WEIGHTIER MATTERS
by Dr. John Conrad


A single woman went to a pet store and bought a parrot for companionship. She looked forward to having the parrot talk to her and simply spice up her day. At first, the parrot seemed bored. It perched listlessly in the corner of the cage so she bought a different cage in a brighter color. This didn’t stimulate the parrot so she purchased glittering, colorful toys and creatively arranged them in the cage. Still the parrot moped and stared lifelessly into the distance. Repeatedly, the woman went back to the pet store, buying colored perches, toys to play on, and anything she could think of to tickle her parrot’s fancy. Sadly, the parrot grew more and more quiet. Finally, one day the woman went in to check on the parrot. It lay on its side breathing its last. With one final effort it croaked, “Lady, don’t they sell bird feed at that pet store?”

This silly story reminds us of an old adage. People with enough to eat have lots of problems. People who don’t have enough to eat have only one problem. The story of the parrot is a parable of the Messianic Train. Many of us are enamored with the Train, but we forget where it is going. We spend more time fluffing the seat cushions and decorating the windows than we do making sure the train has fuel, is functioning properly and, most importantly, headed in the right direction. Because of misplaced priorities we often find ourselves ending up at the wrong destination. Like the woman with the parrot we major on minors and minor on majors.

“Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you tithe mint and dill and cummin, and have neglected the weightier provisions of the law: justice and mercy and faithfulness; but these are the things you should have done without neglecting theothers. You blind guides, who strain out a gnat and swallow a camel!” (Matthew 23:23-24)  

In this passage the Greek word translated “weightier” is barus Strongs 926. It means heavy, of great moment. In other words, important or most important. So Yeshua’s comment informs us of the most important of God’s instructions to His people.

A quick review of Yeshua’s statement in Matthew 23:23 reveals it to be a restatement of Micah 6:8, “He has told you, O man, what is good; And what does Yahweh require of you But to do justice, to love kindness, And to walk humbly with your God?”

Another way to understand Yeshua’s pronouncement would be to constantly view our keeping of the small matters of Torah through the lens of justice, mercy and faithfulness. When our method of obeying Torah sabotages justice, mercy or faithfulness it needs to be discarded.

Our ability to discern the weightier matters is directly related to our ability to see the goal. The end or goal of the Torah is the Messiah. Romans 10:4: “For the Messiah is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes.” “The end” here is the Greek word telos which means goal. It is like saying at the end of this road is Salt Lake City. At the end of Torah is Yeshua. If our Torah observance does not lead to Yeshua we have jumped the tracks. Since God is love, Paul makes the obvious statement in Romans 13:8 that “love is the fulfillment of the Torah.” We make a huge mistake when we argue about minor details of Torah when the need in the person’s life is to know Yeshua. Like the parrot, they may be surrounded with the apparatus of Torah observance, but they die because they are not connected to the vine and its life-giving nurture.
A simple way to evaluate our actions is to ask several questions:
1. What is the goal of my behavior?
2. Who will be helped or hurt?
3. Will the Messiah be lifted up by my actions?
4. Does this action reveal or display God’s love?

People are drawn to genuine justice, mercy and faithfulness. I often wondered why my Swiss grandparents converted to Mormonism in the late 1800s. When I read their testimonies some of the reasons became abundantly clear. When my great grandmother read her Bible it stirred up many questions in her mind. When she took these questions to her priest he rebuffed her angrily. She was told it was not her place to read the Bible and she was to accept what the church and its officers told her. Conversely, when the Mormon missionaries came to Switzerland they patiently listened to her questions and did their best to answer them. They prayed with the families and told them that each of them could approach God through Jesus Christ (Yeshua the Messiah) on their own because of His sacrifice. The idea that an individual could pray and reach out to God on his own was revolutionary and life-changing. It was only a short time before the families converted and were baptized. This story does not testify to the correctness of Mormon doctrine, but to the correctness of showing love and mercy.

I’ve been told many times that we (Ephraim) must provoke Judah to jealousy with our observance of Torah. This is a recipe for a contest--someone wins and someone loses -- it is a competition. It is like a game of tag.”You trimmed your beard -- you’re out! Your tzitzits are the wrong blue, the incorrect length, you’re out! You pronounced Yeshua (Yehoshua, Yahshua) wrong -- you’re out! You followed the rabbinical calendar for the observance of the feasts -- you’re out! Or you didn’t follow the rabbinical calendar for the observance of the feasts -- you’re out!”

