Hospitality to the Stranger

“Fellowship is having your church friends over, and that’s great, but hospitality is inviting the stranger in….Hospitality means meeting the stranger at the gate.”

“It does not matter that there’s cat hair on the couch,” [Rosaria Champagne Butterfield] says in the interview. “It does not matter that all you can serve right now is macaroni and cheese or cereal. It absolutely does not matter.” Why not? Because these small details fade to insignificance compared to the tremendous potential of hospitality on mission.

Quotes from a Desiring God Authors On The Line Audio Interview (here).

Although this has been a bit tough to practically facilitate, because I am not even at my own home often, it’s exciting for me to see how God has placed me right where I am at this precise time and with the exact neighbors I have. I pray for God to grace me to hold out friendship of acceptance, not necessarily approval, that witnesses to them of how God continually initiates with and draws me to the goodness of repentance and relationship with him through his Son. Grace me, O Lord, to be generously unselfish with interruptions to my schedule so that I may love others more than myself.

Shame & Gratefulness

I recognized discouragement and a sense of shame in myself today in a more poignant way than I have in a while. These CCEF articles helped to take that shame and turn it into a tool to push me nearer to Christ instead of following an inclination to turn inward and hide in a dark hole in myself. And now I’m freshly grateful for how nothing can separate me from the love of Christ and that he actually uses ugly things like shame, whether shallow or deep, to draw me nearer to knowing him. Afterall, no one experienced shame to the degree he did.

These articles, by Ed Welsh and based on his book Shame Interrupted, both met me and moved me to desire to grow in showing more compassion to others who may feel shame. I can identify with both sides, feeling shame and shaming others through my selfish inconsideration. Thankful for a merciful God.

 

"The King of the universe enters into his kingdom with signs that he is both the King and the outcast. Shamed people would recognize him, even at his birth, as one of their own....The interruption of shame comes at an historical moment when Jesus took both guilt and shame to the cross and disarmed shame of its power." 

"He knows your name and will also give you his."

"For them, to be truly known is synonymous with rejection...Know anyone who considers their very existence an interruption to the lives of others? Know someone who punctuates most of their sentences with “I’m sorry.”? They know they need help but to ask anything of another is to be an infuriating interruption in someone’s life."

 

"Jesus' simple actions said,

'You are not an interruption.'

'I'm not afraid to connect with you.'

'I care about you.'

 

"I don’t want to be so eager to identify sin in others that I miss the more immediate need of compassion and love. Locating sin and speculating about poor motives really is a lot easier than being patient, kind, and compassionate. I want to give others what they need in the moment, not what is easy for me."

"I don’t want the people in my life to feel like an interruption. May God have mercy on me, because I think sometimes they do.

"If you want to know how to love the shamed more wisely, the first step is to look around for those 'sneaking up on you' just hoping to steal a touch and give it to them. Notice them. Make time for them. Invite them to give voice to their suffering. Embody and point them to the love of Christ.

Christ Interrupts Shame; Shame Interrupted: Finding Words; Shame Interrupted: He Knows My Name; How Do You Respond to People Who Feel Shame

High Purpose of Perplexing Trial - To Know God

J.I. Packer in chapter 21 of Knowing God:

What is the purpose of grace? Primarily, to restore our relationship with God. When God lays the foundation of this restored relationship, by forgiving our sins as we trust his Son, he does so in order that henceforth we and he may live in fellowship. And what he does in renewing our nature is intended to make us capable of, and actually to lead us into, the exercise of love, trust, delight, hope and obedience Godward - those acts which, from our side, make up the reality of fellowship with God, who is constantly making himself known
to us. This is what all the work of grace aims at - an ever deeper knowledge of God, and an ever closer fellowship with him. Grace is God drawing us sinners closer and closer to himself.
 How does God in grace prosecute this purpose? Not by shielding us from assault by the world, the flesh and the devil, nor by protecting us from burdensome and frustrating circumstances, nor yet by shielding us from troubles created by our own temperament and psychology; but rather by exposing us to all these things, so as to overwhelm us with a sense of our own inadequacy, and to drive us to cling to him more closely. This is the ultimate reason, from our standpoint, why God fills our lives with troubles and perplexities of one sort and another: it is to ensure that we shall learn to hold him fast. The reason why the Bible spends so much of its time reiterating that God is a strong rock, a firm defense, and a sure refuge and help for the weak, is that God spends so much of his time bringing home to us that we are weak, both mentally and morally, and dare not trust ourselves to find, or to follow, the right road.
When we walk along a clear road feeling fine, and someone takes our arm to help us, as likely as not we shall impatiently shake him off; but when we are caught in rough country in the dark, with a storm getting up and our strength spent, and someone takes our arm to help us, we shall thankfully lean on him. And God wants us to feel that our way through life is rough and perplexing, so that we may learn thankfully to lean on him. Therefore he takes steps to drive us out of self-confidence to trust in himself - in the classical scriptural phrase for the secret of the godly life, to "wait on the Lord."...We need God to make us realists about both ourselves and him.

