@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'

One With God

The deepest fulfilment

Oneness with another brings a deeply personal connection that can be hard to put into words. Our unity with God is that and more. It’s like the connection of great friends. It might also be compared to the kind of connection that lovers may have. But it is greater by far, for through this connection, this oneness with God, the deepest hunger and thirst of the human heart is met. Jesus said, “He who believes in Me, as the Scripture has said, out of his heart will flow rivers of living water” (John 7:38). He said, “Whoever drinks of the water that I shall give him will never thirst” (John 4:14). The Bible talks a lot about the deep hunger and thirst of the human heart, and the fact that nothing but a personal relationship with God can fully satisfy it. This is why David says, “O God, You are my God; Early will I seek You; My soul thirsts for You” (Psalm 63:1), and Isaiah says, ““Ho! Everyone who thirsts, come to the waters; And you who have no money, come, buy and eat. Yes, come, buy wine and milk without money and without price. Why do you spend money for what is not bread, and your wages for what does not satisfy? Listen carefully to Me, and eat what is good, and let your soul delight itself in abundance” (Isaiah 55:1,2). Given that this is our deepest, fullest, richest, and most blessed connection, and the only means by which the deepest needs of our soul can be met, may our prayer be the prayer of David: “Early will I seek You!”