Howard Higashi-a third-generation Hawaiian of Japanese Buddhist ancestry-was born to a Hawaiian sugar plantation foreman and his wife. Little did these parents imagine that their newborn infant was destined to become a melodious servant of Christ.

Growing up enjoying the easygoing environment of the island seemed unlikely to prepare Higashi's heart to be a desperate seeker of God. Nevertheless, paradise seemed to end when the father he adored died at the age of fifty-two. For the first time, Higashi began to question the meaning of life. He married Lily Agena in 1965, which brought some comfort to him.

In 1968, Higashi met a Christian whose daily living impressed him, thus drawing him to receive the Lord when he was thirty-one. He had a dynamic conversion that opened his wife to the gospel; she received the Lord soon afterward. The Higashis reached hundreds of college students and many relatives with the gospel of Christ.

Higashi later obtained a degree to become a high-school math teacher, but he chose to work full-time for the Lord instead, ministering from campus to campus, shepherding others, and writing spiritual songs. He was called home to Christ at the age of sixty-one.

Abba, Father

Abba, Father, here our cry
Mingled spirit deep within.

Chorus:

Abba, Father, Abba, Father.

Thank You, Father, for sending Him;
The Spirit of Your Son Who cries within.

Oh! How sweet is Abba's Name
From our spirit through our heart.

Every moment this mingled cry;
To Your Beloved we're joined thereby.

Day by day, this cry so new;
In Your Son we come back to You.

In Your bosom here we'll stay,
In Your Son and never stray.

Awake, Awake, Deborah!

Awake, awake, Deborah!
Awake, awake, utter a song!
Arise, Barak, and lead
Your captivity captive!

Let Your enemies perish, Oh Jehovah
But let them that love Him be as the sun!

Awake, awake, Oh generation!
Come out, come out from all the nations.
Arise, Christians, and give
Yourselves to Christ and the church.

This is the Lord's generation!
Oh come out from all the nations!

Awake, awake, Oh sisters!
Awake, awake, utter this song!
Arise, brothers, and wield
The sword of the Spirit!

Let us stand strong in the Lord
By fighting with prayer in the Word!

For the Lord Has Chosen Zion

For the Lord has chosen Zion,
He has desired her.
For the Lord has chosen Zion
For His habitation.
This is My rest forever,
Here will I dwell.
This is my rest forever.
I have desired her.

God Is Love

God is love, Who sent His beloved Son.
Man is fallen with corruption,
but You sent Your dear Son.
God commends His kindness and love toward us,
In that while we were yet sinners
Christ died for us.

Chorus:

God You did not spare Him,
Your beloved Son.
Father, how we praise You
For this precious One!

Who can know the love from our Father's being?
Ears have never heard, eyes have never seen,
But Lord, I've been redeemed.
God is love. O God, a man You became;
A cursed man to be, God, You died for me.
Lord, You hung from a tree.

Father, You have sent Him,
Your beloved Son.
He shed His blood on Calvary.
Your love reached me.

God so loved the world that He gave us His Son.
Just believe in Him. Be not perishing,
But have eternal life.
Just believe in Him. Be not perishing,
But have eternal life.

I Am Young And I'm In Love

I am young and I'm in love
With the One who is from above.
All my days are just for Him
All my being I open to Him.

Chorus:

Jesus You love me.
You took my place at Calvary.
Jesus You love me.
You gave Your life to save me.

Others try the world and sin,
But for me -- I only want Him.
Lord Your beauty has captured my heart.
Now I give You every part.

Jesus now is living in me.
We'll be mingled as one entity.
God's good pleasure His Bride we'll be
As His wife for eternity.

Chorus:

Hallelujah! We're in love!
God loving us and we love Him.
Hallelujah! We're in love!
His masterpiece the New Jerusalem.

I Do Not Know Where They Have Laid Him

Disciples came and saw the empty tomb
But went away so soon to their own homes.
They're satisfied with just the facts.
But where's my Lord?

My heart is broken from my deepest need.
Don't ask me, angels, why I'm weeping.
Nothing but Jesus fills my inner being.
Oh! Where's my Love?

Someone is standing right behind me.
It's just the gardener I can barely see.
Sir, if you carried Him away...
Oh! Where is He?

Where is He my Jesus?
Where is He my Beloved?
Tell me where you have laid Him
And I'll carry Him away, I'll carry Him away.

And then I heard a voice say, "Mary."
That sweetest voice that penetrated me.
It is the voice of my Beloved,
Jesus, my Love.

But Jesus told me not to touch Him yet.
He must ascend first to the Father
And to My Father and your Father
To My God and your God.

Go and tell My brothers,
I ascend to the Father
To My Father and your Father,
And My God and your God, go tell My brothers.

