The Grands Letter

Dear Grands,

Psalm 37:3-9, “Trust in the LORD and do good; dwell in the land and cultivate faithfulness.
4 Delight yourself in the LORD; and He will give you the desires of your heart.
5 Commit your way to the LORD, trust also in Him, and He will do it.
6 He will bring forth your righteousness as the light and your judgment as the noonday.
7 Rest in the LORD and wait patiently for Him; Do not fret because of him who prospers in his way, because of the man who carries out wicked schemes.
8 Cease from anger and forsake wrath; Do not fret; it leads only to evildoing.
9 For evildoers will be cut off, but those who wait for the LORD, they will inherit the land.”

Whenever it is to our advantage to trust in the Lord, we expect that what we want and what we’ve made known to Him is precisely what we will receive. Yet, the failure to receive what we’ve expected leads us into a variety of doubts and often into the wrong pattern of thinking about what the LORD intends.

Take this forthcoming election. Regardless of the political candidate for whom you are voting, or whether your candidate wins or loses, the will of the Father will be the deciding factor. God is neither republican nor democrat. He is higher than either.
Thus, our prayers should always be “Thy will be done.”

Despite how elections go, or who wins, the will of the LORD is always primary, and thus our trust should always be in Him, instead of centered on some political candidate. Prayer, however, should be focused on His will, not on our will for one of the candidates.

Children don’t always warmly receive what their parents give them. The key is to receive from Him and to trust and obey Him. Many things for which I have longed have never occurred. I have to believe that His purposes are, among other things, to teach me to trust Him.

Content yourself, therefore, to Trust and Obey. God bless you!

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

Jude 1:1-4, “Jude, a bond-servant of Jesus Christ, and brother of James, to those who are the called, beloved in God the Father, and kept for Jesus Christ:
2 May mercy and peace and love be multiplied to you.
3 Beloved, while I was making every effort to write you about our common salvation, I felt the necessity to write to you appealing that you contend earnestly for the faith which was once for all handed down to the saints.
4 For certain persons have crept in unnoticed, those who were long beforehand marked out for this condemnation, ungodly persons who turn the grace of our God into licentiousness and deny our only Master and Lord, Jesus Christ.”

Only recently, I received a periodical from a school I attended. It included a pastor-list that indicated how much time each man took to prepare a sermon. It was as interesting as it was informative. I had to wonder how many times these pastors were interrupted in the course of their study.

In the case of Jude, the Scripture above simply notes that he changed his study and writing to emphasize the need to write of the common salvation they all had in Jesus Christ.

Jude’s note is a reminder to evangelists and evangelistic pastors that the churches they serve need to be fed the whole Gospel from time-to-time. It’s not that there are no lost people within their congregations; rather, it is that the regular attendees need occasionally to be built up in the faith.

Notice verse four above. Some in Jude’s thinking had just “crept in unnoticed.” There are people who need and want to hear the gospel, too. They’re not regular church members; they just need to hear about Jesus Christ.

It just may be that Jude knew some who had “crept in.” I’m sure you have people like that in your church. I’m confident there are those like that where I attend. We need to be prayerful and ready to witness to anyone as the LORD leads. Maybe that’s why they came! May God bless them; and may He bless you, as well!

Heartily in Christ Jesus,

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,

Jude 1:1-4, “Jude, a bond-servant of Jesus Christ, and brother of James, to those who are the called, beloved in God the Father, and kept for Jesus Christ:
2 May mercy and peace and love be multiplied to you.
3 Beloved, while I was making every effort to write you about our common salvation, I felt the necessity to write to you appealing that you contend earnestly for the faith which was once for all handed down to the saints.
4 For certain persons have crept in unnoticed, those who were long beforehand marked out for this condemnation, ungodly persons who turn the grace of our God into licentiousness and deny our only Master and Lord, Jesus Christ.”

Only recently, I received a periodical from a school I attended. It included a pastor-list that indicated how much time each man took to prepare a sermon. It was as interesting as it was informative. I had to wonder how many times these pastors were interrupted in the course of their study.

