This month we are focusing on being deeply rooted in the spiritual discipline of hospitality. In her book, Spiritual Disciplines: Practices That Transform Us, Adele Ahlberg Calhoun writes, “Hospitality creates a safe, open space where a friend or stranger can enter and experience the welcoming of Christ in another.”
Above all, love each other deeply, because love covers a multitude of sins. Offer hospitality to one another without grumbling. 1 Peter 4:8-9
Inside you will find a devotional, conversation starters, a prayer idea, a Bible reading plan and other helpful tips all centered around the spiritual discipline of showing hospitality.
By Major Tina Bottjen Mat-Su Valley, AK Corps – Alaska Division
Growing up, I had always viewed hospitality as throwing elegant parties with the best foods that took all day to prepare. Hospitality, in my understanding, took valuable time, money, and effort. It was a gift for those that were extroverts that had lots of time and money on their hands. However, in the summer of 2005, my understanding of hospitality would be forever changed in a wonderful and powerful way.
Any officer in The Salvation Army can tell you, we move…. sometimes a lot, and almost always in the summer. In our officership here in the USA Western Territory, many of our moves have always happened around my youngest daughter’s birthday (Mid July). The timing of these moves often made it, so her birthdays were often a “family only” affair with no friends or even children her age there to celebrate with her.
We had just experienced such a move, one that took us from New Mexico to Alaska (thousands of miles away). Soon after moving, I was working alongside a volunteer, sorting items for the little thrift store attached to the back of the corps building. I shared how bad I felt for my daughter that so often her birthday was a small, family only event. She promptly told me, “Get me some invitations, I’ll give them out to some of the families I know with children her age. I can’t promise that anyone will show up, but I can promise to give out the invitations.” I went home and put the invitations together and gave them to her. I honestly didn’t expect anything to come from it though, who would want to come to a birthday party for someone they didn’t even know?
The day of my daughter’s birthday arrived, and we told her it was going to be a family birthday party (again, not much hope that anyone would show up.) We decorated for her party, as we always did. Just in case people did show up, I had hidden games, prizes, and goodie bags in my room. We took it slow that morning, wasting time with poor excuses for delaying the opening of gifts and eating goodies until the time I had put on the invitations arrived. It would be an understatement to say she was a little frustrated thinking we were just being ornery by making her wait.
As the time drew near, a car pulled up our driveway and out jumped a couple of girls her age, then another car pulled up, more kids, and then another! That day, 12 young girls came to celebrate the birthday of a young girl they had never met. As I took out the hidden games (including a piñata!), gift bags, and prizes, there were happy tears, laughter, and joy. They played games, ate too much food, and they gave her birthday gifts! We met several parents that day, people we would soon call friends. This gift of hospitality was so amazing, and soon we would call this place our hometown.
Scripture makes it very clear that hospitality is not only a gift and an expectation, but it is a requirement for believers. Romans 12:10-13 (NIV) tells us, “Be devoted to one another in love. Honor one another above yourselves. Never be lacking in zeal, but keep your spiritual fervor, serving the Lord. Be joyful in hope, patient in affliction, faithful in prayer. Share with the Lord’s people who are in need. Practice hospitality.”
Merriam Webster’s Dictionary defines hospitality as, “generous and friendly treatment of visitors and guests or hospitable treatment.” Hospitality is a way of living, a way of interacting with and sharing our life and time with those around us, all the time. Hospitality is letting people know they belong, not only in our homes, but also in our lives, and our community.
That day, my whole family felt welcomed and included in a community that we all still call home. Our lives were changed, because one woman shared her gift of hospitality by passing out birthday invitations, bringing twelve young girls and their families into our lives to celebrate our child and to welcome a new family to town.
By Linda Garcia Fairbanks, AK Corps – Alaska Division
I wanted to accurately define hospitality: Hospitality is action and affection, receiving and loving a stranger.
I grew up seeing this displayed in my family. My paternal grandmother always had a pot of beans on the stove, a large Tupperware bowl full of homemade flour tortillas on top of the refrigerator or continually making them fresh this was all day every day ready for anyone or everyone that stepped into her home whether it be family, friend or stranger.
The Bible points out numerous forms of hospitality which is very important-
“When God’s people are in need, be ready to help them. Always be eager to practice hospitality.” Romans 12:13
How would you describe your willingness to help others in need. Would you describe yourself as being eager?
If someone is eager to practice hospitality, how is that demonstrated in their life? Do you know someone who could be described as eager to practice hospitality?
