Growth..

Hi guys,

Just wanted to affirm what Liz said. My dad spoke in our LYPG yesterday on spiritual growth. In 1 Cor 2 (the last few verses) till chapter 3:3, Paul talks about 4 kinds of people.

- Natural

- Spiritual

- Carnal

- Infants

Since we are already brought out of darkness into light, we are no more of the natural, but the supernatural - Spiritual. However, there is the possibility of "down-grading" to the carnal.

I'm a new driver. Ever so often, i change gears too quickly (assuming from 3 to 4) and i meet with an obstacle up front, and i slowly down and the car starts to "shiver". So naturally, i will down-shift to a lower gear. Sometimes, after shifting to a lower gear, the car continues on smoothly. Sometimes, it starts jerking back and forth, and before you know it, you "si hui / sei fo" (mati enjin) in the middle of the road. Now all the world is honking at your behind, and in your panic, u forget to enter neutral, and you start the car, causing it to jerk front and back and stall again. Now because of that experience, a new driver usually gets spooked, and tends to take some time before getting confident at travelling at high gears. I remember riding my motor in gear 3 for 6 months before i really mustered the courage to go to gear 4. It was just one gear away, yet it scared the daylight out of me.

I want to share something close to heart. Kulim LYPG started out, with no structure. It went on that way for a few months, and it began to become tiring. We tried and tried, but humans have no means to coax God to fall unless by a broken and contrite heart. Maybe, we were proud of getting our "license" while others were not even going for their "undang-undang test". U get my drift?

So, i as a leader, went on without consulting others, nor God. and the result?

Failure.

After that, i sort of retreated into a shell. At a time, i wanted to leave MYPG. Wanted to put it all behind. My failure had shown how weak i was. I was defeated. As a team, we were going nowhere.

Come MYPG3, new strength was given. I know it sounds like im looking for a booster, but i do believe MYPG3 strengthened me and FWP2 gave me a new mindset. For the past 3 months after MYPG3, I see God's hand moving. We were getting closer as a team. We were experiencing visions and dreams and than, we got comfortable.

We had moved from natural to infants, but were drifting back into carnals. And as infants, we could not take solid food, but as carnals, i don't think milk would have helped either.

So as a team, we decided to form a structure, with 2 adult supervisors, supervising what we were and are going to do. With that, the flow of LYPG in Kulim has been much better. No more beating round the bush when we pray, no more 2 word prayers.

Now, we are far from perfect. As i look at the picture above, i rmb the times as a kid, i would mark a tiny wee bit higher than my real height. Just to give me some encouragement and just to sort of "show" that i have grown. So in our growth, please maintain a humble spirit (i speak to myself too) and know that we plan, but God orders. That's a story for another time.

We must remember that we are all subject to Spiritual Numbness like Liz said. Try squatting for 5 minutes. You know the feeling. But if you continue to leave your body part in that position, the feeling doesnt get better. It gets worst. So there is no "comfort zone" actually. Because, it's either you feel the pain gradually increase, or you change position and deal with the pain as much as you can. Either way, THERE WILL BE PAIN! Change is not easy.

So, let us not CONFROM to the world, instead be TRANSFORMED in the renewal of our minds(and actions, and words).

=)

MarcusDS