Go and find them ere they perish,
Tell them of the Savior's love;
How He came to guide them safely
To the Father's home above.
Go and find them in their darkness,
Bound by chains of slavery;
Tell abroad the proclamation,
Jesus Christ can set them free.
Go and find them, hasten! hasten!
Time is fleeting fast away;
They are dying, lost and hopeless
While you linger day by day.
--Oswald J. Smith
A missionary couple sent this poem to me in their newsletter this month. It helps them remember why they have traveled so far to reach people who see a loving Father as a foreign concept. This poem reminds them--and may it remind us--that Jesus came to seek and to save that which was lost. To save the lost thing, we must be actively searching for it, turning everything upside-down to find it. The woman swept her house clean looking for that lost coin. The shepherd combed the hills and valleys of the countryside in search of his lost sheep. The father stood outside the gates of his estate, watching for his rebellious son to return.
The lost will not be beating down our doors to hear the Good News. While some may recognize their hunger, they often find a temporary fix that doesn't cost as much as the Gospel. Drugs, alcohol, and other substitutes don't require an overhaul of the heart. God does. And it's likely that no one will seek a faith that demands so much of them. In fact, without His intervention, the Bible says that there is not one who seeks God.
Life is a vapor, and this world is a gas chamber. Sin has wafted into our lives, and it's choking the inhabitants of the earth. But this gas is odorless and invisible, undetectable by those whose conscience is prone to malfunction. Only those who have salvation can "go and find them ere they perish."
Tell them of the Savior's love;
How He came to guide them safely
To the Father's home above.
Go and find them in their darkness,
Bound by chains of slavery;
Tell abroad the proclamation,
Jesus Christ can set them free.
Go and find them, hasten! hasten!
Time is fleeting fast away;
They are dying, lost and hopeless
While you linger day by day.
--Oswald J. Smith
A missionary couple sent this poem to me in their newsletter this month. It helps them remember why they have traveled so far to reach people who see a loving Father as a foreign concept. This poem reminds them--and may it remind us--that Jesus came to seek and to save that which was lost. To save the lost thing, we must be actively searching for it, turning everything upside-down to find it. The woman swept her house clean looking for that lost coin. The shepherd combed the hills and valleys of the countryside in search of his lost sheep. The father stood outside the gates of his estate, watching for his rebellious son to return.
The lost will not be beating down our doors to hear the Good News. While some may recognize their hunger, they often find a temporary fix that doesn't cost as much as the Gospel. Drugs, alcohol, and other substitutes don't require an overhaul of the heart. God does. And it's likely that no one will seek a faith that demands so much of them. In fact, without His intervention, the Bible says that there is not one who seeks God.
Life is a vapor, and this world is a gas chamber. Sin has wafted into our lives, and it's choking the inhabitants of the earth. But this gas is odorless and invisible, undetectable by those whose conscience is prone to malfunction. Only those who have salvation can "go and find them ere they perish."
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