Have you ever gone on a God Hunt? A God Hunt begins when you teach yourself to look for God’s hand at work in the every day occurrences of your life. Here’s one of my personal God Hunt Sightings:
 
 
 
Last week the Chicago area had its first seasonal snowfall. This may be an absolute record in the annals of our particular geographic weather history. The reports on how much snow were variable—some said we had 3-4 inches; some said we had six to eight. After the snowplow cleared our circle driveway at 5:30 a.m. on Friday morning, I shoveled our seven-foot brick-walk that leads from the front door to the gravel drive. According to estimates made from thrusting my red snow shovel into a mound off by the front walk, we had from six to eight inches of snow for the first fall.

The weather here in the greater Chicago area has been, to use the parlance, unseasonably warm. Last year we had a snowfall mid-November, and more and more snowfalls until at least two feet of snow was piled upon itself. The snowplow cleared our driveway seven times last year, and the snow did not melt until April. Two days before our first snowfall, January 12, 2012, the thermometers read 47 degrees in the western suburbs.

So we began preparing ourselves as we Midwesterners are programmed to do with storm warnings. Is there enough provision in the house in case we can’t get to the store for a couple of days? Do we have the fold-up portable shovel in the back of the trunk? Have we made sure our house (driveway really) is on the snow-plowers’ list?

I had a funny phone call: “Paul,” I said to the man who owns the snowplow service up our lane, “the weather has been so good, I neglected to call you and ask you to put us on your list.” “Now, who are you?” he asked. “I’ve just had a hip operation. I’m in the hospital. They replaced my hip.” Nevertheless, he had arranged for a surrogate driver to cover the driveways in our little loop and somehow he did—groggy as he was—get our name on the list. Snowplowing is a serious commitment.

David and I had invited friends to go to the Chicago Symphony Orchestra concert on the 12th of January, and we made reservations for dinner at the Russian Tea Time restaurant before the eight o’clock performance. This restaurant is just around the corner from Orchestra Hall; on concert nights, it usually empties like clockwork at 7:45. First snow or not, this is an occasion hardy Chicagoans do not cancel simply because weather warnings are being broadcast on radio and on television.

Our only question was: Should we take the Metra into the city, or risk it and drive during the first snowfall, at rush hour? My call was to take the train. David, however, loves that when we drive, we can park in the underground parking, which shoots us up a stairway right in front of the Orchestra Hall doors. Driving means we also don’t have to get to and from the train station, some eight blocks away; nor do we have to wait an hour or so for the next-to-the last commuter train to the western suburbs.

So drive we did, and in driving, we noticed the snowplows already blowing mounds of snow beside driveways and sidewalks. Cautiously, our friend steered his four-wheel-drive SUV through back streets and by ways to quickly hook up to a major artery going into the city. Hm-m-m-m. The streets weren’t so bad—we’re all hardy Midwesterners, you know. Most of us know how to drive cautiously in new-fallen snow. And many workers, at news of snowfall, had left their offices early. The expressways moved fast and we actually arrived at the underground parking with plenty of spots to choose from, close to the Jackson Street exit, and right on the minute to honor our dinner reservation.

Br-r-r-r-r-r. Of course, the temperature had dropped below 20 degrees. We bundled ourselves up against the wet, soft, white snow falling in our hair, laughed about all the little kids out on the streets with their Christmas-gift sleds, noticed a darling young mother shoveling her walk and towing a little toddler stuffed in a snowsuit on a sled behind her. We had a wonderful dinner, shared stories, laughed at our own foibles. The Chicago Symphony sound was lush and wondrous and reached, as usual, parts of the soul in the listener it is hard to explain to people who don’t understand or love classical music.

“First snow,” we said to the volunteers who held the doors for us as we entered and exited the Hall. “Yep!” they said. “We knew it would eventually get here.”

“First snow,” I said to the homeless woman selling Streetwise, the paper they publish that helps to support their needs. “Yes,” she replied. “First snow. Have a good night.”

Instead of turning left out of the parking garage, we turned right, intending to cruise down Michigan Avenue and catch a glimpse of the Christmas lights still in the trees shining through the blanket that now covered the cement flower troughs the city has built in the middle of the Avenue. Snow piled on the bridge spanning the Chicago River, on the ledges of buildings, and spread itself all over the ground.

“Oh,” we all exclaimed. “Isn’t it beautiful?”

Yes, it is. Despite the discomforts. Despite the blowing cold. Despite the hazards of slippery, unexpected falls or of car crashes, it is beautiful. Indeed, it is.

Though your sins be like scarlet, they shall be white as snow. I remembered this Scripture from Isaiah 1:18. But even biblically illiterate people see what I see. Ugly holes are covered by the first snow. Bare branches and breaks in the cement are hidden. The world is wound together in a bundling of white.

