LTP 24- Finding Good News In Harsh Places

In this podcast Episode, David Loveless talks about how good news is birthed in harsh places.

Listen to the Audio

Here is a brief summary of today’s episode of “The Live True Podcast.”  You can use this as a reference or reminder of key things you feel like you need to pay attention to or pass on to others, in the next 7 days of your life.

For most of us, we’ve believed that good news is birthed in good places, not harsh places.  But Mark 1 turns that notion on its ear.

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Mark 1:1-4  The beginning of the good news about Jesus the Messiah, the Son of God, as it is written in Isaiah the prophet:  “I will send my messenger ahead of you, who will prepare your way”— “a voice of one calling in the wilderness/desert, ‘Prepare the way for the Lord, make straight paths for him.’” And so John the Baptist appeared in the wilderness/Desert, preaching a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins.”

 I’m drawn toward the fact that the beginning of the good news… the birthplace of the good news is in the desert.- where it feels like bad news.

Listen to David’s examples, in today’s audio podcast, of his time in both deserts and gardens.

All of living, loving, & leading seem to flow on a continuum

between garden and desert experiences.

Garden experiences Desert experiences
Promised land

Lush

Abundance

Joyful

Easy

No mans land

Barren

Scarcity

Painful

Difficult

It’s interesting to me that our spiritual story begins in a garden in Genesis 2:8… and our biological story begins in a garden-like womb.

But, look where we’re first introduced to the ministry of Jesus —in the desert.  God’s Good News Tour doesn’t open on top of a scenic mountain or in a palatial garden. It starts from a place of isolated emptiness.

Listen to the audio podcast as David describes how he reacted over the years, to have desert-like experiences and what was the result of them.

 Luke 3: 4-6   “A voice of one calling in the wilderness, ‘Prepare the way for the Lord, make straight paths for him. Every valley shall be filled in, every mountain and hill made low.  The crooked roads shall become straight, the rough ways smooth.  And all people will see God’s salvation.’”

In your place of difficulty or temptation or hardship where you feel most exposed to enemies activity… God says make a straight path for me there and let me walk there…  let me walk in the desert place of your life and let’s walk straight into it and straight through it.

Here is another part of challenge of Luke 3: many people never step foot in the church because they don’t feel welcomed or invited.  They see the church as an exclusionary institution, that decides who’s right and who’s wrong.

The church often makes mountain tops higher

and the valleys deeper for people to get through.

It tends to turn the whole thing into an obstacle course.

But the job of true religion is to make it easy for people to understand and draw close to the very thing they were made for.

Here’s several things I had to ‘get straight’ in my desert…

A.   I had to ‘get straight’ in my mind that this path, while difficult beyond description, was going somewhere profoundly good and it wasn’t to hell.

B.   I had to ‘get straight’ in my mind that this path, wasn’t going to last forever…. even though I could see no other road ahead.

Jesus came bringing this good news.  And a part of what makes it so good is that it stands up to the heat of even the most difficult places.

Where is your desert?  Your place of need?

Wherever that place is for you, God says let me walk with you THERE, because I’m not ashamed of it anymore than I am ashamed of you.  I’m good news to you in the desert, as well as the garden.  I love you. I’m with you…wherever you are.

Here are some amazing words from Isaiah 35:

Wilderness and desert will sing joyously, the badlands will celebrate and flower—Like the crocus in spring, bursting into blossom, a symphony of song and color.  Energize the limp hands, strengthen the rubbery knees. Tell fearful souls, “Courage! Take heart! God is here, right here, on his way to put things right And redress all wrongs. He’s on his way! He’ll save you!”

Springs of water will burst out in the wilderness, streams flow in the desert. Hot sands will become a cool oasis, thirsty ground a splashing fountain.

The people God has ransomed will come back on this road. They’ll sing as they make their way home, unfading halos of joy encircling their heads,  Welcomed home with gifts of joy and gladness as all sorrows and sighs scurry into the night.

