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{\b\fs48 Episode 1536: Believing Into Christ\b0}

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{\b\cf1 Scott Maderer:\b0}

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{ Thanks for joining me on episode 1,536 of the Inspired Stewardship Podcast. }

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{\b\cf3 Norm Wilsch:\b0}

{ I'm Norm Wilsch. I challenge you to invest in yourself, invest in others, develop your influence and impact the world by using your time, your talent, and your treasures to live out your calling. Having the ability to find God even in your most stressful of times is key, and one way to be inspired to do that is to listen to this.}

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{The Inspired Stewardship podcast with my friend Scott Maderer.}

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{ It, it's somewhat of a aggressive ask that he's doing, and yet Jesus calls for him to do that because the truth is he knew that Thomas to find his full identity had to move through this one part. Of his }

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{ identity, and I think that's what we all have to do. Welcome and thank you for joining us on the Inspired Stewardship Podcast.}

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{If you truly desire to become the person who God wants you to be, then you must learn to use your time, your talent, and your treasures for your true calling. In the inspired Stewardship podcast, you will learn to invest in yourself. Invest in others and develop your influence so that you can impact the world.}

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{Today's spiritual foundation episode, I talk about John chapter 20, verses 19 through 31. I talk about how we often label people with only part of their identity and also share how our full identity is always more complex. John chapter 20, verses 19 through 30. One says, when it was evening on that day, the first day of the }

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{ week, and the doors were locked where the disciples were for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood among them and said, peace be with you.}

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{After he said this, he showed them his hands and his side. Then the disciples rejoice when they saw the Lord. Jesus said to them again, peace be with you as the Father has sent me, so I send you. When he had said this, he breathed on them and said to them, receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive the sins of any, they're forgiven them.}

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{If you retain the sins of any, they are retained. But Thomas, who was called the twin, one of the 12, was not with them when Jesus came. So the other disciples told him, we have seen the Lord. But he said to them, unless I see the mark of the nails in his hands and put my finger in the mark of the nails and my hand at his side, I will not believe.}

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{A week later, his disciples were again in the house and Thomas was with them. Although the doors were shut, Jesus came and stood amongst them and said, peace be with you. Then he said to Thomas, put your finger }

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{ here and see my hands. Reach out your hand and put it in my side. Do not doubt but believe Thomas answered him, my Lord and my God.}

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{And Jesus said to him, have you believed because you have seen me? Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have come to believe. Now, Jesus did many other signs in the presence of his disciples that are not written in this book, but these are written so that you may continue to believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that through believing you may have life in his name.}

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{Oh, this passage is where we get that term. Doubting Thomas. And I think we often use labels like that to dismiss certain people or certain perspectives, whether it's a group of people that we don't like, or whether it's a disabled person or a person with a particular difference and race or creed or belief or whatever it is.}

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{We label those people and we say, this }

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{ is who they are. We give them their full identity in one label. Think about it here. Thomas is bearing this weight for his choices, his questions, and his experience. He has a different perspective than some of the others because he had a different life experience or maybe not.}

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{Maybe in truth, he's speaking out loud. What was going on in the minds of all of the disciples? Think about it. Back at the beginning, we had this moment where Mary came back to tell the disciples that Jesus was not in the tomb and yet. Whenever she did that, you have to wonder, did they doubt? Is that why they went to check?}

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{But yet we don't call them the doubting John or the doubting Paul or Peter or any of the others. Instead it's Thomas who has that label. And yet if you look at the entire. If you look at the gospel of John, for example, }

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{ the Thomas here is the one that when Jesus says in the story of Lazarus, let us go to Jerusalem.}

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{Thomas' reply is, let us also go that we may die with him. Thomas moves the story forward. He's active in following Jesus. It's clear that he is not only representing moments of doubt, but also moments of faith. And I think we often bring that out and forget that someone can be a complete person, they can be a leader at one moment and a follower at others.}

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{They can be doubting at one moment and a believer at others. They can be made in one way and yet complete in others. You have to wonder how Thomas got the label of doubting when so many other examples within. The gospels show people doubting. But how is it that Thomas got that label? It's this }

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{ one experience where he wasn't the one who had seen it and he had doubts, but then when shown he believed, by the way the way that Thomas is asking to put his fingers in Jesus' wounds is not a word that would be used for gentle, but more a word that would be used for poking something.}

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{Sharply it. It's somewhat of a aggressive ask that he's doing, and yet Jesus calls for him to do that because the truth is he knew that Thomas to find his full identity had to move through this one part of his identity, and I think that's what we all have to do. Thanks for listening.}

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{Thanks so much for listening to the Inspired Stewardship Podcast. As a subscriber and listener, we challenge you to not just sit }

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{ back and passively listen, but act on what you've heard and find a way to live your calling. If you enjoyed this episode, do me a favor. Go over to facebook.com/inspired.}

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{Stewardship and like our Facebook page and market that you'd like to get notifications from us so that we can connect with you on Facebook and make sure that we're serving you to the best of our abilities with time and tips there. Until next time, invest your time. Your talent and your treasures.}

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{Develop your influence and impact the world.}

}