|
 Keith
Green was 15 the first time he ran away from home. He started a
journal that ran for years as he looked for musical adventure and
spiritual truth. Keith had a Jewish background, but he grew up
reading the New Testament. He called it "an odd
combination" that left him open minded, but deeply
unsatisfied. His journey led him to drugs, eastern mysticism, and
free-love.
When Keith was 21 he came to
faith in Jesus Christ. As an accomplished musician and
songwriter, His songs now reflected the absolute thrill of finding
Jesus and seeing his own life radically changed. Keith's spiritual
intensity not only took him beyond most people's comfort zones,
but it constantly drove him even beyond himself. Keith felt
he would have met Jesus sooner if not for Christians who led
double lives. He made audiences squirm by saying, “If you praise
and worship Jesus with your mouth and your life does not praise
and worship him, there's something wrong!"
The radical commitment Keith
preached was also a desire of his own heart. He said, “Loving
Him is to be our cause. He can take care of a lot of other causes
without us, but He can’t make us love Him with all our heart.
That’s the work we must do... Anything else is an imitation.”
In seven short years of
knowing Jesus, the Lord took Keith from concert crowds of 20 or
less—to stadiums of 12,000 people who came to hear only him. His
recordings were chart topping—and when he began to give his
recordings away for whatever people could afford, some
misunderstood. His views were often controversial but never
boring. Television and radio appearances became the norm. Still,
Keith's heart was to please the Lord and build His kingdom, not
his own.
On July 28, 1982, there was
a small plane crash and Keith went home to be with Jesus. The
crash also took the life of his three year old son Josiah, and his
two year old daughter, Bethany. His wife Melody was home with
their one year old, Rebekah, and was also six weeks pregnant with
their fourth child, Rachel. Keith was only 28 years old.
visit the blog and join the
conversation... blog.worship.com
(c) Webmatters New Media | Worship.com
|
