The Grands Letter

Dear Grands,

Colossians 1:8-10, “Epaphras…informed us of your love in the Spirit.

9 For this reason also, since the day we heard of it, we have not ceased to pray for you and to ask that you may be filled with the knowledge of His will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding,

10 so that you may walk in a manner worthy of the Lord, to please Him in all respects, bearing fruit in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God…”

Prisons are dismal places. There’s little to no cheerfulness, no laughter, no hope. Many occupants have no true friends on the outside. Even if some do, they rarely receive encouraging letters. Paul was an occupant in the prison in Rome. He was awaiting his opportunity to speak and bear witness of His Savior before Caesar. Encouragement arrived, however, by way of Epaphras, who informed Paul of the spiritual love the Colossian Church had for him.

Paul communicated with the Colossian Church, saying that he prayed consistantly for them all. He especially desired that they be filled to overflowing with spiritual wisdom and understanding of the knowledge of God’s will for them. If you are going to know what the LORD’s will is for your life –and that knowledge ought to be the foremost desire of your heart— you need to immerse yourself in daily prayer. Paul prayed fervently for the Colossians. I pray earnestly for you!

And if I am to be successful in ministering to others, I need people to pray for me. Wasn’t it Tennyson who said, “More things are wrought (accomplished) by prayer than this world dreams of”?

Yet, for prayer to be effective, it must be offered by those who “walk in a manner worthy of the Lord.” We must live spiritually honest lives if we are to please Him. Further, we must “bear fruit in every good work,” as we “increase in our knowledge of the LORD Himself.”

Remember when you were a child and really wanted something from your parents? Remember the key that unlocked their hearts? It was the “bearing of fruit”– your sweet disposition, your obedience in all things. That’s what appealed to your parents; and that’s what opens the LORD’s heart, too. Live for His glory; ask in faith; and say “Thank You” when He lovingly responds. God bless you abundantly! You’ll notice the difference in your life; and the LORD will pour out upon you blessings that will fill your heart to overflowing! Prayer and love are the answer to so much!

Heartily in Christ Jesus,

(Dado III)

P. S. Some of you will remember George and Rita Galieh from Australia. They were my musical team when we lived and

ministered in Australia and New Zealand. George is now 90 years old and in failing health. Rita is now responsible for

work George did, as well as for her own. I know they would dearly appreciate your prayers for them. They are the

most dedicated people I know, having ministered each year in Thailand for 25+ years, sharing the Gospel with Buddhists.

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,

Proverbs 1:10-19, “My son, if sinners entice you, Do not consent.

11 If they say, “Come with us, Let us lie in wait for blood, Let us ambush the innocent without cause;

12 Let us swallow them alive like Sheol, Even whole, as those who go down to the pit;

13 We shall find all kinds of precious wealth, We shall fill our houses with spoil;

14 Throw in your lot with us, We shall all have one purse,”

15 My son, do not walk in the way with them. Keep your feet from their path,

16 For their feet run to evil, And they hasten to shed blood.

17 Indeed, it is useless to spread the net In the eyes of any bird;

18 But they lie in wait for their own blood; They ambush their own lives.

19 So are the ways of everyone who gains by violence; It takes away the life of its possessors.”

I think I’m pretty safe in saying that Solomon, who authored these verses, never saw a western on TV.

In fact, in Solomon’s day, there was no television. Yet, amazingly he captured the basic theme of

almost all westerns.

Three cowboys rob the bank. They avoid the sheriff and get safely out of town.

They stop by a stream to water their horses. The leader gives the horse-watering task

to one of the men, and while he’s away, the leader suggests that the bank money they

stole would split better two ways than three. So, they shoot the one who watered the

horses and hurry away, lest the Sheriff’s posse catch up to them.

What Solomon adds to the scenario I painted in the paragraph above is clear as crystal:

18 “But they lie in wait for their own blood; They ambush their own lives.

19 So are the ways of everyone who gains by violence; It takes away the

life of its possessors.”

