The Grands Letter

Dear Grands,

Galatians 5:16-17, “But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not

carry out the desire of the flesh. 17 For the flesh sets its desire against

the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh; for these are in opposition to

one another, so that you may not do the things that you please.”

As we read the words of the Apostle Paul, we often get the mistaken

idea that he lived a perfect life. Far from it! In Romans 7, he says,

“15 For that which I am doing, I do not understand; for I am not practicing

what I would like to do, but I am doing the very thing I hate…. 18 For I

know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh; for the wishing

is present in me, but the doing of the good is not” (vv. 15, 18). Paul

battled against his fleshly side just as we do. Every wrong and evil

desire that we experience has been experienced by every, living soul.

But what can we do about it? It’s as simple as it is difficult; walk (live)

in the way of the Holy Spirit. Do you remember when you learned to

ride a bicycle? At first, you kept falling. I’ll never learn to ride this thing!
Yet, you just got back up and tried it again…and again…and again.

Somewhere amid these up-and-down trials, you learned to balance,

and then to ride successfully. It’s the same with the Christian life.

The only difference is you have to learn to balance every day! There

is an enemy that loves to see us fall. He laughs and jeers when we

do. Sometimes he antagonizes us so much that we feel like giving up.

Besides, “falling” has some desirables in it. We discover that wrong

is often pleasurable. Our eyes like to see it; our hands like to feel it;

our ears tingle with pleasure when we hear it; and we feel good all

over when we do it, although we know it’s wrong! It is then that we

must call for help! The Holy Spirit is there to rescue us. He wraps

His arms around us and speaks truly sweet things to us. He comforts

us to a higher degree than when we were doing wrong; and we wonder

why we ever engaged in evil, fleshly stuff at all. Yes, we can overcome

evil. We just have to practice walking in the way of the LORD every

day. Read the Bible; pray for help and encouragement; focus your

mind on spiritual things, and don’t let go! He will forgive you for

falling, and He will restore you! You just have to trust Him!

We are praying for you,

Nana & Dado III

Update on Nana: She is doing better day-by-day. We praise

the LORD for His “resurrection” of her!

She is close to coming home! Your prayers

are being answered. She has had wonderful

care at WRMC, and marvelous opportunities

to witness of God’s saving grace!

Gene L. Jeffries, Th.D.

Springdale, Arkansas

“We never know that God is all we need

until He becomes all that we have.”