Insightful Musings on the New Testament
by
Ray Sparre, NU class of '67

Ray has a wealth of experience as a Husband, Father, Pastor, Missionary, and student of the Word. He believes and practices his faith where the rubber meets the road. You'll find his writings to be practical, insightful, and grounded in a truly Christ-centered world view.

Below are links to a printable daily Bible reading guide which Ray is following, and an archive of all his daily devotional writings for 2010.

|  Daily Reading Guide  |  2010 Devotion Archives  |
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29 Nov 10
            Hi, folks.
            It’s just me again…dropping something in your INBOX to do with as you wish.
            I hope you get everything done on your TO DO LIST today…and if you do, please give me some good practical advice on how you did it…unless you didn’t make a list.
            Be blessed.  Love…Dad/Ray.
 
29 November 2010
Passage: John 20:19-31
Focus: “A week later his disciples were in the house again, and Thomas was with them.” John 20:26.
            I can identify with Thomas.  He was resistant to emotional gullibility.  He tried to think things through objectively.  He refused to simply be a willing conformist to hype and popular thought.  He had good reason to question the claim of the other disciples—that they had actually seen a real living physical Jesus.  After all, it’s not very normal for people to rise from the dead after being crucified and buried in a tomb for three days.  Not only that, but they said Jesus entered their meeting place unannounced when all the doors were locked! Definitely not normal!  So Thomas declared that he wasn’t about to believe all that stuff—unless he saw Jesus for himself and personally inspected the evidence of His crucifixion wounds.
            I have lots of reasons to believe that Jesus knew full well of Thomas’ struggle with doubt and disbelief.  But notice that He does not scurry to his side with a personal encounter to dispel his doubts right away. Instead Jesus gives Thomas an entire week in which He allows, even intends, that Thomas would grapple with the data and try to figure things out on his own—that he stew in his reflections of the recent past, and struggle to connect vital dots.
            So when Jesus appeared to the disciples a week later, Thomas was given special attention.  It didn’t take long for him to make the right response—“My Lord and my God!” (v. 28).  Wow!
            My overview of life, as well as the Scriptures, teaches me not to expect God to intervene and bail me out of my struggles immediately—on my schedule—according to my sense of urgency.  Struggle time can be part of my positive development according to HIS curriculum. Furthermore, He doesn’t seem to have as much problem with honest doubt as He does with superficial belief.
 
“Feed your faith and your doubts will starve to death.”
 
PS: I decided that a post script might be appropriate to offer some clarification to a verse in this passage that could be found confusing—verse 23.  “If you forgive anyone his sins, they are forgiven; if you do not forgive them, they are not forgiven.” A noted Greek scholar, Dr. Kenneth Wuest, offers a refined translation of the key phrase as …”they have been previously forgiven.” I’m inclined to reflect back on the final words of Jesus on the cross—“It is finished” (John 19:30).  In other words, Jesus’ role and function as THE LAMB OF GOD WHO TAKES AWAY THE SIN OF THE WORLD (John 1:29) was now complete.  Forgiveness of all the sins of all mankind was hereby paid for in full.  It’s kind of like being given the winning lottery ticket—but now the number must be announced and the pot claimed.  So believers do not do the forgiving—they simply announce the GOOD NEWS (Gospel) of forgiveness.  And that’s a much bigger deal than winning the lottery!