Scott, just a thought: it seems to me that if the heart is not softened by the Scripture it comes into contact with, it is hardened by it. The more we "kick against the pricks", the more callous we get. I wonder if God couldn't actually blind these people further, by as Bob suggests, leaving them in their condition of total depravity. Without His grace, His Word is a savor of death unto death: it does act upon us, but it acts upon us negatively, rather than positively, because our condition to begin with is total depravity.

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Heidi
Indianapolis, Indiana

After two days, he will revive us; on the third day he will raise us up, that we may live before him.
Let us know; let us press on to know the LORD; his going out is sure as the dawn; he will come to us as the showers, as the spring rains that water the earth.