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delphia > Rushing Wind by Melody Green |
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an excerpt from
No Compromise:
The Life Story of Keith Green
RUSHING WIND
by Melody Green Sievright
Sharing:
"What it is to Break Up the Fallow Ground"
from Chapter 3 of Revival Lectures.
by Charles G. Finney
(1792-1875)
One evening, in February 1979, Keith was poking through
his bookshelf - pulling books out, scanning a few pages, then putting them back.
I noticed that he kept at it, until one book seemed to capture his interest. Keith
carried it over to his favorite chair - a $5 Naugahyde recliner we "scored"
at the resale store - and kicked back to read for a while. I smiled and shook my
head. Keith was always tackling books that frightened me off just by their size.
It seemed like he was only a chapter into it when he called me over.
"Mel, do you remember this book?"
It didn't look familiar. "No what's it about?"
"It's all about revivals! Real ones!"
I did remember what he was talking about now. The book was called Revival Lectures,
and it was written by a 19th century revivalist named Charles Finney. One night about
a year ago, Keith had phoned me from the road, sobbing into the phone. He had read
me a whole chapter of that book over the phone! Keith had been reading more Finney
lately and, tonight, he had rediscovered this particular book.
He went back to reading now - no long passages to read out loud, I guessed - and
I got ready for bed.
When I walked out into the living room to say goodnight Keith was still engrossed
in his reading. But by this time his expression had changed to total sobriety. Keith
was so absorbed that he barely looked up as he mumbled a goodnight to me. I went
in our room and turned out the light.
The next thing I knew Keith was shaking me awake. I was so groggy I could hardly
understand what he was saying.
"Mel, wake up. You need to get up."
"Uh ... why?"
"It's happened! Get up. We're gonna have a special meeting right away."
Our voices woke Josiah up and he started to cry for my attention. It was barely daylight
and through the haze of grogginess I wondered what on earth Keith was going on about.
"I've got to go to the other houses," he was saying. "I'll be back."
As I turned my attention to Josiah, the front door slammed and Keith took off in
the gray morning light. One of the first places he went was one of the men's dorms.
Wayne Dillard and a few other guys were awakened the same way I'd been. Later on
Wayne told me what happened when Keith shook him awake.
"As soon as I got my eyes half-way opened, I could see his face - it was like
he was smiling form the inside out. He was radiant."
"Wayne, wake up!" Keith said. "We've got to have a meeting."
"Okay," Wayne mumbled, "but what time is it?"
It's about six. Listen, I was up praying all night. And I just got saved."
"You what?"
"I just got saved!"
By the time all seven houses heard about the special meeting, our community was buzzing
with curiosity. Having an early morning meeting was in itself a shock. Usually, no
one even saw Keith before 10 a.m. because of his late night schedule. I watched everyone
quietly drift into The School House - throwing questioning glances at each other.
It looked like all seventy of us were there - crammed into the living room, and spilling
over into the hall and kitchen, anxiously waiting to find out what was going on.
As soon as I saw Keith's face I knew something big was going on. His eyes were clear
and bright and his whole face was lit with a broad grin. Something had happened to
him!
"You know I've been struggling with a lot of questions about my ministry and
the Lord's will for my life," he began, "I've been really wanting God to
be more real. Well, I was up all night and God showed me so much sin in my life that
I spent the whole night weeping and crying to Him. I told the Lord I wasn't going
to leave until I had a breakthrough - no matter how long it took. Finally, it happened.
I had a touch from the Lord like I've never had in my whole life. And I know I just
got saved - I just got saved last night."
Keith's words stunned everyone just as much as they stunned me. I could see it on
their faces. Just got saved? I thought, What have you been if you haven't been saved?
But Keith just kept talking, either ignoring or not noticing the wide-eyed surprise
on everyone's face.
"Last night I was reading Finney, and I just couldn't get past a chapter called
'Breaking Up The Fallow Ground'. God convicted me of so much fallow ground in my
life - ground that's hard and crusty and needs to be broken up for Him ..."
Now the happiness in Keith's eyes clouded over as they started to fill up with tears.
Blinking them back, Keith pulled some sheets of paper out of his Bible and unfolded
them as he kept talking.
