One Year Ago Today
All that was on my mind was marriage and cancer. Today, I am in remission, Anna and I are married, and we are beginning the process of preparing to move to the University of Oklahoma to help plant a campus ministry. We are excited to embark on the journey that God laid on our hearts in February of 2018. Please pray that God would go before Bryce, Susan, Anna, and I to prepare hearts and minds of students on campus.
What is God Doing Now?
While I have been undergoing cancer treatment and recovery I have been helping my leader, Bryce Bouchard, implement a discipleship course for men he created called Noblemen. The goal of Noblemen is to intentionally invest in young men through Life- to-Life® discipleship helping young men grow closer to God.
God has blessed us with 18 different ministries and over 225 men from across the nation who we are privileged to help coach and lead. Let me share with you Alex’s story:
“This Cross is 400 lbs. Jesus’ Cross Was Heavier.”
That was what I told a group of young men as we prepared to carry a 400 lb cross up a steep bluff in the Missouri countryside as part of the Noblemen discipleship course. They nervously smiled as they grabbed hold of the cross and lifted it over their heads. This challenge was designed to provide a concrete illustration of Jesus’ challenge in Luke 9:23 (ESV).
“Then He said to them all, ‘If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me.’”
It took 50 minutes to reach the top of the bluff. In contrast, Jesus requires us to take up our cross daily if we desire to follow as His disciple. Although the cross Jesus carried weighed significantly less than 400 lbs, it was weighted spiritually with our sin. So heavy was its load on a broken and bloody Jesus that another man, Simon of Cyrene, had to be recruited to carry it from the gate of Jerusalem to the hill of Calvary.
It is Jesus crucified in this brutal fashion, and raised three days later that opens up the door for us to live as the disciples he calls us to be. Now the Holy Spirit seeks to grow us into the very image of Christ!
These men have graduated from the Noblemen discipleship course, but now their focus turns towards pursuing Life-to-Life® discipleship with others.
Samuel and Anna- my granddaughter is a junior at OU in the business school! She LOVES it! (A Chi O)
So glad your cancer is in remission and you are going onward for Christ. God bless you all. Is there a program like this at Indiana university in Bloomington? My grandson needs this.
Excited to have you in Norman, OK!