The Grands Letter

Dear Grands,

Psalm 20:1-9, “For the choir director. A Psalm of David. May the LORD answer you in the day of trouble! May the name of the God of Jacob set you securely on high!

2 May He send you help from the sanctuary And support you from Zion!

3 May He remember all your meal offerings And find your burnt offering acceptable! Selah.

4 May He grant you your heart’s desire And fulfill all your counsel!

5 We will sing for joy over your victory, And in the name of our God we will set up our banners. May the LORD fulfill all your petitions.

6 Now I know that the LORD saves His anointed; He will answer him from His holy heaven With the saving strength of His right hand.

7 Some boast in chariots and some in horses, But we will boast in the name of the LORD, our God.

8 They have bowed down and fallen, But we have risen and stood upright.

9 Save, O LORD; May the King answer us in the day we call.”

In the nine verses above, David models the way for desperate prayers! His cries to the LORD are for help for another, while simultaneously exalting the LORD as the Supreme Helper! In his desperation, he sets forth for us the model for desperate prayer.

“May He remember your offerings…may He fulfill all your petitions.” He then prays for the LORD’s counsel for his friends. There is not the slightest hint that the LORD will refuse his petition. And in the conclusion of his prayer, David affirms his unwavering trust that his prayer will be answered!

Let’s examine what surrounds our prayers. Do we truly believe the LORD will attend to what we ask? Do we fervently believe that our prayers will be answered? And how do we respond when the LORD does answer affirmatively? Do we praise Him, give Him credit? Or do we turn to others as the grantors of our petitions? Yes, He often uses others to help us. Still, there are many serious avenues to be considered. “…we will boast in the name of the LORD, our God.” He alone is to be glorified!

Heartily in Christ,

Gene L. Jeffries, Th.D.

United States of America

We will never know that Christ is all we need,

Until He becomes all that we have. – Corrie ten Boom

Dear Grands,

2 Peter 2:1-6, 9, “But false prophets also arose among the people, just as there will also be false teachers among you, who will secretly introduce destructive heresies, even denying the Master who bought them, bringing swift destruction upon themselves.

2 Many will follow their sensuality, and because of them the way of the truth will be maligned;

3 and in their greed they will exploit you with false words; their judgment from long ago is not idle, and their destruction is not asleep.

4 For if God did not spare angels when they sinned, but cast them into hell and committed them to pits of darkness, reserved for judgment;

5 and did not spare the ancient world, but preserved Noah, a preacher of righteousness, with seven others, when He brought a flood upon the world of the ungodly;

6 and if He condemned the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah to destruction by reducing them to ashes, having made them an example to those who would live ungodly lives thereafter…

9…then the Lord knows how to rescue the godly from temptation, and to keep the unrighteous under punishment for the day of judgment…”

Have you ever had something nefarious just slip into your mind and life unknowingly? “Where did that come from?” you asked. Ideas and such, that subtilly creep into our lives, are often placed there by the adversary, inabling him to direct our thinking away from the LORD and His Word. It’s a subtle diversion, sometimes going totally unnoticed until the Holy Spirit snaps our thinking back into the right channels of thought.

We must always remember that we have an Ally in the LORD Jesus Christ! He not only warns us of the wiles of the enemy; He also provides us with His Holy Spirit, keeping our minds and hearts on the right path! The Scriptures are virtually filled with accounts of the LORD’s victorious encounters over the forces that sought to stifle Him. Read again verses 4 through 9 above!

The triumphs of the LORD are present and available to us for every situation, provided we are genuinely committed to Him in faith. Don’t sweat the hard stuff! The LORD can deal with it! What’s more, He delights in aiding us, just as we delight in aiding our children. Praise be to the LORD!

Heartily in Christ,

Gene L. Jeffries, Th.D.

United States of America

We will never know that Christ is all we need,

Until He becomes all that we have. – Corrie ten Boom

Dear Grands,

2 Peter 2:1-9, “But false prophets also arose among the people, just as there will also be false teachers among you, who will secretly introduce destructive heresies, even denying the Master who bought them, bringing swift destruction upon themselves.

2 Many will follow their sensuality, and because of them the way of the truth will be maligned;

3 and in their greed they will exploit you with false words; their judgment from long ago is not idle, and their destruction is not asleep.

