@FirstChurchofJerusalem
Today's Early Church Wisdom
“I shall not hesitate also to put into ordered form for you, along with the interpretations, everything I learned carefully in the past from the elders and noted down carefully, for the truth of which I vouch. For unlike most people, I took no pleasure in those who told many different stories, but only in those who taught the truth. Nor did I take pleasure in those who reported their memory of someone else’s commandments, but only in those who reported their memory of the commandments given by the Lord to the faith and proceeding from the Truth itself. And if by chance anyone who had been in attendance on the elders arrived, I made enquiries about the words of the elders—what Andrew or Peter had said, or Philip or Thomas or James or John or Matthew or any other of the Lord’s disciples, and whatever Aristion and John the Elder, the Lord’s disciples, were saying. For I did not think that information from the books would profit me as much as information from a living and surviving voice.
~ Papias of Hierapolis (c. 60–130 AD) From the Preface to his lost ‘Expositions of the Sayings of the Lord’
This week's Psalm is Psalm 31 'My Rock, My Shield, My Song'

Defeating Satan’s Lies

How do we defeat Satan’s lies when he comes to us, seeking to deceive us and lead us away from God? Of course, not every lie we hear comes directly from Satan. We are quite capable of lying to ourselves, or to others. But there are some lies that have their origin in Satan and his demon hordes, and we need to be ready to both identify and to defeat these satanic deceptions. How is this done? Over the next few days we’ll be looking at four practical steps to defeating our spiritual enemy. As a preparation for our meditations, you may wish to take a fresh look at your own inner thoughts, weighing them against the measure of truth. Can you identify any ways in which the enemy may be lying to you? As you look at your own inner world of thought, you may also identify ways in which you are lying to yourself. If so, it’s time to declare war on these enemies of truth!