NRB Chronicles - A Cultural Jew Comes To Christ Story

Oh, I can't tell you how fun it is that God gives us a chance to be here on the convention floor, the National Religious Broadcasters Convention. And so often, you know, I get a chance to see old friends because I've been coming here a long time.

And one of those people that I would just feel like it wasn't in our beat, unless I got to see Jeffrey Miller, my friend who does the satyrs and messianic ministries, right? And Jeffrey, it's so great to see you again. Hallelujah. Donny, it's good. Robbie, it's okay. Yeah, as soon as I said Donny.

It's okay. I get a new name in heaven, it might be Donny. I know your face, man.

I know your hug. Yeah, as a Jew who believes in Jesus, as a messianic Jew, although as a quick aside, it's really funny because I've been in full-time traveling ministry for over 30 years and been in churches where I get introduced as a Masonic Jew. And I say, uh, not really. I've never heard that term. That makes sense, a Masonic Jew. I suppose there are some.

There's a lot of Jews that are Masons. Yeah. Oh. But a little different than a messianic. Amen. Of the Messiah. So, man, you know, people that know me well know how much I love the Hebrew culture, the Hebrew language, how much I love that part of the Old Testament. And I mean, I just live there. And so the thing that just absolutely and it surprised me the first time I ever met you, it surprises me even more. How do they miss it, Jeffrey?

Yeah. Well, you know, there's the unwritten law in Judaism, A, B, J, M, anything but Jesus. And it's the truth. I grew up as a reformed Jew, but a totally Jewish household. And without question, it was, well, God, maybe, I guess, you know, probably cultural Jews like most Jewish people are today. And Israel is full of apostate Jewish people as well, people that just don't know there really is a God who loves them. You know, Jewish people don't see God as a loving father. That's not part of what they, the religion shows, a loving father. That's the love of the father gets demonstrated at the cross, the birth, death, resurrection of Jesus.

That's where the loving father really blossoms. And Jewish people don't see that part. So they see God as, well, if they believe in him at all, and if they believe in him as more than just a creator who's sitting back watching and laughing at us, they just don't see the love. They don't see the love. Well, I never saw the love growing up as in a Jewish home either. And so when you say, how can they miss this, it's because they don't, it's the paradigm shift.

You know, they're looking at the other side of the shift instead of seeing the loving side of the shift. So that anything but Jesus, it's embedded. I mean, it is so strong, even as an unwritten rule, but let alone as a spoken rule.

Well, it can't be Jesus. Why? Because it can't.

But why? Well, because we don't believe that. Well, why don't you believe it? Because it's not true. Well, how do you know it's not true? Because it can't be. Circular, right?

Right. And that's why, I'll tell you, Robbie, the Holy Spirit does the work. You know, when we say we brought someone to salvation, no, we didn't. We kicked a door in maybe or gently opened a door, but it was the Holy Spirit that did the work. And Jewish people don't know from the Holy Spirit. And so how did he do the work in your life?

Yeah, well, you know, it's rather amazing because I was an atheist for 24 years. So I'm born and raised in a Jewish home. My parents were Jewish, their parents were Jewish. As far as we know, my sister did one of those genetic tests, the DNA test or whatever, and it showed 97% European Jewish background. So, I mean, pretty pure. Not pure, but a lot. Remember, Solomon had many wives.

Who knows? But we do know that we have a significant Jewish heritage. So I was brought up, again, it was Reform Jewish, so we weren't very strict. We were cultural Jews. But at the age of 12 in synagogue, during a Hebrew prayer service, I decided there was no God. And, Rami, it wasn't hard.

It was dead. And as a 12-year-old, very precocious, always thinking, thinking, thinking, thinking, and analyzing all my life, even as a 12-year-old, and I said, these people don't believe what they're praying out of the prayer book, the Sedur, the Hebrew prayer book. They don't believe this stuff. Why are they saying these prayers? Why am I saying these prayers?

I don't believe them. And I decided there was no God. And I stayed in, and I became an atheist, and I stayed an atheist for 24 years, into my mid-thirties. And in my mid-thirties, and I was a runaround bachelor in the worst sense of the word. I was better looking back then, I might add.

