The search
On New Year’s Eve 1972, a nineteen-year-old musician by the name
of Keith Green penned the following:
Gotta find a home
My roots
dangle. Unnourished, I refuse to root here! Gotta find a home and get it
settled and peaceful. Gotta find a place inside where I can rest between crises.
. . .
Please,
Jesus! I know you more each day and recognize the signs you show me. The
immaculate birth makes you special above all men and strengthens all the links
to the Christian trip—keep the signs coming. I’d almost given myself up for
lost. Bless you. Beloved clean brother on highest.
As the year drew to a close, this zealous young man—like a ‘big
planet with a huge gravity field’—had already scratched so many options off his
spiritual search list that he barely had one left. He’d grown up with Christian
Science, invented a philosophy, dabbled with psychedelic drugs, walked down
dark Eastern, mystical, occult paths, and sampled many books including the
Bible. He’d been challenged by so-called “Jesus Freaks” and irritated by the
Christian belief of a redemptive process for entering into a relationship with
the Creator. And how could the whole Bible be the inspired Word of God?
Keith had an unquenchable thirst for the things of the spirit. Yet
for all the ideals that he had held to, his life had been filled with
contradictions. Shortly after his nineteenth birthday, he had written that he
was “digging deep” and needed to find that “solid rock foundation”. “When I
reach a solid self, if there is [one], then I’ll build a cabin of home in my
heart. And maybe share it with another solid soul.”
As 1972 drew to a close, Keith recognised that the person of Jesus
Christ had appeared as a common thread in the teachings he had recently studied.
At the least, everybody seemed to say that He was a “good guy”. Jesus had even
said good things about Himself, that He was the only way to God. He decided to deal with Jesus directly,
one-on-one. He opened his heart to Jesus without really knowing who He was or
what it might lead to. He only knew that he had a deep need and prayed a simple
prayer.
December 16, 1972
Jesus, you
are hereby officially welcomed into me. Now only action will reveal your effect
on me.
Keith had taken a step toward Jesus in a small, definite way, and
his heart was hopeful that he had stepped onto the right path, though he was
uncertain about the future.
Soon after that, Keith decided to start wearing a cross. He found
himself praying a rough, uneven prayer of desperation to a God he didn’t know.
If Jesus didn’t come through he didn’t know what he would do. Tears spilled
down his cheeks and an overwhelming urgency filled his heart. “Oh Jesus, Jesus .
. . if you’re really real . . . if you are who you say you are, please prove it
to me. I need you. I need something. . . . Show me the way. Prove that you’re
real, and I’ll serve you forever . . .”
* * *
In early 1973, Keith met Melody, a Jewish twenty-six-year-old who
had wandered into some dangerous places—drugs, Buddhism, astrology, yoga,
an occult science, a mantra and meditation. From a young age she had hungered
for something that she could not define. Melody had always known that she was
living out of a sense of loss, a sense of wanting something that would last. The
betrayal of a boyfriend only highlighted that feeling.
Keith came into Melody’s life with intensity and conviction, direct,
vigorous, refreshingly open. On their first date, he played her a song that
expressed his heart cry. He voiced some of the same questions that she’d been
struggling with but in a lyrical way, like “Is death the answer, or just a
door? Does anyone know?”
When Melody then saw him playing songs on the piano, it was
obvious that Keith was in his element. He played easily, powerfully, throwing
himself into each song with energy and emotion. Sweat started to show on his
forehead. His voice was soul-stirring. Melody had never heard anyone like him. Not
only was there the music, but there was also all of him—the energy, the sincerity,
the sheer power of his performance.
Keith and Melody’s spiritual search continued together, and it
included “looking into Jesus”. Keith even persuaded her to wear a cross too, a
tangible symbol of the togetherness of their hearts in the search. After Keith
became convicted about living together without the deeper commitment that
accompanied love, they were married on Christmas Day 1973. The ceremony was
quick and simple, and Keith made sure it was “in the name of Jesus”.
Throughout the following year, something seemed to tug at the
newly married couple, pulling them into uncharted waters, something that would
change them forever. One question that they had not settled was the “God
question”: was Jesus really God?
Once, Keith and Melody experienced a burst of inspiration. A
friend had told Keith that Jesus could take away sins once and for all, unlike
the eastern and occult religions he’d studied. Many eastern religions taught
that your lot in the next life was determined by your level of holiness in a
previous one. “Good karma” would mean a happy life, but “bad karma” meant you
should expect hard times. Yet the friend had said that Jesus could wipe away
your sins so you didn’t have to pay for them later. Keith decided he was more
open now to the idea of Jesus being able to “cut your karma”. Having recently
heard a Christian speak about a spiritual rebirth, Melody had to admit that the
idea of getting a clean slate and being spiritually born again was starting to
look possible.
The burst of inspiration was short-lived. Trials led them to fall
back into sloppy habits. Keith and Melody soon realised that they couldn’t seem
to make it in their own strength—but did they have to know God before He would
help them?
