{"id":6191,"date":"2014-12-31T00:34:56","date_gmt":"2014-12-31T08:34:56","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/?p=6191"},"modified":"2014-12-31T00:34:56","modified_gmt":"2014-12-31T08:34:56","slug":"thomas","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/2014\/12\/31\/thomas\/","title":{"rendered":"Thomas"},"content":{"rendered":"

But Thomas, sometimes called the Twin, one of the Twelve, was not with them when Jesus came. The other disciples told him, \u201cWe saw the Master.\u201d<\/p>\n

\tBut he said, \u201cUnless I see the nail holes in his hands, put my finger in the nail holes, and stick my hand in his side, I won\u2019t believe it.\u201d<\/p>\n

\tEight days later, his disciples were again in the room. This time Thomas was with them. Jesus came through the locked doors, stood among them, and said, \u201cPeace to you.\u201d<\/p>\n

\tThen he focused his attention on Thomas. \u201cTake your finger and examine my hands. Take your hand and stick it in my side. Don\u2019t be unbelieving. Believe.\u201d<\/p>\n

\tThomas said, \u201cMy Master! My God!\u201d<\/p>\n

\tJesus said, \u201cSo, you believe because you\u2019ve seen with your own eyes. Even better blessings are in store for those who believe without seeing.\u201d <\/p>\n

\tJesus provided far more God-revealing signs than are written down in this book. These are written down so you will believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and in the act of believing, have real and eternal life in the way he personally revealed it. (John 20:24-31)<\/em>\n<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Healthy skepticism can all too easily become pathological. After all the people Jesus had raised back to life, after all Jesus\u2019 promises, after everyone he knew affirmed it, Thomas\u2019 skepticism is somewhat extreme. He saw Jesus die. And likewise, he refuses to accept his resurrection unless he sees it for himself.<\/p>\n

When Jesus appeared before Thomas, he said \u201cPeace be with you!\u201d That was merely the standard Jewish greeting, \u201cShalom alekem<\/em>,\u201d the equivalent of \u201cHi!\u201d Picture a situation comedy, with one character discussing a second character, unaware that the second character has just walked into the room. That\u2019s the situation that Thomas was in: \u201che\u2019s standing behind me, isn\u2019t he?\u201d <\/p>\n

In the midst of the shock of Jesus\u2019 suddenly showing up, Jesus offered Thomas exactly what he asked for. Of course, Thomas wasn\u2019t expecting to actually have to touch Jesus\u2019 nail holes in order to believe. He had simply been expressing his frustration and his need to see Jesus for himself.<\/p>\n

When we believe that Jesus lives without the opportunity to see him or touch him we are more blessed than Thomas. How so? Because of the value God places on faith. Trusting God brings its own reward: we can relax in the face of adversity, even when we don\u2019t see a way out, because we have learned to trust God for what is unseen. We have more blessing\u2014more happiness\u2014and less worry than poor Thomas ever had.<\/p>\n

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But Thomas, sometimes called the Twin, one of the Twelve, was not with them when Jesus came. The other disciples told him, \u201cWe saw the Master.\u201d But he said, \u201cUnless I see the nail holes in his hands, put my … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_s2mail":"yes"},"categories":[18,17,16],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6191"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6191"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6191\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6193,"href":"http:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6191\/revisions\/6193"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6191"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6191"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6191"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}