Come On In! You’re Welcome here.
The door is open, the light shines just right,
A refuge here from the storms in your life.
Step on in, leave worries behind,
Peace and comfort you’ll surely find.
Take a seat, rest your soul,
Let go of burdens you can’t control.
Here’s a place to breathe and mend,
A welcome space, my friend, I extend.
It’s been a while since we sat at another’s house and felt the warm embrace of friendship.
The times have taken this away from us.
Isolation, separation, pulling away, going another direction.
When did it start?
It’s a mystery and a puzzle.
The pandemic was incidental.
I know I felt it before then.
How do you make it work?
You may have to forgive and forget.
The past and the present have no space together.
Someone comes and knocks…Welcome, Come on In.
Sharing one’s private domain and one’s home that is always welcoming.
It’s easy to see it happening after it’s already been done.
I call it pulling away: one month, one week, one day at a time.
It’s also at church. And that’s a hard one to take.
But there is a way past this.
Be the first in your circle.
Open your doors, and make it inviting.
Welcome! Come on in! We’re glad you’re here.
What ends up growing the church?
It starts first at home.
That early church in Acts 2 is an example.
So continuing daily with one accord in the temple,
and breaking bread from house to house,
they ate their food with gladness and simplicity of heart,
praising God and having favor with all the people.
And the Lord added to the church daily those who were being saved.
(Acts 2:46-47 NKJV)
It’s easier to welcome others when you relate to them. You may have shared experiences, or you may simply recognize that we are all imperfect and looking for a welcoming opportunity.
Let brotherly love continue.
Do not forget to entertain strangers,
for by so doing some have unwittingly entertained angels.
Remember the prisoners as if chained with them—
those who are mistreated
—since you yourselves are in the body also.
(Hebrews 13:1-3 NKJV)
Yes, times will come at the cost of discomfort. And after teaching his disciples how to pray, Jesus leads them to this thought.
And He said to them,
“Which of you shall have a friend, and go to him at midnight and say to him, ‘Friend, lend me three loaves; for a friend of mine has come to me on his journey, and I have nothing to set before him’; and he will answer from within and say, ‘Do not trouble me; the door is now shut, and my children are with me in bed; I cannot rise and give to you’?
I say to you, though he will not rise and give to him because he is his friend, yet because of his persistence he will rise and give him as many as he needs.
“So I say to you, ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives, and he who seeks finds, and to him who knocks it will be opened. If a son asks for bread from any father among you, will he give him a stone? Or if he asks for a fish, will he give him a serpent instead of a fish? Or if he asks for an egg, will he offer him a scorpion? If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask Him!”
(Luke 11:5-13 NKJV)
Today, I want to be different. Welcome. Come on in…
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