Though we hasten to home and safety (and to those provisions of food), every single one of us is in a kind of celebratory mood. Everyone sees that the ugliness around is covered, not to be noticed for as long as the snow stays on the ground, on the fences, on the paths in the wintered forests. There is a common metaphor here that reaches into the heart even of the unbeliever, the cynical, the twisted pervert, or the neglectful, inward-obsessed narcissist.

The world is white again. God has breathed His breath to cover us. First snow!

I spy God!
 
 
 
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Award-winning author Karen Mains has long had an interest in spiritual formation and the obedient Christian walk. She has written about the God Hunt in her book by the same name, The God Hunt: The Delightful Chase and the Wonder of Being Found. A hardback copy can be ordered from Mainstay Ministries for $10.00 plus $4.95 shipping and handling. Contact Karen at info@mainstayministries.org and she will be happy to autograph a copy for you.

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, Africa 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 congregations 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.
 
 
(GHS-114)

Have you ever gone on a God Hunt? A God Hunt begins when you teach yourself to look for God’s hand at work in the every day occurrences of your life. Here’s one of my personal God Hunt Sightings:
 
 
 
It annoys me that every Christmas season, we are almost the only house on the block that does not hang Christmas lights outside. I believe the Scripture that says,

“All things came into being through him, and without him not one thing came into being. What has come into being in him was life, and the life was the light of all the people. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not overcome it.” John 1:3-5.

It is my persuasion that despite the belief system (or more correctly, non-belief system) of house decorators, shining lights at Christmas, particularly in the darkening north where we live, are a symbol of that light coming into the darkness. So, I am miffed that something always prohibits us from lighting that symbol outside our doors. (We are, after all, one of the Christian families on our street!).

Now, I am not talking about “Griswolding.” As a tradition, our son Jeremy and his wife and children drive through the streets of our town of West Chicago, awarding “Griswolds” (which the city also awards, apparently without our knowing anything about this). “Griswolds” refer to the National Lampoon’s Vacation comedy-film series that were originally inspired by National Lampoon magazine. The series primarily features the misadventures of the Griswold family, whose attempts to enjoy vacations and holidays are plagued with continual disasters and strangely ridiculous predicaments.

In an attempt to make the perfect Christmas, for instance, Clark Griswold (played by Chevy Chase) decorates the outside of his house with 250 strands of lights with 100 bulbs on each strand for a total of 25,000 light bulbs, enough to make the power company turn on their auxiliary nuclear generator. Clark also annoys his snobby next-door neighbors, Todd Chester, and in all that resides the comedy.

I frankly don’t want a “Griswold” scheme. I just want some tastefully understated lights that lead the way to the front door (which I am generally able to make hospitable) and glow out toward the street.

This year, however, we had unseasonably warm weather for Chicago (in the 40s and 50s), so I was able to get outside and set the spotlights into the ground before it froze. A newly hung trellis allowed me to secure the bright Christmas blue NOEL banner, made by a fabric-artist friend, but stored in a trunk for the last five years. I placed two tabletop trees with their own lights in summer garden pots on either side of the step leading to the front porch. And, when I turned on the light switches—one in the garage and one in the front hall—the lights softly illuminated the outside. It was beautiful.

Could this really be the David R. Mains domicile? No fuses blew. No bulbs cracked. No spotlights tipped over to crash on their flat faces.

On Hawthorne Lane in West Chicago, light shines in the darkness.

“This is the message we have heard from him and proclaim to you, that God is light and in him there is no darkness at all.” 1 John 1:5.

I spy God!
 
 
 
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Award-winning author Karen Mains has long had an interest in spiritual formation and the obedient Christian walk. She has written about the God Hunt in her book by the same name, The God Hunt: The Delightful Chase and the Wonder of Being Found. A hardback copy can be ordered from Mainstay Ministries for $10.00 plus $4.95 shipping and handling. Contact Karen at info@mainstayministries.org and she will be happy to autograph a copy for you.

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, Africa 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 congregations 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.
 
 
(GHS-100)

Have you ever gone on a God Hunt? A God Hunt begins when you teach yourself to look for God’s hand at work in the every day occurrences of your life. Here’s one of my personal God Hunt Sightings:
 
 
 
We sent our son Joel (he is a director/producer/editor with our video team) overseas to India for two weeks on a video shoot for Gospel for Asia, a mission organization that calls out, trains, and sends national missionaries throughout Asia. During this time, David’s father died, and although his death was imminent and Joel had fortunately had a chance to say his last goodbyes, it was still a stressful moment for us all to handle wakes, funerals, family gatherings, gravesite ceremonies, and the luncheon afterward.

On the morning of the funeral home visitation, I offered to take care of my grandson Elias John so my daughter-in-law Laurie could have a break from child-care and go to a beauty salon for an uninterrupted moment of private pampering. It wasn’t long after Laurie had left my house that I received a frantic cell phone call. “Karen, I’ve had an automobile accident. The car is totaled.”

