TITLE: A Symphony of Miracles Book 2 Chapter 28 Building a Ministry 11/23/14 By Richard McCaw 11/23/14 |
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Chapter 28
Building a Ministry
What was God doing at this time? He was setting me up in a career to train musicians for the Body of Christ. This program would allow me time to write and to minister to His people, while leading many into an intimate relationship with Christ.
But how would I be led into such a vast ministry? He would lead as He always led His people, through the gentle, tender voice of His Spirit. Sometimes by circumstances, sometimes by the still small voice of His Spirit deep in my spirit. But I would know, because I was His child. Besides, He once declared, “My sheep hear my voice and I know them and they follow me!”
During those times, worldly-wise professors of religion did look on and make uninformed judgments. Some probably thought, “What’s wrong with that young brother?” Others, “He doesn’t seem to be too right in his head.” Still others knew which path I should take. “He should do what every right thinking young man does: search the newspapers, dress nicely, and apply for any job he can get!”
But thank God, their remarks never troubled me. I was determined to wait on the Lord for specific instructions. I was going to follow His plan, not the plans, ideas or popular notions of anyone else. The motto of my school: “Age quod agis” meant “Do whatever you do well!” I was going to do whatever I did well and with all my strength for the Lord of heaven and earth. Besides, He had shown me what to do.
At the beginning of the year, I continued, like a diligent architect, to devise strategies and draw up the blueprint for my private music studio. I obtained a pipe pole, and had a black plastic sign made with the words ‘Studio of Music’ in white. I placed it by the gate at my property.
I also began to experiment with various forms of advertisements; small cards with a music logo and words like “Learn the Magic of Learning Music by Speed Technique,” and “Speed Courses.” I never used the old dead ways of advertising but created unusual graphics. I included stenciled art work from Donald Duck, Daffy Duck, Mickey Mouse, Bugs Bunny comics and others I knew would make them unique.
However, because I was taking that path, some people actually thought that with a camp name like “Crackers,” I must have been a little crazy. But everything I did was deliberate and dedicated to attract attention and to maintain interest in my products and services. Nothing was accidental!
I had also received various words from the Lord: “He that spared not His Son but offered him up for us all, how shall he not with him freely give us all things?” and “Ask and it shall be given unto you, seek and ye shall find, knock and it shall be opened unto you. For everyone that asks receives.”
My ears were open and seized upon every word of the Lord. He had instructed me to ask, and I would receive. So, I asked and I received. This was another miracle, and proved to me the validity of God’s Word! By the time February came around, my gates were swung wide open for the flood of students that would be coming from the churches. I started with six students, and then it grew to ten, then fifteen, and kept growing all the time.
Music therefore provided the financial base of my ministry for the next decade. Teaching in the afternoons always allowed me time to pursue certification as a music teacher at the Jamaica School of Music, while preaching the Word in the mornings and early afternoons in schools.
I also counseled at camps six times annually until the 1970’s. I had the opportunity to publish six short stories between November, 1965 and April 1966 in the “Children’s Own,” stories that I had written while on retreat in Harkers Hall in 1963. In December, “Joel’s Gift,” a children’s Christmas story, appeared in the Sunday edition of the "Gleaner".
In that same year, a poem I wrote to the rhythm of a carol was published in the “Campus Challenge,” a publication of the Inter-Varsity Fellowship that circulated on the University of the West Indies campus.
What a marvelous God we have! No one could have set up a better program! Perhaps, you ask,
“To what purpose did God go to such lengths to arrange the intricate details of your life?”
Here is what I discovered. It is always the Father’s purpose to reveal Himself through human flesh.
Paul, the Apostle once told young Timothy that “without controversy the mystery of godliness was great: that God had been manifest in the flesh, justified in the Spirit, seen of angels, preached unto the Gentiles, believed on in the world and received up into glory.”
Of course, Paul was talking about none other than Jesus Christ, whom He explained to Colossian believers was “the image of the invisible God, the One who created all things in heaven and in earth whether they be thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or powers: all things were created by him, and for Him: and he is before all things and by Him all things consist. And He is the Head of the church.”
The writer to the Hebrews described Him as “the brightness of the Father’s glory, the express image of His person, the One who was upholding all things by the word of His power.” It is this same Blessed One to whom we must look, whose image we must reflect, “beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, we will be transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as by the Spirit of the Lord!”
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