Devotionals – Page 5 – Ericka O Smith

Thoughts on Practicing {Biblical} Hospitality from…

Guest post by Andrea Young. You can connect with Andrea on Instagram.

hos·pi·tal·i·ty

häspəˈtalədē

noun

The friendly and generous reception and entertainment of guests, visitors, or strangers. (google.com)

Do not neglect to show hospitality to strangers, for thereby some have entertained angels unawares. (Hebrews 13:2, ESV)

A more direct translation of Hebrews 13:2 is, “Of hospitality be not forgetful, through this indeed unawares some have entertained angels.” That word – hospitality – is translated from the Greek philoxenia. According to Dr. Mike Burer, “It’s a compound word which combines the noun for friend (philos) and a noun which could mean either hospitality or stranger/alien (xenia). Put them together and you get the idea: either treating a stranger like a friend, or providing hospitality to a friend.”

Based on the rest of the verse, this is the idea the author of Hebrews was instructing his audience of late 1st century Christians: Treat strangers like friends. In the context of the late 1st century, this probably meant inviting traveling strangers into your home to eat and sleep. I would be unlikely to invite complete strangers into my home to stay. It’s a condition of the times. So how can a modern Christian live out this exhortation?

When I see my friends, I greet them warmly. I want them to know I am happy to see them! I ask them about their lives, and I listen with interest. And I often do invite them into my home – frequently to eat, and occasionally to sleep. I cheerfully take on the house-cleaning and food preparation that signals to my guests: I am glad you are here! I want you to feel happy and comfortable. I want you to stay as long as you’d like. I am sensitive to your needs and will do what I can to accommodate you.

I do not often extend this to strangers with which I have occasion to interact. My introverted nature is on high alert in the presence of strangers, and it takes an extreme amount of energy to break through that self-imposed barrier to treat strangers as friends, especially when the interpersonal stakes and potential for rejection are high. Too often, I think to myself, “Someone more extroverted and well-spoken will greet that new person at church”, or, “That person probably doesn’t want to talk to me anyway,” or frequently, “Rather than get stuck in a conversation consisting of mind-numbing small talk with someone I don’t know, I’ll just sit here and look at my phone like I’ve got something terribly important to do….”

When Ericka asked me to write my thoughts on hospitality, I was planning on writing my thoughts on how to be a good hostess, and although related to hospitality, being a good hostess does not necessarily make one hospitable. For those friends I do invite into my home, I manage quite well as a hostess. I find it enjoyable – the planning, the preparation, the eating and drinking and the merry-making. It fills up my heart to make other people happy with food and conversation. But am I extending this to those who I do not (yet) call my friends? To strangers and newcomers? Or do I hide behind my sinful nature, afraid of rejection or unpleasant entanglement?

As with all other virtues, I will never perform this perfectly. I will practice hospitality. I would like to be a more hospitable person to strangers. How wonderful it is when you are the stranger, and someone makes you feel warmly welcomed! It is such a spirit-lifting experience to make a connection with a stranger who smiles at you, talks to you, asks you about yourself and seems interested in listening to you. It can transform your day, and in some cases it can transform your life. What barriers do I need to knock down in order to approach others that way? You never know who they might be, or what impact you might have.

Step 1: Smile more often.

Practicing {Biblical} Hospitality

The Hospitality of Abraham, unknown artist, held at the Benaki Museum in Athens, Greece

When I decided to look at some of the “one anothers” of the Bible during the month of April, practicing Biblical hospitality was an obvious place to start for me. I have a few friends that truly excel in offering hospitality. I do not…and here’s why:

I begrudge the level of cleaning that I feel “needs” to be done in order to have guests.
I stress over a menu for eaters that inevitably will not appreciate my culinary skills as much as my family does.
I exhaust my creativity in mustering new ways for everyone to connect during & after dinner.
I lament the energy required to stay up until the last guests (finally) decide to go back to their own homes.

The entire process is literally draining for me from start to finish – physically, socially, and emotionally.

I purposed, however, to step outside my comfort zone this year and grow in this particular area. “You don’t necessarily have to be good at it,” I encouraged myself, “just obediently practice it. You can do that.”

So what is Biblical hospitality?

1 Peter 4:9 – Offer hospitality to one another without grumbling.

Romans 12:13 – Share with the Lord’s people who are in need. Practice hospitality.

Without grumbling.

Share with the Lord’s people who are in need.

