Knit together in love.... SO THAT....

I don't normally take requests, but since it was from one of my favourite people...
A couple of Tuesday nights ago I spoke at home group about being knit together in love (of course I brought my knitting as a visual aid, can't help it, I'm an ESL instructor, I was taught to use 'realia' in the classroom (that's a fancy TESL word for real stuff))...here goes (although I've never been a verbatim person, so lots will be missing and the wording will be different. See if you can fill in the blanks).

How would you like to be "Abounding in wealth, have the blessings of assured convictions and understanding, being progressively more intimately acquainted with and know more definitely, accurately and thoroughly the mystery of God, who is Christ Jesus"? I believe I found a key that I knew sort of but not to the depth that the Lord has shown me recently. Before I'm finished you will all want to join the Lord's knitting class...after all he was the original knitter. The scripture I just quoted is from Colossians 2:2 (Amplified Version). It is a plea from Paul to be knit together in love SO THAT (two very important words in this passage) we might know Christ in the way mentioned above. About 10 years ago the Lord told me he wanted to knit the body of Christ together so that we might become a net that catches men. He wanted to tie up the 'loose' ends, pick up the slipped stitches as it were and weave them into a colourless seamless net. Let me say off the top there are no misfits in Christ. In fact we are the misfits that fit together, "woven into a tapestry of love" (The Message, Col. 2:2). In Christ there are no distinctions. The Message says....”Words like Jew and non-jew, religious and irreligious, insider and outsider, uncivilized and uncouth, slave and free mean nothing. From now on everyone is defined by Christ, everyone is included in Christ". Perhaps today we could say that words like rich or poor, Goth or punk, jock or skater, prep or geek, young or old, black or white, (you fill in the blanks) don't exist. It is unity expressing itself in diversity, faith expressing it self in love. The very fact that we are all so different and yet can truly love one another is amazing and reveals Christ in the world. And yet the very thing that can bring glory to Jesus is exactly where the enemy likes to stir up trouble, that is continually having us pointing out our differences. Yet I can counter that in Christ, though we all are unique, in the end we all dress the same, we all fit in because we are clothed in Christ Jesus, clothed in the "white linen of the saints". All this is so that we might know Christ more intimately and reveal Him to the world. We've been talking a lot about loving one another, community and fellowship. My previous blog (in case you haven't read it) mentions what characterizes a healthy family and LOVE is the number one ingredient. This love is not limited to so-called insiders but makes room for others. A healthy family never stays stagnate, but always allows room for growth. In fact, if there is no growth, or offspring, it is a sign of ill health. So loving one another, being knit together will have two outcomes. First and foremost it will draw us into a deeper experiential knowledge of Jesus Christ and the second is like it. It will open the door to drawing more people into the net of love the Lord wants us woven together into.