Edited by author 01-09-2007 12:54 PM

"Cast all your cares on Him for He cares for you". 1 Peter 5:7

Hi:

My name is Glenda and I am an Orthodox Christian from Ohio.

Does God answer prayer? Absolutely.

I was not the one praying, but the one being prayed for. Let me give you a little history first.

I haven't been in good health for over 10 years. I have been on oxygen 24 hours a day for many years now. I suffer from asthma, sarcoidosis, and sleep apnea among many, many other illnesses.
Many months ago I had gone so far downhill in my breathing that my fingernails were turning somewhat blue. I wasn't looking forward to another extended stay in the hospital with what I figured was either blood clots in my lungs again or sarcoidosis again. (a rare disease that leaves scarring in your lungs).
I decided to forgo the hospital for a little longer and go to Catechumen class at Church first. We were new there and I didn't want to miss class. After class I told Father John, our Parish priest, that I was heading to the hospital and why. I asked him to pray for me and he said that he would pray but the he also wanted to anoint me with the Oil of Saint Herman. By this time, after the walk to the car, I was gasping for air so I couldn't hear all of Father John's words but he made the Sign of the Cross on my forehead with the Oil and prayed for the healing of the problem in my lungs. When he was done praying he said goodbye and was hardly pulling from the parking lot when I could take full, deep, cleansing breaths! I hadn't been able to breathe like that in several years!! I started laughing and crying, shouting and praising God repeatedly while I took these Heavenly breaths over and over. My husband and I were both elated and we could hardly believe what happened; a real miracle!
When we got home we quickly called Father John expecting him to be surprised too. While he was very happy for me, he wasn't at all surprised. He said something like.. Expect miracles Glenda! God is alive and He cares for us. I was shocked. I already knew all this but to have it put in that context I was knocked for a loop. Yes, why not expect miracles.
For me and my house, we know that God hears and answers prayers. We've seen quite a few miracles attached to our Church and we know that there will be many more to come. By the way, I can still take deep breaths! What a great God and Savior we have. :p

I recently was sent a message regarding an amazing Father and his story of faith in action. I believe the story to be a reprint from Rick Reilly of Sports Illustrated. The video link attached needs no words of explantion.

 Strongest Dad in the World

[ From Rick Reilly, of Sports Illustrated ]

I try to be a good father. Give my kids mulligans. Work nights to pay for
their text messaging. Take them to swimsuit shoots.

But compared with Dick Hoyt, what I do for my kids is inconsequential.

Eighty-five times he's pushed his disabled son, Rick, 26.2 miles in
marathons. Eight times he's not only pushed him 26.2 miles in a wheelchair
but also towed him 2.4 miles in a dinghy while swimming and pedaled him 112
miles in a seat on the handlebars--all in the same day.

Dick has also pulled him cross-country skiing, taken him on his back
mountain climbing and once hauled him across the **U.S.** on a bike. Makes
taking your son bowling look a little lame, right?

And what has Rick done for his father? Not much--except save his life.

This love story began in **Winchester, Mass., 43 years ago, when Rick was
strangled by the umbilical cord during birth, leaving him brain-damaged and
unable to control his limbs.**

"He'll be a vegetable the rest of his life;'' Dick says doctors told him and
his wife, Judy, when Rick was nine months old. "Put him in an institution.''

But the Hoyts weren't buying it. They noticed the way Rick's eyes followed
them around the room. When Rick was 11 they took him to the engineering
department at Tufts University and asked if there was anything to help the
boy communicate. "No way,'' Dick says he was told.
"There's nothing going on in his brain.''

"Tell him a joke,'' Dick countered. They did. Rick laughed. Turns out a lot
was going on in his brain.

Rigged up with a computer that allowed him to control the cursor by touching
a switch with the side of his head, Rick was finally able to communicate.
First words? "Go Bruins!'' And after a high school classmate was paralyzed
in an accident and the school organized a charity run for him, Rick pecked
out, "Dad, I want to do that.''

Yeah, right. How was Dick, a self- described ``porker'' who never ran more
than a mile at a time, going to push his son five miles? Still, he tried.
"Then it was me who was handicapped,'' Dick says. "I was sore for two
weeks.''

That day changed Rick's life. "Dad,'' he typed, "when we were running, it
felt like I wasn't disabled anymore!''

And that sentence changed Dick's life. He became obsessed with giving Rick
that feeling as often as he could. He got into such hard-belly shape that he
and Rick were ready to try the 1979 **Boston Marathon.**

"No way,'' Dick was told by a race official. The Hoyts weren't quite a
single runner, and they weren't quite a wheelchair competitor. For a few
years Dick and Rick just joined the massive field and ran anyway, then they
found a way to get into the race officially: In 1983 they ran another
marathon so fast they made the qualifying time for **Boston** the following
year.

Then somebody said, "Hey, Dick, why not a triathlon?''

