At the beginning of this year, I did a Bible reading plan called the “30-Day Shred.” If you have the Bible app on your phone that says “Holy Bible,” you can look up the reading plan. It takes a couple of hours a day to get through, but there is an audio setting, so you can listen to it in your car or during workouts to stay on track.

It is an interesting way to experience the Bible. Reading that quickly, you don’t get caught up in individual words or phrases; instead, you start noticing repeated themes and patterns. One theme that comes up over and over is the call to hospitality. God tells His people to remember their time as outsiders in Egypt by caring for outsiders and showing them hospitality.

In the story of Zacchaeus, Jesus is the outsider geographically—this is not His town; He is just passing through. But in this case, Zacchaeus is the true outsider. I don’t imagine many people in Jericho lined up to invite Zacchaeus to sit down for a meal and conversation. And I also don’t imagine that Zacchaeus extended many invitations either. He had to know what people thought of him, and rather than face the rejection of turned-down invitations, Zacchaeus probably ended up alone often.

So Zacchaeus hides in the branches and heavy foliage of a tree, trying not to be seen—because to be seen would be to risk rejection. But when Jesus sees him, He accepts him. Jesus extends hospitality by inviting Himself to Zacchaeus’ house.

As I type this devotion, I am on a mission trip to Miami with our Wave College ministry. One of the missionaries here told us that most people think a church starts when someone plants a church, makes disciples, and begins engaging the community with the gospel. But he said that when you look at how churches started in the New Testament, they always began by personally engaging the community with the gospel, making disciples, and then planting the church—that came last.

The word hospitality comes from the Latin hospes, which means guest. The Greek word for hospitality is philoxenia, which breaks down into phileo (brotherly love) and xenos (foreigner or stranger).

Take a moment to pray. Ask God to show you the outsiders and strangers in your life today—those who need your hospitality and an opportunity to engage with the gospel through you. Then, reach out to them and see what God can do in their lives through you.