Latest / The Living Waters Podcast / Ep. 343 - How to Reach Jews for Jesus

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Ep. 343 - How to Reach Jews for Jesus · The Living Waters Podcast

• 1:04
  Speaker 1: Yeah, praise God, and also, you know, I just want to say that, jews for Jesus.
• 1:08
  Speaker 1: It's really important because we understand that the Jewish people are still considered an unreached people group.
• 1:14
  Speaker 1: So when you guys hear of the words unreached people group.
• 1:17
  Speaker 1: What do you think of an unreached?
• 1:19
  Speaker 3: people group.
• 1:19
  Speaker 3: Yeah, you think the 1040 window and you think tribes and you think Exactly.
• 1:23
  Speaker 1: You'd never think the Jewish people Unreached.
• 1:26
  Speaker 1: They're not being spoken to, they're not being you know, and we're a people that in Isaiah 52, blessed are the feet of those on the mountain who share, publish peace, proclaim salvation, good tidings, who say you know, zion, your God reigns.
• 1:41
  Speaker 1: We're supposed to be a people that are sharing salvation with the world and so, as we see, you know, the Jewish people as an unreached people group.
• 1:49
  Speaker 1: We just encourage, you know it may be intimidating, but speak about him.
• 2:00
  Speaker 3: Mr Oscar Navarro, I don't know if you knew this, but Elon Musk said this the other day.
• 2:03
  Speaker 3: I don't know if you knew this, but Elon Musk said this the other day, and I quote Navarro is a moron.
• 2:11
  Speaker 3: Navarro is dumber than a sack of bricks.
• 2:15
  Speaker 4: I seen that via text, didn't I?
• 2:17
  Speaker 4: Yeah, you should give attribution.
• 2:21
  Speaker 3: Ray Comfort sent me that.
• 2:22
  Speaker 3: Oscar, how's that feel to be referred to as that by the world's richest man.
• 2:28
  Speaker 5: Our relationship is in a rocky spot right now.
• 2:41
  Speaker 3: I would imagine it is Speaking of names.
• 2:42
  Speaker 3: Ray, didn't you one time wickedly decide not to pray and then turned on the TV and heard your name mentioned Something about devious or something?
• 2:48
  Speaker 4: Yeah, yeah, tell us a story, ray.
• 2:50
  Speaker 4: Well, I've got up to pray.
• 2:51
  Speaker 4: I used to get up to pray until I hit 70.
• 2:54
  Speaker 3: Now Ray.
• 2:54
  Speaker 3: For those of you that don't know, Ray is always in the middle of prayer, right, mark P-R-A-Y-E-R, did you get that, jeff?
• 3:01
  Speaker 2: Ray is always in the middle of prayer.
• 3:03
  Speaker 2: Ray is in prayer wires in the middle of prayer Go ahead, ray.
• 3:06
  Speaker 4: So I used to get up and pray, and then one night I did it for 38 years.
• 3:10
  Speaker 4: Around midnight One night I said to Sue, I'm not getting up to pray.
• 3:16
  Speaker 4: And that night around midnight our bed collapsed Never collapsed before, but it collapsed.
• 3:18
  Speaker 4: And I think I learned my lesson when I was in, I think, Denver and I was teaching missionaries.
• 3:22
  Speaker 4: In the middle of the night I woke up and I thought I should pray.
• 3:24
  Speaker 4: I should pray, but instead I thought no, I'd rather watch TV.
• 3:28
  Speaker 4: And in a split second I thought to myself, if there's something bad on, I can change the channel in a split second, even before my conscience can speak to me.
• 3:35
  Speaker 4: So I turned the television on and a man came on with two women, and one woman said to the man what about Ray?
• 3:42
  Speaker 4: And I thought, and he said, yeah, ray, the devious one.
• 3:47
  Speaker 4: And that's when I turned the TV off and began to seek God in prayer.
• 3:51
  Speaker 3: Didn't someone bang on your door once late at night?
• 3:53
  Speaker 4: Yeah, I forgot about that.
• 3:54
  Speaker 4: Yeah, it wasn't someone banging on my door.
• 3:57
  Speaker 4: I said tonight I'm not going to pray, I'm going to sleep right through.
• 4:00
  Speaker 4: Around midnight there was a bang on the door.
• 4:03
  Speaker 4: It sounded like the FBI, it was just soap.
• 4:10
  Speaker 3: It was my stupid dog leaning against the door and having a scratch.
• 4:12
  Speaker 3: The moral of the story friends.
• 4:14
  Speaker 3: Ray hates prayer, that's true, but somehow God keeps him in it.
• 4:17
  Speaker 3: Yeah, boy, we need prayer.
• 4:20
  Speaker 3: Kylie, our daughter just had her wisdom teeth pulled out and she is going crazy.
• 4:27
  Speaker 3: You know when you're coming off the.
• 4:28
  Speaker 4: Well, that's what happens when you have no wisdom.
• 4:31
  Speaker 3: The wisdom's gone.
• 4:31
  Speaker 3: She's like a drug addict Screaming it.
• 4:37
  Speaker 4: I wonder where she gets that from.
• 4:38
  Speaker 4: I just realized that.
• 4:40
  Speaker 4: Yeah, absolutely.
• 4:42
  Speaker 3: Oh boy.
• 4:43
  Speaker 4: Is she okay?
• 4:44
  Speaker 3: Not really.
• 4:45
  Speaker 5: She should start a podcast, it would be real successful?
• 4:49
  Speaker 3: No, she's fine physically.
• 4:50
  Speaker 4: Strange.
• 4:50
  Speaker 4: What about previous generations?
• 4:52
  Speaker 4: Everyone have their wisdom teeth out or they survive.
• 4:54
  Speaker 4: Is this just a modern thing?
• 4:56
  Speaker 3: It's just crazy, it's a dentist conspiracy to make money.
• 4:59
  Speaker 3: Yeah, make big money.
• 4:59
  Speaker 3: I think it is too.
• 5:00
  Speaker 1: It was horrific for me.
• 5:01
  Speaker 1: I remember it.
• 5:02
  Speaker 1: The worst part about it was the anesthesia.
• 5:04
  Speaker 1: I can't handle the anesthesia, should you?
• 5:05
  Speaker 4: introduce this man easy yeah.
• 5:07
  Speaker 1: I'm not supposed to join the conversation.
• 5:09
  Speaker 1: Am I watching?
• 5:10
  Speaker 1: Am I talking?
• 5:10
  Speaker 1: I don't know.
• 5:11
  Speaker 3: So tell us about the wisdom that is the voice of our dear brother, jeff Morgan, who is with Jews for Jesus, and maybe you're familiar with his YouTube channel.
• 5:21
  Speaker 3: So Be it, jeff.
• 5:22
  Speaker 3: You're like half a million views, or subscribers, over 500,000 now.
• 5:26
  Speaker 3: Yeah, praise the Lord, yeah, and you're like 70 million views.
• 5:29
  Speaker 3: Man, that's great, that's right.
• 5:31
  Speaker 3: So, Jeff's with us today and we're going to be talking about a lot of stuff, but go ahead.
• 5:34
  Speaker 3: You were talking about your wisdom teeth, oh my wisdom teeth.
• 5:36
  Speaker 1: yeah, so that's when they took out all my wisdom and you know, that's when I went into a life of sin and degradation, you I started with the anesthesia woke up threw up all over the place in my mom's car and that was it.
• 5:48
  Speaker 1: Wow, Right into a life of depravity.
• 5:50
  Speaker 4: So how old were you when this happened?
• 5:53
  Speaker 1: Last week.
• 5:53
  Speaker 1: No I was about 13, 14.
• 5:59
  Speaker 3: Okay, wow.
• 5:59
  Speaker 3: Well, it's good to have you with us, jeff, but Jeff did not come alone, friends.
• 6:04
  Speaker 3: Jeff came all the way from Israel.
• 6:05
  Speaker 3: Jeff came all the way from Israel.
• 6:06
  Speaker 3: His friend Joey came all the way from Las Vegas.
• 6:08
  Speaker 3: That's right.
• 6:09
  Speaker 3: Yeah, and we also have some Finnish friends Nina, julia, sandra and Erica.
• 6:15
  Speaker 3: Welcome Blessed to have you ladies, with us and you guys listen to the podcast in Finland.
• 6:22
  Speaker 3: Nice, unbelievable.
• 6:24
  Speaker 5: We only have four listeners in Finland.
• 6:26
  Speaker 3: That's it, they're all here.
• 6:28
  Speaker 4: And they all speak English and they were nodding in English then.
• 6:30
  Speaker 4: Thank you very much.
• 6:32
  Speaker 3: Yeah, great to have you with us.
• 6:33
  Speaker 3: Ladies and Joey, thanks for coming as well.
• 6:35
  Speaker 3: It's a blessing.
• 6:35
  Speaker 3: All right, friends.
• 6:37
  Speaker 3: Time for a cool, classy comment.
• 6:40
  Speaker 3: This came in the mail.
• 6:41
  Speaker 3: We love stuff in the mail.
• 6:43
  Speaker 3: Dear Ray, easy, mark and Oscar.
• 6:46
  Speaker 3: I was a very excited recipient of a Living Waters podcast goodie box last fall and wanted to say a huge thank you for it.
• 6:53
  Speaker 3: I received an easy box and was so happy to get my very own Evidence Study Bible amongst a host of other fantastic resources to share the gospel with.
• 7:03
  Speaker 3: Notice, no one ever mentions your boxes, guys.
• 7:06
  Speaker 2: No, we just don't read them.
• 7:07
  Speaker 2: Just a side note.
• 7:08
  Speaker 3: Thank you so very much.
• 7:09
  Speaker 3: I have been using the study Bible for my daily readings and strive to pass out the tract on a more regular basis in my community and at my job as a nurse at a local hospital.
• 7:18
  Speaker 3: I live in Canton, Ohio, home of the Football Hall of Fame.
• 7:20
  Speaker 3: If you ever would like a reason to visit, we have lots of great coffee shops here and the best Italian on and the best italian food is found in northeast ohio.
• 7:32
  Speaker 3: You are welcome to visit anytime.
• 7:34
  Speaker 3: Plus, canton is nestled in with a large rural community and there's a large amish presence, giving you ray access to lots of chicken and fresh eggs.
• 7:43
  Speaker 3: Got my, got my attention.
• 7:44
  Speaker 3: Yeah and ray, we'd shave your mustache and you'd look like the Amish.
• 7:49
  Speaker 4: I've actually been in an Amish horse and cart.
• 7:51
  Speaker 4: Oh really, yeah.
