What effect does your faith have on your lifestyle?

2 Corinthians 5:17 really sums it up. It’s a new way of life because I am a new creation! The journey of life is all about maturing into that new man God has made me through Jesus! The older I get I realize more and more that it’s about becoming less about me and more about Him. However, this is a life long journey!

Describe how your Journey with Christ began.

When I was 25 years old, I was presented a challenge by one of my teammates, Byron Ballard, in AA ball. He asked me if I was willing to read the Bible to discover who I am in relationship to God and who He is in relationship to me. I spent the summer of 1981 in Amarillo, Texas reading the Scripture along with my wife. In the fall of that year we became followers of Jesus.

Who have been the mentors in your life? How did God bring these people into your life?

Don Christensen became our financial advisor about 25 years ago and through that relationship no one has had a greater influence in my life than he has.

What does the Increase of Christ mean to you?

As I learn to surrender to the Holy Spirit in me, I’m learning, as the Apostle Paul shares about himself, that it is no longer I who lives but Christ who lives in me. When Paul says, “He must increase, but I must decrease,” I see that my life is to be lived out of who I am in Christ, not that man who is now dead to sin and used to living out of my own fleshly desires. However, as I mentioned earlier, this is a life long journey of trusting in God. I know that I can trust the Holy Spirit to lead my life deeper into these truths with each new day. By the way, this journey cannot be lived out alone or on our own. We need really good, trusting, and honest friends. We need Christlike friends that aren’t afraid to be authentic!

What is your life verse and why?

2 Corinthians 4:16-18 says, “Therefore we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day. For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen, since what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.” My wife and I chose this verse because during a difficult time in our lives, as we lived through the struggles of cancer, it reminded us of the hope we have in Jesus!