Valentine’s Day, 1996
We all love hospitality. It is so pleasant to enter a home and feel welcomed. You know these people have an open and giving heart. Hospitality is an important Christian trait. 1 Timothy 3:2 tells us that even the Elders in the church are to be hospitable. The secret of hospitality is love. Perhaps we do not celebrate enough or grandly enough.
God gave us emotions and they make life more enjoyable and richer. We can always celebrate our personal relationship with God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Spirit, both individually and as the Trinity, three in one with praise because of our love for Them. By showing our love to others we are praising Them. We are just practicing for Heaven by loving them and praising them.
God loves us and He tests our Faith to strengthen us and increase our faith for the future. He refines us and purifies us and allows things or people to come along and be our “Heavenly sandpaper”. This is how we mature in Christ. It is for our good and we learn to trust Him more.
Psalm 138:7 “Though I walk in the midst of trouble, you preserve my life; you stretch out your hand against the anger of my foes, with your right hand you save me.”
As Christians we are to be good stewards and seek the mind and will of Christ in matters of stewardship of all that He gives us. We are always on assignment. We all encounter family problems. Jacob in the Bible deceived his father Isaac and received the blessing of Esau. Yet God made a saint out of Jacob. God can turn anyone around. In each of our families there is someone who we want desperately for God to turn them around. Jacob lied and he failed to trust God. When he turned to God he was cleansed and found the path that glorified God. Do we know someone like Jacob? For a child of God, there is always a future.
Psalm 100:3 3 Know that the LORD is God.
It is he who made us, and we are his;
we are his people, the sheep of his pasture.
One of life’s greatest needs is to feel loved. Mark Twain once wrote, “Always do right. It will gratify some and astonish the rest.” There are greater reasons for doing right, not just because we want to be loved, but because we love God. Joseph is a good example. When he resisted the advances of Potiphar’s wife, he set himself on the road to the throne of Egypt. Had he given in he would have set himself to the road to ruin. Oh how we need to do right. Love God and love what is right. There is always more at stake then we know.
Gwen's Pen 