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Wednesday December 3, 2008

Category: Living with Grander Vision

Bill Hybels Day 15: Where You Live

Welcome back to Beliefnet's exclusive Bill Hybels devotional, "Living with Grander Vision." This feed will appear in your profile every day for three full weeks. Did you miss any entries? Just stay subscribed, and the feed will begin again at the end of its cycle.

Matthew's tax-collecting ways were crooked, but Jesus was inclined to make the young man straight. "Follow me," he said to Matthew that day. And with immediacy, Matthew did just that.

Betrayer became kingdom-builder.
Corrupter became crusader.
Career sinner joined the company of the redeemed.

Matthew was introduced to the other disciples and all too quickly soaked up the soulish intimacy, laughter, candor, and camaraderie the Christ-following life has to offer. He was equal parts elated and indicted by the fresh joy he'd found. I'm loving all of this, he probably thought, but what about my tax-collecting friends whose lives are going nowhere and whose eternities still hang in the balance?

He threw a party and invited all of his friends, including his most recent one, Jesus Christ. And he held it in his home. The place where Matthew lived would become Common Ground as old-life friends shook hands with New Life incarnate.

I frequently envision that party when I'm in my own home with guests from various faith backgrounds. I imagine Matthew pulling Jesus off to the side, by the punch bowl, and pleading, "Please make something happen here tonight, and please use me to do it!"

It's the same petition I pray to God these days:

Do something amazing in the place I call home.
Draw people to it.
Help people feel at ease in it.
Wrap your Spirit around it.
And use that setting to transform lives.
___
Do nearby friends and neighbors consider your home a welcoming place, or would they describe it using different terms? What simple step can you take today to begin establishing a transformational setting, right where you live?

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