Dan O’Deens Blogspot

PROUD PARENT of ELK CREEK CHURCH

I had the opportunity this Sunday to preach at our daughter church, Ek Creek.  Pastor Mike Silliman is doing a fantastic job.   The whole gang there is SUPER!   Way to go ELK Creek.   We are so proud of you!  Keep up the great work.   It is a joy to support you and invest in you.  There is NO greater investment!   It was great to meet so many of you.   Keep following Pastor Mike as He follows Christ!

Gateway’s HOPE – Helping Those Who Need Our HELP!

Gateway’s HOPE Projects are an opportunity for helping people who need our help.  I am praying that God will use us in significant ways to reach “the least of these” over the Holidays.  I cannot wait for Sunday to give my ‘one day’ offering and then to watch God multiply it. Check Out this site for more information. www.gcwired.com/pdf/Hope08.pdf    

READ Through the BIBLE with me?

My ABS partner and I will be done reading through the Bible this year in just 44 days.   It’s been a great year in the Word.   Why not join me this coming year.  Let me know if you will take me up on the challenge.  

Here is the One Year Bible I will be using.    http://www.amazon.com/One-Year-Chronological-Bible-NLT/dp/1414314078/ref=pd_bbs_sr_4?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1224860614&sr=8-4

2009…Mine or Divine?   Will it be about me or about God?  Take the time and energy to keep yourself Spiritually fit.  1 Tim. 4:6-8.   Will you be a self feeder?

FORGIVENESS – What a great idea!

“In prayer there is a connection between what God does and what you do. You can’t get forgiveness from God, for instance, without also forgiving others. If you refuse to do your part, you cut yourself off from God’s part.

“That’s right,” said Jesus. Then turning to the woman, but speaking to Simon, he said, “Do you see this woman? I came to your home; you provided no water for my feet, but she rained tears on my feet and dried them with her hair. You gave me no greeting, but from the time I arrived she hasn’t quit kissing my feet. You provided nothing for freshening up, but she has soothed my feet with perfume. Impressive, isn’t it? She was forgiven many, many sins, and so she is very, very grateful. If the forgiveness is minimal, the gratitude is minimal.”

Then he spoke to her: “I forgive your sins.”

This time God’s word takes on human form and enters history in the person of Jesus. Jesus speaks the word and it happens: forgiveness and judgment, healing and illumination, mercy and grace, joy and love, freedom and resurrection. Everything broken and fallen, sinful and diseased, called into salvation by God’s spoken word.

All that passing laws against sin did was produce more lawbreakers. But sin didn’t, and doesn’t, have a chance in competition with the aggressive forgiveness we call grace. When it’s sin versus grace, grace wins hands down. All sin can do is threaten us with death, and that’s the end of it. Grace, because God is putting everything together again through the Messiah, invites us into life—a life that goes on and on and on, world without end.          

Live creatively. If someone falls into sin, forgivingly restore him, saving your critical comments for yourself. You might be needing forgiveness before the day’s out. Stoop down and reach out to those who are oppressed. Share their burdens, and so complete Christ’s law. If you think you are too good for that, you are badly deceived.

Make a careful exploration of who you are and the work you have been given, and then sink yourself into that. Don’t be impressed with yourself. Don’t compare yourself with others. Each of you must take responsibility for doing the creative best you can with your own life.

BEST MINISTRY DECISIONS I HAVE EVER MADE

1. To read and organize and file everyday.  To be resourceful.
2. To pass on to others what I am learning…a river…not a reservoir….”God will give to me what flows through me.”   Keep giving it away. 
3. Choosing to spend my life adding value to other peoples lives.   This is always a bit difficult for an “A” type personality…but the constant reminder is to be more interested than spending time trying to be interesting.
4. To invest in God’s program called the church…especially Gateway.  I love the Church.  I love the head of the church.   I love the head and the body of Christ.  When they are working together, it is the HOPE of the World!  Christ gave his life for the church.  It’s a pleasure to give mine to the same cause.

GREATEST PERSONAL CHALLENGE

1. ME!  I sabotage myself.  I continue to learn that I cannot trust myself. I get in the way…way too often!  Thus why I wrote…ABS of Faith.  (www.danodeens.com) Accountability is necessary for me. Bible reading is a must…I want to ‘abide’ with Jesus.   I need Scripture memorization, for that keeps me from sin.  Ps. 119:105,111,133.

6 ENEMIES OF “UNITY”

When the church is functioning as it should be, it will approach barriers and obstacles they must get through in order to get to the NEXT level.  But, as Ed Young says, “when you get to a whole ‘nutha’ level, there is a whole ‘nutha’ devil.”   What are the 6 enemies of “unity?”

