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Archives for November 2010

The Servant – Part 5

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There are benefits to servanthood. The basic one is that the Lord responds when we practice an attitude of stewardship. We serve, and He then provides the delights of serving. We give, and He showers upon us His bountiful graces. We bend the knee in homage, and He lifts us up to rule beside Him.

What a wonderful Master! He is unlike any other. He is interested equally in all of His stewards. His communication with His servants is matchless There is never a time when we cannot immediately speak to Him. And, there is never an occasion when His principles regarding life are not available to us.

Those of you who know Him well realize He has a loving sense of humor. He isn’t temperamental. His basic personality doesn’t change from day to day. He is consistent.

Our Master, unlike other masters, is good. In fact, His good is unsurpassed. He always does the appropriate thing, usually going beyond what we expect.

He is trustworthy. If He gives His word, even to a servants, you can expect Him to keep it. Our Master is righteous and just in the way He operates. And yet, He loves us all despite our flaws. He forgives us again and again, and always goes the extra mile.

He is wise and His wisdom guides us. He helps us past many pitfalls we do not even see. We are servants, really bond slaves—more than that, we are stewards—slaves elevated to positions of responsibility in our Master’s Kingdom.

But, unlike other masters, He regards us with fond affection. He calls us His sons and heirs! Perhaps this is because He Himself has been a steward. He humbled Himself, taking on the form of a slave, and thus can identify closely with us.

He is the wealthiest of all the overlords, and He is the head of all the masters. He is the only one of a kind. He is truly unique, this Master, beyond description!

How can we realize His control in our daily lives? Like many women, I often live in a hectic environment. Recently, with some other women, I spent a weekend in the quietness of a Lutheran deaconess retreat. The cleanliness of the highly waxed floors. The sparkling whiteness of linen cloths. The manicured lawns, with one yard parading old iron clothes poles. The fresh quilted spreads on comfortable beds in garret-like rooms. The bells chiming their precise notifications—all spoke great peace to my soul. I went home determined to bring order into my door-slamming, voices-calling, scattered toy-dominated life!

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Through her Hungry Souls ministry, Karen Mains serves as a spiritual coach to many Christian women and men, and teaches a mentor-writing class. And, through the Global Bag Project, she is working to develop a network of African women who sew exquisite cloth reusable shopping bags. This micro-finance women opportunity helps provide a much-needed sustainable income for struggling African families. For more information on this critically important project, please click here.

Karen has long had an interest in Christian hospitality and is the author of the best-selling book, Open Heart, Open Home.

An award-winning author of several other books, Karen continues to write content for her Christian blog, “Thoughts-by-Karen-Mains.” In so doing, she desires to touch the lives of Christian women and men and help them find ways to walk closer with the Lord Jesus Christ. In addition, through silent retreats, spiritual teaching, women’s retreats, Christian vacation opportunities, and other ministry activities, Karen helps each Christian woman and man receive vital spiritual food.

For decades, Karen and her husband, David, have served God through religious communications—radio, television, and print publication. The are the co-authors of the Kingdom Tales Trilogy: Tales of the Kingdom, Tales of the Resistance, and Tales of the Restoration. To find many valuable resources for pastors and churches at the Mainstay Ministries main website, please click here.

Likewise, pastors will find special resources to help them prepare effective, life-transforming Sunday sermons by visiting David Mains’ website by clicking here.

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The Servant – Part 4

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How divergent this early Christian understanding of servanthood is from our present employer-employee relationship where work is often terminated at 4: 30 p.m. We understand nothing of returning to a home belonging to an employer, to a wife and children owned by him, to being controlled absolutely by one other than ourselves. Culturally, and particularly for those who are white, we are inadequately prepared to understand the steward-master relationship required by the Christian position. We must continually remind our selves- that we contracted an exchange when we knelt before that Cross—my life for His. Spiritual maturity is a continual process of letting go, of submitting to our Head.

