The Life and Ministry of Marty Goetz. He Shares Such A Wonderful Testimony. Enjoy...♥

I was watching TBN this morning and at 12pm the show Christ in Prophecy hosted by Dr. David Reagan started and aired this testimony given by Marty Goetz. I was touched by his testimony of how he was led to Jesus (Yahshua) given with a little humor. I have typed a transcript below beginning at 15:52 minutes into this video I've shared with you:

 

Well I told you about my partner Burt and I didn't finish the story quite. We had this act that we, I don't know if you ever heard it. We used to work in a place called the Borscht Belt. Do you know what the Borscht Belt is? Do you know what Borscht is? It's a beat soup, it's very nice you put a little sour cream on it. (laughter) But it's a... it's the area in New York where a lot of the especially Jewish comics and singers got their start and some of them got their finish there. (laughter) You don't know when you go there which one you are. But Burt and I, I went to college in Pittsburg, Pennsylvania to a place called Carnegie Mellon after I left Cleveland, Ohio. There I met this fella Burt and he also did some work with a fella named Mr. Rogers. Have you ever heard of Mr. Rogers here? He did some work with Mr. Rogers because we met Mr. Rogers through a fella named Don Brockett who was Chef Brockett on Mr. Rogers. I don't know if you were watching when I was on, but I played Smokey Bear on Mr. Rogers once. Maybe you recognize me, I don't know. (laughter) But I was following Burt around because as I said he was a nice religious boy. But when he became born again, he became intolerable.

 

So what has been called the bummer in the Borscht Belt... which has become a bunch of hotels we used to play. We got all around there and played everywhere up there and we thought we were going to be together forever who knew. But when this happened, I just had to get away from him. Because he had friends that were talking to me about this... Jesus. I would just tell them, "I'm Jewish, I don't believe in Jesus. I really couldn't tell them why. But I knew I didn't. So his friends would followed me and I said this is ridiculous. So I broke up the act and I went and I played in piano bars. Like saloons and things like that. His friends would come in after church and they would sit in the piano bar. They'd listen to me play. They'd order one coke and five straws and have a great ole time. (laughter) And after I finish they'd all come up to me and say "We're praying for you. God has a perfect and wonderful plan for your life." I'd say yeah yeah yeah. And it got too much. So I said, I have to get away from these crazy people. I got to go somewhere where people are normal. People are not nuts like this. Mashugana is the word for it. A little crazy, it's a yiddish word. So I went as far away as I could get to a sane place... I moved to California. (laughter)

 

There one of Burt's friends had already moved out there. (laughter) One day she said would you like to go to the beach. I said that would be nice. She said there are some people gathered at the beach I'd like to take you there. So I went to the beach. Well I went there and it just happened to be a guy Hal Lindsey there preaching on the beach. (laughter) You've heard of him I could tell. He was preaching. He wrote a book called the late great planet earth. He was preaching on the beach. I listened to it. What I didn't tell anybody, I had been reading the Bible. It was one of those little tiny bibles, oh ye of little faith bibles that you can tuck in your pocket there. Because these people, even though I was very angry about what they were telling me. They did provoke me. They did get me thinking. And I thought I'm going to read this bible and I'm going to find out for myself. Well I had been reading about Jesus. I found out later he had a Hebrew name, Yeshua. His name actually means Salvation. Of course, we all heard of Jesus "Christ" because Mr. and Mrs. Christ had a little boy name Jesus. You remember that story. (laughter) But we found out that's His title. That's not His name at all. His name is Mashiach. His title is Mashiach, Messiah. I found this out later, but there on the beach I was just listening to all these people and I said this is very nice for them but I'm not going to believe it even if I believe this stuff I'm not going to believe it like they do cause I don't want to be these born again people so I'm going to sit here enjoy the music, enjoy the sunshine, enjoy the beach whatever.

