@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'

Enthrone the Lord!

Listen to some people talk and you would think that it’s the gym that keep them alive – they are so full of it! Listen to others, and it’s their favourite team, or some supplement they are taking. Please don’t misunderstand me. There’s nothing wrong in getting excited over things like this, but there’s a thin line that we may easily cross between enthusiasm and idolatry. The key question is: ‘What are we depending on to make our life work?’ We can’t help being dependent creatures (God is the only non-dependent being in the universe), but we can choose where we place our dependency. The prophet Habakkuk says: “Behold the proud, his soul is not upright in him; but the just shall live by his faith” (Habakkuk 2:4). When we put God first, enthroning Him on the throne of our heart, His rightful place, that’s when we really start to live. To do this, we may first have to depose ourselves from that throne! The greatest sin is to take that throne ourselves, and the greatest blessing is to give it to God. This is the foundation of faith, on which God will build. He will build us, transforming us into His likeness from one degree of glory to another, and He will build His work on earth through us, taking the wonderful message of the Gospel to all nations. Halleluia!