blessed to be there and I'm so thankful for them.
37:54
SPEAKER_01: I love them a lot.
37:57
SPEAKER_00: So do you have a vision of where you'll be in 10 years or more?
38:00
SPEAKER_00: Like what God's plans are for you?
38:03
SPEAKER_01: Gosh, this will be fun to look back on in 10 years and be like, what?
38:07
SPEAKER_01: Yes.
38:09
SPEAKER_00: Mine would be very different.
38:10
SPEAKER_01: Really?
38:12
SPEAKER_00: I didn't find Jesus until the past few years.
38:15
SPEAKER_00: I'm in my 30s.
38:17
SPEAKER_01: Okay.
38:17
SPEAKER_00: You found Jesus a lot earlier, which is awesome.
38:22
SPEAKER_01: What would I say?
38:23
SPEAKER_01: I would probably say I have such a big heart
38:28
SPEAKER_01: to educate Jewish people that Jesus is
38:31
SPEAKER_01: the Messiah and to educate Christians
38:35
SPEAKER_01: that Jesus is Jewish and what that looks like
38:40
SPEAKER_01: to reach Jewish people and engage them in different scriptures to bring up,
38:46
SPEAKER_01: to have conversations, but also we're following a Jewish man.
38:50
SPEAKER_01: Jesus is a Jewish rabbi.
38:52
SPEAKER_01: What were his traditions?
38:54
SPEAKER_01: What about Passover?
38:55
SPEAKER_01: What was he celebrating?
38:56
SPEAKER_01: What was his upbringing like?
38:58
SPEAKER_01: And to learn some more of the Jewish aspect of Jesus,
39:03
SPEAKER_01: I just find builds upon our faith.
39:06
SPEAKER_01: And so I would say in 10 years, gosh,
39:10
SPEAKER_01: I just hope to be a light in that space of educating
39:14
SPEAKER_01: and unifying Jewish people
39:18
SPEAKER_01: and Christians, but Messianic Jews, which are Jewish people who believe in Jesus.
39:24
SPEAKER_01: So to kind of be in that space would be something that I'd want to do in the next 10 years.
39:29
SPEAKER_00: That is beautiful.
39:30
SPEAKER_00: Now, I'm just curious, you talk about Passover and Do you
39:34
SPEAKER_00: and your family observe any Jewish traditions or customs?
39:39
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, thanks for asking.
39:40
SPEAKER_01: We still do the holidays.
39:44
SPEAKER_01: So that's, I would say,
39:45
SPEAKER_01: tradition that we still do Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur and Hanukkah.
39:53
SPEAKER_01: We do Passover.
39:54
SPEAKER_01: And so...
39:55
SPEAKER_01: We observe them.
39:57
SPEAKER_01: However, we do bring Jesus into it.
40:00
SPEAKER_01: So when the disciples are having the last supper, it was Passover.
40:04
SPEAKER_01: And so we'll do Passover, the Seder played and read the story in Exodus.
40:09
SPEAKER_01: But also we'll talk about the blood of the lamb that covers over the doorposts.
40:16
SPEAKER_01: We then will transition our Passover from being just about the Old Testament
40:20
SPEAKER_01: to then being like, this is Actually,
40:22
SPEAKER_01: Jesus is the Passover lamb who his blood shed for us is what causes us to pass
40:28
SPEAKER_01: over from death to life and protects us from the angel of death, if you will,
40:33
SPEAKER_01: protects us from hell.
40:36
SPEAKER_01: And we would talk about these things from the Old Testament and the New Testament.
40:41
SPEAKER_01: So we still observe traditions, but it's not as a matter of salvation.
40:46
SPEAKER_01: We don't keep traditions thinking that that's what gets us into heaven.
40:50
SPEAKER_01: We do it because it's culture and It emphasizes the importance of Jesus coming.
40:56
SPEAKER_00: That's really nice.
40:57
SPEAKER_00: It seems like you and your family have struck a nice balance and figured out how
41:02
SPEAKER_00: to still be Jewish.
41:03
SPEAKER_00: It's not like you all found Jesus and then just ditched your Jewish heritage and identity.
41:09
SPEAKER_00: And I think that's a really important thing for Jews listening or watching this
41:15
SPEAKER_00: to understand is that you don't leave Judaism behind when you accept Jesus.
41:20
SPEAKER_00: No one is forcing you to do that.
41:23
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, definitely not.
41:25
SPEAKER_01: Still, do some of the traditions.
41:28
SPEAKER_01: They don't save you.
41:29
SPEAKER_01: I'm not saved if I go to a Rosh Hashanah service or not.
41:34
SPEAKER_01: I'm not saved if I celebrate Passover or not.
41:37
SPEAKER_01: My hope is in my faith in Jesus.
41:40
SPEAKER_01: However, it's not a problem to do those things. Like, still do them. They're cool.
41:44
SPEAKER_01: It's celebratory. It's family.
41:46
SPEAKER_01: It's remembering the scriptures.
41:47
SPEAKER_01: So no one's telling you to forsake your Judaism. But...
41:53
SPEAKER_01: Our faith is in him, in Jesus.
41:57
SPEAKER_00: So for any Jews or for anybody who has not opened a Bible in a very long time,
42:04
SPEAKER_00: you said that when you opened it, you were just on fire for the Lord.
42:07
SPEAKER_00: The Bible can be a little bit complicated.
42:10
SPEAKER_00: Do you have any advice on someone getting started reading the Bible?
42:14
SPEAKER_01: Oh, yeah, I would say.
42:17
SPEAKER_01: I love the book of James.
42:20
SPEAKER_01: You'll read it. It's not overwhelming.