 

But he brought up a guy in the end and this guy did something called communion. And when he took the bread for the communion he said, "Baruch Atah Adonai. Elohheinu melech ha olam. ha motzee lechem min ha-aretz." Blessed art thou oh Lord Our God, King of the Universe who brings forth bread from the earth. and I thought Oy! Which being interpreted is Oy! (laughter) Then he did the wine he said the words "Borei p'ree ha gafen" who creates the fruit of the vine. And I thought Oy vey! Which being interpreted is get me outta here, basically. (laughter)

 

And so after that was over, I was thoroughly confused. They took me to this place. This place called the Vinyard Christian Fellowship. And it had a fellow there named Ken Gulickson and he came from a place called Calvary Chapel which had a Rabbi name Chuck Smith. We used to say Huck Smith basically. (laughter) And he wasn't a Rabbi, he was a Pastor. But this fellow Ken he had rosy red cheeks, blonde hair, blue eyes Gulickson and I thought immediately I walked into this place where they took me and I thought, he's not Jewish. (laughter)

 

But he preached this message and I don't remember really even what he said to tell you the truth. But it was something stirred in my heart. Something got to my kishkes that means my guts. And all these things I had been reading about Jesus being the son of Abraham and a son of David, how He celebrated the Feast of Tabernacles and He celebrated Passover, Pesach. He actually was a better Jew than I was, that was the problem. So I thought, I can't reject Him on the basis of not being Jewish. So I listened to this message and at the end something moved upon me, I've come to learn now it was the Ruach ha-kodesh, the Holy Spirit. I found myself walking forward. They gave me a bible. I confessed I that was a sinner and they said congratulations, you're born again. To which I said, Oy double vey! Which being interpreted is I can never go home and tell my family about this. Well I eventually did and I told my family about it and some of the words you're going to hear in this next song are their response to what I said. And when I sing this song I hope no one will be offended by it or put off by it. It sounds like I might be making fun of my heritage but I'm not. I'm having fun with it. Because the truth is, my heritage I found out as a Jewish person is to bring the message of Yahshua. And I found out that being born again is a very Jewish thing to do. They actually called it being born from above or being born anew. So we're going to sing a little song here, you might recognize some of the rituals that we're talking about. And I hope you enjoy hearing it and I hope you enjoy the message we're trying to convey to you.

 

A Jew Born Anew
Words & Music By Marty Goetz
Singin’ in the Reign Music
© 1984 Singin’ In the Reign Music. Licensed by ASCAP

I had a Bar Mitzvah when I was thirteen
The greatest Bar Mitzvah that you’ve ever seen.
The temple on the corner of Mayfield and Lee
Was filled with my friends and my family
All of them proud as proud can be,
With catering far as the eye could see,
Complete with a chopped liver statue of me.

But now they ask me how I can go so wrong
And why all of a sudden I’m singing this song,
They say “Son you’re deserting your fathers of old,
So why don’t you just come back to the fold,
You’re such a nice boy or weren’t you told
That when you were born they broke the mold
So whaddya need with this stuff ya been sold?”

But it’s a far, far better thing that I do,
Than I have ever done, when I believed what they said was true
That Yeshua is God’s only son
Well I’ve done many things and I don’t do a few
But this one thing I do makes Me a Jew Born Anew,
Yes, through and through I’m a Jew Born Anew

So Hallelujah to Yeshua from a Jew who never knew ya,
Could come to die for a schmo like I was,
Just so I could win the prize
and be with my Messiah in the skies!

They say on Bar Mitzvah day I became a man,
I’ve tried to live that way, done the best that I can,

But I’ve been worried since way back when
‘Cause I’ve never done anything great since then,
And though I could live ‘til a hundred and ten
And never have need of a fountain pen,
I might never succeed in the sight of men,
And they won’t let me get Bar Mitzvahed again!

But it’s a far, far better thing that I do,
Than I have ever done, when I believed what they said was true
That Yeshua is God’s only son
Well I’ve done many things and I don’t do a few
But this one thing I do makes Me a Jew Born Anew,
Yes, through and through I’m a Jew Born Anew

 

So Hallelujah to Yeshua from a Jew who never knew ya,
Could come to die for a real schlemiel

One who couldn't tell you were the long awaited,
Holy one of Israel!