@FirstChurchofJerusalem
Today's Early Church Wisdom
“For the Gentiles, hearing from our mouth the words of God, are impressed by their beauty and greatness: then, learning that our works are not worthy of the things we say, they turn to railing, saying that it is some deceitful tale. For when they hear from us that God says: ‘No thanks will be due to you, if ye love only those who love you; but thanks will be due to you, if ye love your enemies and those that hate you’—when they hear this, they are impressed by the overplus of goodness: but when they see that we do not love, not only those who hate us, but even those who love us, they laugh at us, and the Name is blasphemed.”
~ The 2nd Epistle of Clement (140-160AD)
This week's Psalm is Psalm 31 'My Rock, My Shield, My Song'

Be the Light

How dark is tomorrow? When I look on social media, I quickly discover many dark messages of hopelessness, doom, and gloom. Many of these messages contain inaccuracies and distortions of various kinds, but some are more honest and accurate. We certainly live in the last days, and as increasing numbers of prophetic voices say, the last of the last days. But is it all doom and gloom? I think not. For, however dark this world may become, there is a light that ever shines in the darkness, a light that the darkness is utterly unable to overcome: Christ the living Word (John 1:5). This is that Light of which Isaiah wrote: “But the Lord will be to you an everlasting light, and your God your glory. Your sun shall no longer go down, nor shall your moon withdraw itself; For the Lord will be your everlasting light, and the days of your mourning shall be ended” (Isaiah 60:19-20). For the believer, light is not something that comes and goes. He or she ever carries it with them, for now, in Christ, they are children of the light (Ephesians 5:8). It is good to look for the light, wherever we are, and whoever we are with, but it is even better to remember that we are the light, for Christ is in us. We have no light of our own human making, but we are bathed in a glorious eternal radiance of God’s love that no darkness of earth can ever extinguish. Be the light!