I Corinthians 4: 2 states, “Moreover it is required of stewards that they be found trustworthy.” It is proper to say that the Christian’s primary purpose as a steward is to add to the estate of his Master and not to that of his own. All we have belongs to Him—our clothes, our time, our families, our cars, books, inheritances, and homes. Our only consideration should be: How can we best use these possessions for His purposes?

After owning a series of second-hand cars, we were finally able to buy a new model station-wagon tailored to our growing needs—transporting four children, toting people back and forth to meetings, hauling garage-sale finds to refinishers, and bringing home produce from my father’s farm.

The first time David used the car for any extensive traveling was to pick up some inner-city kids from camp. While loading them all in the car he caught himself thinking, “Hey! those kids have dirty shoes. They’re getting the back all muddy and dirty.” Almost instantly came the reminder from God, “David, that new car isn’t yours. It’s Mine.”

My husband corrected his attitude, welcomed the gang into the car, and proceeded with the inward dialog: “OK, Lord. If You want Your car dirty and muddy, that’s fine with me. I realize it is more important to show love to these, Your children than to care about this, Your car.”

Within an hour of home, he realized that the car was slipping as it automatically shifted from one gear to another. It took so long to accelerate it became a hazard on the highway. The top speed slowly seemed to be decreasing—65, 55, 45—finally forlornly limping to our front door at 35.

Certain we had bought a lemon, we returned to the dealer in our two-week-old car from which we had gained such satisfaction. My husband, however, had learned his lesson well. Why worry? It was, after the Lord’s car. “Lord,” he prayed, “this is Your car. You reminded me of that fact when I was picking up the kids from camp. What are You going to do about Your car?”

“They put the transmission in wrong in Detroit,” the mechanic informed David. He poured metal shavings into a container and told us our warranty would cover Detroit’s error. The Lord’s car has since performed well, taking us 70,000 miles in a few years of traveling with a bare minimum of repairs.

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Award-winning author Karen Mains continues to write content for her Christian blog, “Thoughts-by-Karen-Mains.” In so doing, she desires to touch the lives of Christian women and men and help them find ways to walk closer with the Lord Jesus Christ. In addition, through silent retreats, spiritual teaching, women’s retreats, Christian vacation opportunities, and other ministry activities, Karen helps each Christian woman and man receive vital spiritual food.

Karen has long had an interest in Christian hospitality and is the author of the best-selling book, Open Heart, Open Home.

Through her Hungry Souls ministry, Karen serves as a spiritual coach to many Christian women and men, and teaches a mentor-writing class. And, through the Global Bag Project, she is working to develop a network of African women who sew exquisite cloth reusable shopping bags. This microfinance women opportunity helps provide a much-needed sustainable income for struggling African families. For more information on this critically important project, please click here.

For decades, Karen and her husband, David, have served God through religious communications—radio, television, and print publication. The are the co-authors of the Kingdom Tales Trilogy: Tales of the Kingdom, Tales of the Resistance, and Tales of the Restoration. To find many valuable resources for pastors and churches at the Mainstay Ministries main website, please click here.

Likewise, pastors will find special resources to help them prepare effective, life-transforming Sunday sermons by visiting David Mains’ website by clicking here.

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The Servant – Part 3

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Jesus Christ colored much of His teachings with references to this peculiar slave status—that of the one elevated to an uncommon position of responsibility, whose sole intent was to aggrandize the estate of the master. In Luke 12:42-43, He asks:

“Who then is the faithful and wise steward, whom the master will set over his household, to give them their portion of food at the proper time? Blessed is that servant whom his master when he comes will find so doing.”

Four chapters later (Luke 16:13), He relates the parable of the dishonest steward and begins to instruct His disciples about Christian servanthood:

“No servant can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon.”

Jesus used the parable of the talents (Matt. 25) to construct a framework for correct attitudes toward giving. Here we have an example set for the use of possessions and abilities, and a structure which underlines a basic approach to ministry.