4 For if God did not spare angels when they sinned, but cast them into hell and committed them to pits of darkness, reserved for judgment;

5 and did not spare the ancient world, but preserved Noah, a preacher of righteousness, with seven others, when He brought a flood upon the world of the ungodly;

6 and if He condemned the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah to destruction by reducing them to ashes, having made them an example to those who would live ungodly lives thereafter;

7 and if He rescued righteous Lot, oppressed by the sensual conduct of unprincipled men

8 (for by what he saw and heard that arighteous man, while living among them, felt his righteous soul tormented day after day by their lawless deeds),

9 then the Lord knows how to rescue the godly from temptation, and to keep the unrighteous under punishment for the day of judgment…”

False prophets have always invaded the realm of the righteous in the attempt to destroy mankind’s acceptance of God’s truth! What is occurring today has always occurred throughout the past centuries. There is nothing new under the sun! What is equally distressful is the knowledge that those who succumb to the false teachings of Satan will ultimately be thrown forever into the eternal fires of hell!

The forever cries of those who were deceived will echo throughout eternity! The God of love, who sought earnestly to convince them of His love, will then Himself be unable to rescue them. The postmen, the grocery boys, the workmen attending our houses—their opportunity for salvation will have passed! The door that would have led to life everlasting will have closed forever!

Friends here that could have been with us, are not there! Rewards that awaited us in Heaven will never be conferred. And for eternity, we…; and for eternity, they…. Think! Act! Now there is time!

Heartily in Christ,

Gene L. Jeffries, Th.D.

United States of America

We will never know that Christ is all we need,

Until He becomes all that we have. – Corrie ten Boom

Dear Grands,

Matthew 24:32-39, “Now learn the parable from the fig tree: when its branch has already become tender and puts forth its leaves, you know that summer is near;

33 so, you too, when you see all these things, recognize that He is near, right at the door.

34 “Truly I say to you, this generation will not pass away until all these things take place.

35 “Heaven and earth will pass away, but My words will not pass away.

36 “But of that day and hour no one knows, not even the angels of heaven, nor the Son, but the Father alone.

37 “For the coming of the Son of Man will be just like the days of Noah.

38 “For as in those days before the flood they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that Noah entered the ark,

39 and they did not understand until the flood came and took them all away; so will the coming of the Son of Man be.”

The careful reader has surely noted how often this writer emphasizes the Scriptural mention of the Second Coming of Jesus Christ. The rationale is that the signs surrounding us so clearly speak of His Coming that we would be spiritually liable were we to ignore them. Were we in a house that was on fire, the duty to awaken the living would certainly be obvious. So it is with His Coming! Better that the alarm be sounded ahead of His Coming than to be sounded too late!

The Scriptures are silent with respect to the antagonism that likely attended the Ark’s construction. Surely, there were horrified screams when the rains commenced. So it will be with the LORD’s coming. All the more pitiful for those who never heard of the LORD Jesus Christ, their days being occupied with the normal vicissitudes of life. Without the slightest warning, sudden destruction will befall them. There is no reprieve…

May we, who know Him as our LORD and Savior, be His Hands and Feet for now, as there will be no time then to rearrange our thinking, much less to share the Message of His Arrival! The lives of so many will be lost forever, and their blood will be accountable on our hands. May our ways today anticipate the LORD’s Coming! As with the flood, in the hour we are least expecting, He will surely come!

Heartily in Christ,

Gene L. Jeffries, Th.D.

United States of America

We will never know that Christ is all we need,

Until He becomes all that we have. – Corrie ten Boom

Dear Grands,

2 Peter 3:13-18, “, “But according to His promise we are looking for new heavens and a new earth, in which righteousness dwells.

14 Therefore, beloved, since you look for these things, be diligent to be found by Him in peace, spotless and blameless,

15 and regard the patience of our Lord as salvation; just as also our beloved brother Paul, according to the wisdom given him, wrote to you,

16 as also in all his letters, speaking in them of these things, in which are some things hard to understand, which the untaught and unstable distort, as they do also the rest of the Scriptures, to their own destruction.

17 You therefore, beloved, knowing this beforehand, be on your guard so that you are not carried away by the error of unprincipled men and fall from your own steadfastness,

18 but grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. To Him be the glory, both now and to the day of eternity. Amen.”

As born-again believers in Jesus Christ, it should always be our concern that the lost repent and forsake their sin and be born again in Christ Jesus! Still, we must be patient. The LORD does not forget those who are lost. He longs for their salvation much more than we do! Still, it is our obligation to share with them the Scriptures that will lead to their acceptance of Jesus Christ as the Savior!

We do this by living holy lives –lives that are devoid of the sinfulness of the world; lives that encourage spiritual living of others, leading them to faith and beyond to the glory of Jesus Christ!

It all begins with the Word of God, allowing it to permeate our heart and reach out to others. Deep down inside, all human beings long to know Jesus’ love. When they see Him in us, they will be aroused by salvation’s truthfulness, and the life that replaces the void due to His absence .

Heartily in Christ,

Gene L. Jeffries, Th.D.

United States of America

We will never know that Christ is all we need,

Until He becomes all that we have. – Corrie ten Boom