How's a guy who never learned to swim and hadn't ridden a bike since he was
six going to haul his 110-pound kid through a triathlon? Still, Dick tried.

Now they've done 212 triathlons, including four grueling 15-hour Ironmans in
**Hawaii**. It must be a buzzkill to be a 25-year-old stud getting passed by
an old guy towing a grown man in a dinghy, don't you think?

Hey, Dick, why not see how you'd do on your own? "No way,'' he says. Dick
does it purely for ``the awesome feeling'' he gets seeing Rick with a
cantaloupe smile as they run, swim and ride together.

This year, at ages 65 and 43, Dick and Rick finished their 24th **Boston
Marathon, in 5,083rd place out of more than 20,000 starters. Their best
time'? Two hours, 40 minutes in 1992--only 35 minutes off the world record,
which, in case you don't keep track of these things, happens to be held by
a guy who was not pushing another man in a wheelchair at the time.**

"No question about it,'' Rick types. "My dad is the Father of the Century.''

And Dick got something else out of all this too. Two years ago he had a mild
heart attack during a race. Doctors found that one of his arteries was 95%
clogged. "If you hadn't been in such great shape,'' one doctor told him,
"you probably would've died 15 years ago.''

So, in a way, Dick and Rick saved each other's life.

Rick, who has his own apartment (he gets home care) and works in **Boston,
and Dick, retired from the military and living in Holland,Mass.**, always
find ways to be together. They give speeches around the country and compete
in some backbreaking race every weekend, including this Father's Day.

That night, Rick will buy his dad dinner, but the thing he really wants to
give him is a gift he can never buy.

"The thing I'd most like,'' Rick types, "is that my dad sit in the chair and
I push him once.''*

Here's the video.... PLEASE watch it...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ryCTIigaloQ


Let your light shine! God Bless!

Edited by author 11-19-2006 04:37 PM
My crisis was not one of health, or family emergency, but one of great fear of death. My fear concerned my destiny after death.
I was a church going pagan, as I think the vast number of church attending people really are.
I heard the message of salvation by the blood of Christ, but why did I need it? I asked of myself this question, "Why did Jesus die for me?"

Would being a Christian help me through life, would it make life more fun, or loving, or bring me wealth, and prosperity?

I found faith in Christ brought me none of these things. So I had no real need to commit my life to Jesus. In fact proclaiming a faith in Jesus brought the exact opposite effect! People mocked my attempt to share the good news, even those in the church I attended thought me a to be a nut.

So I fell back to my pagan ways, I became a back slider. I was in a state of fear once more. I went back to fooling myself, we all do it. I said to my self "My God is a fair God, he will see the good things I have done as well as the bad things. These will balance out, and he will judge me a good person sending me to heaven."

One month ago God rewarded my seeking him, by opening a door to me. My life has changed, my destiny is forever changed. I aquired the secret the modern church has lost. The reason everyone must be in Christ.

Every person on this earth believes there is a God, a creator, they may not know Him, but they know he exists. Now the atheist is the acception, but they are all the god they need.

Now for the secret.
Answer this questions: "Would you consider yourself to be a good person?"
The bible says no one is good no not one, we all seek to do evil all the time. None of us seek God.

"Do you think you've kept the Ten Commandments?"
Have you ever told a lie? What does that make you?

Have you ever stolen anything? Don't lie now.

Have you ever used the Lord's name in vain i.e. have you used the name of the God who created you as a curse word?

Have you ever looked at another person with lust?
Jesus said you have commited adultery with this person in your heart?

Now by your own admission you are a lying, thieving, blaspheming, adulterer.

"If God Judges you by that standard, will you be innocent or guilty?"

"What's your destiny going to be....will you end up in heaven or hell?

Does this concern you? Do you say my god would never judge me like this. You're correct your god wouldn't, except your god doesn't exist. You have just broken the first commandment. Thou shall have no other gods before me.

Would you sell one of you eyes for a million dollars, how about both eyes for 20 million, no? How much more valuable is your soul?.

If I told you some one just paid a $25,000 fine for you, would say so what, or huh why did they do that?
What if you where arrested, sitting in jail because you did not have the money to pay a $25,000 fine for speeding in a blind child area. Suddenly you were released, a total stranger paid your fine asking nothing in return.

My friend this is what Jesus did for you! If you reject him your fine will not be marked "paid in full. "On the day of judgement you will be standing with all you sins on your head. Your good works will do you no good, the Bible says all our good works are as filthy rags to God.

You must repent ask God for forgiveness, turn from your sins, and God will fill your soul with his loving spirit. Read his word, and grow in your love of him.
 
Therefore the law was our schoolmaster to bring us to Christ, that we might be justified by faith. Gal. 3:24

For Godly sorrow works repentance to salvation not to be repented of: but the sorrow of the world works death. 2 Cor. 7:10

Please examine yourself make sure you are in Christ, we are just vapors on this earth we could be called to judgement in the next moment.