Look! I stand at the door and knock. If you hear my voice and open the door, I will come in, and we will share a meal together as friends. (Revelation 3:20, NLT)
I was at a retreat in the mountains of Taiwan alone for a few moments just with my Bible and nature. I was sitting at a little table wishing I could just stay there and talk with God. It was cold, and some hot tea would have been welcome as we sat and talked together. It was an important moment that was quiet, still, but emotional. Life had been so hard lately and busy, always busy. This moment of solitude and stillness nearly brought me to tears. I was able to be still and know that he is God.
Throughout Scripture we see clearly that God longs to have a relationship with us, to have fellowship with us. In Revelation 3:20, Psalm 23, and other verses we see that the descriptions God uses in his word to us is about eating together and being together.
When God instructed the Israelites to build the tabernacle, He said “Have the people of Israel build me a holy sanctuary so I can live among them.” (Exodus 25:8, NLT)
In 1 Corinthians 6:19, we are told our bodies are “the temple of the Holy Spirit, who lives in you and was given to your by God” We are the tabernacles of today.
The whole Bible is the story of God providing a way for us to be reconciled to him and able to spend time with him in relationship. In Genesis, before the fall, God would walk with Adam and Eve in the garden in the evenings. How humbling is it to realize God enjoys being with us and wants that kind of fellowship with us today? .
As we think about hospitality, we cannot neglect the most important hospitality, and that is welcoming Christ into our lives.
Of course, the first step to this is what we call salvation. It is when we choose to follow Christ, turning away from our sin, and God cleanses us, forgives us, and makes us whole. He adopts us into his family as his dear children and as his friends. We are made new creations through Christ Jesus.
Welcoming Christ into our lives as believers means we surrender our lives and grow in our faith. True faith in Christ means total surrender or our lives, our desires, and our plans putting it all in his hands, choosing to follow Christ daily. Often, we are tempted to hold back parts of our lives. We see how sinful we still are and how often we still choose to act selfishly and pridefully.
Robert Boyd Munger wrote a booklet called “My Heart-Christ’s Home” where he imagines Jesus coming to the home in our hearts, and he considers where we may try to withhold parts of ourselves from Christ.
There’s an old worship song that I always loved: “My Heart, Your Home.” The lyrics says,
“Come and make my heart your home.
Come and be everything I am and all I know
Search me through and through
‘Till my heart becomes a home for you”
One of the mysteries of welcoming Christ into our lives, and making our hearts his home, is it really is him making our hearts more Christlike. Ephesians 3:17 says it beautifully. We desire to bless Jesus, but he is actually the one blessing us, helping us grow, trust, and stay strong. He gives us the faith to follow him and be his child. Salvation and living the Christian life really is all about Christ, and it originates with his amazing generosity of faith, mercy, and grace.
Then Christ will make his home in your hearts as you trust in him. Your roots will grow down into God’s love and keep you strong. (Ephesians 3:17, NLT)
This verse, booklet, and song make me long for my life to be a place where Christ feels at home, where we have fellowship together unhindered by pet sins and ungodly attitudes. How can we make our lives more hospitable for Christ? In other words, what steps can we take to truly surrender our lives to Christ more fully?
Clearing Space (Decluttering):
- Matthew 6:21 (NLT): “Wherever your treasure is, there the desires of your heart will also be.”
- What occupies our hearts? What consumes our thoughts? What do we desire? Do our plans, wishes, and dreams follow God or self? Even as believers, we can get off track if we have not truly surrendered our whole lives to Christ. We can fool ourselves. We must ask God to show us where we are holding back in our commitment to him. We must let him declutter our hearts of the things that do not honor God but hinder our relationship with him.
Daily Maintenance:
- Psalm 119:9-11 (NLT): “How can a young person stay pure? By obeying your word. I have tried hard to find you—don’t let me wander from your commands. I have hidden your word in my heart, that I might not sin against you.”
- Luke 9:23 (NLT): “Then he said to the crowd, “If any of you wants to be my follower, you must give up your own way, take up your cross daily, and follow me.”
- We must daily choose to follow Christ and strengthen our walk through daily prayer, Bible reading, and Christian fellowship. These practices strengthen our walk with Christ. Daily we maintain our relationship with God, fixing our eyes on him.
Creating Welcome:
- John 15:4 (NLT): “Remain in me, and I will remain in you. For a branch cannot produce fruit if it is severed from the vine, and you cannot be fruitful unless you remain in me.”
- Spiritually speaking, creating welcome for Christ means we abide in him. As John 15 teaches us, the Christian life is a life of abiding or remaining in Christ. We can do nothing of any eternal value in our own strength. We cannot even walk by faith without abiding in Christ. As we remain connected to Christ, this is spiritual hospitality and fellowship with Christ. As we create welcome for him, we realize he has extended a welcome to us since before we were born.
The transformation that occurs:
- 2 Corinthians 3:18 (NLT): “So all of us who have had that veil removed can see and reflect the glory of the Lord. And the Lord—who is the Spirit—makes us more and more like him as we are changed into his glorious image.”
- Galatians 2:20 (NLT): “My old self has been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me. So I live in this earthly body by trusting in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.”
- As we walk with Christ in full surrender, we are transformed. We become more Christlike. We live for Christ alone. This should be our desire and prayer daily. The unhindered fellowship with Christ brings a fullness of joy and overwhelming peace. Our hearts long for this kind of fellowship with God. There is a kind of gracefulness and ease in the transformation into daily welcome in Christ’s presence.
We are works in progress, but if we want fellowship with Christ, and if we want to welcome him daily into every area of our lives, we have an amazing promise. In John 14:23 (NLT): “Jesus replied, “All who love me will do what I say. My Father will love them, and we will come and make our home with each of them.”
How wonderful is it to realize that Jesus is happy to accept our gift of hospitality extended to him? He wants to sit with you today. We can choose like Mary did to sit at his feet and learn from him today. (Luke 10:39) Or we can sit at a table sipping hot tea, praying and reading God’s word knowing that he is sitting right there with us.
