All are Welcome!
Published by Tim Kieffer in Worship · Saturday 18 Dec 2021
In any city or town there will be a church with a sign on the front lawn containing its name. Chances are the sign will also include an invitation to worship with them, and the sign might have a phrase such as, “All are welcome!”.
Recently there has been a disturbing trend among places of worship that contradict their words of welcome. Some churches will only allow fully vaccinated people to enter their buildings on Sundays. Government regulations have taken precedence over God’s Word as churches choose to be selective as to who can worship in their buildings. This is not to be so!
Jesus Christ never turned anyone away who came to him.
John 6:37 All that the Father giveth me shall come to me; and him that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out.
When Jesus was in the synagogue in Nazareth he quoted Isaiah 61:1 that tells us why he came to earth.
Luke 4:18 The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor; he hath sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised,
We Christians are to never turn our backs on anyone, and we are to preach the kingdom of God to all who will listen; even the unvaccinated! By shutting our church doors to some shows our dislike for them. We are telling them they aren’t worthy to hear the gospel of salvation. The Bible warns us that those who do not love others don’t love God.
1John 4:20 If a man say, I love God, and hateth his brother, he is a liar: for he that loveth not his brother whom he hath seen, how can he love God whom he hath not seen?
It is when we love one another that shows we truly are a child of God. This is because our love for others comes from God who has rooted his love in our hearts by his Spirit.
1Jo 4:7 Beloved, let us love one another: for love is of God; and every one that loveth is born of God, and knoweth God.
Let us let God's love shine forth to all and not be afraid to tell everyone, “All are welcome to our Church”.