CHRISTIAN LITERATURE
& LIVING

Was blind, but now I see.

2 : 12 November 2003

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Pastor Harold Brokke

Pastor Harold Brokke and his wife Cathy Brokke have served the Lord Jesus as counselors to countless missionaries all over the world. Harold is a former President of Bethany Fellowship International, the community that established and ran the renowned Bethany House Publishers. Presently Pastor Brokke serves the Bethany Missionary Church as Senior Pastor Emeritus. Cathy was the Director of Bethany Fellowship Missions for many years. Both live in Minneapolis. God has called Harold to minister to people and communities around the world on Bible Prophecy and sanctification through the Message of the Cross.
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Copyright © 2001
M. S. Thirumalai

THE SPIRIT'S PASSION
A Book of Christ-centered Poems and Free Verse

Harold Brokke


CONTENTS

To None Other The Christian's Song
Faith and Feelings Jesus' Awesome Command
Source of All That's True Jesus, Be My Jubilee!
My Problem Is Found In Myself God's HeartBeat
Our Ultimate Meaning The Apostles' Song
God Created Man, Both Spirit and Flesh We Can't Do It ... Jesus Can!
I Praise You Lord The Spirit's Passion
Abraham's Song Grant Us Your Flame
Listen, Evangelical! The Law of Give and Take
The Ultimate Search I Came to Christ In Penitence
Abandonment The Fringe of Blue
His Liberating Word Prayer's Secret
Your Constant Care Ezekiel's Song
The Broken Bread God Is Here!
Listen to Him! The Foes of Holy Love

*** *** ***


To None Other

To None Other

I say things to Jesus
I say to none other.
No, not to my friends
Or my sister or brother.
No, not to the dearest
On earth do I render,
What I say to my Savior
In utter surrender.
I praise You, Lord Jesus
I worship and love you.
There's none before You
Beside You, above You!

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The Christian's Song

The Christian's Song

If I could live my life to do my will, And so control all that I want to be; Choose every day to please my selfish soul And live my life on earth to favor me, I'd have no better life than I could plan; I'd know the sadness of a self-made man.
No, rather let me live to do His will, Let Christ as Lord control my destiny, Choose every day to please the Father's heart, Both here on earth and in eternity. I'll live my life as great as He can plan, And know the gladness of a Christ-filled man.

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Faith and Feelings

Faith and Feelings

When by feelings go askew,
Still I trust God's living Word.
It is not hypocrisy
To walk by faith and be assured.
Is my course of action pure,
True to faith and love?
God will work as I step out ...
With graces from above.

2 Corinthians 5:7

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Jesus' Awesome Command

Jesus' Awesome Command

Blessed Creator,
Maker of all things!
The cosmos was made by your wisdom and hand.
By You created,
For You created.
All things consist by Your awesome command!
Blessed Redeemer.
Great is Your mercy!
Once you were offered for sins not your own...
Your Blood can free us.
Your Life can fill us.
Jesus, your prayers now prevail at the Throne!
Blessed Dominion
King of all Kingdoms!
The day of Your advent is already planned.
The book so long sealed,
Will soon be revealed!
All kingdoms on earth will be under Your hand!

Colossians 1:16-17

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Source of All That's True

Source of all that's true

Jesus, Lord and Savior,
source of all that's true.
Your Spirit seeks for vessels
to pour His blessings through.
Let the Spirit's fire
purge away the dross!
Let the binding cords of sin
be severed by the Cross.
Let my simple vessel
be purged and clean inside.
May my heart and mind and will
be truly sanctified.
Other vessels surely
Are lovely to be seen.
But Jesus looks for one main thing:
Is your vessel clean?

2nd Timothy 2:21

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Jesus, Be My Jubilee!

Jesus! Be my jubilee!

Jesus! Be my jubilee,
my celebration day and night,
my everlasting joy, my prize,
my glory and my vast delight!
What if men call me radical ...
sick with a sickness of a fool.
What sickness could be worse than this,
that I should crown myself and rule?
O what will cure this moral curse,
this universal misery ...
that we should be so firmly bound
By 'my' and 'mine' and always 'me'.
No! Let us rise in Jesus' Name,
and lift it up like Moses' rod,
and cross this barrier of self,
and find our dwelling place in God!

