His Plans Vs. My Plans

This morning Pastor Jon shared some thoughts he had from his daily Bible reading in our staff prayer that I has had me thinking all day.
The passage he was reading and talking about comes from Genesis 13. It's the time when Abram and his nephew Lot decided to go their separate ways.
If you're not sure about the story here it is:

Gen. 13:5-17
5 Lot, who was traveling with Abram, had also become very wealthy with flocks of sheep and goats, herds of cattle, and many tents.6 But the land could not support both Abram and Lot with all their flocks and herds living so close together.7 So disputes broke out between the herdsmen of Abram and Lot. (At that time Canaanites and Perizzites were also living in the land.) 8 Finally Abram said to Lot, "Let's not allow this conflict to come between us or our herdsmen. After all, we are close relatives! 9 The whole countryside is open to you. Take your choice of any section of the land you want, and we will separate. If you want the land to the left, then I'll take the land on the right. If you prefer the land on the right, then I'll go to the left." 10 Lot took a long look at the fertile plains of the Jordan Valley in the direction of Zoar. The whole area was well watered everywhere, like the garden of the Lord or the beautiful land of Egypt. (This was before the Lord destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah.) 11 Lot chose for himself the whole Jordan Valley to the east of them. He went there with his flocks and servants and parted company with his uncle Abram.12 So Abram settled in the land of Canaan, and Lot moved his tents to a place near Sodom and settled among the cities of the plain. 13 But the people of this area were extremely wicked and constantly sinned against the Lord . 14 After Lot had gone, the Lord said to Abram, "Look as far as you can see in every direction—north and south, east and west. 15 I am giving all this land, as far as you can see, to you and your descendantss as a permanent possession. 16 And I will give you so many descendants that, like the dust of the earth, they cannot be counted! 17 Go and walk through the land in every direction, for I am giving it to you."

Lot was given a choice of which way he wanted to go, and he chose what seemed to him was the best portion of the land. HE CHOSE FOR HIMSELF. HE CHOSE WHAT WAS BEST FOR HIM. Abram took the lesser of the two.

The amazing thing was that after Abram and Lot separated, God told Abram that He was going to give him all the land he could see in every direction, including the land Lot had chosen.

Lot chose what HE thought was best, which lead him to Sodom and Gomorrah, which lead him to destruction.

Pastor Jon reminded us that

"CHOOSING FOR OURSELVES LEADS TO DESTRUCTION".

Now here's how this applies to my life.

I don't consider myself a success. I am however very content with my life. I have an incredible wife who loves, supports and is extremely proud of me (and vice versa), I have two great kids, a job that I absolutely love and to many other blessings to count.

I also have a pretty good grasp on reality.

I realize that I do not deserve the blessings in my life that I have. I also realize that if I had tried to pull everything in my life together, work my plan, I would have screwed it all up.
The only thing that I have done, or rather have learned to do, and it was a long hard lesson to learn, is to be an active participant in God's plan for my life. In other words,

I try my best to go with God.

I have confidence in the fact that God has great plans for me and His plans are WAY better than anything I could ever come up with on my own. After all HE is a GOOD GOD and I am a BROKEN SINFUL MAN.
Sometimes you need a reminder to stop just quoting scripture but start believing what they say.

Jeremiah 29:11
11 For I know the plans I have for you," says the Lord . "They are plans for good and not for disaster, to give you a future and a hope.

The Orchestration of Salvation

(Can't see the video above? Click here to view it)

When I watch this video, and I look back on my own journey towards God, I realize there are two things that this fictional story and my story have in common: 1) The unending pursuit of a God who loves me and wouldn't give up on me and 2) a group of people whose obedience to God and love for me were more important then their own time or comfort.

I ran into an old friend last night, a friend I had not seen since my early high school years. While we were quickly catching up, trying to fill each other in on the last 10 or so years of our lives, she asked me what I did not for a living. When I told her I was a Pastor, the look of surprise was impossible for her to hide. She looked at me and said, "From what I remember about you in school, being a pastor would have been the last thing I would have expected, how did that happen?" The only answer I could come up with in the short amount of time we had was just God's Grace.

But in fact, as I think about the process and direction my life has taken, the paths that I had to walk, run, and most often stumble down, I realize it was more than God's grace. It was God's grace and love plus the willingness of people, some close to me and some not, to be used by God on many different levels in His pursuit of me.

It made me realize this: If we would live our lives with willing hearts and open ears, God could use the things that we might consider insignificant, to bring significance to people around us.

We may never know how many times God has used us as tools in the miracle of Salvation.

-Niles

Nick's Rainbow

This is Nick.
Nick is a 2nd grader who attends Shady Grove Church with his parents.
For the last couple of years Nick has celebrated his birthday an unusual way. He has not asked for presents. Actually, I take that back,he hasn't asked for presents for himself, he has asked for presents for the kids at the local Children's Hospital. (Last year he was able to collect over 100 board games for the kids.)
This year, Nick wants to do something a little different. He collecting rainbow's... not real rainbows of course, he wants to collect pictures of rainbows that people color and that he can hang in the rooms and hallways of the Children's Hospital. Nick doesn't want to just collect the rainbows though, he would also like to collect NEW boxes of markers and crayons he can pass out at the hospital as well.
S.G. Kids, the Children's Ministry of Shady Grove Church has decided that it's going to partner with Nick to provide these kids the unique gift. Nicks goal is to collect 100 rainbows, boxes of crayons and markers. I think we can do better than that.
I would hope that everyone who reads this will get involved somehow. If you would like to make a donation you can either drop off the boxes of crayons and markers in the children's lobby at Shady Grove Church or if you don't attend Shady Grove, you can mail your donations to:

Nick's Rainbow
C/O Shady Grove Church
2404 N. Carrier Pkwy
Grand Prairie, TX 75050

And when you drop off your donations, don't forget to pick up some rainbow pictures you and your kids and color and return to be dropped off to the kids as well.
I really hope everyone can help out with this. What an amazing lesson we can learn from Nick in living our lives for others. Way to go Nick!

