The Grands Letter

Dear Grands,

Philippians 2:3-8, “Do nothing from selfishness or empty conceit, but with humility of mind let each of you regard one another as more important than himself;
4 do not merely look out for your own personal interests, but also for the interests of others.
5 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.”

If you have never read Foxe’s Book of The Martyrs, I enthusiastically commend it to you! In short, terse paragraphs, it reveals the lives and deaths of true Christians throughout history. Many were burned alive
simply because they refused to renounce their faith in our LORD Jesus Christ. It is an humbling experience –one that shames us for our weak behavior.

Behavior is a quality of the mind. Sometimes it occurs so quickly that it often appears to have been without thinking. It’s much like military training. It’s instinctive and appropriate under certain conditions. Still, how many times have you acted insinctively only to ask yourself, “Why did I do that?” In all probability, most spontaneous responses arise from selfish interest. And this is precisely what the Apostle Paul says should not occur in our lives!

Believers in Jesus Christ are to behave as Christ did. He concerned Himself with the needs of others. Previous to His miraculous, earthly conception, Jesus reigned equally in Heaven with the Father and the Holy Spirit. When it was divinely determined that mankind should be rescued from sin, the Son was appointed to be the Rescuer. He did not shrink from His responsibility; rather, He “emptied Himself” of His own will in deference to that of The Father and The Spirit. He came humbly to Earth in human form. What’s more, He did this knowing that He would die a cruel death on a cross for people who had willfully and continuously sinned against their Creator God.

We all need to take regular inventory of our behavior. We need to assess whether our behavior is like that of our LORD Jesus Christ. When it is not, we can know that it is not acceptable to the Father. We then need to pray for forgiveness and for divine strength to live as He intended us to live. As godly, Christian parents desire their children to obey them, so our Heavenly Father desire us to obey Him. That’s whatproduces change in the world in which we live. Let us pray for each other that we all may live “to the praise of His glory.”

Heartily in Christ Jesus,

(Dado III)

Gene L. Jeffries, Th.D.
Springdale, Arkansas 72764
United States of America

“We never know that Christ is all we need until He becomes all that we have.” – Corrie ten Boom