• 7:52
  Speaker 4: Years ago I got to speak with some of them.
• 7:55
  Speaker 4: It's not much fun following a horse.
• 7:59
  Speaker 4: It looks romantic, but it stinks yeah.
• 8:04
  Speaker 3: They had this show they used to do, where they would just trick out the buggies and they'd make them all like they looked like lowrider pantmime your podcast has been a part of my weekly routine for the past two years.
• 8:18
  Speaker 3: I listen in while taking walks, commuting to and from work and around the house doing chores.
• 8:24
  Speaker 3: You each have contributed to my growth and knowledge of God's Word and have challenged me in my faith with your in-depth conversations about the Christian walk.
• 8:30
  Speaker 3: I cannot tell you how many times I've been encouraged by the laughter and experiences you all share with each other.
• 8:34
  Speaker 3: I feel like I'm spending time with true brothers in Christ, and it is such a rich blessing.
• 8:39
  Speaker 3: I pray for each of you and the Living Waters ministry as you boldly share Christ with the lost.
• 8:43
  Speaker 3: I have family in the Los Angeles area and I'm visiting them for a few days this week.
• 8:48
  Speaker 3: I was hoping to hand deliver this note of thanks to one of you at the ministry office.
• 8:52
  Speaker 3: I really hope to meet you all one day on this side of heaven, but if not, I will look forward to eternity.
• 8:57
  Speaker 3: Many blessings to each of you.
• 8:58
  Speaker 3: When you feel discouraged, please remember there is a gal in small town, Ohio, who has been greatly edified by your ministry.
• 9:05
  Speaker 3: God is using you in Christ, Liz Martel.
• 9:08
  Speaker 4: Thanks, Liz, that's nice I wish you.
• 9:10
  Speaker 3: Liz.
• 9:10
  Speaker 3: Thank you, liz.
• 9:11
  Speaker 3: Big, big blessing.
• 9:12
  Speaker 3: All right friends, and now a radically revolutionary resource.
• 9:16
  Speaker 3: This podcast is brought to you by the Tract Starter Kit.
• 9:20
  Speaker 3: Why are you laughing, right?
• 9:22
  Speaker 4: That's obnoxious, no no, no no, no, jeff, I warned you.
• 9:26
  Speaker 4: I said this podcast is a bit crazy, so please prepare yourself.
• 9:29
  Speaker 3: We're seeing it happen Jeff's psychiatrist building will go through the roof.
• 9:33
  Speaker 1: Oh, no, no, I'm a bit immature.
• 9:34
  Speaker 3: Oh nice.
• 9:35
  Speaker 1: So I fit right in.
• 9:36
  Speaker 1: You're one of us.
• 9:36
  Speaker 3: Great the track sample pack Track sample kit Track starter kit.
• 9:41
  Speaker 2: Why do?
• 9:42
  Speaker 3: I always that other one last time.
• 9:46
  Speaker 3: Tract Starter Kit 350 tracts, million dollar bill, 10 commandments coins call me a good person tract and 101 world's funniest one-liners.
• 9:53
  Speaker 3: Don't forget the Living Waters mug, the Evidence Study Bible, living Waters TV all that.
• 10:02
  Speaker 4: Living.
• 10:02
  Speaker 3: Waters, that was good, that was a primate.
• 10:05
  Speaker 3: And don't forget, friends, our podcast YouTube channel thousands upon thousands of subscribers.
• 10:11
  Speaker 3: Speaking of thousands of subscribers, we have, yes, our friend Jeff with us.
• 10:16
  Speaker 3: Jeff.
• 10:17
  Speaker 3: What's?
• 10:18
  Speaker 1: up Bro.
• 10:18
  Speaker 1: Welcome man.
• 10:19
  Speaker 1: Thank you.
• 10:19
  Speaker 1: It's an honor to be here.
• 10:20
  Speaker 1: I've been looking forward to it.
• 10:22
  Speaker 3: Although I'm not happy because, with you being here today, that makes two Jews and one Arab at the table.
• 10:28
  Speaker 1: Well, guess what we, you being here today, that makes two Jews and one Arab at the table.
• 10:30
  Speaker 3: Well, guess what.
• 10:31
  Speaker 2: We have another one sitting right here.
• 10:31
  Speaker 4: Oh no, three Jews and an Arab.
• 10:32
  Speaker 4: We're the majority today.
• 10:33
  Speaker 4: Yeah, three Jews walked into a Bible.
• 10:37
  Speaker 2: More Gentiles though.
• 10:38
  Speaker 3: Yeah.
• 10:39
  Speaker 2: That's true.
• 10:40
  Speaker 3: Well, brother, we are blessed to have you Blessed by how God is using you man.
• 10:44
  Speaker 3: Yeah, you know.
• 10:51
  Speaker 3: Maybe some people may not know you by name, but as soon as it's mentioned that you're the guy who talks to Jews in Israel about the Messiah, and especially using Isaiah 53, I mean people instantly know because those videos have gone huge.
• 11:00
  Speaker 3: And yeah, thanks for joining us, brother.
• 11:02
  Speaker 1: Oh, my pleasure.
• 11:03
  Speaker 1: Yeah, we're really blessed.
• 11:04
  Speaker 1: And it's funny because we go to Jerusalem sometimes and we speak with Orthodox Jews.
• 11:08
  Speaker 1: We like to make good connections with them and we like to go to the same place so that they can get to know us a little bit.
• 11:13
  Speaker 1: And so they call me the Jewish Jesus guy.
• 11:16
  Speaker 4: Ah, that's the Jewish Jesus guy.
• 11:18
  Speaker 4: Sometimes it's derogatory but sometimes it's curious, they're curious yeah.
• 11:24
  Speaker 1: It's a title that I wear.
• 11:25
  Speaker 1: You know, badge of honor.
• 11:26
  Speaker 3: Absolutely, it's a title that I wear Badge of honor.
• 11:28
  Speaker 3: Absolutely.
• 11:28
  Speaker 3: Yeah, amen, man.
• 11:28
  Speaker 3: Well, that's great, and we'd love to just get to know you today, introduce our friends to you and stir them up to recognize that.
• 11:38
  Speaker 3: Look, it all started in Israel.
• 11:41
  Speaker 3: It all started with the Jew, first right, and then spread from there to all the world.
• 11:47
  Speaker 3: But you're in a tough place.
• 11:49
  Speaker 3: We were talking about this before we even came into the podcast.
• 11:51
  Speaker 3: Israel is tough plowing.
• 11:54
  Speaker 3: Why don't you start off first with your testimony?
• 11:57
  Speaker 3: I take it you grew up in a Jewish home.
• 11:59
  Speaker 3: I did.
• 12:00
  Speaker 1: Okay, so tell us, let's do it.
• 12:01
  Speaker 1: Yeah, so I did grow up in a Jewish home.
• 12:04
  Speaker 1: There's different varieties of Jewish homes.
• 12:06
  Speaker 1: Mine was, I would say, very culturally identified as Jewish, but not religious.
• 12:10
  Speaker 1: You were Jew-ish, yes.
• 12:13
  Speaker 5: Jewish-ish.
• 12:15
  Speaker 1: Yeah, and I liked it when I was young, but as I got older I found it to be a bit off-putting.
• 12:20
  Speaker 1: Only because, to me, when you go to temple and synagogue and you go through the high holidays, it's almost like you're obligated to go and if you don't go then it's a bad, you're a bad Jew and and so.
• 12:32
  Speaker 1: But my, my parents were great and they, they gave us a nice homes and they wanted us to focus on our Jewish identity and be involved in Jewish community.
• 12:40
  Speaker 1: Can I bottom?
• 12:41
  Speaker 4: with a question Did you wear the hat and the curls and all that?
• 12:43
  Speaker 4: No, no, I wasn't Orthodox.
• 12:45
  Speaker 1: We had the yarmulke, or the kippah we so call it.
• 12:48
  Speaker 1: You know what?
• 12:48
  Speaker 1: That is right.
• 12:49
  Speaker 1: And so we would go to synagogue and I had my bar mitzvah and we would celebrate the high holidays, passover and Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement.
• 12:58
  Speaker 1: And this was just life right.
• 13:00
  Speaker 1: And every once in a while, on a Friday evening, we'd have a Shabbat dinner and we'd light the candles, say the prayers, have the bread and the cup, and for us it was just something that we did, didn't really talk about God much in the house at all, and so when I left the house I was a bit insecure, like most people are, but I think I was on the extreme end of insecurity.
• 13:21
  Speaker 1: So I had a lot of skill in singing, dancing and the arts entertainment, and so I thought you know what, I'm gonna try my hand at Los Angeles and try to become a pop star.
• 13:32
  Speaker 1: And so I go to Los Angeles and you know it didn't take long for me to find out that I didn't have what it took, and not just you know skillset wise.
• 13:40
  Speaker 1: You know I could sing, but I wasn't a singer.
• 13:42
  Speaker 1: I could dance but I wasn't a dancer.
• 13:43
  Speaker 1: You know I I was just good at a lot of things, but what you're required to sell there in terms of your moral values and your soul in order to make it, I wasn't willing to do.
• 13:54
  Speaker 1: I had the conscience within me, I had the 10 commandments on my heart.
• 13:57
  Speaker 1: I didn't know it at the time, but I felt that certain things that I just shouldn't do, and so I kind of broke down.
• 14:04
  Speaker 1: At that time I was starting to get into kind of like serial dating.
• 14:07
  Speaker 1: I had some affection issues.
• 14:13
  Speaker 1: I needed affection and so I would always look everywhere for affection.
• 14:14
  Speaker 1: So that got me into serial dating.
• 14:15
  Speaker 1: But I wanted to kind of show my family and my friends that I could be this massive success in the world.
• 14:21
  Speaker 1: And if it wasn't going to be in entertainment, I thought, well, how else can I make a massive career and be successful and basically show off and say, well, you know, my brothers took the safe and secure route and went to college and got married.
• 14:34
  Speaker 1: I went to college but I left early and my parents, you know, they got married young.
• 14:39
  Speaker 1: I'm going to do the adventurous thing and I'm going to show everybody how cool I can be.
• 14:41
  Speaker 1: So I dove right into this new age spirituality.
• 14:44
  Speaker 1: I started meditating like crazy.
• 14:45
  Speaker 1: Hour and a half a day I got attached to a cult leader, this older Asian guy.
• 14:52
  Speaker 1: I was, this young American, Jewish, white guy thinking, well, I'm going to be the, he's going to be my Mr Miyagi, and I'm going to be.
• 14:59
  Speaker 3: Daniel's son.
