Minister To Them

But Jonah rose up to flee to Tarshish from the presence of the Lord.  So he went down to Joppa, found a ship which was going to Tarshish, paid the fare and went down into it to go with them to Tarshish from the presence of the Lord.

The Lord hurled a great wind on the sea and there was a great storm on the sea so that the ship was about to break up.

Then the sailors became afraid and every man cried to his god, and they threw the cargo which was in the ship into the sea to lighten it for them.  But Jonah had gone down below into the hold of the ship, lain down and fallen sound asleep. 

So the captain approached him and said, “How is it that you are sleeping?  Get up, call on your god.  Perhaps your god will be concerned about us so that we will not perish.”

Jonah 1:3-6

Jonah was on a boat with a bunch of people who worshiped idols.   When they woke Jonah up and asked him to pray to his God, they were doing so out of desperation.  Did Jonah refuse them?  No.  Jonah prayed for them and they were all saved from a terrible ship wreck and worshiped God. 

Some times we forget that the purpose of the Church is to minister to all mankind.  This is evident when we refuse to minister to people who we think are non-believers or who are non-church members and ask for a wedding service or for a baby baptism or for a funeral service and we are miss an opportunity to minister to them.

And, even more so we should, without questioning, pray with non-believers and trust God to meet their needs. 

We are not called to be in a club; we are called to be in fellowship with God and minister to mankind.