Padre santo, gracias por darnos a todos nosotros vida, aliento y todas las cosas. Ayudanos a que te adoremos en espíritu y en verdad. Gracias por todos los que estan presentes. Muéstranos tu gloria en tu palabra de modo que seamos más como tu Hijo Jesucristo. Bendice lo que se ha dado ahora por amor de tu reino y tu justicia. En el nombre de tu Hijo amado, Jesús de Nazaret.
Copyright © 2011-2024 by Rajesh Gandhi. All rights reserved.
I began this year reading the Bible with an intense desire to read as much of the Bible as I could in preparation for teaching two combined Sunday school classes at my church. I praise God tonight that He has given me grace and perseverance to finish reading the Bible through for this year in 59 days!
Having read the Bible in English this year, my goal now is to try to read through the Bible in Spanish by the end of the year. Because I have not taught the second combined Sunday school class yet, I will also be studying many passages in the Bible in English intensely until I have taught that second class.
Copyright © 2011-2024 by Rajesh Gandhi. All rights reserved.
I praise God for the encouraging feedback that I received last night about how God ministered through me as I preached my message, “Faithful Spiritual Leadership,” from 1 Samuel 12! May He see fit to continue to use it to advance His kingdom and righteousness.
Here is the audio of my message:
My message was enhanced through the use of two graphics that I made that bring out key features of this passage. This first graphic shows how 1 Samuel 12 records the extensive dialogue between Samuel (in green) and the people of Israel (in blue).
This second graphic shows how profoundly Samuel emphasized God as the Lord (Heb. Yahweh) to these people as he ministered to them (31x, highlighted in yellow; the people spoke of God as the Lord once, which is highlighted in blue).
For the main points of this message, see this previous post.
Copyright © 2011-2024 by Rajesh Gandhi. All rights reserved.
Through the Lord’s help and the prayers of many people, I taught a Sunday school class yesterday that examined much biblical teaching about the teaching ministry of God the Father. I praise God for giving me this opportunity to profit His people and commend His glory to them!
Here are some resources for anyone who is interested in learning more about this subject:
Audio of my message, The Ministry of the Father as Teacher
Copyright © 2011-2024 by Rajesh Gandhi. All rights reserved.
After studying for many weeks and reading 699 chapters in the Bible since January 1, I am eagerly looking forward to teaching Sunday school tomorrow, God willing, and profiting God’s people with what He has given me to teach about the ministry of God the Father as teacher!
Here are the books that I have read this year:
OT: Exodus, Deuteronomy, Job, Psalms, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, Isaiah, Jeremiah, and Daniel (439 chapters)
NT: All 27 books (260 chapters)
Praise the Lord!
Copyright © 2011-2024 by Rajesh Gandhi. All rights reserved.
In preparation for teaching two upcoming Sunday school lessons, I have read Deuteronomy, Job-Proverbs, Isaiah, Daniel, and the NT this year (595 of the 1189 chapters of the Bible)! I praise God for granting me grace to persevere in finishing reading the parts of the Bible that most directly pertain to my topic for the first lesson: the teaching ministry of the Father.
I’m eagerly anticipating teaching those classes, but I’ll have to wait another week to teach the first one because Sunday school is cancelled today
Copyright © 2011-2024 by Rajesh Gandhi. All rights reserved.
In preparation for teaching Sunday school this week and next, Lord willing, I used BibleWorks 7 to compile a list of 699 verses that contain words pertaining to teaching. This graph shows the books with the highest percentage of these verses: 
In descending order, the top ten books were the following:
Proverbs 12%
Psalms 8.9%
Job 6.4%
Matthew 6.4%
Mark 6.4%
Luke 5.9%
Acts 5%
Isaiah 4.9%
John 4.3%
Deuteronomy 3.7%
These books have a total of 440 chapters. To saturate my mind with as much of God’s own words on this subject as possible, I have read all of these books this year except for Deuteronomy 29-34 and Acts 16-28, which I plan to finish before my first lesson on this Sunday.
If you are a Sunday school teacher at any level, I highly commend your reading these books with a focus on trying to learn as much as you can about what they teach about teaching by God and by godly teachers.
Copyright © 2011-2024 by Rajesh Gandhi. All rights reserved.
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.
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 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.
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.
