As part of my preparation for teaching Sunday school on January 24 and 31 (Lord willing), I am trying to read as much of select parts of the Bible as I can. So far, I have read 258 chapters in 10 days, which is the best start that I have ever had for reading the Bible in a year, praise God!
Copyright © 2011-2024 by Rajesh Gandhi. All rights reserved.
It is a very sad reality that many people in the world suffer greatly because they are poor. Three Scriptural statements provide these many millions of poor people with crucial revelation that they desperately need.
In three successive chapters in Proverbs, God sets forth three truths that go contrary to the thinking and practice of many of the people in the world today. By giving attention to these words from God, they will have essential truth that they need to have God’s mind about being poor.
Given the opportunity to do so, some people lie to try to get out of their poverty. Some provide false information to governmental authorities in order to get assistance for which they would not otherwise qualify or the amounts that they would receive would be substantially reduced were they to tell the truth about their situation.
People cheat on their tax returns in order not to pay as much taxes as they should. By doing so, they seek to have more money than they would were they to be truthful about their finances.
Contrary to the thinking and practice of all such people, Scripture declares,
A poor man is better than a liar (Prov. 19:22).
Because God teaches that it is better to be poor than to be a liar, everyone who does deceitful things to get wealth shows that he does not have God’s mind about being poor.
By faith and trust in God, every poor person should be truthful. They should not lie to try to escape their poverty. Showing that they fear God, they should commit themselves to God to take care of them.
Many people obtain material goods and money through deceitful means. Because they temporarily enjoy the fruit of their lies, they think that what they have done is justified by the sweetness of what they obtain through their falsehoods.
God warns such people,
Bread of deceit is sweet to a man; but afterwards his mouth shall be filled with gravel (Prov. 20:17).
No matter how appealing it may be to acquire and enjoy things through lying that you otherwise would not be able to have, God wants us to be certain that the ultimate consequence of such actions will not be sweet. By faith in God, people who are poor must reject opportunities to get things and wealth through deceitful ways.
Poor people are often tempted to think that they need to lie in order to change the sad realities of their circumstances. Such people must heed what God says about such wrong attempts to acquire wealth:
The getting of treasures by a lying tongue is a vanity tossed to and fro of them that seek death (Prov. 21:6).
God teaches that people who lie to get treasures are actually pursuing death even while they think they are trying to improve their lives by their dishonest acquisitions. Poor people must take God’s viewpoint and reject such fatal seeking of wealth!
God cares so much about all human beings that He has provided us with these (and many other) key truths so that we will have His mind about being poor. God wants all people, including poor people, to put their faith in Him by being truthful and honest in all their ways at all times.
Do you have God’s mind about being poor?
Copyright © 2011-2024 by Rajesh Gandhi. All rights reserved.
Jesus of Nazareth was the greatest preacher who has ever lived. Matthew 5-7 provides the lengthiest record of any of His sermons.
The Holy Spirit has bracketed that record with these four statements:
Mat 5:1 And seeing the multitudes, he went up into a mountain: and when he was set, his disciples came unto him:
2 And he opened his mouth, and taught them, saying,
Mat 7:28 And it came to pass, when Jesus had ended these sayings, the people were astonished at his doctrine:
29 For he taught them as one having authority, and not as the scribes.
These divinely inspired words reveal that the greatest sermon of the greatest preacher who has ever lived was foremost an instance of His authoritatively teaching His audience! Based on this evidence, we must conclude that excellence in preaching first of all concerns the nature of the teaching that a preacher provides to his hearers.
We must also be careful about making dichotomous statements about preaching versus teaching, as if the two were sharply distinct. Because Matthew 5-7 shows that excellent preaching essentially includes authoritative teaching that instructs people in doctrine, we must not make statements that downplay the importance of the teaching that a preacher provides when he preaches.
Copyright © 2011-2024 by Rajesh Gandhi. All rights reserved.
I praise the Lord that He enabled me to read the whole Bible in English this year and the NT in Spanish!
Since I was saved in January 1990, I have now made it through the Bible in English (27x; at least once every year except 2014 because I read the Bible through in Spanish that year), Greek (2x; the first time over a period of a number of years and the second time in one year), and Spanish (1x in 2014).
I would like to read through the Bible in both English and Spanish in 2016. Because that may not yet be an attainable goal for my Bible reading in a year, I’m not sure which direction I will go at this time (reading through in English or Spanish).
As the Lord allows, I eagerly anticipate reading through His Word in 2016!
