Jesus Revolution

My intro to the new trailer and new poster for Jesus Revolution posted on www.HeadlinePrayer.org: "The Jesus Revolution Is Coming!" The article has a link to free tickets! 

 

I'm always so blessed by the comments people leave, so be sure to scroll to the bottom of the article. I just had to share this one from Linda:

My husband and I met in San Francisco in 1962 and plunged for 14 years into the occult/psychedelic New Age “revival” that exploded throughout the Bay Area. In the mid-80s, we returned to college in Oregon to try to make something of ourselves, but we continued to be plagued by sin, the devil, and our lostness. In 1976, not long after I graduated, I got uterine cancer & was scheduled for a hysterectomy. I hadn’t been able to have children in our 15 years of marriage, but several days before the scheduled operation, I received a little booklet about how Jesus Christ still heals today. As I read the words, “It is a simple matter for Christ to put His hand on the chaos that is cancer and bring order,” Heaven opened up, and a river of life flowed through me. I met my Savior, who told me I was going to have a baby. My doctor confirmed my healing and canceled the hysterectomy. (I later learned he was a Christian who’d prayed for me.) I was 35 years old. A few weeks later, my husband was convicted of his sin and received Christ. As God led us out of our old life, He led us into a version of the Jesus Movement that was going on in Oregon and Washington among some of the established churches where we saw and experienced many other wonderful miracles. I would LOVE to see such a revival once again, and many of us here in Washington are praying for it.

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I released “Pentecost: Beyond the Imagination,” a scene from my one-man play, The Acts, at www.RichDrama.com/Pentecost.

Healed hand!

I had Dupuytren’s contracture in my hands. There were bumps all over both hands, but when Joyce prayed over them, about a year ago, they all went away but two. It was such an immediate miracle we sensed the Lord was saving the other two for later. 

Someone photographed
the moment! It was
just after I performed
my piece on Jonah. 

At Christian Worldview Film Festival we discovered we were right! My friend Danielle told me that she had been raised in a cessationist church, believing the Lord no longer performs miracles through us anymore. That theology was broken and even further solidified when she and her husband attended a healing conference where he was mostly healed. There were a few things left that the Lord chose not to heal. It reminded me of my hands, and I instantly felt the Lord left those two lesions on my hands to heal through Danielle! I asked her to pray over those last two lesions and they reduced by about 75% on the spot! Danielle’s son, Konur saw them go down! That’s what the other lesions were like after Joyce prayed over them, and now they’re all gone. I just checked those two now, and they’re about 95% gone! Praise the Lord!

You can watch me tell this story by clicking here. 

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I released “Pentecost: Beyond the Imagination,” a scene from my one-man play, The Acts, at www.RichDrama.com/Pentecost.

Prayer Can Bring the Dead Back to Life!

On this day in 1942 my grandfather came back from the dead! 

Grandma told that story on October 29 every year, but she went to be with the Lord in 1988, and I haven't heard or told the story intentionally on this day of the year since. The tradition is being rekindled in a big way on www.HeadlinePrayer.org. 

As I write, Joyce's prayer guide, 15 Steps to Freedom from Witchcraft, is at the top of the page, and my article, Prayer Can Bring the Dead Back to Life! is just under that. They won't stay there very long, so you can click the titles above to get to them directly. 

Here are other articles by Joyce that ran on www.HeadlinePrayer.org recently: The Key to Overcoming Abortion and Powerful Message to Intercessors: We Stand as a Firewall. And today, Intercessors for America's periodical The Connector came out with an article by Joyce, You Are Defeating the Abortion Giant."

And here's the latest Pray with Others Live that Joyce and I were on:

Here are the articles Joyce and I wrote, which we discussed on the show: For Such a Time as This: Sight & Sound Queen Esther and Reclaim October from the Spirit of Death.

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I released “Pentecost: Beyond the Imagination,” a scene from my one-man play, The Acts, at www.RichDrama.com/Pentecost.

The Perfect Stranger

Last night, after a series of great dinners with great friends, we watched The Perfect Stranger, which is the ultimate great dinner! A cynical lawyer gets an invitation to dinner at her favorite restaurant with Jesus Christ, and He answers all of her questions, quite profoundly. I highly recommend it!



I posted about the dinners and the movie on social media, and almost immediately my friend Katie Lentz commented: Rich! In The Perfect Stranger, Nikki is played by my friend Pamela! You met her when we saw you in Revelation. Cool connection!



I'll say it's a cool connection! I got to thinking about it, and when Pamela saw Revelation she watched my character interact with Jesus. So, my mind kept going on this. I first saw The Perfect Stranger in the Philippines while performing and teaching some workshops at Asia-Pacific Nazarene Theological Seminary, where I just found out our host for one of our dinners had taught a few years before I was there. The man playing Jesus with my character in Revelation was played by a Filipino.



So I had a little whoah moment, but my brain kept noodling. That cool God wink wouldn't have happened if I hadn't been in Revelation, which happened because I "happened" to be at the only combined gathering of Mastermedia and The Hang that I'm aware of. That was where I shared that I do a 1-man play about The Revelation, and the producers later called to see if I'd perform the role of John in their Off-Broadway musical.



