Daily Bible Nugget #195, Acts 20:32

The Nugget:

Acts 20:32 And now, brethren, I commend you to God, and to the word of his grace, which is able to build you up, and to give you an inheritance among all them which are sanctified.

My Comment:

The Scriptures are designed for building up in the faith. There are a great many people who would surely benefit by being built up in the faith. It is the word of God’s grace which is able to do that. Things were bad enough 28 years ago when I was teaching in inner city Detroit at Southeastern High School. Today, March 13, 2014, is the anniversary of my being shot in the back of my head at point-blank range by an unknown assailant wielding a nine millimeter handgun. I was knocked flat on my face into the mud of the school parking lot right in front of the window to the ROTC room. The shop and electronics teacher saw it happen (he was just then walking to school from the bus stop), and the drafting teacher drove into the parking lot at that moment, and he and the electronics teacher got the license plate of the vehicle and followed it. I was knocked unconscious. The force of the fall broke my glasses. They were retrieved by the gym department head later that morning, who returned immediately with them to the hospital. He was the person who called EMS and I was taken to the nearest major medical facility. He called my wife, and she called her mother who brought her and our two young children to the hospital. My close teacher friend, Mrs. Vida Malik, with whom I taught at Cass Technical High School, heard the news on the radio or television about a teacher being shot at Southeastern High School. They did not give my name. But she said she just knew that I was the teacher who was shot so she came directly to the hospital. She was like a grandmother to my two young sons.

At Southeastern High School, the physics teacher, an attorney, helped the gym department head get me to the ambulance when it came. The physics teacher later told me that the students were laughing about me being shot. He was most upset about the attitude the students displayed, and quit his teaching job two weeks later. The young lady at the Schools Center Building who processed his resignation turned out to be one of my students from Cass Technical High School. The physics teacher managed to retrieve all of my personal belongings, including many teaching materials, over the objections of my department head. I’m glad he did that for me. Not all the students at Southeastern were bad. One of my students had warned me three weeks before that I should immediately take a job at another school because I was going to be shot. I took his warning with a grain of salt at the time, but for whatever reason, his warning proved correct.

My son just now called to remind me of the event. He remembers it vividly, though he was only three years old when it happened. It is hard to know just why the Lord let this happen back then. But during the time I was off from teaching I was able to type up my 26 years of research in the form of what now is The New Treasury of Scripture Knowledge. The greatly expanded cross references I placed in The New Treasury of Scripture Knowledge were not generated by a computer, but represent what was learned during very difficult and trying times. During that very trying time Psalm 34:4 was of much encouragement to my wife and me. The Scripture is surely able to build us up even under trying circumstances. Don’t miss the benefit–read and study your Bible. It will encourage you in both good times and bad. It will strengthen your faith.

For those who desire to DIG DEEPER into this subject:

(1) Consult the cross references given in Nelson’s Cross Reference Guide to the Bible on page 1258 for Acts 20:32.

(2) Consult the cross references given in The New Treasury of Scripture Knowledge on page 1279 or in Logos 5 Bible software for Acts 20:32.

(3) Lacking access to those two resources, consult the cross references for this passage as I have developed them as given below:

Acts 20:32. And now. Ac 4:29. I commend. Ac 14:23, 26. 15:40. 17:3. Ge 50:24. Je 49:11. Ep 6:23. *1 P 4:19. *Jude 1:24, 25. to God. Ro 16:25. to the word of his grace. ver. +Ac 20:24. Ac 14:3. 1 Tim 4:13. +**2 Tim 3:14-17. He 13:9. to build. Mark the need and profitableness of studying God’s holy word (Walker). T#1049. +Ac 9:31. Jn 15:3. 17:17. 1 Cor 3:9, 10. *Ep 2:20-22. 4:12, 16. +**Col 1:10. *+Col 2:7. *Col 3:16. **1 Th 2:13. +*1 Tim 4:16. **1 P 2:2. **2 P 3:18. **Jude 1:20. to give you an inheritance. *Ac 26:18. +*Dt 33:2-4. Je 3:19. +*Mt 5:5. *+Mt 25:34. +*Ro 8:17. *Ep 1:11, 14, 18. 5:5. *Col 1:12. *Col 3:24. *He 9:15. +*1 P 1:4, 5. which are sanctified. *Ac 26:18. **+Jn 17:6, 17, 19. Ro 15:16. 1 Cor 1:2. **1 Cor 6:11. Ep 5:26. Col 1:12. *1 Th 4:3, 4. **1 Th 5:23. 2 Th 2:13. He 2:11. 10:14. +**He 12:14. 1 P 1:2. Jude 1:1. *Re 21:27.