I remember as a very young girl spending a lot of time with my maternal grandparents, it was really my second home. This one particular summer I was probably 5 years old I would go outside to play in the front yard and there would be one or two men passed out by the bushes I run into the house to tell Gramma and she would calmly send Grampa out with a cup of coffee and water to let them know it was time to move on. There was a cantina/bar across the street to the left of their house. They never mistreated anyone, but it was an opportunity for Grampa to share a cup of coffee and sometimes pray for them.
Be hospitable to one another without grumbling. 1 Peter 4:9
How does grumbling impact our hospitality? How does grumbling affect our Christian witness? What are we communicating to others by grumbling?
The practice of hospitality is Christ-like. It is an offering of our time and company to others.”] The virtuous woman of Proverbs 31 reaches out her hand to the needy. She cared about others!
Read Proverbs 31:10-31. Note how this woman showed hospitality. What did she do? How did she respond? What do you learn about hospitality from this woman?
Ladies whether you have a woman’s Group in your home or at church hospitality is how God wants us to share his love with everyone. Be intentional as you prepare a meal, snacks, and God’s Word that you will share with those who enter your home. Pray for each woman that comes to your group meeting, make sure to lift them up in prayer daily as you journey with them.
I have to be honest, being hospitable didn’t come naturally for me even though I saw it growing up. By the guidance of the Holy Spirit, I have learned to open my home to those I may not of opened up my home to in the past.
Do not forget to show hospitality to strangers, for by so doing some people have shown hospitality to angels without knowing it. Hebrews 13:2
How can you be more intentional in showing hospitality this week?
This month we are focusing on being deeply rooted in the spiritual discipline of forgiveness. In her book, Spiritual Disciplines: Practices That Transform Us, Adele Ahlberg Calhoun writes, “To forgive is to condemn a wrong, spare the wrongdoer hatred, revenge and self-righteous indignation by joining them to Jesus’ own forgiving heart.”
Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other, just as in Christ God forgave you. Ephesians 4:32
Inside you will find a devotional, conversation starters, a prayer idea, a Bible reading plan, and other helpful tips all centered around the spiritual discipline of forgiving others.
By Major Gaylene Yardley Divisional Women’s Ministries Secretary – Southwest Division
Note: This devotional coordinates with this month’s craft,Soap Carving, and this month’s Bible Study.
Can you say that you have not sinned today? Listen to this prayer.
Dear Lord, So far I’ve done all right. I haven’t gossiped, haven’t lost my temper, haven’t been greedy, grumpy, nasty, selfish, or overindulgent. I’m really glad about that.
But in a few minutes, God, I’m going to get out of bed. And from then on, I’m going to need a lot more help.
I feel this way many times. I’m doing great God and then…My dinner burns, I drop the milk on the floor, someone almost hit me at the left turn, my boss told me I am getting extra work for my plate, my kids played hide and seek in the clean laundry, and on and on.
When things like this happen, I get mad, I say things in my head that I can’t say out loud, I resent people for their actions that I have no power over. Life happens and we must realize that we do sin daily in our actions or in our thoughts.
1 John 1:8 tells us, “If we say we have not sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.” The passage goes on to say (v. 9), “if we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” The soap we will use in our craft is a great reminder of this verse. We can be cleansed from our sins only through Jesus Christ, but we have to confess those sins to Him. Sometimes it is hard to admit our wrongs, our mistakes, our actions that we have done. I don’t like to admit when I am wrong. I want it just to all go away, but it doesn’t until I confess it to the Lord. Then it is all gone. What a great promise to us that he is faithful in forgiveness. I pray that you are grateful that Jesus loves you enough to wash your sins away and to do it anytime and anyplace you come to Him with your sins. It can be while you are working, vacuuming, eating dinner, going to bed, Jesus meets you where you are.
Maybe someone has been unkind to you. Maybe you have been hurt by someone close to you. Maybe you feel you can’t forgive them. C. S. Lewis said this, “Everyone says forgiveness is a lovely idea until they have something to forgive.” It’s a great concept until it’s you who must forgive someone you do not feel deserves it. In Matthew 18:21 and 22 we read some very difficult information. “Then Peter came to Jesus and asked, “Lord, how many times must I forgive my brother or sister who sins against me? Up to seven times”? Jesus answered, “I tell you, not seven times, but seventy-seven times.” NIV
So, do you deserve forgiveness? Perhaps you might think a bit differently after reading this verse. None of us deserve the forgiveness we have in Christ Jesus, but it is a gift from Him for the sins of the world that He took upon Himself. Jesus extended this forgiveness to you, so why don’t you extend it to another person who has wronged you? Remember Ephesians 4:32 NLT says, “Be kind to each other, tenderhearted, forgiving each other, just as God through Christ Jesus has forgiven you. “
The plan for our lives as followers of Jesus is to ask for forgiveness and to extend that to others as well.
