My Dear Friends,
It would appear that the old custom of "First-Footing" is fast falling out of favour with the majority of folk today. The habit of bringing a New Year's greeting across your neighbour's doorstep as soon as the last chimes of midnight had sounded on the 31st December seems to be no longer what it used to be.
Can I propose a "New Year Resolution" for us as a Church and as individual believers as we take up our positions at the start of this year of 1969? Can we endeavour to hold fast that good old biblical custom of CHRISTIAN "First-Footing"? The Bible doesn't call it that, of course, but the sentiment is surely the same when we are exhorted to "give" ourselves "to hospitality", or to be "kindly affectioned towards one another". The Christian door, according to the Word of God, is to be an ever-open door; the kettle is always on the boil and there is always an extra potato in the pot.
What a sad thing it is when we hear of believers - and unbelievers as well – who are so often left out in the cold simply because we let the spiritual gift of fellowship through hospitality drop dead through failing to exercise it. Our lord spoke about "standing at the door" and knocking to gain an entrance so that He might "sup" with us and we with Him. He also said that "as much as ye have done it unto one of these the least of my brethren, ye have done it unto me." When our doors fail to open to our brethren and sisters in Christ they fail to open to Christ.
Is there a believer in the congregation in need of help - spiritual or temporal? Then surely, there should be a hundred open doors where he can enter with his burden and have it halved by having it shared. Are there any sick amongst us? Then do our doors open out the way as well as in? That is, is our hospitality outgoing as well as incoming, to take us to their bedside? What about the old folk or those who live alone? Consider the young parents of the Church.. They seldom are able to go up to the house of the Lord together; it is usually "one in the morning and one in the evening," unless granny comes to baby-sit. Have we ever offered to "stand guard" until the evening service is over?
And what of those still unconverted to Christ? There was another old custom in the Church of an earlier age and that was the "cottage meeting" when the house was opened for the work of the gospel. What a source of good those gatherings were. And, of course, we must remember that the Church, too, has an open door — wide enough to receive all your unconverted friends! Remember the "one borne of four"? Four men who really showed their faith in Christ and their concern for their lame friend by carrying him to Jesus. What a joy it must have been when all FIVE walked home together. Surely there is only one thing comparable, and that is when a believer perseveres in bringing that unconverted friend under the sound of God's Word until that night when they both walk home together partakers of the same grace and of the same Spirit.
That stranger in the congregation; that face that SEEMS familiar, because you have been seeing it for a few weeks now; that man, or that woman, or that young person that you're not quite sure of. Why not be a "first-foot" to them? Extend your hand and open your heart and your home, and so fulfil that precious calling that Christ has given to you.
