The Grands Letter

Dear Grands,

1 Samuel 13:10-14, “As soon as he finished offering the burnt offering,
behold, Samuel came; and Saul went out to meet him and to greet him.
11 But Samuel said, ‘What have you done?’ And Saul said, ‘Because I
saw that the people were scattering from me, and that you did not come
within the appointed days, and that the Philistines were assembling at
Michmash,
12 therefore I said, “Now the Philistines will come down against me at
Gilgal, and I have not asked the favor of the LORD.” So I forced myself
and offered the burnt offering.’
13 Samuel said to Saul, ‘You have acted foolishly; you have not kept the commandment of the LORD your God, which He commanded you, for now
the LORD would have established your kingdom over Israel forever.
14 ‘But now your kingdom shall not endure. The LORD has sought out for
Himself a man after His own heart, and the LORD has appointed him as
ruler over His people, because you have not kept what the LORD commanded you.’”

Sometimes we just need to hurry! We see things that need attention, and
we simply attend to them. Sometimes, however, we get in a hurry and
become involved when we ought not to be.

Samuel had business elsewhere; but he set a time for his arrival and shared
the time with Saul. But, Samuel didn’t arrive when he told Saul he would. So,
Saul waited seven days and when he saw that Samuel had still not arrived,
he set about to offer the sacrifices that Samuel alone was qualified to offer.

When Samuel arrived and saw that Saul had offered a sacrifice on the altar,
he soundly rebuked him. Saul would probably have thought little of the rebuke,
except that Samuel said, “You have acted foolishly; you have not kept the
commandment of the LORD your God, which He commanded you, for now the LORD would have established your kingdom over Israel forever.”

We have absolutely no idea in the world what the LORD has in store for us,
His people. We just do what we “feel best” about doing. We even have a good
heart toward the LORD; but we “jump the gun” and lose the opportunity the
LORD had in store for us.

Oh, how often we do that in life! Remember David’s words in the Psalms:

“Wait for the LORD; be strong and let your heart take
courage; yes, wait for the LORD” (Psalm 27:14).

The LORD has a purpose for each of us, His children. His purposes always
exceed what we have in mind for ourselves. So, let Him be God in your life!
Everything will turn out better when the LORD is stearing the ship.

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,

1 John 3:4-8, “Everyone who practices sin also practices lawlessness;
and sin is lawlessness.
5 You know that He appeared in order to take away sins; and in Him
there is no sin.
6 No one who abides in Him sins; no one who sins has seen Him or
knows Him.
7 Little children, make sure no one deceives you; the one who practices righteousness is righteous, just as He is righteous;
8 the one who practices sin is of the devil; for the devil has sinned from
the beginning. The Son of God appeared for this purpose, to destroy the
works of the devil.”

There are no less than 495 biblical references to the word “law.” With that
many clear notations, it is a wonder that we cannot seem to understand
the meaning of the word or where violation of it ultimately leads.

Worse yet, knowing the meaning, we continue to ignore that “the wages of
sin is death” (Rom. 6:23) and that our personal involvement is what is called
“sin.”

The clear key that opens the way out of sin and its imprisonment is called
repentance – deep sorrow for our involvement in sin, along with the sure
determination to hereafter avoid sinning. Moreover, the closer we live to
God, the less involvement we will have with sin. As the verse above says,
“No one who abides in Him” keeps on sinning.

Our plea is “I just can’t help sinning.” Yet, the Scripture says it’s because
we do not consciously “abide in Him.” Keeping our eys on Jesus and
living and following closely with Him is the open secret to avoid sinning.
Read the Bible daily! Pray for understanding and yield your life to Jesus.
All of this is the key! His way is always the best! 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

Dear Grands,

Genesis 41:1, 8b, “And Pharaoh told them his dreams, but there was no one
who could interpret them… “Pharaoh had a dream… and he said to Joseph, “I have had a dream, but no one can interpret it; and I have heard it said about
you, that when you hear a dream you can interpret it.”
16 Joseph then answered Pharaoh, saying, “It is not in me; God will give
Pharaoh a favorable answer.”

Have you ever had a dream? Of course, you have. But, have you ever had a dream you couldn’t figure out? Maybe it was a silly, senseless kind of dream where you were walking around in a huge crowd, looking for, but never finding
the friends you sought.

Maybe it was one like one I had. I was invited to preach in this country church;
and I was seated on the front pew when I suddenly realized I had come all that way and forgotten my Bible! (Fortunately, I awoke before I got to the pulpit, so
no one ever knew! Whew! Great it was just a dream!)

