Dan O’Deens Blogspot

We’re a piled-on, stretched-to-the limit society; chronically rushed, chronically late, chronically exhausted. Many of us feel like Job did when he said, “I have no peace! I have no quiet! I have no rest! And trouble keeps coming” (Job 3:26 GWT).

I am concerned about our church family.   Many who mean well, serve hard and long, will burn out all the while doing good things for the Lord to serve in His Church.   I have even seen spiritual busyness used as a mark of maturity.   “I am involved in 5 ministries, go to 3 different small groups and Bible studies, cleaned the church, and went to 3 planning meetings.”  That is not spirituality…that is ludicrous!   To make matters more complicated, we add work, family, kids, sports, and the list goes on and we have left NO MARGIN in our lives!

Margin is the space you leave around the events in your life. That space must be allotted purposely in order to prevent your being maxed out physically, emotionally, mentally and spiritually.  In other words, schedule extra time into your day in between commitments. Leave yourself some margin.  Leave some quiet time for you and for God!  Margin is the space we create in our lives where God shows up and ministers peace and comfort in the middle of our hectic lives.

Overload comes when we have too much activity in our lives, too much change, too many choices, too much work, too much debt, too much media exposure.

Dr. Richard Swenson says, “The conditions of modern day living devour margin. If you’re homeless we direct you to a shelter. If you’re penniless we offer you food stamps. If you’re breathless we connect you to oxygen. But if you’re marginless we give you one more thing to do. Marginless is being thirty minutes late to the doctor’s office because you were twenty minutes late getting out of the hairdresser because you were ten minutes late dropping the children off at school because the car ran out of gas two blocks from a gas station and you forgot your purse. That’s marginless.”

You need margin in your life. When you’re not hurrying and worrying all the time, you have time to think. Time to relax. Time to enjoy life. Time to be still and know that God is God (Psalm 46:10).

Bill Hybels once told me, “You lead on 3 levels:  1.  You lead those above you (for me that is my Directional Team);  2.  You lead those under you (A vast volunteer army) and then he stunned me!  He said,  3.  You lead yourself – and he qualified that by saying YOU are the ONLY one that can lead yourself.”

Are you saying Yes to the right things?  Are you saying No to the right things?   Take the time to arrange for MARGIN in your life!   You need it!

What a journey the apostle Paul had.   Always zealous about anything and everything he did.   I love this guy…TOTAL COMMITMENT.  He was “ALL IN”.    The great thing:  Once Jesus got a hold of his life, he gave himself to the ONE PURPOSE of proclaiming the kingdom of God and went to everyone, everywhere to tell people the Good News about Jesus.

I am hoping the same will be said of me.    Stay the course…for the long haul.

Act 28:31 He proclaimed the kingdom of God and taught about the Lord Jesus Christ—with all boldness and without hindrance!

A 40 day game plan for men.   Having authored ABS of Faith  www.absoffaith.com a book on Spiritual fitness I am excited to see a book specifically for men.   Equally great is that is written by Kyle Rote Jr. a soccer star and ABC Superstar Champion.  If you don’t know what that is, then you are either young or a non sports fan!

It is written with great thought, precision and from a Coaches heart.   No athlete or team wins by chance over the long haul.   There is a discipline and a regimentation and progression to follow.

This book is comprehensive and also very practical with great resources and thought provoking discussion questions.

A great read for any man who is serious about Spiritual Fitness.

Does God still speak today?  Does he speak through teachers, pastors, evangelists, parents…?

I clearly understand His Word is final in its Revelation.  We have 66 Books, 39 in the OT and 27 in the NT.  I get that.   That is His written WORD.

But what about the “Living Word” that God through His Spirit lives in us.  That God has appointed spiritual leaders to lead.  Let’s assume that those leaders are in fact listening to God’s Spirit for leading and direction.  ( I hope that is the case).  Then why are we resistant to listen and follow them?   Answer:  We are like sheep, all of us and we wander and go astray.  We want to go our own way.   IF there is a word from the Lord through one of God’s servant leaders you would do well to pay attention.    I love the words of Paul, “Follow me, as I follow Christ.”

