I wrote this back in 2016. While it contains a dose of attempted humor and practical     observations, it is rooted in the expectation Christ’s people will be hospitable. And practicing hospitality invariably includes the use of our house.

Our preaching series from I Peter brings up hospitality. “Be hospitable to one another without complaint” – I Peter 4:9.

Throughout the book we learn that his readers were experiencing suffering because of their identity with Christ. Peter tells them that this is not only to be expected, it is designed by God to confirm and purify their faith in Christ.

In his explaining this comes the exhortation to be hospitable to one another. Remember, good number of these folks were slaves. Some wives had unbelieving husbands. Some husbands did not have it easy. There was tension and opposition with extended family and the local community because they had forsaken the family gods and idols and sinful practices that came with them. Peter’s readers were now striving to live in a way that glorified and honored Christ.

In that setting, Peter urges them to be hospitable to one another.

I thank the Lord many of you practice hospitality. You invite newcomers to the church for lunch. You host others in your homes. Some of you are in situations where having others into your house is not feasible but you make the effort to visit or take a meal to others.

May your tribe increase!
Pastor Tedd

45 Reasons Why You Have A House

1. To have neighbors

2. So you can pray for neighbors

3. So you can have neighbors into your home to play a game, enjoy a snack, or a meal

4. So you can have people into your house from your church family

5. To have a place for the cat to leave his fur

6. To have a place a dog can learn silly tricks

7. To get to know the vet when the dog eats the Hot Wheels collection

8. To pray for the vet

9. To start a from-home job to pay the vet

10. To sleep in

11. To eat in

12. To offer up to God to be used for His glory

13. To paint

14.To learn how to wash windows without leaving streaks

15. To teach your children how to wash windows

16. To show your husband the streaks he left washing the windows

17. To hold a small library of great books you can read to your children or grandchildren

18. To read biographies of saints who have gone before us

19. To teach your children how to dust and vacuum and clean a bathroom

20. To teach your children how to balance a spoon on their finger, but not a butcher knife

21. To teach your children how to do laundry and make their own bed and take out the trash

22. To teach your husband…. Never mind

23. To learn things about roof shingles and replace- ment windows and that everything man builds wears out and has limitations, even homeowners’ insurance

24. To have a one-on-one Bible study with a friend

25. To keep the makers of weed killer, toilet bowl cleaner, and Hoover vacuums in business

26. To come home from work to

27. To read your Bible and meditate and memorize God’s precious promises

28. To sing or hum hymns in as you rock a child to sleep

29. To flirt with your spouse in (this calls for drapes. Closed.)

30. To laugh in

31. To weep in

32. To sternly talk to the cat about catnip (if you will not, who will?)

33. To race the cat around on its back on the carpet making motorboat sounds (it is you who should be making the motorboat sounds, not the cat. If the cat is making motorboat sounds please reference #7,8,9)

34. To store band-aids for scratches from the cat

35. To teach your children or the neighbor kids how to bake chocolate-chip cookies from scratch

36. To have a table at which you can help your children learn how to do fractions, or they help you learn how to do fractions

37. To hang a picture on the wall, 36 times until it is exactly right

38. To learn how much spackle, it takes to patch 35 nail holes

39. To run around with buckets of water and squirt guns when it is 105 outside

40. To host missionaries in

41. To have a rummage sale when the clutter gets higher than the eaves – but not before

42. To grow old in

43. To tell stories to your children about the ‘olden days’ and the house you grew up in

 44. To accept joyfully it being taken away from you should that happen 
  (Hebrews 10:32-35)

 45. To be grateful for it but see it for what it is considering eternity