Mi exhortación para todos nosotros como creyentes: ¡Dios quiere que crezcamos en nuestro semejanza a Cristo por teniendo un celo por nuestro Padre celestial, como Jesucristo tuvo (San Lucas 2:49)!
R60 Luke 2:49 Entonces él les dijo: ¿Por qué me buscabais? ¿No sabíais que en los negocios de mi Padre me es necesario estar?
Copyright © 2011-2024 by Rajesh Gandhi. All rights reserved.
First Samuel 18-26 records the tragic story of how King Saul wickedly pursued David and tried many times to catch him so that he could slay him. Although I have read this account more than 25 times over the years, I noticed this week an aspect of Saul’s enmity against David that I do not remember every paying attention to in all my previous readings.
King Saul first became at odds with David after he was angered greatly when women honored David’s military exploits far more than they did his (1 Sam. 18:6-9). Immediately after this passage, we read that an evil spirit afflicted him, and he sought to kill David (1 Sam. 18:10-11).
Saul later tried to use his daughters as a means to have David slain (cf. 1 Sam. 18:17, 21ff.), but he was unsuccessful. His attempt to have Jonathan, his son, and all his [Saul’s] servants kill David similarly failed (1 Sam. 19:1-5).
Under the influence of the evil spirit, Saul yet again sought to slay David but could not (1 Sam. 19:9-10). Michal then spared David’s life by deceiving the servants that Saul sent to slay David in his home (1 Sam. 19:11-17).
From First Samuel 18-19, it is clear that direct demonic influence incited Saul at least twice to slay David. His other attempts to kill David may also have been incited by the evil spirit, even though there are no direct statements to that effect.
Two later passages reveal that another key influence besides the evil spirit played a role in Saul’s enmity against David and his efforts to kill him:
1Sa 24:9 And David said to Saul, Wherefore hearest thou men’s words, saying, Behold, David seeketh thy hurt?
10 Behold, this day thine eyes have seen how that the LORD had delivered thee to day into mine hand in the cave: and some bade me kill thee: but mine eye spared thee; and I said, I will not put forth mine hand against my lord; for he is the LORD’S anointed.
1Sa 26:19 Now therefore, I pray thee, let my lord the king hear the words of his servant. If the LORD have stirred thee up against me, let him accept an offering: but if they be the children of men, cursed be they before the LORD; for they have driven me out this day from abiding in the inheritance of the LORD, saying, Go, serve other gods.
20 Now therefore, let not my blood fall to the earth before the face of the LORD: for the king of Israel is come out to seek a flea, as when one doth hunt a partridge in the mountains.
These passages show that David pled with Saul on at least two occasions not to listen to the words of wicked men who were stirring him up against David by lying to him by saying that David was trying to hurt him (1 Sam. 24:9; cf. 26:19). These two statements are remarkable because the Holy Spirit does not provide us with any other record of any such lying statements made by evil people who were inciting Saul to slay David!
Based on the earlier statements about the evil spirit and on these direct statements by David, we can be certain that Saul was incited by both demonic influence and evil human influence to attempt repeatedly to kill David. Although Scripture does not say so, it is very likely that the latter was in reality another facet of the former, so that demonic influence on other people was directly responsible for their lying about David to Saul.
Beyond learning a key truth about Saul’s enmity against David that I have overlooked in the past, I am both amazed and challenged by my having overlooked for all these years the statements by David about evil human influences on Saul. Although I have studied the Bible very carefully and intensely for years, this discovery motivates me to read Scripture even more carefully than I have in the past.
Copyright © 2011-2024 by Rajesh Gandhi. All rights reserved.
Le agradecería oración por mi preparación para enseñar en la escuela dominical y predicar en el servicio de la mañana el 17 de agosto. Dios mediante, espero poder hablar en español para la mayoría de los dos servicios.
Gracias por sus oraciones.
(Written by using Google Translate and Spanishdict.com)
Copyright © 2011-2024 by Rajesh Gandhi. All rights reserved.
