Sister Karen Wednesday Evening 4/3/13

Sister Karen Wednesday Evening 4/3/13

Joh 20:24  But Thomas, one of the twelve, called Didymus, was not with them when Jesus came.

Joh 20:25  The other disciples therefore said unto him, We have seen the Lord. But he said unto them, Except I shall see in his hands the print of the nails, and put my finger into the print of the nails, and thrust my hand into his side, I will not believe.

Joh 20:26  And after eight days again his disciples were within, and Thomas with them: then came Jesus, the doors being shut, and stood in the midst, and said, Peace be unto you.

Joh 20:27  Then saith he to Thomas, Reach hither thy finger, and behold my hands; and reach hither thy hand, and thrust it into my side: and be not faithless, but believing.

Joh 20:28  And Thomas answered and said unto him, My Lord and my God.

Joh 20:29  Jesus saith unto him, Thomas, because thou hast seen me, thou hast believed: blessed are they that have not seen, and yet have believed.

I thought it was wonderful that Jesus came while Thomas was there.  He showed him His hands and His feet and told him to reach out and touch Him.  He had such mercy and compassion on Thomas.  He didn’t just let Thomas go. 

He told them that some must believe because of their Word.  We don’t see with our natural eyes but we have the privilege to believe because of the Word.

Believe means to have faith in or have faith upon or with respect to a person, to entrust our spiritual well being to Christ, and reliance upon Christ for salvation. 

Even Webster may say something similar to that.  We all know the definition of salvation and all it entails.  It means deliverance from so many things.  First it brings deliverance from sin.  Our believing brings repentance.  In order to be forgiven then we must forgive others.  What a freedom and wonderful deliverance that is. 

To be forgiven we must forgive.  To be free from guilt is wonderful.

We are delivered from sin and we are delivered from the world and the pressure from the world.  To be free from drinking is wonderful.  You’ve probably been in a place where you were the only one that didn’t take a drink. 

There is pressure from the world to drink yet some cannot drink without being an alcoholic.  Others die from psoriasis.  My cousin couldn’t handle it.  The way it affected him is that he killed himself.  His wife couldn’t handle it either she shot herself. 

It is wonderful to be free from the world and not have to conform.  To be free from self is a wonderful thing.  To be free from selfishness and holding onto my way is wonderful.  It is hard to be friends with a selfish person.  It takes the love of God and that is the only way.

I am thankful to be delivered from selfishness.  I grew up with nine siblings and it is hard to have your own things at that time.  It is a terrible bondage to be selfish and it makes you feel so bad and so guilty. 

Sister Sue:  We can be free from conforming to the world.  This stirred my heart for our kids and for the young people.  In my mom and dad’s generation it was the thing to do to smoke.  In my mind now there is so much information about how harmful it is to smoke that I cannot understand why a young person would put a cigarette in her mouth. 

I asked one girl that is our client, “Why would you ever even start when you know so much about it.”  She said that it was to fit in.  “I didn’t fit in anywhere else so I started to smoke to fit in.”  We need to pray for our young people

To be delivered from jealousy is wonderful.  It is a part of the carnal nature.  People don’t just choose to be jealous.  To be delivered from bad attitudes, to have a good attitude and be content is wonderful

We can be delivered from false religion.  Even if you never go to the Catholic Church you can be delivered from the Catholic Church and every false thing.

There is help in salvation.  How many ways do we pray for help in the morning for our day?  We need help.

We need safety.  I asked my Sunday school class what we need safety from and they didn’t say to be safe from a car wreck and but to be safe from bad spirits.  We go to places where we feel an onslaught of bad spirits.  I went to a wedding where I marveled. 

Safety is trusting and believing in Christ for our salvation.  We don’t even know all that God protects from. 

We can have victory in our minds from sin and in all these things.  All of these things bring us health; we can be healthy in our mind, in our emotions, in our thinking, and in our spirit.  We can have a right spirit and because of all these things we can have health.  Daniel had an excellent spirit.

Luk 1:45  And blessed is she that believed: for there shall be a performance of those things which were told her from the Lord.

Mat 9:29  Then touched he their eyes, saying, According to your faith be it unto you.

Act 16:31  And they said, Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved, and thy house.