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My Problem Is Found in Myself

My problem is found in myself

All peace and righteousness and power...
all freedom from both self and sin.
flows from our faith in Christ alone,
His rule above, His Life within.
The reason I murmur,
it's not at my neighbor,
nor the food on my plate,
or the hours I labor,
or the faults of my friends.
or the pills on my shelf.
My problem most likely
Is found in myself.
I asked Him to set up His reign
In my being.
I told Him I knew that
His Lordship is best.
He came and cast out
all that's vain and unholy,
and after the purging
I tasted His rest.
All who get some gift from God
and waste it to their grief
will know that they have been bereft
because of unbelief!
In the middle of the battle,
in the throes of trial or sin,
those who win the outward battle
win the battle first within.
This is the day, now is the time
when victory in Christ is mine,
to know His life expressed in me
by humble faith and love divine.
Christ's plan for angels
is their bliss,
for rebel men,
their loss.
His will in heaven
is a throne,
on earth ...
it was a cross!!

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God's Heartbeat

God's Heartbeat

Law and justice, mercy and faith
flow from God's own heart!
They always work together.
They never work apart.
These surely are the heartbeats
of Jesus' kingdom rule,
and these are always testing
every saint or fool!
Law and justice, mercy, and faith
converged on yonder tree
where God in Christ bore all our curse
and pain on Calvary!

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Our Ultimate Meaning

Our Ultimate Meaning

Where is our significance?
What is life's true meaning?
What's the most essential proof
beyond all doubt or seeming?
It is He, the Christ of God,
His shameful Cross, my glory,
my ever living focal point,
the essence of my story.

The Apostle's Song

The Apostle's Song

It's slain, forevermore slain.
The body of sin is slain.
By the hand of the Lord
it was slain by His 'sword'
never to rise again.
Condemned, forever condemned,
is sin in the members of man.
There's no right for one taint
of sin in the saint,
as we trust in the heavenly plan.
For wrath, great torrents of wrath,
were poured on the God-man who died.
All of sin from its source,
with Jesus was crucified!
Give glorious praise to our God,
For the Lamb who was slain on the tree.
With Him we have died.
In His word we abide.
Alive, by His Spirit, are we!

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God created man, both spirit and flesh

God created man

(Let's imagine that the Lord is talking to Gabriel before He created man on earth.)

"Things which angels desire to look into." I Peter 1:12

God said, Gabriel,
I am soon going to create a new kind of person.
He will be different than you ...
you are a spirit without flesh;
soon I will create animals of flesh without a spirit.
But the persons I plan to create on the earth will be
both Spirit and flesh.
They will be called man and woman.
Why will you do this, Oh Lord?
Listen, Gabriel, I am God, the almighty Spirit.
You are one
of my created spirits
but there exists a material realm in
disarray and chaos,
whatever I have made or will make, spirit or matter,
is not an evil creation,
but a good one.
My plan is to manifest
My Spirit in bodies of flesh.
I want to bring the two together,
made in My image and ruling the earth.
I will form man of the dust of the ground and breathe into
His nostrils
the breath (the spirit of life)
and he will become
a living soul:
I am the Lord of all I create.
My will shall be
done on earth as it is in Heaven.
How will I, as an Angel,
relate to this new being,
Oh Lord God?
If man and his descendants sin,
like Lucifer did,
and despise
My word, go their own way and seek their honor, I will still
seek man's soul.
will send My Word to become flesh.
He will "give Himself" to redeem all who comes to Him.
You will serve Me, Gabriel,
by announcing His coming, at the Appointed time!
I will await your command,
O Holy God,
O Holy Word,
O Holy Spirit!!!

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We Can't Do it ... Jesus Can!

We can't do it!

