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With permission from Mr. Homer Chinn, a faithful member of my church, I am posting this testimony with the hope that God will use it to bring many people to Himself. May the Lord also greatly encourage many of His own through this message of His great goodness to this man whom He has saved for His glory.

My name is Homer Chinn. I’m a machinist for a company called Honeywell Aerospace where we repair and overhaul turbine engines. About 23 years ago, God saw fit to begin a work in my family.

It all began one Saturday morning when I was working on an old lawnmower. I began to get hot and frustrated so my daughter Amanda, who was only 5, was playing in the yard nearby so I sent her in the house to get me a beer and she said, “No, daddy.”

I didn’t think she heard me so I told her again, “I said Amanda go in the house and get your daddy a beer.” And she just bowed up on me and she said, “No, daddy.”

I knew then that she heard me and I got mad so I said, “Amanda, do you want a spanking”? She said, “No, sir.” Well, I said, “Go in the house, and get your daddy a beer!”

She said, “Daddy, I can’t.” I said, “Well, why not?” She said, “Because they are bad for you.”

I said, “Where did you learn that at?” She said, “At church.” When she said that, God spoke to me through that, and the weight of that just convicted me severely of my sin. I’d never felt that shame like that before.

So needless to say, I didn’t say anything else to her the rest of the day but that bothered me the rest of the day and for a couple of weeks after that. And it had gotten to where I wanted to go to church with my family but I knew if I went to church, God would require me to give up my sin, and I just didn’t want to.

But about 2 weeks later, I was sitting at the kitchen table on a Sunday morning. I started drinking again already then, and I heard my family come in from church. I heard the car door slam, and I heard one of the children skipping up the steps and come through the back door.

It was my daughter Amanda again. She crawled right up in my lap, looked me dead in the eyes. She said, “Daddy said, ‘Jesus died for me and you,’ didn’t He?”

And when she said that, the shame laid heavy on me and I never felt so ashamed in all my life. I was reared in church but had gotten out of it and when I got to be a teenager.

So I knew the truth that Christ had died for our sin but it was God speaking to me clearly through my daughter that day that really got my attention and made it hit home that He had died for me. The shame of her—a 5-year old, 40-pound little girl— telling me the truth, and here I was a grown man supposed to be teaching her weighed heavily on me.

So for another two weeks I resisted and fought it, but one Sunday morning I got up when they got up to get ready to go to church. I got up and went with them.

I thought that I had to go to church to get saved but by the grace of God that Sunday morning I went with them. I was tired of carrying that weight of sin. God had dealt with me and it grew heavy.

So I went to a little country church there in Traveler’s Rest that Sunday morning, and I don’t remember the Sunday school class. I don’t remember the sermon, but they sang the perfect hymnal invitation song for me, and that was “Just As I Am,” and I listened to that song real close, and I knew I had nothing to bring to the Lord but sin.

I had heard before some people thought you had to get cleaned up before God saved you but that’s not right. You just submit yourself, humble yourself before God, and He’ll do the saving.

So that day I walked forward on the last verse of the hymn and gave my life to Christ. Pastor knelt there at the altar and led me to Christ, and immediately my life began to change.

We were in a ministry like that for a couple of years and a couple of years into that ministry God began to show me some looseness and sin in that church that even I knew wasn’t right. I had no family here, I had nowhere to go for counsel, but I would lock myself in the bathroom and commit that to prayer.

And God in His mercy a year or two after I committed that to prayer one day led us to Mount Calvary. It was in the providence of God He allowed me to work with a godly young man named Lenny Bundy who has become a dear friend of mine. It was through his testimony and his walk with the Lord that I came to visit the church here.

My children and I just really plugged into the ministry here and began to grow. But as we began to grow, the trials and opposition came from some dear loved ones too. But I thank God through those trials He crowded us closer to Him. He taught us to take sin and living for Him much more serious than we ever knew how to before.

I saw God do some tremendous work in my girls’ lives which was I’ll forever be thankful. It was here God began to teach me how to pray, a little bit about prayer, the privilege of prayer, the power there is in prayer.

So I began to pray for my children and through prayer God opened many doors for them. He gave them access to people and things that could teach them things I couldn’t. It was through prayer God provided them some godly husbands and gave me some godly son-in-laws Tyler and Wesley for which I’ll always be thankful. And, now I’m going to get the privilege of being a grandfather!

So if you are here today, dear friend, and you don’t know the Lord Jesus as your Savior. Yes, you may know His name, you may know some facts about Him, but until you know Him as your personal Savior from sin, you’ll never get to go to heaven.

