The Grands Letter

Dear Grands,

Matthew 4:5-7, “Then the devil took Him into the holy city; and he had Him stand on the

pinnacle of the temple,

6 and said to Him, ‘If You are the Son of God throw Yourself down; for it is written, “He will give

His angels charge concerning You”; and “On their hands they will bear You up, lest You strike

Your foot against a stone.”’”

7 Jesus said to him, “On the other hand, it is written, ‘You shall not put the Lord your God to the

test.'”

Did I not previously tell you that Satan is not easily discouraged? Well, here is the proof. When tempted to turn stones into bread, Jesus resisted, resorting to the Word of God and saying “It is written, ‘’Man shall not live on bread alone, but on every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God.'”

Having been unsuccessful in tempting Jesus to doubt the care of His Heavenly Father, Satan subsequently returns with a temptation to presume upon God. This event was occasioned under very secure circumstances. They were present in the Holy City, Jerusalem. It was the Father’ chosen place of holiness, safety and security. Surely, nothing adverse would or even could occur there. Further still, they were physically positioned on a high point of the Holy Temple itself.

As if that were not sufficient security, Satan turned to Psalm 91:10-12, which reads,

“No evil will befall you, nor will any plague come near your tent. 11 For He will

give His angels charge concerning you, to guard you in all your ways. 12 They

will bear you up in their hands, lest you strike your foot against a stone.”

Now, compare that passage as Satan quoted it to the LORD Jesus as in Matthew 4:

“If You are the Son of God throw Yourself down; for it is written, ‘He will give

His angels charge concerning You’; and ‘On their hands they will bear You up,

lest You strike Your foot against a stone.'”

Do you see Satan’s subtilty? He omitted four salient words: “…in all Thy ways.” Satan’s proposal was not the way of Jesus or of His Father. We must be exceedingly careful in reading Scripture. A small addition or a small omission can alter the original intention and lead us down a weary, disdainful pathway.

Jesus, however, did not directly argue Satan’s misquotation; rather, He quoted Deuteronomy

6:16 saying, “On the other hand, it is written, ‘You shall not put the LORD your God to the test.”

We would certainly do best to resort always to Scripture. Only three times, in more than 60 years of ministry, have I been led to quote Scripture two verses of which I was totally unaware. Don’t count on that happening to you! Get into the Word and memorize it carefully and accurately! As with Jesus, our spiritual security lies within the Holy Scriptures.

Thank Him for His Blessed Word! And thank Him for the security you enjoy in Him!

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,

Matthew 4:1-4, “Then Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the

devil.

2 And after He had fasted forty days and forty nights, He then became hungry.

3 And the tempter came and said to Him, ‘If You are the Son of God, command that these

stones become bread.’

4 But He answered and said, ‘It is written, ‘Man shall not live on bread alone, but on every word

that proceeds out of the mouth of God.'”

It’s not unusual for a job-applicant to be required to undergo a trial period before actually being given the job. In fact, almost everything we do requires our mastery of the job’s “learning curve.” Still, it may seem strange that the LORD Jesus Christ underwent a “trial period” before He commenced His ministry to the people of His day. It might seem even stranger when we learn that it was the Holy Spirit who led Him into the wilderness that He might be tested against Satan, His chief adversary and ours.

Undoubtedly, Satan knew this day was coming. If he could successfully defeat Christ before the commencement of His ministry, perhaps he might be successful in defeating Him altogether. Thus, there in the wilderness, he found Jesus, ravenously famished after 40 days of fasting, yet in faithful fellowship with God the Father.

Carefully, yet forthrightly, Satan said, “If You are the Son of God –and You are!” — (so the Greek construction sets it forth) “command that these stones become bread.” It was a subtle, carefully crafted solicitation to go against the Father’s will. Just simply say it, Satan was saying, You know who You are; and You know that Your Father will not withhold bread from You. Yet for Christ Jesus to have obeyed Satan’s request, would have been to have recognized him as the one in charge. We must be careful of that very thing in our own lives.