On the other hand, it would be helpful to refrain from saying that the church doesn’t keep Torah. Sadly, many churchgoers eschew Torah in their speech, but while they disdain many provisions of Torah, they try their utmost to be just, merciful and faithful. Our wearing tzitzit, celebration of new moons, Feasts, Sabbaths, observance of clean and unclean foods springs from our commitment to be faithful. Our obedience should not be a hammer to smash the church. A loving example of Torah obedience will ultimately be much more effective.

A couple of years ago, we held a Seder for a group of people in Missouri. Several families didn’t come because they were horrified by the “un-Biblical” Jewish traditions they had identified as part of the Seder. A teacher had been in the area warning people about all evil traditions -- both those perpetrated by the church and those from rabbinical Judaism. Anyone keeping these traditions would be hopelessly compromised by them. However, nothing in the Seder could be construed as thwarting justice, mercy or faithfulness. While straining out a gnat they had swallowed a camel. An opportunity to develop friendships and fellowship with other Israelites had been thwarted by silly, unfounded fears. When they had a chance to gather with the Messiah, they had opted for scattering with the enemy. Unintentionally, they had made their understanding of Torah the goal, instead of Yeshua and His love.

Another clear obstacle to true Torah observance is the human tendency to judge what we see or sense with our five senses. Isaiah 11 makes it clear that the Messiah will not judge by what he sees or what he hears. He will judge by righteousness.  Samuel would have picked several incorrect candidates from Jesse’s sons to be the next king of Israel. Yahweh had to remind him that He did not look at the outside of a man, but at his heart.

This means sharing Torah requires a deep spiritual connection with Yeshua. Our goal is to bring people into a relationship with their Messiah. This relationship is lived out in a life that follows the precepts of Torah. It is important not to fall prey to the idea that Torah consists of the externals; tzitzit, Sabbaths, Feasts, and diet. It is our connection and love of our Messiah that motivates us to keep His commandments. We don’t wear tzitzit to let people know that we are Messianic. We wear them to remind us to love Yahweh with all of our heart, mind and strength and to love our neighbors as we love ourselves.

I’ve never forgotten a young man who had come into a strong Messianic understanding. He considered himself very magnanimous because he accepted to some degree any who kept the 7th day Sabbath. Now there is no question that the 7th day Sabbath is an eternal Biblical principle. Imagine my chagrin when I discovered he was hiding his chewing tobacco habit (disgusting) from me and the fact he was sleeping with his unmarried girl friend. I know of another Messianic with a long, untrimmed beard, side curls and tzitzit down to his knees. He enjoys internet pornography rationalizing that “men will be men.”

I will briefly touch on another sensitive area. In Messianic circles we often honor speakers with exciting teaching abilities or those given to sensational prophetic statements. We display a total lack of discernment when we do not hold our leaders to the weightier matters of Torah--justice, mercy and faithfulness. We need discernment to listen to that which is true. When statements are made based upon faulty research, or bent to fit a particular point of view, we become politicians espousing a partisan line and not teachers of Torah.
Another point comes from Rabbi Shalom Arush, who counsels many troubled marriages. One of the precepts he stresses is that if one of the partners is led to become Torah obedient this must become a very good thing for the other partner. Otherwise, the partner will view Torah as destructive. We must ask ourselves--has the Torah in my life made me a better spouse, a better son or daughter, a better parent, a better employer, a better employee, a better member of the Messianic fellowship? Have those living around you sensed your humility, your desire to serve and your fervent love for Yeshua? Or did they turn away because you reeked of religious arrogance and self-righteous certainty?

Torah is the DNA of our Messiah -- it is His genetic material that He has planted in our hearts. It is the seed of the Kingdom. When it is nurtured and grown in the proper environment it yields love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. As Paul reminds us, none of these qualities are against Torah; none violate it. I would go further and say that when these attributes do not characterize Torah-keeping folks, the seed has been corrupted. Yahweh makes an astonishing pronouncement in Isaiah 1:12-14 “When you come to appear before Me, Who requires of you this trampling of My courts? Bring your worthless offerings no longer, Incense is an abomination to Me. New moon and Sabbath, the calling of assemblies -- I cannot endure iniquity and the solemn assembly. I hate your new moon festivals and your appointed feasts, They have become a burden to Me; I am weary of bearing them.”

