This article by Jen Schmidt was originally published in the December 2018 issue of. Want to read more from Jen. Check out her 7-session Bible study on biblical hospitality. The sights, sounds, and nostalgia of the holiday season have drawn me in and my senses are celebrating from the simple pleasures. As I snuggle in my cozy blanket on the sofa, candles flicker on our kitchen table, twinkly white lights grace the doorframes, soft music plays in the background, and the aroma of sweet treats permeate the kitchen. Frozen cookie dough for the win. The kind of easy evening in which everyone wishes they could be included — one with friends and family, community and conversation. With those holiday greetings and gay happy meeting when friends come to call…. Do any of these scenarios ring true to you. When we think of hospitality, our desire is to welcome others and make people feel included, but we get stuck. Making food, cleaning the house, and facilitating conversation can be nerve-racking. Inviting others in sometimes feels more like inviting judgment, so why even bother. We all come to the table with preconceived notions and experiences that shape our view on the topic. But what if you knew that opening your front door had the power to radically change the world. To make an impact and just open the door bible study a legacy with everyday invitations. What if I guaranteed that biblical hospitality offers us a simple yet radical and life-giving vehicle to welcome others and point them to the fullness of life in Christ. Opening our home is the living, breathing, God-ordained path to walk out the abundance of the gospel in our everyday lives through simple acts of hospitality. It begins by understanding the difference between social entertaining and biblical hospitality. Biblical hospitality offers our best to God first, understanding that our best to others will then fall into place. It transforms our selfish motives and elevates our guest. Hospitality, unlike entertaining, treats everyone as a guest of honor rather than grasping at honor for just open the door bible study. Opening your door has nothing to do with the actual setting, the guest list, or the food. God drew up hospitality so that it gravitates around this core component of His greatest commandments: to love God and love others. The way we love our neighbor reveals something about the way we love God. And the way we love God reveals something about the way we love our neighbor. Scripture casts an intentional vision for a lifestyle and legacy of everyday hospitality. When we use our lives exactly as they are, desiring only to create a sacred space for our guests, mixing it with the countercultural truth of loving Jesus and loving others, we turn entertaining upside down, and it becomes radical hospitality. When the Holy Spirit opened my eyes to how the theology of hospitality saturates the pages of Scripture, something shifted in my spirit. One of His first acts demonstrates His hospitable nature as He welcomes humanity home to live in the beauty of the garden with Him, and then provides everything they need. It continues to thread through nearly every chapter from Genesis to Revelation where it culminates with His final divine act of generous hospitality: the marriage feast. Beginning in the Old Testament, practically speaking, God tells us just open the door bible study welcome and love the stranger. Within the context of that ancient culture, God instructed His people to give of their time, energy, and whatever meager possessions were on hand, demonstrating hospitality to traveling strangers by feeding and housing them after an exhausting journey. In the New Testament, hospitality is said to be a distinctive mark of the Christian church. Early believers took seriously the command to use their homes as places for extending grace to others. In fact, pursue is a strong verb that implies constant or continuous action, a proactive decision. Based on our season of life, our interests, our budget, and our family, hospitality will look different for everyone. I have nothing to prove. Let this truth sink deep. Receive it as absolute freedom. Stop striving for the unattainable, stop worrying about what others think of your performance, and focus solely on our One-person audience, knowing this focus will always lead to loving others. Be intentional today about carving margin into your December calendar. Release unrealistic expectations and embrace the beauty that comes from simplicity. He has called, equipped, and appointed you to do amazing things in whatever role you work or serve. You can be the difference for that one person today. For the last decade, Jen Schmidt has been encouraging, challenging, and cheering on women to embrace both the beauty and bedlam of their everyday lives on her popular lifestyle blog. She lives in North Carolina with her husband, five children, a few too many animals, and an available sofa for anyone who needs it. Want to read more from Jen. Check out her Bible study on biblical hospitality.