1.     Poor Communication – the right hand needs to understand what the left is doing

2.     Gossip – is degrading and destroys.  A concise definition of gossip:  When a negative is discussed with anyone who can’t help solve the problem.

3.     Unresolved Disagreements – we must create a culture where negatives are handed up and positives are handed down.  “if they can’t fix it, it’s gossip”  The leader’s intention is not to be tough and mean, but if the problem goes unresolved it will only get bigger.   A little conflict cleanses the wound before it gets infected and effects the whole body.   When it is clear that there are hurt feelings or disagreements, act quickly and decisively.

4.     Lack of Shared Purpose – Never under-estimate the importance of communicating the Vision you get from the Lord.  When leadership does not take the time to restate the goals, vision and mission, people lose sight and the ministry stagnates and focusses on the wrong things.  Stay true to the Vision that comes from the Lord.

5.     Sanctioned Incompetence – when someone is lazy it is demoralizing to the rest of the team.   When someone is not meeting the necessary expectations that other staff (paid or volunteer) are expected to accomplish it has a negative effect on the whole body.  

6.     Our enemy – SATAN! – When you feel like you are being attacked;  when the prayer list gets long;  when a large number of the body is going through personal struggles…STAY the Course!   Stay in the house…Satan is at work…trying to break up what God is doing!   Satan’s purpose is to steal, kill and destroy.   

Scripture says,  Let us focus on the things that cause unity and harmony!   

When the going gets tough, the tough get going!

Where do you go when the going gets tough?   

TOP 5 PLACES TO RUN (Mine)

1.  GOD.  In you there is Life!   You are my refuge and my hiding place!

2. THE BIBLE.  Normally, I would say the Psalms, but God’s Word is rich, everywhere!

3. My wife.   Gay is my life mate.   My soul mate.  She gets me and loves me. I love you Gay!

4. My ABS Partner.  I have the best accountability partner and friend….thanks MIKE!

5. To silence.  I just ‘get away’….anywhere is good, as long as there is no one around! (Spirit of God…thanks for never leaving me alone…you are my comforter!)

Where do you RUN?

Who will be the “KING?”

When I was a youth pastor, I often played this game with our kids.  It was called, “The King of England”  It went something like this:   The idea was to arrange the kids in a circle.   They would number off and there would be a designated “KING” chair.  The idea was to concentrate hard enough and speak fast enough to dethrone the people between your seat and the “kings” seat.  

The leader would say, “the king of England lost his crown and doesn’t know where to find it”, he would then say a number.  ”number 5 has it”  The leader would then try to say, “5 to the end of the line” faster than number 5 could say, “Who Sir, I Sir?”.   If the leader won, he would be to the end of the line.  If 5 won, the leader would say, “Yes, Sir, You Sir”, Number 5 would say, “No sir, not I sir”, the Leader would then say, “Who then sir?”  and 5 would site the number of the one sitting in the Kings chair.  The purpose, to dethrone the King and get to be KING!.

There are some brutal metaphors in this game.  The first is that anyone who is sitting in the ‘kings’ chair becomes a target.   The second, Everyone wants to be king and only one gets to be King at the end of the day.  

At the end of today, and the polls just opened. I know the ONE King who will be in “THE CHAIR.”

Proverbs 21:1  In the Lord’s hand the king’s heart is a stream of water that he channels toward all who please him.   Revelation 4:10,11. “(we) fall down before him who sits on the throne and worship him who lives forever and ever.  They say, You are worthy, our Lord and God, to receive glory and honor and power, for you created all things, and by your will they were created and have their being.”

My hope is in the Lord and He IS LORD whether we make him lord or not.   One day every knee will bow and every tongue confess.  Why wait?  Trust Him today!

Democrat? Republican? I am a CHRISTOCRAT!

The answer to our nations problems will not be determined on Tuesday.   When a nation looks to its own wisdom and neglects the Wisdom from above it has very little hope of ‘success.’   The better question for Tuesday is will I vote twice.  Once to carry out my responsibility to put the one into office that is most capable to lead our nation with a Biblical Worldview.    The second vote is one of personal choice.  Choose you this day who you will follow.   

Will you follow the American Dream or will you follow the ONE who can give life and hope?   There is only one savior and he will not come from the Republican or Democratic ticket.   He came, He was!  He is alive today, He is! And He is coming again, He is to come…again!  Follow Christ!   Live the life…Don’t talk it!  Walk it!  If that is your choice then you too are a CHRISTOCRAT!   In a land of ‘democracy’  Jesus is LORD!

The Supremacy of Christ

 15He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. 16For by him all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things were created by him and for him. 17He is before all things, and in him all things hold together. 18And he is the head of the body, the church; he is the beginning and the firstborn from among the dead, so that in everything he might have the supremacy. 19For God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in him, 20and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether things on earth or things in heaven, by making peace through his blood, shed on the cross.