Melody and chords for When I Survey the Wondrous Cross in my format for guitar.
Copyright © 2011-2024 by Rajesh Gandhi. All rights reserved.
Recently, because of my being naïve and careless, a scammer succeeded in defrauding me of a fair amount of money. In keeping with the spirit of Jesus’ teaching to pray for those who wrong us (Matt. 5:44), I offer this prayer for the person who scammed me:
Heavenly Father, please deal with this person in such a way that he will repent of his sin of stealing before it is eternally too late. Let the wickedness of this wicked person come to an end.
If it would please You, so orchestrate the circumstances of this person’s life that it would be unmistakable to him that You have supernaturally intervened so that he “is snared in the work of his own hands” (Ps. 9:16) and thereby brought to repentance. Please also send someone into his life who will give him Your gospel concerning Your Son so that he will believe in Him and have his sins forgiven.
In Jesus name, Amen.
See also Deliverance through Prayerful Persistence
Mere Coincidence or Answered Prayer?
Copyright © 2011-2024 by Rajesh Gandhi. All rights reserved.
I have been blogging since February of this year and have learned much about writing, blogs, PHP, CSS—and the practices of spammers. Having to deal regularly with many spam messages, I think that spammers need to consider solemnly that Jesus taught, “Every idle word that men shall speak, they shall give account thereof in the day of judgment” (Matt. 12:36). He
emphasizes the importance of what people say by speaking of every careless word they utter. When people speak lightly without paying serious attention to what they are saying, the careless word, the word uttered without any thought of the effect that it will have on other people, then that word shows something of what they are, deep down . . . This makes it more significant than the person uttering it may think, and it will be taken into account on Judgment Day. Jesus is saying that in the end we must all give account of ourselves and that words we take lightly will then be seen to have meaning, for they show our innermost being.—Morris, The Gospel according to Matthew, 322; bold words are in italics in the original
Based on the content of the spam messages that I am receiving on my site, I believe that their authors are sadly storing up for themselves wrath from God in the Day of Judgment.
Every spam message that supposedly comments on a post but does not have anything to do with the post itself displays a failure to love one’s neighbor as oneself. Spammers fail to obey the Golden Rule of doing to others what they would want to have done to themselves.
May God grant spammers repentance of their multiplying idle words through their worthless messages that display their lack of love for their fellow man.
Copyright © 2011-2024 by Rajesh Gandhi. All rights reserved.
Following Peter’s message at Pentecost (Acts 2:14-36), his audience asked him what they should do (2:37) in view of what he had preached and the effect that his message had on them. Luke records Peter’s response to their request in two parts: (1) 2:38-39 and (2) 2:40.
In the latter, Luke tells us that “with many other words did he testify and exhort, saying, ‘Save yourselves from this untoward generation.'” Because of Peter’s ministry on this occasion, including his lengthy final appeal, about 3000 people gladly received his word, and they were baptized (2:41a). In that same day, they were added to the apostles (2:41b).
Peter’s ministry included more than just proclamation of his message; he forcefully exhorted his hearers at length to respond properly to what they had heard. He thus exemplifies for us how we should minister the word to people: preach the message and then challenge people “with many other words” to respond correctly.
Based on this teaching, a lengthy invitation at the end of an evangelistic message should not automatically be viewed as a human expedient intended to manipulate people to respond. Although such an invitation could be abused by using it in a manipulative manner, we should not regard giving a lengthy invitation as an inherently unjustified practice.
Copyright © 2011-2024 by Rajesh Gandhi. All rights reserved.
Early in the reign of Solomon, God appeared to him in a dream and gave him an incredible opportunity: “Ask what I shall give thee” (1 Kings 3:5). Solomon’s request teaches us a key truth about him as the king that many believers may have overlooked:
“Give therefore thy servant an understanding heart to judge thy people, that I may discern between good and bad: for who is able to judge this thy so great a people?” (3:9).
Given the opportunity to ask for whatever he wished, Solomon asked for wisdom so that he could judge God’s people. His request, therefore, shows that he viewed his work as the supreme judicial agent of God over His kingdom as uniquely important.
God was greatly pleased with Solomon’s request (3:10) and gave him far more than what he asked for (3:11-13). The record of God’s great pleasure over Solomon’s request and His richly rewarding him for making that request strongly suggests that Solomon asked for something that was of unique importance for him as the king of Israel.