In reading just these two examples (there are more!), I am stopped in my tracks. I have allowed my own checklist to overshadow God’s simpler one. I realize that I have been focused more on meeting my own needs than on the needs of those I have welcomed into my home. I have been practicing having company, not Biblical hospitality.

What about you?

PONDER: Are you offering true Biblical hospitality, or are you having company? Is the hospitality you offer free of grumbling? Are you sharing with the Lord’s people who are in need, whether it’s physically, emotionally or socially?

PRAY: Father, thank You for our home in which we can practice Biblical hospitality. Grant me eyes to see those in need, that I may practice on them. Help me to focus on meeting others’ needs more than my own. And help me to learn to practice hospitality without a single grumble in my heart.

Practicing Biblical Hospitality is one of thirty devotionals I’ve been asked to write this year as part of a friend’s year-long devotional project. You can read more short devotionals like this by clicking here or the Devotionals tab at the top of this page.

The Art of One-Anothering

Graphic courtesy of http://overviewbible.com/one-another-infographic/

Have you ever realized how many of the verses in the Bible dealing with our personal growth and maturity in Christ involve direct interaction with other people, other sinners?

People can be annoying.

People can be chafing.

People can burrow under your skin with their insensibility.

Some can be so prickly that interaction with them is akin to hugging a hedgehog.

Amazingly, God has commanded us to live in community with other believers, to bear with the annoying, to be polished by the chafing, and to be changed by the process of living life with one another. That adds much needed perspective to those interactions that could otherwise provoke an emotional and divisive reaction. What if you could see such individuals as gifts from God sent for your sanctification instead of criticizing or avoiding them? What if you could actually THANK the prickly people for being avenues through which God chose to mature you?

PONDER: Think of the prickly people in your life. How could their annoyances be used to build your character? Thank God for providentially placing them in your life.

PRAYER: Father, thank You for the prickly people you have placed in my life. Thank you that through interaction with them, You are adding to my own character and molding me more like Jesus. Help me, Father, to truly appreciate them as avenues of my sanctification.

The Art of One Anothering is one of thirty devotionals I’ve been asked to write this year as part of a friend’s year-long devotional project. You can read more short devotionals like this by clicking here or the Devotionals tab at the top of this page.

Post-Easter Perspective

Excitement fills every part of his little 5 year old body as he races around looking for Easter eggs, his 3 year old sister hurrying to keep up with him, and 7 year old brother trying to lose both of them! But as he spies the next egg he forgets everything except the treasure that lies inside…

Sweet memories…I wish I could go back. Why? The treasure! To teach them about the true treasure! You see, it’s not really about what’s inside the egg. It’s about WHY we celebrate… FullSizeRender

Easter is the most important holiday for Christians. It is what separates Christianity from other religions. Easter is the celebration of our risen savior! He is ALIVE! He is RISEN! This celebration is the promise and hope of our faith. It’s not colorful, dyed Easter eggs we hunt or the treasures inside. No, the treasure is Christ Himself and the Word of God which gives us His story.

“I rejoice at your word as one who finds great treasure.” Psalm 119:162

That’s what I would do over again. I would spend more time telling my kids the story of Jesus and what He did for us, dying to forgive us for our sins. Coloring eggs and hiding them full of worldly treasures is fun, but worldly treasures pass away too quickly. As a parent, my goal for my children is like Paul’s goal for the Colossians, “My goal is that they may be encouraged in heart and united in love, so that they may have the full riches of complete understanding, in order that they may know the mystery of God, namely, Christ, in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.” Colossians 2:2-3.

He is Risen!

This Post-Easter Perspective is written by Laurie Newby, Children's Ministry Director at Trinity Bible Church in Richardson, TX. Laurie's perspective is born out of decades of parenting eight children and grandparenting eleven grandchildren. She has over 30 years experience working with children in both volunteer and professional positions. To learn more about Laurie, go here or here. — This Post-Easter Perspective is written by Laurie Newby, Children’s Ministry Director at Trinity Bible Church in Richardson, TX. Laurie’s perspective is born out of decades of parenting eight children and grand-parenting eleven grandchildren. She has over 30 years experience working with children in both volunteer and professional positions. To learn more about Laurie, go here or here.

Brokenness & Butterflies

The butterfly emerged as the symbol of the Women’s Retreat I helped plan last year. Our theme was brokenness and the butterfly’s life cycle beautifully illustrated that.

