The Grands Letter

Dear Grands,

John 15:9-14, “Just as the Father has loved Me, I have also loved you; abide in My love.
10 “If you keep My commandments, you will abide in My love; just as I have kept My Father’s commandments and abide in His love.
11 “These things I have spoken to you so that My joy may be in you, and that your joy may be made full.
12 “This is My commandment, that you love one another, just as I have loved you.
13 “Greater love has no one than this, that one lay down his life for his friends.
14 “You are My friends if you do what I command you.”

With the election drawing to a close, multitudes of voters are anxious to know who is going to win. It is certain that many promises made in the throes of an election campaign will not be kept; further, many promises were never intended to be kept. Angry words are tossed here and there,
with no intent whatsoever of being kept.

Nothing of the campaign-sort of promise, however, is in the Mind or Words of Jesus! What He says, He will keep. “These things I have spoken to you so that My joy may be in you, and that your joy may be made full” (v. 11). His Words, wherever they be found, are intended for blessing and joy!

Further, our LORD wishes for His Joy to become our joy! Joy derives from love! His Joy comes from His Love for us; our joy comes from Him, and He reckons us as His friends, when we obey what He has commanded of us!

Are you a happy person? By that, I don’t mean that you go around laughing or acting funny all the time. The world’s people laugh often; but their laughter is not from the heart. Cheering for the home team to win the game falls far short of the joy expressed for someone who has survived a serious, technical surgery.

Let your joy always derive from the LORD Jesus! Keep a good thought!
If you are His; He is yours! What more could we ever ask?

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