By following this account immediately with a record of Solomon’s use of his excelling God-given wisdom to judge a dispute among God’s people (3:16-27), the inspired author confirms this interpretation. Moreover, by then stating the nationwide effect of his superlative display of divine wisdom to judge, the writer further confirms this interpretation:
“And all Israel heard of the judgment which the king had judged; and they feared the king: for they saw that the wisdom of God was in him, to do judgment” (3:28).
Through the inspired record that plainly stresses Solomon’s God-given wisdom to judge His people, we should learn that being the chief judge for God over His people, Israel, was of unique importance for Solomon as the king of Israel. What, then, should we understand about the work in the kingdom of God that was (and is and will yet in a special way be) of unique importance for Jesus Christ, the King of Israel (John 1:49), who was (and is and ever will be) greater than Solomon was (Luke 11:31)?
Copyright © 2011-2024 by Rajesh Gandhi. All rights reserved.
While on vacation the past few days in TN, I had the privilege of teaching Sunday School at Calvary Baptist Church in Cookeville. I taught on the birth of the Church from Acts 2.
I. When was the Church born? On the day of Pentecost, which was on the day after the Sabbath.
Application: The Church must set continue to set apart the first day of every week as a special day to the Lord on which those who are in a local church assemble together.
II. How was the Church born? Through the repentance of and believing response by those who heard Peter’s preaching of the Word of God.
Application: When they do assemble together on the Lord’s Day, the Church must continue to magnify the preaching of the Word of God as the God-ordained means of building the Church.
III. What was the result of the Church’s being born? They devoted themselves to the doctrine of the apostles, fellowship, the Lord’s Supper, and prayers.
Application: The Church must continue to emphasize these four aspects in their assembling together. Believers must accept that meeting regularly for taking the Lord’s Supper and for corporate prayer is essential for the Church to be what it was born to be.
Copyright © 2011-2024 by Rajesh Gandhi. All rights reserved.
On day 161 of 2011, I reached the halfway mark for reading through the LXX this year: 461 chapters/920 total! Lord willing, I may yet make it through the Bible in Greek this year!
Copyright © 2011-2024 by Rajesh Gandhi. All rights reserved.
Saint Augustine noted long ago a lack of proper consideration by man of the marvelous nature of the creation of man by God:
Men go abroad to wonder at the height of mountains, at the huge waves of the sea, at the long courses of the rivers, at the vast compass of the ocean, at the circular motion of the stars; and they pass by themselves without wondering. —Quoted in Fearfully & Wonderfully Made: A Surgeon Looks at the Human & Spiritual Body, 5
More recently, Spurgeon made comments along the same lines:
We need not go to the ends of the earth for marvels, nor even across our own threshold; they abound in our own bodies. —The Treasury of David, Vol. III, 262
In support of these remarks, consider that
the simple act of walking into a room and immediately recognizing all the objects in it requires more computing power than a dozen of the world’s top supercomputers put together. —The Wonder of Man, 19
The human frame is so admirably constructed, so delicately combined, and so much in danger of being dissolved by innumerable causes, that the more we think of it the more we tremble, and wonder at our own continued existence. . . . To do justice to the subject, it would be necessary to be well acquainted with anatomy. I have no doubt that a thorough examination of that ‘substance which God hath curiously wrought’ (verse 15), would furnish abundant evidence of the justness of the Psalmist’s words; but even those things which are manifest to common observation may be sufficient for this purpose. —TOD, 277
Those who were skilful in Anatomy among the ancients, concluded from the outward and inward make of a human body, that it was the work of a Being transcendently wise and powerful. . . . Galen was converted by his dissections, and could not but own a Supreme Being upon a survey of this his handiwork. —Ibid, 280
We today have much more knowledge of anatomy than any of the ancients ever had. For example, imagine putting the whole Bible onto one photographic slide in such a way that it would still be readable. Though doing so would be an incredible feat, compare that with the fact that to put the equivalent of the information contained in one DNA molecule onto one photographic slide would require our being able to put 7.7 trillion readable copies of the whole Bible onto that one slide:
If we want to obtain the DNA packing density on a [single] photographic slide . . . we would have to divide its surface into 2.77 million rows and 2.77 million columns and copy an entire Bible in a readable form in each of the tiny rectangles formed in this way. . . . Even if it were possible to achieve such a photographic reduction, then we would still only have a static storage system, which differs fundamentally from the dynamic storage system of DNA. —In the Beginning Was Information, 192-93
Learning of such wonders as that of the DNA molecule certainly supports the following comments:
The all-seeing God is also almighty, the resources of whose power are already revealed to me by the amazing complexity of my own physical body, which he made for me. Confronted with this, the psalmist’s meditations turn to worship. —Knowing God, 86
Has it ever been the case for you that contemplation of your physical body has led you to worship God, its Creator, for how fearfully and wonderfully He has made you?
