Markus Watson on Hospitality
Markus Watson over at Stretchy Church has been doing a good series on hospitality - it's an extension of a sermon series that he's been working. Some really great missional thoughts that he's putting up. Below are links to the entire series (with tasty excerpts below the link:
"Hospitality is the welcoming of others into our midst. Incarnation refers to going and embodying Christ in another place, culture, or people-group. They are two sides of the same coin--the coin of God's compassion.
I think it could be argued that almost anything we do as Christians ought to fulfill one of these two Christian concepts. In other words, anything we do ought in some way to reflect the value of either hospitality and/or incarnation."
Hospitality in the Old Testament
"First of all, let's admit that when we hear the word "hospitality" we don't usually think of it as something especially spiritual. We think of inviting someone over for dinner, cleaning the house, lighting some candles to set a warm mood, fixing a nice meal, offering good conversation.
And that definitely is hospitality, but when we start looking at hospitality in the Bible we see something that's much deeper and much grander than just fixing a nice meal for someone."
Hospitality in the New Testament
"Christians as Hosts - Because we, as Christians, know what it is, first and foremost, to be aliens in relation to God, and, secondly, to be aliens in relation to the world, it is our calling to welcome into our midst those who are in the world. Romans 12:13 tells us to "Practice hospitality." But not only that, "If your enemy is hungry, feed him; if he is thirsty, give him something to drink" (Romans 12:20) Christians are to show hospitality to everyone--even our enemies!"
Comments