But Pamela wouldn't have seen Revelation the Musical if Katie hadn't invited her, and Katie wouldn't be alive if it weren't for a series of extraordinary miracles after an extreme car wreck (main miracles, follow-up).



I wouldn't have seen The Perfect Stranger in the Philippines if I hadn't met the folks who invited me to perform there while I was in Indiana, and I wouldn't have been there if I hadn't been invited to teach for one week... that turned into 16 years at the MasterWorks Festival. I wouldn't have been invited to teach for that week if I hadn't been a member of Christians in Theatre Arts.



And you wouldn't be reading this if I wasn't pondering it hours before I'd planned on getting up for my last work day before leaving town for seven weeks. I felt like the Lord wanted me to take the time to write this up. Maybe it was for you.



If you don't notice the profound things the Lord is doing all around you, I invite you to have dinner with Jesus.



I write more about that at www.RichDrama.com/MyPassion.

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I play a lead in Providence, which you can bring to your area or watch at home.

Courage to Follow God's Plan

The crumbled walls of Jericho and

Mount of Temptation from

our trip in 1999.

I got to open this morning's service at Westchester Chapel. Pastor Randy Solomon preaches on the fall of the walls of Jericho from Joshua 6. Here is an article which discusses the archeological evidence that the fallen and burned walls of Jericho are evidence that the story really happened! I mention the documentary Billy Graham: An Extraordinary Adventure. I also mention Ethan Hill, and you can see our cinematic collaborations by clicking here.



Click the arrow below, or if you're reading this in an email you can click this link, to play the service:







This service is available for download free on iTunes, where you can also subscribe to our podcast. Search for "Westchester Chapel" on the iTunes Store.



If you want to more about starting a relationship with Jesus Christ visit www.WestchesterChapel.org/Salvation.

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There are still a few openings at the 2018 Rocky Mountain Christian Filmmakers Camp.

Thankful for this memory...

Hope you're having a wonderful Thanksgiving!

This interview with Ruth Friesen and my grandmother, Hilda Miller, is in 1987. I digitized it from a VHS cassette in 2009, and searched the web for Ruth Friesen and her show, Beauty of Life. I wanted to get her blessing to post the program, but there was no online record of the show’s name paired with her name. 

Recently my wife, Joyce, and I have been involved with Christian Union’s Great Experiment. We’ve committed to five disciplines for a month, and one of them is asking the Lord every morning what he wants us to do that day. Joyce calls it a concrete kindness for the Lord. Two days ago I felt like the Lord was asking me to look into posting this interview. This time the internet pulled up Ruth’s name in her obituary. She died this April. I reached out to her family by Facebook and noticed that they’re friends with Grandma’s niece’s husband. I reached out to him, and he said the son-in-law just Friended him on Facebook! Soon the family got back to me with their blessing, and then I saw why the Lord had prompted me now. One of Ruth’s daughters pointed out that this will be their family’s first Thanksgiving without her mother. I'm so glad they'll have this wonderful memory to share today.

The interview is mostly about Grandma’s prison ministry, and it reminded me that I was 10 years old when Grandma first brought me in with her to minister to the first prisoner she mentions. I continued to go with her from time to time throughout the rest of her ministry. 

Throughout my career I’ve performed and taught in a few prisons, and I know that was on my heart because of Grandma's prison ministry. My most dramatic encounter was earlier this year in the gang unit on Riker’s Island. 

Grandma talks about how much energy the Lord was giving her, but within a year she sensed him telling her, “Get your affairs in order.” As a high schooler I remember thinking, “Does God want her to clean her room?” July of 1988 she was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer. The Lord kept shining through her right to the end, which was three months later. She was a tremendous witness to the doctors and nurses attending her. One of the nurses told me how she was feeling a bit down one day, and there was Grandma, jaundiced and taking her final breaths to encourage her. 

I count Grandma my greatest spiritual mentor and pray I can encourage others right to the end.

For those of you who watch this who aren’t family, I can’t expect that you’ll be as blessed as we are by this interview. I’m writing this after just having seen it for the first time in eight years, and I’m a blubbering mess! I do pray it will give you a sense of gratitude for family members and friends who have represented the Lord well to you. 



Watch the video below, or if you're receiving this via email go to www.Blog.RichDrama.com (Thanksgiving Day).

For more information on Grandma’s mission work in Kenya click here.



To read about the miracle that kickstarted Grandma's ministry click here.



To find out more about a relationship with the Lord, visit www.RichDrama.com/MyPassion.

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See the rest of Olympic champion Eric Liddell's Chariots of Fire story in Beyond the Chariots. Watch it online and book a live performance.

Weeping and Praising

Photo by Jan C.

I got to open the service this morning at Westchester Chapel talking about this photo of the Cross in the clouds.

Rachel Taylor preaches on Ezra 3:8-13. She shares her experience at the TAM Conservatory. Joyce prays over the sermon. Rachel mentions the final performance of Celebrity Confession August 28.



