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Tape 1 Side B1

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Evangelizing In Colorado Springs

..for those early years in my life.. just- I can't calculate the hours in the Word.. and prayer. God began to build in my life and challenge in my life [coughs] and, uh, one winter over the Christmas break we had students, a few students.  A handful of ones that, some that I'd led to the Lord, and discipled and called em' together and we were going to have- we were gonna reach [laughs] Colorado Springs. So we sought, and God really did do a lot, in many ways with the Gospel, and we got literature and books and tracts and I could only muster about a dozen people in the whole state of Color- in the world.

And- and I got those dozen, most of them were students, most of them were ones I'd been involved with, either led to the Lord or discipling, a handful of them.. and we started going door to door in Colorado Springs, Colorado. And we had one of the biggest snow storms we ever had, between that Christmas break, and we only had about two weeks. We had two feet of snow. And when the sun came up, we were meeting in prayer, and when people woke up, we were pounding on their door. And we went until it was dark, trudging through the snow, two feet.. and we covered in that two weeks, 20,000 homes, reaching an equivilent 60,000 people. People all over Colorado Springs were talking about Jesus Christ- they thought there was 100 or 1000 of us, going around.. [laughs] there was only 12 of us, and we virtually, everybody in Colorado Springs, though we didn't reach all of them.. [...] We were going around getting the Word out door to door.

"God, what do you want me to do?"
God convicted me that we've got to literally obey his Word. And, that point in my life I just cried out to the Lord.. and saying, "God, what do you want me to do? Who do you want me to get with? What church do you want me to join?" I was with a church, a good- a fairly good fellowship, a gathering of Christians, and.. uh.. I uh.. believed the Bible, and uh.. I appreciated what God was giving, I said- I just said, "God, I want- I want to learn all I can from anyone and everyone, but I just want to give you the prerogative to tell me anything you want. To confirm what I see and what I hear, or to- to, to say something that I've never even thought about. You know, I can join a church. I'll start a church. I'll join.. organization. Start an organization. I'll do whatever you say, I care less, oh God!" And God knew my heart. I didn't have a shred of- that I was aware of- of any.. anything selfish for myself. I just- "Lord, I just want to give it to you. Whatever you want."

The Lord knew I meant it. And as I began to cry, "God, what do you want? I want you to me, speak to me!" And I remember the wording that- just- cried out, day after day, week after week- not that there wasn't general direction, but, I wanted specific direction from Him. "God, what do you want me to do? What do you really want me to do?" And at 19, that was about 1964.. '63.. '64.. God- ah- I was reading through Philippians, chapter 4 and verse 9, and I remember I was praying even then, that night in my little room.. "God, what do you want me to do?"- and just, looking in the Word. "What do you want me to do? What do you want me to do?"

Philippines 4:9, in the King James, translation - that's about all in '63, '64 - says this: "Things you've both heard, learned, seen, and received of me, do. The God of peace will be with you." Never will forget that. God hit me like a ton of bricks. "God, what do you want me to do?" What you've seen, heard, learned, seen, received me- DO! That's the way it says it in the King James, very simple. "WHAT DO YOU WANT ME TO DO?" The things you've learned, heard, seen, received me- DO! And the God of peace will be with you. And I knew Paul was writing to the Philippians, and I thought, "my, that must have been nice to have lived then, and seen Paul, followed Paul, and heard Paul. And see what he was like, and see what he did," because it says the things you've seen me do, you do, things you've heard me- you do. What I've done, you do. Things you've heard, learned, seen, and received of me, do! Now I see there's a whole string of verses by revelation, where God tells us to follow Paul's example. Then, I had one, and that was enough.

And I, thought, well boy that gets specific it's simple: if I don't just follow a general philosophy or- Christianity- or Church-anity- here's just a man that I'm to do what he did. That makes it real simple. He didn't say train to do. He didn't say pray to do. He didn't say be willing to do. He didn't say think about doing, he didn't say try to do. In the authorized version it just says "do." And- I could understand that. Two little letter word. [laughs] That was simple. Unavoidable. And I didn't think much about it, but I said that night, I said, "God, okay." God gave me some other verses and time to really confirm that. But I said, "God, okay." I'm gonna, I'm gonna obey. I want the God of peach to be with me."

And- I remember, at that point, really praying and- I'd read through the scriptures, a fair amount, but certainly God has spoken and done some things in my life. But that was real- I think I suppose all of us at times, have certain crisis points. When we get saved would be the first one. Sometimes we have pre-salvation crisis things to lead us to salvation. But that was definitely a real point in my life. And I remember thinking, "Well, I outta start in the Book of Acts, and see.. there.. and go right on through." Cause I knew enough to know Paul was in the book of Acts, and I never will forget, having on the heels of that verse, that Paul said, "What you saw me do, you do. What you heard from me, and- and what you learned from me.." etc. etc. "You do."

The Book of Acts As McCotter's "Diary"
I remember opening up at the book of Acts, and starting at that point.. to read the Book of Acts. And I never will forget- and this is the way, I think this- most Christians don't approach the Scripture this way, and this is why they don't experience the God of this book- I didn't realize that at the time. I think I've discovered that more since. But God was training me how to approach his Word. And to be real honest with you, if you would have asked me at that point, "What did Paul do?" I don't know if I really could have said much. I was really gonna follow his life. But I knew this when I started reading, and I don't know- words cannot express to you the feeling - somebody gave you a little diary, and they said, "Alright, this is- this is your life. Now read and see what's gonna happen to you." Ah [laughs] what if that was you? You might stay up all night and read it tonight. That's what I did. Because I knew at that point that I was gonna do what he did. I wasn't sure what he did, but I knew I was gonna do it, whatever it was.

And I was scared because I said, "God," I said, "Go- make sure I understand it right. Cause I'm gonna do it. If I don't understand it right I'll be doing it wrong. [laughs] Cause I wanna do it." And I trusted- and I had enough of the scripture- and just faith even in the Lord, to know that I could trust him. And not that any of us are perfect, and- any of our understanding. And I knew it'd be enough to please Him if I'd obey what I understood. And I never will forget reading, way into the night, the Book of Acts. And I'd read a chapter and I could hardly believe what Paul did, and, "Man, I've gotta see what gonna happen next year" - and I'd turn the page, [audience laughs] and you know, read. And kept reading. I was just amazed! I was sh- I was both shocked, scared, and excited. I read my life. Page after page.

Boy.. I tell ya, I trembled. Literally. And what I- was one- several things that were amazing to me at that point, for the first time in my life, as I read the Book of Acts- if I said, well this- this is it. I knew exactly what church it would tell me to join, or to- or to build- or organization, or ministry to get into. I knew it'd be real clear, this is it! That was it, I was gonna do it. And I was all ready, whatever it said. And I thought, "You know, it may be right where I'm in, or where I'm at, or here or there," and you know- I knew different ones and groups and things and activities. And- I was just expecting it to lay it all out there, and I was.. I- shocked over two things. And I never will forget these indelible impressions, first time I read the book with a TOTAL commitment to do it, totally. To do it totally. [end of tape]

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