It was here I learned what God had called me to do. So I ask you the same question today, “What has God called you to do? Why are you here today? Do you know your purpose?”

Listen closely to the messages today. If God speaks to your heart, be willing to surrender and yield to that—don’t resist. And obey whatever He lead you to do so God can save you so you can come to know the peace which passeth all understanding so you can come to know what your will is in your life and live your life for the Lord.

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

This evening, I read all 437 posts in another lengthy online discussion about CCM: “The Sacred Cow” of CCM! 2-Part Discussion Question.” I did so because I want to understand as much as I can about how people who support CCM think and argue for its propriety.

Although there are many things that I read that I would like to interact with, I just do not have the time or inclination at present to become part of this discussion. If you are interested in this subject, you might consider browsing through the posts here.

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

Possible exposure to the deadly Ebola virus is a sobering reality for which we all must prepare ourselves. Careful attention to a striking truth in Ezekiel 14 reveals a vital aspect of how we should prepare to face the possibility of contracting this potentially life-threatening disease.

Divine Revelation concerning Surviving Pestilence Sent by God

In Ezekiel’s day, many of the house of Israel were profoundly unrighteous people (Ezek. 14:1-11). God sent a stern message to Ezekiel that made known profound truth about who would be able to survive His fierce judgments that He would send on an evil land that had sinned against Him “by trespassing grievously” (Ezek. 14:12-20).

God declared that He would judge the sinful land through “four sore judgments” (Ezek. 14:21), including pestilence (Ezek. 14:19-20) that would “cut off from it man and beast” (Ezek. 14:19). In the midst of this grim message, God specified a remarkable truth about what would be the case if three stellar biblical personages (Noah, Daniel, and Job) dwelled in that land in the midst of such a pestilence:

Eze 14:19 Or if I send a pestilence into that land, and pour out my fury upon it in blood, to cut off from it man and beast:

20 Though Noah, Daniel, and Job, were in it, as I live, saith the Lord GOD, they shall deliver neither son nor daughter; they shall but deliver their own souls by their righteousness.

Although these godly men would not be able to deliver anyone else, even their own children, by their righteousness, we should not overlook that this statement directly affirms that they would be able to deliver themselves individually from this pestilence “by their righteousness”! In Ezekiel’s day, therefore, God affirmed that some people, if those people were exceptionally righteous people, would be delivered from a pestilence that He would send upon a wicked land.

Moreover, Scripture explicitly reveals that neither Noah (cf. Gen. 9:21) nor Job (Job 42:1-6) was a sinless person and yet they would have survived this pestilence “by their righteousness” had they been in a land that God would judge in that manner. Being a perfect sinless person, therefore, was not a requirement for surviving such a pestilence through one’s own righteousness.

Applying Ezekiel 14:20 to the Present Ebola Threat

Although Ezekiel 14:20 does affirm that Noah, Daniel, and Job would have survived a pestilence that God would send to judge a sinful land, it does not thereby affirm that people who were less righteous than they were would also survive under such circumstances. This observation suggests that a vital aspect of our properly facing the present Ebola threat is that we should strive by God’s grace to be as righteous as possible in each of our own lives individually.1

For those of us who are believers in Jesus Christ as Lord, let us all immediately turn from all unrighteousness in our lives and seek with all our might to please God in all things at all times. Striving wholeheartedly to obey and please God out of love for Him is not “legalism” (cf. Col. 1:10; Heb. 13:21), and doing so will put us in the best position humanly possible in the will of God to survive exposure to Ebola. (Of course, doing so does not negate the importance of our also making every effort possible to prepare for this threat by following proper guidelines for healthy living, etc.)

If you are not a believer in Jesus Christ as Lord, I urge you to repent toward God and believe in the Lord Jesus Christ (Acts 20:21). To learn more about how you as a sinner (like all the rest of us) can yet be declared righteous by God (after which you would then seek to live righteously before God, even as Noah, Daniel, and Job did), please see my post The Gospel of God and His Christ.


1Although there is no way for any of us to know whether God is using (or will use) Ebola to judge our countries for their evil, as He spoke of doing in Ezekiel 14:19-21, our inability to know this information does not seem to change the applicability of this passage to our circumstances. Even if this passage understood correctly should turn out not to be applicable directly to our situation, seeking to be as righteous as possible before God in our lives would still be a valid and vital way to prepare for this threat, as the account of Hezekiah’s pleading his righteousness before God (Isa. 38:3) shows when he was faced with terminal illness and then received healing in answer to his prayer (Isa. 38; cf. 2 Kings 20:1-11).

