The Grands Letter

Dear Grands,

Mark 10:1-9, “And rising up, He went from there to the region of Judea, and beyond the Jordan; and crowds gathered around Him again, and, according to His custom, He once more began to teach them.

2 And some Pharisees came up to Him, testing Him, and began to question Him whether it was lawful for a man to divorce a wife.

3 And He answered and said to them, “What did Moses command you?”

4 And they said, “Moses permitted a man to write a certificate of divorce and send her away.”

5 But Jesus said to them, “Because of your hardness of heart he wrote you this commandment.

6 “But from the beginning of creation, God made them male and female.

7 “For this cause a man shall leave his father and mother,

8 and the two shall become one flesh; consequently they are no longer two, but one flesh.

9 “What therefore God has joined together, let no man separate.”

I can recall several instances when I was asked questions that I knew to be the questioner’s trap.

Remember that the Pharisees who asked the question of Jesus were religious ritualists. They always added to the Word of God. So here they are again, questioning Him about the law of divorce.

In theory, the Jews of Jesus’ day highly revered chastity and the sacredness of marriage. In practice, however, they fell quite short of the standards to which they claimed to hold.

Jesus’ reply concerning Moses was that Moses permitted divorce because the hearts of the Israelites were cold and hard. Divorce was rampant, and Moses’ permission was temporary. But Jesus said that “from the beginning of creation, God made them male and female (no LGBTQ here!), and they became “one flesh” in the act of marriage. God thus intended marriage to be permanent: “until death do us part.”

We all need to hear and heed what Scripture teaches about the permanenc y of marriage. My purpose in this letter, however, was not the subject of marriage, but how we need to be alert to questions that intend to trap us. Is it possible to be prepared for every question we are asked? Possibly not. We can, however, and must always be loving in our replies. Jesus did not need to ask the Pharisees what Moses said in the Old Testament Law. He already knew. We, however, might want to ask a question that would segue into the Gospel instead of falling into an argument that is intended simply to trap or embarrass us.

One way to forestall embarrassment in witnessing is just not to witness. But those who chose this pathway will encounter far greater embarrassment on that Great Day when we stand before the Judgment Bar of God! We, uh, just better do what He says now.

I love all of you and pray for your spiritual and physical welfare. God bless you abundantly!

Heartily in Christ Jesus,

(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.”

Dear Grands,

Mark 9:22b-23, “’… if You can do anything, take pity on us and help us!’

23 “And Jesus said to him, ‘If you can!’ All things are possible to him who believes.”

Mark 9:43-48,”And if your hand causes you to stumble, cut it off; it is better for you to enter life crippled, than having your two hands, to go into hell, into the unquenchable fire,

44 where their worm does not die, and the fire is not quenched .

45 “And if your foot causes you to stumble, cut it off; it is better for you to enter life lame, than having your two feet, to be cast into hell,

46 where their worm does not die, and the fire is not quenched .

47 “And if your eye causes you to stumble, cast it out; it is better for you to enter the kingdom of God with one eye, than having two eyes, to be cast into hell,

48 where their worm does not die, and the fire is not quenched.”

Not all fathers are good fathers. This one was. His boy was possessed by an evil spirit, and the father was seeking help for the boy he loved. Jesus had delivered some from demonic possession, so the father brought his son to the LORD. The father was clearly in doubt, causing him to say, “If You can…” Jesus countered him saying, “If you can! All things are possible to him who believes.”

Did you ever pray earnestly for something, but had a lingering doubt that the LORD was going to answer you? That’s so common. Too common!! The question is never whether Jesus has sufficient power; the answer always hangs on whether we believe! That father got Jesus’ meaning and cried, “I do believe, help my unbelief.” And the boy was healed.

Later, in the hearing of that same crowd, Jesus warned believers of the three most severe areas that plague believers. “If your hand causes you to stumble…” indicates the things that we do that lead us away from Him and from sound trust in His deliverence. “If your foot causes you to stumble…” indicates the places where we go that leads us away from Him. In the third aspect, and perhaps the most serious, Jesus says, “If you eye causes you to stumble…” which indicates the things that we see – things that take our attention away from the LORD and focus on the things of the flesh.

