THE INTELLIGENCE OF OUR GOD

 

“And the Lord said unto me: These two facts do exist, that there are two spirits, one being more intelligent than the other….I am the Lord thy God, I am more intelligent than they all….I dwell in the midst of them all….wherein my wisdom excelleth them all, for I rule in all wisdom and prudence, over all the intelligences thine eyes have seen from the beginning…..” (Abraham 3:18-21)

“….there are differences in the intelligences that exist…some are more intelligent than others; and God is ‘more intelligent than them all’. I believe that this means more than that God is more intelligent than any other one of the intelligences. It means that He is more intelligent than all of the other intelligences COMBINED.

“….theAll-Wise One will be the Unselfish One, the All-Loving One, the One who desires that which is highest and best; glory, His power, His joy will be enhanced by the uplifting of all, by enlarging them; by increasing their joy, power, and glory. And because this All Intelligent One is all this, and does all this, the other Intelligences worship Him, submit their judgments and their will to His judgment and His will. He knows, and can do that which is best; and this submission of the mind to the Most Intelligent, Wisest – wiser than all – is worship. This is the whole meaning of the doctrine and the life of the Christ expressed in – “Father, not my will but Thy will, be done.”

-          Elder B.H. Roberts, “Teachings of the Prophet Joseph Smith”, footnote 8,  p 353

The intelligence and wisdom of the Father is un-surpassing. The Saviour, a God in His own right when He descended on this earth, one of innumerable ones He created, recognised this, acknowledged it and submitted to it……despite the agony of Gethsemane and the unfathomable pain of Calvary. This is the path, this is way that would take us to the glory of eternity. He IS the way, no man cometh unto the Father but by Him…..(John 14:6).

You submitted to the Father’s will

To pave the path to glories unseen;

And bowed Your knee

To the greatest of us all

To lift mankind from their Fall.

 

- CATHRYNE ALLEN 

(Art: Advocate by David Bowman) 

 

 

THE NEEDED MOTHER

 

According to scripture, our Mother Earth has had a very special and mandatory role in our progression. We usually think of the physical birth she gave humanity (Moses 2:7) but this is not her only role. She was foreordained and consecrated to establish on its face a family system patterned after the order of heaven and to become the future celestial abode of exalted sons and daughters of God (D&C 88:18-20).

If we study the process of creation in the Pearl of Great Price, we come away with the understanding that all the elements involved in the Creation are living organisms, including the planet we live on. What convinces me of this fact is Enoch’s encounter with Mother Earth and what impact it had on him.

The grief that took over him made him weep when he heard her call us her children and witnessed her mourn over our wickedness (Moses 7:48). So overcome was Enoch with her suffering that he asked God three times, ‘’when shall the earth rest”? (v 49,54,58). When we consider how she groaned when the Son of Man was lifted up and all nature suffered at the death of its Creator, we can conclude that her soul is as deep as the river (Moses 7:56; 1 Nephi 19: 12).

I know next to nothing about physics but I am fascinated with gravity. Without gravity we would be flying off the surface of this planet and into the unknown but gravity, like a spiritual umbilical cord keeps us grounded to Mother Earth so that we cannot be lost. The reason why she wept though over the wickedness of her children has to do with her foreordination to establish a family system of eternity. If this fails, the earth could be smitten with a curse and utterly wasted at the Saviour’s coming (D&C 2:2-3; Malachi 4:5).

Enter Elijah who came to restore the sealing priesthood power to bind us together so that the earth could answer the end of its creation (see Matthew 17:3; D&C 110:13-16; 128:8-18). Without that power all men and women would be forever without root and branch, meaning without ancestry and posterity that would otherwise extend into eternity.

Imagine this big beautiful perfect planet with a soul as tender and real as you and me, utterly wasted at Christ’s coming.  It is not our carbon foot print that would destroy our Mother Earth but our wickedness that can destroy her purpose of creation.

Imagine the waste of Creation, imagine the struggle of Father Adam and Mother Eve as they paved the way for humanity by ‘the sweat of their brow’ (Moses 5:1).  Now imagine the waste of Calvary. Yes, Elijah had to come to restore the priesthood power which could bind the root to branches but without our faithfulness the binding is null and void.

Right now we live in a world that promotes the ‘me and my truth’ mentality. Satan strives to divert us from a greater picture. We are a link in the chain of something marvelous and eternal. Each one contributes to the success of that picture. I know many of us love nature and the beauty of this earth. May we include in our daily gratitude this ‘needed mother’, this extraordinary planet that seeks to lift us to higher ground than the one we are currently standing on.

His gift, the beauty of the earth,

To soften the blow of turbulence

So relentlessly near;

With every movement of the trees

And the rustle of its leaves,

He whispers:

“I am here”

- CATHRYNE ALLEN 

(Art: Made New by Chris Brazelton)

THE MIGHTY CREATOR

I live in Australia and there is a kangaroo living somewhere in my bushy community. I see him skipping across my backyard every once in a while. I love this kangaroo because he has endeared me to the land I live in. You cannot get more Aussie than a kangaroo in your backyard.