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

First Kings 14 provides a glorious account that has great relevance to the very difficult life circumstances that a vast number of people in the world are facing today. A close look at this passage shows that you can be pleasing to God in the midst of terrible circumstances!

The Great Wickedness of Israel under the Rule of King Jeroboam I

As His judgment upon Solomon for his wickedness, God brought about the division of His people into the Northern Kingdom of Israel and the Southern Kingdom of Judah (1 Kings 11-12). God raised up Jeroboam the son of Nebat to be king over the Northern Kingdom (1 Kings 11:31, 35).

Jeroboam was a horrifically wicked king (1 Kings 11:26-33; 13:33-34). He sinned greatly in spite of God’s great goodness to him (1 Kings 14:7-9; see this post for an explanation of this important point).

Under his evil rule, Israel became very wicked (1 Kings 12:30; 13:33; 15:30). False worship abounded in Israel far more than it ever had prior to the reign of Jeroboam (cf. 1 Kings 14:9).

One Who Was Pleasing to God in This Evil King’s Own Household

Scripture implicitly highlights the great wickedness of Jeroboam’s household in a noteworthy way by revealing that there was only one person in it who was pleasing to God (in some unspecified manner):

1Ki 14:13 And all Israel shall mourn for him, and bury him: for he only of Jeroboam shall come to the grave, because in him there is found some good thing toward the LORD God of Israel in the house of Jeroboam.

This statement, however, does much more than implicitly highlight the wickedness of Jeroboam’s household—it magnifies the reality that Abijah the son of Jeroboam (I Kings 14:1) was a person in the royal household in whom was “found some good thing toward the Lord” (1 Kings 14:13)!

The Glorious Significance of Abijah’s Uniqueness

In a manner that Scripture does not explain, Abijah was somehow still pleasing to God even though all the rest of his family was wicked, especially his father. Moreover, God found something good in him in spite of the great wickedness of all the people around him and of the country in which he lived.

Despite his terrible circumstances, especially the horrifically false worship that permeated Israel at this time, Abijah was yet pleasing to God to an extent that God deemed it worthy to record in His eternal Word how He would uniquely favor him in contrast to the fate that the rest of his family would experience! This record about God’s strikingly taking notice of Abijah provides us all with a glorious account of how someone was pleasing to God in spite of his terrible circumstances!

By not specifying anything about what was good about Abijah or about how and why Abijah had something good in him toward God, the Holy Spirit has made this text applicable for people who live in all kinds of bad situations. Undoubtedly, God intends from this passage that you would learn and believe that like Abijah, you can be pleasing to God in the midst of terrible circumstances!

May He grant you repentance (as needed) and faith to please Him regardless of how difficult your life circumstances may be.


To learn how you can be pleasing to God, please read my post The Gospel of God and His Christ.

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

King Jeroboam I was one of the worst kings ever to rule over God’s people (1 Ki. 14:9). In the midst of a horrifyingly tragic account of his life, Scripture records some glorious revelation about God’s goodness in providing a light in the midst of the great darkness of this evil ruler’s life.

Tragic Sinfulness in spite of God’s Great Goodness

Because of the evil that Solomon and Judah had committed against the Lord (1 Ki. 11:1-9), God made known through the prophet Ahijah that He would “rend the kingdom out of the hand of Solomon, and [would] give ten tribes to” Jeroboam (1 Ki. 11:31). God then offered to Jeroboam a magnificent prospect if he would be righteous before the Lord:

1Ki 11:37 And I will take thee, and thou shalt reign according to all that thy soul desireth, and shalt be king over Israel.

38 And it shall be, if thou wilt hearken unto all that I command thee, and wilt walk in my ways, and do that is right in my sight, to keep my statutes and my commandments, as David my servant did; that I will be with thee, and build thee a sure house, as I built for David, and will give Israel unto thee.

Through his wickedly originating false worship among Israel, Jeroboam tragically forfeited the great favor that God had offered to him (1 Ki. 12:26-33).

God sent a prophet to Jeroboam to make known the fierce judgment that would come upon him for his wickedness (1 Ki. 13:1-3). Instead of immediately repenting and pleading with God for mercy, Jeroboam sought to persecute the prophet that God had sent to him (1 Ki. 13:4a).

Jeroboam immediately experienced divine judgment upon him, resulting in his hand drying up so that he was unable to pull it back in again to him (1 Ki. 13:4b). In an amazing display of yet more favor to Jeroboam, God even restored the king’s hand when the prophet interceded for him (1 Ki. 13:6).

Instead of allowing God’s continuing goodness to him to lead him to repentance (cf. Rom. 2:4), Jeroboam tragically continued in his wicked ways (1 Ki. 13:33-34). As a result, he experienced further judgment from God (1 Ki. 14:1-18).

