Can I bind myself to that naked stake
Shall I lift high the red-striped timber
Will heart and hand fully lade partake
Can flesh fade without a whimper?

Do roses bloom without a brier
Shall I bend Thy will to mine
Doth dross consume sans smelting fire
Shall branch preserve the Vine?

How can I embrace the One
Who gave all upon the tree
If I lose naught of self to Son
But cling knuckle-white to me?

© Kristine Lowder
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Isaiah 53:3-8

4 Surely he took up our infirmities
and carried our sorrows,
yet we considered him stricken by God,
smitten by him, and afflicted.

5 But he was pierced for our transgressions,
he was crushed for our iniquities;
the punishment that brought us peace was upon him,
and by his wounds we are healed.

6 We all, like sheep, have gone astray,
each of us has turned to his own way;
and the LORD has laid on him
the iniquity of us all.

7 He was oppressed and afflicted,
yet he did not open his mouth;
he was led like a lamb to the slaughter,
and as a sheep before her shearers is silent,
so he did not open his mouth.

8 By oppression and judgment he was taken away.
And who can speak of his descendants?
For he was cut off from the land of the living;
for the transgression of my people he was stricken.

Peter's Embrace

Master, you came to show the way but many did not follow You.
You spoke and Your word's fell like falling rain
Refreshing the thirsty soul.
How could they deny the Lord of Lords
A Savior to set them free
There is healing and strength at the touch of His hand
Only the Spirit can make you see.

Master, you prayed till the early dawn as we lay fast asleep
We heard the sound of soldiers all around
They've come to take You away.
Not you, my Lord, I won't let this be !
You've not done anything wrong.
So, I drew my sword to take revenge
But Jesus spoke silence to me.

Peter, the time has come for me to die, just like the Father has said.
Go now, and be strong, for I will return
Never to leave you again.

But the anguish and pain, the ache in my heart
Why did they take my Lord away?
It was then I denied of even knowing Him
Why did they take my Lord away?
The anguish and pain, the ache in my heart
Why did they take my Lord away?
He is a man of His Word, He will return
Or has He forgotten me?

Now all's been done and they've killed the One
The One who could set us free.
He is a Man of His word, He will return
Or has He forgotten me?

Mary came to our house one day
"They've rolled the stone away"
We ran to the tomb to find Him gone.
Back home again we tried to understand
Where had they taken Him now?

Then, suddenly, there appeared to me
I knew by the scars, it was He !
He had remembered me and returned to see
Just like He said it would be.

Such joy had come into this heart of mine !
I knelt to kiss His feet
I stood to embrace the Lord of Lords
Oh, He is the Kings and Kings.

He is the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords
A Savior to set us free !
There is healing and strength at the touch of His hand
Only the Spirit can make you see.
Only the Spirit can make you see.

© Pamela Jones
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Luke 24:1-3, 9, 11-12

1 On the first day of the week, very early in the morning, the women took the spices they had prepared and went to the tomb. 2 They found the stone rolled away from the tomb, 3 but when they entered, they did not find the body of the Lord Jesus.

9 When they came back from the tomb, they told all these things to the Eleven and to all the others.

11 But they did not believe the women, because their words seemed to them like nonsense. 12 Peter, however, got up and ran to the tomb. Bending over, he saw the strips of linen lying by themselves, and he went away, wondering to himself what had happened.

We nailed Christ to a curse conceived in hell,
Designed by Satan, constructed by Man,
Crucified Him, who came to make us well,
To heal our wounds as only He can.
Alone He carried our shame and guilt,
Bore our sins, on which we’d built,
An altar to this pagan world.

Engulfed by death He gave a final cry,
"It is finished!" Then hung His head and died,
Only then did we start to question, why
We had taken Barabbas’ side.
And with the Chief Priest’s and Pharisees,
We hurried back to our life of ease,
To our legalised religion.

Next morning Jesus was yesterday’s news,
Condemned to the archives of people’s minds,
Though a few continued to preach His views,
And speak of His miracles, wonders and signs.
But most of us thought they would never last,
That this latest cult, like those of the past,
Would fade into oblivion.

But on the third day Christ rose from the dead,
Returning triumphant over Man’s sin,
Fulfilling God’s will as the prophets had said,
Resplendent with glory befitting the King.
Filled with awe I fell to my knees,
Rejected the world, I’d wanted to please,
And worshipped Jesus Christ my Lord.