Click the arrow below, or if you're reading this in an email you can click this link, to play the service:







This service is available for download free on iTunes, where you can also subscribe to our podcast. Search for "Westchester Chapel" on the iTunes Store.



If you want to more about starting a relationship with Jesus Christ visit www.WestchesterChapel.org/Salvation.



Photo of Rachel courtesy of NicolettiPhoto.com.

Rich and Dr. Linda Warren talk about the Wailing Wall containing stones

from as far back as Solomon's Temple.

The Solar Eclipse of 2017

Joyce and I walked down to the Hudson River today and filmed the time-lapse footage of the solar eclipse below.

My father told me that my great-grandmother remembered the total eclipse of 1918. She remembered that it freaked out the chickens.  

Two of the folks who shared our

eclipse glasses.

For us it was a delightful time of sharing our eclipse glasses with over 20 strangers from all over the world (London, Hungary, Italy, Pakistan) and just a few neighborhoods away. 

The solar eclipse is proof of the miraculous three-hour darkness in the sky at the Crucifixion of Jesus Christ. The longest total eclipse in America today was in Makanda, IL, and it only lasted 2:41 seconds. In the path of total eclipse people saw stars and planets, as early historians recorded about the darkness at the time of the Crucifixion. Phlegon, a Greek historian wrote around AD 137:

In the fourth year of the 202nd Olympiad (i.e., AD 33) there was ‘the greatest eclipse of the sun’ and that ‘it became night in the sixth hour of the day [i.e., noon] so that stars even appeared in the heavens. There was a great earthquake in Bithynia, and many things were overturned in Nicaea.’

But at Passover, when Jesus became the final Passover Lamb, the moon was in the wrong place for a solar eclipse. In AD 221 Africanus wrote in History of the World:

For the Hebrews celebrate the passover on the 14th day according to the moon, and the passion of our Savior falls on the day before the passover; but an eclipse of the sun takes place only when the moon comes under the sun. And it cannot happen at any other time but in the interval between the first day of the new moon and the last of the old, that is, at their junction: how then should an eclipse be supposed to happen when the moon is almost diametrically opposite the sun?

For more about the extra-biblical scholars who reported the darkness click here.

Because we're about 700 miles away from the path of a total eclipse we only had 71.4% obscuration.



If you're interested in a relationship with the One who blocked the sun longer than our moon can click here: www.RichDrama.com/MyPassion.



You can share this page with others via www.RichDrama.com/SolarEclipse2017. 

A Clear Leading tells the story of Quaker abolitionist John Woolman, who spoke against slavery a century before our Civil War.

God just blew my mind!

We never got all five faculty members

who were my former students together

for a single photo, but this is

Jonathon Shaffstall, Brad Cain,

and Kathryn Ballantine. 

All week I've been performing, teaching and directing at the Salvation Army's TAM Conservatory, where we've been meditating on Acts 1:8, "But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth."



This morning during the send out I shared with the community how the Lord had been speaking to me about his long-term plans with the Conservatory. The Territorial Commanders, William and Lorraine Bamford, addressed our students after many faculty and students shared, and Commander William Bamford pointed out that we're approaching 1500 students who have been trained at the Conservatory, and many have gone on to do great things for the Lord. This year four faculty members had been my students at TAMC years ago, and one other was a student at a Christians in Theatres Arts event in Puerto Rico. I asked faculty members to stand who had previously been a student at TAMC, and I believe there were nine!

We had a BLAST catching up with

Sean and Cath Gaffney, who

taught me so much about writing,

acting, and teaching!

So, this morning I was on faculty at TAMC with Brad Cain, who had been my student at TAMC 15 years ago. Then, tonight Sean and Cath Gaffney messaged me that they were in NYC and asked if we were free. Sean was on the faculty at Regent University while Brad and Cath (Sean loved being a professor dating a student!) were working on their M.F.A.s in acting at Regent together.



But wait, there's more! Sean and Cath were in the city to see Samantha Sturm, who the three of us taught...wait for it... about 15 years ago! Samantha is now in her sixth Broadway show, CATS, and that's the Broadway show that brought Carol Jaudes, the founding director of TAMC and Susie Somerville Brown into their first collaboration.



OK, so now it gets really interesting: Samantha was 14 when we worked with her. On Thursday Susie worked with my students, who were 14 and up, and this morning a 14-year-old student of mine at the Rocky Mountain Christian Filmmakers Camp a month ago was staying with her family at our place while we were at TAMC.



So the only four 14-year-olds I believe I've ever worked with were connected by this day.

Ryan Livingston was my student for

acting, and though he was on faculty

to teach visual arts he used his flair

for performance in the presentation

of their artwork.

Lord, raise up all of our students to co-create with You, the only One who could have even thought of arranging that many Divine appointments in a single day to blow my mind and encourage me to pray all the more diligently for my students, no matter their age!





#PowerToBe

#smallworldBIGKINGDOM

I teach annually at the Rocky Mountain Christian Filmmakers Camp. Subscribe to get a note that registration is open.