MEA CULPA

Are we not prone to look down on those who participated in Jesus' death and consider them more guilty than we? The truth is that we are more guilty than them all put together for it was for our sins that He died. Judas, Pilate, Barnabas, and the Roman soldiers were only the instruments used to crucify the Son of God; we were the guilty ones, the reason that He died, and our guilt piles up to the heavens and beyond, like thunder clouds, far exceeding theirs.

I was Judas, who with a kiss,
Betrayed Him in the garden; this
Was my doing on that day,
As all my sins on Him were laid.

My sinful acts were like the lash
That opened every wound and gash;
Every deed that I had done
Brought this horror to the Son.

'Twas my iniquities adorned
His head just as the crown of thorns;
My each and every evil deed
Caused the precious Lamb to bleed.

I, the Pilate, who decreed
That the Lamb of God must bleed;
'Twas my hypocrisy that day
That made them carry Him away.

No Roman soldier more than I
Caused the Son of God to die.
It was my sins that nailed Him there,
Lord Jesus Christ, so sweet, so fair.

Three nails impaled Him on the tree -
My passions, lust, and cruelty;
The things I did, and said and thought
All this cruel torture wrought.

The spear that pierced my Savior's side
Was my pride I cannot hide,
That made the blood and water flow,
These were the things that hurt Him so.

The lightning flashed, the thunder rolled,
And I the Barnabas who sold
The Son of God to bleed and die
And buy for me eternal life.

Man of Sorrows (Isaiah 53)

He hath no form nor comeliness
That he should be desired,
No beauty to be seen in him
That he should be admired.

He is rejected and despised,
An man of sorrows, he,
With grief acquainted, and we hid
Our faces, nor esteemed

Him who all our griefs hath borne,
Our sorrows carried, too.
We did esteem him stricken and
Smitten and afflicted who

For our transgressions wounded was,
For our iniquities was bruised;
For ou peace he was chastised,
Him who we refused.

With his many stripes we're healed,
Like sheep we've gone astray;
On him the Lord our sins has laid,
Who turned to our own way.

Afflicted and oppressed he was,
Taken in his youth,
A slaughtered lamb, a shearéd sheep,
But opened not his mouth.

Ye it pleased the Lord to bruise him there,
And put to grief and die;
Yet he shall see of his travial
And shall be satisfied.

THE UNDIVIDED HEART

I want to praise you, Lord,
With an undivided heart,
Unrent, untorn, unriven,
The whole, and not the part.

An undivided heart
That knows no other God,
That keeps no darling lust,
That gives not sin a nod.

As Israel was divided,
So, too, my heart has been,
And I have had two kingdoms -
One for Thee and one for sin.

But now I crown Thee King,
Like David, o'er the whole,
To rule my heart and will,
Spirit, body, soul.