Why does He reject all these activities that He commanded Israel to do for Him? Because they had neglected the weightier matters of Torah. He pleads with Israel, “Wash yourselves, make yourselves clean; Remove the evil of your deeds from My sight. Cease to do evil, Learn to do good; Seek justice, Reprove the ruthless, Defend the orphan, Plead for the widow.” (Isaiah 1:16-17)

We have been so blessed to be a part of this restoration in this day. Torah is not bondage, but rather life. This revelation transforms us. Let’s make certain that in our holy pursuit of Torah that the foundation of Yeshua is built in well. That the important things have truly been given the credit they deserve. For many their introduction to Torah will be the lives we live before them. May the Messiah and His love be revealed in us, I pray.




Printed in the MIA Herald, Sept 2011.

Where There is No Vision The People Perish
Letters from the MIA Shepherd's Council

By John Conrad

Where there is no vision, the people perish. (Proverbs 29:18 KJV) Pastors often hurl this verse at their congregations to stimulate people to identify goals and faithfully pursue them. The proclamation of this verse galvanizes congregants to build new buildings, send missionaries to Africa, feed the poor, and expand the choir. While setting goals and implementing plans to accomplish them can be beneficial, this is not the primary meaning of the verse.

Let’s look at the entire verse. Where there is no vision, the people perish: but he that keepeth the law (Torah), happy is he. What does Torah have to do with goals and objectives? The word translated “vision” in this verse is chazown. It more properly speaks of revelation or vision in the sense of a dream. It is the word translated vision in 1 Samuel 3:1 (NASB) Now the boy Samuel was ministering to the LORD before Eli. And word from the LORD was rare in those days, visions were infrequent. Here the passage associates vision with a word from the Lord or a message from YHWH.

A classic Hebrew language technique to create emphasis is repetition or doubling--saying the same thing twice. For the law will go forth from Zion, and the word of the LORD from Jerusalem. (Isaiah 2:3 NASB) The Ruach speaking through Isaiah emphasizes the power of the word of YHWH in the last days by stating it twice and equating the terms “Torah” (instruction or teaching) and “dabar” (word) and also Zion and Jerusalem.  Similarly in Proverbs 29:18 the same idea is expressed twice. Thus the foremost meaning of the passage in Proverbs revolves around receiving the instruction of Torah and keeping its dictates. Without Torah the people perish—when the Torah is kept and obeyed the people are happy or blessed.

Let’s examine the word perish. In this text it is parah. It means to expose, make bare or naked, perish, set at naught, to loosen. In the story of the golden calf it is the word used in Exodus 32:25 And when Moses saw that the people were naked; (for Aaron had made them naked unto their shame among their enemies:) (KJV) The same verse in the New American Standard Bible (NASB) Now when Moses saw that the people were out of control — for Aaron had let them get out of control to be a derision among their enemies -- provides new insight into the word. Note the translators translated parah as out of control—to be exposed or made bare is to be “out of control” or to break through the boundaries. A quick check of other translations reveals that many render parah in this way. It is termed “unrestrained,” “out of control,” “out of hand,” etc.

Biblically, Torah prescribes the limits of our practice or halacha. Inside the boundaries of Torah we are safe and experience YHWH’s blessing. When we force our way out of His defined boundaries we expose ourselves or become naked before him and become vulnerable to judgment and cursing. In Lamentations 2:8-9 Israel falls into this trap. The LORD determined to destroy the wall of the daughter of Zion. He has stretched out a line, He has not restrained His hand from destroying; and He has caused rampart and wall to lament; they have languished together.  Her gates have sunk into the ground, He has destroyed and broken her bars. Her king and her princes are among the nations; the law(Torah)  is no more; also, her prophets find no vision (chazown) from the LORD. (NASB)