In the text above, Pharaoh had a dream that none of his servants could interpret.
One of the servants, however, had knowledge of Joseph’s interpretation of
Dream (You see, both of them were at one time in Pharaoh’s prison; and it was
there that Joseph had interpreted a dream for this servant. He remembered
Joseph and Pharaoh had Joseph summoned from prison so he could interpret
Pharaoh’s dream.

“Joseph then answered Pharaoh, saying, ‘It is not in me; God will give Pharaoh a favorable answer.’” It was in that very moment that Joseph could have rehearsed
what he knew and taken credit for it. Yet, he refused to lie and gave Pharaoh a
truthful, humble answer.

It is not said that Joseph knew the answer to every dream. For all we know, he
only knew one: but he was careful to be humble and exalt the LORD as the One
who knows all the answers to everything! May the LORD help us to always be
humble about the things we know, and careful not to pretend we know everything!

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 Timothy 4:9-15, “Make every effort to come to me soon;
10 for Demas, having loved this present world, has deserted me and gone to
Thessalonica; Crescens has gone to Galatia, Titus to Dalmatia.
11 Only Luke is with me. Pick up Mark and bring him with you, for he is useful
to me for service.
12 But Tychicus I have sent to Ephesus.
13 When you come bring the cloak which I left at Troas with Carpus, and the
books, especially the parchments.
14 Alexander the coppersmith did me much harm; the Lord will repay him
according to his deeds.
15 Be on guard against him yourself, for he vigorously opposed our teaching.”

There are but three passages of Scripture that mention Demas: Colossians
4:14; Philemon 1:24; and II Timothy 4:10. The former two (Philemon and
Colossians) mention him in a good sense. Philemon sandwiches Demas
in between Mark, Aristarchus, and Luke. Mentioning him secondly seems to
Indicate that he was in good standing. Paul’s mention of him in Second Timothy,
however, is just that –a one-word mention! “Demas is here…”

Why do pastors fail? Why do evangelists fail? We fail when we take our eyes
off of Jesus. When we lose sight of Him, we lose sight of our calling. And we
lose sight of Him, when we “deep dive” into things that are not of our calling!

My late wife and I were members of a church in our “educational days.” Later,
long after we had left school and that church, they called a man whose sermons
were the most colossal, well-thought-out, brilliantly delivered messages I believe
I have ever heard to this very day! But, he had a problem that he evidently wouldn’t address, and today, he’s totally out of the ministry.

Pray for your pastor! Pray for your deacons! Pray for your Youth Directors! Just
don’t skip lightly over them when you pray. They need the LORD’s guidance; and
He has so designed things that when we pray, He acts! When we don’t, He doesn’t.
It’s all so designed that the LORD and His Family (the true Church) are to work
together. Design a Prayer List. Look at it when you pray. Keep those who teach
you in focus! They have the responsibility to teach you; you have the responsibility
to hold them up in serious prayer. Such will be good for us all to keep our name
early on His List!

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,

Colossians 3:2-11, “Set your mind on the things above, not on the things that are on earth.
3 For you have died and your life is hidden with Christ in God.
4 When Christ, who is our life, is revealed, then you also will be revealed with Him in glory.
5 Therefore consider the members of your earthly body as dead to immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and greed, which amounts to idolatry.
6 For it is because of these things that the wrath of God will come upon the sons of disobedience,
7 and in them you also once walked, when you were living in them.
8 But now you also, put them all aside: anger, wrath, malice, slander, and abusive speech from your mouth.
9 Do not lie to one another, since you laid aside the old self with its evil practices,
10 and have put on the new self who is being renewed to a true knowledge according to the image of the One who created him–
11 a renewal in which there is no distinction between Greek and Jew, circumcised and uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave and freeman, but Christ is all, and in all.”

Yes, this is a long passage. In the Scripture itself, it is longer still. The doctrinal section of the epistle is largely covered in the first and second chapters. The practical section (3:1-4:6) concerns the believer’s union with the LORD Jesus Christ, and how believers are to behave. If we are heavenly minded at all times, we will consistently live holy lives.

The greatest influence believers can possibly have on unbelievers is to live holy lives! The greatest hindrance to anyone’s trust in Christ is for believers to live as non-believers. Too
often we identify and speak forbidingly of the sins of the flesh, but find ourselves involved
in the very things we have spoken against. In other words, we have to be what we profess
if others are to seriously consider believing what we say about Jesus!

You and I may need to beg forgiveness for things we have said and done. If so, Jesus is
the first who should hear our confession. Once He has forgiven us, we need to ask
forgiveness from those who are aware of our sin. That can open doors for sharing the
Gospel with those who don’t know Him. Confession of sin, expressed to the Father, Himself strengthens the confessor. How strong are you right now?

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