42:22
SPEAKER_01: It's very practical, basically how to live as a Christian and what
42:26
SPEAKER_01: that should look like, what it means to follow God, especially, you know,
42:29
SPEAKER_01: today's day and age.
42:33
SPEAKER_01: Also, I would just start with the Gospels.
42:35
SPEAKER_01: So the Gospels are Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John.
42:38
SPEAKER_01: And those are the four stories that are about the life of Jesus.
42:43
SPEAKER_01: So if you're like, I don't know where to really start in the Bible,
42:47
SPEAKER_01: maybe start and just learn about Jesus's life, what he did,
42:50
SPEAKER_01: the miracles he performed, the way he loved people, how he engaged different people.
42:56
SPEAKER_01: And so pick any one of those.
42:58
SPEAKER_01: I love the Gospel of Mark because...
43:02
SPEAKER_01: It's very action-based.
43:03
SPEAKER_01: It's like Jesus went here and then he went there and then he healed this person
43:06
SPEAKER_01: and then he gave this sermon.
43:09
SPEAKER_01: And a lot of the times it uses the word immediately.
43:11
SPEAKER_01: So it's like, and then immediately the person was healed.
43:13
SPEAKER_01: And I'm like, I love that.
43:14
SPEAKER_01: Like, yes, amen.
43:17
SPEAKER_01: And so the gospel of Mark, any of them.
43:21
SPEAKER_01: I started with the gospel of Luke and it's the Christmas story
43:25
SPEAKER_01: because it's Jesus being born in the manger and like what that all looked like.
43:29
SPEAKER_01: So pick any one of those.
43:31
SPEAKER_01: Or the book of James, like I had said, is super practical and straightforward.
43:36
SPEAKER_01: And pray. Ask God.
43:38
SPEAKER_01: God, this feels interesting.
43:41
SPEAKER_01: I don't really know what I'm doing right now as I pray,
43:43
SPEAKER_01: but I'm going to talk to you, God, like I'm talking to a friend.
43:46
SPEAKER_01: And right now, I have no idea what to read in the Bible.
43:49
SPEAKER_01: So...
43:51
SPEAKER_01: I'm going to look at the table of contents, maybe, and see what speaks to me.
43:56
SPEAKER_01: And then just start reading.
43:57
SPEAKER_01: Just as you read, the Lord will speak to you.
44:02
SPEAKER_01: Different verses will stand out to you.
44:05
SPEAKER_01: The Lord will show you.
44:07
SPEAKER_00: Sounds like what you're saying is just to be open,
44:10
SPEAKER_00: to not put so much pressure on yourself to, oh,
44:12
SPEAKER_00: I need to read and understand this immediately,
44:14
SPEAKER_00: but just wait for God to speak to you.
44:18
SPEAKER_00: So often we are just like, Go, go, go, and don't actually sit back and listen to God, I think.
44:26
SPEAKER_00: For sure.
44:28
SPEAKER_00: So wrapping up, we just talked about different books of the Bible,
44:32
SPEAKER_00: but is there a particular verse that you would like
44:35
SPEAKER_00: to share that's just been particularly helpful or inspiring
44:39
SPEAKER_00: to you along your faith journey?
44:42
SPEAKER_01: I just have always loved this verse.
44:45
SPEAKER_01: And it says, create in me a pure heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me.
44:52
SPEAKER_01: Psalm 5110.
44:54
SPEAKER_01: I just, I really love that verse because also it says in the beatitude,
45:01
SPEAKER_01: blessed are the pure in heart for they shall see God.
45:04
SPEAKER_01: And no matter what I'm doing, I just want to see the Lord in everything.
45:08
SPEAKER_01: When we look around us, when we look at people's eyes, when we talk to people,
45:11
SPEAKER_01: We're looking at someone who's made in the image of God.
45:13
SPEAKER_01: When we see nature, we're seeing the craftsmanship of the Lord's hands.
45:18
SPEAKER_01: I just pray to be pure in heart and to have a steadfast spirit,
45:23
SPEAKER_01: a steadfast faith in the Lord that He is able to do exceedingly,
45:28
SPEAKER_01: abundantly more than we could ever ask, think, or imagine.
45:32
SPEAKER_01: And so I love that verse so much.
45:37
SPEAKER_00: Kristen, you are such a blessing.
45:39
SPEAKER_00: Your story is just incredible and All those people who you've prayed
45:43
SPEAKER_00: on in the grocery store and elsewhere are just lucky to have encountered you.
45:48
SPEAKER_01: Thank you for saying that.
45:50
SPEAKER_01: And you're so wonderful too.
45:51
SPEAKER_01: And everything you're doing on this platform,
45:53
SPEAKER_01: I just pray that the Lord would continue to bless and reach people and that more
45:57
SPEAKER_01: and more people would come to put their faith in Yeshua,
46:00
SPEAKER_01: to know Jesus and love Him with all their heart, soul, mind, and strength.
46:06
SPEAKER_01: Just keep going.
46:07
SPEAKER_01: I'm so proud of you.
46:09
SPEAKER_01: And you're doing an incredible job.
46:12
SPEAKER_00: Appreciate that.
46:13
SPEAKER_00: Well, Tristan Tice, thank you so much for coming on Fulfilled today.
46:17
SPEAKER_00: And thank you all for listening.
46:20
SPEAKER_00: If you enjoyed today's conversation,
46:22
SPEAKER_00: make sure to hit subscribe and leave
46:24
SPEAKER_00: a five-star review wherever you get your podcasts.
46:28
SPEAKER_00: Until next time, keep digging into scripture, asking questions, and looking for Jesus.
46:34
SPEAKER_00: See you next time.
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