The Grands Letter

Dear Grands,

Galatians 1:6-9, “I am amazed that you are so quickly deserting Him

who called you by the grace of Christ, for a different gospel; 7 which is

really not another; only there are some who are disturbing you, and

want to distort the gospel of Christ. 8 But even though we, or an angel

from heaven, should preach to you a gospel contrary to that which we

have preached to you, let him be accursed. 9 As we have said before,

so I say again now, if any man is preaching to you a gospel contrary to

that which you received, let him be accursed.”

The history of the Galatian people says it all. They were a wild,

capricious, “on-again, off-again” people. Paul had preached the

Gospel to them, and they had received it. Then, suddenly they

renounced the Gospel and fell back into their old ways. Paul took

his preaching seriously. Preachers in every generation are to do

the same. Preaching is serious business!

My dear Mother once told me of a pastor, who didn’t take his

calling very seriously. “What do you think I ought to preach tonight?”

he would say after Sunday lunch with my folks. “I thought the

LORD was supposed to lead you,” Mom would say. “Yeah… that’s

right,” he replied. “How about the Seven Last Words on the Cross?”

“Well,” she replied, “you preached on that last Sunday.”

“Yeah…, that’s right, I did.” Then he would again preach the Seven

Last Words on the Cross. How could his congregation ever take him

seriously?

Paul said that even if “an angel from heaven should preach…a

Gospel contrary to (what he had) preached…” he should be

accursed (???????) –set aside for divine destruction! Paul took

preaching very seriously! Did you notice that verses 8 and 9 are

almost word-for-word the same? Paul purposely repeated himself

to show the Galatians that he really meant business! His words

about preaching were not frivolous, either. Pastors, evangelists,

missionaries –everyone who preaches the Gospel must be very

careful –even more than a surgeon performing a delicate

procedure. The Gospel deals with eternity! Both the doctrine

and the proclaimers’ attitude are under the observation of the

LORD who created and maintains the Universe!

May God bless you, for whom we pray daily,

Nana & Dado III

Gene L. Jeffries, Th.D.

Springdale, Arkansas

“We never know that God is all we need

until He becomes all that we have.”