Last weekend, we at the Living Room, took two of the students camping on New Tribes’ property. We had been going through the Bible chronologically on Fridays using a graphic novel called Good and Evil, and we had already made it to the Israelite’s captivity in Egypt. The plan for this camping trip, was to have fun and teach through the rest of the story and get to the gospel. God did some awesome things, and both guys came to a clear understanding of the gospel and accepted Christ as their savior. Keep reading for a detailed play-by-play of the weekend.
BJ and I picked them up at The Living Room in Camdenton after school, and after loading up my little Focus with sleeping bags, snacks and other camping essentials, we drove to NewTribes’ campus on the lake and parked the car on the trail to the cabin. I say “cabin” but “200 sq. ft. tinderbox” would be an apt description. At least it stays dry!
We sat down on the semi-circle wooden benches outside the cabin and reviewed the lessons we’d already covered: creation to Egypt. Honestly, I was pleasantly surprised by how much they remembered from the last two months! We talked about the characteristics of God as the creator and therefore owner of everything, and reviewed how God desired his creation to go his way, which was usually not very difficult.
God’s only command to Adam and Eve was to not eat from the tree of knowledge of good and evil. Simple enough right? They blew it and were cut off from God because of their sin, but the coolest thing is that God immediately promised to send a deliverer who would pay for the sin of all humanity. |
Next: Cain and Abel. God asked for an animal sacrifice, but Cain decided to go his own way and bring vegetables. God even showed Cain grace and said there was still time to offer an animal sacrifice, but Cain just got angry and destroyed his brother.
In the story of Noah, God gave humanity more than one hundred years to repent. All they had to do was believe Noah, and go through the door of the ark to safety. Again, God’s way was simple.
Years later, God called Abraham and promised to bless him and make a nation from him. God also promised to send the deliverer through Abraham’s descendants. When God asked him to offer his son Isaac as a burnt offering, God provided a ram as a substitute for Isaac at the last moment.
After we’d finished reviewing, Josh and Borja joined us, and we all played a round of disc-golf on the campus course. It was Christ and Ryan’s first time to play, and Chris made a ridiculous birdie shot! The weather was perfect, and we had a blast! Then we grilled some burgers on the point and were joined by Sean, Jenn and Lael. The grill was going a little crazy, but Josh tamed the 9″ flames and the burgers turned out just fine…
While we were eating, BJ and I went through a few more lessons in our story. We talked about how the Jews were in slavery in Egypt, how Moses was chosen to deliver the people, how God sent plagues against the Egyptians that directly confronted their false gods, how God instructed them on the Passover for the last plague and how that symbolism pointed forward to the coming redeemer.
Then we went through the law and explained how God gave the law to show them that no one could keep it and be blameless in God’s sight. We’re all in need of a deliverer. After we were finished eating, we went to the student lounge to play some pool. We got pretty inventive and played 7-person cutthroat…which took awhile…but was really fun.
After a few more games of pool, we jumped back into the teaching time and summarized the rest of the Old Testament, by describing the cycle Israel placed themselves in. They’d follow God while their judge/prophet was among them, then when the prophet/judge passed away, they’d begin to worship other gods. At which point, God would allow their enemies to overtake them. Eventually Israel would cry out to God in their captivity, and he would raise up a new judge/prophet to restore them. This cycle repeated itself over and over.
By the time of the New Testament, Israel had been passed between several major empires. The ruling Roman empire was tolerating them as long as they payed their taxes. BJ jumped into Christ’s birth and I followed up with his baptism and temptation in the wilderness.
We decided to go back to the cabin by the lake and build a fire on the beach…it was a big fire. Josh caught a fish with his bare hands…and then ate it whole…with ketchup…and we made s’mores too!
We talked about a few encounters Jesus had with people during his ministry: Nicodemus and the Rich Young Ruler. The first illustrated the point that our current humanity isn’t good enough for eternal life. We need new spiritual birth/renewal. The rich young ruler asked Jesus how he could have eternal life. Jesus wanted this guy to see that no one is good enough on their own to earn eternal life, so he asked him, “Have you kept all the commandments?” He says he has (right…), but instead of calling him on it, Jesus told him to sell everything, give it to the poor, and follow him. The man went away sad, because he couldn’t sell everything. The point of the encounter was to show that pretty good isn’t good enough. No one can earn salvation through good works.
Then we talked through the death, burial and Resurrection of Christ, and explained how all that God required for eternal life was belief in the fact that Jesus paid for all sin- past, present, and future- as the ultimate deliverer.
We made connections with the OT stories: God required blood sacrifice from Cain, and accepted Abel’s sacrifice, when he saw the blood. God is satisfied with us, when He sees Christ’s blood. There was one door to be saved on Noah’s ark. Jesus is the only “door” through which we can be saved. God provided a ram as a substitute for Isaac, and Jesus is our substitute. We deserve death. The Jews placed the blood of a spotless male lamb on their doorposts during the Passover and death passed over them…we are freed from Death because of the blood of the Jesus, the spotless lamb of God.
Throughout the talk, Chris was following pretty intently and asking questions, while Ryan mostly listened. I asked Chris if he could do “that.” By “that” I meant, “believe in Jesus,” but he thought I was asking if he thought he could die for humanity like Jesus did. He said that it’d be really hard, and he’d want to be able to do it, but he probably couldn’t. So then I asked him if he believed that Christ did die for all of humanity’s sin, and he said, “Well, yeah.”
By this time it was getting pretty late, so we went back up to the cabin and six of us crammed inside…I think we fell asleep around three in the morning. Borja, our other savior, brought us all coffee early the next morning, and BJ and I started frying up the bacon and eggs.
After breakfast we went for a hike to an overlook and then packed up camp. Since we had a few minutes to spare, we played a few more games of pool and then dropped them off at the Living Room.
At this point, I still wasn’t exactly sure where Ryan was at with everything. Jenn texted him later that day and asked how the weekend was. He said it was awesome and that the campfire was his favorite part. When she asked why, he told her he learned that one man paid for all sin past, present and future and that he believes!
We had a great time, and now we’ll just keep going deeper into truths about the Christian life.
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