In John 14-16 Y'shua gives final instructions to His disciples and promises them that His departure would allow them to receive the Holy Spirit. He says that He is sending them into an enemy controlled world and that there will be casualties, but He loves them and assures them of a place in the world to come. In doing this, He sets the church up as His weapons system to hold and take the fight to the enemy until the end when He personally returns. In this mission, the Holy Spirit is their power source.
In Jerusalem, Paul meets with James and the elders who discuss how to address the rumors that Paul is teaching a new religion. They decide that he will consecrate himself along with others who are coming to the end of their Nazarite vows and that he will publicly sacrifice in the Temple. This includes a discussion of Paul's attitude toward Moses.
Each of us has an unique voice. So when we sing the music God has written into His Scriptures, each will sound different. Each will approach situations differently.
As construction of the wall progressed, the common people complained that they were unable to feed their families because the Jewish elites were loan sharking. Since this sort of practice was one of the major reasons for Judah having gone into exile, Nehemiah put a stop to the practice and made the elites pledge to return all of the interest and collateral that they had gained. Also, as with Ezra, the Samaritans and the Amorites tried to stop the wall building project
Historically the United States has gotten things done via ad hoc groups which come together when there is a need and then disband. This only works for a church-going people.
Over the years, Christianity has become less and less effective in shaping the culture and effecting national politics. This is largely because the church has ignored or deprecated those parts of Scripture that it finds 'inconvenient'. Scripture, from Genesis to Revelation, is a unified whole and avoiding parts of it robs it of power and influence.
Prayer may be thought of in two forms, relational and functional. In functional prayer you want something to happen: someone healed, a demon cast out, a peril averted, etc. In relational prayer you want to spend time in God's presence getting to know His heart. Successful functional prayer depends on consistent relational prayer. The Scripture referred to is Mark 9:14-29.
On his way to Jerusalem for the final time, Paul bids farewell to the Ephesian church. The subject of his remarks echoes the first of the Kingdom Parables in Matthew. They also presage his pastoral Letter to the Ephesians as well as Y'shua's Letter in Revelation 2. These four passages of Scripture address the same subject from different time perspectives.
In Scripture, prophets do certain specific things. In this, they prefigure and authenticate Y'shua. The things He did were prefigured in Scripture.
Having received permission and resources from the King, Nehemiah proceeded to Jerusalem with an armed guard. After secretly surveying the state of the city, he gathered the returned exiles and set them to building the wall. The opposition to the project from the nations around him was so fierce that he was compelled to sacrifice some efficiency in building to obtain military security.