What kind of vow makes Paul cut all his hair off? Paul set himself aside, dedicating himself to God. Often we forget to set ourselves aside each day; when someone becomes a Christian, they make a vow of sorts – to be set aside to Jesus. Do we need to reconsecrate ourselves?

All through the Bible when Paul is mentioned we see him doing 3 things: announcing the Good News of Jesus, showing people a new way to live, and building new communities of faith. These actions look a lot like Jesus, but Paul is not trying to mimic Jesus, he's allowing Jesus to compel him.

As Paul waits in Athens for the rest of his team to join him, his spirit is provoked by the way the city works. Paul sees the Athenians searching for God in all sorts of places without success and does the only thing he can to improve the situation: he brings Jesus.

There are many filters through which we can view the world, in Acts 17 Paul is very clear on his worldview and has the evidence to back it up. Where does your worldview come from? How do you inform your worldview everyday?

The character of Barnabas in the book of Acts is one we can learn from! About halfway through the book, we stop hearing about him as much, but here are three lessons we can learn from Barnabas: sell your field, find an enemy, and give a second chance.

Jesus being for everyone, Jew and Gentile was a real challenge for the early Church, in Acts 15 they react by asking themselves: what of our old tradition really is important and relevant for the Church going forward? In our lives, what things might we need to let go of or take hold of?