–Pastor Mark Minnick, Sunday PM message, “Preachers and Missionaries UK 2023,” 8/20/23
I believe that these statements very insightfully express what really is at the heart of so many of the worship music issues in our day.
Copyright © 2011-2024 by Rajesh Gandhi. All rights reserved.
In a church-wide time of prayer this past Wednesday evening, my pastor directed six men to lead us online in a time of focused prayer on six key prayer topics. One topic was specific only to our church, but the other five apply to all believers in all local churches:
Reviving of God’s people
Salvation of lost people
Our church’s healthcare workers
Our missionaries and their churches
Our own protection and provision
Taking extra time to pray regularly about these prayer topics would be a great way to redeem the time during this pandemic.
Copyright © 2011-2024 by Rajesh Gandhi. All rights reserved.
The final question and answer of our Mount Calvary Baptist Church catechism:
Finally, Christians, What Shall Be the Eternal End?
The eternal end shall be that God shall be all in all, that the Lamb shall be served by us who see His face, and that these Divine Persons shall receive from every created thing blessing and honor, glory and power, dominion and praise forever and ever. Amen, and Amen.
These passages are cited in support of this final catechism:
1 Corinthians 15:28 And when all things shall be subdued unto him, then shall the Son also himself be subject unto him that put all things under him, that God may be all in all.
Revelation 22:3 And there shall be no more curse: but the throne of God and of the Lamb shall be in it; and his servants shall serve him: 4 And they shall see his face; and his name shall be in their foreheads.
Revelation 5:13 And every creature which is in heaven, and on the earth, and under the earth, and such as are in the sea, and all that are in them, heard I saying, Blessing, and honour, and glory, and power, be unto him that sitteth upon the throne, and unto the Lamb for ever and ever. 14 And the four beasts said, Amen. And the four and twenty elders fell down and worshipped him that liveth for ever and ever.
Copyright © 2011-2024 by Rajesh Gandhi. All rights reserved.
Mount Calvary Baptist Catechism, Question 67: “What is repentance unto life?”
“Repentance unto life is the change of heart whereby out of a genuine grief and hatred of our sin, we turn unto God with the earnest intent to strive after new obedience (Adapted from C. H. Spurgeon’s, A Catechism, Q. 70).”
—Pastor Mark Minnick
Copyright © 2011-2024 by Rajesh Gandhi. All rights reserved.
Understanding what the Bible teaches about marriage is a crucial matter. Pastor Minnick’s recent message, “Marriage of God’s Making,” provides eminently biblical instruction about this vital subject.
Copyright © 2011-2024 by Rajesh Gandhi. All rights reserved.
“Created Male and Female” is an excellent sermon by my pastor Dr. Mark Minnick that is worth listening to and will profit you.
Copyright © 2011-2024 by Rajesh Gandhi. All rights reserved.
My ministry this year was greatly blessed by my beginning this year by reading the entire Bible in 59 days! I also made it through the NT this year a second time and read much of the Bible in Spanish.
This year was an especially fruitful year for me in ministering the Bible because I had two new teaching opportunities. I also had many other opportunities to minister, especially in teaching, music ministry, and writing on my blog.
I had two preaching opportunities this year: prayer meeting at my church, Mount Calvary Baptist in Greenville, SC, and a Sunday morning service in a church in Georgia. Although I had already preached both these messages before elsewhere, preaching them again allowed me to improve both messages substantially.
Two new opportunities to minister were given to me this year in teaching at my church: teaching a combined adult Sunday school class and teaching a 16-week adult Sunday school class in the fall. In addition, I taught Sunday school once at a church in Georgia.
I did the Scripture reading for two morning services at my church. For the first time, I also read Scripture for a morning service in my church’s Spanish ministry.
I ministered with other instrumentalists in one opener for a service and in two offertories. I accompanied various people singing specials in our Spanish ministry four times this year.
