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A LETTER TO MY PASTOR Print and cut the paper on the dashed line below before you mail the letter.
My Dear Pastor: I am concerned this church is not obeying the commands of Jesus Christ of Nazareth. We have missed the mark. Jesus commanded we must proclaim the Gospel to the lost. It only makes perfect sense to obey, but how can the lost sinner ever know the joys of the Lord if we do not introduce Jesus to them? We have confiscated the Gospel where it can only be heard behind the closed doors of a church building. Jesus went out to seek the lost, but we only invite people to visit our church to hear the Gospel. We are wrong. And we are not getting all of the Gospel in our church. There are critical sermons missing. I invite you perform a simple test that will convince you that this church is way off the mark, that we are playing church while the lost sinner remains lost diving head-first into hell's fire. And it is our fault. God will hold us accountable for their blood. Here is the test. I want you to put a dozen or two of Gospel tracts in your shirt pocket and go take a restful stroll downtown. As you walk, I want you to make an attempt to leave a Gospel tract on a newspaper vending machine. Place one on a store window's ledge or wherever you can. When you have a half-pocket full of tracts then stop. Now ask Jesus, "Jesus, there are thousands of Christians in this town, but why am I the only one here downtown trying to reach the lost for you? Where are the Christians? Why can't they see that the lost are here all around us and nobody is trying to reach them with your Gospel. Why?" Now take a walk to the local courthouse, step inside and watch a few court cases in the community court. Look at the lost all around you to your left and to your right. Each awaiting sentencing. Now, place a Gospel tract on the seat. Ask Jesus, "Again, Lord, here are the lost sinners in the hard grip of Satan's claws. Where are the Christians? Why am I the only one here trying to save these lost souls?" Pastor, we need to reach these lost sinners before they commit more serious crimes entering state prison. Saving the lost now at this stage will prevent crime and harm to innocent victims. Jesus said that we must gather or we scatter. He did not authorize for us to ignore the lost soul and play church. Saving the lost is serious business and we need to get serious about it. Jesus came to save those who are lost. That is God's prime #1 agenda and we have been too busy with our church affairs than to realize that every member of this church is not proclaiming the Gospel with zeal for saving lost sinners. Just ask the congregation to raise their hand who reached a lost sinner for Christ last week, last month, last year. Ask the person who distributed a Gospel tract to stand up last week, last month, last year. The results will speak itself. We are not producing good fruit for Jesus. Lost souls are not being saved. Who's responsible for this? The problem is you, my dear pastor. You are the leader of the assembly and you have not taught us how easy it is to distribute Gospel tracts to the lost. You are quick to initiate programs that will increase Biblical knowledge to the flock, like Bible study, Sunday school or whatever, but what good is knowledge learned if we do not share it to save the lost? We need a class to teach personal evangelism to reach the lost; and every able-bodied church member must attend. Yes, mandatory attendance required. When was the last time you preached a strong hell-fire sermon to instill the fear of the Lord to the flock? We have lost our fear of the Lord and now we have lost wisdom. Jesus was a hell fire preacher and so should you be too. We can't ignore one-half of the New Testament Word of God, we must proclaim all of it We need sermons to explain Jesus' parables, clearing up that God's servants are the members of the King's household. These servants mentioned in Jesus' parables are not lost sinners, they are God's servants and many were sent to hell for disobedience. You may not agree, but I must agree with Jesus of Nazareth on the issues at hand. We can be cut off from the vine because Jesus said so. I believe our church is withering away for ignoring saving the lost. We are the dead burying the dead. We worship and praise God, but we are not obeying Him. We are worshipping Jesus in vain. We are lukewarm, maybe even worse than lukewarm. Where is our fruit? The fruit Jesus desires is salvation for the lost. We have failed, miserably. Apostasy is alive and well in these last days and we must not think for one moment we are exempt. We have been adversely affected, blinded and led astray. We must not follow or copy other churches. We must follow the Lord, Jesus of Nazareth, not a counterfeit Jesus or a false Gospel. Like the early New Testament church we must get back to the basics; train up a flock that will reach out to save the lost sinner. Otherwise, we have no purpose to exist as we are. Have you read the newspaper lately? Seen the television news? Crime, unbelief, drugs, sex, prostitution, violence, disease, theft, murders, rape including attacks on Christian values in society and we have the nerve to sit back and do nothing? To just attend church as business as usual? That is what the devil wants us to do, do nothing. He does not want the lost to be saved. Our city is crumbling to its ruin and we are not witnessing to save the lost. This policy must change. We are denying Christ by our sheer silence. We are letting wickedness run without a measure of restraint. We turn our eyes away and sing songs to God. Hypocrites we are. Satan does not want the lost to be saved and we are pleasing in his sight because members of this church are not going forth to save the lost sinner. We worship, pray, attend Bible study, but we will not save the lost. The flock is being led in the wrong direction. Jesus wants the lost to be saved and that is what we are supposed to be doing, but we are not doing so. This does not mean we must begin a recruiting program to increase our church membership. It means this church needs to train members on how to evangelize to reach the lost for Christ, even if not one of those saved persons joins our church. Recruitment is not the goal. Saving the lost is. Let us begin with Gospel tract distribution. Everybody should get a Gospel tract and then tell of what they did with that tract next week. Most all will not give the tract away to a lost person. They may give it to another saved person or a close friend, but not a stranger will ever get one. This will instill the flock to see their own sin of not sharing the Gospel with the lost. Yes, we have sinned greatly because we know we should share the Gospel and we refuse to do it. Our sin remains. "... loose the bands of wickedness, to undo the heavy burdens, and to let the oppressed go free, and that ye break every yoke. Is it not to deal thy bread to the hungry and that thou bring the poor that are cast out to thy house? When thou seest the naked, that thou cover him; and that thou hide not thyself from thy own flesh. Then shall thy light break forth as the morning, and thine health shall spring forth speedily: and thy righteousness shall go before thee; the glory of the Lord shall be thy reward. Then shalt thou call, and the Lord shall answer; thou shalt cry, and he shall say, Here I am. If thou take away from the midst of thee the yoke, the putting forth of the finger, and speaking vanity. And if thou draw out thy soul to the hungry, and satisfy the afflicted soul; then shall thy light rise in obscurity, and thy darkness be as the noonday; And the Lord shall guide thee continually, and satisfy thy soul in drought, and make fat they bones and thou shalt be like a watered garden, and like a spring of water, whose waters fail not... and I will cause thee to ride upon the high places of the earth..." - Isaiah 58:6-14. Sincerely, A concerned servant of the Lord.
Print and cut the paper on the dashed line above before you mail the letter. End of Article PUBLISHING RIGHTS - the article is copyrighted December 14, 2004, but you are granted the right to publish the article herein titled "A Letter To My Pastor" in perpetuity. You must include the entire article as is, with no changes of wording. That includes the commentary section by James Russell. We do request you give full credits to James Russell Publishing and to post an active Website link to James Russell Publishing Website. This publishing right may also be arbitrarily rejected and withdrawn if the article is misused or employed into an obscene or an offensive environment of which it was not intended to be portrayed.
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