Benita Long - Share the Bounty: Finding Gods Grace through the Spirit of Hospitality

Share the Bounty Finding Gods Grace through the Spirit of Hospitality Trust in the LORD, and do good;
Dwell in the land, and feed on His faithfulness. [Psalm 37:3]
And when they had heard,
many wanted to praise the teaching of Christ,
and wanted to write a bright shining book with their own hands.
[The Heliand, ninth century, Saxon Germany] Share the Bounty Finding Gods Grace through the Spirit of Hospitality Benita Long
Artistic & Floral Design by Susan Wilson
Recipes & Food Styling by Ann Mitchell
Photography by Sammy Anderson
Benediction by Steve Wingfield 2012 by Benita Long All rights reserved. No portion of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any meanselectronic, mechanical, photocopy, recording, scanning, or otherexcept for brief quotations in critical reviews or articles, without the prior written permission of the publisher. Published in Nashville, Tennessee, by Thomas Nelson. Thomas Nelson is a registered trademark of Thomas Nelson, Inc. Thomas Nelson, Inc., titles may be purchased in bulk for educational, business, fund-raising, or sales promotional use.

For information, please e-mail SpecialMarkets@ThomasNelson.com. Unless otherwise noted, Scripture quotations are taken from THE NEW KING JAMES VERSION. 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved. Scriptures marked NIV are from HOLY BIBLE: NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION, 1973, 1978, 1984 by International Bible Society.

Used by permission of Zondervan Publishing House. All rights reserved. Scripture quotations marked ESV are from THE ENGLISH STANDARD VERSION. 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a division of Good New Publishers. Library of Congress Control Number: 2012938626 ISBN: 978-1-4016-0453-0 Printed in China 12 13 14 15 16 RRD 6 5 4 3 2 1 A More Excellent Way | TABLE OF CONTENTS Greet those who love us in the faith / Titus 3:15 Your sandals on your feet, and your staff in your hand / Exodus 12:11 I have called you friends / John 15:15 The plans I have for you / Jeremiah 29:11 (NIV) And you welcomed me / Matthew 25:35 (ESV) Until I declare Your strength to this generation / Psalm 71:18 In His name to all the nations / Luke 24:47 Please spend the night / Judges 19:9 Say Amen at your giving of thanks / 1 Corinthians 14:16 by Steve Wingfield Let brotherly love continue / Hebrews 13:1 Overflowing with thankfulness / Colossians 2:7 (NIV) Write in a book for yourself all the words / Jeremiah 30:2 Greet those who love us in the faith
[Titus 3:15] Our table is set! It is spread with Gods gracious plenty, the brotherly love of Jesus Christ and the warm hospitality of the Holy Spirit. And you, dear reading friend, are invited to actively participate in the feast that follows.

An Excellent Way, based on 1 Corinthians 12:36, has been prepared to assist you. It will illuminate the numerous occasions we all have to use the gift of hospitality as a means of receiving and serving others. As you peruse these pages, prepare yourself to be pleasantly surprised by a new angle of vision. Hospitality will be presented as encouragement, comfort, welcome, and accommodation. It will be reflected in celebrations of family and friendship. It will be shown to offer opportunity to pass on traditions and in alternative fashion to forge new frontiers of cultural acceptance.

It will call for prayer. Practice hospitality... not only to those who are joined to us by friendship or kinship but to all people with whom we are joined by nature, to the end that we might imitate our Creator.... Not only are spiritual provisions and heavenly gifts received through the bounty of God, but even earthly and bodily resources issue from his largess. He will have every right to ask for an accounting of these things since he gave them more by way of trusting them to be spent rather than handing them over to be kept.
[Leo 1, 400460] It is our desire that in every hospitable gesture you will find some measure of hospes renit, Christus venit, when the guest comes, Christ comes. This radiant symbiosis of meaning and metaphor can be found in every corner of both the Old and the New Testaments.

The patriarch Abraham, whose life was the unwritten law, sat at his door waiting for visitors and ran to greet them. He offered them the finest of his provisions [Genesis 18:18]. The widow of Zarephaths receiving Elijah [1 Kings 17:816] and the Shunammites response to Elisha [2 Kings 4:9] provide but a few examples of the precedent that Jesus would continue and His followers would emulate. We likewise have ample opportunity to entertain angels [Hebrews 13:2] and are fortunate in having two of Christianitys most powerful disciples to stand as witnesses. Above, the first Roman pontiff to be designated as the Great offers eloquent exhortation, and below, in characteristically robust style, the leader of the Protestant Reformation concurs. We should say, Oh Lord Jesus, come to me; enjoy my bread, my wine, my silver and gold.

How well it has been invested by me when I invest it in You....Those who are hospitable are not receiving a human being but are receiving the Son of God Himself.
[Martin Luther, 14831546] With covenant promise, in the new humanity of Christ we will be brought into the oikos, the household of God. Is this not a moving incentive for human extension of the same? San Benedetto da Norcia, St Benedict [480547], instructed monastic residents to say, Thanks be to God, each time they opened the door to a guest. What greater honor can there be? Your sandals on your feet,
and your staff in your hand
[Exodus 12:11] The message of readiness reflected in our title verse is as valid for Gods people today as it was for the ancient Israelites to whom it was first issued. After girding themselves and eating a hastily prepared meal, they were ready to participate in Gods promised deliverance from Egypt. The scenario is repeated centuries later by Christ and the disciples whom Jesus instructed to take up their staffs, put on their sandals, and go forth with the new message of deliverance found in Gods gospel promise. In nuance unequaled outside of Scripture, the same chapter of Mark gives us a further glimpse of Christ who was so moved with compassion that he willed and facilitated the feeding of thousands, saying, You give them something to eat [Mark 6:37].

Biblical narrative abounds with such examples of Gods meeting spiritual and physical needs simultaneously. Caring and comfort are often appropriately accompanied by real sustenance for actual people. Recall Jobs story. Then all his brothers, all his sisters, and all those who had been his acquaintances before, came to him and ate food with him in his house; and they consoled him and they comforted him.