Radical Hospitality: Transforming Lives Through Love

"I started my devotions that morning, as I had been doing for the past eighteen years, and as Ken and Floy Smith modeled for me, praying that the Lord would open my eyes to see wondrous things in His Word. I typically intersperse prayer with Bible reading and note-taking, and in the morning I pray in concentric circles." [00:38:25]

"I long for the Lord to grow me in holiness and to give me courage to proclaim Christ in word and deed as a living epistle and make me a more loving wife and mother and friend. I then pray for my family, the church, my neighbors, my nation, foreign missionaries and missions, and I thank the Lord that He is risen." [01:06:51]

"Well, we could barrack ourselves in the house, remind ourselves and our children that evil company perverts, and like the good Pharisees that we are always poised to become, thank God that we aren't like evil meth addicts. Or, we could envelop our home in our own version of yellow crime scene tape, giving the message that we are better than this, that we make good choices, and that we would never fall into this mess." [07:21:09]

"Who else but Bible-believing Christians can make redemptive sense of tragedy? Who else can see hope in the promises of God when the real lived circumstances look so dire? Who else knows that the sin that will undo me is my own, no matter how big my neighbor's sin may be? And where else but a Christian home should neighbors go to in times of unprecedented crisis?" [08:31:74]

"And what is that edge? It's this, when Christians throw their lot in with Jesus, we lose the right to protect our own reputations. When we love the stranger, we become strange. There is no way to love the stranger without losing some skin in this game." [14:39:00]

"Kent wrote the invitation, and it was short and to the point. 'Dear neighbors, let's meet for a cookout at the Butterfield's this Lord's Day starting at 3 p.m., we have a lot to talk about. I'll cook burgers and hotdogs, and we will serve sweet iced tea. Please bring lawn chairs. In Christ, Kent.'" [16:19:80]

"Kent described Hank as a mild-mannered recluse who helped us chop down some trees. Kent shared that Hank struggled with depression and had served time in the Army, and Kent warned us of the destructive power of gossip and of failing to forgive each other. And he reminded us that drug addiction makes slaves of men, and he said that we were each capable of all kinds of sin." [17:45:35]

"Kent explains that Hank is no longer the meth addict across the street. He is a Christian brother. It's hard to explain what happens in a community when the local drug addict, when the man easiest to despise and resent commits his life to Jesus. But I suspect you can imagine, it changes everything." [40:41:47]

"The gospel meets us as strangers and enemies to God, and the gospel delivers belonging in the family of God, and it promises a one hundredfold of these vital and intimate relationships to all who repent and believe and put their trust in Jesus." [42:40:57]

"The gospel comes with a house key and if it doesn't, you are only living half of the gospel. Gospel life is communal, it's covenantal. When the gospel comes with a house key, we put a nail in the coffin of our culture's obsession with individualism, which is the bedrock of modernity." [43:49:30]

"Hospitality is the frontline of evangelism in this post-Christian world. Let me put it clearly, your neighbor can't fire you from sharing the gospel as you pray before a meal, and it is after all your food he's eating. Hospitality is the new face of godly, spiritual warfare." [45:50:50]

"My prayer for all of us as we face this post-Christian world, my prayer is that we will not be naïve and that we will not be frightened, but instead we would let these verses, rooted in holiness guide our steps: 'Let brotherly love continue. Do not neglect to show hospitality to strangers, for thereby some have entertained angels unawares.'" [46:48:76]