Hospitality to the Marginalized

Dannah Gresh: Here's Christie Erwin.

Christie Erwin: There are kids who are relying on us today that need a family, that are waiting on you and me and those of us who are in the listening audience to say “yes” today.

Dannah: This is the Revive Our Hearts podcast with Nancy DeMoss Wolgemuth, author of Lies Women Believe and the Truth That Sets Them Free, for Friday, April 12, 2024. I’m Dannah Gresh.

What comes to your mind when you think of the word “hospitality”? Do you break out in a cold sweat? Do you envision a Pinterest-perfect house? Nancy’s helping us get back to the basics on what the Bible teaches about true hospitality. Let’s listen. 

Nancy DeMoss Wolgemuth: As I've been studying the whole matter of Christian hospitality, one of the things in the Scripture that has been most challenging to my own heart is to learn that God is a hospitable God—that He has a heart for hospitality.

We see in the Scripture that God is a refuge. He is the perfect host for those who seek refuge in His dwelling place. Psalm 90:1 tells us, "Lord, You have been our dwelling place in all generations." He is our heart's truest home. He's a hospitable God.

I discovered this past week a verse I'm sure I've read many times before, but I've never thought about it the way it hit me this week. In Deuteronomy 10:18, the Scripture says that God "loves the stranger, giving him food and clothing." Now, if that doesn't describe hospitality, I don't know what does. God loves the stranger, giving him food and clothing.

And what's the implication? The next verse: "Therefore, you are to love the stranger for you were strangers in the land of Egypt." Moses is saying, "God took care of you and brought you into His home. He was a host to you when you needed to be cared for. Therefore, you are to extend that hospitable heart of God to others who need it." 

God is a God who welcomes the poor and the needy. He welcomes the outcast. He welcomes the downtrodden. He welcomes the homeless. He say, "Come and find a home, come and find rest, come and find refuge in Me." In fact, I'm seeing this theme all through the Scriptures.

Just this morning in my quiet time, I came to Psalm 65:4. And here it is: 

Blessed is the man whom You choose,
And cause to approach You,
That he may dwell in Your courts.
We shall be satisfied with the goodness of Your house,
Of Your holy temple. 

God is a God who chooses us to approach Him. He says, in effect, "Come to My house. Come live with Me; come live in My presence." And the Scripture says that His hospitality is supremely satisfying. "We shall be satisfied with the goodness of Your house."

He is a God who initiates relationships. We didn't choose Him; He chose us. He's a host who has extended Himself to us. He desires a relationship with us. He pursues relationship with us. He doesn't just say, "Come to My house." He says, "Come be a part of My family." He adopts us into His family and says, "I don't want you to be a stranger anymore. I want you to be My sons and My daughters, to be My children, to be a part of My family."

We're all familiar with Psalm 23 and the imagery there of God being a shepherd. But in the second part of that psalm, we see a word picture of God being a gracious host. Verse 5 says, "You prepare a table before me." As a host, He feeds us. He prepares a meal for us; He nourishes us. He prepares a table before me "in the presence of my enemies." I'm safe when I'm at His table. The enemies of my soul may be looking on, but I'm protected when I'm in His home.

"You anoint my head with oil" (Psalm 23:5). That was an Old Testament picture for blessing and honor. You make me Your honored guest. You anoint my head with oil. You bless me.

"My cup runs over" (v. 5). God isn't a stingy host. He gives us hospitality in abundance; it's overflowing generosity and hospitality. The psalmist goes on to say, "Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life; and I will dwell in the house of the LORD forever" (v. 6).

The hospitality of God . . . He is a gracious host. He is the greatest host. He is the model for our being hosts; He is the model for our hospitality.

In fact, the Psalms tell us that the sin of the Israelites in the wilderness, when they were wandering in the wilderness, one of their great sins was when they doubted that God would be hospitable to them, when they doubted that God could and would meet their needs.

Psalm 78:19–20 says: 

Yes, they spoke against God:
They said, “Can God prepare a table in the wilderness?
Behold, He struck the rock,
So that the waters gushed out,
And the streams overflowed.
Can He give bread also?
Can He provide meat for His people?"

You see, the people of Israel accused God of being stingy or of being incompetent, unable to meet their needs when they were wandering around in the wilderness. And God judged them for this sin.

