A Guest in My Own Home

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Some welcome houseguests making homemade cookie dough.
Summer guests at Shiloh
December 20
When I go to sign onto the Internet, I am asked for the Guest Code to our wireless system.  Oh, yes, we do have a main sign in, but we've forgotten where we wrote down our password, but we can remember the one for guests!

For many people, Christmas is a time of being a guest and welcoming guests.  As most of us reading this devotional decorate, bake and put out our welcome mat, let us remember there are those who are never extended an invitation to be a guest or have the confidence to beckon others into their own homes.

On the side of our house, I  have this verse plastered as a reminder of how God wants us to use Shiloh:

 Offer hospitality to one another without grumbling.
1 Peter 4:9

David was such an honest man relaying excellent relational examples of how we can approach God.  I love  how he expresses, in The Message, how welcome he is in the Presence of God.

You've always given me breathing room, as a place to get away from it all, a lifetime pass to your safe-house, an open invitation as your guest.  You've always taken me seriously, God, made me welcome among those who know and love you.
Psalm 61:3-5   

If you have never read Philemon, check it out in The Message. Paul is imprisoned and has met a man named Onesimus, whose life has been transformed as he has come to know Christ.  Paul is pleading for restoration in a relationship. I love how in the story Paul expresses that, because of Philemon's prayers for him, he fully hopes to get to be a guest in his home again some day.  Believing by faith, he will be released from heaven some day.

I'd type it all up for you, but my house guests are HUNGRY!

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