The Lord is continuing to direct me toward further Spanish ministry—something I never expected during all my years of training for ministry. Here are some of the things that He has directed me to do so far in the past 2 ½ years to prepare myself for further Spanish ministry:
1. Teaching various guitar classes in one or more local Spanish churches for more than two years, including developing extensively a new method of learning and using guitar for Spanish ministry
2. Studying music theory in Spanish at some length
3. Studying much Spanish grammar through the use of several Spanish textbooks and learning a vast number of Spanish vocabulary words
4. Reading over half of the Bible in Spanish this year
5. Listening and practicing with a set of Pimsleur audio tapes made for beginners to learn Spanish
6. Watching and studying 56 of 60 free online video lessons for learning Spanish at Spanishdict.com (http://www.spanishdict.com/learn/courses)
7. Watching and studying all 22 video lessons produced by BBC that are available for learning Spanish (http://www.bbc.co.uk/languages/spanish/mividaloca/)
8. Attending a number of Bible classes taught in Spanish at a local Bible institute/college
9. Learning to sing and play many Spanish hymns; intensively studying elision in Spanish hymnody
10. Writing several Spanish hymns
11. Writing a few blogposts in Spanish (with much help from Google Translate, Spanishdict.com, and several friends)
12. Ministering twice a month in my church’s Spanish ministry, mostly in special music involving using my guitar to accompany others
13. Attending a number of services in local Spanish churches
14. Ministering musically with some of my guitar students several times in three Spanish churches
15. Going out into neighborhoods around my church to follow-up on Spanish people whom others in my church have previously contacted
16. Preaching once in 2013 for a service in a Spanish church; preparing for teaching Sunday school and preaching in a Spanish church in August 2014, D.V.
Sea alabado el nombre de Jehová (Salmos 113:3)!
Copyright © 2011-2024 by Rajesh Gandhi. All rights reserved.
The book of Nehemiah ends with a striking prayer—“Remember me, O my God, for good” (Neh. 13:31b). An analysis of this prayer and of three preceding ones by Nehemiah provides biblical basis for Christians’ praying for themselves that God would bless them for good!
Nehemiah prayed at least four times to God that He would remember him for good (Neh. 5:19; 13:14, 22, 31). Each of these prayers instructs us about how we should pray.
Nehemiah ministered sacrificially for the good of God’s people (Neh. 5:14-18). He prayed that God would remember him for good because of all that he had done for them:
Neh 5:19 Think upon me, my God, for good, according to all that I have done for this people.
Like Nehemiah, Christians who have diligently served God’s people have a legitimate basis for appealing to God to bless them with good (cf. Rom. 16:2; Heb. 6:10).
Nehemiah was very diligent about seeking the welfare of God’s house and its offices (Neh. 13:4-13). Because he had done many such good deeds, he asked God to remember him:
Neh 13:14 Remember me, O my God, concerning this, and wipe not out my good deeds that I have done for the house of my God, and for the offices thereof.
Christians who have lived lives devoted to their churches and their services (cf. Acts 20:7; 1 Cor. 16:2; Heb. 10:25) have a biblical precedent in Nehemiah to pray to God that He would do good to them.
Nehemiah zealously labored for the sanctity of the Sabbath Day among God’s people (Neh. 13:15-22). Based on what he had done for God’s Day, he prayed for God to remember him for good:
Neh 13:22 And I commanded the Levites that they should cleanse themselves, and that they should come and keep the gates, to sanctify the sabbath day. Remember me, O my God, concerning this also, and spare me according to the greatness of thy mercy.
As Nehemiah expended himself for the sanctity of the Sabbath (cf. Is. 58:13-14), God’s special day for His OT people, many believers today have devoted themselves to setting apart the Lord’s Day as special for God’s NT people. Such Christians can confidently cry out to God for His blessing upon them for what they have done for the glory of the Lord’s Day (cf. Acts 20:7).
Nehemiah concluded his book by praying that God would remember him for good both because of all his efforts to cleanse the priesthood and the Levites (Neh. 13:28-30) and because of what he had done to provide for them to carry out their ministries (Neh. 13:31a):
Neh 13:31 And for the wood offering, at times appointed, and for the firstfruits. Remember me, O my God, for good.
Christians who give themselves to honoring and serving God’s ministers (cf. Rom. 16:4; Philippians. 2:29-30; 2 Tim. 1:16-18) have biblical basis in the example of Nehemiah for asking God to remember them for good.
Christians who devote their lives for the sake of God’s people, God’s house and its services, God’s Day, and God’s ministers have strong biblical grounds for seeking divine blessing upon their own lives. May God grant us such consecrated lives of devotion to the things of God (cf. Philippians. 2:21-22) and may He remember us for good!
Copyright © 2011-2024 by Rajesh Gandhi. All rights reserved.
