Archives For Discipleship

After the first 5 classes of my 15-week class on acceptable music for corporate worship, my students have learned specific Bible answers to each of the following 20 questions. How many of these questions are you able to answer?

  1. What 5 truths about the book of Psalms show us that music is important to God?
  2. What are the 9 periods that span all that the Bible teaches us about music?
  3. Does the Bible teach that Jubal invented the musical instruments that he played? Explain your answer.
  4. How do we know that music without words is not neutral or amoral? Discuss at least 2 passages that teach us this truth.
  5. Who is the most important human musician in Scripture? In what ways does Scripture stress his importance?
  6. What two passages teach us that human culture making activities are not guaranteed to produce things that are good just because the product was made from good things that God made? Explain how they teach us this vital truth.
  7. How does Scripture teach us that no musical instrument is inherently evil? Which book specifically teaches us this truth and how does it do so?
  8. Who is the earliest recorded person to command God’s people to sing to the Lord? What else is important about what this person did when this command was given?
  9. What are the four lengthy song texts that are in the first ten books of the Bible? What is one specific truth about God that all of these songs emphasize about Him?
  10. What passage teaches what a musical instrument is and what characteristics music that is ministered must have in order for it to be fit for ministry? Explain its teaching about both of these points.
  11. What key passage stresses that we cannot follow the practices of wicked people in what we do in worshiping God with music?
  12. What passage teaches us about the power of instrumental music to affect humans and angels? How does it teach us this truth?
  13. Why is Psalm 40:1-3 not the salvation testimony of a lost person who became a believer?
  14. Why is Genesis 1:20-21 important for our understanding of music?
  15. How do we know that music is not a human invention?
  16. What key passage commands us three times to use musical instruments in divine worship? What else does it teach about the use of musical instruments in worship?
  17. What key passage commands us five times to sing praise to God? Who is commanded to do so in this passage?
  18. Who are the four classes of living beings that Scripture records engage in musical activity? List one passage for each class that records such activity.
  19. What passage teaches us that demons influenced humans to produce unacceptable music for corporate worship? How does this passage teach us that demons played a role in what took place on this occasion?
  20. Why is rock music not acceptable music for corporate worship? What passages show us that it is an ungodly style of music?

 

Copyright © 2011-2025 by Rajesh Gandhi. All rights reserved.

Tim Fisher expresses well the importance of singing Scripture in worship:

We have departed so much from the Word of God and the instruction of Scripture that probably not one church in a hundred ever sings Scripture at all! What a shame, since the New Testament tells us specifically that we ought to be using Scripture in our worship songs (not just scriptural thought, but Scripture). The only church hymnals in existence until 100 years ago were either primarily or totally Scripture passages or paraphrases. Songs of “human composure” were not even allowed in public worship until the nineteenth century. How far have we departed from the biblical ideal in such a short time! I am not advocating a total return to the Psalters, but I am insisting upon some return to songs of Scripture.

The Battle for Christian Music, 46

 

Copyright © 2011-2025 by Rajesh Gandhi. All rights reserved.

The Psalmists address God with the vocative form “O” in at least 100 of the Psalms (>66%):

Ps. 3:3, 7; 4:1; 5:1, 3, 8, 10; 6:1ff; 7:1, 3, 6, 8; 8:1, 9; 9:1f, 13, 19f; [7]

10:1, 12; 12:7; 13:1, 3; 16:1; 17:1, 6f, 13f; 18:1, 15, 49; 19:14; [7]

21:1; 22:3, 19; 25:1, 4, 6f, 11, 22; 26:1f, 6; 27:7, 9, 11; 28:1; [6]

30:1ff, 8, 10, 12; 31:1, 5, 9, 14, 17; 33:22; 35:1, 22, 24; 36:5ff; 38:1, 15, 21f; 39:12; [7]

40:5, 9, 11, 13; 41:10; 42:1; 43:1, 4; 44:1, 4, 23; 45:6; 48:9f; [7]

51:1, 10, 14f, 17; 54:1f, 6; 55:1, 9, 23; 56:1f, 7, 12; 57:1, 5, 7, 9, 11; 58:6; 59:3, 5, 8, 11; [7]

60:1, 10; 61:1, 5; 62:12; 63:1; 64:1; 65:1f, 5; 66:10; 67:3, 5; 68:7, 9f, 24, 28, 35; 69:1, 5f, 13, 16, 29; [10]

70:1, 5; 71:1, 5, 12, 17ff, 22; 72:1; 73:20; 74:1, 10, 18, 22; 75:1; 76:6; 77:13, 16; 79:1, 9, 12; [9]

80:3f, 7, 14, 19; 82:8; 83:1, 16; 84:1, 3, 8f, 12; 85:4, 7; 86:1ff, 6, 8f, 11f, 14f; 88:1, 13; 89:5, 8, 15, 51; [8]

