First, check out this hymn :
Hast Thou Heard Him, Seen Him?
anonymous early 20th century hymn (alt. Kevin Twit)
1. Hast thou heard Him, seen Him, known Him?
Is not thine a captured heart?
Chief among ten thousand own Him;
Joyful choose the better part
Chorus: Captivated by His beauty
Worthy tribute haste to bring;
Let His peerless worth constrain thee
Crown Him now unrivaled King.
2. What can strip the seeming beauty
From the idols of the earth?
Not a sense of right or duty
But the sight of peerless worth
3. ‘Tis the look that melted Peter
‘Tis the face that Stephen saw
‘Tis the heart that wept with Mary
Can alone from idols draw
That's pretty much the biznomb. It's a great example of how sometimes a few lines of poetry can say what it would take several paragraphs of prose to communicate. Kevin Twit (the Indelible Grace mastermind) posted it on his blog (and the full original text is included in the post as well).
Second, Brian Moss posted his version of "In the Cross of Christ I Glory" on his blog for downloading. The CD it was on is now out of print, so he decided to give it away. The lyrics are a bit cryptic, but I like the idea of the hymn--namely, that the cross is neither made void by bad times nor made unnecessary by good times. It's similar to the idea communicated by that Matt Redman song, "Blessed Be Your Name," only it centers around the cross instead of my resolve. With some explanation (always a good thing), this could be a useful, meaningful congregational song.
