Month: April 2026

Categories
downcast Encounter

Why So Sad?

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Today in church we had the reading from Luke 24 about the disciples on the road to Emmaus. I’ve pondered this before in Presumption and Emmaus Road but for me I find a lot of the time these familiar stories have a new question or a new meaning appear. Today’s is a question.

Jesus catches up with these people – two, more than two, male, females, family, friends, strangers. Who knows! But remember it was dangerous to travel in small groups back then because of robbers, etc.

It says later that these people say they knew that there are witnesses to say Jesus has risen and yet in the Bible the encounter starts with

17 Jesus asked them, “What are you discussing together as you walk along?” They stood still, their faces downcast.

Luke 24:17

And then they go on to say that they thought everyone knew about Jesus being crucified and they also recount the witness accounts of him not being in the tomb.

But why if they have been told Jesus has risen are they still “downcast”. That doesn’t make sense to me. I could understand if they were pondering things, thinking it all through, but to still be downcast when they’ve heard Jesus has risen seems a bit odd to me.

But then I got to thinking of all the miserable worried looking Christians I know who don’t appear to believe they can slide into the peace of God via Jesus. As if deep down they don’t really believe all the things they sing and read and hear preached.

I’m leaving this with a question because I could get judgemental and I really don’t want to. But I would love to know why were Cleopas and crew downcast and why are some 21st Century Christians downcast?

I really would love to know because for me, even on those horrid days when I’ve screwed up big time and would just love to hide, to sleep, to not get involved in the world, I still don’t feel downcast. I can still feel that deep joy of knowing the Creator of The Universe loves me uncondtionaly and has my back – whatever that may look like. But maybe to others they can’t see that in me so maybe I do look downcast then?

I was blessed when I “converted” because I had an amazing encounter with Jesus and knew at that moment I was loved even though my life was a mess – and caried on being a mess for a while after! But it was a very powerful God encounter. Perhaps that is what happened with Cleopas and crew and maybe from then onwards they were no longer downcast.

Wonder what happened to them?

Categories
something more teachings

A Missing Book?

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This morning in the 24-7 Prayer Lectio 365 they were sharing on Jesus risen with this verse

1 In my former book, Theophilus, I wrote about all that Jesus began to do and to teach 2 until the day he was taken up to heaven, after giving instructions through the Holy Spirit to the apostles he had chosen. 3 After his suffering, he presented himself to them and gave many convincing proofs that he was alive. He appeared to them over a period of forty days and spoke about the kingdom of God.

Acts 1:1-3

Because it says “Theophilus” at the start of both Acts and Luke it is presumed that these books were written by the same person, and that Luke was a historian as well as theologian and wanted to get things accurately shared.

The more writing I do and the more I get into editing to enter my work in competitions, etc, the more I’m looking closely at things and seeing if they make sense.

Take note here – Luke says that in his “former book” he talks about all the things Jesus did and taught till he went up to heaven and verse 3 says that over a period of forty days he “spoke about the kingdom of God”. Jesus doesn’t go up to heaven till after those forty days. According to Luke Jesus taught the disciples over this time and that he, Luke, had shared this in his former book.

The Gospel of Luke finishes with a quick summary of Jesus telling the disciples what they must do and then of him going up to heaven but to me that isn’t “all Jesus began to do and teach”. Yes there is lots in Luke’s gospel about what Jesus did before he was crucified but the 40 days after resurrection???

To my mind, if Luke was such a dedicated historian and theologian, why would he write that if there isn’t another book out there somewhere filled with the conversations and teachings that went on between Jesus and his disciples and, I think, those new followers who missed out on so much by not hanging out with Jesus before crucifixion; words and teachings that would be so helpful to us all in knowing how to live post-resurrection.

Categories
being peace

Who Rules?

Taken on the outskirts of Frome back in the summer of 2025 on a walk with my mum. Love the definitions of this dead part of tree.

I’m still doing the daily readings with the Bible Society for Lent, and on the whole enjoying it. The other day we read Psalm 110 and this jumped out at me

The LORD says to my lord: 

‘Sit at my right hand
    until I make your enemies
    a footstool for your feet.

Psalm 110:1-2

When this verse has been preached on, and even in the commentary on Bible Society, it is said that the lower case “lord” must be Jesus with the uppercase LORD being Yahweh, but I’m wondering if it isn’t. I’m wondering if it is that part of ourselves that lords it over our behaviour and decisions.

In doing QEC healing and also watching Awakening With Brian and reading books like The Body Keeps The Score etc etc etc I am wondering if the “lord” in this psalm [and possibly in other places] is our subconscious, which is often led by our childhood traumas, our conditioning, our expectations, and lots of unspoken stuff, for instance Jung’s shadow selves.

We all do things that we don’t like doing or are surprised that we do. We react in ways that we don’t want to. I was really tired last night and was being really needy but in an antagonistic way. I knew I didn’t want to be behaving like that but I was. When I handed it to God I realised I was looking at things through the little child who got looked over and had to take charge.

So I all I had to do was sit at God’s right-hand, that place of honour, and allowed God, who loves me unconditionally, to bring those parts of me that were being my enemy under Their care. Those niggles and issues then became something I could rest my feet on and let go of.

By doing that it stops me then from doing those things we can all be guilty of doing [1] trying to rationally sort out why I was feeling that way, [2] feel guilty about acting off and go into a further sulk, [3] dismiss it all and blame the other person.

So if I put “my lord” into THE LORD’s hands then LORD [as in Creator God] can deal with my enemies – which are more often my own thoughts, fears, deep seated insecurities, and things I don’t even know about but which keep me in that flight, flight, freeze, fawn place – and I can be at peace.

I do wonder if, too often, we over spiritualise the Bible, trying to make lots of things in the Old Testament be by about Jesus, when often they are about the human condition, and how God wants to support us and help us through the hard work of being human. Maybe if we took it like that then we could spend more time being than rushing round doing.

Here’s my dogs on this morning’s walk enjoying just being rather than having to sort the world out. They trust me to do that for them.