Jesus was aware of His Father’s provision of manna for Israel when she wandered in the wilderness. He also knew how His Father had fed Elijah by causing the ravens to carry him food. This ploy of Satan was intended to persuade Jesus to doubt His Father’s ability to provide for His every need. This is exactly how Satan approaches us! He want us to doubt the LORD! The Scriptures tell us to trust in the LORD!

The ultimate victory occurred when Jesus turned to the Scriptures for His reply. “It is written, ‘Man shall not live on bread alone, but on every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God.'” And so it is that the Scriptures provide the same power for us! We simply must live in them and trust the LORD who has given us His Word.

Are you trusting Christ for the needs you have? Or are you looking elsewhere for answers? Look to the Bible, the Holy Scriptures! Trust in the LORD who gave us those Scriptures! Either the LORD is lord of our lives, or the devil is in charge. “Trust in the LORD…” always!

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,

Revelation 21:6-8, “And He said to me, ‘It is done. I am the Alpha and the Omega, the

beginning and the end. I will give to the one who thirsts from the spring of the water of life

without cost.

7 “He who overcomes shall inherit these things, and I will be his God and he will be My son.

8 “But for the cowardly and unbelieving and abominable and murderers and immoral persons

and sorcerers and idolaters and all liars, their part will be in the lake that burns with fire and

brimstone, which is the second death.’”

The Scriptures teach us that when Lucifer (“light bearer”) rebelled against the LORD, he was

displaced from his previously exalted, angelic position and renamed “Satan.” He continues to possess wisdom, but it is corrupted wisdom and inculcates devious behaviors. Satan is a deceiver, seeking to lead mankind into his demonic cesspool of amalgamated thought. All of that is to say that all thought that departs from Holy Scripture is an adaptation of Satanic thought, regardless of its intensity.

Remember the saying that you learned in High School chemistry? “What little Johnny used to be, little Johnny is no more; for what he thought was H20 was H2SO4.” Adaptation of that rule to all aspects of human society (science, religion, politics, etc.) is precisely what Satan wishes all mankind to embrace. Once the moral absolutes as set forth in Holy Scripture are eliminated, man becomes his own god, sets his own rules, and lives by his own standards. All law then becomes whatever standard is embraced as the desire of every single individual.

I’m sure I’ve mentioned previously somewhere in these Letters that when I was a teenager, living in Missouri, the legal speed limit on the highways was “reasonable and proper.” Ultimately, it had to be changed because each driver thought he was being “reasonable and proper,” despite what other drivers thought. Imagine an accountant who set his own standards of addition and subtraction.

Almighty God created our heavens and our Earth. We live on a huge planet that operates on the standards the Creator Himself established. True wisdom, too, comes from our Creator. Over time, man who elected to be his own god and operated by the standards of his own wisdom, mismanaged the Creator’s purpose for him, as merely superintending the Earth.

Make no mistake about it: There is no god, except the LORD God Almighty! You are not God; the government is not God. Satan is not God. Only God the Father, the LORD Jesus Christ,

and the Holy Spirit are God. The Word of God, the Holy Scriptures alone, are the collective wisdom of God that he allows man read and know. Deviations from the clear instruction of Holy Scripture (Genesis to Revelation) come from the pens of those who mistake themselves to be God. Human “wisdom” pales over time when examined in the light of God’s invincible Word!

“Trust in the LORD with all your heart, and do not lean on your own

understanding. In all your ways acknowledge Him, and He will make

your paths straight” (Prov. 3:5-6).

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,

Deuteronomy 8:13-14, “…and when your herds and your flocks multiply, and your silver and

gold multiply, and all that you have multiplies,

14 then your heart becomes proud (rum, haughty) and you forget the LORD your God who

brought you out from the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery.”

I once asked a financial advisor, “How much is enough?” His answer was swift and simple:

“There’s never enough.” Most of us (perhaps, all of us) have encountered those who started

out with very, very little and ended up with wealth beyond their wildest dreams. There is nothing

in Scripture that forbids obtaining wealth. Some of the godliest personalities in the Bible were

men of wealth. What the Bible forbids is wealth obtaining man.