The passage goes on to say: 

Therefore, the Lord heard this and was furious . . .
Because they did not believe in God
And did not trust in His salvation.
Yet He had commanded the clouds above,
And opened the doors of heaven,
Had rained down manna on them to eat,
And given them of the bread of heaven.
Men ate angels' food;
He sent them food to the full. (vv. 21–25)

That passage is saying, "God was such a generous, gracious host with His people and their sin was in doubting His gracious hospitality."

It's as if the psalmist is saying, "It's unthinkable that God should be anything other than always generous and gracious." That says to me, "It's unthinkable that we, who have His name, should be anything other than always generous and gracious." His hospitality is the model for our hospitality.

You see this theme all through the Old Testament. The Old Testament prophets speak of a hope, a hope that was yet to come. It's a day they envisioned that God had revealed to them that one day God would act as a generous host at the end of time by preparing an eternal feast and entertaining His people Israel at that feast.

You see this referred to in a number of the prophets. To Isaiah the prophet, it was revealed that this meal would not only be for the Jews, but it would be for all people. The Gentiles would be included. God was going to open His table and open this feast, not just to His chosen people; but He would choose others who would also be welcome to this feast. And so we read in Isaiah 25:6:

And in this mountain
The LORD of hosts will make for all people
A feast of choice pieces,
A feast of wine on the lees."

God is saying, "I am going to have a gracious feast, an abundant feast, an incredible spread at the end of all time; it's an eternal banquet. And you're invited."

And this is the hope that gave the Jews the concept of hospitality—that they were to be hospitable as God was hospitable. So, God has made an eternal home for us: the place where this eternal feast will be held.

Scripture says in 2 Corinthians 5:1–2: 

For we know that if our earthly house, this tent, is destroyed [He's talking here about our earthly bodies, our earthly homes], we have a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. For in this we groan, earnestly desiring to be clothed with our habitation which is from heaven.

We all have a homesick heart. We have these bodies. We have these physical houses that we live in, but they're not enough. They're weak, they're frail, they're dying, they're falling apart. But we look forward to the hope of living in that eternal home that He has built for us, where He will host us eternally in His presence.

The incredible thing about our God is that He has invited us to come home with Him, to live with Him forever.

I've had people come and live for a time in my home. I remember a particular newlywed couple who came, and I invited them to live in my home. I thought it was going to be a few weeks, but it actually turned into several months. They were a great blessing in my life. But can you imagine inviting someone to come and live in your home with you . . . forever?!

I think about the heart of God. He says, "Come home with Me and live with Me forever. I want you to move in. I want to adopt you. I want you to live with me forever. The gospel itself is an invitation to come and enjoy God's home and His lavish banquet for all of eternity.

And so, when we're commanded to be hospitable, we're being told simply to show the world what God is like. He is hospitable. He is a gracious host. He is a generous host.

 

So we are to extend His heart to others. You see, our goal, our purpose, our calling as women of God is to show the world what God is like, to give the world a right opinion of God.

One of the things we're trying to do on Revive Our Hearts, through this whole ministry, is to believe God for a movement of women across this nation who will reflect the heart of God. One of the things we need to come back to (it's been lost by-and-large in our age) is this "heart of hospitality."

This is the ministry of hospitality—opening our homes, opening our hearts, opening our lives to other people, not being so consumed with ourselves but being selfless servants, entertaining others as He has entertained us.

So we have in this Scripture many earthy, physical pictures of spiritual, eternal realities. This is the one that is the most powerful, the visible. Our hospitality on earth is meant to point people to the invisible, to show them the hospitable heart of God. When we extend hospitality to strangers, to guests, to those who are lonely, to those who are outcasts, to those who are needy in different ways; what we're doing is making people hungry for that eternal feast. We're making them long to be a part of God's family. We're creating an environment that gives them a taste of the eternal realities, of what is available to them through God, the gracious host.

You know, so many people today have no concept of home, of home being a place of belonging, of security, of rest, of refuge, of safety. Christian hospitality is a way to show others what home really means, what God's home really means.

