Renewed Hope Through Christ's Legacy! - Mighty Oaks Foundation

By Travis Lewarchik

Each week at these sessions, veterans and first responders show up to the ranches in search of hope, identity, and healing. This past week at Skyrose Ranch was no different. Twenty-five veterans and first responders showed up and found or renewed their hope, that hope being Christ.

I am constantly in awe of the work that can be done in less than a week. The men who walked through the doors on Monday night are not the same ones who left Saturday morning. The men who left Saturday, left with purpose, hope, and restored legacies. They left with the tools to fight… fight for their legacy, families, and communities. They learned to fight from the high ground. They learned not only who they are, but more importantly who they belong to.

They found identity in Christ and Christ alone. They know that the reality of the battles they left Monday will rage on, but they now know how to fight them – using the 4 Bs:

Be in the word.
Be in prayer.
Be in fellowship with other believers in your local church.
Be in constant contact with cornermen.

Many self-professed “Christians” walk through life assuming that being a “good” person and going to church is all that God requires of them, and that in doing so they will be saved. This week those lies were exposed and men for the first time truly surrendered and called on the name of the Lord.

“That if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved.” Romans 10:9

Men who were on a “self-help,” journey finally found the freedom and help they were looking for. They found freedom from a place of surrender and allowed the Holy Spirit to pour into them. On Friday, I took the opportunity to reflect on the week with some of the participants. While speaking to one of them, I asked, “What changed?” He said for the first time in his life he felt love, joy and peace.

Those should sound familiar as he was identifying the fruit of the spirit before he ever knew what they were. I had the opportunity to share with him Galatians 5:22-23 “the fruit of the spirit,” and in that moment the Word came to life. He was listing the fruit of the spirit inside of him in the same order they are written, even though he had never read those words. We serve a living God and who reveals himself to us through the living word.

“But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. Against such there is no law.” Galatians 5:22-23

I am convinced that true restoration only comes through surrender and faith in Christ.