How Sewing Can Change Your life

Col. 2:2 that their hearts may be encouraged, being knit together in love, to reach all the riches of full assurance of understanding and the knowledge of God’s mystery, which is Christ,

Col. 2:3 in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.

This past Sunday night, we started knitting, or shall I say, God started knitting.  Not to think poorly of what had taken place at the Journey up until now, but the beginning of our Life Groups signifies the beginning of real depth in relationships at the Journey.  It signifies the beginning of really knowing each other.  Not just knowing about each other, but knowing each other like we know family.  In a very real sense, we go from just being friends to being gospel, blood bought, family.  The greek work for “knowing” each other signifies intimate knowledge that comes through sharing life together, not just sharing a Sunday morning experience together.

The knitting that God is doing, is really different because He is using the thread of love.  There are communities all around us that use different kinds of inferior thread.  They use the thread of commonality or affinity, where people come together around some equally appreciated hobby or recreation such as scrap-booking or softball.  Some use the thread of a cause, such as banning same-sex marriage, or getting a certain candidate elected.  Others use the thread of a subculture, such as Goths, or Southern Gospel music groupies.  All fun stuff, I am sure, but far inferior to the all encompassing thread of love that can bring together scrap-bookers and goths to live in harmony around the diamond that is Jesus and His gospel.

So, as we give ourselves to being known and knowing others truly, our hearts are being drawn together with this golden thread that only grows stronger as sin is covered through forgiveness and grace.  We are all broken in some way or the other, and this is the design of the Holy Spirit to make us whole.  Gospel in community is a powerful thing, and we are only on the front end of this thing.  There is much to anticipate as Jesus manifests His life in us through the relational dynamics of our groups.  This is the jewel of community; that Jesus is revealed and we experience the riches of “full assurance” and are privy to the “mystery” who is Christ in us.  Jesus is our source for the twin treasures of “wisdom” and “knowledge”.  This is the treasure that mankind has been seeking for millenia, usually looking in all the wrong places.  What we know is that Jesus is revealing the mystery of Himself as our only treasure to us in community as we are knit together in love.  How amazing is this?  How have we missed this for so long?  I mean, really….how have we been duped into thinking that we either can’t find Him at all or that He is found in some other way.  American individualism has kept us locked away from the treasure that we all want.

Just to make sure everyone’s synapses are firing correctly and you are getting this, do you notice in the text above that Paul says that our hearts are “being knit together in love, TO reach all the riches of full assurance of understanding…..”  That one little word, “to” is the key that unlocks this text and prepares us for the great adventure of pursuing the treasure of Jesus Christ the mystery.  The great adventure is community.  There is no other thing.  This is the genius of the Holy Spirit, the prism through which we see and walk in light.  Freakin’ awesome stuff.  Praise be Jesus who calls us to be woven together in a tapestry of love with our brothers and sisters in Christ and in the process reveals Himself to us.

Maybe this throws new light on life groups for you.  If it doesn’t, you are dead.  I mean, really…..does this not start a strobe light spinning in your mind?  If it doesn’t, read it until it does.  This means that unless you live on a desert island or some remote place, Jesus will be revealed to you in community.  This makes so much sense to me about why we have not been able to hack our way through the briars of poor understanding in our pursuit of Christ.  We have been trying to find Him through our individualized search when He is most rightly understood in the context of others who are seeking Him with you.  This is a very humbling truth.  It means that you are supposed to walk with others.  Not just that this is the suggested approach, but that you will be frustrated and discontent if you are searching for Him alone.  I have talked to hundreds of people throughout my ministry who have been so discouraged and disheartened by their devotional attempts to connect with Jesus.  Is this you?  Hmmmm…..I think it has been me.  No more.  I am done with my stumbling search for Jesus alone.  Community is where He is revealed most clearly today, and that is where I will search for Him as I am knit together with the members of my life group.

Okay…so I am getting long now.  Blogs are supposed to be short-ish.  I end with this.  Will you consider these things and let it compel you to open yourself up to the possibilities.  The possibility of seeing Jesus more clearly that you ever have before.  Read Colossians 2:2-3 a few more times.  Let it sink in.  I love you all.  I want this for you.  I want Jesus revealed to you like this.

About

We are a new church plant on the west side of Atlanta in the Austell and Mableton area. At the Journey, we are trying to re-form the church around the teachings and example of Jesus Himself while building relational bridges to people in the current culture. Out with the self-righteous, judgmental attitudes and the useless religious traditionalism, and in with the fresh wind of the timeless teachings of love and forgiveness, acceptance and repentance. Come and find a home at The Journey.