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looked into it, the rabbi's here to hear you say you'll give up Jesus, and we can get you out of
prison in six months on good behaviour.'
here.'
"The rabbi said, 'Yes, Bob, if you'll just recant, we'll get to work on this. The lawyer's
"But Bob drew himself up to his full height and said, 'Dad' very lovingly he spoke to his
father -- 'Dad, all my life you've kicked me around. You never cared what happened to me. You
never cared that I was in the reformatory. You didn't even answer my letters. And now this Jesus
has come into my life. He's made a man out of me, Dad. When I get out of the penitentiary this time,
I'm going straight, for I'm living straight in here. No, Dad, I'd rather finish my sentence and hammer
away at rocks behind prison walls than be on the outside denying Jesus Christ.'"
After that, when I would go to the prison -- one time it was on Mother's Day, and I was
sitting on the platform, for I was to speak -- I would see those hundreds of men filing in. Some
were old men, tottering with canes, the lines of sin drawn deep on their faces. Some were young
men with the spring of life still in their steps, but incarcerated because of their sin. Somewhere in
that great multitude a hand would be raised, and I'd see a tall youth wave. It would be my son in
the Lord Jesus Christ.
Bob served his term. I have lost all trace of him now, but it is so good to commit such as
these to the Lord Jesus Christ.
Many people have asked, "What is the proper way to approach a Jew about Jesus? How do
you go about it?" There is only one answer. There is just one way that they can be won, and that is
through love -- real, genuine, Christlike love. Love speaks a language that can break down every
barrier, a language that can cause people to listen -- not always right at first, but when love in all
its sincerity is proven to them, they will listen to what is said.
I was in a midwestern city, visiting in the home of a Gentile Christian family. They loved
the Jews very much. The mother told an incident which shows what love will do. Her little son,
Joel, who was about nine or ten years of age at that time, was walking down the street and as he
passed a synagogue, he saw an elderly rabbi standing on the outside. The rabbi was a dear little
old man with a long, white beard, and was dressed in the traditional garb of the Chasidim, the holy
ones, the ultra-orthodox group.
Joel stopped in front of this stern-looking rabbi and, looking up into his face, he said,
"Rabbi, I love you."
The rabbi looked down at him and said, "What did you say, little boy?"
"I love you, Rabbi."
"You love me? Why do you love me?"
"Because you're a Jew. That's why I love you."