Our example in Exodus 32 forcefully reminds us we must obey His words. YHWH had come to his people and spoken audibly his ten words or Ten Commandments. Approximately 40 days later the people threw off the yoke of Torah and became unrestrained and out of control. It is necessary to combine the word of Torah with faith—i.e. belief will always evidence as obedience. In the New Covenant Yeshua gives us new hearts and new spirits. A new heart I will give you, and a new spirit I will put within you; and I will remove from your body the heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh.  I will put my spirit within you, and make you follow my statutes and be careful to observe my ordinances. (Ezekiel 36:26-27 NASB) The purpose of the new heart and new spirit is to produce obedience to His Word. As so many instances in scripture attest, the old nature cannot please God. “There is none righteous, not even one; There is none who understands, There is none who seeks for God;  All have turned aside, together they have become useless; There is none who does good, There is not even one." (Romans 3:10-12 NASB)

In Israel we have the freedom to live and prosper. Yeshua has saved us from the penalty of Torah through his death and resurrection. But we do not have the freedom to abandon Torah. Rejecting YHWH’s instruction would be similar to a group of astronauts hurtling through space on their way to the moon deciding that their space ship is too confining and limiting. In their yearning for liberty they escape their “prison” and are free in space. They are also dead—they have perished because they were out of control. There is a parallel between the Torah and the oxygen delivery system. They are both necessary to deliver spirit or oxygen to the traveler. In a similar way Israel threw off the bonds of Torah. For long ago you broke your yoke and burst your bonds, and you said, "I will not serve!" On every high hill and under every green tree you sprawled and played the whore. (Jeremiah 2:20 NASB)

Nature furnishes many examples of the devastation produced when something good breaks out of boundaries or channels. A flood results when a river escapes its banks and randomly destroys homes, cars and other property. A forest fire can consume millions of acres and rob thousands of animals of life and habitat. Yet we cannot live without water, it is the single most important nutrient necessary to sustain life. And fire under control runs our automobiles and heats our homes.

Our Father has blessed us with his Holy Spirit, the Ruach Ha Kodesh, and a physical body full of life and energy to serve Him. When our behavior escapes the banks of Torah, and breaks out of the hedge of His instruction, our unrestrained actions lead to annihilation. We become naked and exposed to judgment. In this day of restoration the full meaning of Proverbs 29:18 is becoming evident. Truly, Where there is no revelation of Torah from YHWH, the people run amok, they are unrestrained. But happy and blessed are those people who obey and keep Torah. Together we can join our voices with King David and proclaim: The lines have fallen to me in pleasant places; Indeed, my heritage is beautiful to me. (Psalm 16:6 NASB)

