Monday, June 11, 2018

Hospitality

Hospitality! Oh how that word makes me nervous! In my prevous post I shared about Jen Schmidt's hospitality book Just Open the Door.

The Bible is full of examples of hospitality:
Abraham and Sarah providing food and water to the three visitors- Genesis 18:1-8

Lot prepared food for the two angels who came to him before the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah. Genesis 19:1-3

Rahab took in two spies sent by Joshua . Joshua 2:1-22

Mary and Martha provided hospitality to Jesus Luke 10:38-41

Zacchaeus hosted Jesus Luke 19:5-6

There's many more scriptures recorded and way too many to list here but you can  search your own Bibles for people who provided food and shelter to loved ones and strangers.

Providing hospitality for me personally is rather scary because when we lived in CA I rarely had guests over. The reason I didn't have guests over much was I was totally ashamed of my messy house so I missed many opportunities to fellowship with friends but that's for another post.

So how do we even begin to open our doors to fellowship? Well personally, I  would start small. I'm talking invite one person over for coffee, tea or even a meal if you are comfortable. You can serve muffins and fruit with your tea or coffee. It really doesn't need to be anything elaborate.

After that first initial experience you can invite  someone over after church.
Again it doesn't need to be fancy. Sandwiches, frozen pizza and salads are great meals. If you do canning and you can meat like chicken, you can make a quick chicken salad or perhaps chicken salad.

Something I learned from the book  " Just Open the Door" is we as Christians don't  have  to practice hospitality.  We get to! I think when we have that mindset, it helps us to take the focus off of ourselves so that we can concentrate on being the hands and feet of Jesus to our guests.
We don't need to be little "Martha Stewarts and have everything all perfect with matching decor and elegant centerpieces!

I can go on and on about this topic but I want to encourage you all( and myself included) to bless someone. I have had guests here but I still have those fears of having people over and wondering what they think about me

Other ideas for blessing other with outside our home ideas include taking a meal to a family, making cookies for a new neighbor, on an especially hot day give bottled water to the panhandler you pass daily and the list goes on!

Have a blessed day my friends!




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