The Grands Letter

Dear Grands,

Joel 1:1-8, “The word of the LORD that came to Joel, the son of Pethuel:
2 Hear this, O elders, and listen, all inhabitants of the land. Has anything like this happened in your days or in your fathers’ days?
3 Tell your sons about it, and let your sons tell their sons, and their sons the next generation.
4 What the gnawing locust has left, the swarming locust has eaten; and what the swarming locust has left, the creeping locust has eaten; and what the creeping locust has left, the stripping locust has eaten.
5 Awake, drunkards, and weep; and wail, all you wine drinkers, on account of the sweet wine that is cut off from your mouth.
6 For a nation has invaded my land, mighty and without number; its teeth are the teeth of a lion, and it has the fangs of a lioness.
7 It has made my vine a waste and my fig tree splinters. It has stripped them bare and cast them away; their branches have become white.
8 Wail like a virgin girded with sackcloth for the bridegroom of her youth.”

I remember well the time and the place when I was asked what all of this “locust business” had to do with us in our day. My reply was both simple and honest: “I do not know.” I would not reply that way today.

Joel is considered by many to be the oldest book of the entire Bible. Written in 835 B.C., it is listed among the Minor Prophets. One biblicist says that Joel is primarily notable for three things: 1) the “grandest description in all literature of locust devastation”; 2) the “first intimation of the outpouring of the Spirit upon all flesh”; and 3) “prophecies that are remarkable for their scope, extending from (Joel’s) own day to the very end of time” (Lee, The Outlined Bible).

The attitude of the populace in verse five is “spot on!” Our world has been invaded and supplanted with substance that destroys and obliterates what our LORD originally intended. Liquor and drugs, gambling and vices extraordinaire abound. What is evil is made to look good. What is good is scorned and discarded!

Even those who represent us in State Legislatures and in Congress purport to oppose the devastation that distilled beverages and drugs cause in our society; nevertheless, they vote to allow them and the ruination they continually produce. One door simply opens another. What’s more, many of these governmental representatives purport to be “Christians.”

Let it be known that much (maybe even most) of what is devastating our world today has
a time of Divine reckoning. And it may be sooner than we think! Thus, saith the LORD…

“Woe unto them that call evil good, and good evil; that put darkness
for light, and light for darkness; that put bitter for sweet, and sweet for
bitter! 21 Woe unto them that are wise in their own eyes, and prudent
in their own sight! 22 Woe unto them that are mighty to drink wine, and
men of strength to mingle strong drink: 23 which justify the wicked for
reward, and take away the righteousness of the righteous from him
(Isa. 5:20-23)!

Make your choice! Your eternity hangs in the balance! Jesus loves you! Satan is simply
out for what he can get.

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