@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 Path to Lasting Happiness

In the opening words of the Beatitudes, Yeshua declares, “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven” (Matthew 5:3). In the Greek text the phrase ptōchoi tō pneumati speaks not merely of outward poverty but of those who stand before God in deep spiritual humility, utterly aware of their need for His grace, mercy, and sustaining presence. When we truly know that we can do nothing of ourselves, and that without the cleansing action of Christ’s shed blood we are lost forever in sin and death, we are rightly humbled, knowing our complete dependence on God. It is here, in this place of awareness and honest admission, standing before the throne with a deeply grateful heart, that we are blessed, knowing the deepest, fullest, and most lasting happiness possible.