No one wants to hear their leader or parent say, “I told you so” but that is what Paul said to 276 shipmates before they wrecked.   This wreck could have been spared if you would have listened to me the first time….but “NOOOOOOOO” we want to follow a different path.   God spared them and gave them a second chance.   This time, they listen to Paul, which was the same as listening to God.  God spoke through Paul.

Acts 27:25 So keep up your courage, men, for I have faith in God that it will happen just as he told me.

The highest calling that we can accept is that of a servant leader.   To stand as a witness of what God has done and is doing in our lives as well as throughout history.   The King of the Universe has commissioned me and sent me into the world to rescue people from darkness and to offer them the light of the Good News.   He will open their eyes, but He has chosen to use me (and you) as his conduit to take the Good News to everyone, everywhere!  My new title:  Servant Leader

Acts 26: 16 ‘Now get up and stand on your feet. I have appeared to you to appoint you as a servant and as a witness of what you have seen and will see of me.17 I will rescue you from your own people and from the Gentiles. I am sending you to them  18 to open their eyes and turn them from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan to God, so that they may receive forgiveness of sins and a place among those who are sanctified by faith in me.’

14 Things I Pray for Pastors

We as a people can be quite selfish.   We don’t even see it as selfish.   We have come to think that my way or my belief or my preference is better than someone else’s way, belief or preference.  Usually this is handled in a way that is presented in dogma.   Thoughts and perceptions are stated as facts, accusations are generally subjective and vague, and the charges are unfounded.

Every leader has experienced this.   Paul was no exception.   He states, I don’t think I have done anything wrong to God, to the people or to my community.   Several trials to different courts and nothing sticks.

Finally one of the Judges who hears Paul’s case says, it is unreasonable to keep passing him on to other judges without some specific evidence.

It’s obvious that people were offended by Paul and that the people had some issues with Paul’s style and beliefs but the were not objective violations with Scripture.  People have preferences.  We have differences.  Differences are not always matters of ‘right versus wrong.’  Let’s learn to love one another in spite of our differences.

Acts 25:27 For I think it is unreasonable to send a prisoner on to Rome without specifying the charges against him.”

Paul is flat out an amazing leader!  Calm and Cool is his MO.  Even in the face of false accusation Paul stands up to those who falsely accuse him and welcome any ‘objective’ evidence and also stands his ground for the calling on his life.

There will always be accusers of your ministry and style…stay the course and strive to keep your conscience clear before God and all people.   PRESS ON!

Acts 24:16 So I strive always to keep my conscience clear before God and all people.

Sometimes leaders who use information to their advantage are looked at as being “shady.”  This is not always the case.   Some say information is ‘power’.    I am not sure of that one, but it cannot be denied that information is powerful at times.

Every good leader leans on the use of ‘carefully chosen information’ to leak out to accomplish what needs to be done in that given situation.  Paul a student of the Word and Culture, realizes he knows something that he ‘resourcefully’ uses to his advantage.   That may be an understatement considering it saved his life.

Be careful, however, information can be used for good or for evil.   Use discretion when using information as a leader to move your agenda forward.

Acts 23: 6 Then Paul, knowing that some of them were Sadducees and the others Pharisees, called out in the Sanhedrin, “My brothers, I am a Pharisee, descended from Pharisees. I stand on trial because of the hope of the resurrection of the dead.”

We often pray and seek the face of the Lord, sometimes He ’seeks’ us and when He seeks, He finds.    Now the question will I ‘SEE’ what He wants me to see.   That has been the story of my past year.   God has been finding me out.   Searching my heart, even blinding my whole being, for the sole purpose of getting me to STOP so that I might See Him.   OK, LORD, I see you clearly.   I will turn and follow in the direction you are leading.

The other part of the verse is a bit interesting and also throws a unique wrench into the mix.  The people I choose to do life with…the people I travel with…my companions…my peeps, can and might see the same light, but they might not understand the voice of the Lord.  The reason is that sometimes Jesus speaks to the soul of the one He is trying to reach out to in order to see if our commitment to follow Him is stronger than our allegience to our companionship.   We truly do follow an audience of ONE.

Acts 22:9 My companions saw the light, but they did not understand the voice of him who was speaking to me.