We all need a Mentor

Psalm 103:17-22

“But the steadfast love of the Lord is from everlasting to everlasting on those who fear him, and his righteousness to children's children, to those who keep his covenant and remember to do his commandments. The Lord has established his throne in the heavens, and his kingdom rules over all.  

Bless the Lord, O you his angels, you mighty ones who do his word, obeying the voice of his word!   Bless the Lord, all his hosts, his ministers, who do his will!  Bless the Lord, all his works, in all places of his dominion.  Bless the Lord, O my soul!”

If you understand even a part of verse 17 your way ahead of many, who goes by the name Christian, now do not pat yourself on the back too quickly, what about the last part of the verse, those who keep his covenant and remember to do his commandments.  When I was a young man God sent Ken Ryan into my life and Ken's background was being a navigator, not the pilot but the ministry began by Dawson Trotman.   After seeing the benefits of basic discipleship principles in his own life, Dawson wanted to teach them to others, echoing the call of 2 Timothy 2:2: “And the things you have heard me say in the presence of many witnesses entrust to reliable men who will also be qualified to teach others.”

I am so glad that God sent Ken into my life, for he would not allow me to just read Scripture, he required me to put it to memory and to store it in my heart.  Matthew 15:18, But what comes out of the mouth proceeds from the heart, and this defiles a person.  What we store up in our minds and hearts will always come to the surface.  That is why Ken would tell me I did not believe the Scripture that I put to memory because I was not acting on what it said.  It is so easy to be a social Christian, but once you choose to follow Christ, then you have chosen to no longer do your will but to seek Christ and His will.  

I’m still on that journey; it seems that often I am not making any headway.  Then I look back to men who I had the blessing of mentoring, like Wendell Campbell, who is now married and has a wife who also has an active walk with the Lord, and four children and his oldest son Brandon is almost ready to leave the nest and has been mentored by his dad.  My thoughts go to Major Flash, and John Carrico and others whom I was able to pour my life into and see the men of God they have become.  Not that long-ago James Williams, and now for many years, Paul Wendell, who cons me into allowing him to mentor me by asking me to be his mentor. 

The problem is there are so many who need help to navigate the traps and schemes of the thief that’s come to steal and kill and destroy.  Unlike the angels who obey and do the will of God, the divine beings who dwell with God, you and I have a choice every day, to obey or look to someone or something other than God.  At best we are as His Church, an ungrateful and unfaithful, people, easily discouraged.

From the Back Porch,

Bob Rice