The Grands Letter

Dear Grands,

Acts 1:9, “And after He had said these things,

He was lifted up while they were looking on,

and a cloud received Him out of their sight.”

What do you do when the one upon whom

you have been dependent is no longer there?

In my lifetime, I have lost four grandparents,

two parents, four uncles, four aunts, and two

cousins. Obviously, my parents and grandparents

influenced my life more than the others; yet, to

some degree, each of them had an impact upon

my life.

Jesus impacted the lives of His disciples beyond all

their relatives. But, now He was gone. What are

they to do? They returned to “the upper room where

they were staying…and devoted themselves

to prayer…” That’s what all true believers do when

they find themselves bereft of their leader. True,

born-again believers are never alone. They must,

however, transfer their dependence to the LORD.

Where is your dependence? Is it upon parents,

grandparents, uncles, aunts, cousins, friends? All

of them will one day be gone. Learn today to be

totally and utterly dependent upon the LORD for all

your needs. He never fails!

Lovingly and prayerfully yours,

Nana & Dado III

Gene L. Jeffries, Th.D.

Springdale, Arkansas

“We never know that God is all we need

until He becomes all that we have.”

Dear Grands,

John 19:14-15, “Now it was the day of preparation for the Passover;

it was about the sixth hour. And he said to the Jews, ‘Behold, your King!’

15 They therefore cried out, ‘Away with Him, away with Him, crucify Him!’

Pilate said to them, ‘Shall I crucify your King?’ The chief priests answered,

‘We have no king but Caesar.’”

Mob rule is nothing new. A police officer in St. Louis shot and killed a

man. A judge found the officer innocent and released him. Crowds

gathered in the street and began to demonstrate against the officer

and the judge who released him. The mob’s “evidence” was that the

officer was white and the man he killed was black. Justice was not

the crowd’s concern; getting their way is what it’s all about.

The mob in Jesus’ day was stirred up by the Jews, who wanted Jesus

dead. Simon Peter tells us that Pilate “had decided to release Him”

(Acts 3:13), but the crowd was determined to “put to death the

Prince of life…” (3:15). “Pilate made efforts to release Him, but the

Jews cried out… ‘If you release this Man, you are no friend of Caesar…’”

(Jn. 19:12). It was all a matter of authority. Pilate was correct in his

determination, but the people’s mention of Caesar turned everything

in their favor. Jesus had earlier said to Pilate, “…he who delivered Me

up to you has the greater sin.” Although all of this was within the LORD’s

plan leading to the Cross and the redemption of those who would

believe on Jesus, it nevertheless bodes ill for the crowd, who wanted

death instead of justice. Opposition to injustice is not wrong; but

yelling and screaming in the streets is not the proper method for

opposing it. An out-of-control crowd is a self-authoritative exercise.

We love your each and every one,

Nana & Dado III

Gene L. Jeffries, Th.D.

Springdale, Arkansas

“We never know that God is all we need

until He becomes all that we have.”

Dear Grands,

John 14:1-3, “Let not your heart be troubled; believe in God, believe also in Me.

2 “In My Father’s house are many dwelling places; if it were not so, I would have

told you; for I go to prepare a place for you. 3 “And if I go and prepare a place for

you, I will come again, and receive you to Myself; that where I am, there you may

be also.”

There’s a piece in the news today regarding a man who believes that

the 23RD of September –next week—will be the end of the world. He

bases his theory on some Scripture and on a “Planet X,” which NASA

says is does not exist. This is not the first prediction of the end of the

world; and it is not likely to be the last. But what drives a person to

be interested in the end of the world? Fear, uncertainty, frustration

and more are surely at the heart of it. Yet, the LORD is using this

fear in this man to awaken mankind to the Scriptures and the need

of salvation. Be sure of this: the existence of world is winding down.

Great catastrophe is coming! –but not from a “Planet X.” Jesus is

Coming! And that should joyfully excite all of us, who are prepared

to meet Him. He has gone to prepare Heaven for us, and He promises

to Come for us when that construction is completed. This is Good

News, but only to those who are prepared to meet Him. What about

those who are not prepared to meet Him? Well, that is our job to

share His Good News with them. Don’t get excited about predictions

of the world’s end. Just get excited that you belong to Him because

you trust in Him as your LORD and Savior. And don’t forget to tell

others.

We love you and pray for you every, single day,

Nana & Dado III

Gene L. Jeffries, Th.D.

Springdale, Arkansas

“We never know that God is all we need

until He becomes all that we have.”

Dear Grands,

John 14:10, “Do you not believe that I am in the Father,

and the Father is in Me? The words that I say to you I do

not speak on My own initiative, but the Father abiding in

Me does His works.”

Did you ever just blurt out something and then ask yourself,

“Why on Earth did I say that?” I’m sure we all have. And

more often than not we then seek to justify having said it

for some obscure reason. Believe me when I say that

Satan often pushes us to say things that we later regret.

But the LORD also often speaks through us, so that while

we don’t regret what we said, we’re a bit puzzled as to

where it had come from.

If what we say in such situations is right and good, we

can safely assume that the LORD has put those words

into us. Look at Jesus. He said, “The words that I say

to you I do not speak on My own initiative, but the

Father abiding in Me does His works.” When we walk

with the LORD every day and think about Him instead

of ugly and useless things, He uses us to speak to others

on His behalf. Knowing that what we have spoken was

of Him gives us a warm and good feeling.

Love and prayers always,

Nana & Dado III

Gene L. Jeffries, Th.D.

Springdale, Arkansas

“We never know that God is all we need

until He becomes all that we have.”

Dear Grands,

John 12:12-13, “On the next day the great multitude who had come to the feast,

when they heard that Jesus was coming to Jerusalem, 13 took the branches of

the palm trees, and went out to meet Him, and began to cry out, ‘Hosanna!

Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord, even the King of Israel.’”

I selected these two verses primarily because of the word “Hosanna.”

It means “LORD, save us.” This is the word the nations of today’s world

need to be crying out to Jesus! Virtually every nation on Earth today is

in some kind of trouble. If the world map were a dart board, it would

be impossible to throw a dart at the board without hitting a nation that

is in difficulty. The Jews who cried “Hosanna!” knew their difficulty.

Their nation’s rulers were corrupt, their spiritual leaders were corrupt,

and they had no one to whom they could turn except Jesus. It was

interesting to see how many suffering the devastations of “Harvey”

and “Irma” spoke of the LORD. They could well have appropriated

Simon Peter’s words, “LORD, to whom shall we go? You have the words

of eternal life” (Jn. 6:68). Our world’s hope lies only in Jesus Christ!

Our government is not the solution. Our academic institutions are not

the solution. Our finances are not the solution. Our religions are not

the solution. Only Jesus Christ is the solution! What He says in His

Word–in Holy Scripture—concerning End Times, is swiftly coming to

pass in our own day.

“Only one life; it will soon be past;

Only what’s done for Christ will last.”

Please pray for Michael Rudd, a young man who knows he needs the LORD!

We love and pray for you,

Nana & Dado III

Gene L. Jeffries, Th.D.

Springdale, Arkansas

“We never know that God is all we need

until He becomes all that we have.”