2/12/09
Jesus you’re our Savior, Redeemer, Restorer,
You are the Lamb of God,
You take away the sins of this world,
Dress your bride in white,
May the dirty be cleansed,
Oh what beautiful prayer this is!
But by your grace cut short our high sounding prayers,
Send conviction to your people,
Do not spare your discipline for your people have fallen into deception,
We hold you in reverence on our paper but not in our heart,
Therefore, bless us with repentance,
We praise you unworthily,
We defile your name unknowingly!
Take away our cheat sheets,
Let no scripted prayer be uttered,
Don’t allow us to parrot back Sunday morning Jesus,
Take away our pious prayers and replace them with something authentic from our hearts,
We call Jesus wonderful Savior and awesome Redeemer,
And oh how true it is!
But move us away from paper and into our hearts,
Here we treat you like a Heavenly Santa Claus, a Divine Vending Machine, and a Magical Genie,
We don’t love you for you but rather for what you provide,
That is why on Monday we wave palm branches and cry Hosanna, Hosanna!
And on Friday we cry crucify him, crucify him!
Your grace has not been sufficient for us,
We leave you to go beyond you,
We use you as a footstool and reach up in the cupboard for what we truly desire,
We push you out of the way after we have climbed over your back,
You are our magical flute, our special instrument we play to get to a better life,
We use you, force you, coerce you, and manipulate you,
We don’t want you, we just want to use you,
You are our sock puppet,
You fit so nicely on our hand,
We have made you in our own sinful image,
We project the god we want unto the God, “I am,”
We ask you to fulfill our plans, our purposes, our whims, and our wishes,
What a terrible thing we have made of you Jesus,
It is unspeakable,
We hold you in reverence on our paper but not in our heart,
Do not spare your discipline for your people have fallen into deception,
Give us eyes to see reality,
Give us eyes to see you,
Grant your people hearts that move past Jesus on paper, to confess the jesus in our hearts.
