It’s been 6 years since my dad passed from colon
cancer. This year will be 6th
year not celebrating Father’s Day on June 19th and his 64th
birthday on 28th of June.
I ask myself Why God? Why did you take away a good man from
this world? Why did you take away my father from our family? Why did I have to
have this pain in my heart for sooo long? Why did I have to walk in this
depression? Why did my mom have her husband taken away, since they had known
each other since high school? There are
many “why” questions on my mind.
As, I look back, the Lord had told me as my dad was dying 6
years ago, “I am in Control and you are Not.” Today, I still remember those
words loud and clear from the Lord.
There is a purpose for everything. The struggle is tough in life. Nothing is
easy in life including losing your loved one. It’s a fight each day to be focused
in our daily life. Life is not easy. It’s a true test if you are going to pass
the test each day in your life. My dad told me once when we were at the gas
station, “You are breathing, alive, have a good job, healthy, blessed and
cancer free! Be happy where you are! Look at me. I’m in chemo and struggling
with cancer.” I never looked at life the same again.
This is one of my dad’s stories:
Glimpse of Jesus as of 02/10/2000 written by Dan Rodriguez
Job 23:9-10
“When he is at work in the North , I do not see him, he
turns to the south, I catch no glimpse of him. But he knows the way that I take: when he has tested me, I will
come forth as gold.”
Paul of Tarsus did not even see Jesus when he was struck by
a light from Heaven that flashed around him on the road to Damascus, but it completely
changed his life when he spoke to Paul, “ Saul, Saul why do you persecute me?”
A glimpse of a light shone so bright that it knocked him down beneath himself. Before Paul could really see Jesus, he had to
be knock off his pride, off his high horse, off from the chip on his shoulder
that he had against Christians. Before he could even get a glimpse of who this
Jesus was, he had to travel on this road to Damascus. Many of us know this road
to Damascus because we had to be lowered before we were lifted in Jesus.
In this verse above, Job was saying that he could not see the
Lord in the North, South, or any where else but yet he was trusting in him
because no matter if he didn’t see him he would continue to serve and trust in
him. Job was so low that he could hardly see above the grass, but yet would say
things like, “ when he has tested me, I will come forth as gold.” Paul and Job both
got very low in life to the point that eventually the Lord lifted them as he
has you and me where no man, no thing, no event could hurt our spirit. The mere
glimpse of seeing him or expecting to see a glimpse of Jesus can either way dramatically
change anyone’s life.
I myself was attending a Bible
Conference by T.D. Jakes being held here at Reunion Area back in 1997 in
February. There was a great worship atmosphere in the whole place. After Ron
Konolis’ thundering worship song and Joyce Myers speaking, all of sudden, for a
glimpse, I saw someone walk in front of the large speaking stand. I seemed to
have seen this person before many times even though he had long brown/blondish
hair, a glimmering shiny white robe, wearing a beard, with sandals. For about
three or four steps, I saw him causally walk in as if he had done this hundreds
of times before. I quickly turned to see if my wife was seeing what I had just
witnessed, but when I turned back to look, he was gone from my sight. I seemed
to be the only one seeing this phenomenon. I continued to look for him in the
stands to my left and to my right, but I could not see him any longer. When I
looked at each side of this large place, I heard commotion coming from each area.
One woman was jumping so high that, I though she would fall. Later, I found out that God had healed this
woman and another from a shattered leg from an accident while the other was
healed from extreme leg and angle bone problems. Jesus somehow had walked in
and healed them miraculously touching both individuals that day. Somehow, the
Lord had allowed me to just catch a glimpse of him walking in before he actually
did these healings. My Life also has not been the same since that day.
A glimpse of Jesus whether you expect to see
him like Job or whether you’ve actually seen him does not matter because ITS
FAITH THAT ALWAYS CREATES THE MIRACLES in our lives. If you loose faith in
yourself, you loose faith in everyone around you eventually. You must hold on
to the reality THAT ONE DAY YOU WILL SEE THE LORD IN PERSON BEFORE YOUR EYES.
All the questions, all hurts, all frustration, all of your crawling on the
floor experiences, all your tears, all of your loneliness and isolation times,
and all your problems will ceased to exist once YOUR FAITH IS REWARDED not only
by a GLIMPSE OF JESUS, but a real hugging, arm in arm walking experience with
the one and only Lord of all Jesus Christ.
BE READY!
Revelation 3:12 “Him who overcomes
I will make a pillar in the temple of my God. Never again will he leave it. I
will write on him the name of my God and the name of the city of my God, the
new Jerusalem, which is coming down out of heaven from my God; and I will also
write on him my new name.”
