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.

The Escalator

When Joyce and I first moved to Midtown Manhattan in 2008 I was coming down this escalator the first time we saw a movie at the AMC Empire 25, and I said a prayer that one day I'd be coming down the same escalators having seen a film in which I'd performed.

Maybe I was prompted to pray that night because I had been at the grand opening of the theatre in 2000. The gala was a benefit for a few Times Square charities including The Lamb's Church of the Nazarene, where I had been an intern for four years. The new cineplex's 25 screens were attached to the Empire Theatre, a playhouse built in 1912 where Bud Abbott and Lou Costello first performed together in 1935. The theatre was moved 168 feet westward to make way for the screens, shops and restaurants! The 3,700 ton structure was pulled by two giant balloon images of Abbott and Costello. LOL! You can see a number of fascinating features from the original theatre, which now makes up the lobby of the megaplex here. The grand opening was really something and had a major impact on me. 

At any rate, that prayer I said on the escalator two years before I'd even been in a feature film was answered tonight -- on Joyce and my 226th monthaversary -- in a small way. We saw the trailer for Providence, in which I play one of the lead roles. It's playing in AMC Theatres that will host the film starting February 12, but if you're not near one of those you can watch it below. The 4K footage looked stunning on the big screen. So, the greater answer to that prayer will be fulfilled 21 days from now when Providence opens in this architectural wonder.

Another way this is answered prayer is that Joyce had prayed I'd be cast in a lead role in a film that honored the Lord literally days before I was cast as Mitchell. She's trying to place when it was and she said it was as we were anticipating the theatrical-on-demand release of Beyond the Mask, in which I play Dr. Bonneville. That opened a week after I was cast.


When we were in Israel in May 2011 Joyce put a prayer in the Wailing Wall that I would be cast as the lead in a film that honored the Lord and I was soon cast as the adult lead in Indescribable, my first lead role in a feature film at that time.

I play a lead in Providence, a modern silent film opening in theatres coast to coast starting February 12.

Registration is now open for the Rocky Mountain Christian Filmmakers Camp.

The Tornado that Preceded Tomorrow's Performance

I'll be performing tomorrow for the St. Louis Arts Fellowship, and this is the story of my last performance for them...

I play a lead in Providence, a modern silent film opening in theatres coast to coast starting February 12.

Registration is now open for the 2016 Rocky Mountain Christian Filmmakers Camp.

Also, we're now taking sign-ups for Rio Ready.

War Room: Number One Film in America

I was wowed by War Room! I wasn't the only one. Variety called it: Box Office: Zac Efron Getting Outplayed by Faith-Based ‘War Room,’...

I heard Stephen Kendrick speak at the final San Antonio Independent Christian Film Festival, and he said that the Christian film industry is growing up. It may have started by crawling, but it's walking and will start to run and then fly. The Kendrick Brothers are picking up speed!

The acting was superb. I was deeply moved throughout. I checked out the credits of the three leads and expected them to have long and deep filmographies. That's not the case, and that's a credit to Elizabeth Becka, the acting coach, who does a fine job in her principal role in the film as well. I got to teach with her at the Christian Worldview Film Festival Guild, and she had nothing but great things to say about her experience on set.

Miss Clara was LOVED by the robust crowd on Times Square. Karen Abercrombie had been rejected for the role because she was younger than their idea for the role, so she aged herself for the audition! Beth Becka said, "She is brilliant. We prayed over her and the presence of the Holy Spirit was as palpable as I have ever felt it in that little room that day!"

Garry Nation (left) as Polycarp, and
(right) accepting his Best Actor award 
for the role at the 
International Christian Film Festival

Mary Smit was responsible for her film version of Miss Clara. She's done makeup on all the other Kendrick Brothers films (except Flywheel, and there's a funny story behind that) as well as Princess Cut and her masterful work on Garry Nation in the title role of Polycarp.

The writing was also quite sharp. Joyce and I just had a discussion about how some of the prayers were very neatly wrapped up. Pre-believers may find that hard to swallow, but those who have walked with the Lord for years and have seen bigger prayers answered than portrayed in the fiction find it true to life. Of course God is not a magic box. It's when our prayers align with his will and timing that we see these kinds of miracles come to pass, but that's exactly what the script lays out. Joyce pointed out it's a real challenge to make a film about prayer, and if they weren't answered that would be even harder!

Beyond the winsome story arc there are witty lines throughout, and the crowd on Times Square erupted with laughter during this scene...



