What's in a cup?

I woke up alone and realised that my people had already left without me. I was a late sleeper and stubborn to wake up, so it did not surprise me that they had left me behind. The fire had gone out, and nothing was left behind except the dirt beneath my feet. So I picked up my sack and headed north. I saw their backs as they headed up the steep hill. They were walking up slowly, in small groups, with metres of space between them. I knew there were close to a thousand folk making their way up the mountain. They could not see far ahead, and they were reserving their energy, so they walked like stubborn donkeys, silent, quiet, with just their nearest and dearest in their hands. I felt guilty, or rather pressurised, to catch up, to show face, so I edged myself to the right where I was suddenly in a clearing. I wondered briefly why no one was walking there. It was so dusty that I could not see even two metres ahead of me. The next thought I had was filled with an image of a stor...

The apostle Peter was considered a most undiplomatic man before his conversion, when his name was Simon. He was blunt, often putting his foot in it, possibly offending his listeners rather than charming them. He loved passionately and was quick to identify Jesus as the Messiah, confessing as much when Jesus asked him. It was Peter to whom Jesus responded, "Get behind me, Satan", when he was prophesying his own death and Peter did not accept Jesus' fate and wanted to deny this prophecy. Despite his confession of love for Jesus, his faith in Him as the Christ, the Messiah, the Saviour of the world, the one who will bring all humans to the kingdom of God if they believed, he denied Jesus three times, just as Jesus predicted. Jesus told him he would deny him three times before his crucifixion, and he would know this when the cock has crowed three times. The fact that he denied Christ led him into depression, for he felt disloyal, weak, pathetic. However, even though i...