“Go to this people and say, “You will be ever hearing but never understanding; you will be ever seeing but never perceiving.’”
~ Acts 28:26
Hi James and Ellen,
Your grandpaa has several times gone through the Bible verse by verse. It has taken a long time each time for your grandpaa to go all the way through the Bible. The Bible is a living book which has been divided into two parts. The first part – which is the Old Testament, has thirty-nine books while the second part – the New Testament, has twenty-seven books. The sixty-six books were written by about forty-five different guys. There are 1189 chapters in the Bible. Your grandpaa has one Bible where your grandpaa has made notations all the way through it. A notation is a thought that your grandpaa might have had or a special message that your grandpaa saw or . . . your grandpaa another time changed every verse in the entire Bible to a three word phrase. Your grandpaa used a different pocket notebook for each book of the Bible that he studied through. Your grandpaa using the different pocket notebooks that he used to change every verse into a three word phrase then outlined every single Bible verse. Your grandpaa used the outlines to write personal thoughts about each verse. Your grandpaa began outlining ten verses a day. Your grandpaa ended up outlining five verses a day. It took your grandpaa a long time to go through the entire Bible when he did this study. Your grandpaa had put the names of the books of the Bible on slips of paper. Your grandpaa put the slips of paper in a small wooden container. When your grandpaa finished a book of the Bible, your grandpaa would have your grandmaa take out another one of the slips of paper out of the wooden container. The book that was noted on the slip of paper would be the book that your grandpaa would study through next. Your grandmaa is drawing out now for these studies a slip of paper from an empty plastic ice cream container. Each slip has the name on it of a Bible book and one of the book’s chapters. This is how your grandpaa is going to study through the Bible this time. Your grandpaa has already told you this but . . . Acts was the very last book that your grandpaa studied through when he studied through the Bible making an outline of every single Bible verse. Acts 28 is the very last chapter in Acts. Guess what slip of paper that your grandmaa drew out of the plastic ice cream container last night?
Do you think that God does miracles today? Your grandpaa thinks that God does miracles today. A miracle to your grandpaa is a marvel filled moment which your grandpaa is incapable of explaining what happened happened the way that it happened. There were miracles during the years when the New Testament books were scribed. Luke wrote about a couple of miracles in the last chapter of his Acts Book. When Paul got bit on the hand by a poisonous snake, what do you think happened to Paul? Nothing happened to Paul. All the guys who saw the snake bite Paul thought that Paul would die – as guys, gals and kids died from being bitten by a poisonous snake. When Paul felt the snake bite his hand, Paul shook the snake off his hand into the bonfire that he was helping to start. Another miracle was that Paul and Luke were on land. Paul and Luke had been on a ship that had gotten caught up for four days in a horrific storm. The ship could easily have capsized in the storm but instead the ship ran aground on rocks close to a small island called Malta. Every single guy on the ship made it safely to the island. Another miracle happened when Paul laid his hands on Publius’ dad and prayed for him. Publius’ dad had a fever as well as dysentery. Publius’ dad immediately became well. When guys and gals who were sick who lived on Malta heard how Paul healed Publius, they went to Paul to ask to be healed. They were healed when Paul prayed for them. Your grandmaa and grandpaa have had inexplicable things happen to them. There are four college age young people staying with them right now. These young people will be staying in Guatemala for nearly eight weeks. They have come to Guatemala through an OC International driven program called STEP. This is the ninth time that your grandmaa and grandpaa have had the responsibility of administrating the activities of a group of college age guys and gals who have gone on a summer team to another country. Your grandmaa and grandpaa have also helped to administrate two other summer teams plus your grandmaa and grandpaa went to Colombia in 1976 for about eight weeks on a thirty-nine member summer team. Inexplicable things have happened when your grandmaa and grandpaa have been with summer teams. While traveling one summer in their white C-10 Chevrolet pickup that was packed with summer team guys and gals, your grandpaa heard a sharp ping. Your grandpaa had just traveled for hours over hilly, curving dirt roads without any trouble. There are not that many straight, level stretches of road in rural Bolivia. When your grandpaa heard the ping, your grandpaa took his foot off the gas pedal. Your grandpaa then realized that the steering wheel would only spin. Your grandpaa was traveling pretty fast. When your grandmaa saw your grandpaa spinning the steering wheel, your grandmaa told your grandpaa not to step on the brake. The ping that your grandpaa heard was the nut coming off the end of the steering wheel shaft. The nut had bounced off the road against the bottom of the pickup. The nut had just happened to come off on a straight stretch of road where the pickup would gradually come to a stop without going off the road.
Paul quoted Isaiah in verse 26 to tell guys, gals and kids that God does inexplicable things for a reason. Paul wrote “Go to this people and say, “You will be ever hearing but never understanding; you will be ever seeing but never perceiving.’” Paul’s desire is that you have a personal oneness with God. If a guy, gal or kid always ignores the inexplicable happenings that are constantly taking place, the guy, gal or kid is rejecting accepting God’s grace.
Acts 28 (62)