The Grands Letter

Dear Grands,

Nehemiah 1:5-6, “I said, ‘I beseech You, O LORD God of heaven, the great and awesome God, who preserves the covenant and lovingkindness for those who love Him and keep His commandments,
6 let Your ear now be attentive and Your eyes open to hear the prayer of Your servant which I am praying before You now, day and night, on behalf of the sons of Israel Your servants, confessing the sins of the sons of Israel which we have sinned against You; I and my father’s house have sinned.’”

Nehemiah 6:1-4, “Now when it was reported to Sanballat, Tobiah, to Geshem the Arab and to the rest of our enemies that I had rebuilt the wall, and that no breach remained in it, although at that time I had not set up the doors in the gates,
2 then Sanballat and Geshem sent a message to me, saying, ‘Come, let us meet together at Chephirim in the plain of Ono.’ But they were planning to harm me.
3 So I sent messengers to them, saying, ‘I am doing a great work and I cannot come down. Why should the work stop while I leave it and come down to you?’
4 They sent messages to me four times in this manner, and I answered them in the same way.”

I once knew and worked alongside a man who had been an Officer in the Navy. He was up for the rank of Captain and had never missed a promotion. Yet at that very time, the LORD called him into the ministry. He immediately resigned from the Navy. His friends had insisted that he wait until he made Captain. “It’ll be considerable more money,” his friends insisted. Yet his reply was, “If the LORD had wanted me to make Captain, He would have waited until then to call me.”

The message here in Nehemiah is that the work of the LORD is always primary; therefore, it must always come first on our agenda. The LORD had placed Nehemiah in the palace of King Artaxerxes, whom He knew would ultimately be amenable to allowing Nehemiah to rebuild the walls of Jerusalem.

Nehemiah was a man of prayer and a man of action. Prayer always came first. It was always his primary activity. The LORD then gave Nehemiah the wisdom needed for restructuring the breaches in the city wall. That same wisdom kept Nehemiah from falling into traps set by the enemies of the LORD.

Prayer and manual labor were the keys to Nehemiah’s success. They are the keys
to our work, too. Yes, we can –and must— pray for the lost. We must also share the Word of the LORD with them.

Where are you in all of this? Do you truly know the LORD? If so, are you currently involved in His work? Are you praying for His leadership? Are you physically, personally involved in witnessing to others?

The Bible says, “Whatever your hand finds to do, do it with all your might…” (Eccl. 9:10). Leon Morris says, “A nation (or a person) can reach a point in opposition to God where return is impossible.”

There’s only one life; it will soon be past;
Only what’s done for Christ will last.

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