There's An Off Button?

A few weeks ago after watching this video, I began to think about all the noise in my life. Noise that I thought helped me but actually just distracts me from what is happening right in front of my eyes.

It’s sad when you realize that when your kids are talking to you, you are spending more time looking at your phone or laptop then your their eyes. I love technology but it has created this “hum” in every minute of my life, and without realizing it, I have become addicted to that noise.

So last week I decided to experiment with the noise in my life, starting with my cell phone. My phone is my second brain… my memory. It has my calendar, my contacts, my todo list ect… I can’t live without it. But on top of the things my phone does to help me be productive, I also have it set up to receive email from three different accounts, notify me whenever anyone on Twitter say’s anything about nothing, Facebook alerts me whenever anyone comments on anything I post, or if anyone likes something I post, or if anyone comments or likes anything that I already liked or commented on which leads to an endless abyss of Facebook notifications that go on forever and ever and ever. (That’s a whole different post)

Between email, twitter, Facebook, and regular old fashion communication like telephone calls and text messges, it’s not an exageration to say that my phone is constantly making noise and wanting my attention.

When I started thinking about all this extra noise in my life and if I really needed it, I was surprised by the answer, it was no.

No, I don’t need to know every time one of my friends was eating lunch, or at Starbucks or had just increased their bean crop on Farmville. I didn’t need to see the latest Twitpic of someone seats at a concert, funny sign they just passed or plate they just licked clean. And honestly, when I leave the office, there is nothing that is so important that I need to be able to read email about it when I’m with my family.

Now, don’t get me wrong. I do enjoy that stuff. (except Farmville, I HATE that) I LOVE that it is so easy to communicate with my friends around the world and around the block. But I don’t NEED it. Not all the time.

So… I turned it off. Just on my phone. (Except email during business hours and only work email)

It wasn’t easy. In fact, it took a few days to break the habit of constantly looking down at my phone.

It might not have been easy, but it has been one of the best things I have ever done. You might not believe me, but the simple act of turning off those things on my phone has brought a level of peace in my life that I would have never imagined.

Am I still gonna Twitter, use Facebook, check email, write and read blogs? Yes, but I don’t have too.

Until I stopped I never knew what kind of habit I had developed.

There will always be noise in my life, I can’t control that. (I have two kids after all) But there is some noise I can control. Noise I can regulate. And from now on, I’m going to try to do a better job with the regulation of that noise.

I would encourage you to try the same thing. We all can’t move to the woods and live in a tent, but it is possible to unplug, even for just a few hours a day.

In EVERYTHING God is Good?

This is the video that I was talking about on Sunday during the service. It's an amazingly heart wrenching story of a man's fight with cancer and the realization of the goodness of God.

Since I first watched this video, it has really led me to question my confidence in God. Not that I have realized that I don't have confidence in God, because I do, but to question how deep that confidence goes.

I know that God is good. I say it, I think it, I tell others about it. But, if my whole world started to tear apart around me, if like Zac, I was looking at the possibility of losing my whole family, would I still see God in all of his goodness? I THINK I would... I HOPE I would... PRAY I would.

What about you?

Lord,
Help me to see your goodness in every circumstance of my life. Give me the strength to look the world straight in the eye through every high and low and shout at the top of my lungs, "MY GOD IS A GOOD GOD"!

Can't see the video above? Click here.

A Few More Marriage Tips

I've heard from a lot of the men out there who saw this post and have said to me, "Man, that practically saved my marriage, I so glad to know to 'don't' do things." That's what I'm here for, for you to glean from the extensive knowledge that I have. ( After all, I am a semi-novice in at most 2 subjects)
So that being said, and in the same vein of advice to men for what you can do to make your marriages better, I just wanted to share this video from Gary Smalley and a couple of other marriage experts, so that you could use this resource, we might even call it a tool, to improve your marriage.
Sit down, tune out all distractions, get a pad of paper and a pen, and soak it in.



Can't see the video? Click here to see it.

The Power of Our Words

A few thoughts I was having tonight... not sure what sparked them other than maybe the Holy Spirit. Maybe I was just being reminded, I often times forget.

I’m not quite sure we understand the power of our words. One negative, hurtful word, said out of hand or without thought is like a seed that is stuck deep into a persons soul. You might think that what I’m saying is extreme, but think with me a minute. Think back to the earliest memory you have of someone saying something hurtful, and tell me how it STILL feels. OUR WORDS ARE POWERFUL.

We get mad or we’re annoyed and we strike out. An off handed comment, a verbal jab, done without thinking. Except that word sinks in. It begins to grow. It feeds on self esteem and the only fruit is bears is insecurity.

As the word grows larger, it grows stronger, and so does the insecurity. Over time the persons spirit get weak, brittle, then broken.

Most of the time the only think left is BITTERNESS.

Now a person who was once full of joy, is nothing. Destroyed by a stray thought, a word spoken out of a flash of emotion.

A PERSON IS DESTROYED BECAUSE WE DON’T UNDERSTAND THE POWER OF OUR WORDS.

But all is not lost. If this is what we can do with a thoughtless word spoken, imagine what we could do if we learn to speak words that BUILD. Those kind of words bring LIFE.