Doubting Thomas Had Eight Days to Believe!
Doubting Thomas Had Eight Days to Believe!
Samuel Machado
Church! Believing is a Key to Unlock the Kingdom of Heaven.
When we choose to trust amidst the travails of the soul, the Glory of God descends.
On the Other Hand, Doubt shuts the Door.
Our LORD can't walk or work with those who constantly disbelieve His goodness and graciousness. James 1:6
Our LORD will wait patiently. But, He will not enforce His Kingdom without a Faith act.
Can you imagine the "Doubt which blinded Thomas?
In-fact, Thomas had the privilege of First Hand experience with the Living Word.
He even walked, dined and lived with the LORD Himself.
Thomas even heard the LORD again and again about His Death, Denial and Resurrection.
He was one of those who fled during His arrest. He witnessed it all.
He saw the "Word Come to Pass in all it's course".
Not one of it was undone.
He also dreaded with the "Fear Filled Disciples".
He was in the hiding game too.
And suddenly, he heard the Chosen Confess of the "Risen Christ".
He heard the women say the same thing. Also the disciples who returned from Emmaus updated him.
Yet in all of it, he refused to believe.
He agonized himself when he had to rejoice.
He felt grief and hopelessness when the disciples rejoiced in hope and gladness.
He saw them share the "Revelation of the Risen LORD" again and again.
In all of it, he refused to shut his doubt.
He considered his conscience greater than the One who made it.
He chose to believe what his eyes would see.
He judged the LORD by disbelieving His Glorious Testimony.
And the Scripture says: After eight days!
It means: Our LORD waited for Thomas to believe for eight long days.
When Mary sought Him, He showed up at the Garden.
When the disciples were anxious, He appeared in their presence.
The disciples had grief and fear. But Thomas had doubt and disbelief.
Many Christians fail to witness Christ and His Resurrection power due to the latter.
Remember! Disbelief is Doubting His Goodness!
It's time to move from the doubting Thomas to the believing centurion.
God Bless!
Shalom,
Samuel Machado
His Slave
Judges 6:24
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Jesus Appears to Mary Magdalene
Now Mary stood outside the tomb crying. As she wept, she bent over to look into the tomb and saw two angels in white, seated where Jesus’ body had been, one at the head and the other at the foot. They asked her, “Woman, why are you crying?”
“They have taken my Lord away,” she said, “and I don’t know where they have put him.” 14 At this, she turned around and saw Jesus standing there, but she did not realize that it was Jesus. He asked her, “Woman, why are you crying? Who is it you are looking for?”
Thinking he was the gardener, she said,
“Sir, if you have carried him away, tell me where you have put him, and I will get him.”
Jesus said to her, “Mary.”
She turned toward him and cried out in Aramaic, “Rabboni!” (which means “Teacher”).
Jesus said, “Do not hold on to me, for I have not yet ascended to the Father. Go instead to my brothers and tell them, ‘I am ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.’”
Mary Magdalene went to the disciples with the news: “I have seen the Lord!” And she told them that he had said these things to her.
Jesus Appears to His Disciples
On the evening of that first day of the week, when the disciples were together, with the doors locked for fear of the Jewish leaders, Jesus came and stood among them and said, “Peace be with you!” 20 After he said this, he showed them his hands and side. The disciples were overjoyed when they saw theLord.
Again Jesus said, “Peace be with you! As the Father has sent me, I am sending you.”
And with that he breathed on them and said, “Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive anyone’s sins, their sins are forgiven; if you do not forgive them, they are not forgiven.”
Jesus Appears to Thomas
Now Thomas (also known as Didymus), one of the Twelve, was not with the disciples when Jesus came.
So the other disciples told him, “We have seen the Lord!”
But he said to them, “Unless I see the nail marks in his hands and put my finger where the nails were, and put my hand into his side, I will not believe.”
A week later his disciples were in the house again, and Thomas was with them.
Though the doors were locked, Jesus came and stood among them and said,
“Peace be with you!”
Then he said to Thomas, “Put your finger here; see my hands. Reach out your hand and put it into my side. Stop doubting and believe.”
Thomas said to him, “My Lord and my God!”
Then Jesus told him, “Because you have seen me, you have believed; blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.”