My father was born into an Orthodox Jewish home of three brothers and one sister in Latvia in 1893. After his Bar Mitzvah at age 13, he attended Rabbinical School but had to withdraw for financial reasons. He was sent to an uncle in Cleveland, Ohio, in 1912. To his chagrin and horror, he was plunged into a Reformed Jewish home where the Sabbath and other laws were never observed. After a short time on a job which desecrated the Sacred Sabbath, he turned away in utter disillusionment to become a vagabond — hopping freight cars and wandering from one part-time job to another. For several years he wandered aimlessly throughout the country. He finally tired of that life and decided to commit suicide.
Just before carrying out his plan in Pittsburgh, a rain storm drove him momentarily under the awning of a Jewish Christian mission. Horrified, he was ready to curse the director when the man came out with SHALOM (PEACE) and he asked him to come in to dry his clothes. After a gracious introduction, a warm meal, and the promise of a job, a friendship began. Slowly friendship deepened until the director introduced my father to the New Testament — a-once-in-a-lifetime-experience. As he read through the Gospel of Matthew with a vivid recall of the Old Testament scriptures from rabbinical school, my father became convinced Jesus was the Messiah. However when the director explained he had been baptized in the Seine River in Paris and baptism was necessary to become a Christian, my father rebelled with all his might.
With bitterness and sorrow, he went to Denver where he obtained a job in a bakery. There, C.A. McDonald of the Highland 
Church came to buy bread and befriended my father. Using a Hebrew New Testament and patiently teaching the novice, he explained that loyalty to the Lord must preempt all other loyalties (Matthew 10:35 – 38).
Eventually, the overwhelming evidence of the gospel led my father to descend into the liquid grave and arise a new creature in his blessed Lord on April 9, 1920.
For the next fifty-five years, he endeavored to proclaim the unsearchable riches of the Messiah to his kinsmen in the flesh. He was privileged to witness twenty-four of them immersed into Christ before he fell asleep in Jesus in 1975. He, together with a host of saints, awaits the glorious resurrection when Jesus will come to raise his own (1 Corinthians 15:42 – 50; 1 Thessalonians 4:13 – 17). Until then, the gospel calls for all who will come to Jesus.
Picture credits:
© Iguana and Bear. Image from BigStockPhoto.com
© Iguana and Bear. Image from BigStockPhoto.com
© Kirill4mula. Image from BigStockPhoto.com