Some types of brokenness are like the caterpillar who molts, or sheds its skin and grows from the experience into a larger caterpillar who will at some point be broken again and grow from the experience into yet a larger caterpillar who will at some point be broken again…and again…and again. For a caterpillar, this is called molting. For all of us, this is called life. Experiencing this kind of brokenness is as universal to human beings as it is to that growing little caterpillar – a failed test in school; not getting that promotion at work; hurtful gossip whispered behind your back; feeling excluded from a group that you desperately want to fit into; unreturned romantic feelings…

There comes a point in every caterpillar’s life when it will go through something it has never gone through before! Instead of the brokenness it is used to experiencing in its life, it won’t be able to struggle through it and come out on the other side a bigger, better version of itself. Instead, it will become completely enveloped; it will be penned in, immobilized by something beyond his control, entombed. If you asked the fat little caterpillar if it would choose to be entombed in the chrysalis, it would undoubtedly say ‘No!’ It would prefer to keep to its cycle of manageable brokenness. It was used to it. While it caused it pain, it could handle it and it was bigger and stronger on the other side of it. This new thing, this new brokenness, is confining, painful, scary. Unknown and unsearched for, it is woefully beyond the butterfly’s management and personal control. It feels alone, unable to see outside its own pain.

Many of us have experienced these immobilizing types of brokenness – widowhood; divorce; miscarriage; cancer; long-term unemployment; depression; wayward children. Like the caterpillar inside its chrysalis, we were morphed and changed into something new altogether. We were transformed through that painful process and finally broke free, becoming unshackled from the constraints of life as a mere caterpillar to soar on the heights as a new creation, a beautiful butterfly.

Our bodies are buried in brokenness, but they will be raised in glory.
They are buried in weakness, but they will be raised in strength.
(1 Corinthians 15:43 NLT)

Perhaps you have felt that type of brokenness, but haven’t yet emerged from your confining chrysalis. You haven’t experienced a breaking free moment and the pain is all you can focus upon right now.

Research verses that speak to your brokenness. Compile a list like the one here. Highlight them in your Bible. Use them as prayer prompts until you are raised in strength like that broken butterfly.

You are loved, beautifully broken friend, and there is hope to be found in Jesus.

My Inner Ogre

My stellar second-born (Abigail-5), our precious third (Jude-2 months), and my fabulous first-born (Job-7) - Easter 1999 — My stellar second-born (Abigail-5), our precious third (Jude-2 months), and my fabulous first-born (Job-7) – Easter 1999

I have this incredibly meaningful picture of my first three kids on display in my house. It is a pre-digitalized, unadulterated photograph taken during the olden days of film photography. I love the composition. The natural lighting is beautiful. The subject matter is – wait for it – picture perfect.

Instead of bringing me joy, however, it brings a healthy dose of sobriety to my view of self. When I look into the smiling faces of my children captured in that photo, I’m taken back to the day I took it. It was Easter. My kids were dressed to impress. We had just celebrated the most important event of our faith. What started as a quick and easy photo op morphed into a l o n g and oppressive ordeal that left my tenderhearted young kids in tears. With each blinked eye, each scratched nose, each look in the wrong direction, my inner ogre inched closer to the surface until she exploded in rage. I’m not exaggerating when I confess that I was scary. It is one of my lowest moments as a parent and it is thankfully seared into my memory. I cannot look at that photo without tears and the justified feelings of tremendous remorse, shame, and sorrow.

Sorrow is better than laughter, because sober reflection is good for the heart. Ecclesiastes 7:3

That photo is a sober reflection of who I am at my core, of my own undeniable state of sinfulness. It reminds me that I fight a battle not only with the enemy of my soul, but with my own sin-stained flesh, as well.

I display it, not for the warm fuzzies it generates, but as a solemn reminder of my inner ogre. It reminds me of who I could (too easily) be without the transforming power of Jesus Christ at work, forever renewing and always refining my heart and mind (Romans 12:1-2).

Spend some time today in sober reflection. Ask God to bring to mind the things He wishes you to ponder.

Netflix, Slavery & Pharoah – My Public Confession

Simon and I ditched our cable this year. We only had it a few years, but it was long enough to feel the acute absence of it now.

During our detox period, we turned increasingly more to Netflix. There are a plethora of great shows to watch on Netflix. During my “alone” time (husband traveling; insomnia; convalescing from a back problem), I unfortunately did not choose one.

Instead, I chose (Am I really going to admit this publicly?!) The Vampire Diaries. Yes, you read that correctly. The Vampire Diaries. In two short weeks I had worked my way into season 3 of this lame teenage drama.

