Paul and Barnabas separate in a dispute over John Mark. Paul and Silas carry the Jerusalem Council's letter to the churches in Asia. They travel to Macedonia. The Philippian jailer is saved.

After the hiatus caused by the Samaritan's letter to Cambyses, the prophets Haggai and Zechariah received word from God that they should resume. Simultaneously, half a continent away, Zerubbabel was given permission and resources by Darius.

Yom Teruah can be translated as a day of cheering. In Revelation when the seventh trumpet sounds there is cheering in Heaven because "the kingdom of the world has become the Kingdom of our Lord and of His Christ." At that time Christ will begin purging the world of His enemies, those who worship false gods. The impulse to idolatry has not gone away. What does it look like today when people in the church turn to other gods in the same way that Israel did in the past?

Standards for gentile behavior and salvation were burning questions in the early Church. The Council of Jerusalem debated and answered those questions.

Once the exiles had arrived in Israel, they began by building the altar and celebrating the Sabbath and the feasts. When they had laid the foundation for the Temple, the Samaritans asked to join the effort. When the Jews refused, the Samaritans petitioned the Persian king to stop the project.

The world and the culture is awash with death. Moses, in Dt 30 presents life and death as a choice and recommends that we choose life. In a sense that choice is the central point of the entire Bible. All the law and the prophets tell us what behavior leads to life and what leads to death, both temporal and eternal. Choose wisely.

Peter is arrested by Herod and kept in prison pending display before an hostile crowd. An angel delivers him from captivity.

When Israel was exiled to Babylon, Jeremiah prophesied that they would be there for 70 years. In 538 BC the Persian emperor, Cyrus issued an edict which allowed the exiles to return to their land and rebuild the Temple. Ezra is the chronical of that rebuilding.

There three ceremonies prescribed in Deuteronomy 26 and 27 that set up the Deuteronomy 28 recitation of blessings and curses in the covenant made with the generation going into the land. Each of these ceremonies is designed to maintain perspective as Israel prospers in their new land. When they neglected them, the nation descended into idolatry, injustice, violence and finally exile. We today are on the same path for the same reasons.

Food and table fellowship has always been a stumbling block between Jews and gentiles. Peter's vision of the sheet descending from Heaven showed him that diet does not disqualify gentiles from the Kingdom of God.