• 14:59
  Speaker 3: Is that what his name is?
• 15:00
  Speaker 1: Karate Kid, Karate Kid right and I was going to grow up in this and I was going to be the coolest, most self-actualized person on the planet, and I was very arrogant and narcissistic.
• 15:10
  Speaker 1: And I went into this and had some really incredible spiritual experiences at first.
• 15:15
  Speaker 1: So I recognized that the spiritual world was real.
• 15:17
  Speaker 1: I knew that God existed.
• 15:18
  Speaker 1: I just didn't know who he was yet.
• 15:19
  Speaker 1: And so I start getting into this deep, deep meditation and I'm in this for like an hour and a half a day, sitting in my living room.
• 15:26
  Speaker 1: We're doing these weird poses, saying these odd mantras that I didn't understand at all, and this spiritual cult leader he had complete control over me.
• 15:34
  Speaker 1: I mean, I was sucked in.
• 15:36
  Speaker 1: He was very charismatic, wealthy, single, isolated from the world, and he had a lot of wisdom to impart and I thought, gosh, if I stay next to this guy, then I'm gonna know a lot about life and I'm going to be very smart and wise, just like him.
• 15:50
  Speaker 3: Did he have a lot of other followers as well?
• 15:52
  Speaker 1: Jack, Not many Not many, because I think people were pretty turned off by it but I just got sucked right in.
• 15:57
  Speaker 1: I was vulnerable.
• 15:58
  Speaker 1: I wasn't taught the Ten Commandments, I wasn't taught the Bible no Bible in my home at all and to go into the world and face things that looked good but obviously were of the dark, of the darkness.
• 16:12
  Speaker 1: I didn't know how to recognize that stuff, so I fell right into it and this guy had total control on me.
• 16:15
  Speaker 1: He was in my mind, in my thoughts, and he had a God complex, and so he thought he was the second coming.
• 16:21
  Speaker 1: And because we had spiritual experiences that were actually real, I had outer body experience.
• 16:26
  Speaker 1: I came up out of my body, I floated away, came back and came in.
• 16:29
  Speaker 1: I wasn't sleeping and I thought, gosh, I'm really getting somewhere and you should see me.
• 16:32
  Speaker 1: I was.
• 16:33
  Speaker 1: I would sit on my floor and try to move a pencil with my mind.
• 16:35
  Speaker 1: I was just that's.
• 16:36
  Speaker 1: That's where I went.
• 16:37
  Speaker 1: But I was playing with Ouija boards as a kid, getting, you know, talking to dead people and and, and this primed me for everything that was about to come in and take control over my mind and my soul, basically, and so, thinking that I was really cool.
• 16:54
  Speaker 1: I was continuing with my meditation and I would talk to people and I thought I was gonna be the guy that everybody would come to for advice, for spiritual life lessons.
• 17:03
  Speaker 1: And I thought, well, maybe I'll be a what do they call them a coach, a life coach, when I get older, and that's going to be my success, tony.
• 17:12
  Speaker 5: Robbins.
• 17:12
  Speaker 1: Yeah something like that, that's going to be me.
• 17:14
  Speaker 1: I had his cassette tapes.
• 17:16
  Speaker 1: I'm aging myself, but I had his cassette tapes in my ear Not tall enough yeah yeah, right, yeah, he's pretty, and so this leads into a 20-year.
• 17:26
  Speaker 1: I don't want to call it a stint, but it was a 20-year deep dive into new age, mysticism, the occult.
• 17:33
  Speaker 2: I didn't realize it was that long.
• 17:34
  Speaker 1: It was really long and it was arduous.
• 17:36
  Speaker 1: It was, I mean, like when you put a religion on your own shoulders that you make.
• 17:42
  Speaker 1: Even though it's your own making, it's still quite heavy.
• 17:45
  Speaker 3: Yeah.
• 17:49
  Speaker 1: And so I wanted to make sure that I was doing the right things, saying the right things, meditating the right things, thinking the right things, because if I didn't, something bad was going to happen.
• 17:53
  Speaker 1: I was going to be cursed.
• 17:55
  Speaker 1: Little did I know, I was already cursed.
• 17:57
  Speaker 4: This is karma so easy, yeah, yeah.
• 17:58
  Speaker 3: Right, let me interject there real quick, jeff, and ask you so at this stage, and I want you to pick it up from there in a minute.
• 18:04
  Speaker 3: But at this stage, did you achieve what you had hoped with your family?
• 18:09
  Speaker 3: Were you gaining their respect or were they thinking you're crazy bro?
• 18:13
  Speaker 1: Yes, they were thinking that I was crazy, because I said hey, guys, I'm doing all these things and you should do them too, because it's gonna make you peaceful, it's gonna make you happy.
• 18:22
  Speaker 1: And they would look at me and they would see someone who still wasn't happy, still wasn't peaceful and still searching and were you working at all in the entertainment industry?
• 18:29
  Speaker 3: I was working as a personal fitness trainer in Hollywood.
• 18:33
  Speaker 1: And I would get occasional gigs, like a Levi's billboard ad or some sort of sport commercial from time to time.
• 18:40
  Speaker 1: It was just enough to keep me going and the spiritual aspect of it also was enough to keep me going, meaning I would have these dry periods of nothing and then something would show up and I'm like I did that I created that I must be doing something right.
• 18:54
  Speaker 1: So it kept me going and in the beginning, when I was in my twenties, it was great because I was single, traveling the world and I was sitting on the mountain tops in different places in Jerusalem and other places in the Judean desert.
• 19:08
  Speaker 1: But I was seeking and searching and I found myself over time dropping into bouts of depression and trying to figure out how to get out of them, having suicidal thoughts, thoughts of self-mutilization meaning cutting myself, burning myself and these thoughts would come into my head suicide, drive off the road, jump off the cliff.
• 19:27
  Speaker 1: All these things started coming in my head suicide, drive off the road, jump off the cliff.
• 19:29
  Speaker 1: All these things started coming in and I thought I must be doing something wrong with my practice, because I should be feeling peaceful by now.
• 19:37
  Speaker 1: I should be feeling peaceful, calm, I should be the one that's rich and successful.
• 19:42
  Speaker 1: You know, my gigs weren't, you know, working out.
• 19:45
  Speaker 1: I was going into debt.
• 19:46
  Speaker 1: And then I met my, my, the woman that would become my wife, and thank God for her because she slowed me down.
• 19:53
  Speaker 1: You know she wasn't having any of this meditation stuff and this new age nonsense that that she called it, you know.
• 20:00
  Speaker 1: But I said, you know, you don't know what you're missing.
• 20:03
  Speaker 1: You, you really got to meditate with me and I had my kids doing these poses too, and I just thank God that he guarded them during that time, your children.
• 20:11
  Speaker 3: Oh yeah, I had them meditating.
• 20:11
  Speaker 3: You actually married.
• 20:12
  Speaker 1: You got married, yeah, and had two children and she slowed you down yeah, so we're.
• 20:16
  Speaker 1: So I'm in Israel, I met my wife in Israel and that slowed me down because they weren't really having it Right.
• 20:23
  Speaker 1: But I still was stuck in this, this really cycle of of you know, I'd move them around from place to place and I would go into depression and come out, go into depression and come out, have suicidal thoughts and I'm thinking when's life gonna suddenly magically become great?
• 20:37
  Speaker 1: Did you tell your wife, no, but she knew, and I was too prideful to tell her that I was failing and I wasn't achieving the goals through this new age practice that I thought that I would, wasn't achieving the goals through this new age practice that I thought that I would.
• 20:53
  Speaker 1: And then really I had moved them around so many times, you know, because I needed something fresh, because my life wasn't bringing me joy and purpose, so I needed to move, and so I would move my family from one apartment to another, one town to another.
• 21:04
  Speaker 1: Every year we'd move, and when the excitement fell off, I realized, oh, I'm in the same place again.
• 21:09
  Speaker 1: Here I am, and one day I just said I was telling Joey about this on the way over here.
• 21:16
  Speaker 1: I said one day I just said I'm 46 years old now, I'm in debt.
• 21:22
  Speaker 1: It's a year later.
• 21:24
  Speaker 1: I just moved my family to California, promising them that this move would be the thing that made me happy.
• 21:33
  Speaker 1: A year later, I find myself in the depths of despair and I couldn't look at my wife because I did it to her again.
• 21:38
  Speaker 1: Wow.
• 21:39
  Speaker 1: And I fell to the ground and I said honey, I am so sorry, I am so sorry and I'm wailing.
• 21:46
  Speaker 1: Guys, you know when you take a child's favorite thing from and they're screaming and kicking.
• 21:53
  Speaker 1: I was on the ground wailing and I said I'm so sorry, I don't know what I'm doing anymore.
• 21:58
  Speaker 1: I'm so sorry, I've brought you all into this mess.
• 22:01
  Speaker 1: I've worked for 20 years to try to become a better version, to try to bring our family into something beautiful, and I've failed miserably.
• 22:09
  Speaker 1: I have nothing to pass on to my kids and I could see my wife going.
• 22:12
  Speaker 1: I need to leave this guy.
• 22:13
  Speaker 1: Wow, there's nothing I can do to help him.
• 22:16
  Speaker 1: She knew my family wasn't making me happy and this guy that I'd been following when I was younger was still in my head and he was still controlling me.
• 22:25
  Speaker 1: And this spirit, that this dark spirits, were controlling me and I said I have no idea what I'm doing anymore.
• 22:32
  Speaker 1: I'm done.
• 22:33
  Speaker 1: And that was it.
• 22:34
  Speaker 1: I put up my hands and I said I'm finished with this world.
• 22:38
  Speaker 1: And my wife said just please don't do anything to yourself, promise me.
• 22:42
  Speaker 1: And I paused for drama's sake, and I I looked at her and I said I won't, because I won't do that to you.
• 22:49
  Speaker 1: And at that moment she realized that our family wasn't making me happy, and so she was just thinking to herself how can I take the kids and get back to Israel and leave this guy here to figure out his own mess?
• 23:00
  Speaker 1: And I washed my hands of the world.
• 23:04
  Speaker 1: The next day, I go into the gym, gym and I'm throwing the weights around, cussing, angry, negative, cynical, all the opposite of what new age spirituality told me I had to do to make my life prosper.
• 23:17
  Speaker 1: And I see this really tall guy across the gym and I said you know, I got to meet this guy, I don't know why.
• 23:24
  Speaker 1: And I turn around, pick up some weights.
• 23:25
  Speaker 1: And I said you know, I got to meet this guy, I don't know why.
