How Can They Live Without Jesus?

How Can They Live Without Jesus?

by Keith Gordon Green

How can they live without Jesus?

How can they live without God's love?

How can they feel so at home down here,

When there's so much more up above?

Throwing away the things that matter,

They hold onto things that don't.

The world has gone crazy, but soon maybe,

A lot more are going to know.

---

For maybe they don't understand it,

Or maybe they just haven't heard.

Or maybe we're not doing all we can,

Living up to His Holy Word.

Cause phonies have come and wrongs been done,

Even killing in Jesus' name.

And if you've been burnt, here's what I've learned,

The Lord's not the one to blame.

---

For He's not just religion with steeples and bells,

Or a sales man who will sell you the things you just want to hear.

But His love was such, that he suffered so much,

To call some of us just to follow, follow.

---

So many laughing at Jesus,

While the funniest thing that He's done,

Is love this whole stubborn rebellious world,

While their hate for Him just goes on.

And love just like that will bring him back,

For the few He can call His friends.

The ones He's found true who've made it through,

Enduring until the end.

The one's He's found true, who've made it through,

Enduring until the end…

WWKD (What Would Keith Do?)

Our local channel showed some clips about Keith Green late this evening. Since he died a year before I was born, I hardly knew anything about him -- except for some songs I could still remember playing on a beaten up cassette player. Here is an article I found written by a concerned fellow-labourer.


A Challenge to Melody Green
and Last Days Ministries
As you can see there are no links to any of Keith Green's songs, articles, or sermons. To be honest before you and the Lord, I intended to put them all online even if it was illegal, with the hopes that many people would download them and be ministered to by Keith's music, as I was 25 years ago when I first found Jesus. I believed in my heart that this is what Keith would want if he were alive today. I was willing to face jail and fines if necessary, all with the hope that some lost soul or confused Christian would be ministered to and/or receive Jesus from this music, as myself and many others have. And in all fairness and in the original spirit of LDM, I would have encouraged all who downloaded this music to send a donation of "whatever you can afford" to Last Days Ministries, not me.

BUT after praying and seeking the Lord first about it, I believe He has told me NOT to do this, but rather to challenge YOU (Melody Green and Last Days Ministries) to do this. To offer Keith's music downloadable off the internet and once again on a "whatever you can afford" basis, separate from the Recording Industries influence.

As someone who is out on the mission field full-time (as a result of Keith's last message), I have found it very difficult to obtain any of his music overseas unless someone sends it to us which is usually very expensive with shipping and customs fees and takes a few months to get here. As a matter of fact, I've been patiently waiting for 3 years now to be able to order on the internet but keep seeing the following statement. International Orders - At this time LDM is not taking orders outside the United States through the Internet. Please check back in the near future for changes in this policy. It is our goal and desire to serve those outside the United States, so we ask for your patience until we are able to offer our products internationally. Shipping to US only. But of course, I can give a donation to LDM over the net in less than a minute! Would you want to wait 3 years to receive donations from us overseas? :-)

Throughout the years I have given away most all of Keith's music that I've purchased to people who needed it more than I. But unable to purchase it again I turned to the internet and it was not very hard or expensive to find all of Keith's music online through Kazaa and Limewire! Knowing that this was probably not legal, I justified the downloading by thinking that "this is something that Keith would definitely approve of! He would want me to have his music especially as a missionary in a remote location." I also told myself that "I would just send a good sized donation to their ministry since that takes less than a minute." But the Holy Spirit convicted me that downloading music and even copying music is the same as stealing unless we have permission from the copyright owner.

This really hurts but I have deleted all of my precious Keith Green music (and others) that was downloaded "illegally". I downloaded the songs because I could not get them or afford to purchase them from you or your distributors. I understand there are some new music download services but they do no good to those who cannot afford them, or choose not to use credit cards. Plus they don't even offer the services yet overseas.