War Room has already sold close to $10M at the box office, and the weekend hasn't really even started. It's Friday and Sunday's coming! Get a big group together and see it after church! Cast your vote for more films that unapologetically shout the answer to this world's problems: Jesus Christ! As Miss Clara says: Don't leave Jesus out. That's why this world's in the trouble it's in!



In its second weekend, Labor Day Weekend, it moved into the number one position at the box office.

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Sign up to get the announcement that registration is open for the next Rocky Mountain Christian Filmmakers Camp.

 

Njeri "Miller" Gitonga

With Njeri in 2007.

As soon as I could understand English I was hearing stories about my mom growing up in Kenya when my grandparents were missionaries there from 1948-1953. So I grew up grateful for Njeri Gitonga, who watched over Mom and my Aunt Jeri when Grandma and Grandpa Miller were away ministering in the bush.

Our families had lost touch, but sometime in the mid-90's my Aunt Jeri was visiting Kenya and asked someone how she might go about finding Njeri. The local asked her what her maiden name was, and when he heard, he exclaimed, "There's an Njeri Miller living up on that hill." Aunt Jeri knocked on the door, and Njeri invited her into her home, where Aunt Jeri saw photos of herself, Mom, and my grandparents. We've stayed in touch over the years, and though I haven't made it to Kenya yet, I have had two miraculous connections with Njeri!

Njeri in 1999.

In 1999 I did a 16 city tour of England with my play A Clear Leading. I happened to be there the first time Njeri visited England to visit her children who were staying there. Though Njeri wasn't there when I was performing the play, her daughter, Alice, made it to a performance in Muswell Hill, a suburb of London. When I performed the dream of my character Dolly swimming to Africa I had tears streaming down my face. I'll never forget that performance.

With Mom and Alice in 1999.

When Njeri did arrive we spent time at a mall, where Alice interpreted for Mom and me. One memory of that visit was when Njeri got on an escalator for the first time. What a frightening contraption that must have looked like in her eyes.

Then, in 2007 I was back in England, where I got to perform "Lazarus" with some Swahili translations for Alice's church. I learned the start of a Swahili praise song, and opened the piece with that. They all joined in and went way past what I had memorized! I can still sing some of it: "Sifu bwana, sifu bwana, dayama. Moyuwangu, sifu bwana, dayama."

Later I was at Eltham College, where Eric Liddell had attended school. I was interviewing the headmaster and had an idea for a shot of their choir singing a song which was written about Liddell for the documentary Olympic Hero in China: The Eric Liddell Story. In the midst of scouting for the documentary I got a text from Mom saying she couldn't get to Heathrow in time to greet Njeri. So I hopped on the next train... the wrong way! I turned around, got off at Piccadilly and transferred to the metro bound for Heathrow. As soon as the door opened I sprinted for Arrivals. Just as I came bounding up, someone was pushing Njeri out in a wheelchair. I calmed my breathing, walked up like I'd been there for a good long while, gave her a Kenyan handshake (flying down from up above), and said, "Jambo!" That's a Swahili greeting. I also know a few phrases of her tribal language, Kikuyu, so I was also able to say, "Wimwega." That was about it until Mom was able to arrive with Alice who was able to take over the translations.

In my post from December 14, 2007 I wrote:

What are the chances my trips corresponded with hers without either of us knowing of the others' schedule either time? Only the One who set up both visits knows.

Njeri "Miller" Gitonga went to be with the Lord earlier this month. My heart is filled to the brim with gratitude for how she cared for my mom and how the Lord allowed our schedules to connect in England twice!!

Our prayers are with her whole family!

With Njeri, her son, Kamau, and Mom.

Seeking or Missing Out

Pastor Joyce Swingle preached on Matthew 7:7-11.

Her husband, Rich, gave a report on how the Lord moved at the Salvation Army performing arts conservatory, where he taught, directed and performed last week.

Pastor Joyce shares about how their 10-year prayer was answered for a space at housing subsidized for performing artists. You can see a photo of their miraculous view at www.RichDrama.com/MP.

For more information on "The Great Soviet Awakening" click the image of the book cover. For information on our trip to Russia for the Winter Olympics visit www.RichDrama.com/Sochi.

Click on the links for more information about Grace Unplugged and Operation Christmas Child.





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.


After this morning's lineup is a song Rich learned at the Salvation Army Conservatory, "Forever Reign". Grooveshark is a third party source. If you listen on their website you will encounter advertisements, none of which are vetted or endorsed by Westchester Chapel. If there are ads that you find offensive we encourage you to click the "Report Ad" link below the ad.

Photo courtesy of NicolettiPhoto.com.

Watch Joyce and I play the parents of nine...