You cannot imagine my anxiety or my dismay. I wasn’t exactly sure where Laurie was or in what condition. I was stuck at home with a two-year-old and didn’t have a car that morning, and my husband was in transit. I couldn’t reach him, nor could I get through the automated phone system at our ministry to a live voice—all I could do was leave urgent voice-mail messages. Frantically I dialed 9-1-1.

“My daughter-in-law has just called to say she’s had an accident. I can hear the sirens. And please listen to me very carefully. My daughter-in-law is a diabetic, and I don’t know what effect this trauma will have on her blood glucose level.”

“Hold on, lady,” said the voice on the other end of the phone. “We’re going to patch you into our dispatcher. We’ll find her and talk you through this.”

And, indeed they did. In a little bit of time David got my frantic phone message, came hurtling home, drove up the street, found Laurie dazed but unhurt (with just an airbag scrape under her chin), and the occupants in the other vehicle unharmed. He brought her home, and we tucked her in on the couch in front of the fireplace.

In a few moments a police officer knocked politely at our front door. He gently inquired of Laurie about the circumstances of the accident. Then he said to her, “Now please understand. None of us sets out to do this, to get banged up on the highway. This was an accident. That is why it is called an ‘accident.’” This young man in his leather patrolman’s jacket must have been a grad student in sensitivity training school. My jaw dropped, and tears came to my eyes. I escorted him to our front door. When he was outside, he asked in a very soft voice, “Now is she going to be all right?”

Quietly my husband said, “Well the car is totaled, but another millisecond and the passenger truck would have rammed into the driver’s door; that could have been bad. Or, what if Elias had been in the back seat? The other drivers were using a truck to move furniture and holding a toddler on their lap, without a seatbelt, in the front seat. What if the child had gone through the window?”

Laurie was safe. We weren’t going to have a hospital incident on top of a funeral, or worse—a funeral on top of a funeral. Undeniably, we were convinced that we were surrounded by unexpected evidences of God’s care.

I spy God!
 
 
 
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Award-winning author Karen Mains has long had an interest in spiritual formation and the obedient Christian walk. She has written about the God Hunt in her book by the same name, The God Hunt: The Delightful Chase and the Wonder of Being Found. A hardback copy can be ordered from Mainstay Ministries for $10.00 plus $4.95 shipping and handling. Contact Karen at info@mainstayministries.org and she will be happy to autograph a copy for you.

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, Africa 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 congregations 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.
 
 
(GHS-064)

Have you ever gone on a God Hunt? A God Hunt begins when you teach yourself to look for God’s hand at work in the every day occurrences of your life. Here’s one of my personal God Hunt Sightings:
 
 
 
I’m a little overwhelmed these days with office work, garden projects I want to finish (and that I’ve been planning for years), a small group that meets at our home many weeks, work for an international board that I feel privileged to serve on, and an incredibly active and creative mind that keeps thinking up things I would still love to do.

So when the small group came to our home this Wednesday night for our dinner-together evening, I kept saying to myself, Keep it simple, keep it simple. Everyone was bringing salad or sauces, since we were trying out the resale pasta machine I bought for $5 at our nearby Goodwill store.

However, when I learned that we could have as many as 15 people at a sit-down dinner, I decided to move the dining locale to our backyard, which is in the glorious height of its spring bloom—a miracle in itself!

This meant hauling and borrowing tables, setting up chairs, filling canning jars with random cuttings from the yard for centerpieces, figuring out that “umbrella assemblage” I wanted to create for alfresco dining, and climbing up to the attic, then down again, with the basket of summer tablecloths, napkins, rattan paper-plate holders, etc. It meant running to World Market and seeing if there were any mosquito repellants made of lemongrass or citronella (one of our members has had mercury poisoning, and many of the chemical repellants are made with mercury as an ingredient). It meant finding a set of beach chairs—bright red with matching umbrellas—and buying them for summer backyard activities. It meant setting up a serving table with crocks for drinks and a large bouquet. It meant finding a way to run electric cords so we could put crock-pots with pasta sauces outside.

By the time our group began to arrive, I had been on my feet going since 4:30 and the Morton’s neuroma (a condition where the nerve endings become inflamed and the sufferer walks as though there are marbles beneath the skin of the third and fourth toe!) had activated, threatening to cripple me.

However, one of our small-group members has just graduated from college and needed a place to stay while she works to gather some funds and finds a place to intern, using her degree in anthropology, somewhere in the far distant world. Amy found a place with us.

She pitched in upon returning home from work, wrestled with the pasta machine, helped to carry serving dishes out in the yard, carried the dishes back in (as did everyone) after dinner, and stayed up to clean up all the serving dishes and the pots and pans while I went to bed with waves of muscle spasms attacking my legs. Usually, I can stamp away charley horses, but not tonight.