And so I ask you these questions: 

• What does your heart and the way you use your home say to outsiders about what God is like? 
• Is your life making people want to be home with God? 
• Is it making people love the concept of home? 
• What does your heart say about God's heart? 
• Are you reflecting His heart in a way that is worthy of Him?

Oh Father, what a gracious, generous, giving Host You have been to us—not only what You've given us this far. What we've received thus far is just a glimpse, just a downpayment of what You are preparing for us for all of eternity.

Thank You that You have invited us to come and live with You, and that You are preparing an eternal feast where we will be invited along with others who've trusted in You and repented of their sin and will be invited to live with You forever and to feast with You forever.

Oh Lord, what a party is coming! What celebration! What joys are ahead! Help us in the ways that we live to open our hearts and homes to others now to make people hungry for that feast and show them what a gracious, great Host You are. I pray in Jesus' name, amen.

Dannah: Wow, Nancy DeMoss Wolgemuth has just been reminding you of something absolutely amazing. If you’ve come to faith in Jesus, God has adopted you forever into His family and into His home!

We’re in a series on hospitality called “You’re Welcome Here.” It’s been so good to remember that when we open our homes to others, we’re showing what God is like. We’re living out the gospel.

Christie and Jeff Erwin have been doing that in some amazing ways through adoption and foster care. Christie is the executive director of Project Zero. The goal of this organization is to mobilize Christian families in Arkansas to take in every foster child in the state.

Let’s listen as Nancy talks with Christie about this unique form of hospitality.

Christie: Project Zero has one goal, and that’s to have zero kids waiting in foster care to be adopted. That sounds crazy. We have—in Arkansas—we have 500 kids, around 500 kids waiting. It’s a crazy, crazy goal, but, you know what? I serve a God of the crazy. I serve a God who is the author of zero.

And so when I keep that in my focus, there’s just no question that I’m going to dream big. I’m going to pray boldly. I’m going to stand firm. I’m going to press on with what He’s called me to do.

So Project Zero does three things: we raise awareness about the need through statewide Heart Gallery, through films . . .

Nancy: Whoa—what’s a Heart Gallery?

Christie: Heart Gallery? That’s a good question. I’m sorry. Heart Gallery is a collection of professional photographs. We have photographers all over our state who volunteer their time and talents to capture photos of our waiting kids. So we have an online exhibit and the website TheProjectZero.org. And we have three traveling exhibit that travel to churches and businesses. There’s something about hearing there’s 500 kids available. It’s a whole another thing to look them in the eyes.

Over the last couple of years we have taken another step further and given them a voice. So we work with a filmmaker to do short films to feature them. We’ve just seen tremendous success with people—inquiries coming in from Australia. They’re not going to go to Australia—they’ll be staying here—but Australia and England—people seeing and being moved to action by seeing our waiting kids.

So we raise awareness. We build hope in waiting kids by having monthly events—things like Project Prom where we take . . . This year, we took eighteen girls to buy their prom dresses and have lunch together.

Nancy: So some of these are older kids.

Christie: Yes. Many of them are older. The kids featured in our Heart Gallery will not usually be young unless they’re in sibling group. We’re talking: sibling groups and teenagers and kids who long to be adopted, who long to be homed.

We have seen . . . Last year we were honored and blessed to have 125 kids find their families as a result of Project Zero’s efforts, and, more importantly, as a result of God just setting kids in families. It’s just amazing. To get to be a part of that has been above and beyond everything, literally Ephesians 3:20, I could ever ask for or imagined.

Nancy: What happens if they don’t get adopted?

Christie: If they don’t get adopted—over 20,000 kids in the United States age out of foster care every year.

Nancy: What does that mean?

Christie: It means they’re cut free. They’re cut loose of the system, and they don’t have a family.

Nancy: At what age?

Christie: It can be anywhere from eighteen to early twenties. In Arkansas you can be in your early twenties and going to school or working. You can stay and have the system as your umbrella. But ultimately, they still don’t have a family.

And the statistics, I think I mentioned earlier, are just terrible for kids who age out. You can imagine, with no support—no one to teach you to buy insurance or budget or make your bed, or whatever it is. There is no family to come home to when you go to college—if you do go to college, which is a small percentage that do if they age out. So we’re fighting that fight, and I feel the responsibility of that heavily.

