Train Wrecks for Jesus

Train Wrecks for Jesus. Episode 78: The Goes Wrong Show

Today Mark and Maggy discuss celebrities who go from new hearts in spirit to dyed-in-the-wool conspiracy theorists and hardline fundamentalists. And those who start out trying to make a relevant point but end up demonising.
Why is it that these people need to let go of the love and integrity at the start of their journey in order to take the hard line of condemnation and hate? Do they jump or were they pushed?

Train Wrecks for Jesus. Episode 77: Transubstantiation Or What's Up With That 'Body & Blood' Thing?

Holy Communion transubstantiates bread and wine into the body and blood of Jesus Christ.
Discuss!
That's exactly what we are doing, looking at the scandal of a man in a culture that rejected blood as unclean into one who asks us to drink his own blood. We take in the myth, the practicality, the beliefs of those times and tease out the heart of the meaning of communion for us and hopefully for you too.

Train Wrecks for Jesus. Episode 76: Where God Went Wrong

In a change from our usual routine, this is a 50-minute talk which Maggy gave in Cornwall last week, all about the origins of Christianity and how it basically lost the plot after it went 'corporate.' Yes, there have been many amazing mystics, but the hand of Imperial Rome changed everything...
 

Train Wrecks for Jesus. Episode 75: The Power of the Positive.

A while back, on Facebook, we had a disagreement. Luckily, being us, it was easy to agree to disagree and nobody got offended or blocked, but Mark really wanted to bring the topic of positive thinking into the podcast because, like magic, it can be so very seriously misused.
So today is Maggy talking about what she has learnt about the power of the mind. We can't change the world but we can change what we think about the world and in doing so we can project peace and love into the world rather than negativity. And, as Maggy tells, we can improve our own lives as well, simply by learning to choose our thoughts and to seek out good whenever we can.
In a nutshell, we have choice. Do we use that choice to add negativity to the world by droning on about what's wrong or do we use it to acknowledge the bad and yet to turn towards the good? Whichever way we turn adds energy. If we want more joy, then we have to import the software of the positive into our brains so that they can learn to accept it. if we don't, we'll just see more and more of the dross.

Train Wrecks for Jesus. Episode 74: Magic and Mystery

Today we talk about Mark the Magician, how he became one, what magic is to him and the shamanic origins of magic in healing. Mark uses magic to lift hearts and reassure.
We do also look at the negative side to magic - when it is used to manipulate people and for personal power. However, magic and the placebo effect can work together for great good. Maggy thinks this episode is brilliant. :-)

Train Wrecks for Jesus. Episode 73: The Christo-Pagan

Today Mark talks more of his journey through both Christianity and Paganism and how the Celtic Christian tradition and Druidic teachings work in beautiful harmony together.

Train Wrecks for Jesus. Episode 72: What the Heaven is Kabbalah?

Maggy's Mum's vicar told her that Kabbalah (Jewish mysticism) was devil worship. Oddly, it isn't... Today we discuss this ancient perennial wisdom tradition and how it helped Maggy regain her lost faith - and ironically led to her becoming a vicar. It's a system which offers a basic structure for faith and it works in harmony with all other faiths - if they'll let it!
 

Train Wrecks for Jesus. Episode 71: Was Mary Magdalene Mrs Jesus?

This is one of Maggy's bugbears - and she wrote a whole book about it, 'The Marriage of Jesus' (O Books). But to find out her conclusions from decades of research, I'm afraid you'll have to listen. We also look at why culture wants Mary Magdalene to be Jesus' wife and the legends of Mary and Joseph of Arimathea, the Merovingians and Glastonbury.

Train Wrecks for Jesus. Episode 70: Privilege, Success and All That Jazz

Today Mark talks (a little and very modestly - writes Maggy) about some of the amazing weddings and other ceremonies he has been involved in, including the marriage of Mick Jagger's daughter, Jade. But we look a little deeper than the traditional terms of 'success' in that the greatest success is to understand (stand under) the needs of those who come to us as their ministers and celebrants.

Train Wrecks for Jesus: Episode 69: If there's a God, why is the World such s***?

An excellent question! Gives us both a chance to rant a little about the problems of religion/society/ego as opposed to the lore of love. We humans rarely follow the natural law of reciprocity (a word Maggy appears to be constitutionally incapable of pronouncing :-D ) and appear to be increasingly mired in the ego's 'I want! I take!'z
So where do we go from here? We're not sure we have a conclusion. Still, at least we're not talking about the choice between a man and a bear...