Do you understand what you're reading?

At lunch time in the summer, I always went out to my car to read the Bible and pray,
And one day I decided a part of it aloud, because I didn't understand what it said:

"He was led like a sheep to the slaughter, 
    and as a lamb before the shearer is silent, 
    so he did not open his mouth. 
In his humiliation he was deprived of justice. 
    Who can speak of his descendants? 
    For his life was taken from the earth."

As I was reading it, a man named Phil--who worked there too--came up to my car and asked,
"Do you understand what you're reading? and I shook my head 'no' behind the glass,
"How can I, unless someone explains it to me?" and I invited him to sit in the car, too--
He smiled as he got in the other side, and I just smiled back, not sure what he would do

"Tell me, please, who is the prophet talking about, himself or someone else?
Then Phil began with that very passage of Scripture and told me the good news about Jesus. 
Fascinated, I drove away as he spoke and we came upon a river near the high rise--
Phil said, "Stop!" I did, and said, "Look, there's water. Why shouldn't I be baptized?

So we both went into the water that day as my friend Phil baptized me into Jesus Christ,
But was surprised when I came up out of the water that Phil was nowhere, nowhere in sight!

--based on Acts 8:26-40 (NIV)

--bro. tim pickl
Wednesday August 6, 2006 A.D.

also see:  http://www.faithwriters.com/wc-article-level1-previous.php?id=13572

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Philip and the Ethiopian  Acts 8:26-40 (NIV)
 26Now an angel of the Lord said to Philip, "Go south to the road—the desert road—that goes down from Jerusalem to Gaza." 27So he started out, and on his way he met an Ethiopian[d]eunuch, an important official in charge of all the treasury of Candace, queen of the Ethiopians. This man had gone to Jerusalem to worship, 28and on his way home was sitting in his chariot reading the book of Isaiah the prophet. 29The Spirit told Philip, "Go to that chariot and stay near it."

 30Then Philip ran up to the chariot and heard the man reading Isaiah the prophet. "Do you understand what you are reading?" Philip asked.

 31"How can I," he said, "unless someone explains it to me?" So he invited Philip to come up and sit with him.

 32The eunuch was reading this passage of Scripture:
   "He was led like a sheep to the slaughter,
      and as a lamb before the shearer is silent,
      so he did not open his mouth.
 33In his humiliation he was deprived of justice.
      Who can speak of his descendants?
      For his life was taken from the earth."[e]

 34The eunuch asked Philip, "Tell me, please, who is the prophet talking about, himself or someone else?" 35Then Philip began with that very passage of Scripture and told him the good news about Jesus.

 36As they traveled along the road, they came to some water and the eunuch said, "Look, here is water. Why shouldn't I be baptized?"[f] 38And he gave orders to stop the chariot. Then both Philip and the eunuch went down into the water and Philip baptized him. 39When they came up out of the water, the Spirit of the Lord suddenly took Philip away, and the eunuch did not see him again, but went on his way rejoicing. 40Philip, however, appeared at Azotus and traveled about, preaching the gospel in all the towns until he reached Caesarea.