Sid: I have two Jewish believers on the telephone from Florida, Alyosha and Jody Ryabinov and on yesterday’s broadcast we found out that Alyosha was born in Kiev, comes from a long line of musicians. Age five he studies the piano and he got up to the point that he was practicing six to eight hours every day. He won many competitions, graduated college but then found it difficult to get into advanced studies because he was Jewish and so he wanted to leave the former Soviet Union. But it was near impossible at that time so he thought I’ll try to pray to ground if there is a God. So he went into a Church because he thought it would be too dangerous to go into a Synagogue and he sees a statue of Jesus and he figures well, I think that man might be God. There are other statues there but he picked Jesus. He prayed and a week later he gets his papers that he can leave, he get to the United States, he starts investigating his Jewish background, someone give him the beat book they knew about Judaism, which happens to the Bible. He starts reading prophecies. His sister then becomes a believer in Jesus and so Alyosha doesn’t know what to do so he says God “Show me a sign.” What happened Alyosha?
Alyosha: Yeah, it was early in the morning and I just asked God, please show me a sign if this Jesus Yeshua is you, really the Messiah of the Jews, if he’s the savior of the world you know, should I believe in Him? Didn’t know that the scriptures say “A Jew will ask for a sign, but I did. And suddenly and it was very dark still, a bright light came into the room. And I knew that it was supernatural because the sun does not rise so quickly and it stood there for some time, you know, don’t remember how many minutes and then vanished. But I knew that that was a sign and I began to again process was it truly a sign or did something happen that I can’t explain?
Sid: But the thing that I think is so amazing is that you processed, I mean I guess we’re all different. The moment I saw the reality I ran, but you’re a very cautious person I guess. So your Sister has Bible study and you decide I might as well go to the Bible study, and the teacher of the Bible study looks you in the eye and what does he say?
Alyosha: It was just suddenly he was teaching and just turned to me, looked to me and he asked me, “You believe that Jesus is your Savior?” And I was stunned and I decided to reply, “No,” because I wasn’t ready. But to my own surprise out of my mouth came the word, “Yes.”
Sid: Now, you’re too logical for that “How did that happen?”
Alyosha: I think that in my heart I knew and I was just in my mind I was still battling, something was trying to delay this moment, but that might have been the work of the Holy Spirit that says “This is the time.” So after that this man, who is also a Jewish Believer he led me to the Lord and that was the beginning of my new life.
Sid: Okay, so then you go after your Masters from DePaul University and you start playing concerts. But you stopped playing, why did you stop?
Alyosha: Yeah, God began to change my understanding and desires and goals and I felt that I did not want to practice all day, just to go out and do a two hour concert and that’s it, it’s a lot of work. And so I stopped, I felt this is not what I want to do in my life, I want to serve God and it’s amazing because it was several years that I did not do any concerts and I played very little. Matter fact when I met Jody she did not really know that I was a concert pianist.
Sid: And as a matter of fact you were at Moody Bible College where you two met and Jody, just briefly, because we have so much ground to cover, You have a Jewish background, how did you come to the Lord?
Jody: That’s right. I was searching when I was a young, young woman and really was searching for truth. You know I got into New Age kind of philosophies and Yoga and meditation and I was still empty even though I was doing all of that, it didn’t seem like I could mediate enough. I’d mediate and get peace and then I would be out of peace. So somebody told me one day about a Jewish Messiah, I couldn’t believe that Jesus was Jewish, a Jewish Messiah? I remember seeing Him hang on a cross in a Catholic Church.
Sid: Isn’t that so amazing, we Jewish people go into all these New Age and Occult and Supernatural things that aren’t of God and yet the one thing we don’t investigate is Jesus?
Jody: Yes, and we’re created for supernatural, we’re created for something more and so when this young gentleman told me about this Jewish Messiah I just really really was open and I ended up going to a meeting with Mario Murillo in the Bay back in the ‘70’s. And it was an evening of miracles and I began to hear testimonials and miracles and when he gave the invitation I didn’t walk up there, I ran up there as fast as I could and accepted the Messiah. Went home and told my Jewish mother and she says, Oy E vey now what? Ha ha
Sid: So the two of you together and tell me what it was like when you heard Alyosha play the piano for the first time and realized the gift God had given him.
Jody: Well, it was really quite amazing because we were in at Moody and he was playing for the whole student body and all the staff and I heard him play and I never really was trained to listen to classical music and I didn’t even understand it. And afterwards everybody was coming up including the professors and shaking his hand and saying we had no idea anybody of that caliber was here at our school and I thought, “Oh boy, what is this?” It wasn’t really until our honeymoon when he began to compose that God really began to speak to me through the notes and through the music that he began to play on our honeymoon.
Sid: Now, he has two CD that we are making available. One is called, “Fear Not” because you understand this more than most people, fear opens people up to every type of disease and emotional problems.
Jody: That is so true, fear is probably the biggest thing for people to combat today and it runs in the hearts of babies and children all the way up into adulthood and it really affects everything, every gland, every organ. As a matter of fact every cell in the body is affected by fear.
Sid: And I think it is so fascinating, the thing that makes this so unique is you have the most Anointed Israeli speaking Hebrew and I speak the English in “The Fear Not” CD and we do the same thing in “The Lord is My Healer” you’ve gotten so many now “Fear Not” is brand new, “The Lord is My Healer.” You’ve gotten so many results, but I have to tell you what I love the most about it is so peaceful for soaking, have other people told you that?
Jody: Oh yeah, oh yeah. As a matter of fact I’ll tell you a real quick story about a young boy who had ADD and he was in his class and the teacher wanted to put him on Ritalin and it was really amazing because the mother did not want to put him on that drug. So this is a secular elementary school and they were actually teaching on evolution and in the elementary school for the children and the little boy was listening and he raised his hand after the teacher was teaching about this that their wasn’t really a God. He said, “Yes, there is. And she said, “How do you know that there is a God?” Because I hear Him every night from my CD player and actually, what happened was his behavior turned around so quickly that the teacher actually thought he was on Ritalin, asked the mother if she had put him on Ritalin because his behavior was so good. No, I’m just allowing him to listen to Adonai Rophe “The Lord is My Healer” every night he would listen to this.
