People love barbecues, potlucks and meals together. There’s something spiritual, missional and even sacramental about biblical hospitality. It is a missional and sacramental practice because it is rooted in the very character and presence of God himself, in his love for sojourners, strangers and aliens. Hospitality lives at the heart of the gospel and missional life.”
Roger Helland and Leonard Hjalmarson, Missional Spirituality: Embodying God’s Love from the Inside Out (IVP, 2011), 186.
Hospitality is critical to the gospel, indeed the whole story of redemption, because the gospel is about God reaching out beyond himself to include others in his joyous life. So a gospel-shaped people should exude hospitality. It should be one of our hallmark characteristics, that word that naturally jumps to mind when people think “Christian.”
Locked in my own plans, needs, and interests, I needed that reminder today.
Repost? “So a gospel-shaped people should *exude* (?) hospitality.
I’m confused, are you asking if you can repost or if this is a repost? If the former, then yes. If the latter, then no, though it is a quote.
You don’t like my use of exude? It is using the word a bit oddly, but I liked it.
I’m sorry Marc. For some reason I repeatedly read it as exclude. I beg your pardon. I was assuming you used the wrong word and was asking you to consider reposting. I apologize.
No worries. That makes more sense. And I can definitely see where “exclude” would have changed the meaning of my post rather significantly!