The Offer

One night (can't remember which night) we had "CNL" (Castaway Night Live). Lots of the leaders were in hilarious skits, in between skits they showed 'the best of You Tube' on the big screen and in the back they videoed interviews of the 'actors'. It was really, really hilarious. I got a small part. I walked out very pregnant in a 'contagious' skit. I just said, "Hi, Ya'll!". But the whole place started cheering and laughing - it was really fun. So anyway, on this day, we got up and heard the rest of the 6 stories in the club room. People had lots of questions for the 6 people, and afterwards, we went outside as a cabin and answered some questions about what we heard. We also had an outdoor competition where we had to run from station to station to do things like ultimate frisbee football, human knot, sumo wrestling, chase the bunny, free throw shots, tug of war, handstand competition, etc. We went tubing this afternoon, which I've never done, and it was SO much fun! I thought I'd be scared, but when you are trying to convince all the girls why they should, you forget about being scared. :) Right after tubing we got ready to go to banquet. The girls dressed up and looked SO pretty, we went into the main dining hall and had a yummy Italian dinner and we took lots of pictures as a group. We changed clothes after that and went to club.

After all the hilarious skits we saw every night, the speaker talked about the offer. He summed up everything we had heard about over the week and said that the offer is life. We have to move. Anyone from anywhere can follow. He talked about the questions of life being answered through Jesus and what He did. He talked about leaving our own stories and moving into God's. God said you're worth coming for. He talked about how Jesus didn't come to point an accusing finger at the world, but to show his love. He didn't come to teach a religion, he simply said, "Follow me." He died, and suffered for us, but still gives us a choice, an offer. In the study guide for the leaders that morning it read:

God's grace is costly because it calls us to follow, and grace because it calls us to follow Jesus Christ. It is costly because it costs a man his life, and is grace because it gives a man the only true life. (Bonhoeffer)

They had the 15 minutes of quiet time again on the grounds after the talk, and when the girls came in, they all had lots to say. This was our best cabin time by far, as there were more questions, but even more answers. I told the girls what another leader had told me earlier in the day as we talked about the offer. Several of the girls thought they needed to know God before they accepted Jesus, that they needed to 'get right' before they could accept Him. We talked about how Jesus said, "Come as you are." I had a watch on my wrist and I said to the girls, "I have this gift I want to give you (I pointed at my watch). But when is it yours? Is it now? (I started to take off the watch and held it out), is it now? Or is it when you reach out and take it (one of the girls did). I related it to what the speaker had said about the offer of Jesus, and almost immediately a few of the girls said that they were ready. They wanted to the gift. We talked for a while and then two of the YL work crew (HS volunteers) walked in with juice and cookies. They stayed for a little while and talked about their stories. The girls looked up to them. When they left the girls kept saying, "I can't believe she deals with that too..." We all went out for coffee and the coffee shop or to play pool, ping pong or 4 square in the game room before calling it a night.

Verse to Ponder: John 3:16-18 (The Message) "This is how much God loved the world: He gave his Son, his one and only Son. And this is why: so that no one need be destroyed; by believing in him, anyone can have a whole and lasting life. God didn't go to all the trouble of sending his Son merely to point an accusing finger, telling the world how bad it was. He came to help, to put the world right again. Anyone who trusts in him is acquitted; anyone who refuses to trust him has long since been under the death sentence without knowing it. And why? Because of that person's failure to believe in the one-of-a-kind Son of God when introduced to him."