The Grands Letter

Dear Grands,

1 John 3:9-11, “No one who is born of God practices sin, because His seed abides in him; and he cannot sin, because he is born of God.

10 By this the children of God and the children of the devil are obvious: anyone who does not practice righteousness is not of God, nor the one who does not love his brother.

11 For this is the message which you have heard from the beginning, that we should love one another…”

DNA may well have been the discovery of Friedrich Miescher in 1869, but I remember when it was big news on the cover of LIFE Magazine in 1953. More important still is the fact that DNA existed in humanity thousands of years before it was scientifically discovered.

DNA consists of 23 pairs of chromosomes that originate from the father and mother of the child. Height, build, eye color and numerous traits in every person come from the parents.

Long before the Apostle John’s lifetime, human beings had DNA that was peculiar to each of them. Yet, John spoke of the character traits of the children of God –traits that can only come from God to identify those who are His.

How many times has someone said, “You’re just like your Dad!”? The reference may have been said with regard to appearance or to attitude; but the characteristic was evident!

That’s what it’s like to be a child of God. The characteristics (DNA) in our lives are the characteristics in the life of Jesus Christ. If Christ’s characteristics are not found in our lives, we don’t belong to Him! It’s that simple.

Cain killed Abel out of jealousy, and killings have increased in the world ever since. When we are born spiritually of God, we receive, as it were, His DNA. He is love, so His children love others, just as He loved them. The practice of loving bespeaks our being in Him. When we practice sinning, we look like the devil instead of looking like Christ. The old nature –the one we inherited from Adam—is still there, begging us to indulge in a bit of sin. But the result is like drinking alcohol. “Man takes a drink. Drink takes a drink. And drink takes the man.”

When we love others, we are not sinning. But when we despise or hate others, we are stifling the love of the Father. Like everything else –we have to train ourselves as to how we are to behave to the glory of our Heavenly Father.

Trust and obey,

For there’s no other way;

To be happy in Jesus;

But, to trust and obey.

Our prayers are that we all may learn to love and trust Him daily,

Nana & Dado III

(Rose Marie & Gene)

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,

1 John 3:1-3, “See how great a love the Father has bestowed upon us, that we should be called children of God; and such we are. For this reason the world does not know us, because it did not know Him.

2 Beloved, now we are children of God, and it has not appeared as yet what we shall be. We know that, when He appears, we shall be like Him, because we shall see Him just as He is.

3 And everyone who has this hope fixed on Him purifies himself, just as He is pure.”

Titles and possessions that are given out of a sense of necessity are worth little. But what makes them worthwhile and precious is that they are bestwed out of love. When we conscientiously confess and turn away from sin and its devastating activities and acknowledge openly that we accept Jesus Christ as LORD of our lives, we truly become “children of God.” And that is a cherished title!

Children don’t always know what their parents are planning. Neither do we as God’s children know all He has planned for us. What we do know comes to us from the Bible. John writes that Jesus is going to appear physically to us, and in that moment, we will become like Him. Exactly how we will be like Him, we are not told. It’s one of those “parent- things”: children are only given a hint until the right time comes.

“Okay, it’s time for your aunt and uncle to arrive. Wash your hands and face, and dust off

your clothes. Do you think we want them to believe we’re a bunch of ragamuffins?”

Something like that was what I recall my mother saying when relatives were nearly here. That’s what John meant when he said, “…everyone who has this hope fixed on Him purifies himself, just as He is pure.” The word hope (elpis) is so important! It means “future certainty.”

Are you certain of Jesus’ Coming? Do you believe what the Scriptures say about His coming again for His children? If you do, then you will seek to “clean up your act” before He arrives. Doing good does not make us His children. We are His children because we have believed upon Jesus, who died and arose from the dead. Being and doing good is what we want to do because we are His children! Our goodness is not measured against others; it’s measured against Him! He is our standard. We love Him because He first loved us.

He is coming! Are you really ready to meet Him? If you or someone you know needs

help, please feel free to write me at the email address below.

Our prayers are that we all may be prepared,

Nana & Dado III

(Rose Marie & Gene)

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,

Ezekiel 38:10-12, “’Thus says the Lord God, “It will come about on that day, that thoughts will come into your mind, and you will devise an evil plan, 11 and you will say, ‘I will go up against the land of unwalled villages. I will go against those who are at rest, that live securely, all of them living without walls, and having no bars or gates, 12 to capture spoil and to seize plunder, to turn your hand against the waste places which are now inhabited, and against the people who are gathered from the nations, who have acquired cattle and goods, who live at the center of the world.’”

Proverbs 25:28, “Like a city that is broken into and without walls Is a man who has no control over his spirit.”

One does not have to possess a Ph.D. in ancient history to understand the purpose of a wall. Walls either refrain the exit of those who are within them or they exclude the entry of those who are on the outside. Walls are restrainers. Long before the erection of the ancient castles of Europe, likeminded groups of people constructed walls to prohibit enemy forces from capturing their cities, taking hostage their people, and confiscating their wealth.