Because Jesus drew comparisons from common life, the disciples gained a lucid concept of their servant relationship to Him. They were thrilled, when, at the end of His life, their Master bestowed upon them an even greater dignity. “No longer do I call you servants…but I have called you friends” (Jn. 15:15). They accepted His pronouncement, but they did not presume upon it. The awful events of the following hours emblazoned upon their souls the fact they had been bought with a price—the blood of Christ. They had been ransomed by a near kinsman.

Thus we hear them all declare, “I, Paul; I, Peter; I, Timothy, James, and John—servants of Jesus Christ!” Nothing was given by them outside of this framework; neither money, nor time, nor talent truly belonged to them. Every thing was from the Master. Their motivating purpose was to serve and to be found worthy.

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For decades, Karen Mains and her husband, David, have served God through religious communications—radio, television, and print publication. The are the co-authors of the Kingdom Tales Trilogy: Tales of the Kingdom, Tales of the Resistance, and Tales of the Restoration. To find many valuable resources for pastors and churches at the Mainstay Ministries main website, please click here.

Karen has long had an interest in Christian hospitality and is the author of the best-selling book, Open Heart, Open Home.

An award-winning author of several other books, Karen continues to write content for her Christian blog, “Thoughts-by-Karen-Mains.” In so doing, she desires to touch the lives of Christian women and men and help them find ways to walk closer with the Lord Jesus Christ. In addition, through silent retreats, spiritual teaching, women’s retreats, Christian vacation opportunities, and other ministry activities, Karen helps each Christian woman and man receive vital spiritual food.

Through her Hungry Souls ministry, Karen serves as a spiritual coach to many Christian women and men, and teaches a mentor-writing class. And, through the Global Bag Project, she is working to develop a network of African women who sew exquisite cloth reusable shopping bags. This micro-finance women opportunity helps provide a much-needed sustainable income for struggling African families. For more information on this critically important project, please click here.

In addition, pastors will find special resources to help them create effective, life-transforming Sunday sermons by visiting David Mains’ website by clicking here.

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The Servant – Part 2

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Early Christians had less trouble with the slave-servant role because their world was glutted with the actual concept. It has been said that as the modern world is dependent on machine power, the ancient world was dependent upon slavery. Scriptural references to this social system are manifold. The Old Testament chronicles the many facets of slavery. The principle source of slaves was either plunder in war or poverty in peace.

Slavery among the Hebrews broke into the ranks of every human relationship. A father could sell his daughter. A widow’s children might be bartered against their father’s debts. A man could sell himself. However, legal codes were established to protect the right of the slave as well as the right of the slavemaster. And, many of these demonstrated a humaneness beyond that of the surrounding primitive cultures.

The Law provided ways in which a slave could redeem his or her freedom. He or she could be purchased by an uncle, by a nephew or cousin, or by any close relative. He or she was to be freed after the lapse of seven years of servitude and always liberated at the Jubilee year of celebration. If a master caused him or her permanent physical disability, he or she was to be released.

Slavery fed the great machine of the Roman empire. It was inhuman in its voracious appetite for bondsmen, yet it provided for the advancement of any who proved to have exceptional intelligence, manual skills, or professional abilities. A common slave could be promoted to the role of steward.

Joseph in the Old Testament is an example of the gifted individual wielding authority in his master’s name over the household, over an institution, and even over an entire nation. Similar instances may be found in the Roman world.

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Karen Mains has long had an interest in Christian hospitality and is the author of the best-selling book, Open Heart, Open Home.

An award-winning author of several other books, Karen continues to write content for her Christian blog, “Thoughts-by-Karen-Mains.” In so doing, she desires to touch the lives of Christian women and men and help them find ways to walk closer with the Lord Jesus Christ. In addition, through silent retreats, spiritual teaching, women’s retreats, Christian vacation opportunities, and other ministry activities, Karen helps each Christian woman and man receive vital spiritual food.

