Faith Friday, The Thomas Kind of Faith, Morning Manna, Jan 24, 2025  Abraham faith and the Thomas faith Abraham faith and the Thomas faith. And we are going to study today and next week. And we're going to study stages of this when we're reading in the Old Testament. Are the differences between the faith of each man, and we're going to talk about which faith pleases God, which faith moves God's hands to act on your behalf, which faith produces miracles. So today, we're going to focus on Thomas's faith; next week, we will spend next Friday talking about Abraham's faith because it's Abraham's faith that we are to emulate, it is his faith we are to follow; he is the father of our faith, he's the role model.

these men were I mean, these are the young men, they're in their 30s, their leader was executed by the Roman government, he's been branded a revolutionary, a criminal. They were associated with him; they're thinking we're next, they're gonna round us up and nail us on a cross too, so there's tremendous emotional turmoil and Thomas's mind at heart and he's grieving he loved Jesus he loved him and Jesus and his mind is dead yes there's a difference Thomas did not have unbelief

his reluctance to believe was not unbelief when Jesus talks about unbelief he's talking about a hardness of a heart that refuses to believe refuses to to enter into the invisible world of faith that Thomas wasn't there as they he was a believer he was a believer he was a believer he was a believer he wasn't in unbelief he just wasn't in belief see unbelief is a a determined state of mind to say I'm not going to believe that he wasn't there He just couldn't believe, and I think I think a lot of it had to do with he was so emotionally distraught. Yes, he he he didn't want to believe in something that was too good to be true right.

He'd seen Jesus die; yeah, he was traumatized, and I think that's probably the best way to describe Thomas-he was traumatized, yes. And now they're telling him he's alive. I think he wanted to believe, but he was afraid that he was being duped, he was being led to believe something that just couldn't be true. How could a man who was whipped and scourged and beaten, nailed to a cross, have a spear thrust into him? So how could he be alive? He wanted him To be alive, but he he didn't want to be tricked and it wasn't that he was thinking the apostles the other the other disciples were deliberately deceiving him he was just thinking maybe they saw a ghost maybe they well I don't know what they saw he wasn't believing that they were trying to deceive him he was just thinking whatever they saw I'm not sure what it was right so So for him, the eyewitness testimony of the other disciples, the other 10 disciples, wasn't enough for Thomas.

 It wasn't enough to convince him. He needed something more, some physical evidence. You know, really, that's all we have today, Rick. All we have is the eyewitness testimony of the apostles and believers of the first century. That's all we have, too. That's what we have. That's why they're apostles. We don't have physical evidence. I have great doubts about the Shroud of Turin because I just don't see God providing physical evidence. You know, if he did, he would have provided it in the scriptures and said, 'Look, you can go touch this thing and see this thing.' But it wasn't enough for Thomas. My view on the Shroud of Turin is, I guess, the opposite, Doc. I mean, for me. For me, it's like, well, it could be real, but that doesn't affect my faith.

It could be this Shroud, but that would be cool if it was, but whether it turns out to be a fake, that doesn't affect my faith in Christ's resurrection. True. And even if it is genuine, I think that creates some problems, too. And so because people put their faith in the physical element of Christ, just as it becomes a relic. Yes. Now I got to go touch it. You know, you got to go do all that stuff. Yes. So Thomas's doubt wasn't just a casual denial. It wasn't kind of, oh, yeah, I'm not so sure about that. It was it was a profound fear. Of being deceived. In a the most significant matter in his life. I mean, he couldn't he couldn't risk being deceived.

 It would be in other words, for Thomas, it was like, I'm already traumatized that my Lord was killed. If I believe he's alive. And then I find out. That that's not that that's not true, then he's been killed twice. Right? Yeah. And I think that's what was driving his reluctance to believe. So what do we do? This is what I'm trying to mine out of this lesson today. What are the things that in the in our natural lives? What are the things that. Hinder us. From believing like a child, Jesus said, we have to enter the kingdom like a child. You can tell children that they'll believe that they grow up and they're like, 'I don't believe that.' Most people, the older they get, the more cynical they become.