Copyright © 2011-2024 by Rajesh Gandhi. All rights reserved.
In my last post, I treated three reasons why cremation is unbiblical. A striking statement about Joseph in Hebrews 11 provides additional conclusive evidence for the case against cremation.
As he neared death, Joseph communicated his full assurance that God would fulfill His promises to His people about bringing them out of Egypt and into the land that He had promised to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob (Gen. 50:24). Joseph then made the Israelites take an oath that they would carry his bones with them out from Egypt (Gen. 50:25).
By giving this charge to his own, Joseph displayed that he valued highly what would become of his bones after he had died. Not only did he not want his body to be cremated so that it would be reduced to ashes, but also he cared about where his remains would be buried.
Joseph wanted his bones to be buried in the Promised Land into which he was certain that God would one day lead His people. Was Joseph’s desire concerning his bones simply a manifestation of a cultural practice of his time or was it a display of something far greater?
When Moses led the Israelites out of Egypt, he obeyed Joseph’s charge by taking his bones with them (Exod. 13:19). The children of Israel later finally fully fulfilled the wishes of Joseph when they buried his bones in a parcel of ground in Shechem, which parcel “became the inheritance of the children of Joseph (Josh. 24:32).
The OT Scriptural record of Joseph’s charge and the Israelites full obedience to that charge shows that God has wanted all His people who have ever received His Word to know what Joseph ordained concerning his bones and what ultimately happened to them. Does this Scriptural record merely relate the fulfillment of self-chosen instructions given by a powerful Israelite leader who was following the cultural customs of his time or is the record intended by God to communicate something of far greater importance?
The writer of Hebrews explicitly commends Joseph to NT believers as one who “obtained a good report through faith” (Heb. 11:39). Considering all that Scripture reveals about Joseph that is commendable, it is highly instructive that the explicit commendation given concerning Joseph in this key NT passage concerns the very charge that we read of twice in preceding Scripture:
Heb 11:22 By faith Joseph, when he died, made mention of the departing of the children of Israel; and gave commandment concerning his bones.
God thus highlights that Joseph’s giving the charge that he did concerning his bones was the exemplary manifestation of his faith in God that God wants to call to the attention of all Christians! God’s commendation of Joseph’s believing desires that his bones be buried in the Promised Land shows that what he did was not just a record of a powerful Israelite following his own wishes in keeping with a cultural custom of his people and time.
Joseph wanted his bones to be buried—not cremated, and his wanting to do so was a vital expression of his faith in the promises of God. All Christians must likewise display their faith in God by seeking to have their bodies buried when they die.
The Scriptural record concerning Joseph’s charge about his bones powerfully argues against any legitimacy of cremation for God’s people. Christians must not cremate their own!
Copyright © 2011-2024 by Rajesh Gandhi. All rights reserved.
Many biblical facts show why cremation is unbiblical. This post examines three reasons why cremation is unbiblical.
The OT does not record a single instance of God’s people cremating one of their own instead of burying him. Although it does have one passage that relates when some Israelites burned the bodies of some of their people when they died, a close examination of that account shows that it does not support cremation at all.
First Samuel 31 records the tragic end of the lives of king Saul and his three sons. When the Philistines decapitated them and fastened their bodies to a wall (1 Sam. 31:7-10), some inhabitants of Jabesh Gilead heard what had taken place and valiantly acted to attend properly to their bodies:
1Sa 31:11 And when the inhabitants of Jabeshgilead heard of that which the Philistines had done to Saul;
12 All the valiant men arose, and went all night, and took the body of Saul and the bodies of his sons from the wall of Bethshan, and came to Jabesh, and burnt them there.
Scripture provides no explanation for why these men burned the bodies of Saul and his sons. Regardless of why they did so, they did not cremate their bodies instead of burying them, as the next verse plainly states:
13 And they took their bones, and buried them under a tree at Jabesh, and fasted seven days.
This key statement reveals that the men did not burn the bodies of Saul and his sons until they became ashes and then dispose of the ashes in whatever way they thought was acceptable. Rather, they burned the bodies in a way that preserved their bones, and then they buried them.
First Samuel 31 does not provide any support for Christians cremating a loved one instead of burying him. In fact, it shows that cremating a dead Christian is not at all either a biblically acceptable form of burial or a biblically acceptable substitute for burial.