May our prayer be:
Thank you Lord for helping me through the day and forgiving me for my sins and for helping me to forgive those who wronged or hurt me today. I am glad to receive your forgiveness and to extend it to others. Amen
By Major Gaylene Yardley Divisional Women’s Ministries Secretary – Southwest Division
Needed Supplies (needed by each person):
paper
pencils
large eraser
Bible
“Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ forgave you.” Ephesians 4:32
Have you ever done something that you wish you could take back? Maybe something that you said that makes you cringe when you think about it? It happens to all of us at one time or another. As a kid I remember when I did something I knew to be wrong, I had that terrible sinking feeling in my gut that caused me turmoil in my heart and in my soul.
Today we are going to talk about sin and forgiveness. Forgiveness is one of the hardest things we can ask for or give, in my opinion. We often say we forgive but do we really forget? Let’s work together to do a little illustration for each of us.
Have participants draw a large heart on their paper. If you’d prefer, you can print out large hearts instead.
Is the heart pure? Since it is clean, the answer is yes. Sometimes even when you are trying to do a good job, we mess up anyway. What is a way that we may mess up?
Read Colossians 3:5. This verse tells about some specific sins, Sin clouds up your heart. Write the sin on the heart (big!).
What might happen after that? For example, if the first sin they offer is stealing, then tell them you might lie to cover it up because you don’t want them to know.
Then write the next sin on your heart and have them do the same. Repeat these steps until the heart is full of sins things.
Do you think that Jesus still loves you even with this? But do you think He can live in your heart with all this garbage?
We need Jesus’ forgiveness at all times. Can someone tell me what forgiveness means to you? How do we receive and give forgiveness? We must forgive as well. If we harbor bitterness and animosity in our lives, we must forgive as well. Colossians 3: 13 tells us this, “bear with each other and forgive one another if any one of you has a grievance against someone. Forgive as the Lord forgave you.”
1 John 1:9 says, “If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us of our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness.”
So what do we need to do to be forgiven? Why do you think that you need to say it out loud? We have to admit it so that we are being honest with God and ourselves.
What else do you think would be a good thing to do? Guide them until they answer that you should talk to the people that you wronged.
Go through each of the sins on the heart and “make it right”. That means praying for the person you wronged, making it right, and asking for Jesus’ forgiveness. Each time, erase the sin from the heart. Have them do this as well.
Do you think it will stay like that forever? It’s probably not going to stay pure forever. Even if you try hard, you will probably mess up every once and a while. The important thing is that we try to do our best to be like Christ, and that we ask for forgiveness when we mess up—and quickly! We don’t want to end up filling our heart with sins.
Give them a few minutes (play a quick worship song) and ask them to think about something they may need to ask forgiveness for, and to pray for it. At the end, pray a general prayer over them that they will learn from this lesson and try to keep their hearts pure.
Quotes on Forgiveness
“To forgive is to set a prisoner free and discover that the prisoner was you.” – Louis B. Smedes
“To forgive is the highest, most beautiful form of love. In return, you will receive untold peace and happiness.” – Robert Muller
“Forgive others not because they deserve forgiveness, but because you deserve peace.” – Jonathan Huie
“Forgive all who have offended you, not for them, but for yourself.” – Harriet Nelson
“If we really want to love we must learn how to forgive.” – Mother Teresa
“When you forgive, you immerse yourself in healing water.s” – Stephen Richards
“To forgive is to refuse to contaminate the future with the errors of the past.” – Craig D. Lounsbrough
“When we forgive, the slave we free is ourselves.” – Edward M. Hallowell
“Forgiving others is having power over the stars, forgiving yourself is having power over the moon.” – Alan Maiccon
Everyone will carve a cross, heart, Bible verse or anything that will serve as a reminder that forgiveness is an important part our our spiritual lives.
She hurt me deeply. Her words to me were mean, and untruthful. She attacked my character and my capability. She came across as being perfect, without any faults, and I had no redeeming qualities whatsoever. I tried to defend myself, to correct her perspective of me, but she would not listen. No matter what I did, she would not change her view of me.
She shared her opinions about me as facts to other people. She came across as being perfect, without any faults, and I had no redeeming qualities whatsoever. They listened and believed her version of reality. I was mad. I deserved and desired an apology. Just seeing her made me angrier; instantly my jaw would become clenched, my shoulders would tighten, and my hands would ball into a fist. Simply hearing her voice would cause the feelings to bubble inside of me.
She had moved on. She hurt me and didn’t care. I told myself that I was over it but knew better. I was still upset. She continued to fill my thoughts, and conversations. The whole situation took up way too much of my time. I am not proud of my behavior, but I was like a dog with a bone – I wasn’t going to let it go.