For decades, Karen Mains and her husband, David, have served God through religious communications—radio, television, and print publication. The are the co-authors of the Kingdom Tales Trilogy: Tales of the Kingdom, Tales of the Resistance, and Tales of the Restoration. To find many valuable resources for pastors and churches at the Mainstay Ministries main website, please click here.

In addition, pastors will find special resources to help them create effective, life-transforming Sunday sermons by visiting David Mains’ website by clicking here.

Through her Hungry Souls ministry, Karen serves as a spiritual coach to many Christian women and men, and teaches a mentor-writing class. And, through the Global Bag Project, she is working to develop a network of African women who sew exquisite cloth reusable shopping bags. This micro-finance women opportunity helps provide a much-needed sustainable income for struggling African families. For more information on this critically important project, please click here.

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The Servant – Part 1

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A repeated litany rings from the pens of the apostles.

The letter to the Romans begins, “Paul, a servant of Jesus Christ,” Philippians introduces, “Paul and Timothy, servants of Christ Jesus.” The epistle of Titus and the Book of James yield similar proclamations. This theme is echoed again and again—“Simon Peter, a servant and apostle of Jesus Christ.” It’s even included in the last prophetic vision of Scripture, “The revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave him to show to his servants what must soon take place.”

Clearly, the apostles understood a concept all but lost to modem Christians. They knew beyond a shadow of doubt that they were servants of Christ and “stewards of the mysteries of God” (I Cor. 4:1). All their service, all their time, all their belongings, all their talents were interpreted in light of the definitive manifesto: You are not your own. You were bought with a price. You are bond slaves of Christ Jesus!

The great stress of Western culture on the individuality of free men, the democratic process, and the inherent right of each to decide his own fate—all tend to obliterate the New Testament concept of servanthood.

A proper restoration of this attitude will greatly alter the-way most Christians live. It may call for painful and drastic restructuring of the way we spend our time, of the way we donate our services. But it will also deliver us from the secular me-my mold the world is squeezing us into, as well as from the dominion of the master of mammon. It will have far-reaching implications for our attitudes toward hospitality. When a mind-change has occurred, we will truly be servants of one master, Christ. Our allegiance will be undivided.

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Through her Hungry Souls ministry, Karen Mains serves as a spiritual coach to many Christian women and men, and teaches a mentor-writing class. And, through the Global Bag Project, she is working to develop a network of African women who sew exquisite cloth reusable shopping bags. This micro-finance women opportunity helps provide a much-needed sustainable income for struggling African families. For more information on this critically important project, please click here.

Karen has long had an interest in Christian hospitality and is the author of the best-selling book, Open Heart, Open Home.

An award-winning author of several other books, Karen continues to write content for her Christian blog, “Thoughts-by-Karen-Mains.” In so doing, she desires to touch the lives of Christian women and men and help them find ways to walk closer with the Lord Jesus Christ. In addition, through silent retreats, spiritual teaching, women’s retreats, Christian vacation opportunities, and other ministry activities, Karen helps each Christian woman and man receive vital spiritual food.

For decades, Karen and her husband, David, have served God through religious communications—radio, television, and print publication. The are the co-authors of the Kingdom Tales Trilogy: Tales of the Kingdom, Tales of the Resistance, and Tales of the Restoration. To find many valuable resources for pastors and churches at the Mainstay Ministries main website, please click here.

Likewise, pastors will find special resources to help them prepare effective, life-transforming Sunday sermons by visiting David Mains’ website by clicking here.

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The Gift of Hospitality – Part 11

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C. S. Lewis has written these poignant words in Mere Christianity:

“Imagine yourself as a living house. God comes in to rebuild that house. At first, perhaps, you can understand what He is doing. He is getting the drains right and stopping the leaks in the roof and so on: you knew that those jobs needed doing and so you are not surprised. But presently he starts knocking the house about in a way that hurts abominably and does not seem to make sense. What on earth is he up to? The explanation is that he is building quite a different house from the one you thought of—throwing out a new wing here, putting on an extra floor there, running up towers, making courtyards. You thought you were going to be made into a decent little cottage: but he is building a palace. He intends to come and live in it himself.”

