Beating Time
SONGS FOR THE CROSS CENTERED LIFE
By Bob Kauflin, Steve and Vikki Cook et al
WEBSITE: http://www.sovereigngraceministries.org
STYLE: contemporary worship
FORMAT: CD / MP3 download (14 tracks)
Here’s treasure I stumbled on while reading The Cross Centered Life by C.J. Mahaney.
OK, it’s not new (2004), and I guess those who have read CJ’s priceless little book may have already discovered it, but I’m prepared to risk my ‘contemporary’ credentials for this one. If you haven’t read the book, you should make it a priority. As the back cover says: ‘sometimes the most important truths are the easiest to forget’.
Most readers will already know the Cooks’ new tune to ‘Before The Throne Of God Above’. In addition to this you’ll find a collection of similar cross-centred hymns and songs set to contemporary music. Some are completely new, others are new settings of old or revised words. For example, here’s Kauflin’s excellent adaptation of John Newton’s wonderful ‘In evil long I took delight’:
I saw one hanging on a tree in agony and blood;
Who fixed his loving eyes on me as near his cross I stood.
And never till my dying breath will I forget that look;
It seemed to charge me with his death, though not a word he spoke.
My conscience felt and owned the guilt and plunged me in despair;
I saw my sins his blood had spilt and helped to nail him there.
But with a second look he said, ‘I freely all forgive;
This blood is for your ransom paid, I died that you might live.’
Forever etched upon my mind is the look of him who died,
The lamb I crucified.
And now my life will sing the praise of pure atoning grace,
That looked on me and gladly took my place.
Thus while his death my sin displays for all the world to view;
Such is the mystery of grace, it seals my pardon too.
With pleasing grief and mournful joy my spirit now is filled;
That I should such a life destroy, yet live by him I killed.