Nancy: You began praying that your church, which is a vibrant church here in the Little Rock area—your pastor and his wife are good friends of mine and ours.

Christie: Yes!

Nancy: How did you pray that the church would get involved?

Christie: Well, our church, our pastors have always been so open to hear what I have to say and to hear the need of the orphan. I just began to pray—on my own, not really publicly or mentioning it—that our church . . . We’re a great-sized church, but we’re not the biggest church in Little Rock, but I began to pray that we would adopt 10% of the waiting kids—which meant fifty—that we, our one church would adopt fifty waiting kids.

Now, to put that into perspective, one of the statistics we give is that if one family in every church in our city would adopt a child, one child, then all of the kids in our state would be taken care of.

So, to ask for a church to adopt fifty . . .

Nancy: That’s huge.

Christie: That’s just really big. But I prayed that. I didn’t pray it consistently like I should have, but I prayed it. I told our pastors that’s what I was praying and just kind of left it there. It’s been a couple of years ago, or maybe longer than that.

I got an email maybe two months ago, maybe not even that long, from the person that heads up our orphan ministry at our church. She said, “I just wanted to tell you we’re about to hit fifty.”

Nancy: Wow!

Christie: She said, “Next week, number fifty is going to be finalized.”

Now, that is just kids from the foster care system. We have other adoptions that have happened, which are important too, that are domestic and international.

Nancy: Yes.

Christie: But my specific prayer was based on my specific calling, which was kids in foster care who needed us.

Nancy: How did the church get the burden for this? How did you increase awareness and get this into the hearts of the people?

Christie: It’s just part of the DNA of our church. I think people began to see kids of different colors, kids that didn’t belong to you one week and the next week they’re with you. There was support both from the administration, the staff, the Body, and the Lord honored that. So I just basically said, “Well, okay, our prayers are too small now. Let’s go for 100. We need to up our prayers.”

Nancy: Tell us a couple stories of some families in your church that have made room for one more.

Christie: Oh my goodness. There are so many of them.

It was really interesting, I got a call one day from a young woman, a mother of three, and she said, “I have to see you this week.”

I said, “Okay.” She was not a great friend, but a good friend. She said, “I have to see you this week.”

I said, “Okay.”

She said, “I could not leave the church building until I called you.”

I said, “Okay, I can see you tomorrow.”

So we went to coffee, and she said, “I was sitting in church, and the Lord just said—it’s been rolling around in my brain, but the Lord said—‘This is what you guys need to do: You need to foster.’”

So I told her how to get going, get started. What was really interesting to me was my own personal rebuke because I’d never been so shocked in my life. She wouldn’t have been who I would have expected to answer that call. They immediately went through the process. They have already adopted two children, and they fostered countless—I don’t know how many.

So it’s like this multiplication happens. People begin to see, and they begin to think, Hey, maybe we could do this. Maybe we should do that. Maybe we should look into that. And just by example and by . . . I can’t stress the importance of a pastor embracing it and understanding it and realizing the urgent need.

Nancy: Yes.

Christie: That’s the thing. We can’t keep putting it off. There are kids who are relying on us today that need a family, that are waiting on you and me and those of us who are in the listening audience to say “yes” today.

Nancy: I think it’s easy to feel overwhelmed by the statistics, the hundreds of thousands in the country and worldwide who need families.

Christie: Yes. Absolutely—millions.

Nancy: And to think, I’m one person. I can’t handle . . . I can’t even process all those zeroes.

Christie: That’s right.

Nancy: But you’re saying one person, one family really can make a difference.

Christie: We talk a lot about the incredible power of a single “yes” and how that one “yes” can change lives.

Last year we had a big event for Project Zero at Capital Hotel with the teenagers. It was called “Dream Big.” We’ve done it two years. And it’s just to help them experience this fun, getting waited on, and all that kind of stuff. And we have an inspirational speaker.

One of the boys had been waiting for a family since 2009. I’d sort of known him. I’d moved his Heart Gallery picture a million times. We were sitting at the same table together, and they were debating the fact that I really did have six children.

He said, “You don’t have six.”

I said, “Yes, I do.”

“No you don’t.”

“Yes I do.”

So I said, “Do you want to see my family?”

And he said, “Yes.”

