ROMANS 5:7-8

We can understand someone dying for a person worth dying for, and we can understand how someone good and noble could inspire us to selfless sacrifice. But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

TO PONDER

This past Sunday Pastor Mark was talking about excuses we come up with to justify not practicing expansive hospitality (if you happened to miss the message you can listen to it at (https://www.lifeway.net.au/sermons) and the main excuse I remember was “I’m too tired.”

When he said that excuse, I remembered vividly times I used those exact words with “I’ll do it tomorrow…” tacked on the end.

Today’s verse’s are talking about God’s expansive hospitality in that even when we were strangers/enemies of God He chose to love us, displaying expansive hospitality, giving of himself so that we could sit at His table as family.

In 2024 at LifeWay, across all our sites, we will be actively practicing expansive hospitality in its simplest/easiest form through “Table Moments”, where we will invite people over for a meal. A meal where we get to listen to other people’s story and tell our own, where we get to practice hospitality in a tangible way through food and listening.

Now for the scariest part of Table Moments and that is to say a short blessing prayer at the end of the meal. I say “scariest” because I know that, for some, would be a deal breaker, to actually pray in front of people sends you into a panic. In his book “Happy Hour: Etiquette and Advice on Holy Merriment”, Hugh Halter suggests making a toast during the meal, a toast of gratefulness for the blessing of friends, family, good food, health and God’s blessings in our lives.

Remember my above excuse of “I’m too tired, I’ll do it tomorrow…” and how I had vivid memories of using those exact words? 

The reason those memories were so vivid was because tomorrow is not guaranteed, and I have experienced this lesson on several occasions throughout my life.

PRAYER:  Father God, I thank you for showing me your expansive hospitality even when it cost you the most and I deserved it the least. I pray that I can demonstrate your expansive hospitality to others, even when I am too tired.  Amen.

Today's devotion written by Danny Brock, LifeWay Westside