By Van Yandell. Yandell is a retired Industrial Arts teacher, an ordained gospel evangelist, and missionary.
Jonah 1: 5 “Then the mariners were afraid, and cried every man unto his god, and cast forth the wares that were in the ship into the sea, to lighten it of them. But Jonah was gone down into the sides of the ship; and he lay, and was fast asleep.”
My uncle once said, “I do my best worrying in the middle of the night.” Supposing it runs in the family to make light of unpleasant situations, dealing with memories can be good or bad.
At some point in time, I realized that when I wake up at two am and fully know I’m not going back to sleep, the best recourse is to get up and do something.
Going to the shop it’s easy to find jobs I didn’t finish yesterday or new tasks that cannot wait until daylight. If nothing else, finding a broom, sweeping jobs in a shop are always needed, especially in a wood shop.
At times, turning on the laptop and to start writing seems to be a viable alternative. More articles are written in the early morning hours than in the day time hours.
Whatever one’s forte is in life, there is always something to do! To simply sit and do nothing is not a choice for many of us.
One of my middle of the night actions (or inactions) is to sit outside and star gaze. I just came in and told wife Margie, (yes, she’s up too), “I never believed in UFO’s, but I just saw something in the southern sky and have no idea what it could have been.”
It is a perfectly clear night (4 am) and the stars are shining bright; the moon is starting to come up over the eastern horizon and my eyes had adjusted to the darkness.
A bright light appeared and in about two seconds, disappeared. I have no idea what it could have been. The word “unidentified” came to mind and that bright light was certainly unidentified to me.
In my ”UFO disbelieving mind” there is a perfectly logical, earth based reason for the light. But still, the thought is, I do not know what the light was!
There are many questions in life that we simply cannot answer. Like Jonah asleep in “the belly of the ship” we are asleep to many of the conditions and situations all around us. So the thought comes forth, are Christians asleep to the spiritually unaware?
Jonah 1: 6 “So the shipmaster came to Jonah, and said unto him, What meanest thou, O sleeper? arise, call upon thy God, if so be that God will think upon us, that we perish not.”
The ship’s crew knew there was a God that controlled the seas (Psalm 8: 8). They cast lots to determine which one of them was the cause of this great tempest in the sea. The lot fell upon Jonah.
Jonah 1: 10 “Then were the men exceedingly afraid, and said unto him. Why hast thou done this? For the men knew that he fled from the presence of the Lord, because he had told them.”
As the story goes, Jonah was tossed into the sea and was swallowed by a whale (Matthew 12: 40) where he spent three days, was vomited up on a seashore, then did what God had told him to do.
God Jesus gave us a final command before He ascended. Go and tell others about Him! Is that too big an order for us to fulfill? Jonah had a command from God and he tried to run from God.
At this point in our lives, it may not be in the middle of the night but it’s time to wake up. get up and speak up. If there is ever to be any peaceful state in our world, the time is now to tell all people about Jesus.
It certainly appears over the last twenty years our world has been consumed and digested into a state of war, hatred, racial and social unrest, economic disparities and natural disasters escalating the tensions of many.
Some believe the return of Jesus is soon to happen. I do not share that belief but of course, He “will come as a thief in the night,” meaning, when we least expect Him.
2 Peter 3: 10 “But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night; in the which the heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat, the earth also and the works that are therein shall be burned up.”
Perhaps this scripture is not only prophesy but a wake-up call. Must we wake up, get up and speak up? That question is rhetorical because the answer is obvious.
The invasion of the free world by pagan religions and the many under the influence of non-Biblical teachings, we have reached a do-or-die condition.
Scriptural references to false prophets are many. Jesus was so adamant concerning the false teachings, He stated three times in the Olivet discourse (Matthew 24, Mark 13 and Luke 21), to beware of false teachings, “they will deceive many.”
Galatians 1: 8 “But should we, or an angel from Heaven, preach any other gospel unto you than that which we have preached to you, let him be accursed.”
Church, we must wake up, get up and speak up! It’s now or never. Christianity is under attack by the false prophets, radical factions of various beliefs and those that find Christian teachings interfering with their lifestyle.
Jonah 2: 9 “But I will sacrifice unto thee with the voice of thanksgiving; I will pay that that I have vowed. Salvation is of the Lord.”
The Bible teaches there is only one eternal salvation. That is by a faith based belief (Ephesians 2: 8) that Christ Jesus was crucified (Matthew 27: 35) for the remission of sin (Romans 4: 25), resurrected (Matthew 28: 6) and ascended alive into Heaven (Acts 1: 9).