Of course, it's radio. But I was a runaround bachelor and a divorced man and had sworn off marriage. I said, marriage is stupid. I proved it, and I'm never going to get married again, but I'm going to run around and enjoy women in life. So I never smoked, drank, or used drugs, but I did other stuff that was clearly sin.

And we're all sinners anyway. So I worked in secular radio and television much of my adult life, most of my adult life. I was a rock and roll disc jockey when I started back in my early 20s, became a newsman, became a TV news anchor, TV newsman. And I'm working at this TV station, and next to me on the news team was a born-again Christian woman. Very attractive, working side by side with me, born-again Christian.

Born-again Christian, atheist Jew. We surely had different ideas about life, about almost everything. I'm sure. And we started to date. Oh. Odd couple. Yeah.

We started dating, and I didn't know this, but shortly after we started dating, the Lord spoke – she spoke to the Lord and said, God help, what am I doing with this guy? I am – this is no good. I got to get – It's unequally yoked, and there's unequally yoked. Yeah, right.

And this is an open and shut, unequally yoked – not even a test necessary. So she said that, and the Spirit of God spoke into her heart, not in her – she never heard it audibly, but in her heart, don't worry about Jeff. That's me.

Don't worry about Jeff. He's going to come to know me, and the two of you will be married. And praise God, she had the wisdom to not tell me, but she prayed, you know, for myself.

Oh, yeah. She was already praying for me, but she prayed more diligently. And she prayed and she prayed and she prayed, and two years later, I was worse. I mean, two years we were dating, and a little on and off.

We broke up a couple times. But she was saying, God, I don't get it, but I'm not giving up. And one day, two years later, at the TV station after the late news, sitting out in her car in the parking lot, I said to her – her name is Karen – and I said, Karen, I am so sure there's no God, and you are wrong, and I've been telling you that for two years. But I am so sure that I'm right, I'm going to prove it. I will define the nothingness of God by searching for Him and not finding Him. And then you'll know. You can still believe whatever you want, but you'll know there's no God, and I'm right. And don't even talk to me about Jesus, because if there's no God, how could He have a son? All right.

So that's an open and shut also. So I set out to search for God, not to find Him, but to prove that He wasn't there. And I knew I was right, and I was thinking, this is going to take a week to ten days.

I'll wrap this up in no time at all, you know, because this is ridiculous. So she gave me stuff to read. She told me to pray. I used to pray. It was the emptiest prayer you ever heard in your life, but I said the words, and then like, there, I said it, you know, all right.

So it's done. And nothing, nothing, nothing, found nothing, nothing, nothing. But I was still searching six weeks later, still going through the process, still finding zeros, as big as you can imagine. And then one night, it was a late night of July of 1983, I was working weekends at a radio, still on TV, working weekends at a radio station, and had a late night shift. Well, I really loved radio. And I'm reading a book that she'd given me by the Walt Disney movie actor, Dean Jones.

People remember him from Herbie the Love Bug, That Darn Cat, and he was world famous, and had everything a man could want, and he was a mess. Found Jesus, turned his life around, wrote a book about her. She gave me this book to read. I never would have read that. You couldn't have paid me to read that book.

But I said, I'm searching for God. So she'd given me other stuff to read. I'm reading this book.

I'm at the radio station, the microphone's turned off, the music's playing, I'm in between my episodes. And I'm reading the book, blah, blah, blah, literally, blah, blah, blah. It was like, I was talking to the book, Robbie, and I was saying, this is stupid, Dean. How could you be so stupid to write this book? Like this, trying to say that God's real.

Come on, I thought you were a smart man, you know? And I'm reading the book, and as I read the book, I had zero faith. Yeah, I had faith that there was no God.

That was my faith. And I read some simple words in the book. And as surely as I'm sitting here before you, Robbie, and I've told you this story before over the years, it were as if lightning struck me. I mean, bam, something hit me. I didn't see anything, I didn't hear anything, but up and down my body ran the strongest sensation I had ever felt in my entire life. Like being on the highest roller coaster you can imagine, and coming down.

Whoa! It was amazing. And I had no, what is going on? But the tears gushed out of my eyes.

And I'm crying, standing there in this radio station, not knowing what was going on, and the next thing I knew, crying my eyes out, and shaking in this sensation going up and down my body, I lifted up my hands. Now, you know, the Bible says lift your hands in the sanctuary and praise the Lord. I'd never heard that. I'd never seen it. I had no idea.