David finishes this podcast with a blessing for you in your desert places.

To find out more, listen to this podcast in its entirety by clicking on the play button.

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LTP 8- Redefining the Family and Mission (with guest Dave Rhodes)

What’s the best way to live?  By re-defining what “Family” is and what “Mission” is and then learning how to integrate the two… for a powerful new way to live.

Here is a brief summary of today’s episode of “The Live True Podcast.”  You can use this as a reference or reminder of key things you feel like you need to pay attention to or pass on to others, in the next 7 days of your life.

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Most of us value the WHAT of our life over the WHO of our life. That happens when we make decisions concerning our WHAT before our WHO.

* Our WHO has to do with an extended family (often not biological family, but can include parts of it) given to us to experience the relational community we yearn for.  WHO is about family.

* Our WHAT has to do with the job or mission we’ve been given in the world. Everything in the marketplace has a higher purpose than what we first imagined.  WHAT is about function.

Sunday Gathering With David & Caron Loveless

IMG_5958Many people regularly ask us if we are teaching or leading anywhere these days.  The answer is: “Yes.”

We teach and lead through our weekly business called: “Live True.” found at  youlivetrue.com.  We do this through our weekly blogs that we write; weekly counseling & coaching sessions we do for individuals, couples, leaders, and teams; and through other speaking opportunities that we have.

We also teach and lead through our weekend gathering that meets in our home.  We decided for this season of our life, we just wanted to be a part of

  • something small and intimate where each of us could better know one another;
  • where we could demonstrate spiritual practices that have been life-giving to us & help people practice themselves (without feeling intimidated or uncomfortable);
  • and where we could teach from the scriptures, just a few of the many amazing things that have been creating breakthroughs in our living, loving, and leading.  And then for people to be able to discuss what they’ve heard.

Whose Side Are You On?

IMG_4940Lately, the news has been a barrage of “tribal warfare.”

* Gay vs Straight court rulings

* Confederates vs the Union

* North Korea vs South Korea

* Republicans vs Democrats

* Jews vs Arabs

* Russia vs just about Everybody

And, I would probably be remiss, if I didn’t mention the Dallas Cowboys ( or YOUR favorite team) Vs their opponents.

Somewhere we were made to believe there will always be TWO sides to everything and we need to pick one and it better be the right one… and we better defend that baby as if our life depended on it.

Well, at one time, our lives did depend on it. 

In the ancient world, your survival was directly connected to the strength of your tribe.  The security of tribal life allowed humans to live longer and to be more prosperous. Everyone knew their place in the tribe and their whole existence was devoted to the dominance and preservation of the tribal unit.

To survive wild beasts and enemy attacks your tribe must be stronger, smarter and more superior than its adversaries.

 In the ancient world it was always US vs THEM.  

And this went for tribal religion too. Everyone had their gods and goddesses or the forces or deities they worshipped and believed would guide and protect them.  Whenever you went to war with  another tribe you were not only going for self defense or access to resources but your god was confronting their god.  (Think David vs Goliath.)

We learned it was important to cooperate and show allegiance to the leaders and values of our tribe if we hoped to advance in life. Our tribe became our whole identity and we rallied around sacred tribal objects like flags and colors and we revered sacred places like Athens or Rome or Mecca or Jerusalem.

In human development, we move from being a baby, totally consumed with our own needs, to being an individual who identifies with a specific group…some kind of family structure that gives us food, clothing, shelter and hopefully, love. Without their help we’re dead.

As a child some form of tribalism is necessary if we hope to make it to our next birthday.

 And it also becomes a perfect greenhouse to grow one’s ego.

 In Genesis 12 God called Abram to be the leader of a new kind of tribe.  Remember Father Abraham?  (...had many sons and many sons had father Abraham.  I am one of them, and so are you, so let’s just…)

Anyway, Abram’s tribe was supposed to be different in that his would exist to be a blessing to ALL other tribes.  

Radical concept.  

