Saturday, April 30, 2005
Saint Thomas
Yesterday our team visited the tomb of Saint Thomas. It was pretty inspirational to realize that the disciple who we generally think of as "Doubting Thomas" was the one God used to first bring the Gospel to India. Even 2000 years later southern India (where Thomas came) has far more Christians than the rest of India. Just a reminder that God can use anyone to do his work as long as you're willing to submit yourself to Him.
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2 comments:
heh - it's funny how perspectives change with churches. I prolly used to think of Thomas as "doubting Thomas" in some way too - at least, a few years ago that was prolly the only story I knew about him. But now I definitely think of him first as "the apostle who went out to India", just like the others are the ones who "went to the Ethiopian" or "went all over Asia and Europe" or "went to Alexandria" or "went to Rome" or "stayed in Jerusalem" or "went to Cyprus". The Orthodox churches were founded by all these guys, and so I've been much more aware of those parts of their history.
It's kinda sad for Thomas that everyone thinks of him that way (I mean, it seems he had an amazing life and ministry, but still). I recently heard a sermon on him that said that doubting isn't what characterized him at all. He was the disciple in John 11:16 that when Jesus was talking about going back to Jerusalem, was like "let's go so that we may die with him too."
Also, it seems like he was judged by how he reacted in such an extreme situation. I mean, he just saw his leader crucified. He hadn't seen him resurrected and I could see how that would be hard to believe especially in his grief. But as soon as he saw, he stopped doubting and believed. How many of us see and continue to doubt over and over again? Just adding my 2 cents. I like Thomas.
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