Amos 2 relates God’s declaration of His fierce wrath upon the Moabites for what they did to the bones of the king of Edom:
Amo 2:1 Thus saith the LORD; For three transgressions of Moab, and for four, I will not turn away the punishment thereof; because he burned the bones of the king of Edom into lime:
2 But I will send a fire upon Moab, and it shall devour the palaces of Kerioth: and Moab shall die with tumult, with shouting, and with the sound of the trumpet:
3 And I will cut off the judge from the midst thereof, and will slay all the princes thereof with him, saith the LORD.
Because the Moabites burned the bones of the king of Edom to lime, God was going to judge them fiercely. C.F. Keil explains,
The burning of the bones of the king of Edom is not burning while he was still alive, but the burning of his corpse into lime, i. e. so completely that the bones turned into powder like lime . . . This is the only thing blamed, not his having put him to death (Keil-Delitzsch, 10:250).
This passage reveals God’s wrath on those who desecrated a man’s body after he had died by burning his bones until they became a powder. Based on this passage, Christians must not think that the Bible does not have anything to say against cremation.
The NT does not record a single instance of Christians cremating anyone after he had died. Furthermore, the account of the death of John the Baptist strengthens the case against cremation in a telling way.
Mark 6 records the horrific death of John the Baptist at the hands of wicked king Herod. Having had John beheaded, Herod had his head brought in a platter to the daughter of Herodias, who then gave it to her mother (Mark 6:27-28).
The disciples of John responded to the tragic murder of John by properly attending to his body:
Mar 6:29 And when his disciples heard of it, they came and took up his corpse, and laid it in a tomb.
A comparison of the accounts of the deaths of King Saul and John the Baptist reveals that the disciples of John did not first burn his decapitated body—they buried his body in a tomb. Any possible support that a believer could try to make for cremation from the account in First Samuel 31 is invalidated by this parallel account in Mark 6.
The disciples of John—who through progressive revelation knew even more about the ways of God than the people of Jabesh Gilead did in their earlier time—did not employ any kind of burning in dealing with the decapitated body of John the Baptist. Mark 6 compared with First Samuel 31 shows that there is no New Testament support for God’s people even in an extreme circumstance to use some form of cremation prior to or in place of burial.
Cremation is not a biblically acceptable form of burial nor is it a biblically acceptable substitute for burial. Christians should not cremate their own.
Rather, they should do everything that they can legitimately do to see that their loved ones and other believers receive a proper burial as the fitting ending to their lives.
See also The Biblical Importance of a Proper Burial
Ezekiel 39: A Test Case for Certain Notions about Cremation versus Burial
Copyright © 2011-2024 by Rajesh Gandhi. All rights reserved.
What the Bible teaches about music is a very important subject that is an issue of much controversy among many believers today. A careful, thorough examination of Scripture shows that it does not teach ten key notions that many people believe about music:
1. God created all music.
2. God created all musical styles.
3. All musical styles are inherently amoral.
4. All musical styles are inherently good and fit for human use, including for divine worship.
5. God has called Christians to “redeem” certain musical styles by using them to accompany Christian words.
6. Secular testimonies about evil spirits and music are inherently unreliable.
7. Music can only be sensual if it has sensual lyrics.
8. God does not care about the instrumental music that is used to worship Him—He only cares about the words that are sung to Him.
9. Believers with conservative musical positions have the burden of proof concerning musical styles that they say are unacceptable for Christian use, especially for divine worship.
10. For a musical style to be unacceptable to God, Scripture must explicitly say that He does not accept it.
For detailed, biblical explanations of how the Bible does not teach these notions, see the articles referred to here.
Copyright © 2011-2024 by Rajesh Gandhi. All rights reserved.
God’s people properly believe that the Bible is the word of God, that whatever the Bible says is so, and that whatever it says about any subject is vital information about that subject. What does the Bible say to such people about global warming?
Scripture has two passages that speak directly about global warming consisting of devastating worldwide increases in temperature resulting from God’s judgments coming on the earth: Revelation 16:8-9 and 2 Peter 3:7-12.
Rev 16:8 And the fourth angel poured out his vial upon the sun; and power was given unto him to scorch men with fire. 9 And men were scorched with great heat, and blasphemed the name of God, which hath power over these plagues: and they repented not to give him glory.
2Pe 3:7 But the heavens and the earth, which are now, by the same word are kept in store, reserved unto fire against the day of judgment and perdition of ungodly men.
8 But, beloved, be not ignorant of this one thing, that one day is with the Lord as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day.
9 The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness; but is longsuffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.
10 But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night; in the which the heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat, the earth also and the works that are therein shall be burned up.