I woke up the next morning, fairly well-rested and without muscle spasms, and headed down to what I discovered was a really, really cleaned-up kitchen!

One of the categories where we tell people to search for God’s intervention is this one: Help to do God’s work in the world. Amy was my answer to that prayer—just when I had about reached my limit in extending hospitality to our friends, just when I had pressed myself too far in gathering everything I would need for this first of what I hope will become many garden breakfasts or lunches or dinners, a helping hand with a strong back and a willing spirit came home from work. Perfect timing. Great gal.

An older friend once taught me that helping hands are all around. The helping hands on this night are certain evidence to me that God is in communities of friends who not only care for one another but who pitch when we get ourselves into pickles, when we try to do too much, or when we forget our limitations.

I spy God.
 
 
 
 
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Award-winning author Karen Mains has long had an interest in spiritual formation and the obedient Christian walk. She has written about the God Hunt in her book by the same name, The God Hunt: The Delightful Chase and the Wonder of Being Found. A hardback copy can be ordered from Mainstay Ministries for $10.00 plus $4.95 shipping and handling. Contact Karen at info@mainstayministries.org and she will be happy to autograph a copy for you.

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 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 congregations 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.
 
 
(GHS-015)

In jostling crowds we can steady the arm of that elderly person for whom there is no concern. We can comfort that strange child in the store whose “mommy got lost.” We can listen to the middle-aged woman who insists on talking during the entire train trip. We can reassure the stranger frightened about the wrong bus schedule.

This created world is a vast hostel in which we can practice hospitality and courtesy and openness. It is indeed the world which God has made. Let us rejoice and be glad in it.

Life Response

1. Make a study of the Gospels to determine how often Christ asked questions in His conversations.

2. Test a week of your private conversations, as follows:

a) How much of what you say is “me-me-me”?

b) How much is “you-you-you”?

c) Do you discuss the same topics over and over? Or, are you able to participate in a variety of subjects?

d) How much initiation in conversation is because of your efforts? Or, do you wait until someone attempts to put you at ease?

e) What is the basic topic of your talks? People? Purchases and things you own or want to own? Ideas and events? The realm of the spiritual?

3. Ask yourself how many levels of listening occur in your life. Are you listening at all, or only thinking of what you want to say next?

4. Set aside several times this week to listen to God. Place your notebook nearby and record in it what He says to you.
 

A Prayer

Lord, thank you for having given Yourself in intimate,
inexplicable hospitality.
You have been the Host to all creation.

Without a dwelling, You have contained the
whole world and habited Yourself in the winds,
the corners, and the depths, inviting us to be
at home with You. Beneath the shadow of Your
wing You bid us hide, and in the depths of Your
Being You shelter and refuge us.

Without meat You have nourished us.
Without beverage You have refreshed us.
By Your very Word came sustenance.
On bread and water without price have we been fed.
You have been manna in the wilderness of our lives.

Without a table You have banqueted us,
inviting us, yea, to be married unto You.
Over our heads flies the banner of Your love.
We are entertained with the mysteries of faith,
the songs of the Spirit, holy laughter.
You have garmented us in festal righteousness.

As we wandered in wastelands,
You sought us before we called.
You extended eager welcome
though we had scarcely knocked.
You embraced us when we were filthy
and oppressed and undeserving.

You are the Samaritan who passes not by,
Who finds lodging for us in the warm inns by the way.
You bake fish over coals, waiting for us,
though we have forgotten to wait for ‘You.
With broken hands You break the loaf of blessing.
Those same wounds caress our leprous spirits.
You do not fear to openly accept the intimate worship
of our harlot hearts.

You are the Host of all mankind.
Lifted up, suffering, without breath,
You yet extend greeting to all the masses,
     “Come unto me...
          come...
               come.”

You give us the mystery of Your presence
in this supper of the ages, this remembrance of
Your ultimate hospitality

O Lord,
Make my hospitality as unto Yours.
Be forever my archetype of endeavor,
My firstfruit of harvested goodness:
Love for the battered, misused child,
Grace to bind running ulcers of flesh and soul,
Eagerness for the wealthy without servility,
And for the poor without superiority.

Through eternity You have been and will be
utterly hospitable.

Help me,
poor, faltering, unfeeling me,
to be like You,
with breath-beat and soul-heart
poured out
emptied
opened.
Help me,
to be given to hospitality.
 
 
 
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

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 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.

In addition, pastors will find special resources to help them create effective, life-transforming Sunday sermons by visiting David Mains’ website by clicking here.
 
 
 
(OHOH-180)

Since good manners are nothing more than making people feel at ease, good manners may mean working to convey warmth as we answer the phone for the umpteenth time. They may mean not giving up our bedroom if we sense this extra fussing is going to embarrass guests and they would really prefer sleeping on a cot.

