More & Less (ft. MHB 170)

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O the bitter shame and sorrow
That a time could ever be
When I let the Saviour's pity
Plead in vain and proudly answered:
All of self and none of Thee
All of self and none of Thee

Acquiring more but gaining less
Today's definition of living blessed
What is it to give and sacrifice?
Lose it all now to save eternal life?
Wistful...
Wistful hearts whispering faintly our lukewarm convictions
Courting the illusion of gaining Heaven
All the while trapped. Imprisoned-
Immobilised, paralysed by our many earthly addictions.

Yet He found me, I beheld Him
Bleeding on the accursed tree
Heard Him pray: 'Forgive them, Father'
Then my wistful heart said faintly:
Some of self and some of Thee
Some of self and some of Thee

More, more: me, my, mine
Idleness to wealth since water to wine
Jump and shout, holler and faint
What use to pray, work and wait?
Plagued by duplicity
Two kings in this one city
God and mammon, common and Holy
And yet, how can this be?
In striving to grasp the best of both
We have lost the essence of our hope.
Entrapped by greed; comforted by worldliness
Travellers. So what business do we have pitching our tents?
Ignoring that something within us continually telling us
We've ended up settling for so much less

More talk, less Word
More spoken, less heard
More to dazzle, less to teach
More religion, less reach
More below amassed, less above stored
More lusting for signs, less longing for God

Day by day His tender mercy
Healing, helping, full and free
Sweet and strong and strong and ah, so patient
Brought me lower while I whispered
Less of self and more of Thee
Less of self and more of Thee

Where are the Christians?

Where are the Christians?
Those who thirst for righteousness
Working to establish God's kingdom in its fullness
Those who strive for truth and shun compromise
Who won't settle for what is normal in the world's eyes
Where are the Christians?
Those whose desires are Heaven-fixed
Whose minds are absorbed in knowledge derived from His
Who determine daily to drip love and truth by the lip
To exterminate from their vocabulary condemnation and gossip
Who eyes have bound themselves to see
Humanity
As God means us to be
Whose hearts are weighed so heavy with peace
That they pour out forgiveness to even those deserving the least
Whose hands itch to give rather than gather up for self
And so are continually filled with the Father's wealth
Whose feet will go where God calls
Who will stand up for the oppressed, stand by the weak,
Lead the lost.
And when they themselves fall, more often than less
Who reach for God's grace, repent and return to faithfulness.
Where are the Christians?
Are they here?
Do we see them now among us?
Are you one?
Are we striving to become like God's Son?
Are we really?

Higher than the highest Heaven
Deeper than the depths beneath
Lord, Thy Love at last hath conquered
Grant me now my supplication:
None of self and all of Thee
None of self and all of Thee

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