Femininity is in tatters. The family has been split apart. Churches worldwide are weakening. What must be done to regain the purity of a life that seeks to honour Jesus? How can we re-capture the depth of His love for us? How can femininity and true beauty be regained?

It starts with the Gospel. It starts with an almighty, sovereign God who “did not spare His own Son,” a Saviour who “for the joy set before Him endured the Cross,” a Holy Spirit “who is in you,” empowering you to do His will.

The Gospel is Jesus Christ

He came, He gave
He is mighty to save
To all who will repent and believe

This blog is dedicated to re-capturing femininity; femininity as God designed it. Femininity in our culture is desperately lost. Scripture testifies of this in Proverbs 31. “An excellent wife, who can find? For her worth is far above jewels.” A wife of excellence is more rare that precious gems. In the 21st century, this is sadly apparent.

So let us raise the bar to a level of excellence that is rare and mysterious. Let us live our growing years with patience, our single years with dedication, our waiting years with service, our longing years with purity, our married years with faithfulness, and our entire lives under the blessings of our eternal covenant with the Prince of our souls, Jesus Christ.

May He have all the glory!

Wednesday, September 22, 2010

Hospitality: A Quiet Service

In the book “Becoming a Woman who Pleases God”, hospitality is defined as “the art of creating a generous, cordial, pleasant, or sustaining environment.” Whether you have a home of your own or you are still living under your parent’s roof, all of us should practice hospitality to others. Actually, God lists the attributes His children must have in Romans 12:9-13 which says, “Let love be without hypocrisy. Abhor what is evil; cling to what is good. Be devoted to one another in brotherly love; give preference to one another in honor; not lagging behind in diligence, fervent in spirit, serving the Lord; rejoicing in hope, persevering in tribulation, devoted to prayer, contributing to the needs of the saints, practicing hospitality.” It is very important for us as God’s children and as young women, to cultivate a heart of hospitality in our lives.

I want to give you a little acrostic of the word HOSTESS from the book “Designing a Lifestyle that Pleases God” that can help you remember the most important aspects of hospitality:

H – Home: this is the place where we practice hospitality. Our home is the environment that we are most comfortable in. It is our shelter and the place where we live the majority of our lives. When we invite people into our homes, we are inviting them to share in enjoying what God has to given us.

O – Open: this is the kind of attitude we need to have towards showing hospitality. We need to have willing hearts that desire to serve others without showing partiality. The Bible calls us to display hospitality to fellow believers, widows and orphans, those who don’t believe the poor and needy, those who are working for the Kingdom of God, and those who are strangers or travelers. Jesus said in Matthew 5 that we are to love our neighbours and our enemies.

S – Submissive: A submissive heart is one that desires to be obedient to God with a joyful spirit, which is not always easy to do. We may not always feel like it, but when we obey, our feelings follow. I know, for myself, that I am not always comfortable with talking to people that I don`t know very well. This is an area that God is changing in my life. Part of that change involves me stepping outside of my comfort zone and reaching out to people who may need encouragement. God wants me to do this, so I must put on a submissive heart and a joyful spirit.

T – Teacher and Teachable: Part of being a hostess is being both able to teach and able to be taught. This ties very closely with being submissive. We all need to be taught by the godly, older, and wiser men and women in our lives. However, the more we learn and grow, the more responsibility we have to share with others what we know. I would encourage you young ladies to seek out an older, godly woman (don`t forget your mom!) who can encourage you in the faith. Also, read books by godly women (Elisabeth Elliot, Nancy Leigh DeMoss, Mary Kassian, Pat Ennis, Lisa Tatlock, Martha Peace, Elyse Fitzpatrick, etc.) that will help you to become a woman after God`s own heart. And be an older woman to those girls who are younger than you! Take advantage of opportunities you see to reach out to them.

E – Encouragement: One of the main purposes of hospitality is to be an encouragement to others! Though you may not be able to invite people into your homes or prepare a meal for someone, seek to encourage both your friends and those who are strangers to you by encouraging them. Remember, hospitality is a quiet service, so reach out to others with a simple card, a plate of cookies, or a sacrifice of your time to serve. Make sure that in talking with others, you keep your conversation on things that honor the Lord, avoiding all kinds of gossip and empty chatter.

S – Serene: To be serene means to be peaceful, calm, and still. When we have people into our homes or if we try to encourage others, we must have order in our lives! This doesn`t mean that our homes must be cleaned to perfection or that all our ducks must be in row, but we do need to have a grasp on organization! Often, we may be ministering to people who are facing very difficult things in life, so we need to make an effort to see that our lives are steadfast in the Lord to effectively encourage that person.

S – Spontaneous: This means without effort or premeditation. When we practice hospitality as a hostess, we need to remember that Jesus desires our lives here on earth to be abundant. We see this in John 10:10 where Christ says, ``I came that they may have life, and have it abundantly.`` In light of this verse and living the abundant life, we need to be willing to have open hearts when opportunities to serve others are dropped on our laps. Remember, if we obey God with joy even if we don`t feel like it, we will experience His blessings! Nehemiah 8:10 says, ``The joy of the Lord is your strength.``

For us as women, our highest calling is to glorify God in whatever He gives us in life. For almost all women, that calling is to be a wife, a homemaker, and a mother. However, whether married or single, you are a woman, and God has given you clear instructions on how you are to live. As we become adults, get married, and have homes of our own, it is important for us to make our homes places of warmth and security. Jesus, our perfect example in everything, is right now homemaking. I bet you never thought about that before! I had never understood this either until I heard Nancy Leigh DeMoss speak about it on her radio broadcast Revive Our Hearts. When Jesus says in John 14:2&3 that in His Father’s house are many rooms and that He was going to prepare a place for us there, He is showing us the importance of homemaking. When we as women prepare to make homes for our families here on earth, we are creating a visible environment that mirrors the invisible one that is being prepared for us by our Savior. Our homes must be places of peace. When we experience the blessing of homemaking, we have a glimpse of heaven, a picture of Christ, and a taste of the eternal glory we will soon enjoy!

So use the gifts God has given you to serve others!