As Paul changes the emphasis of his ministry, I will take this time to review a little.  When I started this blog, I stated the purpose to be an exploration of what it means to be a follower of Christ in today's world.  I really wasn't sure what direction it would take, but pretty soon was led to the Book of Acts.  I believe a good way to learn how to be a follower of Christ is to look at how the first Christians did it.  With Stephen, we see that we should be willing to give everything, even our life, for Christ. That is real commitment.  We see often that the early Christians were of one accord, and we must be also.  We see that they met each others needs, and we can do no less.  We see with Paul (Saul) that a personal encounter with Christ changes a person, and no matter how bad they may have been, when they accept Christ as their Savior they are totally forgiven.  As His followers, we are a new creation.  With Peter, Paul, and many others, we see that following Christ is not always easy in worldly terms.  We are called to take up the cross daily.  We see with Peter that God is not a respecter of persons and now with Paul that we are all one blood.  Christ did not come to save a particular group, but to save all mankind.  We must reach out to everyone with a Christ like love.  There is no room for hatred in a follower of Christ.  We see with Paul's sermon on Mars Hill that God is the Creator of all, He makes Himself known and is always near, and He doesn't live in temples made by hand.  To be His followers, these are not possible truths, but they are the truth.  We see that Paul went first to God's chosen people, the Jews, and they mostly rejected his preaching and attempted to shut him up.  If we are going to follow God, we must accept everything He tells us.  We cannot pick and choose.  Christ was not, and is not today, Who they wanted Him to be.  We must be careful not to attempt to change Christ into what we want Him to be.  He is not our personal avenger, our money in the bank, or our Sunday Savior.  He is our crucified, resurrected Lord and He calls us to follow Him to the cross daily.  It is my prayer that someone out there is getting some good out of this, but I know I am.  If you have been reading and have been getting something worthwhile out of this, I would invite you to share it with others.