1 Peter 1; 1 Peter 2; 1 Peter 3; 1 Peter 4; 1 Peter 5
Get In This House! A Lesson In Hospitality…
Scripture
1 Peter 4
9 Cheerfully share your home with those who need a meal or a place to stay.
Observation
When I was a seminary student in Ft. Worth at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary I pastored a small church just outside of Ft. Worth. It was a very small congregation made up of mostly older senior adults. One of those senior adults taught me the meaning of 1 Peter 4:9, “Cheerfully share you home with those who need a meal or a place to stay. Opal Penn’s husband Glenn died during heart surgery while Kathy and I pastored the church, leaving Opal home alone with a college age grandson that sometimes stayed with her.
As I would make visits to all of those senior adults (there really wasn’t that many) in my congregation there were some homes that I almost dreaded to visit. One church member had diabetes, but refused to change her eating habits. I watched her first lose her toe, then her foot, and then her leg up to her knee and as much as I talked to her about changing her lifestyle it was futile. It was pathetic. Because of this it was difficult to go by and visit her and I did it but only because I was her pastor.
But there was one house that I loved to visit; in fact, I think I made up reasons just to drop by her house. Opal Penn lived in an old house very close to our small church. It was very modest by anyone’s description. Opal and Glenn were probably in their upper 70’s or early 80’s when Kathy and I first met them.
As I would come up to the screen door at the side of Opal’s house I will never forget her words, she would always say to me, “Get in this house!” And she would have a big smile on her face and she would invite the young seminary student to sit down at her very humble rustic kitchen table where we would talk. Sometimes her hands would be immersed in hot paraffin wax because of the crippling arthritis that she had to live with. Never once did I hear her complain about this painful condition.
She would always offer me an ice-cold soda and usually she would have some very good cookies to offer me. We would sit at that table and talk. She knew just how to encourage a young struggling seminary student and every time I left that house I felt a hundred times better than when I came in. I don’t know if I have ever experienced such hospitality since!
So at our house when someone comes to our door you will often hear me yell out, “Get in this house” and behind those words lies the incredible story of a rare woman with an extraordinary gift of hospitality. I will forever be indebted to her for the lessons that she taught me about how to love and treat people. I wish that I could say that I had her gift of love and hospitality.
Application
I will strive to make our home warm, friendly, and open to anyone in need.
Prayer
Heavenly Father, I have learned more important lessons about life and ministry from the people that you have placed in my life than I ever did in seminary. Thank You for putting special people like Opal Penn in my life. Help me to be an encourager. Help me be someone that people want to be around because I lift up their spirits like Opal did for me. She was a saint. Thank You for people that You have placed in our lives today that encourages us and are so hospitable to us.
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