• 23:26
  Speaker 1: And I turn around, pick up some weights and I get tapped on the shoulder.
• 23:30
  Speaker 1: Hey, and it's that guy.
• 23:32
  Speaker 1: He said I just want to ask you one question what do you eat?
• 23:34
  Speaker 1: And I said he's like, well cause, we're about the same age, you look, you look good and fit and I just want some, you know some advice.
• 23:42
  Speaker 1: I said you don't want to know what I eat.
• 23:43
  Speaker 1: He said what burgers and pizza and whatever you want, looking like that.
• 23:46
  Speaker 1: And I said no, I eat a plant-based diet and that was my diet at the time.
• 23:49
  Speaker 1: He said you're right, I didn't want to know.
• 23:51
  Speaker 1: But that led into a conversation about health and fitness, right, and we get into this conversation and I ask him what do you do, by the way?
• 23:58
  Speaker 1: And he says I'm a pastor, and something hit me and I really.
• 24:04
  Speaker 1: So tell me, what is a church?
• 24:08
  Speaker 1: What do you mean?
• 24:09
  Speaker 1: What does a pastor do?
• 24:10
  Speaker 1: Why do we need commute?
• 24:12
  Speaker 1: All of a sudden, these questions start coming out.
• 24:14
  Speaker 1: Can someone have a spiritual life separate from the church and separate from you know?
• 24:17
  Speaker 1: And he would give me very concise biblical answers.
• 24:20
  Speaker 3: Had you had any exposure to christianity at none before that?
• 24:23
  Speaker 3: None, zero.
• 24:24
  Speaker 3: This was.
• 24:25
  Speaker 1: And to be fair.
• 24:26
  Speaker 4: Just a none, A none.
• 24:27
  Speaker 1: Yeah, exactly To be fair, guys, I hadn't read the Old Testament, which is very common in Jewish life.
• 24:33
  Speaker 1: We don't know our own scriptures.
• 24:34
  Speaker 1: So I had no context of anything.
• 24:36
  Speaker 1: I had Jewish lifestyle, but I had no context.
• 24:39
  Speaker 1: And so I'm a pastor and I just started asking questions.
• 24:42
  Speaker 1: He gave these really amazing biblical questions.
• 24:44
  Speaker 1: He gave these really amazing biblical, concise answers and I'd go over, be lifting and I'd be thinking and thinking, contemplating.
• 24:48
  Speaker 1: In his mind he's like I've lost him.
• 24:49
  Speaker 1: I've mentioned Jesus, he's gone right, but I kept coming back to him and then, all of a sudden, I see another guy at the other side of the gym and this guy was around 62 years old, but the fittest guy in the entire gym One of us Exactly and he's doing like the pull-ups, upside down, taking 45 pounds over his head, kicking through the gym, and he's the guy that
• 25:10
  Speaker 1: people walked around because he was weird.
• 25:11
  Speaker 1: But I was looking at this guy going, he's got something that I don't have and what was that?
• 25:17
  Speaker 1: Life?
• 25:18
  Speaker 1: He had life, and he would shake people's hands and he would hug people and he would be lifting weights.
• 25:23
  Speaker 1: And I walked right up to him and I put my hand out and I said I just wanted to meet you because you have something that I.
• 25:28
  Speaker 1: And he cut me off right.
• 25:29
  Speaker 1: He puts his hand on my shoulder and he goes wow.
• 25:31
  Speaker 1: And I said what he says can you give me some of that?
• 25:33
  Speaker 1: And I said no, you need to give me some of what you have because I want it to die.
• 25:40
  Speaker 1: And he put his hand on my other shoulder and he said can I pray for you?
• 25:44
  Speaker 1: And I said can I pray for you?
• 25:46
  Speaker 1: And I said I have nothing to lose In the gym.
• 25:48
  Speaker 1: In the gym, people are lusting, cussing, gossiping, and this man is praying for me.
• 25:54
  Speaker 1: And at the end of the prayer he says what In Jesus name?
• 25:58
  Speaker 1: And this Jew in the gym is going.
• 26:00
  Speaker 1: What do I do with that?
• 26:01
  Speaker 1: Wow, I know I don't know anything about Jesus, but I all I heard when I was younger from rabbis and my parents was that we're not supposed to believe in him and don't even say his name, and I said I don't care, amen, and that was that I walk off and I'm like that was interesting.
• 26:18
  Speaker 3: And this is the same day when you met that first guy and then okay, Same day.
• 26:24
  Speaker 1: Next day I go into the gym and I see him.
• 26:25
  Speaker 1: His name is Edgar, the guy who prayed for me.
• 26:26
  Speaker 1: I walk right over to Edgar.
• 26:27
  Speaker 1: I said can you give me some more of that prayer?
• 26:29
  Speaker 1: He prays for me and at the end of the prayer he says what In Jesus' name?
• 26:35
  Speaker 1: Yeah, and I said amen.
• 26:37
  Speaker 1: Day after day I go back and I'm saying amen, amen, amen.
• 26:40
  Speaker 1: And lo and behold, I start to feel like I'm coming back to life.
• 26:43
  Speaker 1: You started saying I'm in, I'm in.
• 26:45
  Speaker 1: Well, that's right.
• 26:47
  Speaker 1: But I had a lot to kind of overcome.
• 26:49
  Speaker 1: I had an ego pride, I had spiritual torment that I was dealing with and carrying with me suicidal thoughts.
• 26:53
  Speaker 1: I was still tormented spiritually and so, all of a sudden, jesus starts to appear in everything.
• 27:01
  Speaker 1: I go to meet someone else and there's Jesus.
• 27:03
  Speaker 1: Someone hands me a book.
• 27:04
  Speaker 1: I go to visit my father, who was at the time atheist, and he hands me a book about Jesus.
• 27:12
  Speaker 1: He's like I don't know.
• 27:13
  Speaker 1: I have this book.
• 27:13
  Speaker 1: My Christian friend gave it to me.
• 27:14
  Speaker 1: I thought you might like it.
• 27:16
  Speaker 1: I'm like and I looked at it and I said the imminent return of Jesus.
• 27:19
  Speaker 1: I said, dad, in my mind, if you only knew what I was going through right now.
• 27:23
  Speaker 1: I went, devoured the book, go home and, um, chris Cross, chris Cross, the guy at the gym, the guy, not the singer uh, the the, the guy at the gym, the tall guy that came up to me.
• 27:35
  Speaker 1: He comes up to me in the gym and he's like hey, we're having a men's weekend, why don't you come and join us at church?
• 27:39
  Speaker 1: I'm like, all right, sounds kind of weird Men's weekend, whatever that means.
• 27:44
  Speaker 1: So I go to church and I'm sitting there and they have a guest pastor that night.
• 27:47
  Speaker 1: He was a comedian, so he was really funny and he kind of is drawing me in and he's teaching on the transfiguration of Jesus, right, and I'm sitting there listening and I'm like, okay, I don't know anything about Jesus.
• 27:57
  Speaker 1: And then he gets to the part where he's talking about how Jesus is speaking with Elijah and Moses and I'm like're not, you know, alive anymore this time.
• 28:14
  Speaker 1: And you know the story goes where the disciples you know, peter wants to make a tabernacle for each of the Moses, elijah and Jesus.
• 28:24
  Speaker 1: A cloud comes over the mountain, elijah and Moses Moses representing the law, elijah representing the prophets.
• 28:30
  Speaker 1: They're both gone.
• 28:30
  Speaker 1: Jesus is standing there, radiant in all his glory.
• 28:32
  Speaker 1: The voice comes out of the cloud and says this is my beloved son.
• 28:35
  Speaker 1: Listen to him.
• 28:37
  Speaker 1: Bam.
• 28:38
  Speaker 1: That was it that moment.
• 28:40
  Speaker 1: Listen to him.
• 28:42
  Speaker 1: Wow.
• 28:43
  Speaker 1: And my jaw dropped.
• 28:45
  Speaker 1: And all of a sudden, my life flashed before my eyes, my memory of all the gurus and all the spiritual teachers that I'd been listening to.
• 28:52
  Speaker 1: The cassette tapes of Tony Robbins, all these different spiritual teachers and gurus in my ear, walking around town, chanting mantras.
• 28:59
  Speaker 1: Listen to him.
• 29:01
  Speaker 1: And that was it.
• 29:03
  Speaker 1: I ran home and I told my wife.
• 29:04
  Speaker 1: I said honey, it's Jesus.
• 29:06
  Speaker 1: I know it's Jesus.
• 29:08
  Speaker 1: It's him that we have to be listening to.
• 29:09
  Speaker 1: This is the one that we've been looking for, just like the disciples said when they found Jesus.
• 29:15
  Speaker 1: This is the one that Moses spoke about, this is the one we've been looking for.
• 29:18
  Speaker 1: And I said but, honey, I've got a problem, I'm tormented and I don't know what to do.
• 29:25
  Speaker 1: I know he's the one we need to listen to, but what are we supposed to do?
• 29:28
  Speaker 1: We don't have any context.
• 29:29
  Speaker 1: Are we supposed to get on our knees and say a prayer?
• 29:31
  Speaker 1: And if we say it, what if it doesn't work?
• 29:36
  Speaker 3: Your wife was Jewish as well, and was she like whoa psychopath?
• 29:40
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 29:40
  Speaker 1: So this is another amazing part of the story.
• 29:43
  Speaker 1: She was having experiences related to Jesus at the same time, separately, so we would come home and speak about them.
• 29:49
  Speaker 1: And my older son was having experiences related to Jesus as well, separately.
• 29:55
  Speaker 1: How old was he at the time?
• 29:56
  Speaker 1: Nine.
• 29:57
  Speaker 1: It wasn't me saying, hey guys, there's this cool new thing and his name's Jesus and let's do it together.
• 30:01
  Speaker 1: It looks like fun.
• 30:02
  Speaker 1: There's some really nice people down the street giving me donuts and coffee and they're telling me to come in and giving me hugs.
• 30:07
  Speaker 1: This sounds great, let's do it.
• 30:09
  Speaker 1: It wasn't anything like that.
• 30:10
  Speaker 1: She'd tell me something that she had about a woman that she met who invited her to coffee and told her about how her son was healed from terminal leukemia through prayer.
• 30:20
  Speaker 1: And when my wife asked who are you praying to, she said Jesus, of course.
• 30:24
  Speaker 1: And my wife says who's this Jesus?
• 30:26
  Speaker 1: So she goes home and she starts Googling miracles and Jesus.
• 30:29
  Speaker 1: And I'm off with my guys at the gym and all of a sudden Jesus is working on my family.
