It's Supernatural

SID: Hello, Sid Roth here with Roberta Simpson, and Roberta you cannot tell me that story enough, a Jewish person, the last thing in the world you wanted to do was know Jesus was the Messiah, the last thing you wanted, you hated that church you couldn’t wait to get out of there.

And tell me what you saw?

 

ROBERTA: I saw Jesus the Messiah, and He was…

 

SID: Tell me what He was doing?

 

ROBERTA: He was walking across the church by the altar. And it looked like He just had love and happiness on His face for everybody that was there. And He was walking across there with a purpose and I knew He was the one I needed in my life.

 

SID: So Roberta loved to tell stories, she is a storyteller, so she thought she’d like to, you did writing letters to the editor on what subject would you write an article?

 

ROBERTA: Israel and the Jewish people, and you know, whenever there was anything anti-Semitic or anything negative, you know, lies as I would call them, I would write letters to The Advocate and The Nation. Those are our two main newspapers and that was my…

 

SID: So you took a writing course and you figure maybe I’ll refine this but the professor really crushed you, what did he say about your writing?

 

ROBERTA: Well, he took my paper, which I thought was quite nice, and he just scribbled it up and made horrible comments and at the bottom he said, “You can’t write.” And then he had the audacity to ask me, “I hope I didn’t discourage you, did I?”

 

SID: So you are driving your own car along, minding your own business.

 

ROBERTA: Years, later.

 

SID: And you hear from God. So you began to actually hear God speak to you?

 

ROBERTA: Yes.

 

SID: What did He say?

 

ROBERTA: Just these four words, “You can NOW write.” And the NOW was emphasized. And I knew it was Him. It was just that still voice in my head and an excitement rose up in me, and a joy.

 

SID: So did you take another writing course?

 

ROBERTA: No, no.

 

SID: So what did you do?

 

ROBERTA: I went home and I wrote my first story.

 

SID: Now I don’t know whether it is just us Jewish people but the same thing happened with me, the minute God told me to do something I did it.

 

ROBERTA: You know if we are not obedient we don’t get any – I look back now Sid, and I think how scary it would have been if I had maybe thought yes I’ll do this and then got home and doubt might have overtaken me and, “Oh I can’t do this I was told I couldn’t write.” But there was a joy in my spirit and I sat down at that computer immediately after I got home and started writing and I haven’t stopped.

 

SID: And I’ve got it right here, Nana’s Bible Stories, and I love putting, I mean each story has a message. One is on courage, another is on healing, another is on love, and the most important one, on how to know God. Just kind of paraphrase for me about my favorite, The Butterfly and the Cross.

 

ROBERTA: Okay, well to begin with I used all my children’s, my grandchildren’s names in the stories, and when I first started I started with the lost sheep, and I used my oldest grandson’s name, Ralphie, and if I had known it was going to be a book with a lot of stories, I would have never made my grandchild a sheep. But I went to my little granddaughter Alexandra, and she was six at the time, and I said to her, “What would you like to be in a story, what is your favorite story?” She said “I don’t know.” I said “Would you like to be Queen Esther’s best friend and live in a palace?” You know little girls like to be princesses. She said, “Nope, don’t want to be that.”

I said, “Well what would you want to be?” “I want to be a butterfly.” So I thought there are no butterfly stories in the Bible. Of course I didn’t tell her that. And how narrow minded we can be sometimes because of course there would have been butterflies; there are butterflies in Israel.

And then she really shook me, she said, “I want to be a butterfly at the crucifixion.” And I do a lot of research when I write the stories, I go into the Biblical accounts, I don’t change anything. But when I like for instance, I’m writing a story about a butterfly I don’t know anything about a butterfly. So I went to Google and looked up butterflies and found that the largest butterfly in the world is called the Queen Alexandra. Well that blew my mind. Because it was another sign that God was in it. He knew I was going to have a granddaughter called Alexandra and that one day I would write a story about a butterfly who got stuck on the cross by a splinter and a drop of blood came down and freed her. And then she changes color which represents when we come to Jesus and ask Him into our lives and into our hearts, He changes us, and we are different.

 

SID: Roberta, at seventy plus, how can you even think about starting a career and coming out with beautiful books like this, the paintings in here are so beautiful and there is even a CD of Sheila Walsh reading, in case you parents are lazy and don’t want to read to your children. But I think you should read to your children. What do you figure God wants out of this?

 

ROBERTA: Well I believe two things. I believe that many people will come to know Jesus. Many people will put their faith in Him. And I want children to really know Him as they should.

You know sometimes they learn stories in Sunday School but I have tried to write in such a way that children can identify with the characters. Well, maybe not a butterfly, but the butterfly tells a story about the crucifixion. But the little boy that gave Jesus the loaves and the fish, there is nothing much said about him, but they can read a story about him and say to themselves, “I can be like that, I can follow Him.”

 

SID: But can they fly through the air, I mean literally because the power of God touches them?

That’s what happened to Roberta. She went to a meeting and, were you hungry, are you hungry for God Roberta?

 

ROBERTA: Sid, I’m so starving, and I always have been. This is the thing, I have always wanted more.

 

SID: Me too, I don’t understand backsliders. Well when she flew through the air I believe the

presence of God as she explains it, it is just going to hit you right where you are right now. Don’t go away, we’ll be right back in just one moment.