Time to Wake Up

Here’s a word for Universalists

Everyone will not be saved,

Don’t think that you will run free

Regardless of how you behave.

“No hell, I put that to you,”

Said the rich man to the poor.

“Christ died for one and all,

All will enter heaven’s door.”

It doesn’t matter how you live

You will still be saved,

Jesus died upon the cross

So everyone’s fare is paid.

Time to tell you of a case

In which that is clearly not so,

So let’s set the stage for that event

And to the Bible we will go.

Oh! That place was hot

But there was no doubt

That through a parched throat

He still tried to shout.

He had been rich, filthy rich

But all of his money was here,

It was of no help where he was

All he possessed there was fear.

Agony too was his lot

At his wasted opportunities

And he regretted in his anguish

That he frowned on one’s poverty.

Within his view while on earth

Was a man that was very poor

But him he treated with contempt

And blatantly ignored.

Like the poor man, he also died

But went to a different location

It appeared that they both were Jews

What an interesting consideration!

The roles were now reversed

Quite different from on earth,

The man that was rich was now poor

But the poor man had much worth.

A little water the rich man cried,

“Just a little tip for my tongue.

Send Lazarus, Abraham, please

To right my terrible wrong.

And while you are it,”

He begged, “Get a message to my brothers.

Don’t let them come down here,

This is very hot weather.”

On earth, Lazarus was the beggar

But in hell the rich man begged,

Which prompts the question I must ask,

To what is your eternity pegged?

Is it the riches of this earth?

Is it fame and status?

None of these can help beyond this life,

One’s only help is Jesus.

The rich man’s wealth ended at death

And so too Lazarus’ poverty,

Whatever the status in this life

Death will end it for both you and me.

Neither poverty nor wealth matters

Or whether one be a Jew,

If death finds you without Christ

There is nothing anyone can do.

Now is the time to wake up

My friend, while you still have life,

Do not ignore the love of God

And the fact of His Son’s sacrifice.

This poem is another opportunity

To help someone avoid hell’s fate,

The rich man’s account my friend

Is but a small preview of hell’s state.

Stewart Russell © February 2019