Hospitality - Genuine or Superficial?

Sometimes I really wonder if people understand a true relationship with Jesus. As I watch how people, even Christians, interact with each other I’m baffled and stand aghast in dismay. How can people have a relationship with an unseen God to the naked eye, when they have difficulty cultivating fellowship and hospitality with one another? Actually, when we belong to a church body a relationship turns into kinship because we are part of a family…the family of God and we often refer to ourselves as brothers and sisters in Christ.

A wonderful relationship is more than simply saying,

“Yeah, she’s my friend. I’ve known her for years.”

A meaningful relationship is more than spending time together. The art of friendship is genuineness with each other and ridding yourselves of superficial talk. You’re real with each other. You support each other. You encourage each other. You even get mad and sometimes hurt by the friends choices and words, but you know you can express your pain in love, get over the hurdle, and replace tears with laughter where joy in fellowship abounds once again.

Christ desires this meaningful relationship with us as well. A true relationship with Christ is more than simply saying one believes in the Great I Am. Sure to have a this fellowship does mean spending time in prayer with our Abba, but are we genuine when we talk to the Lord or are we superficial without all the details. Are we vague at best without specifics of our honest feelings? Do we understand and realize we are allowed to get mad at God and talk through our anger and tears and allow Jesus to replace our tears with peace and joy?

Maybe the lack of hospitality I see in many churches today isn’t so much that we don’t get along with each other, but perhaps we have forgotten the relationship which should come first; our relationship with Jesus Christ. If we “get real” with Jesus, we will be able to “get real” with each other. The lessons we learn in our kinship with Immanuel will carry over to the very people we love the most and those who need to be loved when they walk through our church doors for the first time. We need to seek each other with open arms as Christ seeks us.