tures—the Old Testament of the Bible—of a coming messiah were actually fulfilled by Jesus in the first century, that he was and is the ultimate Passover Lamb—the sinless one dying in the place of sinners, giving Himself as payment for the sins of the world, myself included. From that night forward life changed forever. Priorities, how I thought, what I desired, everything changed, and continues to do so—in work, relationships, all of it. He healed my marriage and my whole family. There’s a scripture that says God will take away one’s stony heart and replace it with a soft one of flesh. He did this for me. And realizing that God actually wants us to find Him—that was huge for me. He desires that we repent of sin so that we can come to Him. All I know is I felt the reality of His love and forgiveness for the first time that Friday night in ’02 and I don’t ever want to be away from it, or away from Him. My relationship with Jesus has had a profound effect on my work, the jobs I will take, the jobs I turn down—even jobs I’ve lost as a result. It’s having a big impact on just what it is I want to do from this point going forward, some independent things I’ve been working on, one idea being a series I’d like to do dealing with that relationship between the two testaments, or covenants of the Bible. I grew up, like most people, not realizing that Christianity comes from, and was originally Jewish. Jesus and His disciples were all Jews. And that the entire Bible is about Jesus— the Old Testament telling us He is coming prophetically, while the New telling us He has come and will come again. Unfortunately, much of those Jewish roots were lost through the centuries, but there is a re-awakening to them today.
wasn’t interested in religion, but I wanted to know about God—if and who He was. I began an intensive journey that lasted several months, began studying the Bible, asking God to reveal Himself to me, which He did very evidently again and again. Finally, in February of 2002, I committed my life to the lordship of Yeshua Maschiach— Jesus Christ—the final public step taking place at a congregation in northern New Jersey made up of Jewish and non-Jewish believers of Yeshua (Jesus) and led by a Jewish rabbi. These Jewish people have come to understand that the prophecies contained in their own Hebrew scrip-
MM: Back up just a little bit. You talked about what changed for you. Tell me how that changes how you live your life. LEE: Most people are familiar with the practice of baptism. In the New Testament it comes from a Greek word, baptizo, that is also the word used when describing what you do to a cucumber to pickle it. The 86