Dan O'Deens

This is a re-post of a blog I wrote when Tiger had his fall.   This past Sunday, Tiger realized his first major win since the fall.   I pray this will be an enlightening experience far beyond the golf course.

Did you follow golf’s perfect trophy of the last decade.  The scandal had nearly everyone watching the story develop.  Tiger won nearly everything, he had maintained a near perfect profile over the years….UNTIL THEN!   The cat is out of the bag.  Tiger is NOT perfect.  In fact he is human and all human beings are guilty of ‘transgressions.’  The Bible tells us that.  It’s a given….For ALL (including Tiger AND including YOU) have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.

Christ entered our world to save us as helpless sinners from our sins.   He gives us Mercy and Grace when we deserve Justice and Hell!

Interesting enough….Why is it that when it is someone else we want a HUGE slice of JUSTICE and when ‘we’ are found out we want everyone to understand and we want an equally HUGE slice of Grace and Mercy.

I was profoundly saddened by Tiger’s admission, but I am confident that he had started the process of being freed from the guilt he had born alone for years.  Forgiveness is possible.  Restoration is desired.

No need to crucify Tiger Woods.   Jesus was already hung up for our hang ups, so we can quit hanging ourselves up…and others.   He died for our “transgressions” so forgiveness can be possible.

Justice and mercy are served up together.   Tiger is no better or worse than any of us when we are truly honest with ourselves.    I want God and our community to respond to Tiger the same way I would want them to respond to me IF I were in his shoes.

A special NOTE TO TIGER WOODS:  You’re not guilty anymore!  Someone far greater paid the price of your transgressions.   Look to Him and trust Him to begin to put the pieces of your life and your family back together again.

I pray for Tiger….that He would feel the warm embrace of Jesus, the SAVIOR of the World…the one and ONLY one that offers real Mercy and Grace!

…and Congratulations on a great ‘win’, but that win is temporal.   I pray that one day Tiger will receive the big WIN and enter into a personal relationship with Jesus.    Past Life – Forgiven…Debt paid in full…Jesus!  Future Life – the sky is the limit.

I am in Tiger’s corner…cause I know Jesus is in his corner!

FAITH is like WiFi. It’s invisible, but has the power to connect you to what you need.

“Then Elisha prayed, ‘O LORD, open his eyes and let him see!’ The LORD opened the young man’s eyes, and when he looked up, he saw that the hillside around Elisha was filled with horses and chariots of fire.” (2 Kings 6:17 NLT)

This is one of those stories that a person without ‘faith’ reads and says, that is just good ‘fiction.’    God has a way of turning impossible circumstances around for your protection.  He is a God of the Himpossible.

When we exercise our faith, the Lord opens are eyes and we begin to see things that we could not see prior.  Scripture says that without Faith, it is impossible to please God.   When we embrace the Faith already in us, God in His greatest desire, reaches out to please us.

Elisha’s servant saw an army of angels on the hills outside ready to protect them from the army of Aram.
The servant wasn’t scared anymore.

With the evolution of WIFI, Faith is now a more understandable concept.   We already believe in the unseen.  The question now is:  Will we tap into the source of faith’s power, so that we can begin to navigate through life?

Today might be smooth sailing for you.   Today, may have you facing an enemy.   Open your eyes.   Open your ears.   Embrace the story of Elisha.   Claim the promise of God in Isaiah 41:13.   For I am the Lord your God who is holding your right hand, saying unto you, Fear Not, I will help you.

Tune in to God’s WIFI Channel…scroll through the networks….click on FAITH!

There is GOLD in the GARBAGE

I love that God loves the City!   I love how God loves the Family.   Yesterday, I got to see both.   We loaded up the family now mostly adults and took a drive to NYC!   Great family experience.   We went to the Hillsong Church in NYC.  WOW!   They were bringing it!   They were packed out standing room only.   There was a line outside the streets and people were waiting to get in!   Their greeters were serving smiles and hot chocolate.

Inside, was as hot as the chocolate.   Great Worship and a Great Message!

Love God, Love Family, Love Hillsong, Love the Church!

Have you heard it?   I have even said it!  “There is NO “i” in TEAM!   That is fallacious at its core.  It also undermines the uniqueness that God created ‘you’ in His image.   We have become worshippers of a sort of false pride.

We sing a song, someone comes up to us and compliments us.   We respond, “it wasn’t me, it was God.”  Funny, it looked like you, sounded like you.   I could have sworn that was your mouth moving to the music?  Wow…you are an incredible lip syncer!

There is a difference in being humble enough and gracious enough to recognize the team that God has put around you, but make no mistake.  If you take each ‘i” away from the team…you have NO team!

Give honor to whom honor is due!   Praise your team!   Choose to be a part of a TEAM.   But bring your “A” game to the team, because your team NEEDS YOU!   There is an ‘i” in Team.  Check it out below!

Living a rhythm helps us shift from being church consumers or spiritual tourists, into being pilgrims, adventurers, and partakers in the body of Christ.  Simplicity is key.  The rhythms of life that have worked, and continue to work are those that are easily understood and grasped.  Each rhythm must be identified and born out of the unique person that God has created you to ‘be.’  The best and most productive rhythms should include:

1. The rhythm for your life (what you do) flows out of your identity (who you are).
2. The rhythm of your life is formed by the way your family behaves and the things that are important to you.
3. Your identity needs to be found in who Jesus is rather than what you “DO” for the Gospel.

VALUES of “Breathe Life” – MIG Communities:

presence
We commit to journeying together with God and each other, by meeting together as a community, in prayer, in worship, friendship, grief, and happiness. We live and breathe life in community.  We define the church as the presence of Jesus among His people called out as a spiritual family to pursue His mission on this planet.
acceptance
We desire to accept both ourselves and other people wherever they are in their spiritual journey, and to allow people to say what they believe without fear of judgment. We want to err on the side of inclusion rather than exclusion.  We want to love God and people completely.
creativity
We want to have an open approach to how we learn, live and encounter God as Missional, Incarnational Gateways in the community and world in which God has allowed us to live. We wish to be creative in our worship, in prayer, in learning by balancing christian tradition, theology and culture using the Bible as our sole foundation for Truth.
balance
We aspire to live with integrity in community, striving for balance in our passion for God and compassion for people and in private purity and public charity. James 1:27 Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world.
accountability and relationship
We desire to be accountable to one another, to grow and journey together, listening to the Spirit of God, each other and the wider Christian community for wisdom rather than trusting only ourselves. We want to have a willingness to share life, rather than to privatize it and we seek to walk together in a deep way rather than as strangers who only know the surface of each other.
mystery and adventure
We wish to step into the mysterious journey of pursueing Jesus by embracing courage, danger, adventure, mission and risk. We strongly adhere to a process of disciple making rather than discipleship.   That process includes:

1. Relationship – multiplication does not happen apart from relationship
2. Discernment – discerning where someone is spiritually and determining where they need to go.
3. A Commitment to Prayer:   “Holy Spirit, please give me discernment into the heart and life of my new friend.  Give me Your wisdom and insight so that I may know how to love them right where they are and encourage them for where You want them to go as we walk on this mutual journey with You.”
4. Release –  We will structure to keep our Biblical Community from becoming busy ‘at’ church and release them to ‘be’ the church and GO and make disciples.

I am looking forward to a new ‘rhythm of life’.   I so want the Lord to Breathe Life into His Church so that a true ‘movement’ of the Spirit of God is experienced and the desecrated spaces of our world are redeemed and turned into sacred space.

There is much to learn about – the MIG Church    Will you join me?