I have now finished reading 900 chapters in the Septuagint and have only 29 chapters left to go to finish reading through the LXX this year—praise God!
| Section | Greek | English |
| OT | 900/929 | 532*/929 |
| NT | 20/260 | 260/260 |
| Bible | 920/1189 | 792/1189 |
*Includes listening to 126 chapters of the OT from the Bible on MP3
Copyright © 2011-2024 by Rajesh Gandhi. All rights reserved.
Over the years, I have read a number of children’s books about the Bible. One of the best short books that I have read is Jesus by Dan Larsen, published by Barbour in its series, The Young Reader’s Christian Library (ISBN 1-55748-100-8).
This book has 13 chapters that total 201 pages and a 10-page dictionary for young readers. Every other page is illustrated and has a brief caption at the bottom of the page.
I remember finding the book so captivating on one occasion that I read the entire book through in one sitting. The book vividly and powerfully presents Jesus to the reader in an engaging style suitable for both children and adults.
I have found this work to be an excellent book for young believers and have also used it as an evangelistic tool.
Copyright © 2011-2024 by Rajesh Gandhi. All rights reserved.
Both Scripture and history provide us with stirring accounts of mass evangelism. Because we can only have total certainty about the genuine success of those mass evangelistic encounters that have been recorded in Scripture, we should give the most careful attention possible to the records of those encounters.
Many scriptural accounts record success in seeing a number of people truly saved (Acts 2:41; 4:4; 5:14; 6:7; 8:12; 10:44; 11:21; 13:43, 48; 16:15; 16:32-34; 17:4, 12; 18:8). Of these accounts, only Acts 2 and 10 provide us with sufficient information to know that there were many believers present to attest to the success of the mass evangelistic encounter that took place on those occasions.
At Pentecost, Peter and the eleven were present (2:14) when about three thousand people were saved (2:41). The account, however, does not clearly indicate to us that every lost person present was saved; in fact, it seems to indicate that was not the case by saying that “they that gladly received his word were baptized” (2:41), which implies that there were those present who did not receive his word.
At Gentecost, Peter and six other brethren were present (11:12) when he preached to Cornelius and “the many [“his kinsmen and near friends”; 10:24] that were come together” (10:27). While Peter was preaching his message, “the Holy Ghost fell on all them which heard the word” (10:44).
These statements thus make clear to us that Peter enjoyed 100% success in this mass evangelism encounter, and that there were seven witnesses to the genuineness of the salvation of every lost person who heard Peter’s message (10:45-48)! The importance of these witnesses being present on that occasion is underscored by Peter’s reference to them (11:12) in his subsequent defense of his evangelizing them (11:4-17).
What’s more, at the Jerusalem Council, when the truth of how Gentiles were to be saved was being intensely debated, Peter referred back to Gentecost when he declared, “God, which knoweth the hearts, bare them witness, giving them the Holy Ghost, even as He did unto us; and put no difference between us and them, purifying their hearts by faith” (15:8-9). God thus was the eight and Premier Witness to the genuineness of their salvation!
Because the Gentecost accounts provide us with this glorious record of many witnesses, both human and divine, to one-hundred percent success in mass evangelism of Gentiles, we who evangelize Gentiles today should make sure that we give this marvelous evangelistic account its rightful place of preeminence in our evangelistic doctrine and practice.
Copyright © 2011-2024 by Rajesh Gandhi. All rights reserved.
This condition is the culprit behind most lower back problems, where herniated disks and sciatica most often occur. The hip flexors, spinal erectors, TFL, piriformis, and QLs are tight and overdeveloped, while the gluteus maximus, gluteus medius, and abdominal muscles are weak. (The hamstrings and adductors are also usually tight.) In this syndrome, the abdomen may protrude, the lower back arches, and one or both feet turn out. This posture places a great amount of stress on the disks in the lower back. As the abs get relatively weak, the QLs and hip flexors tighten and further stress the lower portion of the spine—until a simple twist or forward bend “pulls your back out”!
—Perfect Posture, 16
Copyright © 2011-2024 by Rajesh Gandhi. All rights reserved.
Using a solfeggio format for guitar makes learning the pitches of the melody of a song easier. I have come up with a modified solfeggio format for playing guitar melodies on one string.
Letting the string played open be “Do,” the rest of the solfeggio notes are played on the following frets:
Re – 2
Mi – 4
Fa – 5
So – 7
La – 9
Ti – 11
DO – 12 (All caps indicates one octave above the starting pitch, “Do”)
This modified solfeggio format works great for learning both the melody of a song and how to play and sing it at the same time!
Here is Passion Chorale in my modified solfeggio format.
Copyright © 2011-2024 by Rajesh Gandhi. All rights reserved.
For several years now, I have been working on learning progressively how to relax muscles throughout my body. I have especially targeted all my eye muscles, both intrinsic and extrinsic.
