To influence, or to be influenced...

I'm back!! I've been putting off writing about the blessings I received this past Saturday.

Kindly allow me to bring you back to 1/2 year back, when I told God that I wanted to surrender to Him and commit my time and effort to serve Him, rather than just pledging financially and attending Sunday church. Because of the background and exposures I had, I felt that I am in the position to work together with the young adults in my church. I also felt that this is where my passion and love is.

As with everything with God, He opened the way and in about 2 months back, we started with over 10 people in our first meeting. As we wanted it casual, we simply set simple rules and discussion topics. However, over time it seems that the initial inertia has fallen and the numbers dwindled to a handful. Commitment and excitement seems to have ebbed away. To be truthful, I was sorely disappointed.
However, I thank God that He has sent my darling sweetheart to be an encourager to me. Not only did she gave me a word of encouragement, but also very constructive advices and also her hands-on help. Between the both of us, we worked out the necessary plans and made solid some structures to make this whole fellowship work.

Then came Saturday, and because of the lack of communication and perhaps the work of the evil one, people in charge of the discussion and worship sings-peration couldn't make it. But as my pillar of strength(my sweetheart, now referred as POS) discussed the options with me, we decided to quit worrying about the problems. Instead we sat and prayed. We knew that if this is God's work through us, He will not let His words return to Him void. As we prayed, I kept in mind how I should take over to lead the discussions. Half-an-hour after the appointed time of fellowship, 2 of our YA gang came. Reflecting back, their tardiness gave me more time to prepare for the discussions.

To cut the story short, we had a Great time. Absolutely marvelous. I was encouraged, and I certainly hope that so were the rest of them. A short summary of our discussion and lessons to take home:
1. Question to ponder: Did Jesus spend His time on earth being influenced by His surrounding environment OR did He spend His time influencing others?
2. Refer to Luke 2:41-52, where Jesus did not allow His parent's views to influence what He knew he has to do and where He had to be
3. Refer to Luke 4:1-13, Jesus did not succumb to the devil's temptations but rather held fast to the Word of God to rebuke the devil's attempts to influence Jesus
4. To learn to be "un-influencable", we are to follow Jesus' lead, that is to ANCHOR ourselves to the Word of God, that we might be so secure in our believes and grow the faith that is freely given to us by the Holy Spirit. Once we know and remember who we REALLY are, we will then not only be "un-influencable", but rather be influencing others around us.

I am so encouraged by the youth's sharing with us that Saturday. Their presence already is a present, but to add on to it, their open sharing was just what I needed to keep going and work for the Lord. God knew this.
We closed our fellowship with a simple sharing of prayer needs, and prayed for one another. God listened that day. The discussion also led to commit to influence others in my daily life, by correcting my attitude in driving. I told myself to put down my pride and attitude and humble myself as Christ did, and to deem other drivers more important than me. It's really tough work for me, but I shall try. The motivation is that I will want to share my success(of failure) in the next meeting.
For this is my objective, that everyone will be able to take home something from this fellowship. For me, it's would be lesson learned and internalize(practiced).

Dave d Saved