As this new tribe of Abraham’s grew, they carried with them a sense of calling that they were to play a unique role in the world, to not only concern themselves with their own blessing but to make sure that everyone else experienced that blessing, too.

In the modern world, we still need our tribe to get us going in life and to care for us when times get tough. But, a serious problem emerges when we over- associate with our sub group or heritage, when we place too much dependence and significance on our tribe, when pretty much our whole identity is wrapped up in or represented by that group.

Lately, I’ve been reflecting on how God always seems to be calling us to a bigger vision.

A way to grow up and out of all our little tribes.

He leads us from: 

– multiple families into One Family

– multiple gods to One God

– multiple parts into One Body

– separation into integration

– our many small kingdoms into His One Great Kingdom

– “them” into “us.”

It seems real Kingdom religion is about making ONE out of TWO.  Whatever is separate, Christ comes to connect… and bring together, and make one.

I’m struck by how the woman in Mark 5 (treated inferior by the men of her time) whom we are told had an “issue of blood” for 12 years ( which deemed her “impure” by her religious group) was  addressed by Jesus as “daughter.”  He immediately identifies with her.  He immediately unifies with her…he calls her family.

Not only that, but He wants to demonstrate to her (and everyone else)

that there aren’t TWO categories: clean and unclean. 

But only ONE category: Good.  

We see him rejecting a tribal law that would call him “unclean,” and get him banned from town if he so much as accidentally touches her.

Jesus seems to want her to know that no matter what the “tribe” may have said she was in no way rejected by God.  She was fully accepted. And he seemed to be willing to stake his ministry on it.

Religion has an amazing ability, as Richard Rohr says, at its lower levels,

to declare certain types of people as outsiders.  

There’s always someone who isn’t as worthy as we are to be included.

The astounding thing to me is almost every single person Jesus touched, ate with, healed or associated with had been banned for one reason or another by his tribe. Time and time again Jesus shocked the crowds and defied his tribal leaders in order to demonstrate God’s higher law.

 Jesus came to show us there is no “them.” There is only “us.” 

Did people get mad? Was it potentially messy? Would there be age old animosities to overcome?  Oh, yeah. But, apparently, for Jesus,

alienation was the only thing

that was ultimately unacceptable in God’s Kingdom. 

Whether we think someone looks in or out, pure or impure, right or wrong Jesus’ words to the thief nailed next to him, are the litmus test for acceptance and what I pray will be the words that pour from my heart toward those from “other” groups. He says,

“Welcome. You belong with me no matter what.

We are not separate.  Come on in.”

Romans 10:12 “For there is no difference between Jew and Gentile- the same Lord is Lord of all and richly blesses all who call on him…”

Galatians 3:26,28 “So, in Christ Jesus you are (ALL) children of God…There is neither Jew nor Gentile, neither slave nor free, nor is there male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.”  

so…

– Who are “the outsiders” according to your current tribe? 

 – What forms of ancient tribalism are you holding on to that ban, ostracize or keep you separate from those of “lesser” worth?

I want to quit taking sides… to quit overly identifying with one tribe over another …to quit feeling like my worth is dependent on whether our tribe wins the cultural war of the moment.

I want to quit relishing that feeling of being better than someone else… superior to someone else… more holy or correct than those other people.

I really do want to place my citizenship in the Kingdom of God,

that unifies all, receives all, forgives all, touches all and loves all.

 Though, I will admit, this might get tough this season when the Cowboys make it to the playoffs.

 

You can reach me at [email protected]

***THANKS for SHARING this blog with someone you think might be interested.

When It Comes To Easter- Size Matters

When it comes to Easter- Size Matters.

Welcome to Mastering Monday —where I hope to tackle some often experienced but not often talked about personal and professional issues affecting leaders. 

Since today is the day after Easter, which is basically the World Cup of the big “C” church, I want to talk about what I read on almost every church leaders social media feed this past weekend.

It was painful to read the amped up messaging from around the globe regardless of what group they represented or whose feed I scrolled through.

