The Grands Letter

Dear Grands,

Habakkuk 1:2-11, “How long, O LORD, will I call for help, and Thou wilt not hear? I cry out to Thee, ‘Violence!’ Yet Thou dost not save.

3 Why dost Thou make me see iniquity, and cause me to look on wickedness? Yes, destruction and violence are before me; strife exists and contention arises.

4 Therefore, the law is ignored and justice is never upheld. For the wicked surround the righteous; therefore, justice comes out perverted.

5 “Look among the nations! Observe! Be astonished! Wonder! Because I am doing something in your days—you would not believe if you were told.

6 “For behold, I am raising up the Chaldeans, that fierce and impetuous people who march throughout the earth to seize dwelling places which are not theirs.

7 “They are dreaded and feared. Their justice and authority originate with themselves…

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9 “All of them come for violence… They collect captives like sand.

10 “They mock at kings, and rulers are a laughing matter to them. They laugh at every fortress, and heap up rubble to capture it.

11 “Then they will sweep through like the wind and pass on. But they will be held guilty, they whose strength is their god.”

How often have you observed wrong being tolerated by society? Authorities know, but nothing is being done to prevent it! This is the cry of Habakkuk. He sees wrong being ignored, just as we observe it in our time. People are laughing at the authorities! What’s to be done? Something will be! Habakkuk says, “…they will be held guilty, they whose strength is their god.”

How often we observe the same in our time! We must do what we can, yet we must ultimately trust the LORD to control every situation. Prayer is always vital!

Heartily in Christ Jesus,

(Dado III)

Gene L. Jeffries, Th.D.

United States of America

“We will never know that Christ is all we need

until He becomes all that we have.”

– Corrie ten Boom

Dear Grands,

Nahum 1:1-7, “The book of the vision of Nahum the Elkoshite.

2 A jealous and avenging God is the LORD; the LORD is avenging and wrathful. The LORD takes vengeance on His adversaries, and He reserves wrath for His enemies.

3 The LORD is slow to anger and great in power; and the LORD will by no means leave the guilty unpunished. In whirlwind and storm is His way, and clouds are the dust beneath His feet.

4 He rebukes the sea and makes it dry; He dries up all the rivers. Bashan and Carmel wither; the blossoms of Lebanon wither.

5 Mountains quake because of Him, and the hills dissolve; indeed, the earth is upheaved by His presence, the world and all the inhabitants in it.

6 Who can stand before His indignation? Who can endure the burning of His anger? His wrath is poured out like fire, And the rocks are broken up by Him.

7 The LORD is good, a stronghold in the day of trouble, and He knows those who take refuge in Him.”

Nahum was a native of Galilee. His contemporaries were Hezekiah and Isaiah. When Assyria invaded Galilee, Nahum escaped to Judah, taking up residence in Jerusalem.

The theme of the book of Nahum is the destruction of Nineveh. It was written some 150 years following Jonah’s mission to Nineveh – a city that had known only violence and cruelty and was to be doomed in a similar manner.

“Behold, I am against you,” declares the LORD of hosts; “and I will lift up your skirts over your face and show to the nations your nakedness and to the kingdoms your disgrace.”

What the LORD declared He will do with Nineveh is a solemn warning. The LORD is capable of doing precisely that with all of those who follow their own inclinations instead of allowing Him to be the Director of their lives and their nation. Borrowing a saying of my maternal grandmother, “They had better watch their p’s and q’s.” And so had we!

Heartily in Christ Jesus,

(Dado III)

Gene L. Jeffries, Th.D.

United States of America

“We will never know that Christ is all we need

until He becomes all that we have.”

– Corrie ten Boom