Online, I was able to teach guitar to a developing guitarist overseas who has made encouraging progress in preparing himself for using the guitar for ministry. My teaching guitar this year also included instructing a few students personally.
I also sang with a group of men for a special in our Spanish ministry. I wrote one new Spanish hymn for children this year, “Dios es siempre bueno!”
Regular participation in neighborhood evangelism this summer and in Spanish evangelism at various times throughout the year afforded me many opportunities to minister Scripture to both believers and unbelievers. I also worked in registration for our annual Neighborhood Bible School.
In our Spanish ministry, I prayed for and took the offering several times. For our Men’s Ministry, I wrote one article for the manual and attended all of our prayer breakfasts.
Tutoring a Seminary student in New Testament Greek for several months this summer provided me with a good opportunity to teach elementary Greek again. By regular participation in two discussion groups on Facebook, I was able to give God’s truths numerous times to lost people and saved people.
I gave a brief devotional at the beginning of the workday nearly every Tuesday this year. I also frequently shared Scriptural truths with my coworkers.
I posted on my blog 77 times in 2016, counting this post. The majority of my posts shared biblical truths that God has given me over the years in my own study of Scripture, which has been the major focus of my blog from the beginning.
I praise the Lord for His goodness and faithfulness to me in allowing me to minister so abundantly in 2016!
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.
Pastor Minnick preached last night on 1 Corinthians 12:28a and dealt with a key question: “Who are the Apostles in the Body of Christ?” This post provides some of the key thoughts (as I understood them) that he shared in the message.1
To profit fully from this vital message, you should listen to it fully2 because undoubtedly my notes and this listing of some key ideas from the message provide an inadequate presentation of the truths brought out in it.
1 These five statements are based on my notes from the message; for the most part, they are largely either direct quotes from the message or statements that I derived closely from direct statements made my Pastor Minnick.
2 Who are the Apostles in the Body of Christ? November 08, 2015
Copyright © 2011-2024 by Rajesh Gandhi. All rights reserved.
Many people think that as long as they are not hurting anyone else with what they are doing, they should be able to do whatever they want. At a funeral service this past Saturday, I heard a great illustration by my pastor Dr. Mark Minnick that explains in an excellent way why such reasoning is flawed.
Here is my version* of that illustration that so clearly explained why such a belief is false:
On a long, straight 40-mile stretch of highway in the middle of a desolate part of a Western state of the US, a lone vehicle speeds along at 25 miles above the speed limit with the driver completely oblivious for quite some time to the fact that he is going far faster than is legal. Given that there is no one else anywhere on the road on the entire stretch of the highway, the lone driver of this vehicle “innocently” exceeds the speed limit without even knowing it for a long time because he is caught up in his thoughts about many other things.
When the driver realizes that he is going way too fast, he thinks to himself that what he is doing is not wrong because there is no one else on the road that he is hurting by what he is doing. He decides to keep going at 80 mph instead of the posted 55 mph maximum speed.
About 25 miles down the highway, the driver notices flashing lights coming up behind him and realizes that a state trooper is coming after him. He pulls over and tries to tell the officer that what he was doing was not wrong because he was not hurting anyone else by what he was doing.
After all, there was no one else on the road with him at all. Of course, the office does not buy his argument and tickets him heavily for going way above the speed limit.
Just as the trooper in this illustration did not buy that what this driver was doing was right to do just because the driver thought that he was not hurting anyone, so God is not going to excuse anyone who breaks one of His laws simply because he thought that what he was doing was right to do because he thought that he was not hurting anyone else by what he did. Whatever God says is wrong to do is wrong to do whether we think otherwise because we think we are not hurting anyone by what we are doing.
To read the good news of what God offers to all of us because we have done wrong before Him, please read this post.
* My version maintains the key points of the illustration as it was told by Pastor Minnick. I wrote this version because I wanted to share this great illustration with others and do not have the time to listen to the illustration over and over again and transcribe it exactly as he told it.
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.
