By Bethania Wonagseged –
Yuri thought he had everything – money, women, gambling, drugs and alcohol – until he got taken to rehab in Jerusalem where he cried out to God, pleading for either help or death.
“One woman prayed for me and said,You are his son. In that moment, something happened inside of me,” Yuri says on a So Be It video. “I felt full of love. My body felt so hot. I never felt this before. In that moment I really understood God really loves me.”
Previously, Yuri, as a Jew, never knew Yeshua. “I was empty,” he says. “I was a slave to sin. When I was in darkness, I felt something was missing. I was empty. I was the king of my life.”
All the fun of sin turned into slavery to sin. He cried out to God. His mother took him to the rehab center. He felt a peace there, and after 20 days, he no longer had the desire to smoke or use drugs.
“It was a miracle,” he says. “Before I never could break free from addiction.”
Generally, Jews have an antipathy towards Christianity, but Yuri said he read the Messianic prophecies, so the transition to faith in Yeshua wasn’t hard.
“Before I had everything, but I was unhappy,” he says. In rehab, “I only had God. I had no friends, no phone, no money, no work, nothing. But I had blessing. Every morning for three hours, I just talked to God.”
Since graduating rehab, he has married and serves in a Messianic congregation in Israel.
About this writer: Bethania Wonagseged is a student at the Lighthouse Church School in Santa Monica.
