The God of the Impossible

Through Dorothy Wilson and Eva Kranhouse, I had come to know Fred Kendal and Arthur Glass and their families, who were ministering the Good News of Yeshua (Jesus) the Messiah to the Jewish People of the Metro Detroit Area. Both men were Jewish. Arthur Glass was, himself, the son of an orthodox rabbi and was well versed in Tenach, the Hebrew Scriptures. During the Passover season of 1950, I was being taken to a house warming party for Arthur Glass and his family. I was in Fred Kendal’s car, and Mr. Kendal asked me, “Harold, have you been thinking about Yeshua (Jesus) the Messiah?” I replied, “I’ve been thinking about him, praying about him and I’ve been reading about him. In fact, I have even been DREAMING about him!” Mr. Kendal then inquired, “So what is your conclusion?” I answered, “I believe that Yeshua (Jesus) is my Messiah and Savior, and I want to take him into my heart.” The LORD met me in a powerful way that night as I prayed with Fred Kendal and asked the LORD to come into my heart. When I shared the news of my salvation with those attending the housewarming party, there was great jubilation. That joy was made complete when my entire immediate family came to salvation in Yeshua…my father, my mother and my older brother.

Not long after asking Yeshua (Jesus) into my heart, I was immersed in His Name for the forgiveness of sins and received the gift of the Ruach HaKodesh, God’s Holy Spirit. After my high school graduation, I attended Moody Bible Institute in Chicago and, later, served in the United States Army. Prior to my discharge from the Army, on May 1, 1955, I married Grace Glass, Arthur Glass’s younger daughter.

In June, 1959, God blessed my wife and me with our first child, Joel. In January 1962, Dahn, our second son, was born. Grace and I enjoyed our family life immensely; however, there was a dark cloud hovering over us, which, at any moment, could have brought total chaos and destruction to our family.

Since I was a young child, I grappled with a severe emotional disorder, which was triggered through major disruptions in my life and resulted in abnormal fear and apprehension. This problem hampered me in the workplace, causing me to avoid positions with great responsibility and to choose menial jobs that involved little or no pressure. Consequently, I had a problem involving self-respect because I viewed myself as a coward, unable to cope with the real responsibilities of the work-a-day world.

This entire matter reached a boiling point in 1964, when I accepted a position as office manager of the Mayor’s Youth Employment Project of the City of Detroit. The pressures of the new position caused me to buckle. I suffered what is usually referred to as a “nervous breakdown.” For the next few years I was in and out of mental hospitals, barely able to hold on to a decent job. Finally, on February 27, 1967, in Wayne Country Probate Court, Judge Frank S. Szymanski committed me “indefinitely” to Ypsilanti State Hospital. For seven years, my mind was in a continual state of anxiety and depression, and I often despaired of life. I had become so desperate that twice I had attempted suicide.

On December 1, 1971, I sat on the couch in my living room, trying to decide my options. I had been released from the mental hospital, but I carried the inner war home with me. That is the lot of those in mental anguish. We carry our inner war with us wherever we go. We can’t run away from ourselves, but neither do we seem to have the power to call a halt to the destructive confusion and anxiety occurring in the brain.

I reasoned with myself: “Shall I just kill myself and get this whole confusing mess over?” “No,” I replied, “because I would then face eternity in which I would have no chance to make another, less violent, decision.”

Then, as if a divine light went on inside of me, I felt impelled to exclaim, “Lord Yeshua (Jesus), I accept your forgiveness!” The entire burden of guilt, which I felt for the seven years of hell, which my illness imposed on my family, was suddenly washed away. I felt like a new creation!

The Lord, who had delivered me, opened the way for my becoming Graphics Manager of Diversitec, a subsidiary of Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Michigan. Not only did I form the graphic department for Diversitec, I hired the department’s employees, named the subsidiary, designed the corporate identity for the company and directed the advertising. While working for Diversitec, Division of Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Michigan, I was asked to teach graphic design at Macomb Community College. My employer enabled me to set up my work schedule so that I could teach one semester of graphic design while I was still employed by Diversitec.

In 1990 I was called to be Congregational Leader of Congregation Beth Messiah of Southfield, Michigan, where my wife and I have served for the past fourteen years. Following my commitment to Congregation Beth Messiah, Macomb Community College asked me to accept a full time position teaching graphic design. At approximately the same time, an advertising agency in Southfield, Michigan offered me a position as Art Director. The Ruach HaKodesh, God’s Holy Spirit, speaking through the Scriptures said to my wife and me:

“No one who puts his hand to the plow and looks back is fit for service in the kingdom of God.”
The words of Yeshua (Jesus) in Luke 9:62

I refused both job offers.

In retrospect, not only had God used my trying mental ordeal as surgery to remove my handicap of FEAR, he had called me to serve him, his people, and to reach the LOST, particularly, “the lost sheep of the House of Israel.” Praise his wonderful Name! This “Calling” is a top priority in our hearts.

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