"I've already gotten these things right with God, now I want to confess them
to you and ask for your forgiveness because my sins have affected you. First of all,
I know I haven't been a very good leader. I've wounded some of you with my words
and my crummy attitudes ..."
Now Keith broke and really started to cry, but he controlled himself enough to go
on.
"The Lord has also shown me areas of pride and unbelief in my life. I don't
pray enough, either. And I'm so undisciplined. I've been a bad example to all of
you. I have no excuse except for being lazy and loving myself more than I really
love God ..."
He went on for several minutes, pouring his heart out crying.
"I know my sin has broken God's heart. I know it's hurt you, too - and I'm really,
really sorry. I'm not worthy to bear the holy name of a Christian. Pleas forgive
me."
Then Keith picked up his Bible and read a scripture to us from Hosea: "Break
up your fallow ground, for it is time to seek the Lord until He comes to rain righteousness
on you ..." Keith continued, "Fallow ground is ground that was once tilled,
but has gotten hard and unusable. Before it can receive seed it needs to be broken
up and made soft again. Finney says to break up the fallow ground of our heart we
need to examine our motives, actions, and state of mind carefully." Then picking
up the Finney book, Keith read to us:
"Many people never seem to think about doing this. They pay no attention to
their own hearts, and never know whether they are doing well in their walk with the
Lord or not - whether they are bearing fruit or are totally barren. There are many
professing Christians who are willing to do almost anything in religion that does
not require self-denial. They are so far from realizing that self-denial is a condition
of discipleship, that they do not even know what it is!"
As Keith was talking an awesome sense had been coming over me. Instead of thinking
that the things he had done were so terrible, I found myself starting to search my
own heart, thinking, if God put the searchlight on Keith, what does all this mean
for me? By now I was starting to make a mental list. A long one.
Keith went on to read the whole chapter out loud to us. It was a real "outline"
for a point-by-point examination of our own hearts. Finney said that "general"
confessions of our sins were not good enough. Since our sins were committed one by
one, as much as possible they needed to be repented of one by one - confessing to
God those sins committed against Him, and confessing to others the sins committed
against them. No short cuts allowed! Then Keith paused and seemed to take a deep
breath before he continued.
"I believe God wants to do something powerful in all our lives. What God did
for me, He wants to do for you. He wants all of us to have pure hearts that are soft
and open to Him. We all need to humble ourselves and break up the 'fallow ground'
of our hearts so God can be glorified. I believe we all need to have breakthrough
with God. I really think we all need to pray now."
Everybody bowed their heads and closed their eyes. Then Keith started praying a very
powerful prayer and a hush fell over the room. In just a moment something began to
happen.
Suddenly one of the women burst into tears. She'd been sitting on the floor and now
she was on her face, her whole body heaving with uncontrolable sobs. A few others
started to weep, and the next thing we knew we were all on our faces., crying, and
calling out to God. Actually, some of us could do little more than moan. The feelings
were so deep it was hard to even put them into words It was a gut-wrenching time
of conviction and soul-searching. The sound of wailing started to rise and fill the
room - and it went on and on.
We met again later that evening and over the next few days - day and night. We had
hours of prayer, weeping, and humble open confession. Everyone was being broken.
They had read their list of sins and asked forgiveness of God and those who had been
affected. There was such an awesome sense of God's presence in the room, sometimes
overwhelming. And more often than not after someone shared, tears of sorrow ignited
into tears of joy - and even as many broke through to God at deeper levels than ever
before. They said they felt cleansed and refreshed in a brand new way - like their
souls had just come alive and the weight of the world was lifted off their shoulders.
It seemed like, one by one, this was happening to everybody.
Charles G. Finney: "Revival
Lectures" ---New Window
An excerpt from
Last Days Ministries:
Keith Green- The Ministry Years
Keith Green was a man who impacted an entire
generation. His music and his life was much like a racing flame-on fire with vibrance
and passion for Jesus Christ.