In the case of Jude, the Scripture above simply notes that he changed his study and writing to emphasize the need to write of the common salvation they all had in Jesus Christ.

Jude’s note is a reminder to evangelists and evangelistic pastors that the churches they serve need to be fed the whole Gospel from time-to-time. It’s not that there are no lost people within their congregations; rather, it is that the regular attendees need occasionally to be built up in the faith.

Notice verse four above. Some in Jude’s thinking had just “crept in unnoticed.” There are people who need and want to hear the gospel, too. They’re not regular church members; they just need to hear about Jesus Christ.

It just may be that Jude knew some who had “crept in.” I’m sure you have people like that in your church. I’m confident there are those like that where I attend. We need to be prayerful and ready to witness to anyone as the LORD leads. Maybe that’s why they came! May God bless them; and may He bless you, as well!

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,

2 Kings 18:1-6, “Now it came about in the third year of Hoshea, the son of Elah king of Israel, that Hezekiah the son of Ahaz king of Judah became king.
2 He was twenty-five years old when he became king, and he reigned twenty-nine years in Jerusalem; and his mother’s name was Abi the daughter of Zechariah.
3 He did right in the sight of the LORD, according to all that his father David had done.
4 He removed the high places and broke down the sacred pillars and cut down the Asherah. He also broke in pieces the bronze serpent that Moses had made, for until those days the sons of Israel burned incense to it; and it was called Nehushtan.
5 He trusted in the LORD, the God of Israel; so that after him there was none like him among all the kings of Judah, nor among those who were before him.
6 For he clung to the LORD; he did not depart from following Him, but kept His commandments, which the LORD had commanded Moses.”

How old is “old”? Some men are competent to lead others at the age of twenty-five; some are not competent in just about anything at that age. It really amounts to the “worth and ability” that exist within the man, does it not?

Hezekiah was evidently more spiritually active than his father, Ahaz. How we know is that Hezekiah tore down and burned all the idols his father had allowed to remain. Pretty good spiritual sense, I would say, and for a 25-year-old king!

Hezekiah trusted in the LORD. He clung to the LORD. Where are we in comparison with Hezekiah, who kept the commandments the LORD had commanded Moses?

We demonstrate our problems today when we seek to follow the LORD without divesting the wrongful activies that ought to have long before been erased.

Further, Hezekiah “did right in the sight of the LORD” by removing “the high places and cutting down Asherah.”
Have we destroyed the “Asherah” in our lives? We live in a desperate hour. The pattern of Hezekiah lies before us. We dare not fail!

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,

Galatians 1:6-10, “I am amazed that you are so quickly deserting Him who called you by the grace of Christ, for a different gospel;
7 which is really not another; only there are some who are disturbing you and want to distort the gospel of Christ.
8 But even if we, or an angel from heaven, should preach to you a gospel contrary to what we have preached to you, he is to be accursed!
9 As we have said before, so I say again now, if any man is
preaching to you a gospel contrary to what you received, he is to be accursed!
10 For am I now seeking the favor of men, or of God? Or am I striving to please men? If I were still trying to please men, I would not be a bond-servant of Christ.”

The Galatians were a wild and wooly people. You’ve met people like that, I’m sure. One minute they were for something; the next minute, they were against it. You just never knew where they were on anything.

The purpose –at least, one purpose—of the church is to focus on the Word of God and to stand firmly on it! It was just not the Galatian way of behavior on anything.

It’s hard to be certain, but this was probably not the first time Paul had instructed them in the clarity of the Scriptures. Parents know the seeming futility of their instruction to their children (How many times have I told you …?) Maybe you’ve wondered why your pastor has emphasized something so often. Could it be that…?

One thing is certain: the Scriptures are non-contradictory! So, if you find instruction in one place, you will not find it contradicting somewhere else. So, read Galatians. Trust the instruction of the Apostle Paul, and you will always be walking in the way of the LORD!

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