How surprised we are to find Him dwelling in the palace He is creating in our lives; and what strange and remarkable gifts He brings to decorate the rooms. These are not to be hoarded or admired, but to be distributed. He paints hospitable pictures within our hearts which we in turn give away through the amazing work of the gift of hospitality.

Life Response

Since prayer is so much the key to developing any gift of the Holy Spirit, here are some “knee” exercises to aid in practicing the gift of hospitality.

  1. Wait on the Lord, asking, “Who is it, Lord, to whom You wish me to extend an invitation?”
  2. Bend your knees to spend time in spiritual heart-reading. Ask yourself: Are there sins in my life I need to confess? Are there people in my life I need to forgive? “These I confess, O Lord, and these I forgive. Create in me a new and clean heart.”
  3. Take that clean heart along into the hospitality preparations. Remind yourself that it is the Spirit who creates an atmosphere of soul-to-soul, mind-to-mind, heart-to-heart. “Lord, You do the work of spiritual ministry. Help me to keep my human efforts from getting in the way.”

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Award-winning author Karen Mains continues to write content for her Christian blog, “Thoughts-by-Karen-Mains.” In so doing, she desires to touch the lives of Christian women and men and help them find ways to walk closer with the Lord Jesus Christ. In addition, through silent retreats, spiritual teaching, women’s retreats, Christian vacation opportunities, and other ministry activities, Karen helps each Christian woman and man receive vital spiritual food.

Karen has long had an interest in Christian hospitality and is the author of the best-selling book, Open Heart, Open Home.

Through her Hungry Souls ministry, Karen serves as a spiritual coach to many Christian women and men, and teaches a mentor-writing class. And, through the Global Bag Project, she is working to develop a network of African women who sew exquisite cloth reusable shopping bags. This micro-finance women opportunity helps provide a much-needed sustainable income for struggling African families. For more information on this critically important project, please click here.

For decades, Karen and her husband, David, have served God through religious communications—radio, television, and print publication. The are the co-authors of the Kingdom Tales Trilogy: Tales of the Kingdom, Tales of the Resistance, and Tales of the Restoration. To find many valuable resources for pastors and churches at the Mainstay Ministries main website, please click here.

Likewise, pastors will find special resources to help them prepare effective, life-transforming Sunday sermons by visiting David Mains’ website by clicking here.

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The Gift of Hospitality – Part 10

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I feel as though a miracle has been worked through these many years in my own heart. I think back to those two friends I couldn’t invite into our first apartment because it was such a mess, and I know that now the mess wouldn’t make any difference. I think of the aching backs from over-preparation for entertaining and compare that now to the ease I experience in arranging a simple evening.

I remember my lack of organization, every dish in the cupboard lining the small sink, counter, and cutting board, and I am excited about the systems that have been developed in these years. I consider how my priorities have readjusted, how my attitudes have changed. But most of all I am aware that it is the Holy Spirit who is with me in the planning, in the resting of work. He truly sits with us as we dine, and warms our hearts toward each other.

I can remember the time I winged a skillet across the kitchen to break the tension I felt due to short-notice guests David was bringing home, and I think what a difference the gift of the Holy Spirit can make in our lives. “Your home is filled with peace,” said a friend. Yes. It very often is, and that peace is God’s.

There is always a quality of surprise that accompanies the use of the gifts of the Spirit. What the Spirit is able to accomplish in us as well as through us is often amazing. We tend to view the work of the supernatural with human eyes, while all the time He is attempting to teach us to view the human with supernatural eyes.