I’m not throwing stones. I’ve done the same thing.

But as Easter weekend progressed more and more leaders posted things like: “2 services down, 5 more to go…”  or  “Check out our great volunteers serving today in the Esther overflow parking lot.” or ” Praise God we ran out of chairs @ the 11:00 service!” After reading a number of comments like that…

my stomach turned… my head hurt…and my heart ached.

I’ve lost count of the times I made similar boasts. 

A few years ago, we were in the middle of a ton of Easter services at several different campuses.  I required myself to speak at most of those services. I totally remember thinking and saying publically:

We’ve already done 4 services, pray for us, we’ve got seven more to go.”

Today I think I can see more of what was behind that statement– I needed people to notice all our/ my heroic efforts for Jesus.

Hold on, last I checked, Easter is supposed to be about celebrating Jesus’ historic heroism, but, there I was trying to make some part of it about me and mine. 

I did this. And it really does sadden me nuow.

And then come the conversations with the staff and pronoucements to the congregation that go something like…

Yay team! You guys were amazing! ( and, my gosh, they were! You can’t pull off an event like that without a mass of hurculean effort by a LOT of dedicated people.)  Let’s give a shout out to God! We had a boatload of services with X number of thousands of people attending!! God was glorified and X number of hundreds indicated they now want to follow Jesus!!”

The stats must be announced. That stuff matters to people! But, truly, which people? And, why the urgent need to broadcast it to the ends of the earth? I was pointing at the wrong stuff and, on several levels, missing the point.  Easter is about the “success” of a victorious Jesus and yet this past weekend I saw post after post oflook at all we did at our riculously, amazing church as we talked about our risen Savior.”

Even though Jesus’ Easter weekend journey was a supernatural phenomenon, upon closer examination we see his  ‘success’ came by way of a failure methodology. 

One post “Easter Monday” from a well-known international church leader who had ten’s of thousands at his services, read like a joking lament that though his church HAD, indeed, gathered a whole lot of people —it was nothing compared to what his pastor friend in another part of the world had done… by packing out the largest soccer stadium in the country!

I saw myself in that pastor who was already serving more people than most churches in the world—yet, still seems concerned on some level that there is yet a higher attendance number to attain. 

In defense of my brother and, even, if I may, myself —I truly believe the majority of his and my motives have been good and God-honoring… my heart—as well as I could know it—has always been to draw as many people to Christ as possible while at the same time glorifying him.

But, if I’m  brutally honest, there was some part of me that wouldn’t have minded a little acknowledgement for myself and our efforts for his cause. 

When you think about it, the “ways” of Jesus are really not all that attractive.

Yet, it seems so much of what we do in our churches is to make ourselves and Jesus look as exciting as we think our culture needs us to be.

Jesus was constantly saying that the first on earth will be the last in his kingdom—that those on the top will end up on the bottom. And though it’s recorded that he spoke to large crowds on several occasions, he didn’t seem enamored with it. Gathering ever-growing crowds was never his concern or emphasis. You’d think he would have exhausted himself getting the word out to as many as possible  since his time was short.

Bob Goff frames the situation beautifully:

“When Jesus rose from the dead he didn’t make a speech, he made breakfast for his friends.”

Jesus just keeps inverting our whole equation of worth and significance.  He seems to initially hand us a losers script not a champions cup. Pure genius. He keeps trying to get across in some pretty demonstrative ways how fleeting, distracting and self inflating the nature of “more” is if our true intention is to follow him.

So, here are a couple of things I’m working on these days to better right-size my understanding of success, and to help me further participate with God in the on-going transformation of my true motives:

1.  Stay aware of my ‘shadow self.’  All of us have both virtues and vices operating in us ALL time.  We have both, of what Jesus called, “wheat and weeds.”  The more I’ve come to recognize the “weeds”  lurking in my shadow, the less power they have to influence me.

You’ve heard the expression- “Keep your friends close, and your enemies closer.”  From my experience that’s spot on biblical advice if we know our worst enemies are really our own inner demons.

