We are still savoring Sunday’s service, “Jesus Death – Our Death.” Through songs, prayers and message, we talked about our need to die in order to live in the life of Christ. Yesterday, our dear friends David and Caron Loveless posted “Accepting our Necessary Losses” on their blog and podcast. Their work dropped the plow even deeper. We knew we needed to share their hearts and keen insights with friends. So Caron and David graciously agreed to share it with you here! Thank you to the Loveless’s for living true and offering all of us grace to do the same.
God bless you as you listen and read these words of life-
Scott and Clare
In this podcast Episode, David & Caron Loveless discuss how to live through and actually cooperate with both little and big deaths or losses throughout our lives, so something even larger and more fulfilling can emerge from it all… and how the resurrection shows the way.
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 It’s no surprise that as humans we avoid physical death, like the plague. But there’s actually a far more significant death that we avoid… it’s the death of our ego… the death of who we perceive we are, or think we should be… the death of who we think others want us to be or think that we are. So let me try again.
“I don’t like for anything I’ve manufactured…. created… can take credit for… I’m attached to… my beliefs, my opinions… my compulsive thinking….that i believe enhances or supports my identity.. I don’t like for any of that to die.”
We have a fear of dying our little deaths but it is the thing that keeps us from growing.
Jesus’ life here on earth was not just primarily about coming to die for us. He also came to show us the human journey… the human path that includes what some call “necessary suffering.”
Jesus did this to show us a pattern of dying and rising, dying and rising, he gives us a template of how to walk through our many “little” deaths as well as our ultimate death —always in order to experience resurrection.
Sometimes it seems like we create a scenario here where Jesus becomes our substitute in such a way that we let ourselves off the hook of dying our little deaths—Jesus called that denying ourselves –something he encouraged us to do daily.
Now he’s not asking us to give up goodness and joy and fulfillment but he is asking us to let go of the things that are blocking what the truest part of us wants and what He wants for us.
It isn’t that God wants something from us as much as He wants something for us
We’re finding that one of the great paradoxes of life is that God somehow uses death… and mistakes.. and failures… even evil itself to bring us all into the fullness of HIs life. Everything in nature is a constant changing of forms through a nonstop process of loss and renewal… death and resurrection… and losing one’s false self in order to find a larger, truer self, found in God through Jesus.
“Listen carefully: Unless a grain of wheat is buried in the ground, dead to the world, it is never any more than a grain of wheat. But if it is buried, it sprouts and reproduces itself many times over. In the same way, anyone who holds on to life just as it is destroys that life.
But if you let it go, reckless in your love, you’ll have it forever, real and eternal. “If any of you wants to serve me, then follow me. Then you’ll be where I am.” John 12
So what little or big death is Jesus showing you how to die this week… not just to put an end to something – to wreck your life or spoil your plans but so that you can enter into an even bigger life a- more abundant life.
This week, we’re trusting… death. We’re trusting that the pattern Jesus demonstrated- still holds for us today. That love is stronger than death. Always. That death never has the final word. Resurrection always has the final word. We are a living, breathing example of this and so are you.
To find out more, listen to this podcast in its entirety by clicking on the above play button.
**** You can check out Our NEW BOOK – NOTHING TO PROVE : Find the Satisfaction and Significance You’ve Been Striving for at the Core of Your True Identity by clicking HERE.
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