Take a moment and meditate on these three cautions from our LORD. Do you do things you ought not to do? Do you go places where you ought not to go? Do you focus your eyes on things that you ought not to see? As a believer, the Holy Spirit lives within you to guide you to walk in right paths. Don’t quench the Spirit! One Day you will be required to give an account of what you have done in this life. And you will want to hear Him say, “Well done, good and faithful servant.”

I am praying for you. Pray for yourself; and do please pray for me.

Heartily in Christ Jesus,

(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.”

Dear Grands,

Mark 3:28-29, “’Truly I say to you, all sins shall be forgiven the sons of men, and whatever blasphemies they utter;

29 but whoever blasphemes against the Holy Spirit never has forgiveness, but is guilty of an eternal sin ‘”–

1 Thess. 5:19, “Do not quench the Spirit…”

There has been much serious talk in the news recently. One says this and another says it is not so. People in high places have railed against others, saying that they are lying. There is nothing really new in all of this. Of course, it’s serious; but not so serious as what the scribes from Jerusalem were saying about Jesus.

Those Jewish scribes were saying of Jesus: “He is possessed by Beelzebul” (the name of Satan!). Further, they said, “He (Jesus) casts out the demons by the ruler of the demons.”

Such was stupid on its face. “’How can Satan cast out Satan?” was Jesus’ reply.

It was at this point that Jesus solemnly warned those scribes that “all sins shall be forgiven the sons of men, and whatever blasphemies (slanders) they utter; but whoever blasphemes (slanders against) the Holy Spirit never has forgiveness, but is guilty of an eternal sin”—

because they were saying, “He (Jesus) has an unclean spirit.” This is the Unpardonable Sin!

How is it that man can blaspheme Jesus and His Heavenly Father and receive forgiveness, but be guilty of an unpardonable sin when they blaspheme against the Holy Spirit?

The Heavenly Father, His Eternal Son, Jesus, and the Eternal Holy Spirit comprise what is called “the Godhead.” They are three distinct Persons, yet they are are always one! It is indeed serious to slander or belittle any One of the Three. Yet, when man slanders the Holy Spirit, Who awakens man to the truth the Son speaks, he eliminates the very essence of the salvation the LORD offers. It is the Holy Spirit who urges man to repent and accept the salvation the Son declares. Blaspheming the Holy Spirit is like “cutting of your nose to spite your face.” Man cuts the ground from beneath himself when he resists the Spirit.

But wait!! The LORD has a word for the saved. To us, He says, “Do not quench the Spirit.”

The word “quench” (????????, sbennumi) means “to extinguish” (as with a fire) the Holy Spirit and His internal witness to the teachings of the Scriptures. Have you never sensed that you ought to say or do something, but instead of doing what you were being urged to do, you put it out of your mind and turned to something else? It is a sin when a believer in Christ extinguishes the urging of the Holy Spirit. But when a lost person intentionally extinguishes the urging of the Spirit, he commits an unpardonable sin.

“It is a terrifying thing to fall into the hands of the living God” (Heb. 10:31).

Please, think about these things.

Heartily in Christ,

(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.”

Dear Grands,

Mark 5:9-17, “And He was asking him, ‘What is your name?’ “And he said to Him, ‘My name is Legion; for we are many.’”

10 And he began to entreat Him earnestly not to send them out of the country.

11 Now there was a big herd of swine feeding there on the mountain.

12 And the demons entreated Him, saying, “Send us into the swine so that we may enter them.”

13 And He gave them permission. And coming out, the unclean spirits entered the swine; and the herd rushed down the steep bank into the sea, about two thousand of them; and they were drowned in the sea.

14 And their herdsmen ran away and reported it in the city and out in the country. And the people came to see what it was that had happened.

15 And they came to Jesus and observed the man who had been demon-possessed sitting down, clothed and in his right mind, the very man who had had the “legion”; and they became frightened.

16 And those who had seen it described to them how it had happened to the demon-possessed man, and all about the swine.

17 And they began to entreat Him to depart from their region.”

I’ve met some people who could have been defined much like the wild man in the verses above. In fact, the verses printed above tell only part of the story. Let me urge you to go back and read verses 1 to 5 of the same chapter.

