The Grands Letter

Dear Grands,

Amos 8:1-6, “Thus the Lord GOD showed me, and behold, there was a basket of summer fruit.
2 He said, ‘What do you see, Amos?’ And I said, ‘A basket of summer fruit.’ Then the LORD said to me, ‘The end has come for My people Israel. I will spare them no longer.
3 ‘The songs of the palace will turn to wailing in that day,’ declares the Lord GOD. ‘Many will be the corpses; in every place they will cast them forth in silence.’
4 Hear this, you who trample the needy, to do away with the humble of the land,
5 saying, ‘When will the new moon be over, so that we may sell grain, and the Sabbath, that we may open the wheat market, to make the bushel smaller and the shekel bigger, And to cheat with dishonest scales,
6 So as to buy the helpless for money and the needy for a pair of sandals, and that we may sell the refuse of the wheat?’”

Have you not heard of some today who want to re-write the Bible? Every
new translation, it seems, trivializes portions of the Scriptures. What’s worse, it is done in the name of “scholarship.” And it is those without scholarship who are making the attempt.

It’s hardly necessary to speculate on why some wish to trivialize the Scriptures. Isaiah bemoans those who twist the Word of God, when he says: “Woe to those who call evil good, and good evil; who substitute darkness for light and light for darkness; who substitute bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter! Woe to those who are wise in their own eyes and clever in their own sight! (Isa. 5:21).

Yet, with all of the attempts to improve on God’s Word, those who engage in this evil endeavor will one day pay an enormous price! “Through indolence the rafters sag, and through slackness the house leaks. Men prepare a meal for enjoyment, and wine makes life merry, and money is the answer to everything” (Eccl. 10:18-19).

Translated into a modern idiom, it simply says, “You can’t do wrong and get by.” Take the Word of God as He has given it to us. Live by it; love it; and rejoice that He loves you and has made His Word available.

Heartily in Christ Jesus,

Gene L. Jeffries, Th.D.
Springdale, Arkansas
United States of America

“We never know that Christ is all we need until He becomes all that we have.” – Corrie ten Boom