Doubting Thomas Gives His Life

Has anyone,besides me,ever thought that maybe "Doubting Thomas" received a bad rap? When his name is mentioned to kids in Sunday School, it is usually used with a negative connotation. we somehow feel that Thomas didn't have any faith. Thomas is treated as being wishy-washy. He is called a skeptic; and not the good kind, at that. Even today, two thousand years later, we call people who don't believe what we believe,a "Doubting Thomas". The stigma remains.

But let's examine what Thomas really did when he asked for proof that Jesus was who He said He was. Did Thomas show a lack of faith or a sense of curiosity? Was Thomas being disrespectful by not eating what may have been spoon-fed to him by the other disciples or was he just wanting to use his own intellect to decide if Jesus had came back? Was Thomas turning His back on Jesus because he wasn't the first one to see Him and renew his relationship with Christ, or was he just not willing to have a relationship with Jesus by proxy; did Thomas want the experience the REAL Jesus personally?

And what was, or is, wrong with having questions about Jesus? I am not talking about not believing that Jesus is not who He said He was, nor not believing in who He is today. But questions about trying to understand Jesus and His role in our lives. What is wrong with some healthy curiosity? And if Jesus is who He says He is, which I whole-heartily believe, then I think that He can hold His own when some honest questions come His way.

After all, Jesus had told the disciples to consider the cost before becoming disciples. He never promised worldly riches or popularity; actually offering the opposite, generally speaking. Maybe Thomas was the only one who took Jesus words to heart; maybe he was the only one paying attention to the lesson Jesus taught about considering the cost. And God had been known to tell some of His followers to try Him and test Him. Maybe Thomas was the only one who remember the Old Testament scriptures...

So where does all of this testing put us? Where does it put you? As for me, I found that when I examine what has been spoon-fed to me, and tried to discover God and His ways, so to speak, on my own that I have found that Igrow more closer to Him; that my healthy skepticism and curiosity, and my desire for the TRUTH, leads me to always find that not only Jesus who He says He is, but that He is more. From my examining many different aspects of Christianity, I find it to be the only truth, the only thing real and worthwhile, like Solomon discovers in the book of Ecclesiastes.

I have found that my relationship with God grows stronger when I face my doubts and uncertainties and that God can easily handle any real questions that I have. I have also found that many good skeptics have made some great apologists and Christian writers, thinkers, and philosophers.

So my challenge is for you to find out more about Jesus today than you knew yesterday. My hope is that you will respectfully take your doubts to Jesus. And as He revealed His scars to Thomas, he will reveal His wounds to you, so to speak.

Those wounds were enough proof for Thomas that he ended up giving his literal life for Jesus. "Doubting" Thomas remained faithful in a ministry that cost him his life; and he never looked back after placing his hands in the nail scarred hands of Jesus.

May we be as diligent in our own ministries and search for the truth. May we be forever changed by those same scars.