How connected do we feel?

Deep, meaningful, authentic friendships are something that most people are looking for. Most of us long for those friendships in which the conversation can stop and be picked up years later, right where it was left. God has demonstrated that level of friendships again and again centered on the gospel and built up in the church.

The gospel, the good news of Jesus, changes everything. For those who hold to the message of Christ, it redefines life, our relationships and our ultimate purpose in life. The testimony of the early church was of how faith in Christ changed everything about everything. That is still the testimony of the church. Faith in Christ, trusting in the gospel, changes everything about everything.

At least it should.

In the book of Philippians, Paul writes to this church of the joy he has in his life because the Philippians are in his life. At the time he wrote the letter he was in prison in Rome and they were hundreds of miles away. Yet he spoke about them as if he had seen them that morning.

Today we do not think much about talking to someone on the other side of the world. Traveling last year to the Mediterranean, I was able to receive texts from home. I was able to keep up on events, the weather and hear from my kids whenever they wanted to share something. Some who were texting with me didn't even know I was out of town. So while today we have more capability to be connected, the question remains: How connected do we feel?

Paul felt connected. He held them in his heart (Phi. 1:7). As a people, the Philippians were vastly different from him. They came from different backgrounds and although, as he writes, in different parts of their world they were united together because of Christ.

The church, as the Bible describes it, is the one place to have deep, real authentic relationships. The place where people pray for, think of and care for each other because of what Christ has done for each of them.

The church with all its flaws and faults should be where the deepest friendships are grown in grace.

Faith in Christ and the power of the gospel is the difference between being known and being a number.

Robert Hurtgen is a husband, father, minister and writer. Read more of him at robhurtgen.wordpress.com.