Zero. But my hands went up. And I looked up at the drop ceiling of that radio studio, and to my shock and amazement, this atheist Jew cried out, Jesus!

Hallelujah. And inside my head, as I cried out those words, inside my head, my mind said, what? So I'm sure everybody's like me, what were the words? You said you read these words.

What words do you read? Okay, well, it was about healing. It was about a healing that Dean Jones' fiance had been prayed over in a church for a physical ailment she had, and the ailment went away. And I had a physical problem that had bothered me all of my adult life, and I was 36 years old. During those six weeks that I was searching for God, it went away. Just, I mean, it just went away.

It wasn't magical, dynamic, powerful. Just, it wasn't there anymore. But you knew it had gone away. I knew it had gone away, and I thought I lucked out. You know, I had nothing to do with God.

I just, you know, wow, this isn't here anymore. And there I am in the studio, and I read the words that I read in the book were, don't you see, God healed me. God healed me. And as I read those words, God healed me.

Bam! That's when it happened. And the first thing I said when I lifted up my hands was, Lord God. Now, I'm an atheist. And I'm saying, Lord God, I'm healed.

And then I said, thank you, Jesus. I mean, most shocked man on the planet right here. I bet. I'll bet.

And I hate the, oh my goodness, time. So we got to know. I know the whole audience is dying to know. So you got to tell us about the conversation that followed between you and Karen.

Call to the next. Well, first, let me just quickly say that night when I got home, I walked into my bedroom, and I just dropped to my knees. And I said, Lord God, I'm a sinner. Never thought I sinned.

I was an atheist. I thought I didn't sin. I said, Lord God, I'm a sinner.

Forgive me for my sins. And then I prayed a little bit. I hadn't prayed. I never prayed. And I was praying, and I said, Jesus, I want you in my life.

I give my heart to you. Nobody told me to pray that. Those words came out from my spirit. Called Karen, my born again Christian girlfriend, on the telephone the next day, said to her, well, I had this experience.

And I told her what happened. She said, you're born again. I said, no, I'm not. I'm not a Jesus freak like you. But I was. And I became one.

And took me two more years, but we got married. What a story. Wow. I was not expecting this this morning, but I am so glad.

I'll think about it all my way. I've heard it before, but I don't think I've ever heard it so eloquently as you shared it this morning. Again, my friend Jeff Miller and his ministry is Messianic Ministries. How do people get up with Jeff Miller? Well, it's Jeffrey D. Miller Ministries, actually. Jeffrey D. Miller Ministries. Our radio program is Messianic Minutes.

Heard on other stations than yours. Some days, too, we'll see the light. He might go up to a drop ceiling, you know, if it happens. Praise the Lord. Jeffrey D. Miller dot com. Jeffrey D. Miller dot com. Believe me, this man. Oh, this man. He's got a lot of stuff at that website.

He's got videos and teaching like you'll never see it. So thank you, Jeffrey. God bless.

Robby, God bless you. Shalom. Yes, shalom.

I love that. And we wanted to add this statement from Jeffrey on the current situation in Israel. And I can't say it as well as you do, Jeffrey.

So go ahead. Well, it's really clear. It's a biblical mandate. You know, it's not about what God thought might be, but what God said would be. And what he said it would be was to the descendants of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, I've given this land forever as a covenant. It's a covenant. God can't break a promise. God says one word.

It's true. It's greater than any geopolitical influences that there may be. Well, what about the Palestinians? God loves Palestinians.

He loves them. But he didn't give them the land. He gave the land to the descendants of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Is Israel always right?

No. They make mistakes just like everybody else, sometimes huge ones. But they still are the descendants of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob to whom the land of Israel was promised. If we're going to believe the word, we have to believe Israel is a holy land. God said that. He never called any other land holy. He never called Washington, D.C. holy. And he didn't call Mecca holy. So we've got to pray. Jerusalem and Israel are a holy land and the Jewish people are deeded it. And the good news is there will be a revival at some point when Jewish people will welcome Jesus as their Messiah. They absolutely will. That's in the Bible. We'll be praying. Thank you, Jeff.