I will call her Amelia though that is not her real name. She was invited to our church in Indianapolis by a friend at her public high school when she was a sophomore. Her life had been rugged, to put it mildly, reared in a “hard” religion household and a life where genuine affection was absent.
That’s when a teenager in our church youth-group invited her to visit our church. She had no time for any kind of church, thinking “religion” was all a sham. But evidently her heart had been prepared by the Holy Spirit, and she accepted the invitation to attend, as a “skeptic.” The mother of the teen who invited Amelia to church was more than happy to provide transportation, as neither her son nor his school friend had a license to drive.
Amelia came, and came back, and could not resist the impact of a church where people took what seemed to be a genuine interest in her as a person. In a matter of a few weeks, the power of the gospel did its wonderful work, and she trusted Christ as her Savior. The change was immediate, visible, and undeniable. She had been inwardly and outwardly converted, and it was evident. She had an appetite for God’s Word, for His Church, and a desire to know more of Christ. She was soon baptized and is now a faithful, committed member of a local, New Testament assembly of believers.
In a recent service at church honoring graduates, Amelia gave her testimony about God’s saving grace. She related her experience last summer at the Wilds Christian camp and the exceptional time she had with hundreds of other Christian teens. She said she plans to attend Indiana University-Purdue University at Indianapolis this fall, remaining close to God and to His Church.
The big-hearted evangelist D.L. Moody pictured a scene on a mountain slope when the risen Lord Jesus commissioned His first disciples to go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature. Moody pictures Peter’s wide-eyed wonder as he asks Jesus if they must go to those who drove the nails through His hands. Again, Peter asks if they must go to the man that drove the spear into the Master’s side, and Jesus says, “Yes, tell him there’s a nearer way to My heart than that.” And those early disciples entered into the compassion of their Savior as His Holy Spirit came upon them and broke down all their little human boundary-walls. (Copied)
Amelia’s transformed life—from despair to desire to grow in grace—left some of us listening again to those words of Jude: “And of some have compassion, making a difference.” (Jude 22) We were all thankful that a Christian teen saw another teen that many might have dismissed as hopeless because of those boundary walls, and invited her to attend a church service. An invitation that changed a young girl’s destiny. All because a teen believer had compassion, making a difference in another teen’s life. To God be the glory.
“And Jesus went forth, and saw a great multitude and was moved with compassion toward them, and He healed their sick.” (Matt.14:14)
YOU and GOD 