Biblical Hospitality

Hospitality.

The art of biblical hospitality has been on my mind lately. Most endearingly because of the heart of a friend.

When the coronavirus hit it hit hard. Businesses closed their doors, churches closed their hearts, and people shut themselves in.

We lost the art, a welcoming people into our home, inviting them in, making room, growing with friends and family gathered around the table.

Young people stopped visiting their grandparents on Sunday

afternoons. Sundays, the sacred day of the Lord, became lazy, and relaxed as you could. Just watch church from home. inviting friends over became a hassle, worried about a perfectly placed table. hanging out with friends and neighbors has become a chore, or too busy to let someone in. And it's way too scary to let someone know the real you. Messy, flawed, and all.

A friend and mentor has challenged me, how can you open up your home. Being one who does not own a home, but as of a home at the moment, that question has become tough for me to answer.

I've started to see more and more in the Bible, that Jesus gathers people around the table. He brought in the beggars, the sick, the lame, the prostitutes, the broken. He came to heal the sick, but so often he did it around the table.

Not having a home, l'm challenged to explore public hospitality in a new way. I can open my heart, which is my home. My heavenly home, the only piece of me that I will take with me to the heavenly Gates.

My heart is my home, and I can open my heart.

I want to embrace people with a smile, to open my arms to them in a hug, I want people to see Jesus in me wherever I go. I want to love the Lord people as he loves me. I want to gather my friends around the table of goodness, and invite them into the light. I have inside me. It's time to no longer keep it hidden.

I have gifts, and talents, and so do you. It's time to open your home or your heart again. Whatever happened during the pandemic, with a wake up, call to God's people. it wasn't a time to shut in and close our church doors, it was our wake up call the day of the Lord is coming.

Are you ready to sit in the seat of judgment before his throne? Or is your heart to shut in?

It's time to open your home and your heart again. Take what the evil one destroyed and turn it for good. Don't lack yourself within the walls of your home. Open it up and bring your family around the table. Make your kids put their phones down and share a meal together. Go visit your grandparents on Sunday and share a meal around their table. Invite a friend to the mentorship of your home. Open your hearts again because the day of the Lord is coming.

I beg you, wake up! Open your heart to the art of biblical hospitality, and let the Lord change you and challenge you and disciple you this week.

If you need some resources or encouragement to do this, please reach out!

I have a dear friend and mentor, encouraging me in this week. And there is room for more!

Now! Make disciples of all nations, and let's make room, to invite more in.