More from “…Hospitality”

This book is one with after effects. While I was reading it, I wasn’t always struck by the power of the concepts. Occasionally, but not always.

Yet after I finished it and scanned back over pages I’d marked, it began to more fully sink in—this is strong stuff; don’t take it lightly.

Who does it belong to?...
“The bread in your cupboard belongs to the hungry, the coat hanging unused in your closet belongs to the [person] who needs it, the shoes rotting in your closet belong to the [person] who has no shoes, the money you put in the bank belongs to the poor. You do wrong to everyone you could help but fail to help.” ~ Basil the Great

Connection between hospitality and spirituality
As hosts, we receive a gift. Sometimes the gift is physical, sometimes it is the surprise of a new friendship, and sometimes it is the gift of being stretched. ...We meet Jesus in the people we serve. Our hospitality becomes a form of worship for us; our welcome serves as a sweet offering to God.

Waste time with God
“I began to realize I needed to waste time with God too. I needed to just be with God, to spend time without an agenda. I have other times with God that do have an agenda, such as prayer and devotions. But it is imperative for my relationship with God that sometime, every day, we just—waste time.” ~June Alliman Yoder

Test for idolatry
For the desert monks, hospitality was the test for idolatry. To be free from possessions is to be open with them. If we really believe that our so-called possessions are God’s and that God is our only source of security and joy, then it matters not whether we have possessions or go without. Our freedom from care has direct correlation with our freedom to share.

Hospitality and Evangelism
See our acts of hospitality as important ministry tasks, equal to the tasks of pastoring and evangelism. What we do and who we are in the marketplace speak as loudly as the Sunday morning sermon.

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