The Grands Letter

Dear Grands,

Virus Brings Unlikely Faith Fellows Together

April 23, 2020

By Tony Perkins

Whitney Tilson had come down from his Fifth Avenue apartment to walk the dog when he noticed the trucks. Right there, in Central Park, were stacks of tarps and white tents, all “bearing a name he had never heard of — Samaritan’s Purse.” He found out the group was building a field hospital for his fellow New Yorkers and asked if he could help. He hasn’t stopped, Yonat Shimron writes , since.

The Tilsons had never heard of Franklin Graham. Whitney says he’s never been particularly religious, and his wife, Shimron explains, is Jewish. But in a powerful story of people helping people, none of that matters. For four weeks, the Tilsons and their daughters have been spending hours a day at the field hospital, helping spread mulch, set up barriers, feed the volunteers, and any other job that needs to be done. He’s donated shovels, supplies, thousands of dollars of food, coffee, soda, potato chips, and other snacks. “It’s an incredibly impressive organization,” the retired financial expert tells Yonat. “I have no doubt they are delivering world-class critical care to my fellow New Yorkers stricken with COVID-19. Every single person I’ve met has been a genuinely nice person and very competent and good at their job.”

But not everyone was able to look past their own views to the greater good. When Whitney circulated a request to Central Synagogue, where he and his wife were members, asking for spare boots and socks for the medical team, some people balked. “The values harbored by this group and its founder just completely fly in the face of what Central stands for,” one person fumed to an online magazine. But despite the fact that Franklin and Whitney are “polar opposites” politically, he stood his ground. “I’m supporting a hospital that is saving people’s lives,” Whitney said. “I’m not endorsing [an] ideology…” And then he filled up his car with so much food for the workers that he couldn’t see out his rear window.

Franklin was so grateful that he called Whitney and invited the family down to Samaritan’s Purse headquarters — a trip they’re eager to make. “He’s a great human being,” Franklin agreed. “He might disagree with me, and I might disagree with him, but that’s not going to stop us from working together to help people.”

Near tears on a viral video he taped to Samaritan’s Purse, Whitney says, “Everyone’s been thanking me,” he choked up, “but I want to say, thank you. No one is paying you to help my city in our hour of deep, deep need.” New Yorkers, he believes, should be grateful for the group. “Their primary mission in life is not to go out and have hatred toward gays,” he said. “They believe what the Bible says, that homosexuality is a sin — yes. But it is not what drives them. What drives them is, ‘How can I do God’s work by healing people and saving lives?'”

Family Research Council

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,

Esther 4:13-14, “Then Mordecai told them to reply to Esther, ‘Do not imagine that you in the king’s palace can

escape any more than all the Jews. 14 For if you remain silent at this time, relief and deliverance will arise for the

Jews from another place and you and your father’s house will perish. And who knows whether you have not

attained royalty for such a time as this?’”

Prejudice, especially racial prejudice, is devastating! We are all descendants of Noah’s sons, Shem, Ham, and

Japheth; so, in one sense, racial prejudice against anyone is genealogical prejudice against a distant relative. Esther

was a Jewish girl, who had become Queen to King Ahasuerus. Haman, who was a governmental official and close to the king, hated the Jews. At this time, Haman did not know that Esther was Jewish. What’s more, neither did the king.

Mordecai was a relative of Esther and Haman hated him. But Haman did not know that Mordecai and Esther were relatives.

Haman had tricked the king into allowing him to plot a genocidal war against the Jews. Esther was the only one who

could intercede for her people before the king. It was a slippery slope. Entering the king’s presence without being summoned could mean her death. Such lay in the king’s hands alone. Esther had sent and received messages from Mordecai. He said, Don’t think you will escape death, if Haman’s plan is exorcised against our people. Just consider that you just might be positioned where you are for “such a time as this.”

Our entire world is facing what might be considered its greatest challenge in history. I’m talking about the Coronavirus (COVID-19). At the same time, many people everywhere are looking beyond themselves for an answer. We all want to live! It’s another way of their asking, “What must I do to be saved?” (Acts 16:30). The question believers should be asking is “What is my role in this dilemma? What is the LORD’s role for me?” First, we need to confess our sins as believers and spruce up our spiritual lives. Whatever our LORD has for us demands clean hands and clean minds. When our minds are rightly focused, our hands will quickly follow suit. We won’t have to look far to find people in need, and if we’re “in tune” with our Savior, we’ll know exactly what to do. His Spirit lives within us and prompts us without question. Now, ask yourself, “Why have I been called for such a time as this?” He has spoken to your heart. Now, go and do it!

Heartily in Christ Jesus,

(Dado III)

P. S. My church today put out a prayer list that numbered more than 70 indigent people. I’m sure your church has a prayer list. We can

all start meeting our LORD’s call by praying for others. Our President and his team desperately need our prayers! Say what you will,

the LORD’s pressure is on all of us. People I would never have guessed even thought about God, are speaking out about Him – some,

are even coming to embrace Him in faith as LORD and declaring themselves Christians. It’s an exciting opportunity for evangelism!

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 3:10-14, “…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.

12 Not that I have already obtained it, or have already become perfect, but I press on in order that I may lay hold of

that for which also I was laid hold of by Christ Jesus.

13 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.”

When was the last time you watched a Little League softball or baseball game? It was his fourth time at bat. All the

other kids were tired and just seemed to swing their bats in the hope of the game being over. But when Billy came up

for his final bat, he looked as if he were determined to at least get a hit. His first two swings were much like those of his teammates. He stepped out of the batter’s box, reached down and got a handful of dirt, rubbed his hands together and looked determined as the final pitch came his way. Billy hit the ball! He hit it hard! The crowd roared and his Dad

hugged him excitedly, as Billy kept saying, “I did it, Dad! I just kept trying, and I hit it!”

