Today I interviewed Raymond Brooks, a Jewish man who found his Messiah!
Raymond
grew up in a traditional non-religious Orthodox home where they kept
the high holidays out of respect for his maternal grandparents. He had
his Bar Mitzvah but never really felt a connection with God within the
synagogue. He felt it was a place where people went to socialize and
prove how Jewish they were. Unless you understood Hebrew, the service
was unable to be followed.
After
Raymond’s Bar Mitzvah, he rebelled and high holidays were like a chore
rather than enjoyable to him. The only good point he took from them was
that he got the day off school.
In
2010 after a 12 year struggle with drug addiction, Raymond tried all he
could in his own strength to give it up but failed on numerous
occasions. His mother invited him to NYC for 10 days if he agreed to not
smoke dope for the duration of the time. So with this agreement,
Raymond went to NYC. During his stay, Raymond’s brother was serving on a
Jews for Jesus summer campaign and invited them to one of their Shabbat
meals. Raymond accepted with the understanding that they would not talk
to him about Jesus. While there, he felt emotionally touched by the
love he was shown, and they prayed for him to give up the drugs for
good.
Towards
the end of his stay in NYC, Raymond became scared to go home and fall
back into the same habits as the previous 12 years, so for the first
time in his life he decided to pray. He felt he was being drawn towards
Jesus and the love he was shown during that Shabbat meal in New York. So
he said to himself “ok I'm going to give this Jesus a chance” and he
asked his brother what he needed to do.
Together
they prayed the prayer of repentance and throughout the next year
Raymond read the new testament for himself. At the end of his reading,
he came to the conclusion that this was a very Jewish book, and he
couldn't understand why most Jewish people were forbidden to read it.
Most importantly, Raymond realized that it wasn't actually him giving
Jesus a chance, but He was offering him the chance of an eternity in
unity with the God of Israel. So on understanding the gospel he was
really delivered!
Since
that time Raymond attended theological school and completed his Masters
Degree. Three years ago Raymond’s father became terminally ill with
lung cancer, and Raymond cared for him and led him to the Lord seven
days before he passed away.
Two
weeks after his father’s passing, Raymond met his fiancĂ©e who God
brought from Israel to his house in London for a Shabbat fellowship
event. The two plan to marry in three weeks and then Raymond and his
bride plan to make Aliyah.
Sunday, August 7, 2016
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