We are blessed this week with a guest writer. Her name is Nancy Pruett and she is the Director of Sav-A-Life of Tupelo, a crisis pregnancy counseling center. I hope you enjoy her article! It was a powerful word picture for me.
Steve Ensley
AFOSee You At The Pole......
On Wednesday morning September 20th, I attended the annual "See You At the Pole" rally at Tupelo High School. Tupelo students, along with thousands of students nationwide gathered at the flagpole before school to sing and pray and witness for the Lord Jesus Christ on their school campus. As the sun rose over the stadium, voices rang out with phrases such as "Lord prepare me to be a sanctuary, pure and holy tried and true..." and "Jesus, Lamb of God, worthy is your name....". Then one after another, students approached the microphone and read the Word of God. Scriptures such as Romans 12:1-2 challenged each one present not to be conformed to this world but to be transformed to be more like Jesus Christ. They encouraged one another through Psalms, hymns and spiritual songs, and they prayed that they each could be lights in a dark world.
They broke into groups of 3 to 5 people and prayed for their school, its faculty and their classmates. Testimonies followed, which glorified God for His tender mercy and forgiveness, One senior girl had the courage to plead with her classmates to live for Christ while they were in high school, for she had strayed from Him and became pregnant. She now has a child and is struggling as a single parent to finish high school. She testified from a repentant heart of God's willingness to forgive and restore.
Another spoke of how God will do whatever it takes to reach a lost soul. Her family had housed an Exchange Student from Germany who was an atheist. He used her family and her church to lead this young woman to Christ. She returned to Germany assured of eternal life.
There were many which followed, equally powerful and equally inspiring. But as I turned and looked behind me I was struck by a scene which chilled me. A number of students were gathered on the steps outside the stadium laughing and horsing around with one another. Several were standing outside the tall chain-link fence with their fingers clinging to the wire. At the top of the fence were several rows of barbed wire preventing anyone from climbing over. I was stunned by the reality this picture represented.
All of those outside the fence had been invited to come inside. They chose not to enter the stadium but to remain outside. Some took no notice of what was being said, but were more interested in their friends and their life "outside the fence". Others clung to the fence and listened, but would not enter. Because, you see, there is only one gate which leads inside. You can't climb the fence.
One of the scriptures read was " Enter by the narrow gate, for the gate is wide and the way is broad that leads to destruction and many are those who enter by it. But the gate is small and the way narrow that leads to life and few are those who find it". (Matt 7:13-14)
The Kingdom of God is like that stadium. There is only one way to get in and that is through the narrow gate. His name is Jesus. He is the "Way the Truth and the Life", and if those students die "outside the fence" they will spend eternity in Hell, separated from a God who loves them and beckons them to join Him inside the Kingdom.
The consolation is that those students heard the truth preached from the lips of their classmates who represent Christ on their campus. A number of seeds were sown. Let us pray that the Lord of the Harvest will water and tend them, causing them to bear fruit in the lives of many.
Only By His Grace!
Nancy Pruett - Director
SAV-A-LIFE OF TUPELO