For the Christian, good manners mean having the same hospitable spirit demonstrated by Christ—His openness, His eager reception of all humanity and their burdens, every demonstration of His love and grace. To aid us, we have the promise of His presence through the Holy Spirit.

We have been inhabited by the hospitable Christ. Like Him, we can be hospitable in rooms without walls, in kitchens without counters. We each can develop the ability to put at ease all who come our way. This whole world is our home into which we can welcome God’s creation.
 
 
 
 
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

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 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.
 
 
 
(OHOH-179)

Phone courtesy is another area of hospitality which needs to be developed in our lives. This jangling device of human creation can be an absolute nuisance or a positive force for minis try, depending on the philosophy we choose to develop concerning it. Every pastor’s family has probably had the feeling that their lives were being ruined, dominated, or controlled by insistent calls.

It is important to view the telephone not as a necessary evil, but as a means for facilitating ministry. How little have we Christians learned to use the discoveries of our technology as instruments for the good of the Kingdom.

The telephone, if used correctly, can facilitate ministry, build the communication within the Body, ease loneliness, bring comfort, and provide a tool for giving cheer. It can be used in evangelism, counseling, and contact work. Even prayers can be shared over the phone.

So, the next time a telephone rings in your home, or office, or wherever you may be, answer that telephone as a representative of Christ. Answer that telephone with a sense of extending hospitality to the person calling. Transform that telephone call into an opportunity for hospitable ministry.
 
 
 
 
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

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 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.

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.
 
 
 
(OHOH-178)

Prayer is a neglected Christian discipline. But, the prayer of listening is the most neglected. We are familiar with requests. We are less comfortable with thanksgiving, intercession praise, confession, forgiveness. But, we know next to nothing about sitting before the Lord in quietness, waiting upon Him.

Each week, in addition to those other regular periods of prayer, I set aside several contemplation sessions. These may last from 15 minutes to an hour. Beginning always with praise, once I am aware of being in the Presence of the Lord, I start the process of disciplining my mind to listen. It is indeed a discipline. All the human realities begin to interject themselves. Dinners need to be prepared, phone calls made, writing planned. No! It is You, Lord, I seek to hear, not these. Help me to fasten my mind on Your Presence.

For many years I was tutored daily at His hand during these sessions. It was amazing how much there was to learn. After a while I began to experience silence. Sometimes there were infrequent directives as to ministry, and fewer awesome reminders from the Word as to needs for inner correction. But, I began to learn that the silence was in itself the voice of God. This is the quiet of the Spirit, a communication which occurs without words.

I rose from these sessions of quiet bathed in a peace beyond understanding. It was not unusual that the moment I stood to my feet and opened my bedroom door, ministry began—someone called, tears choking the voice, or someone rang the doorbell needing to be encouraged. Because I had come so lately from that listening place, I was able to hear Him tell me what was needed for this person to be touched significantly.

Learning to listen to God, giving Him the courtesy of unrushed communion, will automatically ensure that quiet quality of being able to listen in a supernatural way to the needs of our fellow men and women.
 
 
 
 
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

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.
 
 
 
(OHOH-177)

Good conversation is a matter of listening. When Christians, filled with the Holy Spirit, listen, they listen on three levels:

1. They listen to what words are being said.

2. They listen to what the person really means by those words.

3. And, they listen to the voice of the Spirit within who is giving illumination to their hearing.

Often while sitting in conversations, certain phrases I’ve heard take on sudden significance. What the talker meant by his or her casual expression was deeper than he or she intended to convey. The Spirit has given me knowledge totally apart from the words which were just expressed. Unexpectedly I have come to know some information about this personality; perhaps it is a fear, or a problem, or the source of the problem. The next step is to ask God for spiritual wisdom as to what must be done with this information. Am I to confront? Am I to keep quiet and only pray? Am I to wait for more data in order to form a fuller understanding? Am I to reach out in compassionate love?

This complicated capacity for listening deeply cannot be developed apart from learning to listen to the Lord in structured, uninterrupted moments. In order to hear His voice we must remove ourselves regularly from the busy, overly active, exciting, troublesome outside world Contemplation, the fastening of one’s mind on one’s Creator is the only method by which we can properly develop this interior silence and openness to the spirit.

This lesson was pressed home to me by a godly woman who once stayed in our home. “You know,” she explained, “we take all sorts of time talking to God, but we never take time to listen to Him.”
 
 
 
 
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

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 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.

In addition, pastors will find special resources to help them create effective, life-transforming Sunday sermons by visiting David Mains’ website by clicking here.
 
 
 
(OHOH-176)

Conversation is one of the tools by which we put people at ease.

