“Contribute to the needs of the saints and seek to show hospitality.” Romans 12:13

Hospitality is caring for others in an effort to make them feel at ease. It’s showing, “I care about you because I want to care for others just as God cares for me.” It’s valuing others, looking for their comfort, welcoming them into your home, your church, or even your life.

In the Christian sphere, we often hear the phrase, “People have to belong before they will believe.” We can most help welcome people into God’s family by helping them to belong. People who don’t know how much God loves them will have a difficult time believing that God loves them if they don’t see the people of God care for both believers and non-believers. Through consistent, small acts of hospitality— a smile, saying hello, intentional conversation, a cup of coffee— we can show the people God has placed in our life that we care about them and love them with the genuine love of Christ.

In my own life, I try to really look at and engage the people I meet every day. I make an effort to ask the checkout girl at Kroger how her day is, or talk to one of my homeless friends in Woodland Park. By engaging with the people God has placed in my life, I can affirm them as fellow children of God.

By demonstrating God’s love through our practice of hospitality we can hopefully help our friends know in a little more real way the enormous love and inclusive affection of our God.

We desire to show the love of Christ by meeting the needs of our immediate and extended community.

Have you ever wondered what Jesus smelled like?  Maybe it seems like a silly question.  But we all have an odor, and I am sure that Jesus did too.  So, what was it?  If our accounts of his life  are any indication then he must have smelled like a carpenter… a carpenter who worked in the sun regularly and did not get to use Downy dryer sheets.  My father was a builder and I know no one from his job sites ever came home smelling of sweet strawberries.  No, they usually stunk of sawdust, salty sweat, and a hard day’s labor.  So, I think “What did Jesus smell like?”—was he always miraculously clean or did he get dirty—remains a legitimate question.  Later, during his ministry, Jesus probably still smelled like sweat and toil, but also tears, and blood, and great compassion.  Let’s be honest, friends, Jesus never smelled like Armani or Dolce & Gabbana.  Jesus lived a dirty, smelly, risk-filled life of service.

Here’s the catch.  I want to be like Jesus; I want to be dirty like Jesus.  I want to smell like Jesus, to have the aroma of Christ.  Jesus is in the sketchy places just lovin’ on people.  Sometimes I need to take a risk and follow Jesus to those places.  It has been difficult for me.  It has tested my patience, challenged my endurance, and made me momentarily uncomfortable at times.  This is natural.  It’s difficult to rub shoulders with those who are different than us, to not judge based on appearances and assumptions, to take a chance on someone who is different.  But we know that we are called to love our neighbors.  To take the same risks for others that Jesus took for us.

North Lexington is a place where Jesus is.  Embrace is a community where you and I can come together to learn to serve North Lexington, and to just get filthy with love.  Friends, we risk because we love more than we fear.  So, I dare you, love someone obnoxiously today. Take a chance.  Live on the wild-side.

Since I came to Embrace I have encountered a lot of smelly people.  They are smelly just like that Jesus character.  And I love it.

Pray: Ask God what risks He would have you take today.

