Five Minute Friday*Welcome*

Welcome!
Today I am participating in the Five Minute Friday with Kate Motaung.  The idea is to take the word prompt, which this week is WELCOME, set a timer for five minutes and write freely.  The guidelines for Five Minute Free Writes are no editing, no glamorizing....just write for five minutes and post.

See Kate's Five Minute Friday button over to the left, and join in if you like.  It's free and it's fun, and if you're over forty it's a bit of a stretching exercise to write without editing.  So, ready, set my timer, GO....

WELCOME...

My first thought is hospitality...a word, which keeps cropping up in my thoughts and my Bible reading and my prayers.

As I studied the book of Hebrews with Community Bible Study, this particular verse halted me, and caused me to pray right then and there.

Hebrews 13:2  Don't neglect to show hospitality, for by doing this some have welcomed angels as guests without knowing it.  (HCSB)

I stopped and asked, "Jesus, would You give me the gift of hospitality?"

It has seemed a huge request.

I like people.  I especially like to gather with my girlfriends - known to my heart and new friends too - over a cup of hot coffee or tea, to chat about our current place on our journey and to pray for one another.  I like having people in our home.  I like to share what I have.  I like....I want to be hospitable.

But, I have felt so inadequate...so lacking "the gift".  I'm just not a party planner.  I really don't cook much.  I can cook, but the thought of cooking for a dinner party...."Oh no!"  And invitations, and the decorating, color co-ordinating...enough plates, napkins, coffee cups, and all matching silverware.
Oh, and yes, I know about Pinterest.  I signed up recently, and honestly, I don't even understand it!

So, I have the heart...the desire, and oh how I want to be a doer of the WORD, not just a reader.  Wouldn't it be amazing to find out I had welcomed angels as guests and didn't even know it!

Jesus whispers to my heart, feeling inadequate and unequipped, "Rest!  Let me show You what it means to be hospitable.  Read about Me, when I was walking among men and women.  How did I show hospitality to the people I met during my short time on earth?"

So, in a quick 5 minutes, I look at the word WELCOME, and this is what I see...

We...Where two or more are gathered...
Everyone...All are included...
Love...A heart welcome
Come on in
Open doors...An open invitation
More...the more the merrier
Excellence...not perfection

Jesus is redefining for me the definition of hospitality.  He is teaching me, equipping me, and I am beginning to feel like I have received His gift of hospitality!
Welcome, I'm so glad you are here!!

Blessings of Great JOY on your amazing journey with Jesus!

Lisa