Good conversation, for me, is very much considering other people first. It is a matter of finding the right questions to ask that will discover their interests, their unique contributions to the world, their special areas of growth. Even in the purely intellectual pursuit of ideas, it is important to keep in mind that what other people have to say is of merit. Even when we disagree, we must learn to be hospitable to their concepts.

One afternoon I invited a large group of women to come for coffee. We crowded around the dining room table and began to share common things from our daily lives. Somehow it seemed as though everyone was talking at once and no one was listening to the other people. I tipped my chair back, slipped into my mind’s eye, and saw each person as a caricature of herself. Each one seemed to be saying only one word, “Me.”

Over and over they repeated themselves, “Me. Me. Me. Me-me-me-me-me-me-me-me-me-me-me.” Disgusted, I refrained from talking and contented myself with filling cups and passing cake.

However, the Lord had something significant for me to learn from that afternoon coffee klatch. He was soon asking, “Don’t you do the same thing yourself? Isn’t your conversation basically ‘me-me-me?’ Aren’t you mostly concerned about what people think of you, about expressing only your ideas, about having others think how cleverly you turn a phrase, how humorous your repartee is, what an eager mind you have, and how eloquent you wax?”

It was a moment of truth. Self-examination revealed that I entered a room personality-first, thought nothing of becoming the center of a party to the exclusion of others, dominated conversations, and fought inwardly to interject as many words as possible into the discussion. I, too, needed to become a “you-you-you” person. It has taken years, but I am learning to say “you-you-you.”
 
 
 
 
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

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 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.
 
 
 
(OHOH-175)

When we invite people into our homes, we basically ask ourselves: “Who is there that we can serve?”

From the moment they walk through our door, our purpose should be to make them feel at ease. One woman I know conveys real joy at seeing me each time we meet. Her smile scatters sunshine, her arms are thrown wide to embrace me, and delight brightens her face. What an honor it is for me to be received in this manner If we do nothing but make people feel we are glad to see them, we ye gone far beyond this world’s norm.

My pet peeve is groups where no one says a word of welcome. There is no excuse for this in the fellowship of the body of Christ. No business should supersede a smile that conveys, “So good to have you here!”

Refusing to give a greeting is for many people the same as rejecting them. Their insecurities are so near the surface, their feelings of worthlessness so dominating, that we can give great healing if we do nothing more than say, “How glad I am to see you!”
 
 
 
 
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

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 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.

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.
 
 
 
(OHOH-174)

As far as I am concerned, etiquette is nothing more than making the other person feel at ease. In developing social graces we must cultivate that instinct for knowing where the other person is, what he or she is feeling, how we can make him or her feel at home.

We learn to notice who has not been participating in the conversation, and we find a question that will draw him or her into the circle of fellowship. We learn to hear those verbal clues to unhappiness. Or, we identify the body movement that signals someone is feeling uncertain or uncomfortable in our group.

For the Christian, “good manners” means having a Christlike mind which looks out for the interest and comfort of others before one’s own.

When we invite people into our homes, we must put away our pride, no longer seeking to impress but to serve. Whom do we invite? We look for those who are lonely. We look for those who need the loving arm of fellowship on their world-weary shoulder.

We look for the young woman recently hospitalized whose family is half a world away. Would she like to recover from surgery in a home rather than a rented room? What about those who need a place to get away for a while—a young mother with three children under four, or someone who has lost his or her job? Who needs a chance to make friends? Who needs to relax? Who needs to laugh?
 
 
 
 
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

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.
 
 
 
(OHOH-173)

Author Jeanne Hill writes in a recent Reader’s Digest that, while her mother was the one long on etiquette, insisting on flowers in the house as well as a white starched tablecloth and napkins for each evening meal, it was really her father who taught her the most significant lessons regarding manners.

A 16-year-old Ozark lad had been hired to help dig out the storm cellar, and as the afternoon stretched into evening, he was invited to sit down at the family dinner.

A short passage was read from Scripture, prayer was offered, and everyone took up their forks. Everyone except this gangly teen—he picked up his knife. Noticing the custom of this house, he transferred eating utensils to copy the manner of the family, and soon beans and gravy tumbled awkwardly down his front.

An embarrassed silence began to grip the room, and just when it seemed as though nothing could redeem the situation, the author remembers her father laying aside his own fork, picking up his knife, and casually ladling both beans and gravy into his mouth. The evening was saved, and the hill-born lad happily resumed his familiar eating habit.

After the guest was gone, the father received much acclaim from other family members, but he turned the comments aside stating, “Good manners are nothing more than making the other person feel at ease.”
 
 
 
 
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

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 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.

In addition, pastors will find special resources to help them create effective, life-transforming Sunday sermons by visiting David Mains’ website by clicking here.
 
 
 
(OHOH-172)

We need to remember the whole first phrase from the Westminster Shorter Catechism:

“The chief end of man is to glorify God and enjoy him forever.”