From the first episode, I was appalled. There was rampant teenage drug use, teenager sex, more blood than a blood bank, violence to women, witchcraft, communing with the dead, and absolutely NO STORY LINE. I didn’t like this show, but for some reason, I kept watching it anyway.

For two straight weeks I watched countless bloody murders and various crimes committed. For two straight weeks I voyeured the practice of witchcraft, allowing those heinous exercises into my home via the television screen under the guise of entertainment. For two straight weeks I binged on imagery that was unglorifying to God and, to be honest, harmful to me. For two straight weeks, with each episode, I felt the weight of my guilt heavier and heavier on my shoulders until, thankfully…

God intervened.

I started noticing more and more in my quiet time that what I was reading in Exodus (yep, Exodus!) applied to me with regards to this wretched show I was watching.

I confess that I resisted God’s reprimands. I dug my heels in over whose will I would follow – His, or mine.

God is persistent. He loves His children and wants His best for each of us. He chased me through the pages of Scripture, no matter where my Bible reading plan took me.

Here are some of my actual journal entries as I wrestled with God:

Exodus 6:9 – Moses told this to the Israelites, but they did not listen to him because of their discouragement and hard labor.

How often have I not listened to the voice of the Lord for any number of reasons? Today I am struggling with not wanting to listen to Him regarding the show The Vampire Diaries. I’m embarrassed that I started watching it a couple of weeks ago. I do not like that my kids see that I watch it every time we open Netflix. It is vile. It is some of the worst t.v. I have ever watched. To add insult to injury, they recently added witches, spells and seances! This is evil stuff made into entertainment & I am knowingly partaking in it. I know I need to stop. I feel God prompting me to stop watching. I feel His reprimand with every click of the remote when I turn to it, but I’m unwilling to give it up! WHY?! What is holding me back? God wants to free me from my bondage, but I am like the Israelites in Egypt preferring my slavery to being FREE just because it may be rough going as I walk away from it.

Exodus 13:14b – By a strong hand the Lord brought us out of Egypt, from the house of slavery.

I feel like the Lord my God wants to deliver me from the yoke of slavery I feel to this wretched show I’ve been binge watching on Netflix in my free time. I am resisting – even though I do not like the show! I’ve gotten to the place in my heart where I truly do not intend to watch it again, but I feel like God wants me to bind & seal the deal with a promise/vow. And I am resisting doing that because I know elsewhere in Scripture we are told it is better to not make a vow to God than to make one and break it.

Exodus 13:15a – Pharaoh stubbornly refused to let us go…

I. Am. Pharaoh. I am stubbornly refusing to let this show go! I am like Pharaoh when he agreed to let some of the people go, but not all of them. I feel God wants full compliance from me, but I am “bargaining” with Him for partial compliance – only offering something I am willing to give (“I don’t intend to watch it” is what I am willing to promise God, just in case I later don’t follow through and return to it. I’m bargaining a loophole – with God, of all people!). I’m trying to please God by naming my own sacrifice instead of obeying His leading when He is the One that determines what is acceptable or not. How foolish I am!

(I thought the Psalms would give me reprieve…)

Psalm 26:4-5 – I do not sit with men of falsehood, nor do I consort with hypocrites. I hate the assembly of evildoers, and I will not sit with the wicked.

Could this be applied to what I watch on Netflix? Could I boast of doing the same if I included the characters on the screen in my list of people I sit or consort with? I am spending a lot of my time with them.

(And this from the New Testament…)

Romans 8:5-6 – Those who are dominated by the sinful nature think about sinful things, but those who are controlled by the Holy Spirit think about things that please the Spirit. If your sinful nature controls your mind, there is death. But if the Holy Spirit controls your mind, there is life and peace.

I am not feeling the peace! I think my flesh is vying for a coup with the enemy’s support. I am even looking for ways to bargain with Him, to stop watching this show without technically vowing to do so (so that I’m not bound by it if I fail).

(He didn’t go for that.)

2 Corinthians 10:5 – We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ.

Woah. (That was my actual journaled response.)

A few days after that last entry, I repented in the truest sense of the word – I turned from my sin of disobeying Him, of sitting myself on the throne of my life, of running from the freedom He offered. I turned from the show, to God.

I made my promise/vow. And I found peace again.

What about you? What has you enslaved from which the Lord wants to set you free? Of what are you stubbornly refusing to let go?