Copyright © 2011-2024 by Rajesh Gandhi. All rights reserved.
The books of the NT in their canonical form are twenty-seven books that were inspired by God as whole documents, and not as separate discourses, chapters, or verses. Because God did not inspire any particular parts of any book independently of the rest of the book, a right assessment of the any NT book is impossible without appropriate consideration of what each book as a whole communicates. An examination of the books from that perspective reveals that teaching about God permeates the NT since every book explicitly speaks of Him.
Furthermore, every book clearly refers to God as the Father and Jesus as the Christ, except Third John, which has three occurrences of “God” (1:6, 11 [2x]; likely references to the Father) and one mention of the Name (1:7; likely a reference to Christ). Thus, twenty-six of the twenty-seven NT books explicitly present Christ as distinct from the Father. Because the term Christ in Scripture signifies an anointed one who was “chosen, accredited, and empowered” by God for one or more particular tasks, this nearly universal use of that term for Jesus shows that the NT pervasively communicates His agency.[1]
Moreover, each book does so at the beginning of the book:
God as the Father is mentioned in distinction from Jesus of Nazareth in the first chapter of each book by the use of one or more of the following titles for Jesus: “Son” (Heb.); “Jesus” (Luke, Acts); and, “Christ” (all the remaining books except Matthew and 3 John). Matthew speaks of Christ as distinct from the Father through references to the Father as Lord (1:20, 22, 24). Third John likely presents Christ as “the Name” in distinction from the Father as God.
Teaching that communicates the agency of Jesus as God’s Christ, therefore, is a pervasive emphasis of the NT.
[1] I formulated this explanation of what the term Christ signifies from combining the following sources: Thomas R. Schreiner teaches, “The term ‘Messiah’ . . . designates someone who is anointed by God for a particular task.” New Testament Theology: Magnifying God in Christ, 197-98. Michael P. V. Barrett explains, “Three common features applied to all ‘messiahs.’ They were chosen, accredited, and empowered.” Beginning at Moses: A Guide to Finding Christ in the Old Testament, 35.
Copyright © 2011-2024 by Rajesh Gandhi. All rights reserved.
This last act of Christ, namely, his judging the world, is a special part of his exaltation and honour bestowed upon him, ‘because he is the Son of Man,’ John v. 27 . . . In this will the glory of the Christ’s sovereignty and power be eminently and illustriously displayed before angels and men. And this is that great truth which he commanded to be preached and testified to the people, namely, that it is ‘he which was ordained of God to be the Judge of quick and dead.’
—Sermon XLII. Christ’s Advent to Judgment, being the fourth and last degree of his Exaltation, illustrated and improved in The Works of John Flavel, Vol. 1, 525
THESE words are part of a sermon preached by St. Peter to Cornelius and his friends, wherein the apostle briefly declareth unto them the chief particulars in the history of Christ, together with some main points of Christian doctrine most fit for them to know; particularly he doth in these words express the point concerning the future judgment; reporting that our Lord especially did charge his apostles to preach unto the people and testify; that is, first publicly to declare and explain, then by convenient proofs, especially by divine attestations, to evince and persuade this point; the importance whereof, and eminence among other Christian doctrines, doth hence plainly appear, that the author of our faith did make so especial provision, and gave so express a charge concerning the promulgation and probation thereof: the which circumstance is indeed remarkable and weighty; but I shall insist on it, meaning immediately to set upon considering the point itself, as it is here laid down in these terms; that it is he which was ordained by God to be Judge of quick and dead: in which words are couched three particulars most considerable.
—The Works of Isaac Barrow, D. D. with a Life of the Author, 383-384
Copyright © 2011-2024 by Rajesh Gandhi. All rights reserved.
