Hi GEM. Thanks for your vote of confidence and I have replied to your mail, unless there's another. Guess Who wants to come to Christmas Dinner at your house? :)
Honestly onyx, if I could gather up my friends and all the nearby strays (humans!) to eat at my table, I would do it. Every time I read this Scripture, it grips me, and I hope and pray some day to be able to fulfill it. (And I don't think Jesus meant we can't invite our friends when we want to have fellowship with them! He was explaining a different principle, one that goes beyond reciprocal friendship, here.)
Luke 14:12 And He also went on to say to the one who had invited Him, "When you give a luncheon or a dinner, do not invite your friends or your brothers or your relatives or rich neighbors, otherwise they may also invite you in return and that will be your repayment. 13 But when you give a reception, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, the blind, 14 and you will be blessed, since they do not have the means to repay you; for you will be repaid at the resurrection of the righteous."
I know God wants us to do things so He can reward us, but this is truly one of those things I want to do even if I never were to receive a reward for it. I have known the pangs of dining while longing for company ... I can't even imagine what those without homes must go through at holiday times, or those whose lives are in temporary disarray and they have no place to land and feel loved while they break bread together.