• Bro. Zhanxiang Liu •
Not I but Christ be Honored, Loved, and Exalted
Brother Zhanxiang Liu’s attitude towards serving the Lord was this—I am a slave. A slave doesn’t even have decision-making power of his own, even his life belongs to the master. The master can give the slave a wife and children, but the wife and children all belong to the master. For many times he said, “Children of a slave are still slaves.” Thus, it goes without saying for his children that their family should love and serve the Lord for generation unto generation!
The hymn that he used to introduce his children to Christ and make them value Christ is none other than, “No longer I, but Christ.” Hymn 591: “Not I, but Christ be honored, loved, exalted, Not I, but Christ be seen, be known and heard.” This stanza is just as written on the back of Watchmen Nee’s book The Normal Christian Life: “No longer I, but Christ.”
He was a hard-working, and humble wonderful role model. Once you met Brother Liu, you would feel that he was one with the rich life of the Lord. Using spiritual terminology today, he was a God-man. When you met him, you will see the Lord’s meekness and lowliness.
Looking back at Brother Liu’s entire life: 1. It’s not just he that loved and served the Lord, he also encouraged his children to do the same. 2. Concerning propagation, he was willing to break the alabaster flask to pour out everything for the Lord, and to go to the harshest region to propagate. 3. Concerning the service in the work, he absolutely put himself under the authority of the leading brothers, not having his own choices. 4. On shepherding and perfecting the saints, he did not mind, and took care of them family by family, from house to house.
When Brother Liu suffered from gastric cancer and was hospitalized, he seemed weak in bed. However, recalling the past, these could still be clearly remembered: his solemn expression when he went to the meeting holding the Bible that he had read for countless times, his strong appearance when he ministered the word, of which every word was spirit and every sentence was life, and his laboring figure when he went to remote villages to serve brothers and sisters. He loved the Lord deeply and also suffered deeply. We testify that he was a faithful servant of the Lord, and the one who knew only the pouring, not the drinking, and desires only the breaking, not the keeping.
After the summer training of 1995, when Brother Lee invited a junior to his home in Anaheim to fellowship with him, he especially mentioned: “Brother Zhangxiang is a loyal brother.”