• 30:36
  Speaker 1: But I come home that night it's around 11 PM and I said, honey, jesus is the one.
• 30:42
  Speaker 1: I don't know what to do.
• 30:43
  Speaker 1: What are we supposed to do what if it doesn't work?
• 30:47
  Speaker 1: That was my mindset.
• 30:47
  Speaker 1: I was works based.
• 30:49
  Speaker 1: I will achieve my own righteousness, and through my own words, my life is gonna be great.
• 30:55
  Speaker 1: And I thought gosh, what if it doesn't work?
• 30:57
  Speaker 1: And she said you know, you just told me you were tormented.
• 31:02
  Speaker 1: I had a dream last night and I didn't feel compelled to tell you because I thought it was just a weird dream.
• 31:08
  Speaker 1: But here you are telling me about this story and I feel that I need to tell you.
• 31:12
  Speaker 1: You should see my wife.
• 31:12
  Speaker 1: She's petite, very soft spoken Israeli, and she said I'm running through this schoolyard with a group of kids and they're running away from something, and this one kid goes off to the right into a classroom by himself.
• 31:25
  Speaker 1: So right into a classroom by himself.
• 31:26
  Speaker 1: So I wanted to see where this kid went.
• 31:27
  Speaker 1: I look inside the room and I see a child there, trembling in fear, with a demon standing him, tormenting him.
• 31:32
  Speaker 1: And I woke up and she goes "'That boy was you.
• 31:38
  Speaker 1: "'that boy was you, and that man that you were following "'when you were younger was not who he said he was.
• 31:45
  Speaker 1: "'he was possessed and tormented and he had you.
• 31:50
  Speaker 1: And I knew without a doubt that what she just said was true.
• 31:54
  Speaker 1: I knew it.
• 31:56
  Speaker 1: I couldn't get this guy out of my head for 20 years.
• 31:59
  Speaker 1: But when that pastor said listen to him and my wife revealed to me that piece of information, it all fell off.
• 32:08
  Speaker 1: I was depressed, I was anxious, suicidal.
• 32:11
  Speaker 1: It all fell off.
• 32:12
  Speaker 1: It was almost like it was physical.
• 32:15
  Speaker 1: It fell off me and it hit the ground and my hands flew up in the sky and I said I'm free.
• 32:20
  Speaker 1: I'm free.
• 32:22
  Speaker 1: That's exactly what I said twice.
• 32:24
  Speaker 1: And she looked at me and I said honey, we're going to our knees right now.
• 32:29
  Speaker 1: We're giving our lives to Jesus.
• 32:30
  Speaker 1: And we did that.
• 32:32
  Speaker 1: We fell to our knees, gave our lives to Jesus, and that was it.
• 32:36
  Speaker 1: The next morning I woke up a brand new human being.
• 32:40
  Speaker 1: The old was gone, the new had come and I couldn't cuss anymore.
• 32:45
  Speaker 1: My filthy mouth, my filthy mind, that was busy at the gym, it was clean, it was wiped clean.
• 32:53
  Speaker 1: And all of a sudden I pick up the Bible and I just start devouring it.
• 32:57
  Speaker 1: I couldn't get enough of this thing that I hated.
• 33:00
  Speaker 1: I disdained the Bible when I was younger and that was it.
• 33:04
  Speaker 1: And my wife looks at me and she says I have no idea what happened to you, but I pray that it stays this way.
• 33:16
  Speaker 1: Seven years later, here we are, and she is a stronger believer today because of what she saw God do to me.
• 33:18
  Speaker 1: Praise God.
• 33:19
  Speaker 1: And I said God, you put me to work for you.
• 33:21
  Speaker 1: Put me to work for you.
• 33:22
  Speaker 1: I've got nothing left.
• 33:23
  Speaker 1: I'm 46 years old.
• 33:25
  Speaker 1: Let's go Yalla yalla, that's how we say in Hebrew.
• 33:27
  Speaker 3: Let's go, yalla.
• 33:28
  Speaker 3: That's not even Hebrew man.
• 33:30
  Speaker 3: You know what I'm talking about, yalla.
• 33:31
  Speaker 1: Let's go, let's get busy.
• 33:32
  Speaker 1: God put me to work.
• 33:34
  Speaker 1: I'm tired of being this failure.
• 33:36
  Speaker 1: Let's go Now.
• 33:37
  Speaker 1: It took another three years before I started making the evangelism channel channel, but I called up Jews for Jesus and I was like I hated you guys growing up, but I feel compelled to call you right now and ask if you have a place for me on staff, because I need to be sharing Jesus with the world.
• 33:55
  Speaker 1: And that was it.
• 33:55
  Speaker 1: That's all I wanted to do.
• 33:56
  Speaker 1: Wow, man, Jeff, that's beautiful.
• 33:59
  Speaker 3: I teared up because when you're talking about the immediate transformation that was me, all of us are different here at the table.
• 34:07
  Speaker 3: Some it took a little longer, but that was my experience.
• 34:09
  Speaker 3: It was like Christ became my all.
• 34:13
  Speaker 3: I remember jumping into my friend's car and we're heading home after I got saved like 20 minutes later and he turned on the same wicked, filthy radio station we used to listen to.
• 34:22
  Speaker 3: I go hey bro, what are you doing?
• 34:23
  Speaker 3: I go we're Christians, we don't listen to that stuff anymore.
• 34:26
  Speaker 3: He's like whoa.
• 34:27
  Speaker 3: It's like this guy got over-saved.
• 34:28
  Speaker 3: Chill, homie Chill homie, so that's awesome.
• 34:32
  Speaker 3: So I want to pick up on your story.
• 34:34
  Speaker 3: But, ray, first of all, what's your connection with Jeff?
• 34:36
  Speaker 3: How did that all happen?
• 34:37
  Speaker 4: I don't know who he is.
• 34:39
  Speaker 2: Who is this guy?
• 34:41
  Speaker 4: How do we hook up?
• 34:43
  Speaker 1: Well, actually, interestingly enough, when I got saved, I had a vegan YouTube channel.
• 34:47
  Speaker 1: Right, I was, you know, health and fitness.
• 34:50
  Speaker 1: You know, publishing plant-based lifestyle instead of publishing peace, like Isaiah 52 says.
• 34:55
  Speaker 1: I was publishing like a better way to live.
• 34:57
  Speaker 1: And I was still doing my channel.
• 34:59
  Speaker 1: I'm like, how can I make this something that glorifies God?
• 35:03
  Speaker 1: But see, I was so invested in self-glorification I had my shirt off on the thumbnails and doing all this stuff and I thought this has to come down.
• 35:11
  Speaker 1: But before I did that, I interviewed Ray.
• 35:16
  Speaker 1: I reached out and I interviewed you from my vegan YouTube channel.
• 35:18
  Speaker 1: You may not remember it, but we talked about bringing the gospel to people and how we can use health and fitness maybe as a catalyst to bring people to the Lord.
• 35:25
  Speaker 1: How long ago was that?
• 35:26
  Speaker 3: Oh gosh, this was six years ago, I think, did Ray help you to ask meat into your heart.
• 35:31
  Speaker 3: Meat, yeah he tried.
• 35:33
  Speaker 1: I remember you talking about eggs.
• 35:35
  Speaker 2: Eggs, eggs, but I'm not, I mean I don't do plant-based diet anymore.
• 35:39
  Speaker 1: I don't talk about it anymore.
• 35:40
  Speaker 1: I don't promote this or that anymore.
• 35:42
  Speaker 1: You know, I just like to talk about Jesus.
• 35:43
  Speaker 1: If you want to be healthy, I'm sure you can find a way.
• 35:45
  Speaker 1: And so, as I'm going and I'm doing evangelism, I learned a lot watching you in terms of how to talk to people, how to ask questions, and I'd watch a lot of evangelism because I knew God put a calling on my heart to evangelize.
• 35:59
  Speaker 1: I knew that was something that I had to do, but it was funny because before we left California to come back to Israel, I said God, I'm going to go back to Israel, just don't make me that guy that goes on the streets and tells people about Jesus.
• 36:09
  Speaker 1: I'll go, just don't do that to me.
• 36:12
  Speaker 1: And I said, okay, I'm sorry, all right, I'll do whatever you want.
• 36:15
  Speaker 1: You died for me, I'll live for you.
• 36:16
  Speaker 1: So I'm in Israel.
• 36:17
  Speaker 1: Start the channel.
• 36:18
  Speaker 1: Things start rolling and I and you know I serve with Jews for Jesus.
• 36:30
  Speaker 1: I want to connect with you and I want to talk about the Jewishness of our heritage and how we're still Jewish, but we, our Jewishness is fulfilled in the Messiah, you know, in Jesus, and I want to.
• 36:42
  Speaker 1: I just want my my.
• 36:43
  Speaker 1: One of my main goals is to really make Jewish faith in Jesus known.
• 36:47
  Speaker 1: One of my main goals is to really make Jewish faith in Jesus known, and so I reached out to Ray, I reached out to Jen and you guys got back to me and were very gracious and I was on a trip to California and we made it happen.
• 36:58
  Speaker 1: We met at Huntington Beach and we filmed your testimony, ray, which is doing very well on our channel.
• 37:05
  Speaker 3: It was a blessing filmed your testimony, ray, which is doing very well on our channel.
• 37:08
  Speaker 3: It was a blessing.
• 37:09
  Speaker 3: Thank you for that.
• 37:10
  Speaker 3: And then, ray, you came up with an idea to have Jeff preach the gospel in Israel while you're doing the same here, asking the same questions.
• 37:15
  Speaker 4: Yeah and going back and forth and it was great it's on our YouTube channel at the moment and it's unique to see someone being witnessed in California and then switched to Israel and just sharing the gospel with them.
• 37:27
  Speaker 5: I think it's really neat you mentioned earlier it sounds like your wife and Ray have a lot in common.
• 37:32
  Speaker 4: I knew that was coming up.
• 37:34
  Speaker 5: She said she was a small petite Jew.
• 37:36
  Speaker 5: What is it?
• 37:37
  Speaker 5: Can you just, for people who've one never been to Israel, two have never watched your channel, tell us a little bit about the atmosphere, what it's like to preach the gospel to a Jewish person in Israel, what?
• 37:50
  Speaker 1: are your challenges.
• 37:52
  Speaker 5: Is it legal?
• 37:53
  Speaker 5: How do you overcome those challenges?
• 37:54
  Speaker 1: Yeah, well, first of all, it is legal.
• 37:55
  Speaker 1: Israel is a wonderful country with freedom of religious expression, freedom to even change a religion.
• 38:03
  Speaker 1: Well, we don't hear things like that.
