Jonah 1:10

Jonah 1:10 says, 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.  When the world is going crazy today, we need to ensure that we as God's followers are not the problem.  Those on the ship had called to their gods with no results.  Jonah may have been asleep, but the men had been battling to save the ship, and now they were truly afraid.  

Jonah told them he believed in the one true God, Who could save them, and yet he was running from Him. We today need to acknowledge that we serve the one true God.  As the world calls on their gods to save them, we need to point them to God, in our case, through Christ.  Jonah had told them what he had done, and they asked him why he had done this.  If he believed in the God Who created the heavens and the earth, where was he going to run to get away from Him. When the world is full of storms today, and we as God's followers are running from Him or are spiritually asleep, the world has a right to ask us why.  We are called to reach the world for Christ, and we cannot do this by attempting to separate life into spiritual and secular.  As followers of Christ, all of life is spiritual.

They also wanted to know why Jonah had involved them. They had already lost their cargo and were about to lose their ship.  We today may want to believe that our simple act of not doing what God calls us to do affects only us, but if God's people are not obedient to Him, then all those around us, and maybe even some far away, suffer. We have to realize that not only were those on the ship in danger, but those in Ninevah were still living in danger of destruction.  If we decide not to go where God sends us, or do what God tells us to do, we bear the burden for those not reached.  There may be areas today where we really don't feel that people are worthy of salvation, but we have to remember that no one is worthy of salvation.  It is not based on my worthiness verses anyone else's worthiness, but on everyone's unworthiness.  If we, as God's people begin to believe that we should not reach out to those we don't like, then we endanger all those around us.  Now, there are those who believe that some are destined to be saved and some lost, but I do not believe we would have been commanded to go into all the world making disciples if this were true.  There are none worthy of salvation and guaranteed it, nor are there any doomed without hope of salvation because of who they are. The only salvation for anyone is through the sacrifice of Christ.  It is up to us, as followers of Christ, to go wherever God sends us and share the gospel.