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Who We Are
Music Missions is a ministry team headed up by Marshall Rinker and assisted by other believers, joining their efforts to reach the world for Christ through powerful music, thought-provoking
videos, and challenging life-changing articles. Some of what you discover will be a few of Marshall's own compositions.
Marshall’s full name is Gary Marshall Rinker and he has been serving the Lord with a passionate heart since 1971. Raised in a family of eight, he attended a small country church nearly every Sunday
where his mother was the song leader while she played the piano or church organ. After her untimely death in a tragic car accident in 1964 Marshall no longer had to attend church because his dad
did not see the need for church attendance at the time.
To help deal with the loss of his mom he decided to pursue a career in the music industry. Playing drums was Marshall’s only sense of self worth and accomplishment, so attempting to be successful and famous as a rock star seemed like his best option for the future. But loosing his mom when he was 13 caused such disillusionment and depression that it eventually help lead him into heavy alcohol and drug use. At the age of 21 his drug use had become so excessive that he almost died during an overdose. Whether real or immagined he heard the sounds of numerous people moaning and crying out in severe anguish and pain and he reasoned that he must be hearing the sounds of people in hell. Fearing he was about to be joining them he prayed to Jesus Christ, asking for forgiveness for destroying his mind and life with drugs and asked for the Lord to put his life back together again. God answered in a powerful way, causing the devistating effects of the drugs to instantly vanish. He was immediately filled with an overwhelming peace and a comforting sense of the love and the pressence of the Lord. During his prayer that night Marshall committed himself to serve the Lord for the rest of his life.
After that prayer of commitment to the Lord he immediately sensed the Spirit of God saying deep inside of him that, “Everything is going to be different from now on, nothing will be the
same, but you won’t regret it.” A little while later he sensed the Lord telling him to stick with his music. Prior to that night he had tried to write a few songs about the trials and
struggles of life.
From that point on Marshall began to write songs about how the Lord could change the life of anyone who would wholeheartedly commit themselves to God. Since then he has written
hundreds songs. Several times through the years he attempted to record some of them but was not able to for various reasons. After each failed attempt it seemed that God would speak to his heart
that it wasn’t yet time for his songs to be recorded and published. The exception to this came in the mid 80s when he was able to record a couple songs. One of those songs, called
"Take The Time", won top honors in a Christian songwriter’s contest that an Indianapolis radio station hosted. The song got a lot of local radio airplay as a result. Use this
link to listen to it: https://soundcloud.com/marshall-rinker/01-take-the-time
God has his own timetable for every event of our lives and he also has a chosen time to use the things he put within us for his purposes. Marshall says, "One possible reason God has waited until now to use more of his songs is that, "The Lord has had to teach me several things and deal with the motives of my heart first. He has been refining my vision and my goals so that I would have the right focus and motivations. The drive and desire to be successful and famous had to be thoroughly purged out of me. That way, I won’t get in the way of God’s purposes and my songs can have the impact they are supposed to have on other people's hearts and lives, for God’s glory and not my own.”
Currently Marshall has been sensing God's prompting that now is the time for some of his songs to be recorded and heard. And that’s where Music Missions comes in ... to be an outreach website that features some of his songs as well as music from other artists and ministries. The overall goal for the site is to impact the hearts and lives of as many people as we can around the world and help to bring about a new beginning of God's intervention into their lives.
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