@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'

Love Makes A Way

There was only one way that humanity could ever be restored to God, and that would be by removing the barrier of sin that stood in the way. This was impossible from a merely human angle, for we have no power to change our own sinful nature, no power to defeat it, and no power to take the sin out of ourselves. We were thus doomed to eternal separation from God, separation forever from all that is truly good. And if the story had ended here, it would have been a tragedy of cosmic proportions. But God, who knew how helpless we were, made a way to get us back, and this tells us something about His character, for only an infinitely loving God would be willing to pay the astronomically high price to rescue us. How much are you or I prepared to pay to help someone else? How far are you or I prepared to go to help someone? How hard are you or I prepared to work to help someone? How long are you or I prepared to keep praying to help someone? Love keeps paying, love keeps going, love keeps working, and love keeps praying.