Scripture records four prayers from Nehemiah that essentially have the same basic idea—that God would remember him for good:
Neh 5:19 Think upon me, my God, for good, according to all that I have done for this people.
Neh 13:14 Remember me, O my God, concerning this, and wipe not out my good deeds that I have done for the house of my God, and for the offices thereof.
Neh 13:22 And I commanded the Levites that they should cleanse themselves, and that they should come and keep the gates, to sanctify the sabbath day. Remember me, O my God, concerning this also, and spare me according to the greatness of thy mercy.
Neh 13:31 And for the wood offering, at times appointed, and for the firstfruits. Remember me, O my God, for good.
Should Christians pray for God to remember them for good?
Copyright © 2011-2024 by Rajesh Gandhi. All rights reserved.
Over the years, I have frequently heard people who have baptized others say something to this effect as they have baptized people: “Buried with Him in the likeness of His death—raised with Him to walk in newness of life.” These words reflect the persuasion that Romans 6:4 is a key text concerning baptism:
Rom 6:4 Therefore we are buried with him by baptism into death: that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life.
While preparing recently to read Colossian 3:1-17 publicly as the Scripture reading for a worship service, I discovered that there is an illuminating parallel between what Paul teaches in Romans 6:4 and what he teaches in Colossians 3:1-17 because of how Paul begins Colossians 3:
Col 3:1 If ye then be risen with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God.
Whereas Romans 6:4 teaches that we who have been buried with Christ by baptism into death should walk in newness of life, Colossians 3:1 (and the following verses) teaches that those who are risen with Christ must live their lives in certain specified ways. The conceptual parallel between these two texts shows that Colossians 3 provides us with a glorious passage that illuminates what comprises a walk in newness of life by those who are risen with Christ!
Based on the illuminating parallel between these passages, a walk in newness of life includes the following:
1. Seeking “those things which are above, where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God” (Col. 3:1)
2. Setting “your affection on things above, not on things on the earth” (Col. 3:2)
3. Mortifying, “therefore, your members which are upon the earth; fornication, uncleanness, inordinate affection, evil concupiscence, and covetousness, which is idolatry” (Col. 3:5)
4. Putting “off all these; anger, wrath, malice, blasphemy, filthy communication out of your mouth” (Col. 3:8)
5. Lying “not one to another, seeing that ye have put off the old man with his deeds and have put on the new man” (Col. 3:9-10)
6. Putting “on therefore, as the elect of God, holy and beloved, bowels of mercies, kindness, humbleness of mind, meekness, longsuffering” (Col. 3:12)
7. “Forbearing one another, and forgiving one another, if any man have a quarrel against any: even as Christ forgave you, so also do ye” (Col. 3:13)
8. “Above all these things put[ting] on charity, which is the bond of perfectness” (Col. 3:14)
9. Letting “the peace of God rule in your hearts, to the which also ye are called in one body” (Col. 3:15a)
10. Being “thankful” (Col. 3:15b)
11. Letting “the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom; teaching and admonishing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord” (Col. 3:16)
12. Whatever you may be doing “in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God and the Father by him” (Col. 3:17)
Praise God for giving us this marvelous passage that teaches us so much about what a walk in newness of life by those who have been raised with Christ looks like! Let us use this insight into Scripture to examine our lives about areas that we need to grow in as those who have been baptized in obedience to Christ.
Copyright © 2011-2024 by Rajesh Gandhi. All rights reserved.
The testimony of Dr. Mary Kraus exalts the Lord for His goodness to her. She gave me permission to share it so that many other people would be blessed by learning what the Lord has done for her.
HEDONIST CONVERTED
What Really Matters?
I was fifteen when I stood one December Saturday at the top of the head wall on Rib Mountain in central Wisconsin. The snow was squeaky cold under my skis, and the trees and hills below glittered in the frosty sun.
I was anticipating a good fast run when I suddenly felt an overwhelming love from the God who had given me life and a body with senses, and a world that so thrilled and satisfied me. I was attending a Catholic High school and had just heard a priest invite us to consider giving our lives to God as priests or nuns. At that moment, I thought the most fulfilling thing I could do with my life would be to pursue a union with the Source of all that I had and was.
I had grown up in a Catholic family, attended parochial school and was taught that Jesus Christ was the Son of God and had become a man Who loved me and died on the Cross for all our sins. But at that moment of grace atop a ski hill, I fell in love with Jesus Christ and knew that He died for me.
