Showing Hospitality
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Brethren and sisters, invite to your homes those who are in need
of entertainment and kindly attention. Make no parade; but, as you
see their necessity, take them in and show them genuine Christian
hospitality. There are precious privileges in social intercourse.
“Man doth not live by bread only,” and as we impart to others our
temporal food, so we are to impart hope and courage and Christlike
love. We are “to comfort them which are in any trouble, by the comfort
wherewith we ourselves are comforted of God.”
2 Corinthians 1:4
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And the assurance is ours: “God is able to make all grace abound
toward you; that ye, always having all sufficiency in all things, may
abound to every good work.”
We are in a world of sin and temptation; all around us are souls
perishing out of Christ, and God wants us to labor for them in every
way possible. If you have a pleasant home, invite to it the youth who
have no home, those who are in need of help, who long for sympathy
and kind words, for respect and courtesy. If you desire to bring them to
Christ, you must show your love and respect for them as the purchase
of His blood.
In the providence of God we are associated with those who are
inexperienced, with many who need pity and compassion. They need
succor, for they are weak. Young men need help. In the strength
of Him whose loving-kindness is exercised toward the helpless, the
ignorant, and those counted as the least of His little ones, we must
labor for their future welfare, for the shaping of Christian character.
The very ones who need help the most will at times try our patience
sorely. “Take heed that ye despise not one of these little ones,” Christ
says, “for I say unto you, That in heaven their angels do always behold
the face of My Father which is in heaven.”
Matthew 18:10
. And to
those who minister to these souls, the Saviour declares: “Inasmuch
as ye have done it unto one of the least of these My brethren, ye have
done it unto Me.”
Matthew 25:40
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The brows of those who do this work will wear the crown of
sacrifice. But they will receive their reward. In heaven we shall see the
youth whom we helped, those whom we invited to our homes, whom
we led from temptation. We shall see their faces reflecting the radiance
of the glory of God. They shall see His face; and His name shall be in
their foreheads.”
Revelation 22:4
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