Hospitality Part 1

1. Hospitality & God’s heart

All through the Bible, God loves the stranger. All through the Bible God encourages his people to love the stranger. for example Leviticus 19:34 says ”‘When a stranger lives with you in your land, do not mistreat them.  The stranger living with you must be treated as one of your native-born. Love them as yourself, for you were strangers in Egypt. I am the LORD your God. In the NT the word translated 'hospitality' literally means love the stranger. We read "Share with God’s people who are in need. Practice hospitality:. Romans 12; "Keep on loving each other as brothers and sisters. Do not forget to entertain strangers, for by so doing some people have entertained angels without knowing it." Hebrews 13. "We ought therefore to show hospitality to such men so that we may work together for the truth." 3 John etc.

As we work towards moving TenAM to Rosalie:

We want to be a community that loves as God has loved us.
We want to be a community that welcomes as God had welcomed us
We want to be a community that loves the stranger as God loves the stranger.
Sometimes that is uncomfortable, I was part of a small growing church where one of the old regulars grumbled to me “the new people don’t talk to me..” but The God of the Bible is a God of Hospitality. We are called to do likewise

GP