The Grands Letter

Dear Grands,

Matthew 6:1-4 “Beware of practicing your righteousness before men to be noticed by them;

otherwise you have no reward with your Father who is in heaven.

2 “When therefore you give alms, do not sound a trumpet before you, as the hypocrites do

in the synagogues and in the streets, that they may be honored by men. Truly I say to you,

they have their reward in full.

3 “But when you give alms, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing

4 that your alms may be in secret; and your Father who sees in secret will repay you.”

The word Gospel means “Good News.” Sometimes we believers refer to “the four Gospels.”

Actually, there is just one “Good News,” and that’s about Jesus Christ coming into the world

and dying on the cross for our sins. Yet, there’s more! He arose from the grave and was

received again into Heaven from where He had come. Yet, when we say “four Gospels,”

we’re referring to Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John –the four accounts of the Gospel.

Matthew was written to the Jews; Mark was written to the Romans, Luke, to the Greeks,

and John, to the Church.

Matthew warns us to beware of our motivations as we share this Good News. Some people

know more than other people in some matters. But when we flaunt our knowledge so that

people will look up to us and give us praise, we are doing wrong. Jesus is the one who died

for us and arose from the grave. He alone is worthy of man’s praise!

I seriously doubt that anyone reading this letter ever literally blew a trumpet when they dropped

money in the offering plate. But they might have said, “Whew! I don’t know how I’m going to

make it through this next week. Do you know how much I gave to the LORD this morning?”

The LORD tells us to give quietly. Here’s how: put your money in an envelope, and if you

Indicate on the envelope how much you have given, drop the envelope into the offering

plate UPSIDE DOWN! That’s what the Word means when it says not to let your left hand

know what the right hand is doing.

Here is what’s really important: The LORD sees what you’ve given, and He also knows how

much you have left! (He can read through envelopes!) We are to do what we do quietly, and

He promises to reward us. There is much that I could saw in support of His rewards, but it

can be summed up in this: You cannot out give God! He has given His Son; and the Son is

the Savior of the World. We have nothing of which to be proud –nothing except Jesus!

Heartily in Christ Jesus,

(Dado III)

Gene L. Jeffries, Th.D.

Springdale, Arkansas 72764

United States of America

“We never know that God is all we need

until He becomes all that we have.”

Dear Grands,

Colossians 3:5-10, “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 on account of these things that the wrath of God will come,

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…”

There’s a little rhyme that came to mind as I loaded the six verses above:

I don’t smoke

And I don’t chew;

And I don’t go with

Girls that do.

The intimation of that verse is that all bad stuff has been emptied from the author’s lifestyle. But how does that rhyme

connect with the biblical verses above? Hang on, and I think you soon see it.

Paul urges the Colossian believers to “consider the members of (their) earthly bod(ies) as dead to immorality,

Impurity, passion evil desire, and greed. Those are the elements of evil that perished simultaneously with their coming to faith in the LORD Jesus Christ. That’s the “heavy stuff,” and its all gone under the Blood of Christ. Forgiven. Forever.

But that’s not the end of the fight with the flesh. The six sins noted in verses 8 and 9 are not so easily dismissed.

Have you noted that? Anger (orge, impulsive wrath), wrath (thumos, rage), malice (kakia, wickedness), slander (blasphemia, blasphemy), abusive speech ((aischrologia), and lying (pseudomai) false speech) –all of these creep back into our lives and explode in unexpected moments. They may not dominate our daily lives, but they exist; and it’s their existence that ruins our testimony for Jesus Christ.

I won’t go so far as to say that lost, unregenerate people are “spying” on us as believers. But to some extent they are. We’re the ones they know as “Christians” (little Christs, as it were). We lay claim to being different; and when we are at our best, we are different. But in moments of tension, when we say or do something that is less than it ought to be, the ones who need our witness and need Jesus Christ, lose hope in Him, as they lose hope in us.

We must always be on guard! We must always be truthful! We must always be aware of Satan, who ensnares us and drags down our good words and works. Live in the Word of God! Live in earnest prayer that He will enable you to stand strong and forthright in the “faith once delivered to the saints.” God bless you abundantly! I pray for you daily!

Please keep me in your prayers.

Heartily in Christ Jesus,

(Dado III)

Gene L. Jeffries, Th.D.

Springdale, Arkansas 72764

United States of America

“We never know that God is all we need

until He becomes all that we have.”

Dear Grands,

Daniel 1:8, “But Daniel made up his mind that he would not defile himself with the king’s choice food or with the wine which he drank; so he sought permission from the commander of the officials that he might not defile himself.

Daniel 5:17, “Then Daniel answered and said before the king, ‘Keep your gifts for yourself, or give your rewards to someone else; however, I will read the inscription to the king and make the interpretation known to him.’”

Daniel was somewhere in his early teens (12-15) when Nebuchadnezzar conquered Judah and took him and his three friends captive. As a young Hebrew, he took quick charge of his own mind and life and determined that he would not bow to the gods of the Babylonians or anyone else. To do so would be to defile himself before his God. His three friends also determined the same for their lives.

Daniel’s experience in relating Nebuchadnezzar’s dream and its interpretation was his first recorded miracle. Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego were delivered alive after being thrown into the overlly heated firey furnace. At the same time, Nebuchadnezzar saw a fourth person in the midst of the fire, one he himself identified as a “son of the gods.”

