The Grands Letter

Dear Grands,

Job 5:2-13, “For anger slays the foolish man, and jealousy kills the simple.

3 I have seen the foolish taking root, and I cursed his abode immediately.

4 His sons are far from safety, they are even oppressed in the gate, and there is no deliverer.

5 His harvest the hungry devour and take it to a place of thorns, and the schemer is eager for their wealth.

6 For affliction does not come from the dust, nor does trouble sprout from the ground,

7 For man is born for trouble, as sparks fly upward.

8 “But as for me, I would seek God, and I would place my cause before God;

9 Who does great and unsearchable things, wonders without number.

10 He gives rain on the earth and sends water on the fields,

11 So that He sets on high those who are lowly, and those who mourn are lifted to safety.

12 He frustrates the plotting of the shrewd, so that their hands cannot attain success.

13 He captures the wise by their own shrewdness, and the advice of the cunning is quickly thwarted.”

Anger and jealousy are killers! What’s more, these attitudes have a disastrous effect upon others in addition to a reciprocal effect upon the foolish one from whom they come. Such attitudes often threaten safety, even the safety of those from whom the malevolence originates. Affliction does not come out of nowhere; it originates from those associated with an intentionally bad attitude.

What avenue of escape is open to one who, in anger, has demonstrated a bad attitude? There is but one who owns and operates with a thoroughly righteous temperament and all-sufficient power: the LORD God! Regardless of the nature of the confrontation, He alone is sufficient to end the crisis. “He frustrates the plotting of the shrewd,” and “captures the wise by their own shrewdness.”

All of this is to say that there is never a situation the LORD cannot handle. He can avert evil, regardless of its dimension or its intensity. He can extricate the innocent from the malevolent hand of the aggressor. No innocent child of His need ever worry. He is ever and always in control. He has a plan that includes each of His own. The key to His protection is belonging to His Family. Do you belong? Do you know others who need to belong? Now is the time for recruiting them.

Heartily in Christ,

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