The Grands Letter

Dear Grands,

1 Thessalonians 2:3-11, “For our exhortation does not come from error or impurity or by way of deceit;
4 but just as we have been approved by God to be entrusted with the gospel, so we speak, not as pleasing men, but God who examines our hearts.
5 For we never came with flattering speech, as you know, nor with a pretext for greed– God is witness–
6 nor did we seek glory from men, either from you or from others, even though as apostles of Christ we might have asserted our authority.
7 But we proved to be gentle among you, as a nursing mother tenderly cares for her own children.
8 Having so fond an affection for you, we were well-pleased to impart to you not only the gospel of God but also our own lives, because you had become very dear to us.
9 For you recall, brethren, our labor and hardship, how working night and day so as not to be a burden to any of you, we proclaimed to you the gospel of God.
10 You are witnesses, and so is God, how devoutly and uprightly and blamelessly we behaved toward you believers;
11 just as you know how we were exhorting and encouraging and imploring each one of you as a father would his own children…”

Paul assures the Thessalonian Christians that his message of salvation does not come from error or by way of deceit. It is pure, true, and bears the stamp of God’s own approval. Paul does not seek applause from his hearers. Nor is he harsh in the delivery of his message. Rather, he is gentle like a mother with a newly born child. At the same time, he encourages them all in the way a good father treats his own children.

We have to be something before we can do something for Christ! We also have to become nothing before we can become something; that is, what He wants us to be. We have to die to ourselves, to our pride, to our possessions, to our dreams, to everything, before we can become fruitful for Him and meet the standard He has for all who would carry His Message of Salvation.

You are the only Bible some people will ever read! Genuine humility is the backdrop to our Message of Jesus Christ. When we consider ourselves to be nothing, that’s when we are what He wants us to be. Think about that!

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