Your Home Is An EmbassySample

Use Your Home for Influence They broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts. –Acts 2:46 When was the last time you hosted a gathering at your house? Sure, the church has plenty of meeting space, and restaurants are easier than cleaning your kitchen table to make space for others to sit. But when we value convenience too highly we sacrifice warmth, welcome, and a comfort level that can’t be experienced in commercial building spaces. So the next time your people are getting together, consider inviting friends into your home instead. Everyone will enjoy being in a home, especially when it is not perfect! You can ease your friend’s guilt by not making your house Pinterest worthy! Relax! A less than perfect home is a gift. Dennis and I have good friends who bought a new-to-them house about two years ago. One of their highest priorities for a home was a place that encouraged gathering. After getting settled, they began to use their home for their small group, but their biggest love is premarital mentoring with newly-engaged couples. Instead of meeting at a restaurant or coffee shop, each week, their mentoring begins with a home-cooked meal in their cozy kitchen. The young couples find enrichment from the study but also from seeing Rob and Teresa model transparency in their home. What goals should you consider for your home? Do you want your home to be the gathering place for your kids and their friends? Do you feel compassion for international students at your local university who are lost in our American culture? Do you care about the marriages in your neighborhood or church or work place? Might God want to use you to befriend these people and make them feel the love of God in His embassy, your home? Why don’t you try it. Next time you’re planning a gathering, birthday party, or family event, take the initiative to open your home. It doesn’t mean you have to do all the work; you can still ask others to bring a dish or help clean up. It simply means you’re willing to initiate authentic relationships with those on the guest list. Remember your home is an embassy of the King. There are countless ways to love those around you in the setting of your home. There’s not a perfect formula, but you do have a perfect God Who will guide you and show you who to invite in.