Read: Matthew 25:31-46

When talking about Christian community it is important to first off define why we are a community.  We are a community first and foremost because we have been redeemed, meaning that we are a community that has been united with God through the blood of Jesus Christ and that has experienced the changing power of the Holy Spirit (Ephesians 1:7; Colossians 1:14; 1 John 3:16; Titus 2:14; Colossians 1:20-22).  We have been called into a relationship with God and with each other not because of what we have done but because what God has done for us through Christ.   Since our relationship with God has been restored through Christ we are also a community that has a purpose.  Our purpose is simple, first to love God, secondly to love others (Matthew 22:36-40).  The question is how do we love God and love people?  Loving God is seen in many ways, through reading scripture, prayer, fasting, the sacraments (baptism and Holy Communion), praise, and worship (John 15:5-8; Hebrews 13:15-15; Deuteronomy 6:5; Psalm 31:7; John 15: 9-14).  One of the main ways we love God is actually by loving people, there is a sense that these two commandments are not separate but are actually connected that when we love God we cannot help but to love others and we are loving others we are in fact loving God (John 15: 9-14; James 1:27; Romans 13:8; 1 John 4:7).  The first Christians were a community that went beyond the barriers of their own day and time.  One of the most appealing things about the earliest Christian community was that it was a community that was accepting of all people from all backgrounds, and all walks of life.  We are called to be a community that looks past social status, race, sex, and even religious preference (Galatians 3:25-28).  We are called as a community to stand up against injustice, and stand up for the marginalized of this world, also reaching out into the ends of the earth seeking to share the love of Christ with others.  So, how do we share this love?  The answer to that question is realizing that all of God’s people have been given gifts for the use of sharing this love.  We all have a purpose, we all are gifted in certain areas and as a community we Love God and Love People is by using our God given gifts to share the love of Christ with others (I Corinthians 14).   An authentic Christian community is one that is focused on loving God, loving each other and then inviting those who do not know the love of Christ into relationship with Him and His people.

John 4:7-30, 39-42

This is the story of Jesus speaking to the Samaritan woman by the well.  Jesus is our ultimate example of how to boldly share our faith.  The first thing that stands out in the story is that Jesus is a Jewish man talking to a Samaritan woman.  Jews and Samaritans didn’t associate with each other.  Jesus is showing us that God wants us out of our comfort zones, to get rid of our prejudices, and for us to befriend people that we may think are too different from us.  Jesus speaks to the woman about living water.  We have the living water; the Holy Spirit inside of us, so we should share with others what God has done in our lives.  However, Jesus doesn’t lay all of His beliefs out there in the beginning.  First He brings up her past with men, not to condemn her, but to show her that He knows where she’s coming from.  People want someone to care about them.  Forming relationships with people builds trust, which will bring out questions that they have.  Just like the woman asked Jesus about where they should worship, everyone has questions about God.  The woman had heard of the Messiah, and probably almost everyone you will meet has heard of Jesus.  It usually takes multiple conversations about Christ before people decide to give their lives to Him.  With this in mind, God wants our focus to be on caring about the people we come into contact with.  Through that we can build trusting relationships with them, and not feel pressured to have to be the one to lead them to Christ, but let the Holy Spirit lead us in our words and actions towards them.

Acts 16:16-40

English Standard Version (ESV)

Luke 6:12-16
Jesus Chooses the Twelve Apostles

“12 One day soon afterward Jesus went up on a mountain to pray, and he prayed to God all night. 13 At daybreak he called together all of his disciples and chose twelve of them to be apostles. Here are their names: 14 Simon (whom he named Peter), 
 Andrew (Peter’s brother), 
 James, 
 John,
   Philip,
   Bartholomew,
 15 Matthew,
   Thomas,
   James (son of Alphaeus),
   Simon (who was called the zealot),
 16 Judas (son of James),
   Judas Iscariot (who later betrayed him).”

45  And in the hearing of all the people he said to his disciples, 46 “Beware of the scribes, who like to walk around in long robes, and love greetings in the marketplaces and the best seats in the synagogues and the places of honor at feasts, 47  who devour widows’ houses and for a pretense make long prayers. They will receive the greater condemnation.”

21  Jesus looked up and saw the rich putting their gifts into the offering box, 2 and he saw a poor widow put in two small copper coins. 3 And he said, “Truly, I tell you, this poor widow has put in more than all of them. 4 For they all contributed out of their abundance, but she out of her poverty put in all she had to live on.” 5  And while some were speaking of the temple, how it was adorned with noble stones and offerings, he said, 6 “As for these things that you see, the days will come when there will not be left here one stone upon another that will not be thrown down.”

³⁰ Again he said, “What shall we say the kingdom of God is like, or what parable shall we use to describe it?³¹ It is like a mustard seed, which is the smallest of all seeds on earth. ³² Yet when planted, it grows and becomes the largest of all garden plants, with such big branches that the birds can perch in its shade.”

Matthew 11:28-30

The Message (MSG)