The Wonderful Cross
Topic: Holidays/Vacations
The Good Friday service was really inspiring and convicting..... just as it should have been. It was all planned and carried out by our youth pastor and our youth group. They showed scenes from The Passion of Christ interwoven with songs about the cross and readings from the story of the cross in the Bible. That movie is amazing. It is horrible to watch, but when you face what He went through for you, it draws you into repentence.....I don't know if people expect that. I know I didn't anticipate that instantaneous conviction of sin. But as I saw it tonight and as I saw it a year ago in a movie theater, I can tell you...it is an automatic response. And it is not just me. I remember talking to people after seeing it a year ago and everyone I talked to felt that way. It brings across so well the fact that you are not just sad and horrified that He had to die....it's that He had to die because of your sin. It inspires true repentence....repentence that causes changes in your life out of gratitude and a feeling of deep obligation. So here are two of my favorite hymns about the cross for Good Friday. We didn't sing these tonight, but I love what they say.

When I Survey the Wondrous Cross

When I survey the wondrous cross
On which the Prince of Glory died
My Richest gain I count but loss
And pour contempt on all my pride

See from His head His hands His feet
Sorrow and love mingled down
Did e'er such love and sorrow meet
Or thorns compose so rich a crown

Were the whole realm of nature mine
That were and an off'ring far too small
Love so amazing so divine
Demands my soul my life my all

Life so amazing, so divine
Demands my soul. my life, my all
and the beauty and the shame
in the glory of His name
Oh the wonderful cross

Oh the wonderful cross (2x)
Bids me come and die and find
that I may truly live

Oh the wonderful cross (2x)
All who gather here by grace
draw here and bless your name


O Sacred Head, Now Wounded

O sacred Head, now wounded, with grief and shame weighed down,
Now scornfully surrounded with thorns, Thine only crown;
How pale Thou art with anguish, with sore abuse and scorn!
How does that visage languish, which once was bright as morn!

What Thou, my Lord, hast suffered, was all for sinners? gain;
Mine, mine was the transgression, but Thine the deadly pain.
Lo, here I fall, my Savior! ?Tis I deserve Thy place;
Look on me with Thy favor, vouchsafe to me Thy grace.

What language shall I borrow to thank Thee, dearest friend,
For this Thy dying sorrow, Thy pity without end?
O make me Thine forever, and should I fainting be,
Lord, let me never, never outlive my love to Thee.


---Bernard of Clairvau