It is the nature of a demon to indwell another body. We give psychological and psychiatric names to wild people today, but truth be known, they’re not mentally impaired, their demon-possessed.

When Jesus encountered this demoniac, He asked him his name. The answer the man gave Jesus was “Legion,” meaning many. A Roman Legion of that day numbered 6,000 men! We have strayed so far from Scripture today that our culture demands a modern, scientific definition of everything. But clearly, this man was demon-possessed –and by many!

It seems clear that the demoniac and the demon spirits both knew that Jesus had ultimate power and control over them. The man did not want the demons to leave the area; and the demons begged to be sent into the hogs grazing on the hillside. They were fearful of being sent to Hell!

When the man was freed from his demonic captors, he put on some clothes and was sane.

(It speaks by implication of those who parade with little-to-no clothing in our world today.)

It’s also notable that the man now freed from his demonic captors wanted to go with Jesus, while the men who owned the hogs, now infested with demons, wanted Him to leave the area! In other words, the hog-owners were more concerned to be defined as for their hog profits than for the poor man, who had been terrified by them for so long!

The big question is: How do you want to be defined? Do you want to walk with Jesus? Or

do you want to be defined by your sin? The shootings that occur almost daily in our country clearly define those who do the killing. Those who risk (and sometimes lose) their lives in the effort to curtail the killerrs, define themselves as well. What is your definition? How do honest people define you? It’s important, both to man and to God. So, define yourself as a bondservant of the LORD Jesus Christ! After all, He is the One ultimately in control.

Heartily in Christ Jesus,

(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.”

Dear Grands,

Mark 4:35-41, “And on that day, when evening had come, He said to them, ‘Let us go over to the other side.’

36 “And leaving the multitude, they took Him along with them, just as He was, in the boat; and other boats were with Him.

37 “And there arose a fierce gale of wind, and the waves were breaking over the boat so much that the boat was already filling up.

38 “And He Himself was in the stern, asleep on the cushion; and they awoke Him and said to Him, ‘Teacher, do You not care that we are perishing?’

39 “And being aroused, He rebuked the wind and said to the sea, ‘Hush, be still.’ And the wind died down and it became perfectly calm.

40 “And He said to them, ‘Why are you so timid? How is it that you have no faith?’

41 “And they became very much afraid and said to one another, ‘Who then is this, that even the wind and the sea obey Him?’”

Have you ever been in a situation that gave you cause to really fear for your life? I have; and it is an horrible experience, to be sure! There is absolutely nothing you can do and there is nothing that anyone can do! At least, that’s how it seems at the time.

The disciples had witnessed multiple miracles Jesus had performed in the presence of the people. They had seen blind eyes opened; weakened limbs strengthened. There was nothing He could not do. And they had seen it all.

But, now they are in a boat crossing the Sea of Galilee. That was no new experience, either. This sea was the disciples area of work. It was normal, too, for storms to arise on the Galilean Sea. So, thus far, there was nothing occurring that was out of the ordinary. In fact, it was such smooth sailing that Jesus Himself was asleep on a “cushion.” But, storms on this sea were known to arise quickly; and this one did.

The humanity of Jesus is noted in that He was sleeping through the storm. Yet, the disciples were looking to Him to deliver them from from the rigors of the winds and the waves that threatened them all with death. They awakened Him, asking, “Teacher, do You not care that we are perishing?” On that note, Jesus rebuked the wind and said to the sea,

“Hush, be still.” And the wind and the waves became “perfectly calm.” He then rebuked the disciples for their lack of faith. And they became fearful and asked, “Who then is this, that even the wind and the sea obey Him?”

We need to remember this: there is no danger, no trouble, nothing from which the LORD cannot deliever us! The key to His deliverence is our closeness to Him that enables Him to hear our prayers when He is needed. Now, when is He NOT needed? Think about that and you will be all the closer to Him right now.

I’ll pray for you; you pray for me. That’s truly the Christian way.

Heartily in Christ Jesus,

(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.”