C. S. Lewis has written about this in Mere Christianity.

“I think that many of us, when Christ has enabled us to overcome one or two sins that were an obvious nuisance, are inclined to feel (though we do not put it into words) that we are now good enough. He has done all we wanted him to do, and we should be obliged if he would leave us alone.

“But the question is not what we intended ourselves to be, but what he intended us to be when he made us.”

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For decades, Karen Mains and her husband, David, have served God through religious communications—radio, television, and print publication. The are the co-authors of the Kingdom Tales Trilogy: Tales of the Kingdom, Tales of the Resistance, and Tales of the Restoration. To find many valuable resources for pastors and churches at the Mainstay Ministries main website, please click here.

Karen has long had an interest in Christian hospitality and is the author of the best-selling book, Open Heart, Open Home.

An award-winning author of several other books, Karen continues to write content for her Christian blog, “Thoughts-by-Karen-Mains.” In so doing, she desires to touch the lives of Christian women and men and help them find ways to walk closer with the Lord Jesus Christ. In addition, through silent retreats, spiritual teaching, women’s retreats, Christian vacation opportunities, and other ministry activities, Karen helps each Christian woman and man receive vital spiritual food.

Through her Hungry Souls ministry, Karen serves as a spiritual coach to many Christian women and men, and teaches a mentor-writing class. And, through the Global Bag Project, she is working to develop a network of African women who sew exquisite cloth reusable shopping bags. This micro-finance women opportunity helps provide a much-needed sustainable income for struggling African families. For more information on this critically important project, please click here.

In addition, pastors will find special resources to help them create effective, life-transforming Sunday sermons by visiting David Mains’ website by clicking here.

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The Gift of Hospitality – Part 9

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How then does all this apply to hospitality? We must look at hospitality as we would at any other gift. Am I willing to use my home, my sports equipment, and my table settings (or lack of them) in ministry? If so, then I must first ask the Lord to sensitize me to which people need a special touch of love and to help me determine the best form of service. Does sin in my life restrict God’s being able to use this talent in ministry?

Again I must come to that kneeling place and ask the Spirit to search the heart, to make me open to a washing of my soul. Do I continually tell God I am dependent on His supernatural working to transform my talent into a gift of the Holy Spirit?

“Company’s comin’”—O Lord, give me love for these varied people. Help me to have an open heart as well as an open door. Let me not be concerned about how things look or how things taste to the exclusion of how people feel. Help me to give to them You.

Often over the years people have asked, “How do you do it? People are always coming and going in your house.” My neighbors particularly have noticed. They observe the swinging front door and are sometimes inconvenienced in a search for a parking space.

One Catholic friend reported her husband’s comment, “Tom says that anyone who can have people in her home at seven o’clock every Saturday morning must be a saint!” To be perfectly honest, I must admit to some rather un-saintly feelings about that early morning staff meeting, particularly in regard to the one staff member who regularly arrived one half hour early—at six-thirty!

These comments came often enough that I began to pride myself on my excellent management. Then one day the truth hit me—I wasn’t an excellent manager at all! It was the release of the Spirit within me that was enabling me to practice this gift with such ease. The gifts were in operation. I was experiencing “the strength which God supplies!” It was one of the gifts of the Holy Spirit, hospitality, which made it so easy to open the front door, again and again; to search through cupboards and discover a forgotten can tucked in a corner; to buy just the right ingredients for a certain unplanned dish; to bring home extra groceries because of a sale, and thus have food handy for those unexpected mouths.

Then I began to understand how the gifts make ministry bearable. Without them, we wear out, burnout, grind out. I thought of all those dear pastors, of exhausted missionaries, worn beyond words, broken in spirit, who had not fully enjoyed the infilling, liberating gift of the Spirit and His con sequent grace to continue the hard work of giving.

Martin Luther knew the meaning of this concept when he penned those words to “A Mighty Fortress Is Our God,” that great hymn of spiritual warfare. “The Spirit and the gifts are ours,” reads the second verse, “through Him who with us sideth.”

