That’s right! Soon to be FOUR! It is the birth by Spirit that truly matters. (No, I am not going to reveal how old I am in my flesh:))
One beautiful sunny day in August of 2010 Yeshua delivered me from the bondage of religion. Praise HIS name!
I was born into a religion of the Watchtower Society , inc. These people are known as “Jehovah’s Witnesses”. It was my mother that overlooked the spiritual life in our family. My father only followed , mostly to keep the” peace” . I used to spend countless hours preaching “house to house” the Watchtower version of the Gospel and tried to live by peculiar rules of this religion.
After my marriage to Steven BenNun, I was challenged on the identity of the Messiah. After all, Steve knew Tanakh and was a Jew by birth. He believed in “Yeshua” as his Messiah, yet it was not the same “Messiah” I knew from the Kingdom Hall. We married despite our huge religious differences and it was not an easy route.
I loved my husband with all of my heart ( it’s easy to love such a tender soul), but I also believed that Watchtower Society is the only organization on this planet that has the “truth”. Being born in it, this was the only religion that made sense to me. I tried with all my might to persuade my husband to become one of Jehovah’s Witnesses. To compromise, he has agreed to study with the elders of my local Kingdom Hall. I awaited eagerly his conversion to my “faith” and prayed several times a day that “Jehovah” would unite our family in spiritual matters. While every area of our married life was close to perfect, when it came to “religion” we had huge fights. In fact, it was so bad, that I believed our marriage would not survive, unless Steve converted to my religion.
What I did not know, was that Steve while studying with the elders of my Kingdom Hall, was writing a book in secret refuting their doctrines. He hoped that one day I would read the book and understand the reasons why he could not convert to my faith. See, by studying with the elders, Steve was learning the doctrines and rules of Watchtower Society in depth , but also challenging elders by The Scriptures on several doctrinal points.
When his “study” time had ended, one of the elders came to me privately and told me: ” Sister Jana, I have bad news for you… your husband will never be one of Jehovah’s Witnesses. In fact, he is a “spiritual danger” to you and your children. You must come to a private meeting at the Kingdom Hall , we will arrange a time for you to meet with two other elders”.
With the broken heart I had agreed to meet with three elders in the Kingdom Hall. They had informed me, that Steve was a spiritual danger to me and my children , and they, as my “spiritual heads” were advising me to separate from him (not divorce him). They suggested that I leave for South Florida where my exemplary Jehovah’s Witness sister by flesh lived and she would help me during this difficult time. They had also arranged a new congregation for me in South Florida where I would be attending regular meetings.
– to be continued-
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