WHO’S YOUR MAMMA?
by Dr. John Conrad


                “Humpty Dumpty sat on a wall. Humpty Dumpty had a great fall. All the King’s horses and all the King’s men couldn’t put Humpty Dumpty back together again.”
                In this day when God has promised to restore all things, putting the house of Israel back together seems as impossible as making Humpy Dumpty whole. The life of our patriarch, Jacob, provides insight into this restoration.
                Genesis 35:16-26: Then they journeyed from Bethel; and when there was still some distance to go to Ephrath, Rachel began to give birth and she suffered severe labor. When she was in severe labor the midwife said to her, “Do not fear, for now you have another son.”  It came about as her soul was departing (for she died), that she named him Ben-oni; but his father called him Benjamin. So Rachel died and was buried on the way to Ephrath (that is, Bethlehem).  Jacob set up a pillar over her grave; that is the pillar of Rachel’s grave to this day. Then Israel journeyed on and pitched his tent beyond the tower of Eder.
                 It came about while Israel was dwelling in that land, that Reuben went and lay with Bilhah his father’s concubine, and Israel heard of it. Now there were twelve sons of Jacob – the sons of Leah: Reuben, Jacob’s firstborn, then Simeon and Levi and Judah and Issachar and Zebulun; the sons of Rachel: Joseph and Benjamin;  and the sons of Bilhah, Rachel’s maid: Dan and Naphtali; and the sons of Zilpah, Leah’s maid: Gad and Asher.
                In the Torah a person’s name describes his mission. Yahweh promises Abram in Genesis 12:2-3, “And I will make you a great nation, And I will bless you, And make your name great; And so you shall be a blessing; And I will bless those who bless you, And the one who curses you I will curse. And in you all the families of the earth will be blessed.” Name in both Hebrew and English refers not only to the given name but includes the character and reputation of the man. God changed Abram’s given name to Abraham to underscore his mission as “father of a multitude.”
                Yahweh’s promise to Abraham transferred to Isaac (not Ishmael) then to Jacob (not Esau) and thus to Jacob’s 12 sons. In this passage the sons are grouped according to their mother. Two sisters, Leah and Rachel, were Jacob’s wives. Jacob chose Rachel, but he was tricked by the girls’ father, Laban, into marrying Leah first. This subterfuge undermined the marriage. Leah and Rachel spent their lives as Jacob’s wives fighting a battle to win the approval of both Jacob and God. Leah had six sons which she named. Every name was not only the son’s mission but a repudiation of her sister and a calculated move to give her an advantage in the ongoing war:
• Reuben, “Look, a son.”
• Shimon, “The Lord has heard.”
• Levi, “Attached, joined or connected.” (“Now my husband will be attached to me.”)
• Judah, “Praise.” (“This time I will praise Him.”)
                The Bible makes clear that these names were attempts by Leah to “show up” Rachel.
                After Leah bore these four sons, Rachel demanded that Jacob “give me children or I die!” Jacob retorted, “Am I in the place of God to withhold children from your womb?” In desperation, Rachel commanded her handmaid, Bilhah, to go into her husband that she “too may have children.” Israel conceived two sons with Bilhah. Both boys are named by Rachel.
• Dan, “Judge.” (“Yahweh has vindicated me.”)
• Naphtali, “Wrestling.” (“I have struggled with my sister and overcome.”)
                Rachel, not Bilhah, named the boys using the names as weapons against Leah in the continuing turf war.
                When Leah saw she had quit bearing children, she forced her handmaid, Zilpah, upon Jacob. The names given by Leah continue to be adversarial:
• Gad, “Fortune.” (“How fortunate.”) 
• Asher, “Happy.” (“Happy am I for women will call me happy.”)
                Inflaming this sibling rivalry, Jacob confined his nightly companionship to Rachel. Leah’s young son Reuben found mandrakes and brought them to his mother Leah. Mandrakes were believed to assist in conception and pregnancy. When Rachel saw the mandrakes she was jealous and asked for some. Leah angrily replied, “Now that you have taken my husband, will you take my mandrakes as well? You can have my mandrakes if Jacob comes to sleep with me tonight.” Rachel gladly accepted this bargain, somehow not realizing that mandrakes are not what produce children. Surprise, surprise! Leah became pregnant and delivered Issachar. Leah follows with another son Zebulun.
• Issachar, “Wages or recompense.” (“God has given me my wages.”)
• Zebulun, “Dwelling.” (“Now my husband will dwell with me.”)
Finally, Rachel bore a son:
• Joseph, “He will add.” (“May Yahweh give me another son.”)
                She was grateful for Joseph, but saw him as just the start of her quest to get even with Leah. This brings us to our initial passage in Genesis 35 where Rachel gave birth to Benoni, “son of my suffering.”
                Oddly, the father finally intervened and changed his name to Benjamin. This is the only son that Jacob names.
• Benjamin, “son of my right hand.”
                All things work together for good – but not all things are good. Polygamy is not good. It rends the heart. It shares that which cannot be shared. It destroys intimacy. Similarly, idolatry is evil. It shares the worshiper’s heart for Yahweh with another god. However, God uses Jacob’s polygamy for his purposes. Through Israel’s struggling sons he will raise up the redemptive nation of Israel. Israel’s family is a picture of reality, not perfection.
