15 Comments

1) The Creator blinded the disciplines to conceal the presence of the Lord

1a) When Yeshua left, the Holy Spirit revealed the meaning of their experience

2) We exist only in the moment; that is all we comprehend in real time

2a) The Creator reveals what he wants us to know in real time

3) When their "hearts burned" it was the Holy Spirit teaching them.

Expand full comment

"1) The Creator blinded the disciplines to conceal the presence of the Lord."

One of the reasons I believe The Gospels are true is these guys (particularly The Apostles) they are pretty much Clueless.

I mean if I was starting a new faith, would I pick people like Simon Peter or James & John, Mathew? I Don't Think So. Mathew A Tax Collector? Like people are gong to listen to him. Simon Peter aka Mr. Big Mouth. James & John, No Selfesteem issues there.

Expand full comment

Thanks for your sharing thoughts. In my beginning, I could not remember Jesus' name for the first week. All I could remember at that time was the depth of relief and gratitude I felt for being loved by the Creator.

The Apostles were Jewish guys raised in a theological culture. I imagine they tried to fit their experience with Jesus into the Davidic Conquering Messiah but the conquering Messiah comes at the end of things.

When Yeshua came he was the Messiah predicted to suffer and die but the Rabbis (apparently) didn't teach that one during the Roman oppression. Regardless, the Apostles had a deeply religious cultural context so they weren't entirely clueless.

Expand full comment

One of my favorite scenes fom The Chosen..Get Used To Different

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9fCrm008EJE

"When Yeshua came he was the Messiah predicted to suffer and die but the Rabbis (apparently) didn't teach that one during the Roman oppression. Regardless, the Apostles had a deeply religious cultural context so they weren't entirely clueless."

At that time EVERYONE KNEW How The Messiah was going to come what he was going to do. And they Were WRONG.

I have a sneaking suspension all these people writing/talking/preaching about his 2nd coming are also..WRONG.

Expand full comment
Jan 30·edited Jan 30

Reading this articulates why I go to my church. I am Italian and my grandparents took me to church. I prayed the rosery with my nonna. When I was a teenager, I walked to church by myself, because my parents were just trying to survive. It was my special place. I even listened to bible cassette tapes on my Walkman while running. But eventually I stopped going to Mass. I went here and there, and it felt special, but I never "felt" what the priest was saying. In 2016 a friend brought me to a Christian church that is very bible based. Each week I learned what the bible was saying about my life and how I could live a better life if I follow the Word. I also saw the members DOING things - we have a very active Celebrate Recovery ministry, they asked for prayer for those in need, etc... As a runner, my first ministry was to work with a road race that raised funds for wells in Africa. And the biggest gift was my husband of 33 years eventually joined and was baptised. He is a retired police officer and believing in Christ has healed him in ways I could not. He is there all the time helping out - especially using his gift of cooking. I love reading the letters and comments that breath life into what Jesus is teaching us. I look forward to more to come!

Expand full comment

Is this a CS Lewis thought? "belief turns you from a past leading to hell and heads you heavenward, but when you look back you see that you were traveling in this direction all along"

Redeemed moments, redeemed meaning, redeemed memories... Redeemed Reality.

Expand full comment

There is something life giving in speaking. I don’t mean this in some self absorbed occult incantation but in resembling an image of God act that reminds us of the Creator. Light waves morphing into particles and back again. Faith comes by hearing and faithfulness comes by speaking?

Expand full comment

Matthew 18:3-5

And he said: “Truly I tell you, unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. Therefore, whoever takes the lowly position of this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven. And whoever welcomes one such child in my name welcomes me.

“Becoming a child....Jesus would not ask us to do or to be anything that he is not. How do little children live? In total dependence on their parents when the parents are on the child’s side even when the child is wrong. Children who have such a loving and supportive relationship can live with “reckless confidence”. Jesus was, and IS, a reckless person, depending totally upon his father. When his back was against the wall, Jesus told the Pharisees, “I or I can say or do nothing except what I hear from the Father.” (Michael Card)

Jesus consistently failed to meet the human expectations which blind us. May we have ears to hear, eyes to see, and hearts to recognize and to trust him through his gift of the Spirit.

In God’s wisdom which is foolishness to the world, Jesus turned everything inside out and upside down by entrusting himself totally as he entered into the brokenness of this world in the complete vulnerability of an infant, in poverty and imminent danger constantly. Further, upon exiting the stage, at least for now, Christ enlists his followers and entrust us to be his body, his hands and feet, his workers in the harvest. Reckless confidence indeed.

Expand full comment

"T.S. Eliot has an amazing passage where he talks about “the point of intersection of the timeless / With time.” He says that to apprehend or recognize eternity incarnate in the present is “something given / And taken, in a lifetime’s death in love.” But most of us only catch glimpses, “hints and guesses, / Hints followed by guesses; and the rest / Is prayer, observance, discipline, thought and action.”"

What if Time doesn't exist in Heaven? what if (just saying) What If Every time is NOW, and Every place is HERE?

Thing is Heaven is outside the physical universe we live in. Could it be The Laws that govern out universe don't apply there. Maybe this is why Scripture doesn't really talk a lot about what Heaven is like (other than its GOOD) We have no frame of reference.

For now we see as though a glass and darkly. But then face to face.

Expand full comment

Love this. 🧡🧡🧡

Expand full comment

Am I the only one obsessed with the Road to Emmaus now?

Expand full comment

When I had my first child, we were visited by An Encyclopedia Brittanica salesman.

We did it we bought it, more for the Extra bonus, A set of the Great Books of the Western World.

I had not had the opportunity to read them all but what I did read, my understanding was more like those who open the bible read it but get nothing from it because their perspective is distorted. My distorted views came from my creator. Last year I attempted to listen to Jordan Petersons series on Genesis.

While listening to Dr. Peterson I began asking myself, who is his audience? I guessed the answer the more I listened...As I tuned into the second episode this one thought came to mind, Dr. Peterson is teaching A room full of Agnostics, Scientist, and or Tech People. All of them know those stories written in that set of bonus books I wanted so much to consume. I know because of the constant back and forth between the bible and Philosophers in Dr. Petersons series was the explaination. Another questioned entered my mind is he teaching for knowlege for the greater good, or was he teaching a Crowd who would use our creator as a weapon against us? DID THEIR HEARTS BURN?

Expand full comment

"or was he teaching a Crowd who would use our creator as a weapon against us?"

IF what you're saying is true, all I can say is Good Luck to them.

Expand full comment

Have you listened to Dr. Petersons series?

https://youtube.com/playlist?

list=PL22J3VaeABQD_IZs7y60I3lUrrFTzkpat&si=znj3cwHvj7uNEXr8

Some Project BlueBell ice cream..lol

His series on Exodus is also available

Expand full comment

Spencer, I agree 100%. What on earth was your father talking about. I read his explanation on the origins of your nickname several times and I remain unenlightened. Here’s to hoping for a more coherent explanation. God bless.

Expand full comment