The find
The “God question” confronted Keith and Melody a few times in
1975, both in church and from the Bible. There was Hebrews 1:8, for example: “But
unto the Son He [God] saith, Thy throne, O God, is for ever and ever.”
Then there was an argument between Keith and his friend as to
whether the Scriptures were totally accurate and inspired word for word. His
friend kept claiming that the Holy Spirit was the source of his translation and
interpretation, and something clicked for Keith. He also soon discovered the
knowledge of the existence of the Holy Ghost, the personal vehicle through
which the Son comes into personal lives.
One day, Keith and Melody attended a Bible study at which the
Gospel was clearly presented. The speaker talked about God having sent His only
Son down to earth to live among men and show them the way to the Father. But
they needed cleansing from their sins to be in a relationship with the
Father—and that’s where Jesus’ death on the cross came in. Only Jesus was pure
enough to be a sacrifice for the wrong things that they’d done that hurt God
and others. So God allowed Jesus to be that sacrifice one time for all of
mankind. You only needed to receive it. When the speaker had finished, he asked
if there was anyone who wanted to ask Jesus into their heart, to give their
whole life to him. It would be a spiritual rebirth. Keith raised his hand high
into the air.
Melody continued to wrestle with questions. She could never let go
of being Jewish and just convert. But a few facts fell into place as she
pondered what she had read in the Bible. First of all, Jesus was Jewish. So was
the whole early church. She had also learned that Jesus fulfilled more than
three hundred Old Testament prophecies about the coming Messiah. Moreover, the
closer she got to Jesus, the more her spirit was coming alive. The more she
opened her heart to Him, the more excitement and genuine peace she was
experiencing.
Soon Melody had what her heart needed. She’d made “the Jewish
connection”. She wouldn’t be betraying her Jewishness to follow Jesus. She just
had to receive Him as the promised Jewish Messiah for all of mankind. All that
being a “Christian” meant was “a follower of Christ”. It was stating a fact. On
Friday night, when she and Keith returned to the Bible study, Melody faced an
inner battle—and then raised her hand to receive the Lord and chose to be on His side. A rush of peace filled her
heart that night, deeper than anything she had ever experienced.
Keith and Melody’s search had ended and a new life begun. Soon
they came to understand and believe that Jesus was God. Expressing the pure
truth that they had discovered, this song was written:
There is a redeemer,
Jesus, God's own Son,
Precious Lamb of God, Messiah,
Holy One.
Thank you
oh my father,
For giving
us Your Son,
And
leaving Your Spirit,
'Til the
work on Earth is done.
Jesus my redeemer,
Name above all names,
Precious Lamb of God, Messiah,
Oh, for sinners slain.
When I stand in Glory,
I will see His face,
And there I'll serve my King forever,
In that Holy Place.
—Melody
Green (third verse by Keith Green)
In the aftermath of their discovery, Melody and Keith started an outreach
to needy souls. They began to do whatever was in their hearts to do. Eventually
Latter Day Ministries (LDM) was born, and Keith became a powerful, prophetic
voice, challenging thousands of Christians in their walk with God through his preaching
and music. In the seven years that Keith knew the Lord Jesus Christ, he “hit
like a bomb-shell”. Then he left just as suddenly.
The grain
When 1977 drew to a close, Keith was playing at a club on a night that
seemed strangely different to Melody. It was a New Year’s celebration and
Melody was watching him minister. The night would burn in her memory.
The spotlight was flooding Keith’s face with light. His eyes ached
as he sang, overflowing with feelings as he poured out his soul. He was looking
up into the light, as though up to God. He seemed transfixed in time, as if
there were something holy or significant about the moment. Melody had the
strangest feeling watching him. A thought came, and returned: Keith Green—you’re not long for this earth .
. . It would not be the last time that she had such feelings.
* * *
About four-and-a-half years later, Melody was standing at the
front of a church for a memorial service. Three days earlier on 28 July 1982, Keith
had died in a tragic plane crash with two of their children. “I know that Keith
is where he wanted to be most,” Melody stated. “His heart was so with the Lord—he
just had such a desire and burning to be close to Jesus, and he really didn’t
care about this life!” The death of the children had been unexpected. “But I
think maybe they needed to be with their dad, and God knew that,” she said. “He
took them on an airplane ride—and they just kept going. I don’t understand, but
I trust the Lord . . .”
The day before the memorial service, a phrase had come into Melody’s
mind out of nowhere—a “grain of wheat”. She had looked it up in the Bible. It
was from John 12:24: “Unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it
remains by itself alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit.” Keith’s life had
been a redeemed “grain of wheat”. As a result of his death, the Holy Spirit was
able to say to people all over: “Are you living too much for time, and not
enough for eternity?”
—Melody Green with David Hazard, No compromise: the life story of Keith Green