The Grands Letter

Dear Grands,

Zephaniah 3:1-9, “Woe to her who is rebellious and defiled, the tyrannical city!
2 She heeded no voice, she accepted no instruction. She did not trust in the LORD, she did not draw near to her God.
3 Her princes within her are roaring lions, her judges are wolves at evening; they leave nothing for the morning.
4 Her prophets are reckless, treacherous men; her priests have profaned the sanctuary. They have done violence to the law.
5 The LORD is righteous within her; He will do no injustice. Every morning He brings His justice to light; He does not fail. But the unjust knows no shame.
6 ‘I have cut off nations; their corner towers are in ruins. I have made their streets desolate, with no one passing by; their cities are laid waste, without a man, without an inhabitant.
7 “I said, ‘Surely you will revere Me, accept instruction.’ So her dwelling will not be cut off according to all that I have appointed concerning her. But they were eager to corrupt all their deeds.
8 “Therefore wait for Me,” declares the LORD, “for the day when I rise up as a witness. Indeed, My decision is to gather nations, to assemble kingdoms, to pour out on them My indignation, all My burning anger; for all the earth will be devoured by the fire of My zeal.
9 “For then I will give to the peoples purified lips, that all of them may call on the name of the LORD, to serve Him shoulder to shoulder.”

If you read the verses above with remembrance of your youth, you will doubtlessly recall the times when your parents or teachers reproved you for bad behavior. You were properly instructed in a variety of things, but stubbornly paid little-to-no attention, continuing to disobey those in authority.

Although those were disobedients in times past, they are far more
serious today. The LORD’s instruction through His Word is clearly
before us, yet we elect to willfully disobey, thinking (as we did in our
youth) that it doesn’t matter; others are just as disobedient and
disrespectful and look at them! No retribution is befalling them!

“…wait for Me,” declares the LORD, “for the day when I rise up as a witness…” (I will) “gather nations” and “assemble kingdoms…and will pour out on them My indignation, all My burning anger…” and the nations will be “devoured by the fire of My zeal.”

Our parents disciplined us as children, that we might grow into good and respectable citizens of humanity. Even so, the LORD is currently discipling us that we might honor Him and simultaneously serve as godly incentives to others who have not grown up under spiritual discipline.

Who has the LORD placed under your authority that they might see Him
in you and come to embrace Him in a thoroughly righteous life? Is your life adhering to His instructions? The Holy Scriptures beg for our adherence, as they hold our LORD’s sinless life before us. He never
claims that it’s easy; but He does promise that He will bless us in the undertaking.

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