We can't hold the world together.
We can't number all the stars.
We can't change the winds of weather,
But we know
The One who can!
We can't make our heart keep beating.
We can't solve all mysteries.
There's so much beyond our knowing,
But we trust
The Heavenly Man!
We can't grasp all circumstances.
We can't make all men agree.
We've no claim to equal changes,
But we know
God has His Plan!
Who can bear the guilt of sinners?
Who can heal the broken hearts?
Who can make the losers, winners?
Who?
We preach
The Christ who can!

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I Praise You Lord

I praise You Lord

I praise You Lord
For yonder radiant sun.
The moon's soliloquy,
the sparkling stars, each one,
for flaming sunsets
and new-born days begun, for
all God does is good.
I praise you for
horizons high and low,
for trees of summer,
leaves of autumn glow,
for trees in winter,
stark, but trimmed with snow, for
all God does is good.
I praise you Lord
for cleansing deep within,
for Christian faces
free from clouds of sin,
and all who know
Messiah's reign within, for
all God does is good.

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The Spirit's Passion

The Spirit's Passion

The passion of your Spirit, Lord,
Is always Calvary.
With your eternal single eye,
Your aim is firm and will not die.
It's Calvary. It's Calvary!
All holy gifts, all depths of grace
through Jesus' blood is given.
Your Son's atonement torched a fire
that spreads, expands with one desire -
this risen Christ of Calvary
The passion of Your Spirit, Lord,
Is always Calvary.
Here men get free from sin's despair.
Stand on the Rock of fruitful prayer,
the holy Rock of Calvary!
The song of all your saints, O Lord,
Is always Calvary.
This is the Holy Spirit's stress.
From here to leap to save and bless,
O Christ, the Lamb of Calvary!!

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Abraham's Song

Abraham's Song

Shall I let fleshly feelings rule
when God's own word comes clear?
When the crucial moment comes
shall I act by faith or fear?
All around I feel the pull
as sense and sight exert their rule
and faith in things invisible
seem like the fancies of a fool!
But Wisdom calls on me to heed
the voice of promise I have heard,
rebuke the clamor of my flesh
and count upon His holy Word!

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Grant us Your Flame

Grant us Your Flame

O awful stupor of mankind,
This deafness toward the things of grace!
Is it not death, this hideous sleep?
Is there no man to shake this race?
If all the world sleeps, can we,
if we indeed confess His Name?
Can we be silent in this world
And come to judgment with no blame?
If we were dumb and could not speak,
or crippled so we could not write,
Yet His pure Flame must light our lives
To penetrate this deadly night!
O mighty Christ, grant us this flame
to give the world it's final call!
Touch now our lips to speak your Name
Before the judgment fires fall!

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Listen Evangelical

Listen Evangelical

Listen Evangelical,
Don't fear to be His true disciples,
Don't compromise the radical call of the cross,
Don't fear the visitations of the Holy Spirit,
Don't doubt His miracles,
His signs or His wonders.
He comes to make you new,
give you a new heart,
give you a new tongue,
And to renew the spirit of your mind.
Behold He makes all things new."

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The Law of Give and Take

The Law of Give and Take

I was flying in a jet plane
between Lima, Peru, and Rio, Brazil,
I thought about Jesus' teaching
in John fifteen about the vine and the branches
and the fruit it gives.
A clear truth dawned once more in me.
Each branch does two main things:
It receives and it gives.
It receives the water and the minerals from the ground.
It receives the sap and its fullness from the vine.
It gives itself in leaves and flowers,
clusters of grapes to be crushed and eaten.
It cannot exist without receiving life.
It cannot be fulfilled unless it gives away its fruit.
Jesus said we were like these branches.
We must receive His life.
Then in faith we must express His life to others.
This is at the heart of His love.
It seemed to me that nature and man and grace
were filled with this principle.
The ground receives the rain and sun,
and then the ground yields her fruit.
The rivers draw from a thousand streams
and then pour themselves into the ocean.
The clouds in turn defuse themselves in rain.
Our hearts beat day and night
with veins and arteries that circulate the blood.
Our lungs draw in the air
and sends it out again
to limbs and brain and muscles.
The baby gets its care and milk and love
and in turn gives away its cries and coos
and many sweet responses.
We take our food and drink
and by its energies we grow, we work, we play.
When we are takers only and never givers ever,
we call for death,
for when we cease to give out
we soon will sink in sin.
Our bodies suffer when its functions cease to get or give.
We lose the laws of healing and of health.
Exhaustions come to blood and brain and nerve.
For if we live only for our selves,
we die a desperate death.
But if we live in Christ, we sleep in hope
and rise again by His eternal power.

