Melody and chords for Spirit of God, Descend upon My Heart in my format for guitar.
Copyright © 2011-2024 by Rajesh Gandhi. All rights reserved.
Archives For Discipleship
The final verses of Acts 7 provide us with the only inspired record of the final words of a Christian martyr. The uniqueness of this revelation is interesting because Scripture informs us that other believers were also martyred (James [Acts 12:2]; Peter [John 21:18-19]), but God for some reason did not choose to give us any information about their final words.
Luke records the two prayers that Stephen prayed before he died:
And they stoned Stephen, calling upon God, and saying, Lord Jesus, receive my spirit. And he kneeled down, and cried with a loud voice, Lord, lay not this sin to their charge. And when he had said this, he fell asleep (7:59-60).
Both prayers address someone as Lord. Both prayers parallel prayers by Jesus on the Cross (Luke 23:34, 46).
The first prayer was to Jesus as Lord and concerned Stephen himself. The second prayer concerned Stephen’s persecutors.
When I wrote my dissertation, I argued that Stephen prayed both prayers to Jesus. I was challenged by a committee member who held that Stephen prayed his second prayer not to Jesus, but to the Father.
Whom do you think that he prayed to (Jesus or the Father) and why do you think that way?
Copyright © 2011-2024 by Rajesh Gandhi. All rights reserved.
In the Constitutions of the Holy Apostles, we read of apostolic proclamation of Christ as the God-appointed Judge:
But after ten days from the ascension, which from the first Lord’s day is the fiftieth day, do ye keep a great festival: for on that day, at the third hour, the Lord Jesus sent on us the gift of the Holy Ghost, and we were filled with His energy, and we ‘spake with new tongues, as that Spirit did suggest to us;’ and we preached both to Jews and Gentiles, that He is the Christ of God, who is ‘determined by Him to be the Judge of quick and dead.’
—The Anti-Nicene Fathers: Translations of the Writings of the Fathers down to A.D. 325, Vol. VII, 448; emphasis added
In the Apostle’s Creed, we read concerning people who desired to be baptized:
Although the received text of the Apostle’s Creed occurs first in the eight century, the contents are essentially an expansion of the positive form (the Old Roman Symbol) of the questions asked candidates for baptism at Rome at the end of the second century. The baptizer asked the one to be baptized, ‘Do you believe in God the Father Almighty?’ After the confession, ‘I believe,’ there was the first immersion. Then the baptizer asked, ‘Do you believe in Christ Jesus, the Son of God who was born of the Holy Spirit and the Virgin Mary, who was crucified in the days of Pontius Pilate, and died, [and was buried,] and rose from the dead and ascended in the heavens and sat down at the right hand of the Father, and will come to judge the living and the dead?’
—Encyclopedia of Early Christianity, Second Ed., Vol. 1 A-K, 90; emphasis added
These historical records show that Apostolic and post-Apostolic ministry continued to include proclamation of God’s appointment of Christ as Judge and belief in that truth. We need to include the same points in our evangelism today. This is especially true because people have taught in our day that we should just tell people of the love of God for them and not speak to them of judgment.
Copyright © 2011-2024 by Rajesh Gandhi. All rights reserved.
Here are the melody and the chords for Jesus, I Am Resting in the key of G.
Copyright © 2011-2024 by Rajesh Gandhi. All rights reserved.
King David fled from Jerusalem when his son, Absalom, conspired against him to overthrow his rule (2 Sam. 15:13-30). Learning that Ahitophel, David’s counselor (15:12), was among the conspirators, David prayed, “O LORD, I pray thee, turn the counsel of Ahithophel into foolishness” (15:31).
After this, Hushai, a key friend of David (15:37), came to him (15:32). David instructed him that if he were to remain with him, he would burden him (15:33). If, however, he would return to serve Absalom, he would serve for David to “defeat the counsel of Ahithophel” (15:34).
Hushai returned to Jerusalem (15:37) and served under Absalom (16:16-19). At this time, Ahitophel was continually giving Absalom exceedingly wise counsel (16:23).
At a key moment, however, Absalom consulted both Ahitophel and Hushai (17:1-14). Although Ahitophel again gave Absalom wise counsel (17:1-4), Hushai persuaded Absalom and all the men of Israel to reject that counsel (17:5-14). David’s prayer was thus answered through the actions of the agent whom he sent.
The juxtaposition of David’s prayer for the defeating of Ahithophel’s counsel (15:31) and his acting to dispatch Hushai to be his agent to bring about that defeat (15:32-37) appears to illustrate how God sometimes answers our prayers. Although we are not explicitly told that such was the case, it is entirely possible that God directed David’s mind so that he employed Hushai as his agent (cf. Prov. 21:1).
David both prayed and took appropriate action concerning the matter of his prayer. His action ultimately resulted in his prayer being answered. Has not God given us this account in part to promote at least our considering doing likewise with appropriate actions in appropriate circumstances?
Copyright © 2011-2024 by Rajesh Gandhi. All rights reserved.
I began this year with the intention of reading through the entire Bible in Greek this year. I hope also to finish reading again through the KJV this year.