In the last year or so, I have seen noticeable improvement in my nearsightedness. While it is still far from perfect much of the time, I have been having an increasing number of brief periods when my vision is almost as good without my glasses as it is with them. A few times, it has been even better than what it is with my glasses on.
For quite a few months now, I have consistently been doing without my glasses for long periods of time on Sundays and on Wednesday nights. Even though my vision has not been normal during many of those times, I am encouraged that it has been increasingly getting better for longer periods of time on these days.
Even with all my efforts to relax my eye muscles on various occasions, I am amazed at how much tension I still find in my eye muscles on a regular basis. As God allows, I hope to learn to be able to relieve all tension in my eyes readily.
My expectation is that when I am able to do so, my vision will be consistently near normal. Lord willing, I hope that one day soon it will be so and that He will see fit to answer my many prayers for my eyes to be healed fully.
Copyright © 2011-2024 by Rajesh Gandhi. All rights reserved.
This year, I have been tutoring two young home school students in Math and Science. Because they need help learning their math facts, I made a worksheet with macros in it in Excel that randomly gives them 100 multiplication problems at varying speeds.
The program first puts two numbers in the first two boxes and then shows the answer after a specified amount of time.
Here is a picture of the sheet:
The student can choose from four options:
Slower – gives them 3 seconds before showing the answer
Medium – two seconds before giving the answer
Harder – excludes the numbers 10 and 11
Instant – gives the answer at the same time as it puts the numbers up
Using this program, my goal is to get them to where they know well all their multiplication facts for 1 through 12 times 1 through 12.
Praise God for providing such useful features in Excel!
Copyright © 2011-2024 by Rajesh Gandhi. All rights reserved.
This semester, I have been tutoring a student who is taking first-semester Hebrew. Today, he needed to learn ten function words and nine words for numbers (for his quiz tomorrow).
When he told me that he had not studied these words much at all so far, I told him that I thought he was in trouble. As we began to work on the words, however, mnemonic aids came to me that made the task much easier for him.
Here are the ten sentences/phrases that we came up with to help him learn these words. These provide the Hebrew vocabulary words in a part-transliteration, part-pronunciation scheme that I use.
Numbers)
Ri Aleph-Shon – “first”; Sheni – “second”
Echad – 1 [Masculine]; Achath – 1 [Feminine]; ShƏnayim – 2 [Masculine]; ShƏttayim – 2 [Feminine]
Meah – 100; Ma Aleph-Thayim – 200; Eleph – 1000
In the race, Ri Aleph-Shon finished first, and Sheni was second.
Number 1, Echad, married Achath.
Number 2, ShƏnayim married ShƏttayim.
A meah is 1/10 of an eleph.
A meah is ½ of ma aleph-thayim.
Function Words)
Lifney – “before”; AchƏrey – “after”; Min – “from”; Nyad – “as far as”
El – “toward”; Nyal – “on”; Nyim – “with”; ¯Eth – “with”; Koh – “thus”; Beyn – “between”
Before Lifney and after AchƏrey; from Min as far as Nyad
Toward El on Nyal; Nyim with Eth Maqqeph
Thus Koh is between Beyn
Copyright © 2011-2024 by Rajesh Gandhi. All rights reserved.
I received an e-mail request the other day from a website asking me to donate $2 to help keep the site going. Because I had downloaded a fair amount of free sheet music PDFs from the site in the past, I decided to help out.
When I made my donation, I was thrilled to learn that they were giving to everyone who donates a free zip file of more than 1000 PDFs of public domain sheet music. Looking through the music that I received, it is clear to me that I will be able to make great use of this free additional music.
Praise God for this unexpected blessing!
Copyright © 2011-2024 by Rajesh Gandhi. All rights reserved.
During my dissertation process, I struggled greatly in writing the proposal, the prospectus, and many of my chapters. In addition to interpretational and theological difficulties, a lack of full understanding about a number of key elements concerning writing a dissertation made my task very challenging.
In answer to my prayers and the prayers of many others, God greatly helped me to progress by directing me to the best book that I have ever read concerning research writing: A Manual for Writers of Research Papers, Theses, and Dissertations: Chicago Style for Students and Researchers, 7th Edition, by Kate L. Turabian. Had this book been available to me before I ever began writing my dissertation, I would have had far less difficulty with the process than I did. Moreover, the quality of my entire dissertation would have been much better.
Reading Part I of the book, Research and Writing: From Planning to Production, helped me immensely in understanding better what I needed to do to write a dissertation properly. I read it thoroughly at least once and skimmed it at least two other times.
I wish that I had had this work before I ever began college. It would have saved me so much grief over the years.
Anyone who wants to do any kind of research writing well should consider reading Part I of this book several times. I also recommend that anyone who wants to do well in high school and college in any academic subject should make good use of this superb resource.
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.