• 38:05
  Speaker 1: That's right, because, unfortunately, you asked what is it like to share the Gospel in Israel?
• 38:10
  Speaker 1: It's different, based on your approach.
• 38:12
  Speaker 1: So there are people that come as street preachers and they come there completely unsensitive to Israeli culture, jewish mindset, and they go and they get on the microphone and you're Jewish and it's 353, this is for you, whatever you want, and they do this thing and it's so offensive Because someone's coming to your country and pointing at you in the face and saying what you're doing is wrong.
• 38:32
  Speaker 1: And I have the answer come to me and Jewish people spit on that and I understand why.
• 38:38
  Speaker 1: The persecution of Jewish people throughout history in the name of Jesus has been horrific, horrific, and I'm a part of that.
• 38:45
  Speaker 1: My ancestry is a part of that.
• 38:51
  Speaker 1: We have Holocaust in my wife's family, holocaust survivors and everything not that, that was a Christian event, yeah, but you know that my mom had rocks thrown at her head, you know, when she was younger, by proclaiming Christians, you know Catholics and my father also called dirty Jew and was, you know, attacked, and you know, and I had I was called dirty Jew and was you know, attacked, and you know, and I had I was called dirty Jew in school and you know these things.
• 39:10
  Speaker 1: We have these things in our history.
• 39:11
  Speaker 1: It's almost genetic, you know.
• 39:12
  Speaker 1: It goes down from generation to generation and we feel these things.
• 39:15
  Speaker 1: And so if you come to Israel with an insensitivity to what the Jewish people have gone through throughout their history, you're going to have a really hard time.
• 39:22
  Speaker 1: You're going to be argued with, yelled at, kicked at you know, pushed spit on and you know what.
• 39:27
  Speaker 1: In a way, so be it, because You're coming into a country to a people you don't understand and just talking at them, and I don't necessarily like that approach.
• 39:40
  Speaker 1: Now, as a Jew, I go to my fellow Jews and I honestly care about people.
• 39:46
  Speaker 1: I love people, I love talking to people, I love meeting people and I love hearing stories about people's lives.
• 39:54
  Speaker 1: So when I go up to somebody on the street and I come up to them and say, hey, we have a YouTube channel, I'm a Jewish, believer in Jesus.
• 39:58
  Speaker 1: And they go.
• 39:58
  Speaker 1: You know, it's like a double take.
• 40:00
  Speaker 1: What Is that a thing?
• 40:02
  Speaker 1: A Christian Jew?
• 40:04
  Speaker 1: Isn't that an oxymoron?
• 40:05
  Speaker 4: So there's no hesitation on your part to mention the name Jesus.
• 40:08
  Speaker 1: No, Like I said, Ray, I had enough.
• 40:10
  Speaker 1: Enough fooling around with my life.
• 40:13
  Speaker 1: Let's get busy.
• 40:14
  Speaker 4: I found that too.
• 40:15
  Speaker 4: I'm witnessing to a Jew and I'm coming to this mountain where I've got to mention Jesus and I'm nervous, but when I do, it's a molehill.
• 40:23
  Speaker 4: They just say yeah, okay.
• 40:28
  Speaker 1: Yeah, wow.
• 40:28
  Speaker 1: You know they just say yeah, okay, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, wow.
• 40:29
  Speaker 1: And thank goodness for the internet and thank goodness for guys like you, so where jewish people can go and actually see.
• 40:32
  Speaker 1: Wait a second, this makes sense.
• 40:34
  Speaker 1: He's talking about the 10 commandments that came to moses on mount sinai.
• 40:37
  Speaker 1: I can relate to that.
• 40:39
  Speaker 1: You know, I know friends that have, you know I.
• 40:41
  Speaker 1: There's a jewish guy that came to faith in jesus through watching your channel and he sent I sent you that Little video clip, that video clip of him thanking you and his story.
• 40:52
  Speaker 1: He shared a six minute testimony and sent it over to Ray.
• 40:54
  Speaker 1: How grateful he was.
• 40:55
  Speaker 4: That's the one I tried to send to you, but you couldn't download it.
• 40:58
  Speaker 4: Oh yeah, yeah so beautiful.
• 41:01
  Speaker 3: I love that.
• 41:01
  Speaker 3: I love that.
• 41:03
  Speaker 1: So my experience EZ is like it's nerve-wracking, it's challenging, especially when we go to Jerusalem, but because we care genuinely about people and they can see that their skin might crawl when they hear the name of Jesus but at the same time they're open to conversation, right yeah.
• 41:23
  Speaker 3: Well, I want you to, in a minute, give us some practical insight, because obviously some of our friends listening today maybe are living in Israel or are living in communities where there are a lot of Jewish people and they want to reach them.
• 41:37
  Speaker 3: And I love what you said, jeff.
• 41:38
  Speaker 3: You love your people.
• 41:40
  Speaker 3: That's where all of us should be.
• 41:41
  Speaker 3: I mean, that's what compelled Paul, who said you know, I would wish myself accursed for the sake of my people, and that cannot be something that is faked.
• 41:54
  Speaker 3: When it's authentic, people sense it and they're more prone to listen to you.
• 42:00
  Speaker 3: Mark, you obviously have a Jewish family that you're related to now through your wife, jewish family that you're related to now through your wife Laura, and you shared the gospel with her.
• 42:11
  Speaker 3: What was that like, and have there been challenges with the Jewish family?
• 42:15
  Speaker 2: Yes, I mean her father will not talk to me about anything Jewish-related, right?
• 42:22
  Speaker 2: Because I took it up as a challenge, right?
• 42:26
  Speaker 2: This is going to be my father-in-law, right?
• 42:29
  Speaker 2: I want to be able to have conversations with him, and now he's just kind of done talking to me and that.
• 42:35
  Speaker 2: So we have a very cordial relationship, but he doesn't want to go deep, he doesn't want to open up scriptures.
• 42:40
  Speaker 2: I can use any sort of Judaic word imaginable to try to relate and connect, and it's just not going to happen.
• 42:47
  Speaker 2: I remember, and I'll share with Jeff, that when I asked for the blessing of my wife's father for you know, I want to marry your daughter, I'd like your blessing, I'd like you to know about this and he said you know, I've always desired my daughter to marry a nice Jewish man.
• 43:05
  Speaker 2: And then he was just silent.
• 43:07
  Speaker 2: There was like nothing.
• 43:12
  Speaker 4: So you should run for three You're a man, stick a yarmulke around, however he responded with.
• 43:18
  Speaker 2: But I've seen the change inside of her since she's been hanging out with you Because I used to share the gospel with her before she became a Christian.
• 43:28
  Speaker 2: We worked at a restaurant together and I would share all the time with her, and then I went away to Bible college and my girlfriend at the time we all worked together at the same restaurant continued to share with my wife, and then, when I went away to Bible college, my girlfriend at the time continued to share and then my wife now became a Christian my soon-to-be wife.
• 43:50
  Speaker 2: You know, and it's been weird.
• 43:52
  Speaker 2: You know, we know her sister used to work here and went to Moody Bible College and then worked with Chosen People of Ministry and then, you know, renounced Christ, you know, and doesn't want to have anything to do, doesn't want to have a conversation at all, and now, to this day, lives in Jerusalem and is raising her child as if Jesus is a cuss word.
• 44:13
  Speaker 2: Right, right, I mean, how dare you mention that name?
• 44:16
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 44:17
  Speaker 2: So, yeah, it's had its challenges, and family gatherings have not been the easiest.
• 44:23
  Speaker 2: My wife she went to Ancestrycom and had her test done and it says here that she is an Ashkenazi Jew 98%, which is pretty high on that list.
• 44:34
  Speaker 2: But it is what it is.
• 44:39
  Speaker 2: We've been to Israel what two, three times now and obviously we have a heart for Jewish people and I would love to learn and grow continually.
• 44:49
  Speaker 2: So I'm excited for this last portion of this podcast, to know what's the secret sauce.
• 44:55
  Speaker 2: What is it that you're dealing?
• 44:56
  Speaker 3: with.
• 44:56
  Speaker 3: Yeah, jeff, we'd really love to hear from you on that because, honestly, look, we've been to Israel.
• 45:00
  Speaker 3: Ray and I were two of those guys that got spat on at least Ray did.
• 45:04
  Speaker 3: We preached the gospel on Ben Yehuda Street in the open air.
• 45:08
  Speaker 3: We didn't know any better.
• 45:12
  Speaker 3: But we do want to grow, even ourselves, in sensitivity.
• 45:14
  Speaker 3: We want to be wise because, at the end of the day, we want to maximize our effectiveness.
• 45:18
  Speaker 3: We know the gospel is unchanging.
• 45:20
  Speaker 3: We know the use of the law is pertinent because Scripture tells us that, but we do need to be wise in how we apply it in certain contexts so that we can maximize our effectiveness and impact.
• 45:29
  Speaker 3: Obviously, we do know as well that there is sometimes persecution that comes with that.
• 45:34
  Speaker 3: You could do all you can to be kind and gentle and impactful.
• 45:37
  Speaker 3: Oh, I still get it, we get it, and I'm sure you do too.
• 45:40
  Speaker 3: So take us down that road.
• 45:41
  Speaker 3: What do you do?
• 45:42
  Speaker 3: How do you find is most?
• 45:44
  Speaker 3: What do you find is most effective in trying to reach Jewish people?
• 45:47
  Speaker 1: Well, what came to mind when Mark was telling his story was that he said that you know, my wife, who is 98% Ashkenazi Jew, became a Christian, and in the mind of a Jewish person, that means they've left us and gone to them, and that is really what's stopping a lot of Jewish people from investigating Jesus, because they feel like and what my wife said too she says but Jeff, I know this is all, this is happening, and Jesus and everything, but I don't want to be a Christian, I want to be Jewish.
• 46:11
  Speaker 1: But she started watching testimonies of Jewish believers in Jesus, which helped her understand that not only are you not leaving your Jewish identity, you're actually becoming more Jewish, right, and how is that possible?
• 46:25
  Speaker 1: Because we're going into their religion, right?
• 46:28
  Speaker 1: No, it's not that way.
• 46:29
  Speaker 1: You know, the natural olive branches have been broken off, still have to be regrafted in, and the unnatural, the wild olive branches meaning the Gentiles or the nations are grafted in, are adopted in.
• 46:43
  Speaker 1: So when I was at the gym one day and this gentleman that was praying for me says I just want to thank you and the Jewish people for allowing me to be a part of your heritage and your culture and that I can believe in the God of Abraham, isaac and Jacob because of the Jewish Messiah, jesus.
