Hi! I'm Andrew Roberts, a slave to Christ, music teacher & producer and previously a ministry intern at Blenheim Baptist Church in Leeds, United Kingdom. Currently I serve at BTM Bible church in Bangalore through preaching, teaching, youth ministry, discipleship & worship. In my down time I love studying theology, composing Christian instrumental music, writing poetry, reading the puritans and going off the grid.
Ever since Christ saved me in 2021, I began writing down my notes and meditations on portions of scripture from my daily Bible readings with the specific aim of exploring a unique attribute of Christ in any passage of the Bible. When I noticed how it encouraged and edified my family and friends, I considered putting all my reflections in one accessible place: on here!
I do hope that these meditations help you read your Bible with the aim of loving Christ because of what you've discovered of His sweet Person and His glorious works in every portion of scripture.
My Testimony
Being born and raised in a Godly Christian home in India, I had a faint knowledge about God and His Son but never knew Him personally but simply as someone high and lofty whose judgement I feared whenever I sinned, while also searing my guilty conscience by trying to find ultimate pleasure and satisfaction in sinful activities and idolising good things like music and art. Although the blessing of a godly home was that many of the sins of my youth could be externally restrained, I needed a new heart and a new spirit.
Although I can't remember the specific day or month, it was sometime early in 2022 when I'd come to Leeds to study. I was sipping a cup of coffee on a Sunday morning, enjoying the view out my window while listening to a playlist of instrumental hymns. As I listened, a hymn that I'd listened to many times as a teenager began to play. Although it was instrumental, I knew the words; it was the hymn "When I Survey the Wondrous Cross" by Isaac Watts. As I sang the words to myself, the song came to the 3rd verse:
"See from His head, His hands, His feet,
Sorrow and love flow mingled down.
Did ever such love and sorrow meet,
Or thorns compose so rich a crown?"
And for the first time in my life, the four greatest words in human history hit me like a thunderbolt: "GOD DIED FOR YOU." Tears began to stream down my face uncontrollably as I realised the great love of the Son of God in suffering and dying for my sins. It was the Holy Spirit who had used the Gospel in a hymn to save a musician! I still remember playing that song on my guitar for a whole week while weeping in my room. From that moment on, it became clear to me as in the last stanza of that hymn:
"Were the whole realm of nature mine,
That were an offering far too small.
Love so amazing, so Divine,
Demands my soul, my life, my all!"
Everything changed. With a new heart and a new spirit I began to read the Bible not because I was supposed to, but because I wanted to know God and prayer was no longer a customer-complaint call to God but sweet communion with Him. My wonderful church family in Leeds poured into me with their godly examples, counsel and by introducing me to the reformers and puritans. I slowly got involved in my church, leading Bible studies for youth groups, preaching in my church and serving in the worship group. When I returned to India, the Lord showed me the great need here and I serve the church under an encouraging leadership through Bible teaching, youth ministry & worship.
All this from the guy who used to think that being a minister was "the most dreadfully bland life a person could ever have."
Glory be to our Lord Jesus Christ, who loves us, and has freed us from our sins by His blood and made us to be a kingdom of priests to serve His God and Father! (Revelation 1:5)