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A GIFT FOR THE LORD
11-23-08
When I get discouraged over the high cost of
recording and marketing CDs, I go to my personal journal and find a
letter I received from a minister. Let me share it with you:
"Yesterday a young truck driver came to my office and said he felt he
had to talk to me. He is a deacon in his home church and has been
married almost 20 years. He has three children and a lovely wife.
The night before while driving in the wee hours of the morning he
answered the call of a professional prostitute. Very painfully he
confessed to me that he had committed adultery and it was killing him.
He explained that he had prayed and asked forgiveness but the feeling
would not go away. I said, 'Sir, I have a song I want to play for you.
It was written by a friend of mine. If you will listen to it you will
know what to do.
I put your gospel CD on and set it on 'I Wonder What He Wrote in the
Sand.' I turned the volume up so he could hear every word.
When I turned it off, I looked at him and tears were streaming down his
face and falling off his lips like a waterfall. He was smiling now. He
got your message, 'You can always start again.' He spoke it slowly and
quietly.
One of your songs brought a man out of hell and into a new life and a
fresh start."
This letter came at a time when I was wondering if I should invest more
money in my songs. The CD he played for the weeping man was my second
gospel album and I came close to not putting it out. I needed to see
that what we do can make a difference in people's lives.
That song was given to me as surely as if an angel had delivered in on a
silver platter. Just minutes before writing it I had asked my mother to
pray that the songs for a gospel album would come to me. A nursing home
had agreed to use the album to raise the money to buy a little man a
wheelchair he could guide with his teeth or chin and within an hour of
talking with mother, two songs came to me as if by dictation. The first
was "Lord Can I Come Home" and the second was "I Wonder What He Wrote in
the Sand."
Another song on that CD - "His Amazing Grace" -- was recorded by the
Lewis Family and while it has not made me wealthy, it has helped to pay
for the whole project. It is also in the Gaither Songbook.
I want to speak directly to your heart about your talents. Use your
talents as a personal gift to the Lord and you will find great freedom
from money and all the other little fears that hold you back from doing
your thing. What if it fails to come up to your expectations? Offer up
what seems to be your failure to the Lord. Millions of people have
tried to do things for the Lord that did not meet their expectations.
But you can be absolutely certain of one thing: none of them were
failures in the eyes of the Lord. He said, "Those who give just a cup of
cold water in my name will not lose my reward" and "inasmuch as you do
it for the least, you do it for me."
I am certain that we have a much better chance at making money by living
by the eternal principles given to us by Jesus but the spiritual reward
is so much sweeter. What amount of money would buy that minister's
letter to me?
A brother I have never met is walking this earth today forgiven and
rededicated and no reward can compare to that.
~~~
Order 2 copies of my gospel CD as Christmas gifts and I will send a free
copy of Long John Cardinal. Just $20 to DR, 3327 Roberts Road,
Chattanooga, TN 37416.
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