• 47:02
  Speaker 1: And I went what I've never.
• 47:05
  Speaker 1: You're coming in.
• 47:06
  Speaker 1: You mean, I'm not coming out to a new religion.
• 47:10
  Speaker 1: And he said, no, I'm coming in, thank you.
• 47:13
  Speaker 1: Thank you for your Messiah.
• 47:14
  Speaker 1: And it just switched something in me.
• 47:16
  Speaker 1: And so what I like to do is, when I talk to Jewish people, you know, the contextualization of the Jewish mindset is important, but I came to faith through Gentile believers.
• 47:27
  Speaker 1: You know non-Jewish men in the gym that had no Jewish context whatsoever.
• 47:32
  Speaker 1: They just told me what I needed to hear and God moved.
• 47:35
  Speaker 1: And so my first advice is to talk about Jesus, even if you're scared, even if you're apprehensive.
• 47:40
  Speaker 1: But, that being said, there is a contextualization.
• 47:44
  Speaker 1: That's important.
• 47:45
  Speaker 1: Terms like Christianity, the church, jesus Christ, virgin Mary you know all these kinds of terminology are very foreign to Jewish people.
• 47:56
  Speaker 1: It doesn't sit well with them because what they think of is Roman Catholicism and medieval persecution when they hear those terms parading with crosses and killing Jews and forced conversions and so that's what they think when they hear these words, that you know, the Catholic church and all these things and so what's important is to allow people to understand that this is a Jewish context.
• 48:18
  Speaker 1: It's Passover's coming up in a couple of days and what we like to teach the Jewish people about is the Jewishness of Jesus, the Jewishness of the New Testament, that it's a beautiful piece of Jewish literature.
• 48:34
  Speaker 1: You know, jews for Jesus is a fantastic ministry that is dedicated to sharing the gospel Jewish people sharing the gospel with our own people, really pursuing God's plan for salvation for the Jewish people relentlessly.
• 48:48
  Speaker 1: And Jewish people have amazing like.
• 48:51
  Speaker 1: It's just an amazing, wonderful evangelical and creative ministry to help reach the Jewish people.
• 48:59
  Speaker 1: And as Jews we kind of have like an in right.
• 49:04
  Speaker 1: But I think Yeshua over Jesus is important meaning.
• 49:09
  Speaker 1: Well, I know that name, it's Hebrew.
• 49:11
  Speaker 1: You know Yohanan the immerser is John the Baptist and Miriam is Jesus' mother's name, yeshua's mother's name, you know, born in Bethlehem, raised in Nazareth.
• 49:20
  Speaker 1: These are all things that a Jewish person can relate to.
• 49:23
  Speaker 1: First, you go for the heart.
• 49:25
  Speaker 1: I love you as a brother or sister in humanity.
• 49:29
  Speaker 1: But second of all, I care and you guys are really good at this I really care about your future.
• 49:34
  Speaker 1: And did you know that the first sentence of the New Testament is this is the genealogy of Yeshua, the Messiah, son of David, son of Abraham and a Jewish person goes that's the New Testament.
• 49:47
  Speaker 3: That sounds just like the Tanakh Is that pretty common?
• 49:50
  Speaker 3: That response, that shock.
• 49:52
  Speaker 1: Absolutely Like.
• 49:53
  Speaker 1: What is that?
• 49:54
  Speaker 1: Because I thought the New Testament was a recipe for how to persecute Jews and, you know, take over Israel.
• 50:00
  Speaker 1: That's what they think, and some of our biggest arguments come against the New Testament from people that have never opened it, and so I like to quote things like Old Testament prophecy which, like Mark said, it doesn't help everyone.
• 50:17
  Speaker 1: Sometimes the testimony is helpful, sometimes the prophecies are helpful, and what we do is we love the person.
• 50:21
  Speaker 1: You know, when the rich young ruler came to Jesus, you know, before he starts to do the commandments, what does it say he did?
• 50:26
  Speaker 1: First he loved him and then he shared with him where he's about to be going.
• 50:33
  Speaker 1: You know, if he doesn't leave it and follow him, follow Jesus.
• 50:37
  Speaker 1: And so I think there's a certain contextual sensitivity that has to happen when reaching Jewish people and, like you go to the same places a lot to share the gospel.
• 50:47
  Speaker 1: People recognize you, they get to know you, you spend time with them in their local community, and so we like to go to the same places and talk to people, so people recognize us and we're not just dipping in and dipping out, right, you know, coming in with the message.
• 51:00
  Speaker 1: You guys did what you said, this is how you do it in Isaiah 53.
• 51:02
  Speaker 1: And these biblical prophecies are helpful.
• 51:05
  Speaker 1: And I like to also get into rabbinic interpretation of these prophecies as well, because the Jews, they, follow the rabbis for the most part.
• 51:14
  Speaker 1: If you're going to be religious, you got to follow the rabbis and you got to follow the biblical interpretations that the rabbis give you, the sages give you, because they're the wise ones right Chosen by God.
• 51:24
  Speaker 4: The video we did together, I noticed that one of the Jewish young men that you were speaking to said that Jews go to hell for 11 months, right?
• 51:34
  Speaker 4: Is that common?
• 51:35
  Speaker 1: That shocked me there are many things like that as well.
• 51:38
  Speaker 1: There's also reincarnation you keep coming back and it's very Eastern.
• 51:41
  Speaker 1: There's a lot of Eastern philosophy that comes into religious Judaism.
• 51:46
  Speaker 1: They won't admit that, but there is, and it's common to hear things like that that you know every Jew is going gonna be in heaven someday, but they're gonna have to pay for their sins and they get cleansed and then they go and they be with God in the world to come.
• 52:01
  Speaker 3: So, jeff, when you share with Jewish folks in Israel on the streets, do you ever kind of read Isaiah 53 or portions of it and then ask them, who does this sound like?
• 52:14
  Speaker 3: Before telling them this is Isaiah 53?
• 52:16
  Speaker 1: Yeah, we have a great video on our channel, so Be it, where we actually took Isaiah 53, isaiah 9, 6, the son will be born called mighty God, and also Zechariah 12, 10, they shall look upon me, god speaking, whom they've pierced.
• 52:29
  Speaker 1: And we take those out and we have them, read them in Hebrew and in English out loud, and we ask them who does this sound like?
• 52:37
  Speaker 1: Where is this from?
• 52:40
  Speaker 1: And they say, well, it's from the New Testament.
• 52:42
  Speaker 1: And we say, why is that?
• 52:43
  Speaker 1: Because it sounds like Jesus.
• 52:46
  Speaker 3: Oh man, it gives me the chills.
• 52:48
  Speaker 1: Yes, and the thing is is that a lot of the rabbis that we talk with because we do talk to Orthodox Jews they'll say an Orthodox Jew would never see that as Jesus.
• 52:59
  Speaker 1: And I understand why Because many of them don't study Tanakh, which is an acronym for the Old Testament, the Torah, the prophets and the writings.
• 53:10
  Speaker 1: They don't study it.
• 53:11
  Speaker 1: They study the rabbinic interpretations, the Talmud, and so they don't have the context of the Old Testament to go from.
• 53:18
  Speaker 1: And so the Jews that we speak with that are secular will say Jesus, and we're like no, that's actually the Old Testament.
• 53:25
  Speaker 1: They're like no way.
• 53:27
  Speaker 1: What that's in our scriptures.
• 53:28
  Speaker 1: Yeah, you should check them out and also check out this other beautiful piece of Jewish literature called the New Testament that God prophesied in Jeremiah 31, 31.
• 53:39
  Speaker 1: For I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah, not like the covenant that I made with their fathers when I took them by the hand out of Egypt, the covenant that they broke although I was a husband to them.
• 53:49
  Speaker 1: And this is the covenant where I will put my law on their hearts, on their inward parts, and I'll be their God and they will be my people.
• 53:55
  Speaker 1: And this is the covenant where I will take away their sins.
• 53:57
  Speaker 1: And this is the promise of the new covenant in Jeremiah 31.
• 54:02
  Speaker 1: And Jewish people are looking at that and they're going online.
• 54:04
  Speaker 1: They're seeing your channel Living Waters, they're seeing so Be it, and they're going to the Jews for Jesus website and they're seeing all these things going.
• 54:09
  Speaker 1: I never knew that.
• 54:15
  Speaker 1: Thank God for the internet.
• 54:16
  Speaker 1: Like you said when I met with you last, you said Paul would be jealous of our ability to reach so many people.
• 54:19
  Speaker 1: With the touch of a button, publish.
• 54:21
  Speaker 1: And there it goes.
• 54:22
  Speaker 1: Thousands of people are seeing things and hearing things they'd never heard before.
• 54:25
  Speaker 1: Wow, that is just amazing.
• 54:28
  Speaker 3: And yeah, I mean Oscar, that same gospel.
• 54:31
  Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean Oscar, that same gospel.
• 54:33
  Speaker 3: It transcends every element of society, every culture, every boundary.
• 54:38
  Speaker 3: The message is still the same.
• 54:41
  Speaker 5: Yeah, no matter where you are in space, time or history, the gospel reigns, true.
• 54:46
  Speaker 5: It's important I love your perspective.
• 54:48
  Speaker 5: It's important to understand the contextualization of culture that helps you understand how to proclaim the never-changing gospel.
• 54:58
  Speaker 5: Shame on us if we ever try to change the gospel, but we should always pay attention to the kind of questions that culture is asking so that we can present the gospel in a faithful way.
• 55:08
  Speaker 1: That's what you're doing.
• 55:09
  Speaker 1: Yeah, praise God.
• 55:10
  Speaker 1: And also I just want to say that Jews for Jesus.
• 55:14
  Speaker 1: It's really important because we understand that the Jewish people are still considered an unreached people group.
• 55:19
  Speaker 1: So, when you guys hear of the words unreached people group.
• 55:22
  Speaker 1: What do you think of an unreached people?
• 55:24
  Speaker 3: group.
• 55:24
  Speaker 3: Yeah, you think the 1040 window and you think tribes and you think Exactly yeah.
• 55:28
  Speaker 1: Exactly.
• 55:29
  Speaker 1: You'd never think the Jewish people, yeah, you'd never think the Jewish people Unreached.
• 55:34
  Speaker 1: They're not being spoken to, and we're a people that in Isaiah 52, blessed are the feet of those on the mountain who share published peace, proclaim salvation, good tidings, who say Zion, your God reigns.
• 55:46
  Speaker 1: We're supposed to be a people that are sharing salvation with the world and so, as we see the Jewish people as an unreached people group, we just encourage.
