Weekly Message: I saw the Lord, did you? By Rev.Katherine Liu Bruce

Weekly Message:  I saw the Lord, did you?

By Rev. Katherine Liu Bruce                                                                      Date: June 29, 2024

Christian Arts Ministries: Biblical precepts & Gospel music

Our soul’s history with God and inner man relationship with Christ is frequently the history of the passing of the hero, someone who acts as a mentor to grow us and cultivate our faith in Christ. Over and over again God has to remove our mentors (or friends or loved one) in order to bring Himself in their place, and that is where we faint and fail and get discouraged. Take it personally: In the year that the one who stood to me for all that God was, died- I gave up everything? Or I became ill? Or I got disheartened? Or I saw the Lord?    

           When Elijah was taken away from Elisha, Elisha was grieving the loss of his master. But God replaced Elijah by Himself in Elisha’s life. (2kings2:12-25). God’s divine life manifested in him and let him build up personal relationship with God directly, tasted the sweetness of the Lord Himself and embraced the divine power of God’s sovereignty to fulfill his calling as a Prophet, to heal the sickness, to restore the life, to perform the miracles (2king 4:1-37; 5: 1-27), and saved his people from enemy. (2king 6:8-8:6) In Isaiah’s time, in the year that king Uzziah died, Isaiah expressed that he also saw the Lord. (Isaiah 6:1). When Moses died, Joshua also saw the Lord (Joshua 1:1-3). When Jesus died, Mary Magdalene, Peter and all the disciples also saw the Lord. (John 20:10-21:25)

          My friends, When God removed your mentor, or your loved one or friends passed away, did you dwell on the disheartened and gave-up everything? Became ill? Or you also saw the Lord as Isaiah, Elisha, Joshua and disciples of Jesus? When my mother passed away, I also saw Jesus, tasted God’s love, and the Holy Spirit’s comforting, When my mother in-law passed away, I also saw the Lord Jesus’ image appeared on the sky assured me that His presence is there with me each step of my life, His blessed assurance is “I will never leave you nor forsake you” and “I will not leave you as orphans, and I will come to you”. (John 14:18)

        Today in the world, unless you are born again Christian and begin to see the Kingdom of God, you may see along the line of your prejudices only, see no God. You need an internal purification and the surgical operation of external events. Put God first, second, third…until the life is faced steadily with God and no one else is of any account whatsoever. And your inner man will resound, “In all the world there is none but thee, my God, there is none but thee.”

          My friends, in the year that king Uzziah died, Isaiah saw also the Lord (Isaiah 6:1), in the year that Elijah was taken away, Elisha saw also the Lord. In Moses’ time, when Moses died, Joshua also saw the Lord. In Jesus’ time, when Jesus died, disciples saw also the Lord. Did you see the Lord when your mentor or friend or loved one died?  But I said, “I have labored to no purpose; I have spent my strength in vain and for nothing. Yet what is due me is in the Lord’s hand and my reward is with my God.” (Isaiah 49:4). To him who overcomes, I will give the right to sit with me on my throne, just as I overcame and sat down with my Father on His throne. (Revelations3:21). Therefore, keep loyalty to Jesus Christ even God removes your friend, or mentor away from you.    

 Bibliography,           

Bauer, Walter. A Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament and Other Early Christian Literature. 3^rd Chicago: The University of Chicago press, 2000.

Brown, Robert, Philip W. Comfort and J.D. Douglas, ed. The New Greek English Interlinear New Testament. Carol Stream: Tyndale House Publishers, Inc.1990.

Chambers, Oswald. My utmost for His highest, NY: Dodd, Mead & Company, Inc. 1935.   

Friberg, Timothy, Barbara Friberg, and Neva F. Miller et al., eds. Analytical Lexicon of the Greek New Testament.1^st ed. Victoria BC: Trafford Publishing, 2005.

            King James, The Holy Bible, Cleveland, OH: The world publishing company

            Ryrie, Charles C. The Ryrie study Bible (NIV). Chicago, IL: The Moody Bible Institute, 1986. 

 Strong, James. Strong’s: the expanded exhaustive concordance of the Bible. Nashville, TN: Thomas Nelson Publishers, 2010.