The Grands Letter

Dear Grands,

1 Chronicles 10:13-14, “So Saul died for his trespass which he committed

against the LORD, because of the word of the LORD which he did not keep;

and also because he asked counsel of a medium, making inquiry of it, 14 and

did not inquire of the LORD. Therefore, He killed him, and turned the kingdom

to David the son of Jesse.”

Genealogy is all about life and death. Everyone dies eventually. In fact, only

two men in Scripture –Enoch and Elijah— lived without dying. So, it is normal

as we come to the end of the genealogical listing in First Chronicles, mention

should be made of the death of the first king of Israel. As a young man, Saul

was handsome and shy. He was the LORD’s selection for Israel when the

people clamored to have a king like all the other nations. Saul did some good

things as king, but eventually he turned away from the LORD and did evil in

His sight. Two wrong things ultimately caused his death: 1) Saul did not keep

the Word of the LORD; and 2) he sought the counsel of a witch instead of

the counsel of the LORD. “Therefore, He (the LORD) killed him.” Pretty graphic.

What we are to learn is obvious: stay true to the Word of the LORD and

seek His counsel alone. The subtle teaching of this last verse is that the

LORD is always in control. Numerous things in my life did not go as I had

thought or planned. But later, I learned that the LORD had had something

better in mind. That helped me to trust Him for other things I could not

understand. And like those long before me said, “He has done all things

well…” (Mark 7:37 NAS).

We love you and pray for you every 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,

Psalm 97:10-12, “Hate evil, you who love the LORD,

Who preserves the souls of His godly ones;

He delivers them from the hand of the wicked.

11 Light is sown like seed for the righteous,

And gladness for the upright in heart.

12 Be glad in the LORD, you righteous ones;

And give thanks to His holy name.”

As I read this psalm this morning, I was mystified

by the statement that “Light is sown like seed

for the righteous.” Sowing see is not mysterious,

but sowing light certainly is! The Hebrew word

for “sow” ) ?????zara( means “to scatter.” Ah,

that gives some light on that word! Evil is always

signified by darkness. So, when we hate evil, the

LORD scatters light in our pathway, enabling us

to escape evil and live righteously and in gladness.

Think of how many times your reach for a light to

give understanding of where something is. We

would fall down stairs, run into walls, bump into

objects that are out of place unless we have light.

It’s virtually impossible to do anything without light.

Revelation 22:5 sums up everything having to do

with light when it says,

“And there shall no longer be any night; and they

shall not have need of the light of a lamp nor the

light of the sun, because the Lord God shall illumine

them; and they shall reign forever and ever.”

Surely, that’s reason enough for us to rejoice!

But living in His Light now will make our rejoicing

then even more glorious!

We pray for our LORD’s light on each of your lives,

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,

2 Kings 22:1-2, “Josiah was eight years old when he became king,

and he reigned thirty-one years in Jerusalem… 2 And he did right in

the sight of the LORD and walked in all the way of his father David,

nor did he turn aside to the right or to the left.”

Can you, in your wildest imagination, ever think of becoming President

of the United States at age eight? I doubt it. Josiah’s father, Amon,

did nothing but evil in the sight of the LORD, just as Amon’s father,

Manasseh, had done. If everything you saw of your father or grand-

fathers was evil, how would you know to do good?

It was in the course of repairing the House of the LORD that one of

the workers discovered a scroll of the Law. They took the scroll to

Josiah, who was then 26 years old, and he immediately gave orders

that Judah was to do a “turn around” in the way they lived and start

living for the LORD. Josiah and the nation of Judah changed course!

All of the pagan things they found, they destroyed. They even dug

up the bones of their ancestors, who did evil, and ground them to

powder and scattered them to the winds. Huge boulders that had

been used in pagan worship were smashed literally into dust. Josiah

erased all evil from the land of Judah!

At the end of his life, the LORD said of Josiah,

“And before him there was no king like him who

turned to the LORD with all his heart and with all

his soul and with all his might, according to all the

law of Moses; nor did any like him arise after him”

(2 Kings 23:25).

All that being said, Josiah was “not a patch” on the LORD Jesus Christ!

Christ, of course, is the Gold Standard for us. But, are we even now

In His sight what Josiah was? May God help us so to be! It all starts

with the Book!

We love and pray for each of you daily,

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,

2 Kings 19:19, “’And now, O LORD our God, I pray, deliver us

from his hand that all the kingdoms of the Earth may know that

Thou alone, O LORD, art God.’”

It was a devastating time! After a long list of kings that failed to

serve the LORD, Hezekiah had destroyed those “high places,”

where Israel had served pagan gods; he had restored the

worship of the LORD and done everything right in the eyes of

the LORD. Still, problems persisted. The Assyrians had defeated

every nation around them and now they threated Israel. When

Hezekiah sought the LORD, He assured him that the Assyrian

army would turn back, because He had put a rumor in the mind

of their leader that the Assyrians were in trouble at home.

The Assyrians returned to Assyria, but they hadn’t given up on

Israel. They sent a letter saying they were returning and would

devastate the Israelis! So, once again Hezekiah went before the

LORD in prayer. This time, the LORD, in a rather long reply, said

“I will defend this city to save it for My own sake and for My

Servant David’s sake.” That very night, and angel of the LORD

struck down 185,000 Assyrian soldiers! Israel was saved!

This historical account teaches us that the LORD is not limited in

what He can do. Hezekiah had lived for the LORD; now, the

LORD worked for Hezekiah. He does the same today for those

who live for Him and call upon Him in their hour of need.

May you ever live for Him, so that He may work 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.”

Dear Grands,

2 Kings 16:20, “So Ahaz slept with his fathers, and was buried

with his fathers in the city of David; and his son Hezekiah reigned

in his place.”

Reading through Second Kings is not always exciting. One after

another, kings died and were replaced with their sons, who died,

and were replaced with their sons. The one significant factor was

whether the incoming king of Israel and/or Judah, did what was

right in the sight of the LORD. Even the good kings, who honored

the LORD, far too often failed to “remove the high places,” where

the people served pagan deities.

My Dad was the finest, Christian man I have ever known. He was

honest and faithful in everything he undertook. I’ve always tried

to live the integritous life I saw in my Dad. Yet, I know my life has

often fallen short of what I witnessed in him. Try as I would, his

standard always exceeded my achievement. Isn’t that how we

all fail to measure up to the life of our LORD Jesus Christ? There

are those “high places” where we sacrifice to other gods. We

seek to justify our sin by measuring it against the spiritual good

that we do. But God doesn’t measure things that way. He wants

PERFECTION! And instead of yielding to His way and His power,

we seek to justify those “high places” in our devotion.

The Commandment that says, “Thou shalt not take the name of

the LORD Thy God in vain,” can be translated, “You shall not wear

the Name of the LORD disrespectfully” nor “carry it into disrepute.”

It’s more than not swearing; it’s the failure to live “to the praise of

His glory” (Eph. 1:12).

May the LORD enable each of us to live to His glory,

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.”