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Karen Mains has long had an interest in Christian hospitality and is the author of the best-selling book, Open Heart, Open Home.

An award-winning author of several other books, Karen continues to write content for her Christian blog, “Thoughts-by-Karen-Mains.” In so doing, she desires to touch the lives of Christian women and men and help them find ways to walk closer with the Lord Jesus Christ. In addition, through silent retreats, spiritual teaching, women’s retreats, Christian vacation opportunities, and other ministry activities, Karen helps each Christian woman and man receive vital spiritual food.

For decades, Karen Mains and her husband, David, have served God through religious communications—radio, television, and print publication. The are the co-authors of the Kingdom Tales Trilogy: Tales of the Kingdom, Tales of the Resistance, and Tales of the Restoration. To find many valuable resources for pastors and churches at the Mainstay Ministries main website, please click here.

In addition, pastors will find special resources to help them create effective, life-transforming Sunday sermons by visiting David Mains’ website by clicking here.

Through her Hungry Souls ministry, Karen serves as a spiritual coach to many Christian women and men, and teaches a mentor-writing class. And, through the Global Bag Project, she is working to develop a network of African women who sew exquisite cloth reusable shopping bags. This micro-finance women opportunity helps provide a much-needed sustainable income for struggling African families. For more information on this critically important project, please click here.

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The Gift of Hospitality – Part 8

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All the gifts must be bathed in prayer. Often while in prayer I will receive clearer understanding as to the Lord’s specific purposes at work through the gifts. The first time I was aware of the gift of knowledge I had been simply enjoying the quiet of the presence of the Lord. He began to lay on my heart, very insistently, the name of a woman in our church.

I went to the phone and called her, only to find she was hastening out the door on the way to the hospital for emergency treatment. I was so amazed at the timing behind this I didn’t know what to say. Now I would be able to convey God’s love and concern, “God loves you greatly in this time of your trouble. He has placed you in my heart with a great sense of His love and wants me to communicate this to you.” We gradually learn how to use the gifts by practicing them, and if they are real, the body of believers will affirm them by reporting the value of our ministry to us.

Sixthly, God speaks to the Church and through the Church by means of the gifts of the Holy Spirit.

Sadly, 21st-century man or woman has great difficulty in knowing the mind of God. Western humankind, rationally oriented, too often worships his or her own mental acuity. Hounded by schedules, hurrying through a technology-driven society, he or she will not slow down to hear a God who sometimes only speaks to us in silence.

The picture of the body of Christ given to us by Paul is beautiful in its unity and harmony. Each member is employing his gift specialty for the good of the others, no envious, but each in love acting as recipient of another’s ministry. Each is functioning, not merely out of flawed and exhausted humanity, but directed by a supernatural Head, with co-laborers under His direction. An ideal by no means easy to achieve, it is nevertheless the picture of a mature body, lithe with muscles rippling, middle-age at its best, physical coordination combined with seasoned beauty, every inch, every cell sparked with the life of Christ.

What a rare thing for the world to see—harmony and unity! When I begin to allow the Spirit to function through my gifts, and when you begin the same process, when we soak our selves in Scripture and saturate our hearts in prayer, when we learn what submitting one to another means, then we will have something to say not only to one another, but to this calloused and critical world. The Spirit is able to speak to the Church through the gifts of the Holy Spirit, and He is then able to speak through the Church to the world.

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Through her Hungry Souls ministry, Karen Mains serves as a spiritual coach to many Christian women and men, and teaches a mentor-writing class. And, through the Global Bag Project, she is working to develop a network of African women who sew exquisite cloth reusable shopping bags. This micro-finance women opportunity helps provide a much-needed sustainable income for struggling African families. For more information on this critically important project, please click here.

Karen has long had an interest in Christian hospitality and is the author of the best-selling book, Open Heart, Open Home.

