@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 Many Uses of Tongues

A unique gift

Speaking and singing in tongues were natural expressions of worship for the early believers in the first church at Jerusalem. This practice, first manifested on the day of Pentecost, continued as an integral part of their spiritual life. The Holy Spirit enabled them to speak, pray, sing, and worship in languages they had not previously known. These were languages both earthly and heavenly. Tongues served a variety of purposes including: (1) Communicating the good news of salvation and other spiritual truths to hearers in their own language; (2) Communicating a message from God to the church, which would be accompanied by an interpretation, also given by the Holy Spirit, enabling understanding of the message; (3) Communicating prayers and intercession with God, in full agreement with the mind of the Holy Spirit; (4) Communicating praise and worship to God; (5) Communicating truth, including words of authority, as a weapon in spiritual warfare. Tongues were not an ‘add-on’ in the first church but an expression at the very heart of their personal and corporate life. Do we make full use of this wonderful spiritual gift that God has given us?