                The family was torn by preference; Rachel over Leah, Joseph above his brothers. Israel’s wives were consumed by contrasting desires springing from specific deficits and blinding them to everything else in life. Leah ached for the love of her husband, Jacob. Rachel yearned for a son. In their single minded quest to achieve their goals they destroyed the relationships in their lives and objectified all the people that were important to them. The sisters permanently alienated each other. Their handmaids lost their humanity and became pawns just like the sons. Jacob stopped being a husband--he became the herd sire. All became weapons to use against each other. This internal warfare became so fierce that Reuben, the firstborn son of Leah and Jacob, slept with Bilhah, Rachel’s handmaid, in an incredible display of hatred, revenge, and repudiation directed at his father, his aunt, and the mother of Dan and Naphtali. This violation cost him his birthright. When, in a future chapter, the brothers, led by Judah, sold Joseph into slavery, it demonstrated a terrible reality. The fault lines drawn in the family, based upon the identity of each son’s mother, had opened wide enough to induce murder.
                The reconciliation of Joseph to his brothers only became possible when they realized they all had one father. When Judah offered himself as a slave to Joseph to avert the damage that losing Benjamin would cause Israel, Joseph is undone. Judah’s evident love for Jacob and for Benjamin removed the last shred of his resistance to reconciliation.
                Genesis 44:30-45:1 “Now, therefore, when I come to your servant my father, and the lad is not with us, since his life is bound up in the lad’s life, when he sees that the lad is not with us, he will die. Thus your servants will bring the gray hair of your servant our father down to Sheol in sorrow. “For your servant became surety for the lad to my father, saying, ‘If I do not bring him back to you, then let me bear the blame before my father forever.’ “Now, therefore, please let your servant remain instead of the lad a slave to my lord, and let the lad go up with his brothers.
                “For how shall I go up to my father if the lad is not with me – for fear that I see the evil that would overtake my father?”
                Then Joseph could not control himself before all those who stood by him, and he cried, “Have everyone go out from me.” So there was no man with him when Joseph made himself known to his brothers.
                The history of Israel, both Ephraim and Judah, reeks of battle lines drawn over the identity of our “mothers” – our cultures, our churches, our fellowships. The apostle Paul consented to the death of Stephen, a fellow Jew, because of Stephen’s faith in Yeshua. Hundreds of thousands of Jews and rival Christians died at the hands of the Roman Catholic Church during the Inquisition. The Crusaders invited the Jewish population of Jerusalem to the Great Synagogue promising them safety and then burned it to the ground with everyone in it. When Cromwell conquered Ireland he was responsible for the destruction of possibly one fourth of the entire population because he was on a crusade against the hated Roman Catholic heretics. Hitler successfully recruited Christians in Germany to assist in his final solution against the Jews because of the deep collective memory of German Christians distrusting and hating all things coming from the “mother of the synagogue.”
                Also we can see in the names of our denominations and fellowships the continuing trend of the battle launched by Leah and Rachel. For example, man created The Roman Catholic (Universal) Church (i.e. “the only church”) and The Orthodox Church (i.e. “the one with good teaching, so you know what this says about the rest.”) Furthermore, each Orthodox group is delineated by its geographical origin; Greek, Russian, Armenian, etc. Anabaptists are against baptism, that is, infant baptism, so take that Catholics. Baptists are not only opposed to infant baptism, but against sprinkling. Then, if you are a Berean Baptist, you diligently search out the scripture to show what is true (i.e. “sorry about your Mickey Mouse group.”) And the beat goes on.
                Furthermore, research into the histories and roots of these different groups may reveal idolatry and other grievous sins--enough to declare them heretics and outside the Abrahamic inheritance. For instance, we forget that those who see themselves as Ephraim have Rachel as their mother. Sadly, Rachel hid stolen idols from her husband and from her father (Genesis 31:19).
                Benjamin, the only son named by his father, became the instrument for bringing together Israel’s 12 sons. Truly, he was a “son of trouble or suffering” whose birth caused his mother Rachel’s death. But Israel’s prophetic gift correctly identified him as the “son of my right hand.”
                Our Father reconciled us to himself by sending Yeshua, a son of Judah and David. Yeshua’s death and resurrection gave us the ultimate good deal. For accepting his death on our behalf, he, who knew no sin, takes our sin and grants us the righteousness of God. There is no bargain in history approaching this one.
                However, we mustn’t forget this statement: “Now all these things are from God, who reconciled us to Himself through the Messiah and gave us the ministry of reconciliation, namely, that God was in the Messiah reconciling the world to Himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and He has committed to us the word of reconciliation” (2 Corinthians 5:18-19).
                This good deal hinges on one fact; Yahweh chooses not to count our sins against us. Joseph’s touching scene – where he breaks down weeping and calls his brothers to him – only happens when all the participants stop counting past hurts. They love their mothers, but they lay down the historical pain and mistreatment and choose to be defined by their one father. For Joseph and Judah to be joined together each had to forgive the sins of their mothers and forget the angry past of retribution and revenge. Similarly today, Judah and Ephraim will come together by acknowledging Malachi 2:10’s question; “Do we not all have one father? Has not one God created us?” This reconciliation seems impossible, but through our God all things are possible.

Printed in the MIA Herald, December 2010.