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Bakht Singh

Bakht Singh Chabra (1903 - 2000). Indian evangelist, church planter, and Bible teacher born in Joiya, Punjab (now Pakistan), to a devout Sikh family. Educated at Punjab University, he studied agricultural engineering in England (1926-1928) and Canada (1929-1932), embracing a Western lifestyle, including smoking and drinking, while rejecting his Sikh roots by shaving his hair. Initially hostile to Christianity—once tearing a Bible apart—he converted in 1929 in Winnipeg after reading the New Testament, influenced by Christian friends John and Edith Hayward. Returning to India in 1933, he began preaching as an Anglican evangelist, later becoming independent, sparking the 1937 Martinpur revival, a pivotal movement in Indian Christianity. In 1941, after a night of prayer in Chennai, he founded Hebron Ministries, establishing over 10,000 indigenous churches modeled on New Testament principles across India and South Asia. Singh authored books like How I Got Joy Unspeakable and Full of Glory and held annual “Holy Convocations” in Madras, Hyderabad, Ahmedabad, and Kalimpong, drawing thousands. Married to Rama Bai at age 12 in 1915, little is recorded of their personal life. His contextualized gospel, blending Indian spirituality with biblical truth, earned him the title “Elijah of the 21st Century” in Indian Christendom. Singh’s words, “I have never asked any man for anything, but the Lord is richly supplying all my needs,” reflect his faith-driven ministry. Despite Parkinson’s disease in his final decade, his legacy endures through Hebron’s global network and writings, praised by figures like Ravi Zacharias.
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Bakht Singh preaches on the experience of the psalmist Asaph in Psalm 73, where he almost stumbled and fell from faith while observing the prosperity of the ungodly. Asaph was tempted to believe that his pursuit of holiness was in vain, feeling vexed in his spirit. However, through seeking God in the holy place, Asaph gained a new perspective, realizing the temporary nature of the ungodly's joy and the eternal joy awaiting the godly. This serves as a reminder for believers to focus on the eternal blessings and be content with what God has provided, as godliness with contentment is true gain.
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Suffer for a Little While
“But as for me, my feet had almost stumbled; my steps had nearly slipped” (Psalms 73:2) That was the experience of the psalmist Asaph. His steps were about to slip. He was about to stumble and fall from faith. He walked, for sometime in spiritual life, on a slippery ground and was about to fall but the Lord was gracious to him and protected him from falling. Then he wrote this psalm of praise for the Lord. What was the slippery ground on which Asap walked? What was the situation in which he almost stumbled from faith? You will be surprised to know and find it hard to believe! Surely herein lays the most important revelation for us. The greatest temptation in Christian life is not adultery and fornication. Of course it is a sin that we have to live as far away as possible. But that is not the greatest temptation we could face. The greatest temptation is, looking at other ungodly people flourish and being vexed in the spirit. That was the temptation Asaph faced! He saw the ungodly people around him flourish in everyway and he saw many godly people suffer in every possible way. He even probably had been suffering in many ways. May be many of his prayers went unanswered. On the other hand the ungodly people were enjoying their lives. When Asaph observed this unreasonable situation he was vexed in his spirit. See what he thought in his heart. His feelings are recorded in the 13th verse “Surely in vain have I kept my heart pure; in vain have I washed my hands in innocence”. He thought he did a mistake in pursuing holiness and righteousness. He thought may be he would have done better if he had compromised with sin and the world. If he had been serious in adopting that kind of ideology, that would have been the end of his spiritual life. He would have surely ended up an apostate but praise God! The Lord did not allow that great calamity in Asaph’s life. God inspired Asaph to go into the holy place and meditate about the situation. When he did so he realized his mistake. He began to understand that all the joys of ungodly people are only temporal and limited to this life and this world. They may be flourishing and enjoying in this world but once they leave this world, they will enter into eternal and endless misery. But the story is quite different to the godly people. They may suffer for a little while in this world but their eternal state is blissful and full of joy. There is no reason for a believer to feel jealous about a flourishing unbeliever. We must fix our eyes on the eternal world which is beyond the point of death. In this life as Paul tells us we must be content with what God has given us. “For we brought nothing into the world, and we can take nothing out of it. But if we have food and clothing, we will be content with that” (1Timothy 6:7, 8) because “godliness with contentment is great gain” (1 Timothy 6:6). May God grant us His wisdom!
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Bakht Singh Chabra (1903 - 2000). Indian evangelist, church planter, and Bible teacher born in Joiya, Punjab (now Pakistan), to a devout Sikh family. Educated at Punjab University, he studied agricultural engineering in England (1926-1928) and Canada (1929-1932), embracing a Western lifestyle, including smoking and drinking, while rejecting his Sikh roots by shaving his hair. Initially hostile to Christianity—once tearing a Bible apart—he converted in 1929 in Winnipeg after reading the New Testament, influenced by Christian friends John and Edith Hayward. Returning to India in 1933, he began preaching as an Anglican evangelist, later becoming independent, sparking the 1937 Martinpur revival, a pivotal movement in Indian Christianity. In 1941, after a night of prayer in Chennai, he founded Hebron Ministries, establishing over 10,000 indigenous churches modeled on New Testament principles across India and South Asia. Singh authored books like How I Got Joy Unspeakable and Full of Glory and held annual “Holy Convocations” in Madras, Hyderabad, Ahmedabad, and Kalimpong, drawing thousands. Married to Rama Bai at age 12 in 1915, little is recorded of their personal life. His contextualized gospel, blending Indian spirituality with biblical truth, earned him the title “Elijah of the 21st Century” in Indian Christendom. Singh’s words, “I have never asked any man for anything, but the Lord is richly supplying all my needs,” reflect his faith-driven ministry. Despite Parkinson’s disease in his final decade, his legacy endures through Hebron’s global network and writings, praised by figures like Ravi Zacharias.