I was the neighborhood scrapper, the practical joker who brought squirt guns to school to liven up the legs of my sixth grade classmates during change of classes when our desktops were raised. I picked fights with people just because I didn’t like the way they looked.
I was a sinner all right, and when I finally got hold of the concept that my rebellion and meanness put those nails in Jesus’ hands and feet, I became a new person. In those days, my favorite passage of Scripture was Luke 12:32-34,
“Do not be afraid little flock, for your father has chosen gladly to give you the kingdom. Sell your possessions and give to charity; make yourselves money belts which do not wear out, an unfailing treasure in heaven, where no thief comes near nor moth destroys. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.”
I was yet to learn by experience the truth of these words.
But I knew what it was to be loved, even before God’s love became real to me. Although I never realized it until later, my human father was a tremendous reflection of God’s love for me. It was easy for me to believe in God’s love because of him.
As I grew up, he taught me everything that mattered: How to enjoy a good storm from our back porch, how to recognize a blue jay’s call, how to play tennis, make a fire, appreciate a sunset, and read good books.
In my sixteenth year he died. Even now, sixty years later, I thank God for him and for my mother too who had her good hand on my life through her example of service to us and to many others outside of our family.
After that moment of grace atop Rib Mt., I attended Mass daily and looked forward to the time when I could prove to myself and to God that I was willing to give up His gifts in order to seek the Source and Giver of the gifts. So at eighteen I entered a Franciscan convent and began college classes and the routine religious life.
After my training, I taught in parochial grade schools for thirteen years but a sense of stagnation both spiritual and psychological set in and grew. This was now the late 60s when the old structures were no longer trusted. I lost my early ideals and left the convent for all the wrong reasons.
I decided to live my own life, thinking I could do better than to wait for the church and community to settle their direction. So for four years I lived a worldly life while teaching in public high schools and in South Korea as a Peace Corps volunteer.
But during this time God taught me the experience of, “Vanity of vanities…All is vanity!” All the while doing my own thing, I became increasingly depressed, and finally decided that like Don Quixote I needed to return to my early ideals no matter how impractical and unreasonable they were. So I returned to the convent for nine years until the old sense of stagnation set in again.
Then I earnestly began praying for direction. Here I was in my 40s and still not settled! What shall I do?
God answered my prayer, introduced me to fundamental Christians and eventually brought me down to a Christian University where I taught until retiring after thirty years. It took me too long to learn by experience the truth of Philippians 3:8 that all things are worthless in comparison to knowing Christ.
(Scripture from NASB)
Read a fuller testimony by Dr. Kraus here
Copyright © 2011-2024 by Rajesh Gandhi. All rights reserved.
Recently, I had the unhappy experience of sitting in church and having an immodestly1 dressed woman come sit somewhat nearby on the same pew that I was sitting. Although she was not dressed appropriately, she was friendly, as was her husband who sat on the other side of her.
Her sitting near me dressed as she was created internal struggle for me as I had to fight to keep my thoughts right. Her presence was a considerable distraction to me as I tried to attend to the message being preached.
After the service, I greeted both of them and tried to be friendly. I especially did so because I thought that they might be unbelievers who had come to visit the church that I was in that Sunday.
Her attire made it difficult to carry on a conversation with her, but God gave me grace to extend myself to her and her husband. I learned from talking to them that she had grown up in a solid Christian church.
I have no doubt in my mind that this professing Christian woman was not clueless about how her wearing immodest clothing would affect men who see her. In spite of her being a really nice person, it was wrong for her to dress that way in public—especially in the context of a church service (Rom. 13:10, 14; 14:21; 1 Cor. 10:32)!
It is bad enough that we are continually assaulted by indecently dressed women in public places like Walmart (especially many of their cashiers). To have a similar experience in church, however, is so much worse!
Perhaps, godly women in churches should discreetly start passing out shawls in such situations so that divine worship is not hindered and the testimony of the gospel is properly maintained (1 Tim. 2:9).
1 In fact, she was the one of the most immodestly dressed women that I have ever encountered in a church service.
Copyright © 2011-2024 by Rajesh Gandhi. All rights reserved.
In spite of many difficulties, the Lord has continued to give me grace to progress in reading through the Reina Valera this year (blue portions show what I have read; red, what I need to read):
I thank God for helping me to make it almost halfway through the Spanish Bible this year!
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.
