I know what I know!

I Hope You See Jesus
by Bebo Norman
Album: "Ocean"

Instead of fear
Instead of blinded eyes
Instead of shame
Instead of all my lies
Instead of an orphan without a name
I, I hope you see Jesus

Instead of anger
Instead of unbelief
Instead of weakness in the heart of me
Instead of a wounded soul that sometimes looses faith
I, I hope you see Jesus

I hope you see Jesus
I hope you see Jesus
Standing in my place
Bearing all my shame
I hope you see Jesus

Instead of voices in a face-less crowd
Instead of prophets crying out from behind a shroud
Instead of fingers pointing out the blame
I hope you see Jesus

I hope you see Jesus
I hope you see Jesus
Standing in my place
Bearing all my shame
I hope you see Jesus

I hope you see love
I hope you see love
I hope you see love

Oh my God
When you look on us
A broken people
Who have turned from Love
Instead of the words we throw
And the wars we wage

I, I hope you forgive us
I hope you see Jesus
I hope you see Jesus
Standing in our place
Bearing all our shame
I hope you see Jesus

Standing in my place
Bearing all my shame
I hope you see Jesus

This is a catchy tune, and I really like the words... until the end.  I agree with what Bebo is saying in the first couple of verse, I hope that people see Jesus in me.  It beckons back to a old Jason Gray song, "You look a little more like Jesus every day..."
But at the end, when he's talking to God and he hopes that God sees Jesus... it leaves so much to chance- "I hope you forgive us ... I hope you see Jesus"???  NO!  God DOES forgive us because he DOES see Jesus!  That is the message of the Gospel, how do you completely miss that in a song like this?
It would be such a powerful final verse-
When you look at us, a broken people, etc,
I KNOW you forgive us,
I know you see Jesus
standing in my place,
bearing all my shame
I know you see Jesus.

and then end with:
Thank you for Jesus.

...that's the good stuff! :)
That is the truth of the matter. It gives me chills to think about.  I am clothed in Christ's righteousness.  I don't need to hope that God sees Him in me, I know He does.  There is no doubt, no uncertianty... only Jesus.
Bebo, ya missed the mark on this one, man. Next time give me a call, I'll help you out.

At First listen...

You remember my distaste for Bebo Norman's newer work... WELL, at first Listen to his new album “Ocean” (comes out on Tuesday), I’m pleasantly surprised. He is still a far cry from the sophisticated simplicity of his first two or three albums as a singer/songwriter, but this is a nice step in the right direction. Quite honestly, his last studio album (self-titled and the first from the giant label BEC) was pretty terrible, so really it was hard to get any worse. I have to accept that he’s merely a singer now, the songwriter part has been shouldered by several folks. I look forward to reading the album liner to see who he wrote with.  Keeping that in mind, overall I’d give it a B-… He definitely goes deeper than he has in the past 5 years, but the tunes are still merely off-the-shelf repetitive pop hooks.

“Sing Over Me” and “God of My Everything” have definite potential. The first single, "Here Goes" I'm not too much a fan of, but it is a fine pop song.  I suppose I’ll go see him when he comes back to MSP… for the 10th time...