This Divine Romance

Howard Higashi
©2000, Living Stream Ministry, Anaheim, CA

How could a country girl like me
Become Your match-Your bride to be
You're holy and You are divine
But I'm fallen and human.
Without You, Lord, I have no chance
To be like You in this romance.
But You chose me ere the world began
Nothing could change Your plan.

Chorus:

This divine romance
Is My heart's deep plan.
I became a lowly man
To court My country girl.
Nothing could deter.
Nothing can alter
My eternal love for her
I'll gain My country girl.

No man or angel ever knew
This secret hidden deep in You
That You desired to be one with man
Before the world began.
Though sin came in to ruin me
Through Satan's scheme and subtlety
Nothing could break Your love for me
To gain me totally.

As King of kings You became a man,
You died for me--I've been redeemed,
In resurrection made us queen
To marry You, my King.
From death You 'rose and entered me,
I now possess Your divinity;
In life and nature we're the same:
Both human and divine.

Where's The Answer?

Howard Higashi
©2000, Living Stream Ministry, Anaheim, CA

Where's the answer?
There must be more for me.
Is this all to life-an empty vanity?
Day by day and year by year go by.
Am I just a man, a man just born to die?

Where's the answer? Oh, I'm so empty
And plagued by this vanity.
Deep inside me, my conscience tells me:
I need another destiny.

I convinced my friends
That everything's alright,
That my life and future
And everything's so bright.
But a sense inside me,
My friends, I can't deny,
Warning deep inside me
That I was living a lie.

The world and its glitter left me anxious,
Dark, and bitter,
Always yearning, my friends,
Is there something better?
And religion, my friends,
Is just a Sunday game-
Dead teachings and doctrines
Will leave you just the same?

Oh God, where are You?
I need You desperately!
Oh God, Who are You?
Why don't You answer me?
The heavens declare You and the earth
Shows Your beauty.
But I'm a man. Oh God, I'm so empty!

Lord, have mercy! I'm crying for You!
Please hear! Are You really true?
I'm dark and lonely. You're far,
Far from me.
Oh Lord, I need You desperately!

One day a friend told me
That Jesus is the Lord.
To my great surprise,
It's written in the Word.
They asked me to believe You.
Your name I once blasphemed.
Dear Lord, You saved me
Just by calling on Your name.

Oh, Lord Jesus, dear Son, so glorious,
I'm cleansed and You entered into me.
Oh, Lord Jesus, Your name most precious!
Your Person, dear Lord, I now possess.

Life in Hawaii: Paradise Threatened

Howard Higashi was born in times both bountiful and horrendous. In 1937, young Howard was born into a happy family in a place about as close to paradise as possible. Yet, the lovely Hawaiian Islands were about to be struck with a direct hit by Japan's attack on Pearl Harbor. Young Howard was an impressionable four years old when the United States became entangled in World War II.

The war virtually transformed the islands into a military base for the next five years. The Higashi clan had clustered years earlier with other plantation workers forming a village near the forest on the big island of Hawaii. Being mostly of Japanese descent, the villagers were interred, or at least contained and watched. The military made inspections, removing Japanese written materials and communication radios from their homes.

After the War

Just after the war, Howard's brothers became of age and enlisted in the military, serving in Japan and also in the Korean War. But younger Howard came of age in the 50s, and like many of his generation, became carried away by the music of the times. In the 1960s, Howard went to college in Los Angeles, just in time to witness the horrible race riots, fervent student war protests, and a younger generation in blatant rebellion. At the peak of this convergence of tensions, Howard Higashi was saved. It was 1968, and he had found a righteous cause and heavenly purpose that surpassed that of his peers.

 

Growing Up in Paradise

On February 28, 1937, Howard Higashi was born to a Hawaiian sugar plantation foreman and his wife. Little did these parents imagine that their newborn infant was destined to become a melodious servant of Christ.

Higashi was born a third-generation Hawaiian of Japanese Buddhist ancestry. Growing up enjoying the easygoing environment of the island seemed unlikely to prepare his heart to be a desperate seeker of God.

Buddhism—A Family Tradition

Generational practice caused his family to continue in the tradition of Buddhist worship as a matter of course. One of Howard's childhood memories was of bowing to a statue while he nestled securely between his parents. He followed various pagan practices well into adulthood, never having seen a single Bible in his parents' home.

Outwardly Peaceful

As a youth, Higashi thrived amidst that peaceful tropical environment, being surrounded by nature's beauty and bounty. His family lived a simple, relatively tranquil life. Higashi and his relatives had the ocean not far from their home and spent hours catching fish and lobster.