While the Ezekiel 38 passage quoted above is prophetic of days yet to come, it is quoted to illustrate the purpose of walls. The short concrete fence that marked the front boundary of my boyhood home, could hardly have been constructed as a defence of our home; yet it was nevertheless a visible barrier. The same could be said of doors, which are barriers to people. Windows are barriers to unwanted elements, such as rain and wind. Roofs, too, are barriers. And the list goes on.

Solomon, in our second passage above, likens the manner of a man to a city without walls. He states that such a man “has no control over his spirit.” He has no restraint over his own ruach (spirit, anger, temper, thoughts, motives). In other words, such a man is hopelessly out of control. Oh, he thinks he’s got control of himself, but he hasn’t.

Just stop and think for a moment. Over what do you have total control? your family? your business? your finances? If you’re honest, you’ll admit that you control nothing! Smarter people than you and I have laid traps that siphon off what we think we control. What’s the answer? Turn everything over to Jesus! He’s already in control; and you’ll never have as much as what you commit to Him. Talk about building a wall….

Our prayers are for your commitment to Jesus Christ,

Nana & Dado III

(Rose Marie & Gene)

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,

1 John 2:3-6, “And by this we know that we have come to know Him, if we keep His commandments.

4 The one who says, ‘I have come to know Him,’ and does not keep His commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him;

5 but whoever keeps His word, in him the love of God has truly been perfected. By this we know that we are in Him:

6 the one who says he abides in Him ought himself to walk in the same manner as He walked.”

What is salvation? How do we know whether we have been saved? To John, and to the whole of Scripture, it is simple: you keep His commandments. The commandments to which the apostle refers are the directives of Jesus Himself. In his Gospel, John quotes Jesus as saying, “You are my friends if you do what I command you” (Jn. 15:14). In other words, we know we have been saved –born again—when we’ve abandoned our thinking and way of life and committed ourselves to His way of Life.

I remember asking a person if he were a Christian. He said, “Yes,” to which I responded, when were you saved?” He replied, “I always have been.” Rest assurred: no one has always been saved or always been a Christian. Were that true, Jesus then died needlessly. When Adam and Eve sinned in the Garden of Eden, they rejected God’s way for their lives. Their sons, Cain and Abel, were born in sin, making it necessary that the LORD Himself provide a way of forgiveness for their sin. Jesus was His Father’s sacrifice for all mankind.

When He died on the Cross, He opened the door of opportunity for all mankind to be forgiven and cleansed from sin.

Did you read this week that Lady Gaga called herself a “Christian”? And in the same breath, she denounced the Christianity of Vice President Pence and his wife, Karen. Jesus taught that we are to love one another. Knowing Jesus as our Savior and LORD means we have changed our thinking and our way of life. Whatever we were previously, we have renounced. We have believed upon Him and adopted His way of thinking and of living.

As someone once said, “It’s not how loud you shout or how high you jump; it’s how you run when you hit the ground.”

His love is perfected in us when we keep His Word. We want to live so close to Him that people will even come to mistaking us for Him. When we live in His Word, we abide in Him; and when we abide in Him, we begin to look like Him. We then “walk in the same manner as He walked.”

When I was a child, my Dad wrote a poem in which he expressed how much he wanted me to be like him. My Dad was a quiet and godly man with a very dry sense of humor. I would have done well to have lived like him. The humor is about all I got. But in the same way my Heavenly Father wants me to be like Him. He wants you to be like Him, too! Are you? If you are like Him, you probably don’t think you are; if you’re not like Him, you probably need to read this letter again.

We love you and pray for you. May we all come to look more like Him in our lives!

Nana & Dado III

(Rose Marie & Gene)

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,

1 John 2:1-2. “My little children, I am writing these things to you that you may not sin. And if anyone sins, we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous;

2 and He Himself is the propitiation for our sins; and not for ours only, but also for those of the whole world.”

When John says “little children” (teknia), he addressing in a dimutive fashion those who are of sufficient age and have received Jesus Christ as their own personal Savior. At the same time, he desires most earnestly that the saved not continue to sin. If anyone does (maybe he will, maybe he won’t), he has an Advocate (one called along side to help). His name is Jesus Christ, and He is an honest, righteous, spiritual Helper.

Furthermore, this Helper –Jesus Christ—is the very propitiation (ilasmos), the Atoning Sacrifice, who gave Himself on the Cross for our sins. But His Self-sacrifice was not for us alone; it concerns the entirety of the

whole creation.

There are some today who believe and preach that Christ died only for those who He knew were going to be saved. Yet, to believe that is to turn the Scripture on its head. John clearly says, “???? ???? ??? ??????,” concerning the entirety of the cosmos, the whole of the human race He placed here on the Earth. We are warned against wrong teaching from the beginning; yet, some today engage in it freely and seemingly without conscience. When those who are assigned to instruct us follow the wrong paths, we are instructed to cease from following them.

If a physician errs in prescribing us the right medications, we find another physician. If a mechanic fails to fix our car, we find another mechanic. Why then, do we continue to listen to the pronouncements of preachers, who fail to follow the Scriptures? You are responsible before God for your life and how you live it. Get into His Word! His Spirit will always lead you in “right paths.”

Our prayers are with you,

Nana & Dado III

(Rose Marie & Gene)

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.”