Hospitality!

Looking back over the past month and a half all I can say is “WOW!” You all (the folks at fcpc) have been so kind and generous to my family as we are in this state of transition. Your cards of encouragement, your visits and all the food that’s been sent our way are genuinely helping us out as we temporarily struggle with being a “broken-up” family. We have been blessed by you and we don’t take that lightly. Scripture talks about the spiritual gift of HOSPITALITY. I find that in our increasingly fractured society with all of its impersonal connections and e-this’s and i-that’s, nothing makes an impact on others quite like hospitality. Nothing makes an “outsider” feel like an “insider” any faster than to be shown hospitality. For the church and her relationship with lost and left-out, nothing communicates “YOU HAVE GREAT VALUE” any more than the exertion of this gift of hospitality. As Webster talks about hospitality, he uses words like “generous and cordial” as they find their place in the context of welcoming visitors. For us in the church, however, spiritual hospitality implies so much more. Scripture implies that the spiritual gift of hospitality is expressed when we welcome others as Christ Himself would welcome them. When we give to others with the generosity of Christ Himself; when we go the extra mile to initiate grace-giving; when we open our arms as wide as the Master and say, “You have my best because Christ gave me His!” That is true hospitality and that’s the sort of attitude that will enable us to reach our community and our world with the Good News of Jesus Christ. No “looking-down-our-noses,” no critical judgment; it’s simply a matter of treating others in the same way that Christ has treated us. Has God been good to you? Our only proper response to His goodness is to grow in our ability to express His hospitality to everyone around us.