Another issue is the confusion of which CDs to purchase. Silver edition, Gold edition, etc...Most have duplicate songs. Thank God I now see there is one that has ALL of the songs included. This was the goal of this website. To be able to find ALL of Keith's music and materials in one place and that could be easily downloaded and spread freely on the information highway. With the ultimate goal of souls being ministered to and won for Jesus! Plus how fun and easy it would be to burn the complete collection on one CD or DVD that costs only 10 cents and go out and distribute them freely the same as gospel tracts to young people who never have heard of, would never purchase, or otherwise would never even think of doing a search for "Keith Green" on the net!

The harvest is still great. Please reconsider how Keith's music is distributed. The Lord graciously met your ministries every financial need years ago when you chose to trust in Him and put Him first above money by offering your materials on a "whatever you can afford" basis. Please return back to this. We love you and pray for a release of Keith's music to the harvest field on the information highways and hedges by setting you free from the bondage of the recording industry, in Jesus name and for His glory! Amen!

"What is my reward then? Verily that, when I preach the gospel, I may make the gospel of Christ without charge, that I abuse not my power in the gospel."
1Corinthians 9:18
P.S...I am not Grumbling and Complaining. This is just a suggestion in love from a missionary (previously with YWAM) who is now ministering full-time as a result of Keith's music. I have sent emails in the past to LDM about this with no response or a response several months later stating that they do not ship overseas, which I already knew. The rest of the world needs this music too! How can we get it? How can we spread it? What if we can't afford it?

WWKD
(What Would Keith Do?) http://www.keithgreen.info/



"Whatever You Can Afford"
A Challenge to all Christian Musicians

When Keith Green was alive he felt challenged by the Holy Spirit to offer his music on a "whatever you can afford" basis. If you had no money then you could have an album, cassette or some tracts for free with a limit of one per family/household. If you could give more than the cost then the excess would help to pay for the other materials given out for free. He was more concerned about getting the message and music out to souls hungry for Jesus than in making a profit and building up a musical empire full of wealth and material possessions.

I do not want to judge my brothers and sisters in the Lord who are Christian musicians today. There are enough doing that already. God alone sees your heart and knows your true motives for being in ministry. He cannot be fooled. But I would like to challenge you to do the same as Keith did years ago. If you truly are using your talents for the Lord and your music is meant to be a ministry in reaching the multitudes of lost souls for Jesus, then please offer it on a "whatever you can afford" basis also! Yes, there are expenses. But if you are truly called of God to music ministry and you commit them all to the Lord, He WILL meet every one of them. If He did it for Keith's ministry He will do it for yours also as long as your heart and motives remain pure before Him and you are truly called of God to music ministry.

Most all of the Christian recording labels are now owned by the big secular media companies. The money you are generating for them also goes to promote and sell artists who preach and live the exact opposite of Jesus. But with the technology we have today, you can easily bypass the Recording Industry, whose sole motive is to make a profit rather than to minister and save lost souls.

In Memoriam...

"It's time to quit playing church and start being the Church (Matt. 18:20)" — Keith Green, as quoted by Melody Green in the introduction to A Cry in the Wilderness, Sparrow Press, 1993.

"I repent of ever having recorded one single song, and ever having performed one concert, if my music, and more importantly, my life has not provoked you into Godly jealousy or to sell out more completely to Jesus!" — Keith Green

"No Compromise is what the whole Gospel of Jesus is all about..."For I tell you...no man can serve two masters..." (Matt. 6:24). In a day when believers seem to be trying to please both the world and the Lord (which is an impossible thing), when people are far more concerned about offending their friends than offending God, there is only one answer...Deny yourself, take up your cross and follow Him!" — Keith Green, No Compromise album, 1978.