So I got up from my seat, and I went around in-between these two teenage boys, who at that time were living at the facility in another part of the state, and I pulled up my phone, and I showed a picture of my family.

He looked right up at me in my eyes, and he said, “Do you want to make it seven?”

Nancy: Wow!

Christie: I got back to my seat, and I thought—something just changed, and I’m getting ready to advocate for William. I’m telling you, this is not going to die. I started this all-out advocation for him. We talked about him on social media. We told stories about him. I went down to visit him, and we just began to talk about him. And the most incredible thing happened.

He was seventeen-and-one-half, so he was going to be eighteen. (He just turned eighteen.) William’s home. He has a family. He has a family because of one “yes,” because of one family that said, “I’m willing to step out in something that’s uncomfortable—a seventeen-and-a half-year-old who’s been waiting since 2009 for a family—and I’m going to say ‘yes.’”

And because of their “yes,” this godly family who loves him so well—his life is forever changed. He’s getting to play football. Instead of a cinder-block wall, he’s in a home with a family. God did that, but somebody had to be obedient. William is home now, and he is a delight. His whole countenanced has changed.

I saw him a couple of weeks ago. We hosted a birthday party for him. He loves basketball at the university here. He saw me, and he said, “Miss Christie, I want to volunteer at Project Zero now.”

Nancy: Wow.

Christie: He showed up at our last event—and we have events connecting waiting kids and waiting families all the time. We have little wristbands that they wear. It’s difficult, but we have to do it. So if you’re available for adoption, you’re in a green wristband. And if you’re in a sibling group, you’re in a turquoise. But if you’re not available, and you just happen to be there for some other reason, you’re in a red one.

So all these years he’s had a green one. He and I had our picture taken together in August at this event, and I posted on social media, and there in all of its glory was William’s red wristband.

Nancy: Wow.

Christie: People that had been following his story just commented on how beautiful that little paper wristband was because of what it said.

Nancy: Yes.

Christie: And what it said is, “This kid is valuable. This kid is loved. This kid is worth fighting for. This kid is home.”

And that’s what we need to happen with every single waiting child, but we can’t do it without the Body of Christ. We cannot do it without people who think they can’t do it, saying “yes.” It’s going to take all of us. It can’t just be a remnant. It’s going to take an army to make zero a reality. And God is in it. All we have to do is just say “yes” and be obedient to what He’s called us to do.

Dannah: That’s Christie Erwin, talking with Nancy DeMoss Wolgemuth about some of the amazing things God is doing for foster kids in Arkansas. Christie and her husband have adopted two children and fostered over fifty. They are living out God’s call for His people to show hospitality and display His heart.

Maybe God is tugging at your heart and calling you to get involved in adoption or foster care, or maybe there’s some other way that He wants you to show hospitality. This is something we are all called to in some way. 

To help your heart for hospitality grow, we’d like to send you a Bible study. It’ll help you and your friends get down to the core attitudes and motivations behind God-centered love for others. We’ll send you a copy of You’re Welcome Here when you request it along with your donation of any size to Revive Our Hearts. 

As a listener-supported program, we depend on the giving of friends like you to reach women around the world with messages like you hear on Revive Our Hearts. 

We’d love to hear from you. To make a donation, visit ReviveOurHearts.com and click where you see “Donate.” Be sure to ask about the new Bible study on hospitality from Revive Our Hearts, or you can call us at 1-800-569-5959.

And . . . to watch the video series that goes with the study, head to ReviveOurHearts.com/hospitality.

On the upcoming edition of Revive Our Hearts Weekend, we’ll continue exploring how we can reflect God in our homes. And this series, “You’re Welcome Here,” will continue on Monday. 

Can I invite you to attend your church this weekend? I hope you’ll make plans to hear the Word of God, with the people of God, in the house of God! Actually, the people of God are the house of God. How cool is that? Gathering with other believers is one of the best ways to both experience and show gospel-centered hospitality. I trust you’ll do that this weekend. 

And then, please be back Monday for Revive Our Hearts.

This program is a listener-supported production of Revive Our Hearts in Niles, Michigan, calling women to freedom, fullness, and fruitfulness in Christ.

All Scripture is taken from the NKJV.
 

*Offers available only during the broadcast of the podcast season.