Perplexities and confusions fade when put in this perspective. Through these the Lord's simple call is to "be still and know that I am God." (Psalm 46)

Outside of Christ there is nothing worth knowing, and all who by faith perceive what he is like have grasped all the immensity of heavenly benefits. - John Calvin (Institutes of the Christian Religion)

photo: Hamburg, Germany 2007 

Guidance: More About His Glory Than Our Security

While dejunking/organizing on Monday night, I listened to a couple audio chapters of Knowing God by J.I. Packer. It's a great book to re-read (or listen). I'm doing the exact same thing tonight - it's great! This is from the end of chapter 20:

Not merely does God will to guide us in the sense of showing us his way, that we may tread it; he wills also to guide us in the more fundamental sense of ensuring that, whatever happens, whatever mistakes we may make, we shall come safely home. Slippings and strayings there will be, no doubt, but the everlasting arms are beneath us; we shall be caught, rescued, restored. This is God's promise; this is how good he is. 
Thus it appears that the right context for discussing guidance is one of confidence in the God who will not let us ruin our souls. Our concern, therefore, in this discussion should be more for his glory than for our security - for that is already taken care of. And our self-distrust, while keeping us humble, must not cloud the joy with which we lean on "the Lord Protector" - our faithful covenant God. - J.I. Packer

Look to God: Rich Provision for Empowered Service

Bryan Chapell, Holiness by Grace:

     God does not want us to be caught in the paralysis of spiritual poverty. Through the doxology that Paul uses to prepare us for the requirements of this passage, God tells us of the richness of his provision so that we will serve him with courage and vigor:

Oh, the depth of the riches of the wisdom and knowledge of God!
How unsearchable his judgments,
     and his paths beyond tracing out!
"Who has known the mind of the Lord?
     Or who has been his counselor?"
"Who has ever give to God,
     that God should repay him?"
For from him and through him and to him are all things.
     To him be the glory forever! Amen (Rom. 11:33-36)

     God says in essence, "I have already declared to you that by the work of Jesus Christ you are rich in mercy. Now build my kingdom with the energy and effort that befits those with unlimited resources. Be done with the self-doubt and fear of loss that cripples those poor in faith. I have declared you holy. Be about the business of building my kingdom. Stop saying that because you are not a Moses, or were not raised in the right environment, or wandered to other priorities, or made some mistakes, you cannot serve God. Yes, you can."
     We who are rich in mercy have God's business to do, and no one can say that we are underfinanced. God's gracious provision empowers us for his service.

God, Our Merciful Boxing Coach

Bryan Chapell, Holiness by Grace:
     Mercy is the good news that God is for us (Rom 8:31). He is on our side. He is in our corner. The mercy of God's continuous support is a powerful source of the believer's strength in the face of our own faults and frailties. Think of the strength that another's support can provide in the context of Olympic competition. Our town has become a magnet for young boxers, and we follow the Olympic boxing competition closely. Despite their great talents, the youthfulness of most of the fighters makes them particularly prone to mistakes. Yet, even when an immature boxer's own "showboating" sets him up for a sucker punch, I have never seen a coach walk out on his athlete. No matter what the fault, the coaches stay in their fighter's corner. God's grace reminds us that he always remains in our corner, too.
     Even when we, like some of the young Olympians, have taken a blow to the chin due to our own mistakes and pride, God never turns his back on us. When we have boxed with sin, failed, and fallen, God is still for us. He does not wait for us to lift ourselves off the mat before encouraging us. God shouts from our corner, "Get up, child. Yes, you forgot what I told you, but I'm still here for you." Were God to walk away when we go down, leaving us alone and ashamed, then we would have no reason to get up again. But our God promises never to leave or forsake us (Heb. 13:5). His encouragement lifts us from the paralysis that our own guilt would impose and makes us the vital warriors he desire for the kingdom's battles.

An Eager Meeting

     She took her children to the park to break the monotony of schoolchildren now homebound for the summer, and instead she broke her own heart. She had watched her children run to the playground equipment as another car drove into the parking lot. The new car ground to a quick stop in the gravel. A young, attractive woman with a beaming smile leaped out of the driver's seat and virtually skipped to a secluded picnic table near an adjoining lake.
     The mother's imagination began to race. Who could this attractive young woman be meeting in such a secluded spot with so much enthusiasm? Was this a long-awaited and carefully planned rendezvous with an over-busy husband, a lunch date with a best friend, or a tryst between secret lovers? She determined to stay on the lookout for whoever got out of the next car that parked.
     No one else came immediately. The mother soon grew preoccupied with her children, and forgot to watch for whomever the young woman was meeting. When she did finally glance again at the secluded woman, what the mother saw made her own heart hurt. The attractive, young woman was reading a Bible. The person she had leapt from the car to meet with such enthusiasm was the Lord.