Once we have established the right attitudes, we may minister with and be ministered to simply through laughter, joy, and celebration.

How many limitations Christ experienced, and what an example of simplicity He set. He told His disciples, “...foxes have holes but the Son of man has nowhere to lay his head...”! Yet what creative solutions He found to extend hospitality to a world which sought Him out: bread for thousands from a few loaves, wine from water, all disabilities turned into opportunities.

To all who came, He gave Himself, rest for the weary, food for the hungry, water for the thirsty. Can we, too, learn to think as adventurously? Can we discover that hospitality is not what we have, but what we are? Can we give out of our limited resources only to find creativity rising out of that struggle “with and against that which limits us”?

Life Response

You may be convinced that you are not creative. Or perhaps, you wish you could develop more in this area. Read the following list of roadblocks to creativity. Then, check the areas in which you think you are weak.

[ ] Fear of failure—drawing back; not taking risks; settling for less in order to avoid the possible pain or shame of failing.

[ ] Reluctance to play—overly serious approach to problem-solving. Fear of seeming foolish or silly by experimenting with the unusual.

[ ] Resource myopia—failure to see one’s own strengths; lack of appreciation for resources in one’s environment.

[ ] Over-certainty—rigidity of problem-solving responses; stereotyped reactions.

[ ] Frustration avoidance—giving up too soon when faced with obstacles; avoiding discomfort associated with change.

[ ] Custom-bound—overemphasis on tradition, too much reverence for the past; tendency to conform when not necessary.

[ ] Impoverished fantasy life—overvaluing the so-called objective, real world; lack of imagination in the sense of being able to pretend or ask, “What if?”

[ ] Need for order—Inability to tolerate disorder, confusion or ambiguity; dislike of complexity.

[ ] Reluctance to let go—trying too hard to finalize solutions to problems; inability to let things incubate or happen naturally; lack of trust in human or supernatural capacities.

[ ] Fear of paradox—not making sufficient use of contrasting ways to reach the meaning of things; tendency to polarize to opposites, rather than knowing how to integrate the best of both sides; lacking perception of wholeness.

Take your checked areas before the Lord and ask Him to help you change, so that you might think and act more adventurously.
 
 
 
 
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

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 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.
 
 
 
 (OHOH-171)

Forms of communal living—or living in community—can be established in a variety of ways.

My husband, David, and I have tasted community when we have had live-in guests. Individual families living in separate dwellings can make certain obligations to each other. They can promise to support and encourage and assist one another financially. They can join together for regular prayer and Bible study. They can establish food co-ops. They can share household equipment, such as ladders and lawn mowers.

The possibilities for this modified form of shared life are endless. If we learn to trade child-care responsibilities, aid one another in menial tasks, take turns preparing those thousands of yearly meals, can’t our lives then be freed for more ministry, more growth, more becoming?

Not all creative applications of hospitality need to be revolutionary. In our dour and work-laden lives, an adventurous approach may be simply to plan an evening of delight and celebration.

One woman of the church reported to me that she and her husband were picking up my dropped ends of hospitality and were having informal get-togethers. I was relieved to hear this and surprised when she mentioned the names of several people I hadn’t as yet met. “We had a progressive dinner last night,” she reported. “And, we’re really pleased with the way everyone became so well acquainted.”

“A progressive dinner? Who else’s homes did you use?” I wanted to know.

“Oh, no one’s,” she replied. “We progressed to the bedroom for the appetizer, to the dining room for the main course, and to the living room for dessert. This circulation mixed everyone together.” This was to me another example of creative hospitality mixed liberally with delight.
 
 
 
 
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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 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.

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.
 
 
 
(OHOH-170)

I find that as I think creatively and become more yielded to the Spirit, I become sensitized to the world about me. Being more freed from self, virtually guarantees we will participate more in the lives of others.

We must learn to use our real limitations—those costly physical, emotional and financial drains—creatively.

Kurt Hahn, father of Outward Bound, whose schools use wilderness training to engender self-initiative, developed a philosophy early in life when he spent a year in a darkened room after suffering from a severe form of sunstroke. He explained, “Your disability is your opportunity.”

We as Christians must use our disabilities as our opportunities. How can we meet the overwhelming needs of the world when there is so much pain and so few of us? How can we use our limited potentials to their utmost?

One creative answer is by combining our resources with those of others. An answer to ministering hospitality, which has existed throughout the centuries, has been the commune. Many Christians today are living together, sharing homes and incomes in order to free themselves to make significant contributions in society, as well as in the church.
 
 
 
 
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

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.
 
 
 
(OHOH-169)

The Lord always honors us when we take steps of faith before Him. After I made the two vows I mentioned in the last blog post and began to implement them, I began to become strongly aware that the Word became alive and took form within my flesh.

