Hebrews 13:1-8 The Message
Jesus Doesn’t Change
13 1-4 Stay on good terms with each other, held together by love. Be ready with a meal or a bed when it’s needed. Why, some have extended hospitality to angels without ever knowing it! Regard prisoners as if you were in prison with them. Look on victims of abuse as if what happened to them had happened to you. Honor marriage, and guard the sacredness of sexual intimacy between wife and husband. God draws a firm line against casual and illicit sex.
5-6 Don’t be obsessed with getting more material things. Be relaxed with what you have. Since God assured us, “I’ll never let you down, never walk off and leave you,” we can boldly quote,
God is there, ready to help;
I’m fearless no matter what.
Who or what can get to me?
7-8 Appreciate your pastoral leaders who gave you the Word of God. Take a good look at the way they live, and let their faithfulness instruct you, as well as their truthfulness. There should be a consistency that runs through us all. For Jesus doesn’t change—yesterday, today, tomorrow, he’s always totally himself.
Word of God for the Children of God
Glory be to the Father,
and to the Son, and to the Holy Ghost;
as it was in the beginning,
is now, and ever shall be,
world without end. Amen, amen.
True or False: Hospitality Bridges Barriers?
True or False: Hospitality Builds “easy for anyone – soggy paper bag, house of overused cards etcetera, to knock down, no prayer to God required” Barriers?
True or False: Hospitality Builds tall privacy fences between neighbors which promote “friendly but unseen, unheard, unbothered, anonymous relationships?
True or False: Hospitality Builds unknown, hidden, underwater, underground Minefields – waiting for any number of people to blindly, confidently, secretly (with sincerity, with the best of intentions, walk or run into or stumble upon?
True or False: Hospitality can only Build empty Abandoned Haunted Houses?
True or False: Hospitality builds magnificent palatial mansions nobody or just 1 somebody has financial, material resources, to actually occupy as their home?
True or False: Hospitality is a Chivalrous or Warlike White Knight riding a White Majestic Stallion in front of a heavily fortified Castle politely, or not so politely, asking or demanding for the drawbridge to be lowered by the evil Black Knight?
True or False: Hospitality has no self-confidence or self-esteem to even start a building project of any magnitude and stays behind, preferring its anonymity?
True or False: Hospitality is a malicious, evil, serial, malignant liar and a fraud?
True or False: Hospitality is serving a well deserved Life plus eternity, prison sentence in the ultimate inescapable underground maximum security prison?
True or False: We can authentically say with conviction that Hospitality is an authentic Best Friend Forever, or in reality, our very worst all time, enemy?
True or False: As Christians we can easily recognize Hospitality according to the Word of God for the Children of God – and to obediently listen, and learn about living in hospitality and with hospitality, among our neighbors, family of faith?
Hebrews 13:1-8 Amplified Bible
The Changeless Christ
13 Let love of your fellow believers continue. 2 Do not neglect to extend hospitality to strangers [especially among the family of believers—being friendly, cordial, and gracious, sharing the comforts of your home and doing your part generously], for by this some have entertained angels without knowing it. 3 Remember those who are in prison, as if you were their fellow prisoner, and those who are mistreated, since you also are in the body [and subject to physical suffering]. 4 Marriage is to be held in honor among all [that is, regarded as something of great value], and the marriage bed undefiled [by immorality or by any sexual sin]; for God will judge the sexually immoral and adulterous. 5 Let your character [your moral essence, your inner nature] be free from the love of money [shun greed—be financially ethical], being content with what you have; for He has said, “I will never [under any circumstances] desert you [nor give you up nor leave you without support, nor will I in any degree leave you helpless], nor will I forsake or let you down or relax My hold on you [assuredly not]!” 6 So we take comfort and are encouraged and confidently say,
“The Lord is my Helper [in time of need], I will not be afraid.
What will man do to me?”
7 Remember your leaders [for it was they] who brought you the word of God; and consider the result of their conduct [the outcome of their godly lives], and imitate their faith [their conviction that God exists and is the Creator and Ruler of all things, the Provider of eternal salvation through Christ, and imitate their reliance on God with absolute trust and confidence in His power, wisdom, and goodness]. 8 Jesus Christ is [eternally changeless, always] the same yesterday and today and forever.
In the name of God, the Father and God the Son and God the Holy Spirit,
Praying,
Psalm 100 Amplified Bible
All Men Exhorted to Praise God.
A Psalm of Thanksgiving.
100 Shout joyfully to the Lord, all the earth.
2
Serve the Lord with gladness and delight;
Come before His presence with joyful singing.
3
Know and fully recognize with gratitude that the Lord Himself is God;
It is He who has made us, [a]not we ourselves [and we are His].
We are His people and the sheep of His pasture.
4
Enter His gates with a song of thanksgiving
And His courts with praise.
Be thankful to Him, bless and praise His name.
5
For the Lord is good;
His mercy and lovingkindness are everlasting,
His faithfulness [endures] to all generations.
Glory be to the Father,
and to the Son, and to the Holy Ghost;
as it was in the beginning,
is now, and ever shall be,
world without end. Amen, amen.
Loving God, Living God, Loving Hope, Living Hope, Loving Living Life His Way! "Many things are possible for the person who has hope. Even more is possible for the person who has faith. And still more is possible for the person who knows how to love. But everything is possible for the person who practices all three virtues." - Brother Lawrence (1605-1691), Practicing the Presence of God (1692). 