An award-winning author of several other books, Karen continues to write content for her Christian blog, “Thoughts-by-Karen-Mains.” In so doing, she desires to touch the lives of Christian women and men and help them find ways to walk closer with the Lord Jesus Christ. In addition, through silent retreats, spiritual teaching, women’s retreats, Christian vacation opportunities, and other ministry activities, Karen helps each Christian woman and man receive vital spiritual food.

For decades, Karen and her husband, David, have served God through religious communications—radio, television, and print publication. The are the co-authors of the Kingdom Tales Trilogy: Tales of the Kingdom, Tales of the Resistance, and Tales of the Restoration. To find many valuable resources for pastors and churches at the Mainstay Ministries main website, please click here.

Likewise, pastors will find special resources to help them prepare effective, life-transforming Sunday sermons by visiting David Mains’ website by clicking here.

Share this Article

The Gift of Hospitality – Part 7

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My customary activity during the worship service on Sunday morning is to in an attitude of prayer and praise. Praying for the one who is preaching, I request that the gift of prophecy or teaching will be freed. Praying for people in the congregation I ask for them to be convicted of truth, for healing of their emotions or bodies.

It is not unusual to receive a sense of someone in trouble. For a while I was content just to sit still with this knowledge, but soon I learned that the gift had been given for ministry and that my Lord expected me to do something about those he laid on my heart.

Sometimes I know who needs a word of encouragement, or extra love. Other times I have to wait until that person is brought to me. The development of this gift is rooted in sensitivity to the voice of the Spirit, of learning to know when it is Him speaking to me, and of comprehending what it is I am supposed to do with the knowledge.

A surprising example of this gift occurred on a week’s vacation I took with friends in Denver. Exhausted myself, I had been shipped off by my husband, with my typewriter, to find some rest and time for the writing deadlines that were looming.

At the end of my week’s stay, we attended a newly formed house church. I wasn’t looking for ministry. Anonymity was delightful and my recent weariness prohibited the expenditure of much energy. I had spent much time, however, enjoying the company of my Lord in those mountains. We sat in the crowded family room for the worship service, and during communion I became aware that our hostess was carrying what I felt was fresh grief. Someone else was experiencing depression. During the communal prayer time, I lifted these people before the Lord arid asked that the light of His love would hold them.

That little group shared such a loving sense of warm fellowship, and when we left I inquired of my friend if she knew anything about the woman the Lord had laid on my heart. “Oh, yes,” she replied. “I just discovered this week they had recently lost a teenage son in a skiing accident.” Since I was leaving the next morning, there was no time for additional ministry, and I felt the Lord had given me that knowledge to be able to carry some burdens in prayer, which I have done.

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Award-winning author Karen Mains continues to write content for her Christian blog, “Thoughts-by-Karen-Mains.” In so doing, she desires to touch the lives of Christian women and men and help them find ways to walk closer with the Lord Jesus Christ. In addition, through silent retreats, spiritual teaching, women’s retreats, Christian vacation opportunities, and other ministry activities, Karen helps each Christian woman and man receive vital spiritual food.

Karen has long had an interest in Christian hospitality and is the author of the best-selling book, Open Heart, Open Home.

Through her Hungry Souls ministry, Karen serves as a spiritual coach to many Christian women and men, and teaches a mentor-writing class. And, through the Global Bag Project, she is working to develop a network of African women who sew exquisite cloth reusable shopping bags. This micro-finance women opportunity helps provide a much-needed sustainable income for struggling African families. For more information on this critically important project, please click here.

For decades, Karen and her husband, David, have served God through religious communications—radio, television, and print publication. The are the co-authors of the Kingdom Tales Trilogy: Tales of the Kingdom, Tales of the Resistance, and Tales of the Restoration. To find many valuable resources for pastors and churches at the Mainstay Ministries main website, please click here.

Likewise, pastors will find special resources to help them prepare effective, life-transforming Sunday sermons by visiting David Mains’ website by clicking here.

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