Why Hospitality Is an Essential Mark of a Christian Community
Experienced hospitality means you feel you have been warmly welcomed, you feel others are glad you are here, you feel like you belong here and you feel you are with others just like you.
Christ’s message is God loves me regardless of what I have done or not done and that God loves the people next to me regardless of what they have done or not done.
When the music is being played we all hear the same melody. It is not just me, it is everyone who hears equally. May this remind us that we are all equally accepted and loved by God.
We gather together to celebrate, all of us, who are equally accepted and loved – regardless.
The challenge is:
1. To accept God’s acceptance of us as we are;
2. To believe others are equally accepted as they are;
3. And to believe we are with others just like us.
Welcome, we are glad you are here. You belong here, and you are with others just like you.
– Jack
Compassion of Jesus
Jesus was moved with compassion in order to relieve the pains and hurts of those who He met in His daily life and ministry. Time and time again, in the Bible we hear stories of how Jesus responded to the orphaned, the lame, the blind, and those in need of forgiveness. Jesus was moved with deep compassion and mercy, and responded to each and every person He met with unconditional love, compassion and forgiveness.
Through our baptismal call, we too are commissioned to respond to all whom we meet with the compassion of Jesus. Whether it be a stranger or friend, saint or sinner, a child struggling with the challenges of life, an aging parent, or possibly even our very self --- we are called to respond to each other with the compassion and mercy of Jesus. He gave us the ultimate gift of His compassionate love and mercy by His death on the cross.
Today, you and I are called to be the eyes and ears, the hands and feet, of the compassionate God in our world. Today, let us be moved with compassion as Jesus was moved with compassion whenever we are called upon to lend a listening ear to someone who is hurting. We are called to reach out in compassion in our personal and professional lives. We are the compassion of Jesus for one another.
– Michaelle
Prophetic Courage
To be a prophet is to speak the Truth.
To have courage is to act upon that Truth.
We must think not as the world thinks but as God thinks.
This requires us to listen to our hearts and creatively address the social injustice we encounter in our daily lives.
We are called to live out the Truth that Jesus gave us in the Sermon on the Mount.
I strive in my life to be able to look at the Christ in my brothers and sisters and be able to have them say to me without reservation or qualification:
Matthew - Chapter 23
35
For I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me water, a stranger and you welcomed me,
36
Naked and you clothed me, ill and you cared for me, in prison and you visited me.
– Brad
An essential element of Christian life is community.
We are called to create Christian community within our society. How do we do that? I believe it is accomplished by making a commitment to the Word of God. Living the Word of God is the answer. We have the perfect example of how to live the Word of God in Jesus Christ – the Word made flesh.
To make a commitment to the word of God means to make a conscious effort to seek out, understand, and apply the Word in our daily lives. I like to learn a bit of historical information about the writers and the times they lived in to put their writing in context.
Many factors influence who we are as a person. Who we are dictates how we perceive, and react to, the world around us. By incorporating the Word of God into who we are, using the Word as the foundation for our values – indeed by making the Word the very core of our being – we can’t help but live it.
By living the Word we will grow to love God more deeply and, in turn, each other. As we do so, our Christian faith will be evident to and influence those around us. That, my brothers and sisters, is how each of us can help build Christian community.
– Joe S.
Action
As a Christian, I have to believe that Jesus himself was a man of action. As a community, we have to be people of action by assisting the poor, hungry, elderly, or anyone in the community who is less fortunate.
In your professional life and private life, if you could keep a phrase in mind when you make a decision or take action, it would be, “What would Jesus do?”
If we all did that, then the community and the world would be that much better off.
– Joe G.
True Joy
What is true joy? It is difficult to define. It is often associated with great happiness. In researching the word “joy” I found definitions from famous people that I would like to share.
Helen Keller said, “We would never realize joy without realizing pain.”
Oprah Winfrey defines joy as a sustained sense of well being and internal peace – a connection to what matters.
Mother Teresa of Calcutta defines joy as prayer, strength, and love.
What became obvious is that joy is different for each of us. For me joy is how I choose to live my life. No matter the crisis or sadness, it will pass. Joy in the heart will overcome it all with faith in the risen Lord.
My favorite definition of joy is from Peter Kreeft, a philosopher and Christian writer. “Joy is more than happiness, just as happiness is more than pleasure. Pleasure is in the body. Happiness is in the mind and feelings. Joy is deep in the heart, the spirit, the center of the self.”
We each need to find what joy means to us and hold it deep in our hearts.
– Sharon
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