Later on, Daniel was cast into the lions’ den overnight and delivered alive the next morning. All of these experiences allowed him the boldness in addressing Belshazzar for his sin against Almighty God, even saying, “Keep your gifts for yourself, or give your rewards to somone else…” This biting response could quite easily be understood as Daniel’s

spiritual frustration. When will you people ever learn that you cannot sin against Almighty God and get away with it? That very night Belshazzar was slain, and his kingdom was given to another.

The thrust of my intention in all of this is to demonstrate that when we start out humbly, but in faith, and stick faithfully with the LORD, we build boldness within ourselves over time. I can say things now that I would never have dared to say when I was in my early teens. You can build this in your life as well. Be humble before the LORD, but be bold when speaking of Him to others. Daniel is a model we would all do well to follow. God bless you as you follow Him.

Heartily in Christ Jesus,

(Dado III)

Gene L. Jeffries, Th.D.

Springdale, Arkansas 72764

United States of America

“We never know that God is all we need

until He becomes all that we have.”

Dear Grands,

Numbers 32:23b, “…if you will not do so, behold, you have sinned against the LORD,

and be sure your sin will find you out.”

Belshazzar, King of Babylon (Daniel 5), is having feast with a thousand of his lords. They were eating and

drinking, when the thought pierced the king’s mind. Bring the sacred vessels, vessels that King Nebuchadnezzar

had brought from Judea, when he conquered it and took captive Daniel and his three Hebrew friends. It was an

undeniable effort to mock and deride the LORD God of the Hebrew people. That’s when the mysterious hand

appeared and wrote on the wall. The merryment of the partyers suspended immediately, and Belshazzar’s knees

began to knock from the fear that blanketed them all.

Daniel, who had previously possessed the LORD’s knowledge in such matters, was immediately summoned to

give meaning to what the mysterious hand had written. Belshazzar promised Daniel valuable rewards if he would

but share the meaning of what the hand had written. Interestingly enough, Daniel launched into an historical description of the penalty Nebuchadnezzar received for his failure to honor and believe the LORD (vv 18-21). That being done, Daniel boldly excoriated Belshazzar for his sacreligous attitude toward the LORD God (vv. 22-24).

The meaning of the writing on the wall consisted of three word, one of which was repeated: “MENE” says, “God

has numbered your kingdom and put an end to it.” “TEKEL” says, “You have been weighed on the scales and

found deficient.” “UPHARSIN” and “PERES” are virtually the same, meaning “Your kingdom has been divided and

handed over to the Medes and Persians.” In short, Belshazzar, you’re done! And in that same night, Belshazzar

was killed, and Darius the Mede took over the kingdom.

All of this supports our key verse for this letter: when you sin against the LORD, “…be sure your sin will find you out.”

None of this Old Testament account was lost on the Apostle Paul, who wrote: “It is a terrifying thing to fall into the

hands of the living God” (Heb. 10:31). When our lives are spiritually clean before the LORD, we can, in His strength,

stand and bear witness before kings. When they are not, we are open to destruction at His command.

Heartily in Christ Jesus,

(Dado III)

Gene L. Jeffries, Th.D.

Springdale, Arkansas 72764

United States of America

“We never know that God is all we need

until He becomes all that we have.”

Dear Grands,

Daniel 6:3, 5-7, “…Daniel began distinguishing himself among the commissioners and satraps because he possessed an extraordinary spirit, and the king planned to appoint him over the entire kingdom… Then these men said, ‘We shall not find any ground of accusation against this Daniel unless we find it against him with regard to the law of his God.’

6 Then these commissioners and satraps came by agreement to the king and spoke to him as follows: ‘King Darius, live forever! 7All the commissioners of the kingdom, the prefects and the satraps, the high officials and the governors have consulted together that the king should establish a statute and enforce an injunction that anyone who makes a petition to any god or man besides you, O king, for thirty days, shall be cast into the lions’ den.’”

One of the supreme difficulties in any endeavor is determining who is in charge! It’s not unusual, however, for a king to elevate someone beneath him as a viceroy, or second-in-command. Further, it is usually a quiet, intelligent person, who has not “bucked” for the position. Daniel was just such a man. It is not-at-all difficult to see why King Darius would have selected him. But, there was opposition.

The spiritually exciting aspect of this plot is that the plotters could find nothing against Daniel himself, but were forced to seek something negative about Daniel’s God. The probability of that is a double negative!

It’s interesting that Daniel’s opposition references him by his Hebrew name rather than by his Babylonian name, Belteshazzar. There are slurs cast at him, such as “this Daniel” and “his God.” Still, Daniel’s enemies could not deny

his integrity or his devotion to the LORD his God. So, they plotted against him, using King Darius and the Medo-Persian law. Whether “all the commissioners…prefects and…satraps (a subordinate ruler) had agreed to this plot is not known; however, that is how the situation was presented to Darius, the king. Whatever concealed this clumsy plot from Darius himself is beyond belief! What veiled his eyes from such nefarious action must remain a mystery.

Oh, there’s more to this – much more! But for now, we must see that whenever the LORD puts us into a situations of

leadership, there will be opposition. There’s an old song that envisions the Noahic flood that says, “I’d rather be on the

inside lookin’ out, than to be on the outside lookin’ in.” It equally applies to Daniel. Leave the others to their schemes; Daniel’s focus is ever on the LORD.

Heartily in Christ Jesus,

(Dado III)

Gene L. Jeffries, Th.D.

Springdale, Arkansas 72764

United States of America

“We never know that God is all we need

until He becomes all that we have.”