90:13; 92:5, 9; 93:3, 5; 94:1, 5, 12, 18; 97:8; 99:8; [6]

101:1; 102:1, 12; 104:1, 24; 106:4, 47; 108:1, 3, 5, 11; 109:1, 21, 26; [6]

115:1; 116:4, 16; 118:25; 119:12, 31, 33, 41, 52, 55, 57, 64f, 75, 89, 107f, 137, 145, 149, 151, 156, 159, 169, 174; [4]

120:2; 123:1, 3; 125:4; 126:4; [4]

130:1, 3; 132:8; 135:13; 137:7; 138:4, 8; 139:1, 4, 17, 19, 21, 23; [6]

140:1, 4, 6ff; 141:3, 8; 142:5; 143:1, 7, 9, 11; 144:5, 9; 145:10 [6]

These Psalms have 277 verses in which the Psalmist addresses God by saying, “O . . .” These vocatives for deity occur at least 295 times in the Psalms.

This data instructs us that Christian music used to worship God should regularly use the vocative form “O” to address God.

Copyright © 2011-2025 by Rajesh Gandhi. All rights reserved.

References to the house of God, both on the earth and in heaven, abound in the Psalms. Meditating on these statements highlights the importance of worship in the life a saint of God.

Psa 5:7 But as for me, I will come into thy house in the multitude of thy mercy: and in thy fear will I worship toward thy holy temple.

Psa 11:4 The LORD is in his holy temple, the LORD’S throne is in heaven: his eyes behold, his eyelids try, the children of men.

Psa 18:6 In my distress I called upon the LORD, and cried unto my God: he heard my voice out of his temple, and my cry came before him, even into his ears.

Psa 20:2 Send thee help from the sanctuary, and strengthen thee out of Zion;

Psa 23:6 Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life: and I will dwell in the house of the LORD for ever.

Psa 26:8 LORD, I have loved the habitation of thy house, and the place where thine honour dwelleth.

Psa 27:4 One thing have I desired of the LORD, that will I seek after; that I may dwell in the house of the LORD all the days of my life, to behold the beauty of the LORD, and to enquire in his temple.

Psa 29:9 The voice of the LORD maketh the hinds to calve, and discovereth the forests: and in his temple doth every one speak of his glory.

Psa 36:8 They shall be abundantly satisfied with the fatness of thy house; and thou shalt make them drink of the river of thy pleasures.

Psa 42:4 When I remember these things, I pour out my soul in me: for I had gone with the multitude, I went with them to the house of God, with the voice of joy and praise, with a multitude that kept holyday.

Psa 52:8 But I am like a green olive tree in the house of God: I trust in the mercy of God for ever and ever.

Psa 55:14 We took sweet counsel together, and walked unto the house of God in company.

Psa 63:2 To see thy power and thy glory, so as I have seen thee in the sanctuary.

Psa 65:4 Blessed is the man whom thou choosest, and causest to approach unto thee, that he may dwell in thy courts: we shall be satisfied with the goodness of thy house, even of thy holy temple.

Psa 66:13 I will go into thy house with burnt offerings: I will pay thee my vows,

Psa 68:24 They have seen thy goings, O God; even the goings of my God, my King, in the sanctuary.

Psa 73:17 Until I went into the sanctuary of God; then understood I their end.

Psa 74:3 Lift up thy feet unto the perpetual desolations; even all that the enemy hath done wickedly in the sanctuary.

7 They have cast fire into thy sanctuary, they have defiled by casting down the dwelling place of thy name to the ground.

Psa 77:13 Thy way, O God, is in the sanctuary: who is so great a God as our God?

Psa 78:54 And he brought them to the border of his sanctuary, even to this mountain, which his right hand had purchased.

69 And he built his sanctuary like high palaces, like the earth which he hath established for ever.

Psa 79:1 <A Psalm of Asaph.> O God, the heathen are come into thine inheritance; thy holy temple have they defiled; they have laid Jerusalem on heaps.

Psa 84:4 Blessed are they that dwell in thy house: they will be still praising thee. Selah.

Psa 92:13 Those that be planted in the house of the LORD shall flourish in the courts of our God.

Psa 96:6 Honour and majesty are before him: strength and beauty are in his sanctuary.

Psa 102:19 For he hath looked down from the height of his sanctuary; from heaven did the LORD behold the earth;

Psa 118:26 Blessed be he that cometh in the name of the LORD: we have blessed you out of the house of the LORD.

Psa 122:1 <A Song of degrees of David.> I was glad when they said unto me, Let us go into the house of the LORD.

9 Because of the house of the LORD our God I will seek thy good.

Psa 134:1 <A Song of degrees.> Behold, bless ye the LORD, all ye servants of the LORD, which by night stand in the house of the LORD.

