The Grands Letter

Dear Grands,

1 Kings 8:33-36, “When Your people Israel are defeated before an enemy, because they have sinned against You, if they turn to You again and confess Your name and pray and make supplication to You in this house,

34 then hear in heaven, and forgive the sin of Your people Israel, and bring them back to the land which You gave to their fathers.

35 “When the heavens are shut up and there is no rain, because they have sinned against You, and they pray toward this place and confess Your name and turn from their sin when You afflict them,

36 then hear in heaven and forgive the sin of Your servants and of Your people Israel, indeed, teach them the good way in which they should walk. And send rain on Your land, which You have given Your people for an inheritance.”

The LORD has means for forgiving multiple sins. What’s more, He sincerely wants to forgive! Yet, despite His earnest desire to do so, we hinder Him by not confessing the sin. Yes, it often hurts to admit that we’ve been wrong. Wrong ideas, wrong speech, wrong thoughts, wrong actions – the list reaches far. Yet, too often we endeavor instead to excuse the sin we’ve committed on the faulty basis we’ve merely invented!

Read the Scripture listed at the start of this letter. Our LORD’s promise rests on our confession and prayer for forgiveness. Remember when as a child you did something wrong. Ultimately, you told your mother you were sorry and she smiled and said she forgave you and hoped you’d never commit that sin again. The sin was yours to confess; it was hers to forgive. So, it is with Christ.

The rain that was denied Israel because of her sin became abundantly plentiful once the sin was confessed and forgiven. It is the same with us. The LORD stands ready to forgive. Now, it our turn. Let’s delay it no longer. The blessing of forgiveness awaits us!

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