Twice in First Timothy, Paul warns Timothy against “loving money.” In 1 Timothy 3:3, Paul says a believer is to be, “…free from the love of money.” In 1 Timothy 6:10, he says why. “For the love (philarguria, avarice) of money is a root of all sorts of evil, and some, by longing (orego, stretching out) for it, have wandered away from the faith, and pierced themselves with many a pang (grief, distress).” Nothing compares with Jesus! Nothing compares with the faith! And any

inordinate love for money carries with it the danger against which Paul solemnly warns us.

Job 33:15-17, “’In a dream, a vision of the night, when sound sleep falls on men, while they

slumber in their beds,

16 then He opens the ears of men, and seals their instruction,

17 That He may turn man aside from his conduct, and keep man from pride (gevah, self-

confidence…”).

There are fewer distractions for a person who sleeps soundly. Sleep offers the LORD the opportunity to change one’s mind about a variety of things, including his personal conduct and

his resistance to personal pride. Proverbs 16:18 warns, “Pride (gaon, arrogance) goes before destruction, and a haughty spirit before stumbling.”

Some things are just not worth what they look like. I purchased something online a few months

ago. It was a practical device and looked like just what I needed. Then it arrived! It was a worthless piece of junk. I retrieved my money, but it cost me just as much to return the product!

There are so many sparkling items that get our attention. Yet, they cost us more in the long run

than they are worth. Having something no only else has (or having it first) is often a producer of pride.

Pride emanates from Satan. Humility emanates from God. Pride was Satan’s ultimate downfall. He still cleverly disguises pride and presents it to us under the pretentious covering of humility. It’s only after we’ve experienced the truth that we learn never to be fooled again. But, then—

Be careful what you allow to attract you. We’re never as invincible as we think. Stay close to

the LORD. Read and study His Word daily! Stay close to Him in prayer! Satan can be overcome; but alone we can’t do it. It takes Christ the LORD to defeat him. If you’ve never

trusted the LORD, do it now. Time for you may be running out….

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,

Genesis 4:3-5, “So it came about in the course of time that Cain brought an offering to the LORD of the

fruit of the ground.

4 And Abel, on his part also brought of the firstlings of his flock and of their fat portions. And the LORD

had regard for Abel and for his offering;

5 but for Cain and for his offering He had no regard. So Cain became very angry (exceedingly furious)

and his countenance fell.”

Our brief examination of Lucifer/Satan in the two previous Letters depicted the shallowness of his character in that he became exceedingly angry exactly in reverse purportion to his beauty. What is worse, Cain’s anger (charah) showed on his face. It almost always does. Close to the same thing occurred with Jacob when his wife Rachel accused him of being responsible for her not having children (Gen. 30:2). Jacob did issue a retort to Rachel, but not with the fury depicted in Cain. Jacob’s “anger” (aph) showed itself in the twisting of his mouth and nose. In other words, he made an angry face, along with words of self-exhonoration.

Such expressions as we see in Cain and Jacob, although different, are never helpful. They seem so in the light of the moment; but it’s always in the dim light of the fallen Lucifer that our anger is revealed and assessed. Satan is always present in those moments when we feel justified in expressing anger. Satan’s anger, however, is not primarily focused on us. He’s still sore that he was demoted from Archangel. His anger, therefore, is aimed squarely at the LORD. Satan is the often-secluded force behind all anger, our’s included. That leaves us with the question: Is anger ever justified?

When Christ Jesus discovered the money-changers operating openly in the Temple of God, He expressed open hostility. Christ Jesus, of course, was His own justification. When we discover a book or hear a sermon or observe iniquity that is thoroughly opposed to the biblical counsel of God, we are

justified in being angry. How we express our anger, however, must be clearly discernable as defending the stated counsel of Almighty God. Further, it must not be so spontaneously eruptible as to confuse hearers into thinking our objection is only an excuse to be voalitile. Knowing and lovingly using the Word to refute wrong-doing is always the best policy. I had to learn that myself. But, in the long-run, it’s always the best policy.

My prayers for you ascend daily. Hopefully, yours ascend daily 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.”