The Apostle Paul was a long way from the ball field, when he said, “…that I may know Him…” Oh, he had been saved. That happened on the Road to Damascus. But, there was more, much more! To really know Him! That was part of the “more.” To know Jesus is to possess and understand something of His power –the power that brought Him forth from the dead! Along with that, however, it requires knowing something of His suffering. That would call a halt to knowing more for most of us; but not for Paul. He was more than willing to die, because without death, he could never fully understand the resurrection.

True humility wants to know more: Why did He love me? How could His love prompt Him to give Himself in death for me, especially death on a cross. I don’t understand it yet, Paul said. I’m not thinking back on things experienced thus far. I’m just pressing on, taking one more swing toward the reward of fully knowing Him. It lies somewhere ahead, and it’s worth far more than life as we know it now. Oh, the blessings He has in store for those who love Him and seek Him in His fulness! Is that your challenge? It is mine! What a glorious fellowship we’ll have at the end of the game!

Heartily in Christ Jesus,

(Dado III)

P. S. If you love genuine Christ-honoring music, click on the attachment above. The LORD has blessed my sister, Carol, who

just keeps swinging the bat and hitting the ball!

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 2:12-15, “So then, my beloved, just as you have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now

much more in my absence, work out your salvation with fear and trembling;

13 for it is God who is at work in you, both to will and to work for His good pleasure.

14 Do all things without grumbling or disputing;

15 that you may prove yourselves to be blameless and innocent, children of God above reproach in the midst of a

crooked and perverse generation, among whom you appear as lights in the world…”

It just might be provable, if we could get the majority of adults to admit it, but my guess is that we all obeyed our parents mostly when they were looking. Paul alludes to that when he says “…you have always obeyed, not as in my presence only…” Philippians is an epistle (letter) of joy! So, Paul is not playing games with the believers. He is simply encouraging them to let their salvation in Christ be fully accomplished. One commentator notes that the word “work” (????????????, katergazomai) “always has the idea of bringing to completion. It is as if Paul were saying: ‘Don’t stop halfway; go on until the work of salvation is fully revealed in you.’

No Christian should be satisfied with anything less than the total benefits of the gospel.” The “fear and trembling” of which Paul speaks is the Christian’s fear that he might be overlooking something that should be within him and yet clearly visible to others.

If as a believer, we can be fully Christian and neither grumble nor dispute with others, we will be demonstrating the purity of the Gospel. At the same time, we will be proving to others in a practical manner that we are truly children of

God “above reproach” (??????, amomos, i.e., without blemish. To be sure, we live in a perverse (?????????, diastrepho) crooked generation. Yet, as we obey the Holy Spirit’s direction within us, we will appear to the lost around us as “lights” in our ever darkening world.

Are we lights for Christ? Is our salvation being worked out within us? Do others see that we are different, that our beauty is internal, not external, like the world’s? Where else is the world to see Light, unless it sees it in Christ and reflected in us? Stay in the Word! Engage in serious prayer! Be conscious of how you live and whether it is a reflection of our LORD Jesus Christ. God bless you abundantly! You are in my prayers. Please keep me in yours.

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 2:5-11, “Have this attitude in yourselves which was also in Christ Jesus,

6 who, although He existed in the form of God, did not regard equality with God a thing to be grasped,

7 but emptied Himself, taking the form of a bond-servant, and being made in the likeness of men.

8 And being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a

cross.

9 Therefore also God highly exalted Him, and bestowed on Him the name which is above every name,

10 that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of those who are in heaven, and on earth, and under the earth,

11 and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.

Over the years, I’ve met and mingled with a huge host of people, many of whom were ministers. I don’t, of course, remember with exactness all that I heard. Yet, as I read the passage for today’s Letter, I remember distinctly hearing one minister say, “I am amazed at how many proud and haughty preachers claim to be followers of the lowly Nazarene.”

That stinging statement from a human observer could easily be a parallel of Paul, when he said, Have the mind set in your life that Christ Jesus had. Jesus was God as much as God the Father, yet Jesus did not think of His equality with the Father as something to be grasped with retention. This presupposes something of a divine discussion in Heaven regarding the sacrifice that was needed for the forgiveness of mankind’s sin. Inasmuch as Jesus possessed equality with the Father, He might have said to the Father, “I don’t want to go; why don’t You go to Earth and become the sacrifice?” But, He didn’t say that. Instead, He humbled Himself and elected to become man and go to the Cross as the Father’s Sacrifice.

The ultimate result was that the Father exalted His Son and gave Him a Name that is above every name. And before this Name,

every living being from every age of human history, will one day bow before Him and confess that Jesus Christ is LORD. That will bring glory to the Father! Now, check that 11TH verse carefully: every person who has ever lived on Earth will on that day confess (agree) that Jesus and Jesus alone is LORD. So, the big question for mankind is: Will you confess Jesus now or on that day in eternity?

Confessing Him now, assures you of an Eternal Home with Him in Heaven! Confessing Him then will be forced – an admission that you were wrong in not having received Him as Savior when on Earth. There will be no second chance to be saved. As with the door of the Ark in Noah’s day: when it was shut, there was no entrance available to those outside. “Now is the day of salvation” (2 Cor. 6:2). I am earnestly praying for you, while there is time.

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.”