Deep Love for the Lord, Bethany Kruidhof

While in college at California State University, Long Beach I began to meet with the local church there. I had grown up meeting with the local church in Fullerton and had received the Lord Jesus into me at the age of twelve, but had not experienced Him in a full way. While reading the Bible I often came across the verse Mark 12:30 which says, “And you shall love the Lord your God with your whole heart and from your whole soul and from your whole mind and from your whole strength.” I often wondered how a person could love the Lord to such an extent and if it was really possible.

My question was answered when I met a Christian woman who met with the church in Long Beach. She became ill with leukemia and needed someone to spend mornings with her. I took the opportunity since I had a morning free. Since I was studying to go into physical therapy and had worked in several medical settings, I felt that I might be of some help. Yet, she was different from the other patients I had worked with. Instead of me caring for her, she took care of me. Though I may have served her water and toast, and helped her into bed, she served me with a deep love for the Lord Jesus Christ. As she lay in bed she welcomed me into her room and after a brief time of talking, she asked me to sit with her and sing. We sang love songs to the Lord that conveyed a yearning for the Lord's return. She had such a longing to be with Him. As I sat on the bed with her I had a deep sense that she loved the Lord from her whole heart, from her whole soul, and from her whole mind, and from her whole strength. Though she was outwardly in a hopeless condition, inwardly she was loving the Lord with her whole being.

It was not until a month later at her funeral that I realized fully where that deep love for the Lord was from. She had spent much time in fellowship with the other believers that met with the local church, read the Bible, and also delved into the ministry of Watchmen Nee and Witness Lee that expounded the Bible. Since then I have yearned to live a life fully given to the Lord in the local church.