TGBC and the Moon

April was a perfect sky month for moon and planets, Jupiter, Mars and Saturn. Predawn all are still visible in the blackness, though not April's display. Later, above at 5:27 AM, waning moon in the west with Jupiter below it and to the right (north from 7H) hanging just above and about to disappear into the line of low clouds beyond Thomas Drive and over the Gulf of Mexico. Cool, 65F 96%, cup of coffee outside on the porch to watch two shrimp boats on StAndrewsBay finishing up their overnight trawling, and Life is Good.

Meanwhile in TGBC the Jerusalem Council adjourns with a letter welcoming gentile believers and imposing only limited rules, see below, basically the rules set at the time of Noah's disembarkation from the ark. The rule about meat that has been sacrificed to idols comes up again as we know, by Paul writing in 1 Corinthians 8 and 10.



Acts 15:22-35

The Council’s Letter to Gentile Believers

 Then the apostles and the elders, with the consent of the whole church, decided to choose men from among their members and to send them to Antioch with Paul and Barnabas. They sent Judas called Barsabbas, and Silas, leaders among the brothers, with the following letter: ‘The brothers, both the apostles and the elders, to the believers of Gentile origin in Antioch and Syria and Cilicia, greetings. Since we have heard that certain persons who have gone out from us, though with no instructions from us, have said things to disturb you and have unsettled your minds, we have decided unanimously to choose representatives and send them to you, along with our beloved Barnabas and Paul, who have risked their lives for the sake of our Lord Jesus Christ. We have therefore sent Judas and Silas, who themselves will tell you the same things by word of mouth. For it has seemed good to the Holy Spirit and to us to impose on you no further burden than these essentials: that you abstain from what has been sacrificed to idols and from blood and from what is strangled and from fornication. If you keep yourselves from these, you will do well. Farewell.’

 So they were sent off and went down to Antioch. When they gathered the congregation together, they delivered the letter. When its members read it, they rejoiced at the exhortation. Judas and Silas, who were themselves prophets, said much to encourage and strengthen the believers. After they had been there for some time, they were sent off in peace by the believers to those who had sent them. But Paul and Barnabas remained in Antioch, and there, with many others, they taught and proclaimed the word of the Lord.