@FirstChurchofJerusalem
Today's Early Church Wisdom
"We ourselves were well conversant with war, murder and everything evil, but all of us throughout the whole wide earth have traded in our weapons of war. We have exchanged our swords for plowshares, our spears for farm tools…now we cultivate the fear of God, justice, kindness, faith, and the expectation of the future given us through the Crucified One….The more we are persecuted and martyred, the more do others in ever increasing numbers become believers."
Justin Martyr
100-165 a.d.
This week's Psalm is Psalm 30 'Joy Comes With The Morning'

Recognise & Resist the Tempter

Yesterday we were reminded of Jesus’ words to Satan, as He faced him down in the Judean wilderness: “Away with you, Satan! For it is written, ‘You shall worship the LORD your God, and Him only you shall serve’” (Matthew 4:10). The Greek text intensifies this truth of God’s absolute and exclusive claim upon the human heart. For the verb προσκυνήσεις (proskynēseis) means “to bow down in reverence and adoration,” while λατρεύσεις (latreuseis) refers to sacred service or worshipful devotion reserved for God alone. This clearly shows that Jesus rejected not only outward allegiance to Satan but every divided loyalty of soul and life. By quoting Deuteronomy 6:13, Christ answered deception with Scripture, demonstrating that victory over temptation flows from communion with God and submission to His Word rather than from human strength. There is only one foundation upon which we may eternally stand: the truth.