The Grands Letter

Dear Grands,

Ezra 9:10-15, “Now, our God, what shall we say after this? For we have forsaken Your commandments,
11 which You have commanded by Your servants the prophets, saying, ‘The land which you are entering to possess is an unclean land with the uncleanness of the peoples of the lands, with their abominations which have filled it from end to end and with their impurity.
12 ‘So now do not give your daughters to their sons nor take their daughters to your sons, and never seek their peace or their prosperity, that you may be strong and eat the good things of the land and leave it as an inheritance to your sons forever.’
13 “After all that has come upon us for our evil deeds and our great guilt, since You our God have requited us less than our iniquities deserve, and have given us an escaped remnant as this,
14 shall we again break Your commandments and intermarry with the peoples who commit these abominations? Would You not be angry with us to the point of destruction, until there is no remnant nor any who escape?
15 “O LORD God of Israel, You are righteous, for we have been left as an escaped remnant, as it is this day; behold, we are before You in our guilt, for no one can stand before You because of this.”

The gist of Ezra’s prayer includes the awareness that the LORD’s instructive warning did come
through the prophets’ servants. There is no excuse for the intermarriage that had occurred
between Israel’s righteous daughters and the heathen’s unrighteous men. Further, the LORD’s
people are never to seek peace with an evil people or to seek their prosperity. Oh, how often
we are guilty of desiring worldly possessions!

We are to acknowledge the LORD’s righteousness, as He provides us freedom from the lust
of worldly possessions. What He is providing for us here is both tangible and practical. We
must be satisfied with whatever He has provided. This world is not our home; and the tangible
things the world produces and embraces are not for us!

Beyond all of the above instructions, we must realize that our love for this world’s goods will be
what is passed on to our children and their children. And their temptations will be just as ours. They will love what we have loved and passed on to them and to the generations that will follow. We must totally absorb Ezra’s prayer! Let the LORD guide you to love His provisions; for they alone possess His purposes.

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

Dear Grands,

Ezra 9:8-9, “But now for a brief moment grace has been shown from the LORD our God, to leave us an escaped remnant and to give us a peg in His holy place, that our God may enlighten our eyes and grant us a little reviving in our bondage.
9 “For we are slaves; yet in our bondage our God has not forsaken us, but has extended lovingkindness to us in the sight of the kings of Persia, to give us reviving to raise up the house of our God, to restore its ruins and to give us a wall in Judah and Jerusalem.

The people had sinned. The prophet has prayed. Now, he cries to the LORD, saying,
“…give us a peg in (Your) holy place” that you might give us “a little reviving in our bondage.”

The prophet Ezra is not-at-all stymied by what has taken place. He knows without a doubt
that the LORD has heard and reverenced his prayer for the people. Forgiveness is not a
signal that designates the people as sinless against their God. Rather, it is a signal that
while the people are indeed guilty of their sin, they worship a God who is able and ready to
forgive.

Asking forgiveness carries with it the innate promise of the sinner not to sin again against the LORD. A “peg” is a piece of wood that is driven into the wall and upon which something is firmly held. It amounts to the people crying, “LORD, just give us another opportunity to be stable and not ever to sin in this way again.” How often we all have prayed like this!

Hopefully, we will learn from our mistakes. We sin. We ask forgiveness. The LORD forgives us. But, then–! We all need to slow down and think! Was it not David himself who prayed,

“…keep back Your servant from presumptuous sins; Let them not rule
over me. Then I will be blameless, And I shall be acquitted of great
transgression” (Psalm 19:13).

May our gracious, loving, patient and forgiving LORD erase the wrongs we have committed! And may He give us the opportunity to show love to Him by forsaking our sin.

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

Dear Grands,

Ezra 9:5-7, “But at the evening offering I arose from my humiliation, even with my garment and my robe torn, and I fell on my knees and stretched out my hands to the LORD my God;
6 and I said, “O my God, I am ashamed and embarrassed to lift up my face to You, my God, for our iniquities have risen above our heads and our guilt has grown even to the heavens.”
7 “Since the days of our fathers to this day we have been in great guilt, and on account of our iniquities we, our kings and our priests have been given into the hand of the kings of the lands, to the sword, to captivity and to plunder and to open shame, as it is this day.”

I was all wrapped up in my Kahuna Chair, when my phone went off! It was the Police
Dispatch saying my house alarm had discharged. “Is everything alright?” she asked.
Yes, everything was alright. I thanked her and restarted my chair.

Then came a knock –a knuckles-to-door kind of knock. It was a Police Officer, asking
again if everything was alright. Yes, again I assurred him that everything was fine.
He was satisfied. “Just checking,” he said.

Later I thought, “What do you do when things are not right?” Ezra knew what to do. He fell on his knees before God; and, with shame and embarrassment for the sins of his people, he stretched out his hands to the LORD and cried out in a mixture of confession and praise.

