Thursday, December 21, 2006

Faith, Long Dead and Buried?

Dear all,

The following is from a sermon I heard a few yrs ago.Once there was a famine in the land, the Achen urged the believers to fast and pray for the Lord to show mercy and send rain.In response to this call, the believers started fastings, prayer meetings and conventions. Soon stories were in the air abt the devout believers fasting and singing and praying and crying out to the Lord nights and days together. They seemed the greatest believers ever born. Yet, there was no rain. One day, after the Qurbana the old Achen said to the believers "Sonsa nd Daughters in Christ, you have prayed and fasted and cried out to the Lord,May God bless u for it. Tell me, how many of u have brought umbrellas for the rain??" The people started looking around. Nobody had thought of bringing an umbrella.(An umbrella for the rains in the famines - Crazy?!)

After a long time, a little girl came forward and showed Achen her little umbrella. She said"Here Achen, I have brought my umbrella, so that I do not get wet when my Jesus sends rain." The little girl had taught the 'devout believers' a great lesson in faith that day. None, except her, ACTUALLY believed in the power of their prayers. None, in spite of all their actions, had the conviction that Christ can answer their prayers and bring rain.

The Bible reminds us - Hebrews 11:1
...."faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not
seen.
Matthew 7:20
"...For truly, I say to you, if you have faith as a grain of mustard seed, you
will say to this mountain, 'Move from here to there,' andit will move; and
nothing will be impossible to you."
Matthew 18:3
"...Truly, I say to you, unless you turn and become like children, you will
never enter the kingdom of heaven.

Pray, friends that we have the faith of the little girland not of the 'devout believers'.

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/IndianOrthodox/message/1116

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