Those who knew Keith best will tell you that his zeal for Jesus could flare like
a whip of fire when he saw Christians compromising with the world. And yet, his life
was seasoned with humor and a keen awareness of his own human frailties. Mostly,
Keith was burdened with reaching the lost and broken with the true message of the
Gospel - and challenging Christians to give 100% to Jesus
Keith and I, as young Christians, used most of the funds from his concerts, appearances
and record sales to establish Last Days Ministries in 1977. At first a ministry to
street people and new Christians, Last Days Ministries has developed in many areas
including the publishing of one of the most widely read Christian magazines, The
Last Days Magazine, and training Christians for service through the Intensive Christian
Training School. In great measure, it was Keith's intense drive to walk in the Master's
footsteps that led him to pioneer new areas of Christian ministry. It was this same
intensity that broke into his song writing, giving him an electric energy in message
and deliverance which is still largely unmatched by any single artist.
Today, years after Keith and two of our children, Josiah, age three, and Bethany,
age two, were killed in a small plane crash in 1982, Keith is still named among the
top Christian artists, not only in the United States, but also in Europe, Australia,
New Zealand, South Africa and Canada. Although Keith wanted to be remembered simply
as "a Christian" and was largely unsympathetic to the idea of comparison
polls, they do serve as an indicator that he hit his target of impacting lives for
Jesus. And even now, new listeners are finding their lives changed as God speaks
to them through Keith's dynamic and timeless ministry...
Keith often yearned to leave the cares of the world and kneel at the Savior's feet.
I guess we all feel like that sometimes, but now with hindsight, we can't help but
wonder if Keith knew something that we didn't.
Surely Keith must have found, on that July afternoon in 1982, the profound sense
of worship and intense devotion he had always striven for. I'm sure he's found the
mountain peak "where trials turn to gold" as he sings new songs to the
Lord. Perhaps, among the stringed instruments, there's even a piano...
For the millions who loved Keith and his music ministry, his desire for heaven became
a reality much sooner than any of us expected. On July 28, 1982, just a few months
before his 29th birthday, Keith crossed the boundary between time and eternity. The
Christian world was stunned at the news of Keith's tragic, untimely death and that
of our two young children - three year old Josiah David, and two year old, Bethany
Grace. I was at home with our one year old, Rebekah Joy - and five weeks pregnant
with Rachel Hope born in March of 1983.
For me, personally, it was a moment when time and eternity seemed to meet - followed
by a long season of deep sorrow mixed with resurrection hope.
And for many, it would be a time of soul-searching questions...
"UNLESS A GRAIN OF WHEAT FALLS TO THE GROUND AND DIES"
On the afternoon of July 28th, 1982, Keith sat at his computer and confided his thoughts
to his private journal - something he'd done since he was in his teens. Something
interrupted him, and while he was away, I sat at his desk. I pressed a button and
blinked his words off the screen. Unfortunately, I have no record of his thoughts
that day. I accidentally erased them.
A few hours later, he walked out the front door, with Josiah and Bethany, to take
some friends on a private plane ride over the Last Days Ministries property. Within
minutes they all stepped into eternity.
I've often wondered what Keith's thoughts were that final afternoon.
I do know that a few days before, Keith finished an article for our Last Days Magazine
- but to him it was more than "just another article." It was a message
burning in his heart for Christians in America - but you can apply it wherever you
live!
I believe Keith's new burden was a completion of his message on personal holiness,
which was, "Get right with God!" The question is this: "once you are
right...then what?" The world needs believers determined to see the lost find
their Creator before they stand before Him on that awesome day.
Among the last words Keith wrote in an article for The Last Days Newsletter was this
burning challenge: "To be a servant of Jesus Christ, an ambassador, a missionary,
is the highest calling a man or woman can attain to! What are you waiting for??"
To help you understand Keith's burden we've provided a link to his last message,
Why You Should Go To The Mission Field. Please read it with an open heart. I know
it would be Keith's greatest desire (besides the salvation of the lost) for you to
take this matter before the throne of God. If you'll lay your personal goals at the
foot of the cross, and ask Jesus what he wants, I know Keith's burden from the Lord
will be born in the hearts of many of you - and carried to the ends of the earth!
God bless you.
-Melody Green
Sievright
"Sermons
from the Penny Pulpit"
by C. G. Finney ---New Window
Section Sub-Index for Finney: Voices
of Philadelphia
Holy Bible