“O my God, I am ashamed and embarrassed to lift up my face to You…”

If we search our lives as diligently as Ezra searched the lives of his people, we will do
no less than bowing humbly before the LORD, confessing our sins, and praising Him for “keeping check” on us and what we do and don’t do.

How long has it been since you truly examined your life, your conversations, your thoughts? Are they acceptable to Him? Don’t be surprised if there’s a knock at your door. Just be sure you can say, “Everything’s alright, LORD. Thanks for checking up on me.”

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

Dear Grands,

Ezra 9:3-6, “When I heard about this matter, I tore my garment and my robe, and pulled some of the hair from my head and my beard, and sat down appalled.
4 Then everyone who trembled at the words of the God of Israel on account of the unfaithfulness of the exiles gathered to me, and I sat appalled until the evening offering.
5 But at the evening offering I arose from my humiliation, even with my garment and my
robe torn, and I fell on my knees and stretched out my hands to the LORD my God;
6 and I said, “O my God, I am ashamed and embarrassed to lift up my face to You, my God, for our iniquities have risen above our heads and our guilt has grown even to the heavens.”

Why haven’t you done something about this? This is an oft-asked question that begs for an answer that simply isn’t there. One may live with the illusion that a pastor or someone allegedly in authority ought to know; yet at the same time, there is no guarantee that he does know!

When he does discover what everyone thought he knew, he is literally “beside himself!” He
expresses his remorsefulness by tearing at his clothes and pulling out his hair, signs of
personal frustration in the light of serious occurrances. Today we have similar situations, although, perhaps, not often so drastic.

Notice especially the reaction of the people. They were beside themselves, trembling at the
words of God. They had indeed been unfaithful. What a contrast that is to people today! Today’s people offer excuses and often point to others as more unfaithful than themselves.

At the time of the evening offering, Ezra, the prophet, clothed with appropriate shame, fell
upon his knees, and extending his quivering, out-stretched hands humbly to the LORD, said,
“Oh my God, I am ashamed and embarrassed to lift up my face to You…” How appropriate
it would be for us to do the same. Our postures before the LORD often link with the brevity of our “sinful confessions.” We seek His forgiveness, but often neglect earnest sincerity.

Our nation today is running close to unpardonable sin! Unfortunately, so are many of our churches. Is our national sin affecting our churches? Or is our ecclesiastical sin the causation of our national dilemma? It may well be both –in which case, we need to pray more earnestly
for our spiritual leadership. Make today a day of prayer for your pastor. Pastors experience pressures often known only to their wives and families.

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

Dear Grands,

Ezra 9:1-2, “Now when these things had been completed, the princes approached me, saying, ‘The people of Israel and the priests and the Levites have not separated themselves from the peoples of the lands, according to their abominations, those of the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Perizzites, the Jebusites, the Ammonites, the Moabites, the Egyptians and the Amorites.
2 ‘For they have taken some of their daughters as wives for themselves and for their sons, so that the holy race has intermingled with the peoples of the lands; indeed, the hands of the princes and the rulers have been foremost in this unfaithfulness.’”

The more we read the Bible, the more we realize that times have not changed! Oh, we live in different styled houses, drive automobiles (some of which actually drive themselves!), but inwardly – within ourselves — we’re much more like those of Ezra’s day than we think.

The people of Ezra’s day had standards for living –standards the LORD had given to His people. That is hardly strange. We think of how we want our children to live differently than some of those kids that live “on that other street” or only “two blocks away.” They speak differently, using unacceptable language. What’s more, they don’t go to Sunday School ever!

Still the LORD has strong and staunch standards –standards for living morally upright; standards that set a high mark for His people and for those who live near to His people.

Those pagan people –the Canaanites, Hittites, Perizzites, Jebusites, Ammonites, Moabites, Egyptians and Amorites— they were the eight nations, who lived nearby and cast an ungodly influence on the Israelites. Furthermore, they married Israelite women, resulting in an intermingling of foreign gods and affecting the beliefs of the LORD’s holy people!

Today’s world is no different! Satan has infiltrated many churches with immoral, self-called ministers, so that the ears of the people are being tickled with humanistic thought from pulpits that were constructed for the declaration of the Gospel. We are living in that very time foretold by Paul’s son, Timothy:

“For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine;
but wanting to have their ears tickled, they will accumulate for
themselves teachers in accordance to their own desires, and will
turn away their ears from the truth and will turn aside to myths”
(2 Tim. 4:3-4).

If you’re affiliated with a church that denies or ignores the pure teaching of His Word, I urge
you to withdraw immediately! Prayerfully, search the Scriptures and affiliate with a church
with a Bible-teaching pastor! Remember those kids you didn’t want your kids to play with?
God has the same thought about you attending a non-Christian church.

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