From there they could go to the other side of their home and be in the tropical jungle, where game was plentiful for hunting. Finally, their family's verdant garden, growing in the tropical climate, offered abundance to a table already richly spread with fish and game.

Life was carefree. Higashi recalled that he never even had to wear shoes to school, until his senior year-and then only because he had been elected class president. Those were outwardly peaceful years, yet devoid of God.

Questioning the Meaning of Life

However, this safe and secure environment was later to be rattled by his father's failing health, exposing an inward lack in Howard's being. His father's early death caused him to become troubled by the fear of death and his lack of knowledge of God. For the first time, Higashi began to question the meaning of life.

 

 

An Inner Thirst: College Years

In 1965, while attending college in Los Angeles, California, Higashi married Lily Agena, thinking "Well, maybe she will help to make me happy." But still an inward thirst for God continued unabated. He sensed a gnawing emptiness, which he tried to fill with music, sports, friends, and entertainment-all to no avail.

Then in 1968, Higashi met a Christian who had been called by the Lord to go back to college for the gospel's sake. Placed in Howard's class, this student's daily living-his study habits, attendance, humility, and other virtues-were expressions of Christ to him.

A Dynamic Salvation

The two became friends, and when Higashi learned that his new friend was a regular participant in Bible studies on campus, he found himself open to the gospel for the first time in his life. He was given a Bible and also helped to pray to receive the Lord Jesus Christ at the age of thirty-one. He had a dynamic salvation that also opened his wife, Lily, to the gospel.

Higashi thereafter poured out his love on the One Who had given meaning to his life. The poetry he wrote and sang to the Lord continually released his inner joy and helped him express his love of Christ to many.

An Inner Thirst: College Years

In 1965, while attending college in Los Angeles, California, Higashi married Lily Agena, thinking "Well, maybe she will help to make me happy." But still an inward thirst for God continued unabated. He sensed a gnawing emptiness, which he tried to fill with music, sports, friends, and entertainment-all to no avail.

Then in 1968, Higashi met a Christian who had been called by the Lord to go back to college for the gospel's sake. Placed in Howard's class, this student's daily living-his study habits, attendance, humility, and other virtues-were expressions of Christ to him.

A Dynamic Salvation

The two became friends, and when Higashi learned that his new friend was a regular participant in Bible studies on campus, he found himself open to the gospel for the first time in his life. He was given a Bible and also helped to pray to receive the Lord Jesus Christ at the age of thirty-one. He had a dynamic salvation that also opened his wife, Lily, to the gospel.

Higashi thereafter poured out his love on the One Who had given meaning to his life. The poetry he wrote and sang to the Lord continually released his inner joy and helped him express his love of Christ to many.

Shepherding Young Believers: God’s Whole Burden

A great deal of Higashi’s life was spent in ministering to college-age students. Often in gatherings, he would speak to them words that were loosed like an arrow toward the target of their hearts. They paid rapt attention to him because he was a man who loved them. He wanted them to "realize that God’s whole burden is just for mankind.”

A Divine Romance

Higashi encouraged them to not waste their lives in distractions away from God, particularly in this world’s most natural allurements. He imparted to them the biblical insight that in the most holy sense, a divine romance exists between God and man.

He told them the Creator longs that each "person will receive the Triune God” and that "everything else that is happening on the earth is temporary and just vanity.” He stood before them as a spiritual father who had spent almost thirty years cultivating his own loving relationship with the Lord.

Chosen by God

Higashi often told young believers about their wonderful change in status—they were sinners, yet they had become sons of God. He reminded them, "God chose us in eternity. He separated us from our mother’s womb. He knew everything that we were in—what family we were born into, what school we would go to—and who knows how many things He had to do to protect us?”

But, as part of Adam’s fallen race, we "became corrupted, constituted with sin. Yet His choosing us never changed.” And we were chosen not only to be friends of God, but born again to become sons of God and brothers of Jesus Christ!

A Life of Laboring for the Lord : First Love

The resurrected Lord reveals Himself more to those who love Him much. Higashi’s wife recalled that her husband’s concern was to help believers love their Lord more intensely and consecrate themselves to Him more deeply. He longed that all would just come back to their first love, to Jesus Christ Himself.

The lyrics and the music Higashi wrote throughout his life certainly accomplished his intended desire: to draw listeners to open their hearts to the Lord of Love and to enter into a lifelong relationship with the Savior-God.

A Gospel Life

Howard and Lily Higashi were instrumental in reaching hundreds of college students and many relatives with the good news of Jesus Christ. Higashi spent the rest of his life laboring from campus to campus in the gospel—shepherding others, writing spiritual songs, and ministering the truth in order to build up the Body of Christ. Howard Higashi was called home to Christ on November 27, 1998, at the age of sixty-one.