Look At Thomas

                                        
Look at Thomas. "Unless I see in His hands the imprint of the nails, and put my finger into the place of the nails, and put my hand into His side, I will not believe!" 'Say what you like, I am not going to believe!' 

So he has shut himself out and is a man alone.

Then, for some reason or other, perhaps sick of his loneliness or under the persuasion of some friends, he comes in on one occasion where they are. 

He is no more with them in heart, but he is there in body, and the Lord appears, and the first act of the Lord is to make straight for that man. 

Now Thomas, come and see the marks that you demanded to see, reach hither your finger!

Thomas broke, and went down; "My Lord, and my God".

It is that sort of thing that makes the true Christian life and makes the church.

That is what the Lord is after, to get us away from our mere ecclesiasticism, all that externality and formality, and get us down to the place where God in Christ has got our hearts in brokenness and worship, and we simply say "My Lord, and my God".
 
~T. Austin Sparks~