By Eseymour from Wikimedia Commons

30 years ago today, Keith Green went home to be with the Lord at the age of 28. His music, and later his writings from the Last Days Ministry newsletters, had a profound affect on my walk with the Lord. His message was to the church, to the saints: to wake up and fall in surrender to the One who saved our souls.

I was just a baby Christian when he first started recording Christian songs, but they stirred my spirit and helped me see the passion and devotion God was calling me to in my walk with Him. Those early years, the music of Keith Green guided me (along with the saints I worshiped with and was being discipled by) to a life that was beyond mediocrity. He challenged me to let Jesus be my all in all, the power that fueled every aspect of my life.

I learned to live a life of faith and joy: to expect the miraculous every day as a matter of course in this journey of following Jesus. I saw and experienced miracles, healings, changed lives, and faith both deep and sweet.

This young man did not have long here to share his message and to challenge those stuck in a stale “churchianity”, but his words continue to challenge a new generation. Not just my children, but me IN a new generation as a mother striving to understand what it means to train my children in the nurture and admonition of the Lord. Sometimes the struggle to protect my children along with the desire for them to walk BOLDLY with Jesus is a painful dilemma in my heart. His words in this verse have always pointed my heart in the direction toward God:

Well I pledge my son to heaven for the gospel.
Though he’s kicked and beaten, ridiculed and scorn.
I will teach him to rejoice, and life a thankful praising voice,
And to be like him who bore the nails and crown of thorns
(from “I Pledge My Head To Heaven” on the album “So You Want to Go Back to Egypt:

I am blessed to have been touched by the life and ministry of this young brother. If you have a testimony of his affect on your walk with God, please share it. I’d love to hear.

Check out Last Days Ministries – yes they are still around!

Blogs I might be linking to:
Marital Oneness, The Better Mom, Multitudes on Monday, Hear it On Sunday, Sharing His Bounty, What Joy Is Mine, Domestically Divine Tuesdays, Time Warp Wife, Encourage One Another, Living Well Wednesdays, Raising Homemakers, Hearts 4 Home, Homemaking Link-up Week-end, Legacy Leaver Thursday, Thankful Thursday, Proverbs 31 Thursdays, Thought Provoking Thursday, First Day of My Life Thankful Thursdays, Thankful, Thankful Thursday Brown-eyed Bell(e), Big Family Fridays, Faith Filled Fridays, Home Focused Friday