The Grands Letter

Dear Grands,

Joel 2:25-31, “Then I will make up to you for the years that the swarming locust has eaten, the creeping locust, the stripping locust and the gnawing locust, My great army which I sent among you.
26 “You will have plenty to eat and be satisfied and praise the name of the LORD your God, Who has dealt wondrously with you; then My people will never be put to shame.
27 “Thus you will know that I am in the midst of Israel, and that I am the LORD your God, and there is no other; and My people will never be put to shame.
28 “It will come about after this that I will pour out My Spirit on all mankind; and your sons and daughters will prophesy, your old men will dream dreams, your young men will see visions.
29 “Even on the male and female servants I will pour out My Spirit in those days.
30 “I will display wonders in the sky and on the earth, blood, fire and columns of smoke.
31 “The sun will be turned into darkness and the moon into blood before the great and awesome day of the LORD comes.”

An historically unparalleled calamity had befallen the land! Joel was himself as insignificant as the catastrophe that had come upon the land. Yet, the LORD had obviously selected him to sound the alarm to the nation of Israel.

A severe drought had visited the land, with unprecedented swarms of locusts gleaning what they could of the remnant. Joel’s ministry was to highlight the seriousness of the spiritual condition of the people –a condition that was an irritant to Almighty God!—and to call the nation to repentance!

We’re not under attack from streams of locusts today, yet our situation is far more severe. “Spiritual locusts” have invaded our religious world and are gnawing away in every possible manner against our reverence toward God. These “locusts” have
removed virtually all meaningful, sacred songs from our itinerary. There is no quiet time for prayer and inner reflection. Instead, we are often left with noise and homilies that have replaced Scripture!

Men, whose “callings” into ministry fail the spiritual, moral and biblical tests, now occupy the pulpits of the spiritual churches of the past; and those men feed their congregations with chaff that even the locusts could not devour.

The emphases of these pulpits no longer ring with “thus saith the LORD”; rather, they focus upon receiving the monetary offerings of people, while in turn they dispense a pablim of humanistic “feel good isms” that clearly attack or ignore the purity of the Gospel of our LORD Jesus Christ.

When will all of this “playing church” nonsense end? There is no end to the locusts’ attacks in Joel’s prophecy. True worship is, therefore, relegated to the earnest hearts of the true believers.

Are you a true believer? The Word of the LORD, the Bible, exists for your spiritual nourishment. Devour the Scriptures daily! The “church players” are intent on taking even them away.

Prayerfully 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