@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'

The Greatest Healing

It is only when we come into a personal relationship with God through faith in Jesus Christ that the fullest, deepest, and most lasting healing begins in earnest. There are a great many channels of healing, but there is only one Source. Channels come and go, but God remains forever. Hence it is utter folly to put our ultimate trust in a channel of God’s grace rather than in God Himself. Many put their trust in the means but miss the Source. The gods of today’s world are as many and varied as those of antiquity. They are rarely of wood and stone, but they are no less real than their ancient counterparts, and their help is always limited. Some, such as medicine, money, success, relationships and power, may prove good servants, but they are all impotent gods, lacking both ears to hear and eyes to see. Why focus on a gift which we may only have for a season but not focus on the Giver who is always with us and has promised to always meet our needs. 