some great lyrics from hard-core CMA'ers

I remember singing this Keith Green song in my high school church choir. I wasn't a big fan of Christian music at that point, but would have liked Green if so. He died in a plane crash when he was 28 but still had a profound impact. Green featured rough lyrics aimed at the Church-- similar to what we've seen more recently, for example, from Rich Mullins (who also died early and born in Richmond, Indiana) and Casting Crowns.

Keith Green: To Obey Is Better than Sacrifice

To obey is better than sacrifice
I don't need your money; I want your life
And I hear you say that I'm coming back soon
But you act like I'll never return

Well you speak of grace and my love so sweet
How you thrive on milk, but reject My meat
And I can't help weeping of how it will be
If you keep on ignoring My words

Well you pray to prosper and succeed
But your flesh is something I just can't feed

To obey is better than sacrifice
I want more than Sunday and Wednesday nights
Cause if you can't come to Me every day
Then don't bother coming at all

To obey is better than sacrifice
I want hearts of fire, not your prayers of ice
And I'm coming quickly to give back to you
According to what you have done

Here's a great Steve Camp song. Ironically, whatever Camp's prophetic role has been within CMA, it is noteworthy that this song was not released. It's a powerful song with great lyrics, but perhaps not as commercially viable as the other songs released off that album.

Steve Camp (a la Jonathan Edwards): In the Hands of (an Angry) God

God looks at your heart, that dark and weary place
The times you've mocked His mercy and trampled on His grace
So should you be surprised or should you find it odd
To see yourselves as sinners in the hands of an angry God

You've built a rotten bridge of man-made righteousness
Suspended over Hell, and endless second death
You think that you are safe, the truth is you are not
You face your doom as sinners in the hands of an angry God

Chorus:
Now the hands of an angry God were pierced and bleeding
As He embraced all heaven's wrath upon the cross
And the hands of an angry God still reach out and pleading
For He came to seek and save that which was lost