Poetry Excerpts from Fishing for Souls by Ottomar E. Bickel © 2000 Roller Coaster Press

 

Poetry Excerpts

• Come, Pilgrim, Walk with Me
• Whom Does God Choose?
• What I See by the Sea
• What Good Would Heaven Be without God?
• Eternal Attention

Come, Pilgrim, Walk with Me

Come with me to Galilee; see all my green hills of home.
Along that shore I'll teach you more--the full meaning of shalom.

Come let's go to Jericho by the old wilderness way.
Let us with Zacchaeus dine and see him changed in a day.

Watch with me in Gethsemane, my olive grove of prayer.
Hear my cry, ponder why I knew such fear and despair.

Climb with me to Calvary; relive again those hard hours.
True review will renew your spiritual powers.

Stroll with me in victory, in the Garden of the Tomb;
Let me start to teach your heart life in the uppermost room.

Make it three who share with me along the Emmaus way.
As you learn, your heart will burn, you'll know it's me when I pray.

Shield your eyes where proud Saul dies on the Damascus road.
Then, like Paul, you too tell all why I was crucified.

Come fish with me on Galilee seeking the lost and wayward.
To all the earth, bring new birth by My life-giving word.

Then rise with me to the heavenly; by faith you're as good as there.
Feast your eyes on Paradise, of which you are joint heir.

What I See by the Sea

[The view from my home on Lake Erie.]

How do I turn
a picture panorama
viewed from my porch rocker
into a poem of praise?

What my eyes now enclose
from periphery to periphery
are greens and blues
of many hues
in earth and sea and sky

The foreground
of lawn and flowers and hedge
yields to shoreline of trees
and boundless expanses
of azure background

The sun, brilliant and cheerful
highlights sails and surf
white caps and gulls
bathers and anglers
and bleached breakwall rocks

Near the center
a sturdy lighthouse towers
its lamp still shines by night
to guide the lost

Add two freighters heading west
one close up and looming large
the other on the distant rim
in miniature

The horizon
sharply etched
God draws straight lines
freehand

The air washed clean by recent rain
all is in sharp focus
from left to right
from front to back
from finite to infinite
for eyes of mind and spirit

Lord, my Maker and my Savior
may my heart's thanks and praise
match Your art and grace

Whom Does God Choose?

The Apostle Paul said God chose:

• not many wise after the flesh
• not many mighty
• not many noble
• the foolish things of the world
• weak things
• lowly, despised things
• even the things that are not

Yes, God doesn't select only big shots, but also:

• the nobodies
• the lowly zeros
• those considered ignorant and inferior
• the common people
• the plain
• the ordinary
• the average
• the simple
• the poor
• those ashamed of their sinful frailties

How about you? Are you:

• too popular to be part of the Christian minority?
• too educated to learn the Bible's way of salvation?
• too sophisticated to engage in "foolish" witnessing?
• too prominent to declare your friendship with Christ?
• too influential to let Christ's influence on you show?
• too rich to need the treasure found in a field?
• too bejeweled to desire the pearl of great price?
• too attractive to desire the beauty of the Lord?
• too strong and virile to need the Helper of the weak?
• too secure to need the Rock of Ages?
• too self-sufficient to need the Supplier of our need?
• too high and mighty to bow before the King of kings?
• too distinguished to honor the Lord of lords?
• too pure to need the cleansing of His blood?
• too successful to lean on Him who said: "It is finished!"?
• too proud to humble yourself so He might lift you up?

What Good Would Heaven Be without God?

"Whom have I in heaven but you? And earth has nothing I desire besides you." Psalm 73:25

What good would heaven be without God,
no matter how much else it offered
To anticipate the glorious meeting
and then to find an empty house,
splendid mansion though it were.
To long for my Father's warm embrace
at the heavenly welcome-home party,
and find no Abba waiting there.

All that is splendid to please the eye,
celestial sounds to please the ear,
supernatural beauty and fragrance,
but no Rose of Sharon? No Jesus?!
A convocation of saved sinners,
a praise-gathering of souls in song,
an exultant "Glory be to Jesus,"
but the Son of God absent?

Angels, as eagles soaring free,
seraphim that wing-lift us above
to see the glory of the golden city,
but no sign of God's Spirit?
It would be a mere wilderness
causing thirst only God can quench.
The divine fountain but a desert mirage
now fading before our eyes.

In the splendid banquet hall
the wedding feast is now prepared.
The bride, the Church, gowned in white,
but no Bridegroom to be found?
All eyes search for His coming,
every ear strains for His footfall.
No bride ever so discarded,
no future ever so hollow.

No matter what wonders may appear,
heaven, without God, would barren be.
So great a vacuum would implode,
hope collapsed into despair.
"Oh, that I might see God", my soul would cry,
"to be home at last from wandering and wondering,
all love's yearning returned and satisfied
in Him from whom my whole life springs."

But God who cannot lie has promised.
When I awake, I will be with Him.
I will see Him as He is.
I will know Him as I am known.
He the center of my attention,
the sole object of my affection.
I shall be satisfied with His likeness.
My cup shall surely overflow. Forever.

These future musings instruct me now.
For is it not as true here as there?
Yes, He offers to reclaim my rebellious heart
and make my body His temple pure,
dwelling there as Comforter and Guide!
Here and now let us be heaven-minded,
filled with the fullness and presence of God,
our affection set on things above. Forever.

Eternal Attention

Dear Father, tend me.
Jesus Savior, mend me.
Holy Spirit, bend me,
send me,
and spend me.

All Your power lend me.
Till the end defend me.
Then to heaven commend me.

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Unless otherwise noted, Scripture quotations taken from the HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION. Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984 by International Bible Society.