A youth pastor to his students:

It is with great love and favor I write to you now. I have been with you for three years now and some of you have proven yourselves faithful to not only me and the ministry but to the gospel of Jesus Christ. We may do all things for ourselves and gain nothing but anything we do in Jesus Christ is considered gain for our future. Not always a future of this world but of the world to come; that is eternal life.

I write you with love but I must also admit that I write to you with a heavy heart. I know that each of you has entrusted your life to Jesus Christ and have made him Lord of you life but my fear is and what you have proven by your actions is that you merely gave him lip service and did not or do not intend to act on this decision.

Serving Jesus Christ and asking him to be Lord of your life is no joking matter. But Jesus will not take by force what he rightfully could. Instead Christ is a gentleman, he stands at the door and knocks but does not barge the door down. The door of your heart is seldom open to him. I know that this inconsistency sometimes frustrates you and causes you to be downtrodden. But take heart and know that you are not alone. Never once have you heard from me that this journey in our salvation would be easy, I warned you of the trouble and turmoil that would come. But when that trouble and turmoil did come it came disguised as selfishness, greed, lust, laziness and division. It was not the massive frontal attack at the gates that conquered you, you stood up to those well and for that you are to be commended. Instead it was the sneak attack that brought you to the wretched place you are now.

I call it such a wretched place let me explain. Before you knew Christ and the power of his salvation and the joy of living in him you were slaves to sin. You were useless to Christ. Then you began a relationship with Him and you were restored and useful to Christ. But you took that knowledge and instead of letting it penetrate your heart you just stored it in your head where it became jaded and sour. So now once again because of your actions you are useless to Christ, not because you are not valuable to him but because you have taken yourself out of the race.

You have taken such a valuable and honored thing, salvation, and have deemed it worthless in your life. You can deny with your words but your actions prove what you deem valuable. It is not with reprimand that I write this letter to you but with pain and hurt. Not pain and hurt that you have bestowed on me but on the pain and hurt I see in your lives and yet you keep covering it up with more pain and hurt. Pain and hurt piled on pain and hurt never heals but keeps you searching for something…that will destroy you.

There are those that need to be encouraged. Be encouraged if you are still running the race in faithfulness to Christ. You are working out your salvation, offering yourself as a living sacrifice and changing the lives of other. Don’t be dismayed. It may seem that no one notices but your heavenly father notices you’re striving and he is pleased! He is saving a place for you in heaven and he looks forward to you seeing him.

So I encourage you students to examine yourself. Are you acting worthy of the salvation given to you by the sacrifice of Christ Jesus? Have you counted the cost that Jesus took for you? Are you willing to count the cost that Christ asks you for? Be hot, be cold, don’t be lukewarm!

With all the love of Christ Jesus, Nick