- Bryan Chapell, Holiness by Grace

This beautiful scene makes my heart smile and think of Psalm 34:5&8: "Those who look to him are radiant, and their faces shall never be ashamed....Oh, taste and see that the Lord is good! Blessed is the man who takes refuge in him!"

photo: hunting cabin, Tioga County, PA 2011

A Working Faith

I took a second listen to Pete's sermon from this Sunday on "Real Faith." There are many ways I'm reminded that I am not in control of my life right now. When I don't feel I'm in control, I am tempted to fear instead of faith, which leads to unbelief expressed in sinful attitudes and works as opposed to the good works of righteousness. This sermon was a gentle and firm call to continue in the fight for faith and good works by the grace of God and not my own willpower.
I want to grow in looking for opportunities and situations for my faith to be expressed, and not cower in fear that my faith will be tested. In reality, I don't have to look for these opportunities, because I'm living in the middle of them right now and am grateful I can see how the Lord guided me into desiring them and now in living them out. I pray that God will grow my faith and strengthen me so that I may not "grow weary in doing good" (Gal 6:9) but be refreshed in the knowledge that "His divine power has granted to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of him who called us to his own glory and excellence," (2 Peter 1:3)

I took notes, well actually more like transcribed sections of, the sermon below.

James 2: 14-26

We cannot use the work of God in us as a reason not to work. Eph 2:8-10- “For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them.” …We don’t gain our salvation by these works, but b/c we have salvation in Jesus Christ we work.

2:14-17 James is primarily talking to believers [who are] going on about the faith that they have but not demonstrating the faith that they have.

The dichotomy isn’t whether you have faith or works; the true dichotomy is whether your faith is real or it’s not. Because if your faith is real, you will have works. And if your faith is not real you will not have works.

How is your faith working today? Is it working?
Real faith is a working faith.

Vs 20-24

Real faith anticipates. It looks for the time of expression. Do you look for the time for your faith to be expressed and completed? You know when that is, right? When Jesus returns and you see him, your faith becomes sight and it’s complete. Until then, there are many small completions of our faith. And you know what they are? They’re the work that we do, because faith anticipates. It looks forward to the time of expression. It looks for the opportunity.

[my note: Do I look forward to opportunities for my faith to be tested and proven genuine? Though it may be hard work, how sweet it is to be tested and found firm in Christ! With faith, I can say to the Lord, “bring it on, I am ready to do your will.” ]

Faith looks like saying, “God give me an opportunity to demonstrate, to work.”

This is where the completion of your faith happens. It’s looking for an opportunity to be employed, to go to work, to be active, for a time of expression. It’s looking forward to that. Are you looking forward to that? Or are you avoiding it? “ohh, I hope it doesn’t come to me. Is it gonna come to me?” Well, it’s gonna come to you! So employ your faith….Are you ready to lay down your life for Jesus? Would you even welcome that opportunity to employ faith in Jesus Christ to the point of your death? If you are, I think you’ll be ready to take every opportunity the Lord gives us.  That’s what we need to be working towards, to employ our faith to that level. Don’t you want to be a friend of God? Who would you rather be called a friend of?

Vs. 25

[Rahab’s] faith went to work. Just like mine and yours must go to work. And it should give us great hope that no matter who we are, no matter where we are today dear friends – this is not a hopeless message, this isn’t a brow beating message that says “come on, get your act together people.” There is a caution in it, there is a correction in it, but it’s also meant to stir our faith and to say “listen, you’re looking at that sin, you’re looking at that situation, you’re saying ‘there’s no way!’ Well, have faith dear friend and go to work with it.” Put your faith to work. Believe. Trust.  Be steadfast. Keep walking. Take the next step. Don’t  give up. Be like Christ. Trust him. There will be grace there. Your hope in God will not be disappointed. It wasn’t for Abram. It wasn’t for Rahab. And it will not be for you and for me.

Vs. 26

Works in the name of Jesus are spiritual. A body that has a spirit is alive and effects everything around us.

Real faith is a working faith. Is your faith working? Let’s trust God to work in and through us. Let’s be Christians in this world...This is soul stirring, hopeful truth. Don’t you want to be a friend of God? Don’t you want to walk with God? This is how we can do it.

 
[Opportunity for the good work of loving others, especially when aware of the risk it requires, need not be met by fear but by anticipation for my faith to rise and stand firm whatever the cost. There is a sweet beauty in the expression of faith through works. Just as we can look to Abraham for an example of a working faith, so also I can look to his wife Sarah - 1 Peter 3:6 says: And you are her children, if you do good and do not fear anything that is frightening." Pretty cool namesake to look up to, if I do say so myself.]

photo: old and new building (in reflection) on a walk
back from the mailbox at work, last week