What could be clearer that that? They leaned on their own wisdom and lost their lives in the process.

Pretty dumb, huh? But, before we come down too hard on those crooks, maybe we should take a good

look in the mirror. We are all too often our own worst enemy! Of course, theft of any kind is wrong. Yet,

even worse is the failure to understand how our wrong-doings can backfire on us! What causes that?

It’s very simple. We just don’t think things through. Especially that’s so, if anger in involved. We work

ourselves up to believe that we’re going to get even –or more! Anger clouds the judgment, and in the

end, we lose it all.

What was Solomon’s advice? He gave it right at the top: “…if sinners entice you, DO NOT CONSENT!”

You’re not smarter than Solomon. You need the Supreme Advice of the LORD! If you’ve given Him your

heart and life, you belong to Him. He is your LORD, and your will is not your own. You’ve been bought

with a price. If you’ve not given your heart and life to Him, it’s the best judgment to do so before you make

a major mistake. God loves you! He wants the best for your life! Seek Him in prayer, and act as He directs!

His outcomes are always superior to our own.

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,

Philippians 3:13-15, “Brethren, I do not regard myself as having laid hold of it yet; but one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and reaching forward to what lies ahead,

14 I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.

15 Let us therefore, as many as are perfect, have this attitude; and if in anything you have a different attitude, God will reveal that also to you.”

Our last Grands Letter concluded with the assertion that “Jesus is all that’s worth keeping”; therefore, adhering to His upward call is and ought to be that for which we are striving. Paul clearly admits that he has yet to lay hold of the fullness of Christ, which he is seeking. Yet, he is pressing onward in faith and trust to that blessed end.

With his goal clearly in mind, Paul puts behind him all things of the past. We can identify all-too- well with our own past. There are negative things that work against us –even things we’ve confessed as sin, and of which we have been forgiven. But they rise up in our minds in an effort to defeat us from achieving the fullness of Christ, which is our ultimate goal.

Positive things from the past work against us as well. In retrospect, we recall some victories that delight us. We tend to view those “victories” as our victories, not the LORD’s. When we think of ourselves as the ones who possessed the power of such victories, we mentally remove Christ Jesus from His rightful place and install ourselves as the victors.

Thus, all things of the past –defeats and victories—must be laid aside. This is a new and different situation. The word “perfect” (???????) that Paul uses in verse 15 above, does not indicate that we (or his readers) are without sin; rather, it signals maturity, a growing process –one that admits that there is yet much more to becoming like Christ than has been previously known. So, let us be humble in our attitude, and if anything offers us a contrary attitude, the LORD will identify that to us and set us again on the right track –the track that leads us to Him!

Think about it! What have you got to lose? And you’ve got everything to gain!

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,

Philippians 3:8-11, “More than that, I count all things to be loss in view of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them but rubbish in order that I may gain Christ,

9 and may be found in Him, not having a righteousness of my own derived from the Law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which comes from God on the basis of faith,

10 that I may know Him, and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death;

11 in order that I may attain to the resurrection from the dead.”

What do you currently possess that you value higher than anything else? For my part, my family is exceedingly more valuable than anything else. Next to my family, my books are of great value. At my age, my children and grandchildren have said, “Dado, what are you going to do with all of your books?” Of course, today a lot of information is online; thus, books lack the value they once had. Still, there are many books that are not available on line or in print anywhere. I have a few like that. What would I take for my books? Right now, they are not for sale!

There were times when Paul valued books and parchments of Scripture (see 2 Tim. 4:13). But in the verses above, he declares that he “count(s) all things to be loss” when compared with knowing Christ Jesus. Those things which he once considered invaluable, he now considers but “rubbish.” Christ is everything to him!