Amazing Favor in the Midst of Great Wickedness

Because of Jeroboam’s great wickedness, God judged him by touching the life of his son Abijah (1 Ki. 14:1). Jeroboam deceitfully sent his wife to the prophet Abijah to find out what would happen to his son (1 Ki. 14:2-16).

Through the revelation that Abijah gave to Jeroboam’s wife, God confronted Jeroboam with how he had failed wickedly to be righteous before God in spite of God’s favor to him (1 Ki. 14:7-9). In fact, God made known to Jeroboam that he had been more wicked than all who were before him (1 Ki. 14:9).

God declared His fierce judgment that would could come upon him and his household because of his great sinfulness (1 Ki. 14:10-16). God’s judgment on Jeroboam would include the death of his son Abijah (1 Ki. 14:12).

In the midst of the record of God’s great judgment that would come on this horrifically wicked king, we read that God had favored Jeroboam in an amazing way by giving him his son Abijah, in whom alone there was “found some good thing toward the Lord God of Israel in the house of Jeroboam” (1 Ki. 14:13). This remarkable statement shows that even in the midst of the great darkness that permeated the life of this wicked king, God had given him light within his own home!

Jeroboam had the opportunity to see the truth of God through observing the life of his son. Jeroboam, however, failed tragically to behold the light that God had so graciously provided for him in his own household.

God had favored this wicked king in an amazing way even in the midst of how wicked he had been! Although Jeroboam did not profit from God’s provision of a light in the midst of great darkness of his life, we who have the privilege of reading this tragic account should allow the goodness of God that is abundantly seen in this passage to lead us to repent from all of our evil ways!

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

For many years, I have prayed that God would give me opportunities to use the guitar for ministry in ways that would glorify Him. As part of His answers to my prayers, I had the opportunity today to use my guitar to accompany people in two ministries at my church!

Including the opportunities that I had today, I have used my guitar to minister in four different ministries at my church in the past two years:

1. Instrumental openers and offertories as well as accompanying people who sang specials for our regular Sunday morning and evening services;

2. Instrumental specials and accompanying people who sang specials for our Spanish ministry;

3. Instrumental specials and accompanying people who sang specials for our Neighborhood Class ministry; and,

4. Accompanying singing for our Released Time ministry—a ministry for children from a local elementary school.

I have also been able to minister with my guitar in various services at two local Spanish churches. Beyond my playing for some services at these churches, I have also had the opportunity to teach various guitar-for- ministry classes at these two churches.

The Lord has also answered my prayers by allowing me to create three new accompaniment styles for playing the guitar that I have not heard anyone else use before. Moreover, He has allowed me to develop a new approach to learning and playing the guitar that I have successfully taught to the students that I have had for the past several years.

In answer to my prayers, I have also originated several highly effective approaches to using the guitar to play music at an advanced level. It has been quite encouraging to have several students successfully learn some of these techniques.

Lord willing, I hope to publish several guitar method books in the future that will allow many other people to benefit much from what God has entrusted to me in answer to my many prayers about using the guitar for ministry. May He see fit to advance His kingdom and righteousness greatly through using these resources for His eternal glory.

 

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

I now have less than 400 chapters to go in the Reina Valera to finish reading through the Bible in Spanish this year!

9.16.14 Brrpt

¡Gloria a Dios!

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

“Aura Lee” is a beautiful song that is easy to play. This PDF provides the melody and chords for this song in the key of C. Because the song has only 5 chords (C, Dm, G7, E, Am), it is a good song to use to master basic chord changes between these basic chords.

You can practice playing the melody and the chords along with the audio of the song:

 

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

Second Samuel 15 records some key tactics used by a popular man who obtained a top position of national leadership through corrupt practices. This revelation provides helpful biblical instruction about some common tactics of corrupt politicians.

Absalom as a Popular Figure in Israel

In addition to his being a son of the king, Absalom was an exceedingly handsome man who was highly praised for his remarkably unblemished physical appearance (2 Sam. 14:25). He also exerted considerable influence over his father king David (cf. 2 Sam. 13:27).

How Absalom Usurped His Father’s Throne

Absalom usurped his father’s throne through a “political” campaign of convincing aggrieved people (2 Sam. 15:2b) that his father did not really care enough about them to give them the justice that they deserved (2 Sam. 15:3). Using an extensive PR campaign of rising early to meet these people (2 Sam. 15:2) and patronizing them (Absalom “put forth his hand, and took him, and kissed him” [2 Sam. 15:5]), Absalom was able to steal away their hearts from their allegiance to David as their king (2 Sam. 15:6).