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The Ultimate Search

The Ultimate Search

I searched through the realm of nature,
The sky and the land and the sea.
And all the things called human
most meaningful to me,
to find place of confidence
wherein I might confide,
but none could calm my nature
or give me place to hide.
Then I gazed at the realm of mercy
with eyes of hope and trust.
The realm was clear and holy
beyond decay and rust.
I looked beyond all sin and shame,
all things composed of sod.
I saw the glory of all grace,
the risen Lamb of God.
I praised Him for His mercy,
I gave Him my heart and soul.
He touched me with His nailed pierced hands
and made me clean and whole.
He sent me His blessed Spirit
and broke the power of sin.
And now this God of mercy
dwells and reigns within.
Though I walk in the realm of nature,
I look to the realm of love.
Though I see the forms of earth and man,
I trust the Christ above.
For nature shall tremble in fire
And stars shall fall aflame,
But grace shall rule that awesome day
Through Jesus' holy Name!

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I came to Christ in Penitence

I came to Christ in Penitence

I came to Christ in penitence,
to His own mercy seat
where His own blood was sprinkled
and pardon was complete.
I come to Christ to be in Christ
and touch His love divine
that reaches me and teaches me
that all in Him is mine.
For all the Father's graces
in Jesus Christ converge,
and when He joins me with His Son
I sense His sacred urge ...
the urge to love, to hope, believe
and count each promise true,
and know the Spirit's power within ...
to work, to will, to do!
The urge to witness in this world,
To captives of sin's night.
To speak the gospel of His grace,
His saving life and light,
until the words the prophets' spoke,
in Holy Scriptures stored,
will purge the darkness on that Day
when Jesus comes as Lord!

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Abandonment

Abandonment

I would not miss a council
That God has planned for me.
I'll take the steps He wants me to
and listen willingly.
I would not miss a council
Though I be tried with fire;
that I might ever know His grace
and to His prize aspire.
Thus Savior, let no cares be mine
save for your cross and name,
and let no wantonness for wealth
make now my spirit lame.
Oh, Christ, my pleasure and my joy,
my Life, my sovereign Lord,
I cut the claims of earthly ties
for those in heaven stored.
I live in You, I walk in You.
Tell me your purpose still,
And I will rise on eagle's wings
to do your sacred will,
in You what matter fire and flood,
hell falls beneath your power,
O Lord I know Your Word alone
gives purpose to this hour.

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The Fringe of Blue

The Fringe of Blue

Put off the garments of the flesh,
The rags of slavedom and the slave.
Despise the wisdom of this world
As remnants on an open grave.
Be unashamed before the Lord
Who seeks to mold and make us new.
Put on the garments of His grace ...
Scarlet, purple, blue.
But scarlet priests and purple kings
Are sent and serve from Hades, too,
But these are "God's and mark it well ...
Whose garments have a fringe of blue.
These, undefiled, follow not
The whoring of the heart and eye.
They follow love and clothe their souls
With garments made by God Most-High.

Numbers 15:38

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His Liberating Word

His Liberating Word

Believe, proclaim God's blest `aletheuo'
His holy truth…His liberating Word ...
His spoken message that mankind must know
And brings new life as soon as it is heard.
It is by hearing faith begins to rise,
Faith comes by hearing, quickening our hearts,
Bringing a healing to our blinded eyes,
The veil is lifted…hopelessness departs!
How great an act is this, no other act
That probes the atom, peers at stars once dim,
Can ever be compared with t his great fact ...
That righteousness is by our faith in Him!
Mark well this law, Death rules because of sin,
But where God's Word prevails, new life begins!!
'aletheuo' to be true (in doctrine and
profession):--speak and (tell) the truth.

