Earnest about Eternity?

“What meanest thou, O sleeper?  Arise, call upon thy God, if so be that God will think upon us, that we perish not… Then said they unto him [Jonah], What shall we do?” (Jonah 1:6,11).  “The keeper of the prison awaking… would have killed himself… But Paul cried with a loud voice, saying, Do thyself no harm: for we are all here… And [he] brought them out, and said, Sirs, what must I do to be saved?  And they said, Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved, and thy house”  (Acts 16:27-31). 

Consider the tragic display

Of Jonah, the servant God sent,
Who fled in the opposite way
And slept as men perished, content. 

Consider the tragedy still,

That many, like Jonah, yet sleep  
As God is expressing His will
To rescue the perishing sheep.

Arise, sleeper!  Call upon God

Who died for the souls that He cherished!
Does not it appear to us odd
That we do not care if they’ve perished? 

The mariners earnestly pleaded

To Jonah then, “What shall we do?”
He gave them the answer they needed;
Should not we be doing this too? 

Consider the jailor’s alarm

When Philippi’s prison was shaken,
Yet Paul cried to save him from harm
Before his own life had been taken.

The jailor then earnestly craved

The answer that clearly sufficed
To “What must I do to be saved?”:
“Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ!”

Dear brothers and sisters, beware:  

We know what the Gospel has said
Which God calls us now to declare;
Will He find us sleeping instead? 

O Lord, give us earnest desire,  

In view of eternity’s length,
To do all Your love will require
As daily we draw from Your strength. 

We ponder eternity’s span,

Far more than our thinking can reach,
And thank You, O Lord, for Your plan:
Your Gospel we earnestly preach!