Making the Gospel Real

Jonathan Wilson-Hartgrove  http://jonathanwilsonhartgrove.com  lives in a "new monastic community" in Durham, NC.  The group is called Rutba, named after a town in Iraq that showed Jonathan and his wife, Leah, hospitality while they were traveling there. 

In an article Jonathan said: 
“I’m convinced that we don’t fully comprehend the gospel until we have been forgiven for something particular, not just general forgiveness for general sins,” he says. “I had to live in community to learn the parts of my personality that hurt other people and hear them say, ‘We still love you and we’ll keep living with you.’ That made the gospel real for me.”

What particular thing has God used to show you real forgiveness and the power of the Gospel?


We judge our worth way too much on how good things are or are not going in our life.  When really, it is the mess up's and failures that tend to show us the real power of God's love.  The deep trials of my life have been times that God has molded me and made me into a person that is holding on to fewer idols for myself and experiencing the good news that I am loved no matter what!  That is an awesome experience.  


In my life, when I have seen things going "good" and as a sign of God's blessing, I would often later find out I was trusting in an idol or limiting what God really wants to do with my life, or just judging "blessing" by the wrong standard. Often then God would show me how I was hurting myself or others with a particular sin that needed to stop.  It always hurts, but in the end I have always seen His love bigger than my failures and pain and I hear him say something like, "I still love you and I will keep living with you!"


I hope the Gospel is being made real in your life today.
“Blessed are the poor in spirit,
   for theirs is the kingdom of heaven"  Matt. 5:3


God be with you on the Journey!
Kevin