Then one day in Sunday School class, the infamous verse came up in the discussion. As soon as I heard the reference, I knew what the verse said, and I did not like it. In His Sermon on the Mount, Jesus says these words about loving your enemies, “You have heard that it was said, ‘Love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ But I tell you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, that you may be children of your father in heaven. He causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and unrighteous.” (Matthew 5:43-44).
I squirmed in my seat. She wasn’t my enemy. Well, she wasn’t my enemy before the incident. Now, after what she had done, I didn’t want to be around her. Yes, in my mind, she had become the enemy. Of course I will pray for her, I thought to myself. I will pray that she comes to her senses and realizes what she had done was wrong, and she will apologize. Or better yet, she will be treated as I was treated and experience the same kind of hurt and pain. Deep down, I knew that this wasn’t what God was intending with this verse.
As If I weren’t uncomfortable enough, we then turned to the passage later in the book of Matthew, when Peter asks Jesus a question about forgiveness. Matthew 18:21-22 says, Then Peter came to Jesus and asked, “Lord, how many times shall I forgive my brother or sister who sins against me? Up to seven times?” Jesus answered, “I tell you, not seven times, but seventy-seven times.”
Peter was looking for an easy answer – a limit to how many times he had to forgive someone who wronged him. Jesus’ answer wasn’t a mathematical solution. Some translations say it “seventy times seven” times (490). What Jesus is saying is that forgiveness is not to be calculated. It is unlimited. We are to continue to forgive people, no matter how many times they have hurt us.
God was really trying to get my attention that Sunday morning. I knew I needed to forgive her. I wasn’t hurting her; I was only hurting myself. She had moved on; I hadn’t. My stewing over it was doing nothing to her; she probably had no idea that it was still festering inside of me.
Diane Marr, in her book, The Reluctant Traveler, says this about unforgiveness: “Unforgiveness can be likened to a parasite it feeds on the anger and hurt of its host, finding its most satisfying nourishment in human pain. It thrives on the cycle of replayed scenes, recalled anguish, and rehashed justification for holding fast to grudges. Essentially, unforgiveness grows plump on our desire for revenge.” The picture of a parasite growing inside of me is enough to gross me out and want to forgive.
The Bible is very clear. Forgiving others is a command; it is not optional! I may not feel like forgiving her for what she had done, but God expected me to do it. Another verse that came up during that Sunday school class, one that I had memorized as a small child, “Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other, just as in Christ God forgave you” (Ephesians 4:32). Ok, God, I get the hint.
I spent a lot of time in prayer, asking God to forgive me for my attitude towards her. I asked God to work in my heart and to also work in hers. Every time those feelings of unforgiveness and anger started to boil up, I immediately asked God to help me to forgive her.
There have been a lot of “hers” in my life. The stories and situations are different, but my lack of unforgiveness is a common reoccurrence in my life. I know my experience isn’t unique. We all have times when we need to ask forgiveness of others as well as when we need to do the forgiving.
Forgiveness does not come easily or naturally. We cannot forgive in our own strength. We must rely on His Spirit, and His power to forgive others. Instead of being a bulldog chewing on a bone or allowing unforgiveness to grow in our hearts like a parasite, we need to remember that Christ forgave us of our sin, and we should forgive others. As the Lord’s prayer says, forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors (Matthew 6:12).
https://usw-womensministries.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/patrick-fore-b_SHPU5M3nk-unsplash-scaled.jpg17072560Beth Desplanckehttps://usw-womensministries.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/08/uswLogo-300x75-300x75.pngBeth Desplancke2024-05-13 14:06:242024-05-13 14:06:44The Need to Forgive
By Major Beth Desplancke Territorial Women’s Ministries Program Secretary
As you soak in the sun or soak in a pool, I encourage you also to use the summer months to soak in the Word of God. Spend this summer soaking in one passage of Scripture – Psalm 119. Psalm 119 is a record of a man’s commitment to and love for the Word of God. Psalm 119 is divided into 22 stanzas of 8 verses each. Each weekly lesson will look at two stanzas (16 verses). Although Psalm 119 is one continuous chapter, each lesson can stand alone (if people are busy traveling and miss weekly programs). This is a great study that you can take with you on your travels and do it individually, or gather with a group of women over the summer and dig into God’s Word.
Matthew Henry, the great 18th century Bible commentator, was introduced to Psalm 119 as a child. His father, Philip Henry, told his children to take one verse of Psalm 119 every morning to meditate on, and thereby go through the entire psalm twice in the year. Philip said to his children, “That will bring you to be in love with all the rest of the Scriptures.” Perhaps that practice was why Matthew Henry loved the Bible so much that he wrote commentary that is used still today.
Click on the week number for each individual lesson.