If you think clearly, you will conclude that everyone worships a god. Lost people, like the girl I spoke with today, considers “doing her best” is sufficient. In reality, “her best” has become her god. Whoever establishes your moral code is your god. It may be a religion; it may not; but everyone has a god. Previously, Paul had lived by the Jewish Law. But now, he had come to know Jesus Christ on the Road to Damascus (Acts 9); and from that point of personal contact, Jesus Christ was Paul’s God.

Paul knew Him! Now, he wanted to be like Him in every possible way. He wanted to suffer as Christ had suffered. He wanted to die that he might experience the resurrection Christ experienced. In every possible way, Paul wanted to know and be like Jesus Christ. He was willing to surrender everything he possessed just to know his Savior!

If you truly know Jesus Christ as your Savior, nothing material –cars, houses, wealth, priceless objects—nothing compares with Jesus and what He is preparing for you in Eternity! Don’t become entangled with “things!” When you leave this Earth, you’ll take none of them with you. As is often repeated, “You never see a hearse pulling a U-Haul behind it.” Fix your eyes on Jesus! He’s all that’s worth keeping.

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,

Philippians 3:1-7, “Finally, my brethren, rejoice in the Lord. To write the same things again is no trouble to me, and it is a safeguard for you.

2 Beware of the dogs, beware of the evil workers, beware of the false circumcision;

3 for we are the true circumcision, who worship in the Spirit of God and glory in Christ Jesus and put no confidence in the flesh,

4 although I myself might have confidence even in the flesh. If anyone else has a mind to put confidence in the flesh, I far more:

5 circumcised the eighth day, of the nation of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews; as to the Law, a Pharisee;

6 as to zeal, a persecutor of the church; as to the righteousness which is in the Law, found blameless.

7 But whatever things were gain to me, those things I have counted as loss for the sake of Christ.”

How do people learn? I mean, how do they learn anything? For one thing, they learn by example. If something one does causes punishment, the one viewing the situation, learns not to do the same thing. Another method of learning is by the “drip, drip, drip of repetition.” Paul was not afraid of repeatition. “To write the same things is no trouble to me…” What’s more, “…it is a safeguard for you.”

To “beware” is “to be on guard” against anything and everything that contradicts the teachings of our LORD Jesus Christ. Be on guard against “evil workers,” like those who followed Paul and opposed his teachings with respect to our LORD Jesus Christ. Such men exist today! Many of them won’t say directly that they believe the Bible is in error, but they introduce teachings that lead others to believe that it is.

Paul admonishes us not to accept the teachings of anyone merely on the basis of how suave they may appear. Our times are replete with pastors and teachers, who have a good appearance, who smile warmly, who greet others kindly, but have a “hidden agenda,” that is totally opposite of the true teaching so Scripture.

There are many today who wear a gold cross, a cross that signifies the death that Jesus died. Yet, the presence of a cross on a chain about the neck of anyone signifies nothing with respect to whether they have a heart-felt devotion to the Savior.

On the other hand, Paul was a pure-blooded Jew, who spoke the ancestral language of Hebrew. He was a trained Pharisee (the Separated Ones), who possessed unsurpassed zeal, the supreme quality of Jewish religious life. So zealous was he, that he persecuted the Church until he met the Risen Savior, Jesus, on the Road to Damascus. There in that place and at that time, the LORD Himself appeared to Paul and transformed his life! From that moment on, Paul became a proclaimer of God’s Truth as taught and observed in the life of Jesus and accurately recorded in the Bible!

As of that spiritual meeting on the Damascus Road, Paul turned his life over to the LORD Jesus. From that day forward to the time of his execution in Rome, the Christian Church saw no advocate for the LORD like Paul! ~ Have you met the LORD Jesus? Have you asked Him to forgive your sins? If you have, He has put His Holy Spirit within you and desires you to witness to others of His saving grace. If you have trusted Him, you no longer belong to yourself. You belong to Him. You have in the Holy Spirit all the strength and power you need to become everything He wants of you. Get started! Read the Bible daily. Pray to Him moment-by-moment throughout the day. Your life has been changed! Let others see Him in you and come to know Him for themselves. 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.”