Keith Gordon Green (October 21, 1953 - July 28, 1982) was an American gospel singer, songwriter, and pianist originally from Sheepshead Bay, New York. Green is best known for his strong devotion to Christianity and his unwavering efforts to stir others to the same. Notable songs written by Green and/or his wife, Melody Green, include "I Don't Wanna Fall Away From You", "You Put This Love In My Heart", "Your Love Broke Through", and "Asleep In The Light", as well as the modern hymns "O Lord, You're Beautiful", "There Is A Redeemer", and "Create In Me A Clean Heart".


Early Life
Green took to music at a young age, and his talents were noted by major newspapers by the time he was only eight years old. Following a performance of Arthur Laurents' The Time of the Cuckoo, the Los Angeles Times wrote that "roguish-looking, eight-year-old Keith Green gave a winning performance," one that "stole the show". Green went on to play "Kurt Von Trapp" in a major production of The Sound of Music.

At the age of eleven, Green became the youngest person ever to sign with the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers (ASCAP) when he published, recorded and released the song "The Way I Used to Be".

In his early teens, with more than 50 original songs under his belt, Green was signed to Decca Records. Decca had plans to make Green a teen-idol, regularly getting the young man featured in fanzines like Teen Scene and on popular television shows like The Jack Benny Show and Steve Allen's show. Time Magazine called Green "a prepubescent dreamboat". His dreams of stardom were shattered, however, when Donny Osmond stole his short-lived spotlight and Green was quickly forgotten.

By his mid-teens, Green became heavily involved in drug use, eastern religion, astrology, and mysticism. After experiencing a really horrifying "bad trip", he abandoned drug use and also became bitter towards philosophy and theology in general. In the midst of his skepticism, as Green described it, God's love 'broke through' his 'calloused heart'. He began on a new path 'with Christ as his guru', but had many 'spiritual struggles' and hardships along the way. He married Melody Steiner on Christmas day 1973, and the two became involved in the Vineyard fellowship in Southern California, where they were introduced to Bob Dylan.


Ministry
The Greens began an outreach program to their community by purchasing two homes (and renting five) to provide housing and care for prostitutes, drug addicts, and homeless people. Eventually, the couple and the rest of their group relocated to Lindale, Texas, where the Greens founded Last Days Ministries.

Green began to release a series of albums in the new Contemporary Christian music market in 1977, after being signed to Sparrow Records and working on their Christian musical album Firewind (1976) with 2nd Chapter of Acts, Terry Talbot, John Talbot, and Barry McGuire. Two years later, Keith would shock many in the industry by refusing to charge money for concerts or albums. He insisted that his new label, Sparrow Records, let him out of his contract. The Greens then mortgaged their home to privately finance the album So You Wanna Go Back To Egypt? (with a guest appearance by Bob Dylan), which was then offered through mail-order and at concerts for "whatever you could afford". As of May of 1982, Green had shipped out more than 200,000 units of his album - 61,000 for free.

Last Days Ministries also began publishing a self-described "small, colorful magazine" called the Last Days Newsletter. The magazine featured articles by Keith and Melody as well as contemporary authors such as David Wilkerson, Leonard Ravenhill, and Winkie Pratney, all of whom lived in the area, as well as reprinting work by earlier Christian workers such as Charles Finney, John Wesley, and William Booth and his wife Catherine. The newsletter had such an impact on the Christian community at the time that many of the articles were reprinted as tracts.


Death
Green was killed on July 28, 1982, when a small airplane owned by Last Days Ministries crashed on takeoff. Green had planned to give visiting friends an aerial view of the Last Days Ministries compound. Two of Green's children, three year old Josiah, and two year old Bethany, were also on board the plane, as was pilot Don Burmeister, and friends John and Dede Smalley and all six of their children. All passengers were killed in the crash. Crash investigators determined that the aircraft was nearly 500 lb (230 kg) overweight with 12 passengers and only 6 seats. Keith, Josiah, and Bethany Green are interred at Lindale Cemetery. He was survived by his wife Melody and two daughters, the youngest of whom was born after Green's death.