Michelle

Dear Cathy,

I'm so pleased to be asked to tell my story!

I was raised in an atheist Jewish home, the daughter of a holocaust survivor who, with my father,
raised me with a strong sense of my Jewish cultural identity, but with a rebellious disdain for
God.  For me being a Jew meant that I knew Jewish jokes, a few words of Yiddish, and I was
part of a very cool club whose members I preferred over the rest of the population.  In fact I
know now that I had a headful of misconceptions about the bible, Christians, Jesus and
everything having to do with God. As an example, I believed that Christians were less
intelligent than Jews, and that their adherence to their faith was an indicator of their inferiority.
I considered the bible to be a Christian book.

Fast forward to 2004: I had been married to the Christian son of a Pentecostal preacher for 22
years, and I was the mother of two children who both loved Jesus.  I had tried so hard to instill in
them a love for their Jewishness, by learning so that I could teach them.  I was competing with
my husband - his Christianity vs. my Judaism - for the hearts of my children, but I lost.
My son told me that by turning to Jesus he had totally embraced his Jewishness, but I had no
way of understanding what that meant.  I was perplexed and distraught.

The Lord placed me in a position of discomfort so that I began to be convicted of my need for
Him, and I was able to make that critical baby step of faith, without at the time understanding
what I was doing.  By simply believing for an instant, with reluctance and a very bad attitude,
that Jesus would help me, I was introduced to a life-changing power that was unmistakably real,
glorious and transforming.  I invited Jesus to enter my heart, and since that time I have
discovered to my great joy what it means to be a Jew.

The Hebrew Scriptures tell of Jesus in the clearest terms, that He is God's remedy, planned since
the beginning of the world, for our condition of exile from our Lord.  The so called New and Old
Testaments are integrated and can only be fully understood together. Now I know that being a
believer in Yeshua is the most Jewish thing a person can do.

Thanks for asking.  It is my favorite thing to do - to tell my story!

Yours,
Michelle

"Surely the Lord God will do nothing, but He revealeth His secret unto His servants the
prophets." (Amos 3:7)

Michelle Shelfer
http://www.baitstand.biz

Click here to see pic of a few of us doing backup singing for Michelle's cd!