@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'

Phoney Church

Beware imitations!

A church that does not abide in Christ is not a church. It might look like a church on the surface, and I guess it could certainly be called a copy of the church, but a copy is not an original. So-called churches where there is no daily commitment to walking and talking with Him, individually and together, are phoney. Above all human leadership, Christ is the supreme head of the Church, which is His body (Colossians 1:18; Ephesians 1:22). If the church is indeed the body of Christ, as the New Testament teaches, it can do nothing detached from its Head! Many who visit such churches sense this inauthenticity, though they may not be able to explain it, and are understandably repelled. The faithful, loving leadership of Christ is an ever-present reality, but it relies upon people attending to His loving direction. To the degree that churches listen, Jesus leads. Where leaders chose not to listen, but rather follow their own way, the inevitable outcome is an incalculable deficit of the good that would otherwise be done. A Christian community can only be said to be led by Christ if it daily looks to Christ, listens to Him, and follows His directions in this world. 