Here is the progress (chapters read/total chapters) that God has allowed me to make so far!
| Section | Greek | English |
| OT | 412/920 | 196/920 |
| NT | 1/269 | 269/269 |
| Bible | 413/1189 | 465/1189 |
As God directs, I would strongly encourage any of you who know Greek to consider reading extensively in the Septaguint. Having read nearly half of it this year, I can attest to the tremendous value of such immersion in biblical Greek.
My hope is that when I read the NT in Greek later this year, Lord willing, the growing familiarity with biblical Greek that I am developing from my reading the LXX will provide me with numerous valuable insights into the Greek NT. I have experienced that many times in the past, and I look forward to what God will give me this year through such study!
Copyright © 2011-2024 by Rajesh Gandhi. All rights reserved.
. . . [I]f you and I are to wrestle triumphantly against the devil and all his powers, the first essential is assurance of salvation. There is no hope for us in this conflict unless we know God’s power and God’s might. But if we are uncertain about our relationship to Him we cannot stand and withstand in the fight. In other words the key to victory over the devil is assurance of salvation, certainly concerning our relationship to God in Jesus Christ. That is but another way of saying, ‘They overcame him by the blood of the Lamb, and by the word of their testimony.’ You cannot give a testimony if you do not know your position. It is only one who is certain who can give a testimony, and who can act as a witness. The saints’ testimony in the Book of Revelation is that the blood was on them, that they belonged to Christ; they possessed assurance of salvation.
By assurance you are made ‘strong in the Lord, and in the power of his might.’
—D. M. Lloyd Jones, The Christian Soldier: An Exposition of Ephesians 6:10 to 20, 62
Are you certain that you are saved?
Copyright © 2011-2024 by Rajesh Gandhi. All rights reserved.
Elisha A. Hoffman’s What a Wonderful Savior! in my format for guitar chords and melody in the key of D.
The shaded number in the second line is how I notate a fermata.
Copyright © 2011-2024 by Rajesh Gandhi. All rights reserved.
James Barr coined the term illegitimate totality transfer to signify the unwarranted reading into a particular occurrence of a word every possible meaning of the word. The Semantics of Biblical Language (Oxford: Oxford University, 1961), 218. In my dissertation, I coined the term illegitimate intra-Trinitarian transfer, which I patterned after Barr’s term, but I did not use it with reference to semantics.
The phrase illegitimate intra-Trinitarian transfer refers to the error of attributing a role or activity to one member of the Godhead in a given text when a careful examination shows that the passage is attributing that role or activity to a different member of the Godhead.
Illegitimate intra-Trinitarian transfer (IITT) obscures a right perception of the apostolic focus on testimony to both God and Christ by taking statements about the Father and attributing them to Christ or speaking of them as if they are only about Christ. Such use of these statements, especially on a repeated basis, hinders and obscures the full appreciation of their primary teaching.
Two examples from printed works illustrate IITT clearly. First, Warren Wiersbe’s explanation of Colossians 1:13-14 displays this error when it attributes multiple actions to Christ that the passage does not attribute to Christ but to the Father:
Sinners need a Saviour. These two verses present a vivid picture of the four saving actions of Christ on our behalf. . . . We could not deliver ourselves from the guilt and penalty of sin, but Jesus could and did deliver us. . . . Jesus Christ did not release us from bondage, only to have us wander aimlessly. He moved us into His own kingdom of light and made us victors over Satan’s kingdom of darkness. Earthly rulers transported the defeated people, but Jesus Christ transported the winners. Be Complete: How to Become the Whole Person God Intends You to Be (Wheaton, IL: Victor Books, 1981), 45-46.
This explanation of Colossians 1:13-14 attributes actions to Christ that the passage does not attribute to Him but to the Father: the Father, not Christ, “rescued us from the domain of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of His beloved Son.”
Second, Paul Enns’ writing similarly displays IITT:
The Son has redeemed the believer (Eph. 1:7), removed the wrath of God from the believer (Rom. 3:25), justified the believer (Rom. 5:1), provided forgiveness (Col. 2:13), and sanctified the believer (1 Cor. 1:2). The Moody Handbook of Theology (Chicago: Moody Press, 1989), 341.
Colossians 2:13 actually teaches that the Father has “quickened [us] together with Him [Christ], having forgiven [us] all trespasses.”
I have heard a number of people over the years commit IITT in their prayers by praying something like this, “Father, thank You for dying for us on the Cross.” The Father did not die on the Cross, and we should not pray this way.
These examples of IITT should alert us to be more careful in what we write and say. We must be diligent to handle the Word of God as accurately as possible (2 Tim. 2:15).
Copyright © 2011-2024 by Rajesh Gandhi. All rights reserved.
The Bible was not so neglected a Book when the great revivals of 1857-59 swept over the United States and Great Britain. Neither was it so neglected in Moody’s time. During the late Manchu dynasty, scholars were expected to know the classics of their sages by heart. How do the scholars of so-called Christian lands measure up to that standard as regards the “World’s Greatest Classic”? It is nothing short of pathetic how so many, who come professedly to represent the Lord Jesus Christ in China, know so little of His Word. Thirty years ago the missionary ideal was to know the Bible so well that one would not have to carry around a concordance. Is the indifference to the Bible today on the part of so many missionaries due to the fact, perhaps, that they have discovered some better means with which to meet the needs of a sin-sick world?
—Jonathan Goforth, By My Spirit, 136
Copyright © 2011-2024 by Rajesh Gandhi. All rights reserved.
