The Ohio Independent Baptist, September 1966

A STUDENT'S SOLILOQUY Mr. Gordon Gr iffin ditor' ote: During the time your editor pa to red the _Grace Bapti t Church, · Cedarville ~e had the JOY of mini te ring to many tud~ ent . One whom we came to know and Jove was ou_r brother Gordon Griffin. H e came to CedarY1lle determined to prepare him elf for the concert . tage. Before graduation, however, the Lord ~1d . om~ great thing in hi life. The fol10~·1ng IS h1 te timony. Our prayer i that it ~ill cha llenge other young people to put God Fm T in their Jive ! I. Gordon Griffin, being of sou nd mind and body do here in the pres– ence of the Lord God on High will m 1 elf. m y body. soul . and <; pirit completely lo the <;e rvice of the I.Ja rd in whatever area and for whatever purpo e H e might dee111 nece <;ar )-. A complete. 11nselfi h giving of the entire per on is wh at the Lord re– quire , not n1erely my talents, my in– tellect. or my ideas, but everything. There is nothing that [ mu st keep for my elf, nothing, ab<iolL1tely noth- • 1ng. For a long time now. yo11 have had the desire for music. At the be– ginning it was sort of a fanciful dream, but when you came to Cedar– vi l] e, things began to change. Here was a perfect place for yot1 to fi nd what the 'A 1 ill of the Lord was and where He would have you to serve. You really buckled down, you mu t have spent four or five hours a day practicing the piano , you even had a motto on the wall that read. "prac– tice, and practice, and practice makes perfect." There were 1nany opportun– itie that presented themc;elvec; to you, there was the re t hon1e and tho'3e people who reall),' enjoyed your play– ing, but so111ehow your heart just was not in it. here were the solos for chapel and then the chance of a life– tin1c, the opportt1ni l}' to tra\ 1 e1 \\'ith ~t 111t1 ical groUJ) frt1 r11 chool. Yot1 reall)' enjoyed t11at experience and J think ) ' OU learr1ed a grea t de,11 fro111 tl10 t: gu}'S tl1at traveled with yolt. '] hat gro1.1 l) re, JJy depl:r1cled on y<)tl , you hacl a real chance to ho\\' tl1e111 wl1at you could do. Wl1at a f, r CJ')' fro111 the in ignificant pltic~ tl1at yot1 }1eld in }1igl1 Cl} ol , 110\~' r>eOJJle kn \A/ \.\ 110 ) ou " re arid "t1at )' u1 cotild (I . My Own Will Il1at v. as 111) tl1 b~gir111i11g, tl1cre " r 1l1re t f JI ....,,, a11d )' 11 11e" tl1at ac11 LlCC di11g y ar \\ LI) l ll 1 11 g 11 \\ J> JJ I tu n it i e t 11 \\ JJ J)I t 11 t } OU \\ re 111 t}1i11g sr c1al 111etl1i111g 1}1at tli I rd c 11ld J :> a 11 ) u , a 11 . in a gr at \\ a) . J ti ir it ,a 1111 u1r JJll 111 l TH OHIO It D PEND[ T BAPTIST I h a ( \ l ) l I r i n( 111 ~ ( f L' c.: I l I ~ l I I h a ( ( h L' I O tll 'v\Hnte<..I ~()l t I() he a c<.)ncerl 11ii1nt\l. lt hatl orl ()1 heen y()Ur Llrean1 for 11o~t of )'Ottr life, anti nov. it aln10. t eemed vv tthin reach. '! ou ne, 1 er tired of working, you spent JU5t about eve ry waking hour think– ing of how wonderful it would be to play before a big audience and hear their re ounding applause. Think of the te timony that you could have. yo t1 told your elf. there n1u t be thou and of people to witness to in the concert f ield. Think of aJI of those art i t , who probably had never had enough time to sit down and think about a real purpo e in life, once the)' had attained 1he top. AJ– righ t. it was . ettled, thi s was the wi11 of the Lord, and everything een1ed to be pointing in th at direction. Yot1r third yea r at Cedarville was ju.. t as wonderfu l and then the f inal year . It was all working out. you were a Mr. Gordon Griffin stt1dent at the Conservatory of Music i11 incinnati and on yot1r \\iay. Of cour<;c, 1t vvould mean four or five year~ 111ore of intensive training. but yot1 \.