� ����� � your faith had been your salvation� Lk.18.42.
�God said to Noah �Build a boat for yourself �I will make a covenant with you. Go into the boat with your wife.� Gen. 6.14 ff. Until the day Noah entered the boat, everyone continued the kind of evil lives. Noah did build the huge boat as God prescribed. When people jeered at him and called him and his sons as lunatics, Noah still continued the work. That was sheer faith that prompted him to go on with his work. He did as god commanded. Anytime he was in doubt, his faith responded and he acted according to the command of God.� In the midst of the desert, Noah built the Boat! Faith and miracles in lives. Faith changes are very instrumental in changing our attitudes, which will influence our dispositions in life. The other day I was talking over the phone with one of my good friends.� She is elderly and is very young at heart. Her name is Mrs. Bolfing.� Mrs. Bolfing experienced an amazing healing in her body and Spirit.� �Healing of Mrs. Bolfing �Mrs. Bolfing is one of my former parishioners from California. (The name is real). She and her husband were driving their car along one of the quite bye ways in California and all of a sudden they bumped on to a car and in that collision, Mr. Bolfing died. Mrs. Bolfing suffered injuries and she was rehabilitated. Ever since the surgery to rehabilitate her hips, she had pain on her right hip. In 1995 she came to a renewal celebration. I prayed laying hands on her. I felt the pain for a moment in my right hip. The next day in our telephone conversation, she reported that her pain was gone.� Praise� the� Lord. Two years back,� Mrs. Bolfing� told me that the pain has resurfaced and we prayed together over the phone. Her pain disappeared. Just yesterday as we were sharing about some miracles and we happened to talk about faith and healing, she remembered how she got healed. I Praise the Lord for this amazing healing in the Body and Soul of Mrs. Bolfing who is in her eighties and yet keeps a very young attitude to life. Jesus said � If you have faith the size of a mustard seed, you could say to these mulberry tree, �pull yourself up by the roots and plant yourself in the sea, and it would obey you.� Luke. 17.6. In the case of Mrs. Bolfing, her faith had been her peacefulness and healing both in mind and body.� It is the faith that gives her and many other people whom I know, courage to go on in this valley of tears, singing and dancing and to live joyfully, making a great difference. When many people live in agony, fear and depression, the people who have the Faith in God live their lives differently.�� Jesus healed the blind When Jesus walked towards Jericho, there was a blind� beggar and he cried �Jesus, Son of David have pity on me�. Jesus halted and told him in response to his request for� the healing of his eyes, �Then see, your faith had been your salvation� Luk.18.42.� His eye sight was restored immediately.Faith makes remarkable difference in our lives.� Faith enables us to look at the same thing differently and behave according to the will of God. Repentance and change of heart is also the fruit of Faith. �Our attitude change and God�s response �When we change our attitudes, God takes a different look at us. St. Luke gives us a good glimpse of this human attitude change and God�s favor on the repentant sinner.� The Prodigal son, in his misery, was able to recognize his state of life. He said to himself� �Here I am about to starve� Lk.15.17. He went back to his loving Dad an said� � I have sinned against you and against God. I am no longer fit o be called your son.� Lk. 15.21.� But the loving Dad didn�t wait to correct him. The Loving father rejoiced at the return of his lost son and he said � Bring the best robe.� let us celebrate. They had a grea! t celebration because that �son of his was dead but he is alive.� Lk.15.24. Our attitude change� and God�s response� are correlated. David recognized his sinfulness when he took another man�s wife� as his own.� God send Nathan to David. Nathan said to David �� You have killed Uriah in Battle and you took his wife. Now in every generation some of your descendents will die violent death because you have disobeyed me and taken Uriah�s wife.� 2 sam.12.10.� When God pronounced the curse and punishment on David, David repented.� David�s repentance is expressed poetically and in simple words. David said to Nathan � I have sinned against the Lord�. God accepted David�s attitude change, which was reflected in his behavioral change. David�s repentance and sincerity pleased God. God relented and said through Nathan, � the Lord forgives you. You will not die� but your child will die.� 2 Sam.12.14. and David�s son with Bathsheba died which caused a lot of grief for David.� God takes pity on the repentant sinner and it is faith that motivates us to say, �I am sorry Lord. I have sinned�.� Faith makes a lot of difference in our attitudes and behavioral change. Our behavioral changes, alters,many other people�s lives. One person�s attitude change can influence many other people and even the whole world will be affected by one person�s attitudes and behavioral changes. People change their lives when they are hopeful. Jesus is the Hope of our salvation. Jesus gives us hope. There could be many people in our lives who live a hopeless life. When they meet Jesus personally, they become hopeful.� In Jesus everything is safe and different. In Jesus we find life and fulfillment. �God Bless you all Fr. Thomas Mathew/Dec. 17, 2001 California. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Send and receive Hotmail on your mobile device: Click Here **************************************************************** This mail is generated from JOYnet, a Jesus Youth mailing list. To unsubscribe, send a mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED] To subscribe to this mailing list, visit http://www.jesusyouth.org/joynet For automatic help, send a mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED] In case of any issue related to the mailing list contact [EMAIL PROTECTED] ****************************************************************
