Day 64: Irresistible Hospitality ... Really? Here is My Excuse!
Read: Luke 14:16 - 24
I guess it is probably just the time of the year we are in. But did you
recently get an offer too good to be true, an offer you just could not
compel yourself to refuse? I get them all the time. The telephone rings,
normally about supper time, and against your better sense of sound mind
and judgment it gets picked up. You will probably know right away by
the long silence on the other end that it is a salesperson. Then the
long spiel starts: Hello, may I please speak to Mr or Mrs. Doe - we
should know right then it’s a telemarketer; the hook is now set and just
because you are now a valued credit card customer they are going to
send you $$$ of vacation vouchers. Their sales pitch - Just Irresistible!
"Yield
not to temptation for yielding is sin!" I wont yield, I wont be tempted
to sin if only neither I nor my wife wouldn't watch television or see an
offer on the internet - free big screen TV’s - nothing to buy. Too good
to be true! There’s always a catch. Or at least, we think there is. We
have been told that “nothing in life is free.” Well it would be free to
us if someone other than ourselves saw it or read about it and for some
unfathomable reason thought of us and decided to give it to us as a
(gasp) gift. But sometimes we find there really are free things. At the
recent Fall Festival at our church, my wife and I bought 2
dinners for new visitors. Irresistible hospitality - freely offered, freely given, freely accepted.
One of the greatest examples of irresistible hospitality is modeled for us in the Gospel of Luke, chapter 14 verses 16 through 24. We see here the grace of God
that on the surface seems just to good to be true, something that each
of the invited guests cast their own brand of great suspicion upon. Each
one of the guests in the narrative took the invitation, carefully
deliberated over it then created an obviously evasive excuse why they
did not feel their presence was remotely necessary. Each one was such an
obvious rebuke to the host of the meal. I can remember when I was a
about ten, I invited some classmates to my Birthday party. One parent
called said his son could not come - son had a hangnail!
What do we see in this passage? From
the host (God) An Irresistible Invitation given with no strings
attached to sit at His banquet table and from us, His invited guest - a
sharp, nonsensical, riddled with suspicion, "why don't we just slap Him
in the face" rebuke returned. The first thing that stands out is our
disproportionate response to a most gracious of a free place at God's great banquet table. Irregardless of the source I would hope that I'd not be so full of someone else's food, so completely rude in my own right be so obviously inconsiderate that I would turn away from God's free meal.
Consider: What a gracious God we have. Consider: The excuses we would offer and bring to His table!
Let Us Pray: O God, whom no one has ever seen but whose free offers of love and generosity are always available, always unconditional, always visible in the very best of human relationships and in the beauty and serenity of our own homes, we praise you continually for your faithfulness through all generations. Bestow upon those who freely come to you blessings as numerous as the grains of sand found on the beach. Forgive us of our rudeness and inconsideration. Strengthen, Satisfy and
Sustain us anew with the manna from heaven. Invite us to table, nourish us from thy Bread
of Life Jesus Christ.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nmo6CAvn_dE
Come Ye Sinners - Amy Grant & Fernando Ortega
www.youtube.com
God's favorite word is COME. The music from this video was removed by the record company. Most
Read: Luke 14:16 - 24
I guess it is probably just the time of the year we are in. But did you recently get an offer too good to be true, an offer you just could not compel yourself to refuse? I get them all the time. The telephone rings, normally about supper time, and against your better sense of sound mind and judgment it gets picked up. You will probably know right away by the long silence on the other end that it is a salesperson. Then the long spiel starts: Hello, may I please speak to Mr or Mrs. Doe - we should know right then it’s a telemarketer; the hook is now set and just because you are now a valued credit card customer they are going to send you $$$ of vacation vouchers. Their sales pitch - Just Irresistible!
"Yield not to temptation for yielding is sin!" I wont yield, I wont be tempted to sin if only neither I nor my wife wouldn't watch television or see an offer on the internet - free big screen TV’s - nothing to buy. Too good to be true! There’s always a catch. Or at least, we think there is. We have been told that “nothing in life is free.” Well it would be free to us if someone other than ourselves saw it or read about it and for some unfathomable reason thought of us and decided to give it to us as a (gasp) gift. But sometimes we find there really are free things. At the recent Fall Festival at our church, my wife and I bought 2 dinners for new visitors. Irresistible hospitality - freely offered, freely given, freely accepted.
One of the greatest examples of irresistible hospitality is modeled for us in the Gospel of Luke, chapter 14 verses 16 through 24. We see here the grace of God that on the surface seems just to good to be true, something that each of the invited guests cast their own brand of great suspicion upon. Each one of the guests in the narrative took the invitation, carefully deliberated over it then created an obviously evasive excuse why they did not feel their presence was remotely necessary. Each one was such an
obvious rebuke to the host of the meal. I can remember when I was a about ten, I invited some classmates to my Birthday party. One parent called said his son could not come - son had a hangnail!
What do we see in this passage? From the host (God) An Irresistible Invitation given with no strings attached to sit at His banquet table and from us, His invited guest - a sharp, nonsensical, riddled with suspicion, "why don't we just slap Him in the face" rebuke returned. The first thing that stands out is our disproportionate response to a most gracious of a free place at God's great banquet table. Irregardless of the source I would hope that I'd not be so full of someone else's food, so completely rude in my own right be so obviously inconsiderate that I would turn away from God's free meal.
Consider: What a gracious God we have. Consider: The excuses we would offer and bring to His table!
Let Us Pray: O God, whom no one has ever seen but whose free offers of love and generosity are always available, always unconditional, always visible in the very best of human relationships and in the beauty and serenity of our own homes, we praise you continually for your faithfulness through all generations. Bestow upon those who freely come to you blessings as numerous as the grains of sand found on the beach. Forgive us of our rudeness and inconsideration. Strengthen, Satisfy and Sustain us anew with the manna from heaven. Invite us to table, nourish us from thy Bread of Life Jesus Christ.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nmo6CAvn_dE
Come Ye Sinners - Amy Grant & Fernando Ortega
www.youtube.com
God's favorite word is COME. The music from this video was removed by the record company. Most
Come Ye Sinners - Amy Grant & Fernando Ortega
www.youtube.com
God's favorite word is COME. The music from this video was removed by the roecord company. Most
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