tonight's the night...

(eek!)  Tonight's the night!

I know, I know.  After doing this for 14 years, you'd think we wouldn't still get nervous.

But tonight's the first RUF large group meeting of the fall semester!  And it's the first-EVER on Liberty's campus!  Get excited- we're making history, people!

 We've met a ton of students through student orientation fairs and Liberty's block party last weekend.

RUF has just reached a "club" status on campus, so that gives us greater access to and a greater presence in the university.

 Last weekend, students we'd never met before enjoyed our game of "giant Jenga"...

...as well as some Spike Ball and Kan Jam.  (it's okay, I'd never heard of those games, either!...)

The pancake breakfast last weekend was also a success.  New faces connected with old faces.

(Funny tidbit-- We actually wondered why attendance was a bit lower than we had expected, and come to find out, the night before the breakfast had been Liberty's all-night-of-prayer event!  Yep.  You heard that right.  Most college students might miss a breakfast because they were out all night partying.   Ours miss it because they were out all night PRAYING...ha!  More power to ya, guys... I enjoyed my sleep!)

Nevertheless, it was still a success and we had the BEST pancake makers ever.

I mean, the BEST of the BEST.

Until now, everything has been leading up to tonight's first meeting, where Marc will begin a sermon series on Thursdays through Jesus' Sermon on the Mount.

Liberty students hear ALOT of sermons, y'all.  Pray that this one from Jesus Himself (recorded in the Bible, not Marc, ha ha) would truly be life-changing.

People wonder why we would have RUF at a Christian university like Liberty.  And the answer is easy:

We seek for RUF to be both a rest stop for tired Christians and a safe place for skeptics.

At Liberty University, there's a whole lot of tired Christians.  They're burned out from all the rah-rah, if you know what I mean.  And believe it or not, there's a lot of skeptics, too.  (though many would be too scared to verbalize that)

The Gospel isn't just an invitation for non-Christians.  It's for the believer and skeptic alike.  

I need the Gospel everyday, just as much as an unbeliever.

I need to hear it every Sunday at church, not just when we're having some kind of special "outreach" service.

The Gospel is for the tired Christian like me, who needs to be reminded that it's not my righteousness that saves me or my continual struggle with sin that keeps condemning me, but as I trust in Him, Christ's righteousness has been freely and lavishly poured out upon this undeserving wretch, once and for all.

It's in truly grasping this Gospel of grace that I am freed to go forth to serve and love others, offering them the same grace and forgiveness that has been shown to me.

How can that message not be needed at a Christian university that prides itself on its strict code of student conduct and busy activity schedule?

Pray that RUF might truly be that rest stop tonight.

Pray that the Holy Spirit, through the preaching of the Gospel, would stop students from the rat race of Christian behavior-ism, and instead capture their hearts in such a way that grace and mercy would naturally ooze out into their relationships.

Pray that skeptics would feel safe to come and consider the words of Jesus without worry of manipulation.

Pray that deep, rich, and true community would begin to be built among our group even tonight.

Pray that RUF will continue to be a place where students don't have to pretend to have it all together or be "super-Christians."

Tonight's the night, you guys.

Pray.