David & Rose Wertheim
MEN U FOR TRANSFORMED LIVES 
"Dave and Rose are long time friends and Ministry partners.
Once again I believe it best just to let them share their heart." - Dave Harrison I'd like to share my testimony in the hope that it might be meaningful and helpful in your quest for a closer relationship with God. Life Before I Trusted Christ: I was raised in a good Jewish home with lots of love even though my parents were divorced when I was four. Following typical Jewish tradition, I was Bar Mitzvah’d when I was thirteen. During my childhood we were on welfare and very poor and I vowed I would never let my own family get to that level of poverty. I became a part of the “You Can Make It Happen" generation.” By the time I was fifteen I had rejected God. Trusting in science, I had a lot of difficulty believing the accuracy of the Bible. I particularly struggled with the parting of the Red Sea and people like Methuselah living to be 969 years old. How could these things be true? Rather than believe in God, I explained these away as something similar to Greek mythology, you know, exaggerations developed to help remember a good story. I became an agnostic. I accepted that there was some power or force in the world, but I just couldn’t accept it was God. For the next 10 years I lived out the “You Can Make It Happen” mentality. I went through college and graduate school, got a great job, began charging my way up the corporate ladder, and married a wonderful woman, Rose (also an agnostic). I kept striving for the ultimate in life’s experiences. This led me into extensive use of drugs and some serious partying. Even though I knew something was missing in my life, I kept striving for that ultimate high – believing that I could actually compensate for the void I felt. How I Came to Christ: We had some very dear friends (Jim & Linda Stump) who had been praying for us and began to talk to us about Jesus Christ. Rose was very interested in finding out more about who this Jesus Christ really is? As for me, I had no interest you see, because I was Jewish, and all Jews know that Jesus was just a great man, maybe even a great teacher, but that’s it. One day, I went along with Rose, you know, to support her quest for truth. Jim shared the four spiritual laws: 1) God loves us and offers a wonderful plan for our lives 2) We are sinful and separated from God. Thus, we cannot know and experience God's love and plan for our lives 3) Jesus Christ is God's only provision for our sin. Through Him we can know and experience God's love and plan for our lives 4) We must individually receive Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior; then we can know and experience God's love and plan for our lives Personal Testimony of David Wertheim At the end, Jim asked Rose if she wanted to accept Jesus Christ into her life as her personal Lord and Savior – and she said “Yes!” I have to admit I just about fell out of my chair. Then Jim asked me if I wanted to and I clung to my safety net – “Jim, I’m Jewish.” Jim then asked me some very important questions – “If Jesus really is the Son of God would I want to know that or not?” To that I had to answer “Yes,” if Jesus really is the Son of God, I would definitely want to know that. The second question was “Would I be willing to do an experiment?” He showed me Revelation 3:20 where Jesus says “Behold, I stand at the door and knock, if anyone hears My voice and opens the door, I will come in to him.” Jim explained that I had nothing to lose and everything to gain, but I had to ask Christ into my life. If I would take a step of faith through prayer, Jesus would come into my life. While I wasn’t totally sure at this point, I was willing to give it a try. Jim told me to go home and pray, and even told me how to pray. I couldn’t wait to get home, so Rose and I went outside to our car and prayed. It was the first prayer of my life. “Jesus, I really don’t know if you are the Son of God or not. But if you are, I do want you to make Yourself known to me, to be the Lord of my life, and to forgive me for my sins.” At the moment I said this prayer a sensation overcame me which is difficult to describe. It was a spine-tingling sensation that I had known before, and each time in my life it occurred right before something wonderful was about to happen. I know not everyone receives this type of sign, but it was as if Jesus knew that I needed confirmation, and by His grace and mercy He provided it. Life After I Trusted Christ: At that instant (about one hour after Rose became a believer), I too became a believer in Jesus Christ, and began my spiritual journey. I bought a bible, found a church to attend, and knew that I would be spending eternity with Jesus Christ. Satan however immediately attempted to destroy my faith. I heard voices that said “David, you’re such a smart guy, you don’t actually believe all that stuff about Jesus Christ do you?” “David, for goodness sakes you’re Jewish!” The more Satan tried to cause me to stumble, the more I clung to God’s word. I read the Gospel of John to learn more about Jesus’ ministry. I became intensely interested in the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus’ words in chapters five through seven in the Gospel of Matthew. I read them over and over again trying to comprehend what it meant to follow Jesus. Although I began to grow in my faith, I really didn’t start to change dramatically until I joined a discipleship program and made myself accountable to a spiritual mentor. Through this process and a lot of prayer, Christ began to show me areas in my life that did not glorify Him: drugs, pornography, profanity, greed, and lying would make a good starting point. I began to change. As I began to understand what a life centered on Jesus Christ was truly all about, I began to experience a new level of peace, a new level of joy, a new level of God’s great love. It is a relationship unlike any other. Close: From the depths of my heart, and with the love Jesus Christ has shown to me, I say to you "Behold, He stands at the door and knocks, ..." Men U for Transformed Lives Men U for Transformed Lives has three primary focus areas: 1) Helping churches disciple men more effectively 2) Speaking and writing, encouraging men to live transformed lives 3) Discipling leaders to deepen and grow their transformed lives These focus areas are delivered through small group and 1-1 discipleship; speaking (or teaching) at retreats, conferences, seminars, and breakfasts; the
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