\ere holding out quite \\ell. The teacher~ \ee111ed to like 1 0L1 and \.\ ere \ ' Cf) encot11 aging. Thc11 the f Ina I test, yt)tl had at Jc,t\t J 50 peOJ)le praying f o r t 1 c a LI d i ti on. I t \\> d the ,1 t 1 d it i orl fl)f cntra11cc i11to gradttalc school, 111atl}' were pra)'ing at that ,,cry 1110- r11cnt. "f 'l1c at1d1tion , cr1t \ ' Cl')' l)O<>t I\ '" ur finger~ JLtst \VOtJltl 11ot coord1n– ,,te ,lr1cl \\'l;re ) 'Ott (li~cot1raged - 1 tl1i11k }' C)lt eve11 cried after tl1c J)l'c - ur \\ a <Jff. '"I he 11c.:;\VS a 111e tl1at ) Oll l1aLI 11 ll l)ecn accc.:;J>t I, lJtll tll '\t tlicJ 1101 e, c11 c 111 to l az ) ' l>tI. '\' ,ti aJ)J)lic.:;cl to ,t11otl1l!r llll >I nr1 l tl1i11g 111eci l 11 \\ t)I ki11g ot1t tl1 re rtnll () o t 1 ,, r sa l i l i ct . I I l1 i 11 k i t ,, a in Jlrtl , tl1at tl1ing l) d t11c 111i I u11, Oll r all ,, re t, g111r1ing t ,,011- der if )U ,, r cloi11g tile I igl1t tl1ir1g, 'r l ll SJJc.:;111 , I 1 l t t 1111 1 n 1Jrd e 1 n ~ 11 g f( r t 11 ,, i 11 I 111 I r I a 11 t I telling the r ()rtl tl1at c0nce1 t 11ianll v. a \vherc }'Ott he longetl ,tntl that \<)ll ju\t coulti not ee \\ hy )Otl fell '-l<J tt neas)(. Y Otar pra}er. \Vere an– \We red, the n1i ionary conference wa the next week and you thought that maybe here wa the an wer. The n1e . ages really touched yo11r heart. God' s Precious Will For the past f ot1r year yo11 h acJ l1een preached to abot1t con ecratino your li fe and dedication and all th; re t and that old me age had sort of ~econ1e dull and boring. It wa dif– ferent thi week, but yot1 till had not made any headway. All weekend yo11 were haky and 11nea y, it wa hard to pray and no longer could yot1 tell the l "ord that yot1 belonged in con– cer t piano, it ju t did not . ee n1 right . It \\'a. almost J tine and )'Otl had to n1ake a deci ion . oo ner or late r. be– cat1se your wedding wa onl y 30 da\'. away. · how n1e vvhere yot1 v. a~l ,, me, \\> a. your prayer the next Mon- da y n1orning and from that tin1e on. yo11 vvere the h::ippie t per on on that campu . Yo11 cot1ldn't keep yot1r mouth .. hut. you had to tell everyone that the Lord had call ed yot1 int ft1ll-time Chr i tian er,,ice. Yot1 had de. pi , ed that tern1 before and had tood to f ighting ft1r 1' whenever .. on1e– one n1entioned it concerning 1 ·011. O\.\ it n1eant on1ethi ng wonderft1l . the f t1 lfill111ent of what you had bee11 eeking for fot1r year. , and n1a)·be 1nore. At la t. yo11 felt ati fied a never before. and joy flooded y t1r Olli. O\\ \OU reall y belonged to the Lord . I, Gordon riffin, being of 11n<.l 111ind and bod)' gave tip on1eth1ng that n1eant ,1b .. olt1tely e, er) thing tL) 111e for on1ething far 111 re preciot1 , \0111eth1ng eternal. on1ething that '-lati. ftcti C\ Cf)' thot1ght and \ er, 111ot i\ c tlnL1 e, er} hL)ttr \\ here, t: r Ht: ]l;a(i'-1 anJ inlL) \\h~1tc\er He c.111"' I k.11t)\\ that I .1111 .. ahu.ling t111tler tl1' - hadl)\\ () l l he l 111ight \ " Subscribe to: Ohio Independent Baptist Only $2.00 per year Box 7 Cedarville, Ohio ATTRACTIVE APPEALING BIBL TRA TS INC \ Q to S P EMBER 1966 PAGE 11