Welcoming, God’s Attitude for Today.  By Valerie Prentiss.

God has always been, and always will be, a welcoming God.  He has welcomed anyone and everyone who believes on Jesus right into His family.  While doing His ministry, walking the earth, Jesus would welcome anyone into his loving presence.  If He was preaching, all were welcomed!

Always keeping Jesus in front of us as our example of what welcoming should be like, we should never draw back or be shy about welcoming others.  We should welcome friends into our homes and make them feel welcomed!  Invite others to church with us and share the good news of Christ Jesus and welcome them to the family!  Perhaps it could be as simple as saying hello to a stranger on the street, striking up a conversation with someone while waiting in line, just displaying that welcoming attitude of God.

“There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is no male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.”  Galatians 3:28

In this verse you can see the heart that God has for welcoming.  This was written to the early church.  Their culture was not very welcoming.  In fact it went against it to be welcoming to people that were different from themselves (Greek, slaves, etc.).  In today’s world, with great sadness, I admit that we might find it hard to welcome others based on our own cultural expectations.  But if someone is a believer in Christ, they are the same as we are, and should be welcomed. 

“For if you love those who love you, what reward do you have?  Do not even the tax collectors do the same?

And if you greet only your brothers, what more are you doing than others?  Do not even the Gentiles do the same?”  Matthew 5:46-48

I love this verse and how it reminds us that we are not to just reserve our welcoming to our Christian brothers and sisters, NO! Absolutely not! If anything, this elevates welcoming to the next level and logical step!  It does not contradict the former verse at all, it just reminds us that welcoming those who have little or nothing in common with us should be one of the distinguishing marks of Christians.

There are many ways to be a welcomer and follow Jesus’ example.  Becoming a missionary and traveling to different countries to help establish a newly birthed orphanage and church, I have had this opportunity and loved it.   My heart is there.

“When they came to Jerusalem, they were welcomed by the church and the apostles and the elders, and they declared all that God had done with them.”  Acts 15:4

I would like to share a personal experience that I had in the year 2004, shortly after my brain surgery.  I was nine months into my healing from a full-on hemorrhagic stroke followed by a craniotomy for the removal of the AVM and still healing from the Traumatic Brain Injury that I experienced while on vacation in Mexico- a real trifecta!

My husband had been transferred from our home in Antioch to Fresno.  We moved to a small gated community called Coarsegold.  We started going to Yosemite Lakes Church and within weeks God called me to children’s ministry.  At the time, I argued with God.  He won.  I met a wonderful woman named Eva.  She was a welcomer.  My welcomer.  I was different and I still am in many ways.

Eva took the time to read a book, “Stroke of My Insight” and came to me and said, “Valerie, I know you so much better now!”  She gave me the book and I read it and I too then knew myself much better after all of my medical difficulties.  What a welcomer she was.  She was a great friend and sister In Christ.

I became involved in Christian singing group with her husband and the husband of another welcomer, Regina.  Her husband Lamar, Jesse and another member from the church and myself formed the John 3:16 group and were blessed to perform on a small stage at Spirit West Coast in 2006.

How I thanked God for my welcoming friends. I thanked Him for giving me understanding over things I struggled with. Oh how I thanked Him for this welcomer named Eva.  I miss her terribly.  We need to look behind the curtain of everybody and be like Eva.  A welcomer.

My prayer for myself is that I never stop having conversations with strangers in Walmart.  That I never start having fear going where God tells me to go and walk in the spirit of truth and love to be a true welcomer of Jesus Christ.  May I always be an ambassador for Christ, waving His banner of love.  May I be willing to help others without judgement of their skin color or ethnicity, nor let cultural background come between us, including what faith they may have or may not have.  Let me always be the hands and feet of Jesus. Yes, and Amen.