We have to be able to see something before we can name it, and we have to name something before we can change it.

2.  Admit when my shadow self is at work- I’m finding the more I can declare to at least one other person or even publicly (whenever appropriate) some hidden motive in me, it takes much of the power out of it. The more I keep bringing any darkness in me into the light, the less chance it has to affect me. 

I love church leaders.  I know each one of them is, in some way,  hoping to make a dent of a difference in the world for Jesus.   I am deeply grateful and so often proud of what they do.

But, I also know there are other things stirring, undetected beneath the surface of every leader’s ( every persons) soul.. a few of which, ultimately brought devastation to my life. 

That’s why I’m intent on doing whatever I can to help leaders not just avoid a catastrophe, but to help them find the deepest levels of satisfaction and true success that I’m experiencing  more and more of these days.

There is an ancient spiritual metaphor that encourages us  to see our life with God like a finger that points to the moon… We are to merely point people to the power and splendor of God. We, being reminded of Paul’s teaching on the body of Christ, are just one of the fingers.

Religion seems to get obsessed and overly identified with being THE FINGER while it tries to point to the moon. 

It defines itself in comparison to other fingers, other leaders, churches, groups, companies, etc.

When we do that we forget that we’re just a pointing finger, we’re not the point.  We’re actually pointing to Someone far greater... The One who is the whole point.

It’s not about the size of the finger

but the splendor of the moon it points us to. 

 

Video of David & Caron Loveless Recommissioning Service

We’ve had a number of requests for the video of our Recommissioning Service hosted by Grace Church here in Orlando & led by various local & national leaders on 9.28.14.  The Youtube link is below.   It’s  1hr and 45min.   Each speaker averaged about 6-7minutes.  Caron and I start speaking about 55minutes into the video.  The last 20minutes is a recommissioning prayer that selected leaders prayed over us.

We were surprised by the number of folks who commented afterward that the service & spirit of God represented gave much hope for their own unique situations, renewed their faith in the church or did something in them they weren’t expecting. Feel free to pass the link on to anyone you feel may benefit.  We’ve been told the service brought  great hope for all kinds of impossibilities becoming possible. 

http://youtu.be/EEg6WfuR4Gw

Recommissioning Service

Several months ago, several of the leader’s who we’ve submitted our lives to during this past season, said to us: “It’s time for you to re-engage in public ministry again.  We don’t feel like you have LESS to offer than before.  We actually feel like you have even MORE to offer than ever before… because of all you’ve gained now.”  From those words and many others, what has emerged is a gathering, planned for next month, by a number of leaders, to reinstate us into vocational ministry, should we so choose.

On Sunday evening September 28th, Grace Church Orlando will be hosting a recommissioning service where both local and national pastors and leaders will reaffirm God’s call on our lives and restore us to public ministry.  We are deeply humbled and honored by the outpouring of love, support and grace these respected leaders are extending to us.  Our reinstatement to ministry comes after much prayer, consultation and with the full endorsement and encouragement of our counseling team of Rich Plass and Jim Cofield, as well as the five intrepid men on my personal support team who have walked closely beside me the last 17 months and to whom I owe a debt I can never begin to repay.

We could not even begin to be at this threshold without the profound work of God’s Spirit in our lives and marriage and certainly not without the remarkable grace… strength… courage… perseverance… desire… commitment of my remarkable wife, Caron.

We, along with the Grace Church staff and elders would love for you to join us for this milestone evening in our lives.  The service begins @ 6:30pm in the Grace Church Orlando auditorium (1765 West State Rd 434, Longwood, Fl 32750).

Caron and I will be sharing as well as a number of the pastors and leaders who plan to be there.  We’re told Grace Church is planning a reception after the service.  It would be so great to see you there.

Thank you for allowing us the honor of sharing our life and learnings with you these past few months.  We believe there is much more to come.

Overwhelmed by God’s goodness.  David Loveless