Make My Life a Prayer to You

For those of you who are unfamiliar with him, Keith Green was a passionate Christian musician in the 70's and early 80's who was considered a prophet by many. He challenged the church to live like they meant it, and he demonstrated with his life how to live radically for Jesus and be a down-to-earth regular guy at the same time. Keith was killed in a plane crash at the age of 28 in July 1982. You can read more about his life in his biography, No Compromise, written by his wife Melody Green. The following quotes are transcribed from some compilation CDs that Sparrow Records put out in 1998.

March 1979, Oral Roberts University, Tulsa, OK

"I have a little section here of a book called The Revival We Need – it's an out of print book by a guy named Oswald J. Smith. This was first written in 1933 from a man in Canada – Toronto. This is 1933, now listen to this, 'It is reported that there are 7,000 churches that did not win a single soul for Jesus Christ this entire year. That means that 7,000 ministers preached the gospel for a whole year without reaching even one lost soul. Supposing that they preached even at a low average of 40 Sundays, two sermons a Sunday, not including any extra meetings, or midday meetings, that would mean that these 7,000 ministers preached 560,000 sermons in a single year. Think of the work, the labor, the money expended in salaries, lights, building, etc. to make this possible. And yet 560,000 sermons preached by 7,000 ministers in 7,000 churches to millions of hearers during a period of 12 months failed to bring a single soul to Christ this year. Now my brethren, there is something radically wrong somewhere.' The Understatement of 1933. 'There is either something the matter with these 7,000 ministers, or with their 560,000 sermons, or with both. In reading over the 12 rules of the early Methodist Church, I was struck with the fact that they aimed at and looked upon soul winning as their only task. Let me quote from one of them … oh that it would be this way now: "You have nothing to do but save souls. Therefore, spend and be spent in this work. It is not your business to preach so many times but to save as many souls as you can, to bring as many sinners as you possibly can to repentance, and with all your power to build them up in that holiness without which they cannot see the Lord." From the 12 rules by John Wesley. Glory to God.' The Revival We Need.

"And today in 1979, how many churches are there that don't have one convert in a whole year? Well there's 600 churches in this town alone. I've been to many churches where altar calls, altars have been barren because the fire had gone out – not on the altar, but in the hearts of the men and women of God in that believing fellowship that was not believing very much anymore. …

… The prayerlessness of this people called the children of God, the children of the Father, is a crime. It's lawlessness. All Hell breaks loose upon the earth, and the fire department – us Christians, we're the fire department – our prayers can extinguish the firey darts of the enemy. What would you think of the Tulsa Fire Department, if a school was burning with children in it and they were sleeping or reading a nice novel or the evening newspaper, or just sitting around doing nothing? Every day, people go down to the pits of a deepest dark Hell! Your neighbors, your friends, your relatives, and you don't want to "blow your witness." You don't want to turn them off. You don't want to make them feel like you're trying to get them saved, so you don't and so they go to Hell. And I'm asking you, what are you giving them in return? A cool friendship? I'd rather have people hate me, and the knowledge that I tried to save them."

June 26, 1982, Devonshire Downs, Northridge, CA (Keith's final concert)

"I don't know what you think a Christian is. I've known so many people that think a Christian means going to church a lot. And you may have heard this before, but going to church doesn't make you a Christian any more than going to MacDonald's makes you a hamburger. Saying a prayer don't make you a Christian – people in every religion pray. Even praying to Jesus doesn't make you a Christian. He says, 'Many shall come on that day and say, "Lord, Lord."' He says, 'Depart from me, I never knew you.' Having the gifts of the Spirit, or looking like you've got them, doesn't mean you're a Christian. Jesus said, 'Many shall come on that day and say, "Lord did we not cast out demons and heal the sick and raise the dead,"' and all kinds of stuff. And He'll say the same thing, 'Depart from me, I never knew you.' You know what a Christian is? I've got a really good definition – someone who's bananas for Jesus. Someone who loves the Lord thy God with all his heart, all his soul, all his mind, and all his strength. Don't forget the second part – and he loves everybody else as much as he loves himself. Paul goes even further. He prefers that others get served before him. An unquenchable, undeniable love that God puts in our heart. And that love doesn't just stay within the borders of the United States, or in the borders of our own denominations, or in the borders of our own church. But it's so large and it's so explosive, it explodes everything that gets in its way with gentleness and power from the Holy Ghost."