How I Came to Sar Shalom

My coming to attend Sar Shalom regularly was a very gradual thing. On November 10, 2005, I began meeting weekly with my best friend, Bob P., for 1 1/2 hours of theological discussion and prayer. One of the things that Bob taught me early on was about the significance of the Festivals. This was an entirely new area of study for me. This led me to begin to study Messianic Judaism as an academic interest... something to keep my mind active by learning new things in my senior years... more or less a hobby. I searched online and found Rosh Hashanah services at Sar Shalom in 2007(2008?), which Bob and I attended together. He believes and teaches that Yeshua will most likely return on Rosh Hashanah. We continued to attend Rosh Hashanah services at Sar Shalom every year until he moved to Florida in 2016. We also attended Tikvat Yisrael in Cleveland a couple times, where his daughter's mother-in-law is the worship leader. I began to attend both Sar Shalom and Tikvat Yisrael on my own a few times a year. The first time that I attended a regular Shabbat service at Sar Shalom, I recall thinking after twenty minutes, "This is what worship should always be." There were several testimonies, both worshipful and joyous dances, small group prayer, and anointed deep worship, as well as a type of teaching that was new to me. Eventually I attended only Sar Shalom and not Tikvat Yisrael, as I liked the friendly, less liturgical atmosphere at Sar and was getting to know a few people. The thing which drew me the most was the depth of interest in the Word that I saw among the people, the way that God was working actively in people's lives as evidenced by testimonies, and that no one was afraid to pray in the small groups. Since having learned about the Festivals from my friend Bob, I have taught classes on the Festivals in Sunday school and in several Bible study groups in two churches. As I was teaching one evening in 2017, the Lord planted a question in my mind: "Why I am not attending Sar Shalom regularly?" I began to do so, often taking friends with me. (I continue to be active in the church which has been my and my wife's home since 1970). I studied Zola's Introduction to Hebrew for a year, and I toured Israel in November 2018. On August 31, 2019, my friend Jerry W. at Sar Shalom told me about torahclass.com (Seed of Abraham Ministries). This teaching was exactly what I had been looking for. I began to study the lessons online daily, and I have not ever missed a day. By April 1, 2021, I will have completed the entire Old Testament studies and will begin the New Testament studies that are available. Through my studies in torahclass.com, I have come to truly understand and to accept for myself that Yeshua did not do away with the Law, and I have committed to observing the true Sabbath and to eating Biblically kosher. What began as an academic interest to keep learning new things in my senior years has turned into a deeper understanding of God's Word from a Messianic perspective and a desire to follow that teaching.