11 For the grace of God has appeared with salvation for all people, 12 instructing us to deny godlessness and worldly lusts and to live in a sensible, righteous, and godly way in the present age, 13 while we wait for the blessed hope and appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ. 14 He gave Himself for us to redeem us from all lawlessness and to cleanse for Himself a people for His own possession, eager to do good works.
The very first time we have someone over for dinner in our home, my wife will often clean from top to bottom and spend a good deal of time preparing a meal and place settings to warmly welcome our guests. We want them to feel at home in our home.
We recognize that if the goal is a glowing report from our guests, we need to invite them into something special, so we spruce everything up. We also want to invite people into Candeo by doing our very best to make it a place where guests can feel at home.
That said, if you are family, you are put to work. My wife, kids and I get after getting our home in ship-shape before guests come over. It is a common goal and we all work together to get things in order. It’s good to pitch in, to contribute, to know that your efforts are making it possible for someone else to feel welcomed into what you already find exciting.
Do you love Candeo? Do you call it home? Are we your family? Don't just dine and dash on Sundays. Stick around. Get eager to get after good works by signing up to serve. It is fun to pull your weight and to give back to the family you love. It makes it possible for the whole family to be more productive and it creates a place we are excited to welcome others into.
We will set a pace for servant-hearted sacrifice if we embrace our role in the family of God by getting after the good works He has placed before us. It will help our family to be healthy internally and attractive externally to our guests. It will be natural for them to sign up to serve after they become part of our family because that is the pattern they’ve observed from the beginning when they were just our guests.
Jesus redeemed us for His service so that the ones we serve might surrender their lives to serve Him too.
So let’s get to work!
God, thank You for adopting us into Your family because of Jesus. We are so happy to be part of Your family. Forgive us for being so upset about having chores to do. We get to live under Your roof, sleep in safety, eat Your food and call You dad. We love being Your kids. Thank You for good work to do. Please use them for our good, Your glory and our neighbor's testimony that You are good (Mt 5:16) Amen.
