One morning, my wife and I opened up the paper and saw an advertisement for a rummage sale; specifically it was a church rummage sale, Glad Tidings. Advertised were chairs, desks, clothes, etc. We gathered up Amber and went. There, in the pleasant fray of shoppers, a sweet old lady approached my wife and handed her a tiny booklet. She said, "Good to see you, have you ever been here before? If you come to church you get a free mocha coffee."

Taking a look at the booklet, it was a card bent like a teepee and it was light green. On the cover, in festive calligraphy it read (and, these are direct quotes):

"You’re invited to Glad Tidings!!"

When I opened it up like the lid of a coffin, it read:  "We hope you’ll accept this warm invitation to be our guest at the Church of Glad Tidings; where every individual is encourage to be their very best! Experience God’s love and be a part of the excitement! Everybody is welcome at G.T. especially the kids. Be my guest and we’ll treat you to a free mocha at the Glad Tidings café! Meeting times are: Saturdays at 7pm, Sundays at 8:30am and 10:45 am. Hope to see ya there! Any questions - call me"

My thoughts were not consumed by the fact that this booklet did not have a phone number on it to ‘call me’, but why didn’t our church have something like this, too? It’s perfect...

Warm invitation... warmly invited. It made me think of a man who came to Christ: this man wanted to know how he could come to know ‘the Good Master’ and what good deeds he could do to have eternal life. This man stated that he had served God from his youth, and wondered what it was he still lacked. Apparently, this man had read this booklet, or one like it, and had experienced the warm invitation.

I’m sure this man thought to himself, "This church is where every individual is encouraged to be their very best. I can do that. ‘Everyone is welcome.’ This sounds like the place for me. They ‘hope to see me there’; I’ll be able to tithe generously, because I have many possessions."

Unfortunately, the Master did not feel the same; in truth, He said, "If you wish to be complete, go and sell your possessions and give to the poor, and you shall have treasure in heaven; and come, follow Me." And the man heard this and left, grieved; for he did have many possessions.

It’s too bad the Master was not more sensitive to the needs of this man. He should have acted out the principle of ‘love one another’ and led this man to God, and encouraged him to sit in the front row, to be noticed by all. For the Master did not realize the potential of this man; for this man possibly was an employer and might have been able to stand up in the middle of the sermon and encourage people to come work for him for minimum wage, for he has strong entrepreneurial skills and a socio-economic mind set. He could be influential in the community the church resides in; this man might have had political backing that might have led to the winning of more permits for the church to build more buildings, to house other ministries. This young ruler might have been a great speaker and a great teacher and was probably never nervous reading in front of large groups of people; for, he is on cue with his winsome and charming jokes. He can freely discuss his righteousness in front of anyone and everyone. This could even be the man to unite the churches.

Why doesn’t the Master just understand that if we could get enough of these type of men in our churches, we could put them in leadership positions and we’d take the world by storm and accomplish so much more. Instead, the Master keeps sending his servants to our vineyard, where we’ve been slaving away; they come to collect the fruit of our labor. And even after we’ve given the servants a sound beating and sent them away, they still come back. And the Master’s son, whom we crucified on the cross, who has now come to inspect the fruit, tells us we have been found wanting, with this statement:

"I know your deeds, that you are neither cold nor hot; I would that you were cold or hot.16 'So because you are lukewarm, and neither hot nor cold, I will spit you out of My mouth.17 'Because you say, "I am rich, and have become wealthy, and have need of nothing," and you do not know that you are wretched and miserable and poor and blind and naked,18 I advise you to buy from Me gold refined by fire, that you may become rich, and buy also white garments, that you may clothe yourself, and that the shame of your nakedness may not be revealed; and eye salve to anoint your eyes, that you may see.19 'Those whom I love, I reprove and discipline; be zealous therefore, and repent." Revelations 3

And when this young ruler tells the master, "look, look at my praise and worship to you! I praise you every Sunday!"

The Master replies, "THIS PEOPLE HONORS ME WITH THEIR LIPS, BUT THEIR HEART IS FAR AWAY FROM ME.9 BUT IN VAIN DO THEY WORSHIP ME, TEACHING AS DOCTRINES THE PRECEPTS OF MEN." Matt 15:8-9

But, he pleads with the Master, "but I have faith!"

... And the Master replies, "Even so faith, if it has no works, is dead, being by itself.18 But someone may well say, "You have faith, and I have works; show me your faith without the works, and I will show you my faith by my works." James 2:17-18

Coming to realize that this is a hard Master who drives a hard bargain, this young ruler was afraid and took his talent and buried it in the earth; he invested his talent into the things of ‘education’, a charming personality and all things pleasing to the eye, ‘human relations’ and the ever present leaven of religion.

Because this man is able to justify adultery and fornicators, idolaters, homosexuals, thieves, the covetous, drunkards, revilers, swindlers... and every type of evil works that men do, because he has taken his conscience and seared it with a hot iron...the Master has said that he is a worker of iniquity, and has cast this man and men like him, who are outside of Christ, far away from Him, and they will be cast into the lake of fire. All of us once were like this man, in our flesh, outside of Christ; but those in Christ have repented, been redeemed and forgiven.

I would make one statement to Glad Tidings, pertaining to the gospel represented on this booklet: if you want to experience God’s love then you need to experience the Cross. Just as the phone number was missing from this booklet, so was the Grace of our Lord Jesus Christ missing also. There was not mentioned any connection between the grace of our Lord Jesus and the Cross, between sin, salvation and the resurrection of a holy and righteous God. Instead there is a ‘welcoming of everyone’ and a denying of anyone from salvation.

- Steven

We encourage you to email the author to prove or disprove, from the Scriptures, the intent, meaning, purpose or doctrine of this piece. email Steven