The Gospel Comes with a House Key
The Gospel Comes with a House Key (5|5)
The Seal of Hospitality
• Safe Families
• Solve the Big Problems
• Practicing Radically Ordinary Hospitality Is Good for the Giver
Pages 112-117
TOGETHER read the book and discuss the content below.
INDIVIDUALLY take notes in your journal on what stands out (try to keep it brief).
Matthew 25:35-40 (NIV) “For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me.” Then the righteous will answer him, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you something to drink? When did we see you a stranger and invite you in, or needing clothes and clothe you? When did we see you sick or in prison and go to visit you?’ “The King will reply, ‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me.”
Psalm 141:3-4 (NIV) Set a guard over my mouth, LORD; keep watch over the door of my lips. Do not let my heart be drawn to what is evil so that I take part in wicked deeds along with those who are evildoers; do not let me eat their delicacies.
Ephesians 4:29 (NIV) Do not let any unwholesome talk come out of your mouths, but only what is helpful for building others up according to their needs, that it may benefit those who listen.
Practicing radically ordinary hospitality helps us keep a guard over our mouths and learn how to speak only in words of grace that build others up in Christ. We live with a powerful draught of bloody, faithful grace, given freely but in a manner that was agonizingly costly by Christ and bestowed on us from our union with Christ, our sanctification through Christ, and the communion of the saints.
TOGETHER pray for one another.
INDIVIDUALLY answer the questions in your journal - process your notes and pray.
Desperate people do desperate things. Christians are not called to be desperate people, even in desperate times. Christians are called to do God’s work in desperate times.
Membership in the kingdom of God is intimately linked to the practice of hospitality in this life. Hospitality is the ground zero of the Christian life, biblically speaking. A more crucial question for the Bible-believing Christian is this: Is it safe to fail to get involved?
What is your response to these statements?
What does true safety mean in this context?
When we fail to see Jesus in others, we cheapen the power of the image of God to shine over the darkness of the world. When we always see him in others, we fail to discern that we live in a fallen world, one in which Satan knows where we live. Discernment doesn’t build walls, however. Discernment doesn’t renege on our command by God to practice hospitality.
What is your response to that statement?
Where can you start? What are the particulars about your life that you can utilize to bless others?
Pause and Pray - feel free to pray however you like about this chapter or pray the prayer below:
Lord, help me to view the place I sleep at night and keep my possessions as not my own, and to see the ways in which I can use it to practice regular, ordinary hospitality. May you grant me help to listen well to my friends and then to meet their needs. Open my eyes to sacrifices I can make in order to bless my community and neighbors. Guide me as I seek to start serving where I am.
EXTRA READING:
“A Christian is one who points at Christ and says, ‘I can’t prove a thing, but there’s something about His eyes and His voice. There’s something about the way He carries His head, His hands, the way He carries His cross - the way He carries me.”
- Frederick Buechner (1926 - 2022)