As you probably already know, Jesus has provided you and your friends with a powerful program in Devotions With Jesus. It provides verses from the Bible that are able to start a person with the basics for living and working together with Him. And then through it, Jesus keeps adding Scriptures that build on those basics. These Scriptures are able to show people how to establish such a wonderful relationship with God, that will keep them overcoming mild to moderate life-problems. And, they will show them how to start avoiding those things that would have created new problems in their life.

By Jesus using Beginning: Year One to provide you with Scriptures that teach you how to use Devotions With Jesus for your friends, and by Him providing you with special Bible passages in Mentor Devotions, He gives you the Biblical principles upon which to build your life AND your friends’ lives. The stability, success, and growth provided by Jesus that takes place in your life, will be the evidence those around you need, so they can see you have something they need.

All of your issues in life involve some kind of relationship with yourself, others, and God. Jesus will use Devotions With Jesus coupled with Beginning: Year One studies to give you His principles for showing your friends how to win at living life. The way He does this is, He helps you and your friends succeed at all your relationships. Business relationships, spiritual relationships, friendships, spouses, mentoring friendships, and all other kinds of relationships are enhanced by Jesus.

One of the biggest things Jesus established in His life and ministry was friendship. He and His friends spent a lot of time together. Most of what He did was with and for those who were willing to drop those things that occupied most of their time and come to be with Him. Even when He worked with large crowds, He used the personal touch to reach out to each individual that needed help and healing.

Most of the people in our churches and Christian organizations go to church and minister together as people who don’t know much about each other. They are friends in a casual, surface relationship; but, they have very little knowledge about what they are going through. They have leaders they know very little about and don’t spend much PERSONAL time with, preaching to them, trying to teach them, and trying to lead them toward the things of God. Jesus didn’t do it that way; He established a very close and intimate friendship with all of His disciples. Jesus was a true friend and mentor to those He spent His personal time with.

The process Jesus will be teaching you in Year One is called mentoring. The term used in the Bible for mentoring is, discipling; however, many have misunderstood its meaning and have abused its concepts. The word mentoring will be used because it is the word that is typically use today that best describes what discipling really means in the Bible; however, the best word is friendship!

You are accepting the METHOD of Jesus where you are inviting someone to establish a close relationship with you. It isn’t going to be a business relationship where you are just trying to get a job done. It is a friendship where you and they share your lives and past experiences. They will be sharing their life experiences with you, so you can understand and help them. You will be sharing your life experiences with them so they can see how much Jesus has helped you.

As a friend, you will sit with them and listen to them. You will listen as they share with you the difficulties and struggles they are GOING through. As a mentor, you will then share the difficulties you WENT through and share how Jesus worked special miracles and breakthroughs in your life. You will NOT be sharing with them things you are GOING through; that will be shared with your mentor or minister.

Teaching and preaching are OFTEN done by a person who knows the INFORMATION but doesn’t know how to USE IT to get breakthroughs and victories in their own life. Mentoring is a healing process that is offered to your friends. It is coming from YOU as a person who HAS GONE through or HAS suffered those things they ARE currently GOING through; this makes you into a leader with compassion. Another VERY important thing about this type of training is, it is being offered from you as someone who knows the steps that got you there; this comes from a type of training Jesus uses that produces SKILL in the mentor and RESULTS in their friends.

The benefits your friends will have by you being their friend will come from the type of relationship you are willing and able to establish with them. Rather than you just meeting with them so as to help them with their problems in a business fashion, you will be opening your heart up to loving and caring for them. Rather than being a person who is only able to understand their problems and sympathize with them because you have gone through the same things, you will be a friend who is able to actually help because of the training Jesus and the Bible have given you.

You may have had people teach you things in church who are still struggling with those same problems themselves. Mentoring only allows you to share those things you know AND are successfully LIVING yourself:

• Jesus makes you into a mentor who not only knows the INFORMATION, you know the STEPS for using that information to live the victorious life of Christianity.


• Jesus makes you into a mentor who not only knows those steps, you have allowed Jesus to APPLY those steps to your own life and are currently LIVING that life.


• Jesus makes you into a mentor (one who disciples people like Jesus did) who teachs others the same information AND THEN shows them how to GET the same results.

As you know, these mentors aren’t perfect; they have things they are still having to let Jesus work on. But, they do have areas of their lives where they have experienced breakthroughs from Jesus. While they are still getting information (truths) that will eventually set them free from their current problems, they are sharing with their friends those areas where Jesus has already given them breakthroughs. This makes it possible for you to give people a lot MORE than just information. You are able to give them transformation (becoming a NEW person rather than an IMPROVED person) THROUGH the power of God.