©1999 Richard Bowdery

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John 20:10-18

Mary stood outside the tomb crying. As she wept, she bent over to look into the tomb and saw two angels in white, seated where Jesus' body had been, one at the head and the other at the foot.

 13They asked her, "Woman, why are you crying?"

   "They have taken my Lord away," she said, "and I don't know where they have put him." 14At this, she turned around and saw Jesus standing there, but she did not realize that it was Jesus.

 15"Woman," he said, "why are you crying? Who is it you are looking for?"
       Thinking he was the gardener, she said, "Sir, if you have carried him away, tell me where you have put him, and I will get him."

 16Jesus said to her, "Mary."
       She turned toward him and cried out in Aramaic, "Rabboni!" (which means Teacher).

 17Jesus said, "Do not hold on to me, for I have not yet returned to the Father. Go instead to my brothers and tell them, 'I am returning to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.' "

 18Mary Magdalene went to the disciples with the news: "I have seen the Lord!" And she told them that he had said these things to her.

2 Corinthians 4:13-15 

He Called Out To Us Long Before We Called Out To Him

C.S. Lewis's marvellous series, "The Chronicles of Narnia", introduced me to Eustace, whose life-changing experiences were described in detail in "The Voyage of the Dawn Treader". Through his own personal encounters with Aslan and through observing those further along in their relationship with the great lion, the once stubborn, obnoxious, self-centered lad grew in his faith and his desire to please the one who had set him free from the prison of his own making.

As I read the beginning chapters of the subsequent book in the series, "The Silver Chair", I easily related to Eustace's struggle to put his newfound faith into action. What seemed so clear in Narnia now appeared cloudy and uncertain in Eustace's everyday world. Yet, when push came to shove, Eustace instinctively knew whom to call upon in times of trouble and he let his friend Jill in on the exciting secret. Soon after, the two friends literally found their backs against the wall and faced immediate great harm.

In desperation, Eustace calls out to Aslan. After a blind dash through brier and brush, a door miraculously opens and the pair found sanctuary in Aslan's country.

Jill soon finds herself alone, standing before the great Lion himself, being commissioned into a specific task that he had appointed for her and a task to which he had called her into his country to fulfill. Confused, Jill wonders if she is the victim of mistaken identity. After all, it was she and Eustace who had done the calling and Aslan had done the answering, the open door being the evidence.

Aslan replies. “You would not have called to me unless I had been calling to you,” said the Lion. (p. 19 The Silver Chair)

If Jill had any preconceived ideas that her journey in Aslan's world would be safe and secure in comparison to the world she left behind, she was sadly mistaken. Peril, floods, kidnapping, deception and cruelty lay before her. When the darkest testings and trials came her way, she found reassurance in knowing that Aslan had done the calling and that he who had the power to call her from darkness into the light held the same power to deliver her whenever she called upon his name. As long as she stayed true to Aslan's directives, she would be protected from real harm and she would triumph in the end.

It is comforting, the realization in knowing that God called out to me long before I called out to Him. He, who knows my heart and my frailties, called me first into relationship with him, and then commissioned me into his service. My salvation and the success in serving Him are not dependent on any inherent goodness within me, nor in my ability to follow protocol or any other extraordinary talent or skill I might possess. It is He who initiated his relationship with me as His child. It is He who causes all things to work together for good.

Romans 8:28-30 (NLT) "And we know that God causes everything to work together for the good of those who love God and are called according to his purpose for them. For God knew his people in advance, and he chose them to become like his Son, so that his Son would be the firstborn among many brothers and sisters. And having chosen them, he called them to come to him. And having called them, he gave them right standing with himself. And having given them right standing, he gave them his glory."

Romans 8:35-39 (NLT) "Can anything ever separate us from Christ’s love? Does it mean he no longer loves us if we have trouble or calamity, or are persecuted, or hungry, or destitute, or in danger, or threatened with death? As the Scriptures say, “For your sake we are killed every day; we are being slaughtered like sheep. No, despite all these things, overwhelming victory is ours through Christ, who loved us. And I am convinced that nothing can ever separate us from God’s love. Neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither our fears for today nor our worries about tomorrow—not even the powers of hell can separate us from God’s love. No power in the sky above or in the earth below—indeed, nothing in all creation will ever be able to separate us from the love of God that is revealed in Christ Jesus our Lord."

©2009 Katherine Walden
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As of May 2012, "WHATEVER IS PURE" ARCHIVES will no longer be seeking submissions. As most authors and poets now have their own blogs, we noticed a significant drop in submissions over the past year and felt it was best to move on to other endeavors.

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