The Grands Letter

Dear Grands,

Revelation 20:12, “And I saw the dead, the great and the small, standing before the throne, and books were opened; and another book was opened, which is the book of life; and the dead were judged from the things which were written in the books, according to their deeds.”

We live in an era of records. It is virtually impossible to say or do anything that is not recorded somewhere. Words spoken are recorded somewhere. Pictures are records, too. The police have records; the various governments have records. Stores have records of purchases we’ve made. Even the Internet records what we do! Records remind us of past experiences. We have phones that record. Books are records and gigantic libraries house thousands of books that tell us of the past. Our minds are recorders, too. They produce warm and loving activities of the past; and they produce the ugly and distasteful things – things we would love to erase from our memories.

I can clearly remember my mother saying to me, “Gene, when you do bad things, God puts a black mark behind your name in His book up in Heaven.” That shook me considerably – at least, for a time.

What can we do about all of those “black marks”? Can they ever be erased? They can be, but it’s not a matter of just saying, “LORD, forgive me for all my sins.” We need to specifically identify our various sins and ask His forgiveness. But how can we possibly do that? We can start by keeping “short accounts.” That is, when we do wrong, the Holy Spirit provokes our conscience, enabling us to right then and there ask forgiveness. For those long-ago sins –sins we honestly cannot remember, we need to as the LORD to bring them to mind so that we can ask His forgiveness.

The clear and unmistakable truth is that God holds records that can be used against us. And they will be unless they are erased through our confession and repentance. It may not seem a “big deal” right now, but it will be in the day we stand before Him in court. Stop right now and start asking His forgiveness. Don’t be flippant. Be exceedingly serious. This is not traffic court. It’s serious stuff. The good part is that He promises to forgive us. How will we know whether He has? Believe me, you’ll know!

We love you; and you are always in our thoughts and our prayers,

Nana & Dado III

Gene L. Jeffries, Th.D.

Springdale, Arkansas 72764

United States of America

“We never know that God is all we need

until He becomes all that we have.”