ELIZABETH STEELE|GUEST Our God is a God of hospitality. We see this throughout Scripture, from the Garden of Eden where God our Father provided for His beloved children a place for them to live and food to eat, to the book of Revelation where He prepares the marriage feast of the Lamb to welcome His beloved Bride home. Even though we were strangers and aliens, our Father made a way for us to know Him and be His children. That’s the very premise of Christianity: we have been lavishly welcomed by Christ through the Good News of the Gospel. And He calls us to extend the same hospitality to others. The Apostle Paul gave very direct instructions to the brand-new Christians in Rome when he wrote in Romans 15:7, "Therefore, welcome one another as Christ has welcomed you, for the glory of God." What does it Mean to be Hospitable? The Greek word for hospitality is philoxenia. We are familiar with "philo" or "phila" meaning "the kind of love between friends." Xenia means "foreigner or one you do not know." Together they mean "to give the love of friendship to a person that we do not know." Does that sound like a very natural thing to do? Not likely! In fact, showing love to people we do not know can be a very difficult thing...