11 Seeing then that all these things shall be dissolved, what manner of persons ought ye to be in all holy conversation and godliness,
12 Looking for and hasting unto the coming of the day of God, wherein the heavens being on fire shall be dissolved, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat?
For us as God’s people who believe the Bible properly, these passages provide the most important information about global warming to which we need to give urgent attention. Strikingly, both passages directly speak to us about God’s desire that human beings repent of their sins (Rev. 16:9; 2 Pet. 3:9) so that they will not be consumed by the devastating global warming that God will bring about in the future!
As God gives us as believers opportunities to engage people on the subject of global warming, we should graciously set before them what the word of God has to say about the fearful global warming that will truly destroy the present heavens and the earth! We should then appeal to them to repent and believe the gospel of God and His Christ.
Furthermore, we who are believers should allow these passages to challenge us continually to be all that God wants us to be in view of the devastating global warming that surely is going to come to all the world. Let us truly be people who live our lives “in all holy conversation and godliness” (2 Pet. 3:11) as we continue “looking for and hasting unto the coming of the day of God” (2 Pet. 3:12).
Copyright © 2011-2024 by Rajesh Gandhi. All rights reserved.
I praise the Lord for many things that He has done for me in 2015 and for His many blessings to me so far this year! The following summarizes the Lord’s blessings upon me in some key areas.
I read the Bible through in English this year and am on target for finishing reading through the NT in Spanish by the end of the year. I also read the book of Revelation through sixteen times from mid-April to July!
The Lord blessed me with four opportunities to preach in February 2015 at Iglesia Bautista de La Fe in Greenville, SC. Although I have prayed for and would have loved to have had many more opportunities to preach, the Lord thus far has not seen fit to give me any more preaching opportunities this year.
This summer, I taught an adult Sunday school class for 8 weeks at my church, Beginnings at the End: Creation, Fall, and Redemption in the Book of Revelation. The series featured a thorough comparative analysis of Genesis 1-4 with the book of Revelation.
I had a number of opportunities to use the guitar in ministering to brethren this year. Along with a cellist and a violist, I played for three openers for the regular Sunday services at my church.
I accompanied a special for our Neighborhood Bible Class ministry on one Sunday this year. I also accompanied people singing specials on five Sundays in our Spanish ministry, and I ministered an offertory with a cellist on another Sunday.
I have had the privilege this year of teaching how to use the guitar in ministry on numerous occasions to some brethren from two Spanish churches. All of my students have made encouraging progress!
The Lord has blessed me by allowing me to participate in the Spanish ministry of my church every other week this year, including giving a testimony in January about reading through the Bible in Spanish in 2014, praying for the offering in the service on several Sundays, and playing the guitar for specials six times. I also participated in evangelizing Spanish-speaking people on many occasions this year through our church’s regular neighborhood evangelism program.
The Lord has enabled me to produce several articles in Spanish this year. I have also produced some additional music resources in Spanish.
This year, I have posted 84 times on my blog so far, bringing the total number of posts to 808 since February of 2011. I am very thankful for the Lord’s opening this ministry avenue to me and allowing me to continue in it!
I got to participate in our church’s Good News ministry twice this year. In July, I helped each night with registration for our Neighborhood Bible Class ministry. On one Sunday, I did the Scripture reading for the morning service.
The Lord has blessed me with full-time work this entire year, including the privilege of giving a devotional every week at the beginning of our work day on Mondays. He has blessed me with several new guitar students this year, including my first online student!
Finally, although I have not progressed as much as I would have liked, I praise God for the substantial progress that He has allowed me to make this year in reading, speaking, and understanding spoken Spanish. I am especially thankful that I was able this year to make it through all the numerous free Spanish lessons at duolingo.com.
Blessed be the Lord who has continued His infinite goodness to me in 2015!
Copyright © 2011-2024 by Rajesh Gandhi. All rights reserved.
This morning, three of us (2 guitarists and a cellist) accompanied the singing of the Spanish hymn, “Por el Amor de Su nombre.” This glorious song is the Spanish translation of Chris Anderson’s hymn, “For the Sake of His Name.”
With permission from Chris, here is a recording of our ministry this morning:
You can download the sheet music for this hymn here.
Copyright © 2011-2024 by Rajesh Gandhi. All rights reserved.
Rajesh Gandhi holds a Ph.D. in New Testament Interpretation from Bob Jones Seminary; he's a long-time member of Mount Calvary Baptist Church in Greenville, SC.