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Prayer's Secret

Prayer's Secret

If we believe
That Jesus bends His ear
To listen to petitions great or small,
And then records them in His book divine,
And so prepares to answer when we call.
We should rejoice,
And thank Him, though unseen
Are evidences that He listened in.
Our Lord can be believed, and if we doubt,
Would it be strange such doubt could lead to sin!
We say, "God is"
And if He is, then prayers
From hearts of faith are sure as God above,
And if we know that seeking we shall find,
We may rejoice in answers bathed in love.
Receive His Word ...
The witness of His truth,
And in your heart let faith be bold and strong.
Surely the Spirit will confirm each Word
And faith will see and sing fulfillment's song.

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Your Constant Care!

Your constant care!

With all my being, every part ...
in spirit, soul, in mind and heart,
I rest upon Your constant care
In everything and everywhere.
As joined to You I choose to act
and grasp the all embracing fact,
that my existence could not be
unless You were upholding me!

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Ezekiel's Song

Ezekiel's song!

O holy Lord, alive, and real,
with power in sky and land,
what are your strategies today?
O help me understand.
My plans may fail, my vision fade,
so let them die their death.
Bring me your plans and visions Lord,
breathe on me, Holy Breath!
Can these bones live? These dry bones live?
Yes! By your life divine.
Come with your grace and glory, Lord ...
I'll follow where you shine.
O child of God, I see a truth
no longer strange or dim.
It's this: "Not will He walk with us,
But will we walk with Him?"

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The Broken Bread

The Broken Bread

When I behold You, Lamb of God
it's then You touch my very heart.
When I behold Your wounded form,
the motions of renewal start.
Your love divine, so deep and free,
implants this love of Yours in me.
No utterance of human lips,
no natural powers of my soul
can give the Son of God His due
or make a sinner pure and whole.
But we are by the Spirit led
to taste of Christ the living Bread.
My Savior is the living bread,
the bread that Jesus broke for me,
I take the broken bread He gives
And taste his pure eternity.
I know Him not, by what He said,
but by the breaking of the Bread.
Not in your ancient glory, Christ,
before you did as man appear,
Could I, by Him, be saved from sin
and severed from the bonds of fear.
But when You chose Your blood to shed,
by this I live, O Broken Bread!

St. John 6:51

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God is Here!

God is here!

God is here,
loving, strong and wise.
I see His works,
but much I cannot see
with only human eyes.
Now is here,
the only time I own
to serve my Lord,
to fill each moment full
with fruits of grace alone.
Faith is here,
I never need to flee
to some far place,
for in the lowly heart
... is Now,
... is Faith,
... is HE?

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Listen to Him!

Listen to Him!

Listen to Him
Who stretched out the heavens.
Listen to Him
Who made land and sea.
Listen to Him
Who planned all the ages.
Listen to Him
Who made you and me.
Listen to Him
Who came from the glory.
Listen to Him
Who shows us His ways.
Listen to Him,
Who conquered at Calvary,
Listen to Him
And do what He says!

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The Foes of Holy Love

The Foes of Holy Love!

Beware of two intrusive foes
that quench the flame of love,
for every saint in warfare knows
They come not from above.
These are the foes, these we oppose
and hate without exception.
One enemy is called ill-will;
The other is deception!

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THE SPIRIT'S PASSION - A Book of Christ-centered Poems and Free Verse | FETAL PARTS RESEARCH - THE MORAL DIMENSIONS | AN ANCIENT APOLOGY FOR GLOBALIZATION FROM THE ACTS OF THE APOSTLES | THE TROUBLE WITH TEMPERANCE OR WHY NONE OF US THINKS WE BUY TOO MUCH | SHAMGAR: GOD'S UNKNOWN WARRIOR | CLICK HERE FOR PAPERS ON PERSECUTION | HOME PAGE | CONTACT EDITOR


Pastor Harold Brokke
Bethany Fellowship International
6820 Auto Club Road, Suite C
Bloomington, MN 55438, USA
E-mail: harold.brokke@bethfel.org