“Repent, then, and turn to God, so that your sins may be wiped out, that times of refreshing may come from the Lord,”
– Acts 3:19
Hi James and Ellen,
Have you ever seen a beggar? Why do you think that there are beggars? Would being a beggar be a livelihood that you would like to someday pursue? Your grandmaa and grandpaa have seen a lot of beggars. A beggar may be physically and/or emotionally challenged. Begging may be how a guy or gal supports his or her alcohol habit and/or a drug addiction. Begging may be how a guy or gal gets money and/or food to survive. Your grandmaa – during the last three years that she and your grandpaa were on South America Mission’s field missionary team in Bolivia, was the host and administrator for South America Mission’s mission base that is in Santa Cruz. Your grandmaa and grandpaa lived on South America Mission’s mission base for a couple of the years when your grandmaa was the mission base’s host and administrator. If a guy or gal showed up at South America Mission’s mission base’s gate to ask for money, your grandmaa would give the guy or gal leftover food from the mission base’s refrigerator. When your grandmaa and grandpaa were missionaries on OC International’s Equipo SEPAL field missionary team that is in Guatemala – in Guatemala City, your grandpaa would carry small bags of rice in his pickup that he would give to a guy, gal or kid who came to the window of his pickup begging for money. When your grandpaa lived in Bolivia, he would at times go to the Santa Cruz post office to pick up the mail that had been sent to South America Mission field team missionaries. When your grandmaa and grandpaa lived in Santa Cruz, there were no ‘mailmen’ in Bolivia to deliver mail. Santa Cruz’s post office was located a short distance from Santa Cruz’s central plaza. Often when your grandpaa went to Santa Cruz’s post office to pick up the mail that was sent to South America Mission field team missionaries, he would get his shoes shined by one of the guys who shined shoes in Santa Cruz’s central plaza. Your grandpaa always enjoyed getting his shoes shined. Your grandpaa would almost always have the same guy shine his shoes – both in Bolivia and in Guatemala. Your grandpaa – as he was having his shoes shined, would first skim through a local newspaper and then he would soak in what was happening around him. Sometimes the sloths that inhabited the trees that are in Santa Cruz’s central plaza could be seen. There was invariably a dirty, disheveled beggar either sitting or sleeping on one of Santa Cruz’s central park’s benches. If what your grandpaa was told about the grubby beggar is true, the guy had been a well-educated professor who . . . when your grandmaa and grandpaa lived in Guatemala City, your grandpaa would sometimes go to Guatemala City’s airport to pick up whoever was arriving in Guatemala. Your grandpaa almost always saw the same beggar whenever he went to the airport that is in Guatemala City. Because the beggar did not have legs, the guy would use a skateboard to sit on as he pulled himself through the airport crowds to beg for money.
Your grandpaa thinks that Peter and John probably often saw the same crippled beggar who Luke mentions in his Acts Book – in Acts 3, before Peter in the name of Jesus ‘healed’ the beggar. The beggar – per Luke, had been a cripple from the day that he was born, that he was being taken each day by someone – probably someone from his immediate family, to the temple gate called Beautiful – which was a gate in the temple of God that was located in the city of Jerusalem, to beg for money from the guys and gals who were going into the temple of God and that he specifically asked Peter and John for money. Then – per Luke, instead of giving the beggar money, Peter told the beggar in the name of Jesus to walk. When Peter took the crippled guy’s hand to help him up, the guy’s feet and ankles immediately strengthened letting the guy walk normally – resulting in the guy hopping around like a jumping jack praising God for what had just taken place. Your grandpaa thinks that the crippled guy – before he was healed, may have had already grasped the hope that is implanted when a guy, gal or kid internalizes as absolute truth what took place when an incarnate man – Who is Jesus, was cruelly hung on and brutally nailed to a ‘tree’ to mercilessly suffer and atrociously die as an unmerited ransom payment for the sins of the guy, gals and kids who were specially elected – before He created planet Earth, by God – as God the Father, to be His own. Because the crippled beggar possibly had a longtime spot at Gate Beautiful, the guy was probably a very familiar sight to the daily goes to the temple of God. What would your reaction be if you saw a guy who you see every day – whose feet were obviously deformed, suddenly dancing like nothing has ever been wrong with his feet? Luke says the temple of God goers who knew the crippled guy were amazed and filled with wonder.
When the formerly crippled guy continued to hang around Peter and John, Peter – per Luke, used the moment to confront the growing crowd of temple of God goers about their role in having disowned Jesus, about their role in having handed Jesus over to Pilate to be killed and about their role in having a killer released instead of Jesus. Peter told the crowd – per Luke, that what they did, they did out of ignorance but if they would do what Luke recorded in verse 19, “Repent, then, and turn to God, so that your sins may be wiped out, that times of refreshing may come from the Lord,” that they will understand but if they do not repent, that they will ‘always be begging’ for ‘healing’.
Acts 3 (1135)