Ps 101-3

A Valuable Gift – a short devotional

Genesis 2:22 – The Lord God fashioned into a woman the rib which He had taken from the man, and brought her to the man.

Growing up, I loved looking at the illustrations in my Bible. The stories recorded in the pages of Scripture sprang to life through the illustrations. They became the pictures I see in my minds-eye as I read and reread the Word.

As I was reading about the creation of Eve this morning, my mind was taken back to my childhood and one such illustration. This morning, however, my eyes focused more on the text than the picture in my head and I noticed something new. After God created Eve from the rib he had taken from Adam,

He brought her to the man.

In my mind, I have always seen God creating Eve right next to a sleeping Adam just like my Bible illustrations. This, however – this made me wonder. Did the picture in my head distort the reality of the event?

And then I wondered, Did God intend Eve to be a gift to Adam, bringing her to him like one would present a valuable present?

I love this illustration much better than the one I had in my head all these years. You can almost hear God making the introductions - "Adam, this is Eve. Eve, meet Adam." The Creation of Eve by William Blake is currently held by the Metropolitan Museum of Art. — I love this pencil illustration much better than the one I had in my head all these years. I can almost hear God making the introductions – “Adam, this is Eve. Eve, meet Adam.” ***The Creation of Eve*** by William Blake is currently held by the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

PONDER: Could your husband honestly describe you as a gift to him from the hands of God? What is keeping you from answering with a resounding ‘Yes!’?

A Valuable Gift is one of thirty devotionals I’ve been asked to write this year as part of a friend’s year-long devotional project. You can read more short devotionals like this by clicking here or the Devotionals tab at the top of this page.

Crying Out – a short devotional

Ps 66-17 NLT

An impending lay-off. A broken relationship. Financial distress. Health issues. Car trouble. Simply living life provides us daily with circumstances that can prompt us to cry out to God for help. But what if there was something more we could do? I believe this psalm gives us that something more – praise Him as we cry out for help. Think about it. He is worthy of praise even if His answers to our cries for help don’t align with our expectations. Psalm 66 teaches us to voice our praise even as we cry out in our current circumstances. Praising God redirects our attention from what needs saving, to the One Who saves. We praise Him, not because of the outcome, but because of Who He is, regardless of the outcome.

How our perspectives would change if we praised Him as we cried out to Him instead of waiting to see how He answered!

PONDER: What circumstances keep you crying out to God for help? In those same circumstances, how could you praise Him even as you cried out to Him for help?

Crying Out is one of thirty devotionals I’ve been asked to write this year as part of a friend’s year-long devotional project. You can read more short devotionals like this by clicking here or the Devotionals tab at the top of this page.

The Upstairs Toilet – a short devotional

Romans 5:8 – But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.

One ordinary day years ago, I decided on a whim to go upstairs to see how the younger kids were progressing with learning to do their new chores. It had actually been a couple of months since I had been upstairs (gasp!), so the time was ripe. I was happy to see that their bedrooms were passable. The hallway was vacuumed. The shelves were in order. I was pleased with what I saw – until I went into the bathroom. In the bathroom, I was greeted by this ghastly sight –

Okay, full disclosure - this isn't my actual toilet. I did text a pic to my friend, Anne. I did not keep it for obvious reasons. The toilet up there DID have the same unidentifiable crusty stuff, the same yellowed ring around the rim, and I did have the same vomitous reaction you are having right now in seeing it. — Okay, full disclosure – this isn’t my actual toilet. I did text a pic to my friend, Anne. I did not keep it for obvious reasons. The toilet up there DID have the same crusty contents, the same yellowed ring around the rim, and I did have the same vomitous reaction you are having right now in seeing it.

Truthfully, I wanted to replace the toilet on the spot! My stomach turns even now at the memory of it. After much soaking, many chemicals, long sessions on my knees hunched over the toilet with my hands inside that awful abyss (ew!) expending way more elbow grease than I thought I had in me, the toilet was clean.

We are like the upstairs toilet. We are dirty. We are stained with sin. We are unable to make ourselves clean. The Good News is that we don’t have to be! God didn’t wait for us to be cleaned up, sparkling & white, before He reached out to us. He did it while we were still sinners through His one and only son, Jesus.

PONDER: Have you been made clean or are you waiting until you’ve cleaned up your life before turning to God?

The Upstairs Toilet is one of thirty devotionals I’ve been asked to write this year as part of a friend’s year-long devotional project. You can read more short devotionals like this by clicking here or the Devotionals tab at the top of this page.