Absalom then lied to his father about his desire to serve God and did so in order to accomplish his evil purposes (2 Sam. 15:7-9). Through his influence over a vast number of co-conspirators, he was able to usurp the throne of David (2 Sam. 15:10-12).

The Deceitfulness of Absalom

Scripture provides no evidence that Absalom was truly concerned with providing unjustly treated people in Israel with the justice for which they sought. His goal was rather to attain supreme national authority (2 Sam. 15:10) by pretending that he really cared for their welfare.

To obtain his ends, Absalom asserted that King David had failed to depute someone to hear and settle their cases justly (2 Sam. 15:3). Scripture, however, does not mention anything about such a failure on David’s part.

Furthermore, Absalom asserted that he was qualified and eager to serve the people in such a capacity (2 Sam. 15:4). Again, we have no biblical basis for thinking that he had the character and training to exercise such authority over the people.

Instead, he used his “charismatic” appeal (cf. 2 Sam. 14:25; 15:5) to sway them into believing that he was qualified to do what he claimed he would do for them and that he would do so if they supported him in overthrowing their government. Through his great deceitfulness, Absalom even succeeded in manipulating many other people into unknowingly support him in usurping the throne of Israel (2 Sam. 15:11).

Some Common Tactics of Corrupt Politicians

The Scriptural account of Absalom’s corrupt rise to power reveals that he employed some common tactics to deceive people into wanting him to be in a leading position of authority over them:

1. He used his highly attractive appearance and his skill in patronizing people to ingratiate himself with them. Pretending to take a genuine personal interest in them, he was able to win their hearts.

2. He used his skill at deceitfully manipulating people so that they thought he was qualified to rule over them in a capacity in which he had no intent in doing so.

3. He deceived people who wanted justice from their existing governmental leaders into thinking that their government did not really care for them and that he really cared for their concerns and would see to it that their concerns would be addressed properly. He thus manipulated these people so that they would support him in overthrowing the supposedly unjust leader who was then ruling over them.

4. He lied to the existing governmental authority to achieve his evil purpose.

5. He pretended to be a religious man when it suited his evil designs.

6. He skillfully used his abilities to manipulate people to form a strong conspiracy against legitimate governmental authority. In fact, he was so cunning that he was able deceitfully to garner the support of a sizeable number of people who did not know anything about his evil intentions.

Through this passage that exposes these common tactics of corrupt politicians, let us beware of the use of such tactics by deceitful, popular people who are highly skilled in manipulating people into supporting them in their political activities. Furthermore, let us scrutinize carefully the claims of all those who assert that putting them into power would help us to get the justice that we deserve but supposedly have not received from existing governmental leaders who are legitimately in power over us.

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

These six pointers provide much food for thought for believers who have a burden to pray for missionaries.

HOW TO PRAY FOR MISSIONARIES TODAY

by Allan & Robin Cuthbert, Sao Paulo, Brazil

1. CHRIST-GLORYING ESSENTIALS It is not so essential that you ask God to give us good health. The important thing is that He give us only the measure of health that will best glorify Him. Who knows but what it may be to His glory that we should be sick, and thereby demonstrate to the nationals about us that we have a God who can keep us in a perfect peace and joy, even in the midst of pain.

2. SUFFICIENT GRACE We do not want you to pray that God will give us an easy path on the mission field, but rather that He might give us grace sufficient to be overcomers for Him.

3. TIME TAKEN TO PRAY Do not pray so much that God will answer our prayers, as that God will keep us from being too busy to pray. Haven’t you thought of the fact that it is just as easy for us missionaries to be too busy to pray, as it is for you in the homeland to be too busy to take time with God?

4. STEWARDSHIP OF TIME It is not so important that you pray that God should bless our activities, as that God should censor our activities, for how easy it is for a missionary’s time and energy to be spent on second best things.

5. RESISTANCE TO TEMPTATIONS Please do not pray for us as though we were saints, living up on a high level, because we are missionaries. We who go as missionaries are subjected to temptation. Satan will determine in one way or another to hinder our testimony, to rob our lives of power or make our witness futile. We need your prayer that God will give grace and strength to resist temptation.

6. COMPASSION FOR LOST SOULS Won’t you remember please, that missionaries can become lonely; we can become discouraged, irritable, sharp, impatient with other missionaries. Above all, we want to tell you that we can do a great deal of missionary work without being on fire for the Lord. So we covet, above all, your prayers for us that we may ever live with our hearts aflame with passion for the lost and aflame with the glory and love of Christ.

 

–This article is from a prayer resource produced by my church.

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