• 55:55
  Speaker 1: You know it may be intimidating, but speak about Him.
• 56:00
  Speaker 4: Yeah, there's another unreached people's group the very primitive tribes that jump up and down and have bones through their nose.
• 56:06
  Speaker 4: They're in California universities.
• 56:10
  Speaker 3: That's right.
• 56:10
  Speaker 3: Ray goes to share the gospel with all creatures.
• 56:14
  Speaker 3: Yeah, jeff.
• 56:16
  Speaker 3: My question to you in light of all of that, though, is, like we said, the gospel is offensive, and no matter how much we try, that's going to happen.
• 56:25
  Speaker 3: Have you faced some persecution and pushback?
• 56:28
  Speaker 3: Yes, yeah, yeah, we have.
• 56:30
  Speaker 1: Praise the Lord.
• 56:30
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I've been spit at my feet.
• 56:34
  Speaker 1: People have walked by me praying we have.
• 56:34
  Speaker 1: Praise the Lord.
• 56:34
  Speaker 1: Yeah, right, I've been spit at my feet.
• 56:35
  Speaker 1: People have walked by me praying that we die.
• 56:38
  Speaker 1: Wow, I've had things thrown at me.
• 56:40
  Speaker 1: They didn't hit me, but it's rare.
• 56:45
  Speaker 3: Yeah.
• 56:46
  Speaker 1: And what I don't want to do is I don't want to paint a picture of the Jewish people being this wicked group of people that are so anti-Jesus, the Jewish people being this wicked group of people that are so anti-Jesus and, honestly, in today's day and age, the Jewish people have become much more accepting and open to conversation about him.
• 57:03
  Speaker 1: That's awesome, which has been wonderful, and we've had wonderful conversations.
• 57:05
  Speaker 1: And I take it, it's like before I go out on the streets, I pray and I say, god, I need you.
• 57:10
  Speaker 1: I need you so much because I can't do this on my own.
• 57:14
  Speaker 1: I need you to show up for me.
• 57:15
  Speaker 1: And there are times where I feel like I'm down and out and the conversations aren't going well.
• 57:19
  Speaker 1: I just take a step back and I'm like God, I need you, and then boom, he brings me someone.
• 57:23
  Speaker 1: Someone comes and comes right up to us.
• 57:26
  Speaker 1: What are you guys talking about?
• 57:26
  Speaker 1: I've always wanted to be on YouTube.
• 57:28
  Speaker 1: We're talking about Jesus Okay, let's go.
• 57:31
  Speaker 1: And we have this great, amazing conversation.
• 57:33
  Speaker 1: We exchange details and we continue to be in contact and we've seen many, many Jewish people come to faith in Jesus.
• 57:39
  Speaker 1: Many, even from the Orthodox community, praise the.
• 57:42
  Speaker 3: Lord, that's such a joy to hear and yeah, look, it's universal in terms of we face the same thing here.
• 57:52
  Speaker 3: We get people to get angry at us and attack us.
• 57:54
  Speaker 3: You know, ray's been attacked by many women.
• 57:56
  Speaker 3: He doesn't have the fear of man, it's the fear of a woman, right, ray?
• 58:00
  Speaker 2: yeah, yeah, right, yep.
• 58:01
  Speaker 3: Yep, I confess it.
• 58:02
  Speaker 3: Yeah, but Mike Tyson's sister came at me, tried to punch me.
• 58:06
  Speaker 4: Yeah, well, kirk Cameron and I.
• 58:07
  Speaker 4: He gets chased by women and I got chased by a woman.
• 58:11
  Speaker 3: Different raisins.
• 58:12
  Speaker 3: Yes, yeah, that lady left you bruised up, ray.
• 58:15
  Speaker 4: For two weeks.
• 58:15
  Speaker 1: yes, he usually just hides under his dog.
• 58:19
  Speaker 1: We were thinking about that when we were coming to visit Ray on the pier.
• 58:22
  Speaker 1: We were like we should rent two bikes, get two stuffed animals, put them on the front and go riding downtown with Ray.
• 58:27
  Speaker 3: That would be great.
• 58:28
  Speaker 3: But, mark, isn't it sweet to hear these testimonies?
• 58:33
  Speaker 2: We've had quite a few guests on our podcast and I'm absolutely captivated, and I haven't been more than any of the guests that I think that we've had on our show.
• 58:45
  Speaker 2: I feel like I can listen to you for hours.
• 58:47
  Speaker 2: Wow, I feel like we're like long-lost brothers and I have a million questions for you.
• 58:52
  Speaker 2: Yes, and I want to watch every single video on your YouTube channel and I want to memorize the different things that you do and the routine that you go down.
• 59:03
  Speaker 2: And I have this.
• 59:05
  Speaker 2: I feel like I've been given just a shot of adrenaline for the Jewish people even more so.
• 59:10
  Speaker 2: Right, because it seems to my shame that there is some sort of a wall with my extended family, right, and I'm just like, well, lord, you're sovereign, you got to do what you got to do.
• 59:20
  Speaker 2: But it's like, no, it's like Mark, what are you going to do?
• 59:23
  Speaker 2: Give up.
• 59:23
  Speaker 2: God hasn't given up.
• 59:24
  Speaker 2: He hasn't given up on the Jewish people.
• 59:25
  Speaker 2: What are you thinking?
• 59:26
  Speaker 2: Where are you at?
• 59:27
  Speaker 2: And I'm like, well, it's just so much easier to talk to a Gentile or somebody else who I can find some sort of common ground philosophically or something else.
• 59:34
  Speaker 2: You know, and I'm just like man, I'm so excited for the work that God is doing through you, and I'm so excited to dive down deep and you're not gonna be able to get me now out of your life, right, because there's.
• 59:47
  Speaker 1: God, there's connection.
• 59:48
  Speaker 2: I'm happy and I'm going to sit down with my kids you know they're all a lot older, but they're always looking for really great stuff and I remember my son, ethan, who's now 22 years old and showing me the video.
• 1:00:03
  Speaker 2: Is where I first got introduced to your ministry, with my son Showing me the videos, and I'm like going back and going no, you're not going to believe who we had in the center of our studio.
• 1:00:11
  Speaker 4: That's so cool.
• 1:00:12
  Speaker 2: Super excited.
• 1:00:13
  Speaker 2: That's so encouraging.
• 1:00:14
  Speaker 3: Yeah, jeff.
• 1:00:15
  Speaker 3: We're encouraged, brother, by your faithfulness to the Lord and your devotion and dedication and your perseverance in the midst of it, because, aside from rejection from people, there's a spiritual warfare that's involved with that.
• 1:00:28
  Speaker 3: Satan doesn't want us getting the gospel out, especially to his people in that precious part of the world, and so we're grateful for you.
• 1:00:37
  Speaker 3: Tell people how they can connect with you, give them all the information your YouTube channel websites whatever.
• 1:00:43
  Speaker 1: Yeah, well, our dominant channel is YouTube, so be it on YouTube.
• 1:00:47
  Speaker 1: Jews for Jesus has an amazing website full of wonderful articles and a lot of information how people anyone can go to the Jews for Jesus website and learn about Jewish history, jewish culture and customs and how Jesus fits into all of it.
• 1:01:02
  Speaker 1: You know how Jesus fulfills the feasts, how he does it, and you're not writing Jesus into the scripture.
• 1:01:08
  Speaker 1: He fulfills it and it's pretty clear.
• 1:01:10
  Speaker 1: So Jewsforjesusorg so be it on YouTube, which is a wonderful project of Jews for Jesus.
• 1:01:15
  Speaker 1: It was just kind of a brainchild that you know.
• 1:01:17
  Speaker 1: One day I said God, what do you want me to do for you?
• 1:01:18
  Speaker 1: And he's like, just go on the streets and talk about me.
• 1:01:19
  Speaker 1: I'm like, all right, I'm going, and you know I work hard.
• 1:01:22
  Speaker 1: And he blessed it, and so you know we're opening up so Be.
• 1:01:25
  Speaker 4: It is the interpretation.
• 1:01:28
  Speaker 1: You know, I said what kind of what are we going to call the channel?
• 1:01:31
  Speaker 1: Right?
• 1:01:31
  Speaker 1: It's a way of saying may it be so.
• 1:01:33
  Speaker 1: Amen, truth, right, which is?
• 1:01:35
  Speaker 1: You know, you have Aramaic and Hebrew, amen and Emet Emet being Hebrew, amen being Aramaic and they both mean truth, and so that's how we got it.
• 1:01:45
  Speaker 1: They came up with the name for the YouTube, and we have Instagram and TikTok channels.
• 1:01:53
  Speaker 1: You're a non-profit, non-profit.
• 1:01:55
  Speaker 4: So people can support you.
• 1:01:56
  Speaker 1: Absolutely, so you can come to Jews for Jesus, non-profit, and if you want to be a part of Jewish evangelism worldwide.
• 1:02:03
  Speaker 1: We have amazing teams all over the world, even in Ukraine, even being under bombs, under fire, and people that are sharing the gospel, helping with refugees, helping with taking prostitutes off the streets, drug addicts and putting them up in homes and giving them food and shelter in the gospel and fantastic, fantastic ministry.
• 1:02:24
  Speaker 3: Love it.
• 1:02:24
  Speaker 3: Yeah, awesome, jeff.
• 1:02:26
  Speaker 3: Well, thanks for coming in, brother.
• 1:02:27
  Speaker 3: We hope to have you on again and hey, lord willing, maybe we'll team up with you in Israel one day.
• 1:02:31
  Speaker 1: We're there, you guys are always welcome.
• 1:02:34
  Speaker 1: Please come Awesome.
• 1:02:35
  Speaker 1: Thank you brother.
• 1:02:36
  Speaker 3: All right friends.
• 1:02:37
  Speaker 3: There you have it.
• 1:02:38
  Speaker 3: Don't forget the Tracked Starter Kit, the Living Waters mug, the Evidence Study Bible and Living Waters TV.
• 1:02:44
  Speaker 4: What was that?
• 1:02:45
  Speaker 4: You got it right didn't you?
• 1:02:46
  Speaker 3: Yeah, for once, all at livingwaterscom, don't forget.
• 1:02:55
  Speaker 3: Podcast at livingwaterscom, friends, with your thoughts, ideas and criticisms of Ray, mark and Oscar, and for our wonderful friends from Finland, this is the Finish.
• 1:03:02
  Speaker 3: Thank you for joining us, friends.
• 1:03:04
  Speaker 3: We'll see you here next time on the Living Waters Podcast, where we, except for Jeff, have no idea what we're doing.