Good day to all fellow forum members in the Messianic Judaism forum! I would like to take some time to introduce myself and how I came to Messianic Judaism.
I "accepted Jesus" when I was 5 years old, I still remember praying the "Jesus prayer" with my sister. From then I attended a Protestant Christian school and was more or less always around Christianity. I was baptized while in college, and at that time I started studying more of Christian history and different faith paths, both Christian and not.
When I was 28 I went through RCIA and became Catholic. I rather enjoyed my time in the RCC and to this day I appreciate the people there. However, I still had a lingering belief that if you did "everything right" that God would protect you and keep your path clear of issues. That belief came crashing down when my wife committed adultery and was unrepentant about it, causing a divorce.
The belief I held caused me to question everything about faith, and for a time discarding Christianity entirely. I was not sure what I believed. I still believed in God, and working through the issues I held and the positions that I studied I came to believe that the god must be the god of Israel - the God. This caused me to actually convert to Judaism for a time. However, after intensely studying anti-missionary information from Rabbi Tovia Singer and then the rebuttal information provided from resources such as First Fruits of Zion I came to understand that Yeshua is/was indeed the Messiach.
By that time I was married again and in a quandary, my wife wished to attend a Christian church, not a synagogue, so we decided on a Lutheran church that was understanding of my Messianic beliefs and willing to let me hold them as well as be a member at their church. This worked for some time, but their denomination drifted further to liberalism than I was comfortable with and we had to leave. Now we attend an independent church on Sunday and I attend a Messianic synagogue and am a member with the MJAA. The church, however, actually encourages some practices such as sabbath, fasting, set prayer times, and other "Jewish" practices. My wife and son participate in some MJ practices such as Shabbat prayers and some of the festivals, but broadly they keep to the Christian church.
I "accepted Jesus" when I was 5 years old, I still remember praying the "Jesus prayer" with my sister. From then I attended a Protestant Christian school and was more or less always around Christianity. I was baptized while in college, and at that time I started studying more of Christian history and different faith paths, both Christian and not.
When I was 28 I went through RCIA and became Catholic. I rather enjoyed my time in the RCC and to this day I appreciate the people there. However, I still had a lingering belief that if you did "everything right" that God would protect you and keep your path clear of issues. That belief came crashing down when my wife committed adultery and was unrepentant about it, causing a divorce.
The belief I held caused me to question everything about faith, and for a time discarding Christianity entirely. I was not sure what I believed. I still believed in God, and working through the issues I held and the positions that I studied I came to believe that the god must be the god of Israel - the God. This caused me to actually convert to Judaism for a time. However, after intensely studying anti-missionary information from Rabbi Tovia Singer and then the rebuttal information provided from resources such as First Fruits of Zion I came to understand that Yeshua is/was indeed the Messiach.
By that time I was married again and in a quandary, my wife wished to attend a Christian church, not a synagogue, so we decided on a Lutheran church that was understanding of my Messianic beliefs and willing to let me hold them as well as be a member at their church. This worked for some time, but their denomination drifted further to liberalism than I was comfortable with and we had to leave. Now we attend an independent church on Sunday and I attend a Messianic synagogue and am a member with the MJAA. The church, however, actually encourages some practices such as sabbath, fasting, set prayer times, and other "Jewish" practices. My wife and son participate in some MJ practices such as Shabbat prayers and some of the festivals, but broadly they keep to the Christian church.