I also began to recognize that, at the end of the three-month shopping fast period, an amazing number of unusual transformations had taken place in our home. Our downstairs living and dining areas had been carpeted by the good graces of a parent. Lovely old antiques had been discarded in my direction. Friends had dropped in to give us a hand emptying the paint buckets, their contents thickening in the basement.

All of this had occurred at the stimulation of the Spirit, not because of our requests we had made, nor of needs that we had spoken of to others!

Moreover, the Lord released me from that hungering thing that had gnawed at my soul. After a while, I found that it became easier to put the Kingdom first.

The hospitality we carried on during this time became more simple, also. People brought parts of the meals we hosted. I began to lean more toward inexpensive breakfasts and later-evening cheese and fruit affairs. The very simplicity of these opportunities for hospitality seemed to enhance the effectiveness of their intent.
 
 
 
 
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

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 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.

In addition, pastors will find special resources to help them create effective, life-transforming Sunday sermons by visiting David Mains’ website by clicking here.
 
 
 
(OHOH-168)

Several years ago, I realized there was a hungering thing in my heart, a too-much-caring after the goodly products of this world. I looked at our home, the unfinished rooms, the uncarpeted floors, the rickety, child-scarred furnishings, and realized that, with life being as it was, I was going to have to make a choice.

The economics of our life demanded that all decorating projects be hand-turned or homemade, taking hours, even months of work. Either I was going to have to devote my time to becoming the spiritual woman I knew God was calling me to be, or I was going to have to spend years getting our home in a shape that would satisfy my taste in design, color, and form. It was one or the other.

One afternoon I sat on the living room floor and flipped my Bible to that passage from Matthew about “worry not.” I realized I had been worrying. I had been fussing about bare walls and the lack of furniture. I had been spending hours imagining cleverly finished rooms.

The words from Scripture burned in my heart and I finally chose. “Kingdom first, Lord,” I prayed. “I will put everything aside and become what You want me to be.”

From that day, I began to spend regular hours in studying the Word and in prayer. In order to prove the depth of my intent, I made several vows before the Lord.

One was not to read anything but Scripture until I felt I had a working knowledge of that Book. This continued for a year. The other was to conduct a three-month shopping fast. I refused to enter any store but a grocery store. And, I looked to the Lord to provide any needs beyond food.
 
 
 
 
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

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 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.
 
 
 
(OHOH-167)

Simplicity is another self-imposed limitation for the Christian.

Again, I am referring primarily to an attitude. Once God’s Kingdom has become our priority, we will not always need to be asking, “What shall we eat, or drink, or put on?” He will provide.

Our hospitality can’t help but be influenced. Putting Christ’s Kingdom first will affect whom we invite, how we minister to them, and what we do with the material gifts added unto us after we establish this priority.

Simplicity finds its roots in this Kingdom mindset. We will deny ourselves participation in some forms of living for the sake of doing His work first in the world and for the sake of identifying with our Christian brothers. The ramifications of this priority will be different for each of us. For me it will mean one thing—serving economic stews and homemade soups and inviting guests to bring a variety of home-baked breads. For you it might mean another—spending the money to have an evening catered—or somewhere in between.

Putting His Kingdom before the other demands on our time and energy will also deliver us from living by comparison. In a world full of people attempting to “keep up with the Joneses,” this is another mark of adventurous thinking.

If a Christian brother or sister has more than I do materially, the Lord has given that to him or her. And, I will not wish for what he or she has. I can give to those who have been kind to me out of what I have. I don’t have to do the same thing for them that they did for me when I was last in their home.

If we find ourselves comparing, something is wrong. We are in danger of covetousness. Our attitude is not “Kingdom first.” If it was we would be freed from this interior wanting. Simplicity is the greatest freedom.
 
 
 
 
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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 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.

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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Some of my economic limits are self-imposed. When I look at many of the people in the city, or at those who suffer in this impoverished world, I often feel inordinately well off. My home with the tiny living room and its cramped city lot bordered by the back alley seemed palatial when compared to the hovels of many in the world.

In honor of these, we have deliberately imposed limits on ourselves. Our meat meals, particularly beef, are limited. My children are being introduced to that protein staple of thousands, black beans, rice, and corn tortillas.

Our garden, with its rows and rows of vegetables, is to me an important philosophical statement. Oh, yes, it supplies us with a bounty of nutritional food. But, it also helps us assert a dependence of the goodness of God to supply a portion of our food from the fruits of the labor of our hands.

For some it may be a creative response to serve creamed chicken with dumplings rather than the easier broiled sirloins. If my Christian brother, whom I invite, with a family of ten children and a low income, is out-classed by what I offer, made to feel as though he can never return the favor, then limitations need to be self-imposed. Of course, I need not be ridiculous and provide a meal ludicrously below my station, but I must be wise.

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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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