A Cry To My Fellow Christian Teens

     As I exited the church building, I observed a group of girls happily chatting among themselves while relaxing in the shade. Seating myself on a nearby bench I pulled out a book and commenced to reading, but snippets of their conversation reached my ears. One young lady in particular stood out as the leader of the pack and was regaling her friends with juicy gossip from her public high school.

Glancing up I more closely analyzed the teens before me. Aside from the fact that they were on church grounds, they mirrored a typical group of un-churched teens you might see strutting about a mall. Their tops had low necklines, skirts had exceedingly high hemlines, and most concerning, their speech consisted of nothing more than vain babble. God was strangely absent from their conversation. My heart ached within me. These teens claimed to be Christians but spoke, acted, and dressed otherwise. This has become an unfortunately common phenomenon among many of today's Christian teens. In fact, I used to be like that. My faith merely consisted of lip service. But the Holy Spirit caused me to see the disconnect in my life: I couldn't claim to be a Christian and act like an unbeliever. It was then I realized I needed to turn to the Lord with all my heart. If you're reading this and thinking, "I'm a good Christian. I'm involved in my church, pay tithes every Sunday, was baptized at a young age, etc. Sure maybe I don't always act like a Christian. Does every other word out of my mouth have to be about Jesus?! I know in my heart, I'm saved." Dear fellow teen, I beg of you, consider this: if your speech, interests, and priorities are aligned with the world's speech, interests, and priorities, what reason is there to believe you're truly a Christian?

     The Scriptures make it plain that Christ is diametrically contrary to this world. Why should we, as followers of Christ, attempt to have any part with the world and its lusts? "Love not the world," the apostle John says in 1 John 2:15, "neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him." The Lord says that if you love the world, then you have no love for the Father. In James 4:4, the apostle minces no words when speaking to those who attempt to have both Christ and the world, "Ye adulterers and adulteresses, know ye not that the friendship of the world is enmity with God? whosoever therefore will be a friend of the world is the enemy of God." Are you willing to become the enemy of God in order to gain the friendship of the world? Fellow young Christian, with all sincerity I plead of you, repent! Repent of the worldly longings for acceptance from the ungodly! Repent of the desires to engage in godless activities! Repent of the carnal aspirations which the world urges you to fulfill! Search your heart with the light of God's Word and be prepared to weed out any tares you find there.

     Please understand that I do not write to you as one who believes she has attained perfection and can now reach down to those lower on the spiritual ladder and help them up. I am likewise a sinful human with much to learn but with a heart breaking because of the spiritual deprivation of my generation. So it is with the greatest fervor and sincerity I cry with the disciple James, "Draw nigh to God, and he will draw nigh to you. Cleanse your hands, ye sinners; and purify your hearts, ye double minded. Be afflicted, and mourn, and weep: let your laughter be turned to mourning, and your joy to heaviness. Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord, and he shall lift you up." (James 4:8-10) It is only when we humble ourselves before our Creator in repentance and ask for His forgiveness, will He lift us up and secure us as sons and daughters of the Lord.