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Issue
209 - Summer 2000
Trusting
My Jewish Saviour
- Stan
Telchin
Some months ago, I was asked to be a principal speaker at an International
Conference on Jewish Evangelism. It was only after I had agreed to do so, that I
was assigned my very challenging topic. It was: "Trusting My Jewish
Savior."
"Trusting my Jewish Savior"? That was a subject I'd never really
thought about. Certainly, it was one I had never spoken about. But that was the
assignment I was given -- and that is the assignment I accepted.
I want to share with you some of the things I learned as I prepared that
message. My purpose in doing so is threefold. First: I want you to learn some
important truths about me. Second: I want to encourage you to consider these
truths -- as they may apply to your life. But, thirdly my overwhelming objective
is to help you become even more effective in your outreach to Jewish people.
As I first thought about the subject "Trusting my Jewish Savior" I
realized that, like you, I have a whole list of things to trust Him for: my
salvation, my life, my family, my work, my health, my relationships, my
ministry... my finances. But later as I continued to think about this
assignment, I realized that there is a much more fundamental and extremely
important matter I am trusting Him for. I am trusting Him for my identity on
earth! Think about that word "identity" for just a moment.
If you had to define the word, what would you say? Do this: take a pen or pencil
and write down how you would define your identity. Here's how I used to define
it: I am a first generation Jewish American. Please note the order of what I
have just said. I am not an American-Jew. I am a Jewish-American.
Why the emphasis? Because as soon as I was able to understand, I was taught that
I was a Jew
before I was anything else. And continually in the late 20's and early 30's as I
grew up in a ghetto on
the East Side of New York, I was reminded that I was a Jew!!!
Anti-Semitism was a very real part of American life in those years. Indeed, if
anyone asked me my nationality, I knew they weren't asking if I was an American,
they wanted to find out if I was Jewish! And I would boldly say, "I am a
Jew!"
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