2 Lift up your hands in the sanctuary, and bless the LORD.

Psa 135:2 Ye that stand in the house of the LORD, in the courts of the house of our God,

Psa 138:2 I will worship toward thy holy temple, and praise thy name for thy lovingkindness and for thy truth: for thou hast magnified thy word above all thy name.

Psa 150:1 Praise ye the LORD. Praise God in his sanctuary: praise him in the firmament of his power.

 

 

 

 

Copyright © 2011-2025 by Rajesh Gandhi. All rights reserved.

Lord willing, I will begin teaching a 15-week Bible college class Acceptable Music for Corporate Worship this Thursday! Through this class, I hope to disciple several Spanish students to know, understand, and do what the Bible teaches about this vital subject.

The students in this class will read the book of Psalms and La Batalla por La Música Cristiana, the Spanish translation of The Battle for Christian Music by Tim Fisher. They will memorize select passages about music, They will also write a paper on what the book of Psalms teaches about acceptable instrumental music for corporate worship.

I praise God for the opportunity to teach a college-level class on this subject!

Copyright © 2011-2025 by Rajesh Gandhi. All rights reserved.

After I was saved in 1990, I had an intense desire to read the Bible. Praise God, He has sustained that desire in me to this day in spite of my many struggles over the years.

So far, I have completed reading the Bible twice in three languages, English, biblical Greek, and Spanish. This post relates some highlights of my Bible reading in these languages.

Bible Reading in English

In my first year as a believer, I read the Bible through three times in English. Since then, I have read (or read and listened) to the entire Bible in English every year except for one year when I read the Bible through in Spanish.

In 2016, God led me to read the Bible through in 59 days, which was both very challenging and extremely profitable! This year, He directed me to do the same thing in 87 days. I am grateful to have been able to read the Bible twice each of these past two years.

Bible Reading in Biblical Greek

Over a period of a number of years, I read the entire Septaugint (canonical books only) and the Greek New Testament. After having done that, I was greatly blessed to read the entire Septuagint (canonical books only) and the Greek New Testament in 2011.

Reading the Bible in biblical Greek in one year was an immense privilege that I hope to have again in the future. The insights that God gave me into His Word through reading the Septuagint through in one year have proven to be extremely beneficial for my understanding of a number of key passages in the New Testament.

Bible Reading in Spanish

In 2014, God directed me to read the entire Reina Valera 1960 version of the Bible in Spanish. What began as incredibly hard task became much more manageable as the year progressed, praise God!

From 2014 to 2017, I have been reading the Bible in Spanish in both the Reina Valera and the La Biblia De Las Américas versions. I recently finished reading the whole Bible in the LBLA version so God has now enabled me to read the entire Bible at least twice in three different languages!

How I praise God for the glory of His Word and the matchless privilege of knowing Him through His inspired, inerrant, and infallible perfect revelation of Himself in His Word!

Copyright © 2011-2025 by Rajesh Gandhi. All rights reserved.

When 2017 began, I had no intention of trying to read through the Bible more than once in English. After finishing the Bible in English for the first time this year on July 10, my plan was to try to finish reading through the Bible in Spanish, which I had begun in 2016.

In September, however, it was arranged that I would teach (through an interpreter) a 15-week Bible class in a Spanish Bible college in Spring 2018. To prepare for that class on what the Bible teaches about acceptable music for corporate worship, I decided that I needed to read through the Bible again in the last three months of this year.

I began that second reading on October 1. I praise God that He empowered me to finish that second reading today—87 days after I had started!

Copyright © 2011-2025 by Rajesh Gandhi. All rights reserved.

Praise Glorious is a new hymnal supplement that my church Mount Calvary Baptist produced this year! I am very grateful that it includes my first published hymn O Sinner, Hear!, a song that I wrote more than 10 years ago.

This hymn has been sung in several churches, including as a special at my church. The hymn highlights how God wants all mankind to hear His urgent message to repent and turn to Him because He has fixed a day in which He will judge the world in righteousness through the Man whom He raised from the dead and has appointed to be the Judge of the living and the dead (Acts 10:42; 17:30-31).

Copyright © 2011-2025 by Rajesh Gandhi. All rights reserved.

Adult Beginning Guitar Class!

December 16, 2017

Lord willing, I will be teaching an adult beginning guitar class for Majesty Music Academy in Spring 2018. If you know of anyone in the Greenville, SC area who might be interested in learning guitar by enrolling in a guitar class, please let them know about this opportunity.

Copyright © 2011-2025 by Rajesh Gandhi. All rights reserved.

I wonder how many believers may have “desensitized” their inner man to one degree or another to the awe that God wants them to have about the true supernatural works of Jesus and other servants of God because they have filled their minds with fictitious accounts and images of imaginary “superheroes.” Has immersion in fictitious superhero accounts hurt many believers?

Copyright © 2011-2025 by Rajesh Gandhi. All rights reserved.