Dear Bill,
I so enjoyed seeing your passion for finding the gospel in scripture and we reap all the benefits!
As mentors, we are praying: Lord may hearts be cut, softened and flooded with light so that we all, students and mentors alike, will be steadfast in the rock solid hope You have given us at the cross (Ephesians 1:18). We remind ourselves and our students that, as it says in Isaiah 40:10-11 (NIRV):
"The Lord and King is coming with power. [The power of the cross is unstoppable for any struggle!]
He rules with a powerful arm. [God's sovereignty never sleeps. Jesus' strength bled out on the cross so we are strengthened forever by His strong right arm.]
He has set his people free. [It is done! Cut our hearts Lord over and over with this finality of Your work, and to fight each day the sin nature within us knowing You have had victory over sin!],
He is bringing them back as his reward. [We are each one a precious gift from the Father to the Son.]
He has won the battle over their enemies. [Jesus performed the ultimate surgical strike at the cross to defeat our enemies of Satan and death.]
He takes care of his flock like a shepherd. [Jesus never forgets or loses even one one lost, frightened, and shamed lamb.]
He gathers the lambs in his arms. [His arms are always open, accepting and inviting us to be lifted into His embrace]
He carries them close to his heart. [As Jody said so beautifully: "my heart is bound with His forever. Apart from Him I can do nothing."
To participate in THIS!! with our students brings a great big great smile on my face every day as a mentor, Bill, and a gratefulness that I, a nobody, gets to tell everybody, all about the Somebody who saved my soul! In this catchy song by Casting Crowns:
"Why You ever chose me
Has always been a mystery
All my life I’ve been told I belong at the end of the line
With all the other Not-Quites
With all the Never-Get-It-Rights
But it turns out we’re the ones You’ve been looking for all this time
‘Cause I’m just a nobody [a rescued and saved sinner!]
Trying to tell everybody
All about Somebody who saved my soul
Ever since You rescued me
You gave my heart a song to sing
I’m living for the world to see
Nobody but Jesus
I’m living for the world to see
Nobody but Jesus"
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