My family seems to be going in three different directions when it comes to religion. Both my parents are Jewish, so I was raised Jewish but was baptized into the Lutheran church about 6 months ago. My father has explained his belief as that "an intelligent life force created the universe and then said 'Go play.'" He does not believe in organized religion.

However, the biggest problem is with my mother. It's not so much that I disagree with her attending services at a Messianic Jewish synagogue, although I disagree with the Messianic movement as a whole since it seems to me that the only Messianic thing about it is the use of the name of Jesus (which is said as Y'shua there) in the services. The problem is that my mother does not know what to do in terms of her religion. She wonders, as do I, why Jews do not believe in Jesus as the Messiah since so many others do believe. She wants to be able to say the Hebrew prayers and she wants to be around the Torah, but she also wants to be able to sit with someone so she doesn't feel alone, but she is very shy and has trouble approaching people she doesn't know. She actually came with me to the Christmas Eve service at my church and was comfortable, but she still wants to have the Torah. She needs divine guidance but she and I have both been waiting for a sign of where she should go from the synagogue and it does not appear to have come yet. She needs to find a place where she feels welcomed and where she will not be pushed into anything. HELP!!!!

Fr_Chuck

There is a very large movement to go back to alot of Jewish traditions within various Chrsitian churches,

There is a large Baptist church movement, based out of Atlatna that is Messianic and practice most of the Jewish traditions.

This is actually very correct and part of our group did the same a few years ago.

We must remember that to be a Chrsitan in the early church required them to become Jewish, being a Gentile was not allowed for a few years in the early church.

The Jewish religion just did not accept Jesus as the Savior and does not even reconise him as a prophet which the Muslim religion does.
To them he either just did not exist or was a mistaken Rabi that ended up with a new religion.

There are also Jews for Christ and other such Christian Jewish groups, which see theirself Jewish first and also Christian, while alot of the other groups are Christians trying to do Jewish customs.

so in general one has to decide and understand no one organised group is always going to have exactly everything you want, and not all groups are in your area, If you were in Sparta TN with me, I doubt there is any simular service in 80 miles

ordinaryguy

It sounds like your mom wants the comfort and familiarity of the tradition she was raised in, but doesn't really believe it. She also seems to want to be accepted as "normal" in the (nominally) Christian culture she lives in.

Based on my own struggles to find a religious home, I've come to feel that if you can't find a way to be satisfied in the religion you were raised in, you might as well learn to live outside all religious institutions, because changing to a different one is rarely satisfying. Six months isn't very long, but how's it working for you so far?

Maybe it means she shouldn't go anywhere.

Good luck with that. Most churches' welcome lasts just exactly as long as it takes to find out that you aren't willing to be pushed into joining them.