I am in awe of Christ’s creative power when I look at animals and the land around me and I am in awe of the magnitude of His work. Elder Bruce R. McConkie said ‘there is no finite way to envision the extent of the worlds created by Christ at the behest of the Father’ and that ‘this small planet was but one speck of dust in a storm swirling over the Sahara’ (The Promised Messiah, p 55; see Moses 1:29-35).

You would think that amidst such quantity, creation would become perfunctory and practicality would be the primary concern of the Creator but nothing could be further from the truth. Our God has taken every thought and care to ensure the success of our mortality. I am certain that His creative power did not extend to function only, that it involved creative intelligence with intent to gladden the eye and bring joy to one’s heart.  I rather fancy that He knew that a kangaroo skipping across my backyard would bring a smile to my face.

I am certain that each particle of this earth was created with love and utmost care and God called it ‘good’ (Genesis 1:31)…… each particle that would become Australia, America, Africa, Bethlehem, Nazareth and CALVARY……

ODE TO THE MIGHTY CREATOR:

Did You ever feel the weight

Of Your calling as You spoke the Word

For the heavens and earth to be?

 

From the valleys, the hills, the oceans,

And grand mountains that be,

You left Your mark of power for all to see.

 

Were You heavy hearted

When You created the hill of Calvary?

But did You hear it whisper Your victory

When You were in Your agony:

The Mighty God, the Author of Creation,

The fountain of all salvation…..

 - CATHRYNE ALLEN 

(Art: Paradise Serenade by Greg Collins)

JEHOVAH, THE MERCY OF ISRAEL

 

I know people at large see Jehovah as a vengeful God of The Old Testament but I see Him as the God of mercy. This to me is most evident through His relationship with the House of Israel.  I will cite just two examples:

1.     Long before the House of Israel came into being, its progenitor Noah, preached and called the people to repentance for 120 years (Genesis 6:3, Moses 8:17). The people of his day were so wicked that they ‘transmitted their unrighteous natures and desires to their children, and brought them up to indulge in their own wicked practices’. Had they been allowed to live, the generations they were raising would eventually have had no ability to exercise their moral agency because they lived in evil continually and knew no good  (see John Taylor, in “Journal of Discourses” 19:158-59). Therefore, The Flood became an act of mercy. You would think 120 years would have been a sufficient time of warning. It wasn’t so. But Jehovah’s mercy didn’t stop even after 120 years. The people of Noah were given a second chance in the world of spirits and had the gospel preached to them (D&C 138:28).

2.     The book of Ezekiel is a testament of Jehovah’s mercy. Ezekiel was a prophet called to be ‘a watchman unto the House of Israel’ in the Babylonian exile (Ezekiel 3:17). Before the exile though, came a plethora of warning in Jerusalem but Israel still rejected Jehovah. Through Ezekiel, Jehovah called the exiles into repentance and offered forgiveness rather than leaving them in exile to rot, as they deserved. So serious did He consider Ezekiel’s calling that He told him if he didn’t do it, He would hold him responsible for their sins (Ezekiel 3:17,18). And this is something interesting….with every instruction the Lord gave him, He told him the people will not believe him because ‘the house of Israel is impudent and hardhearted’ (Ezekiel 2:7). Seven times He called the Israelites ‘a rebellious house’ (Ezekiel 2:5,6,7,9,26,27; 3:9). The Lord told Ezekiel the Israelites will only listen to him for entertainment value and mockery (Ezekiel 33:30-33). Despite all their wickedness and stubbornness, mercy……

Recognising the Saviour’s mercy in the Old Testament contributed to my testimony of the Book of Mormon. Some years ago, I resolved to read the Book of Mormon with intent to discover Christ's characteristics as per Joseph Smith's instruction in Lecture Third of the Lectures on Faith.

I wrote my discoveries in the margins of the book. When I had completed the task I was amazed that there were two things on just about every page. One was that Christ was merciful and the other was that He always fulfills his promises. This solidified my testimony that the Book of Mormon was indeed the second witness of Jesus Christ because it not only proved that He lived but that He was the same ‘yesterday, today, and forever’ (2 Nephi 29:9)

We have four standard works of scripture for a reason and we are commanded to study all of them because they connect all about Christ and His works through different periods of time until our dispensation that ‘He might gather together all things in one’ (Ephesians 1:10; see also “The Times of Restitution of All Things by Elder David A. Bednar, April 2025 GC)

This is our God and this is our time…..

- CATHRYNE ALLEN 

(Art: God of Wonders by Yongsung Kim)

IN WHOM WE TRUST

 

I had an advantageous experience this morning I would like to share. In search of something, I opened YouTube and the first thing I saw was an advertisement for AI that went like this: If you spend your first 10 minutes upon waking each day with AI, you won’t recognise yourself in a month.

I was so taken aback with it that I didn’t listen to more. I don’t know much about AI so I don’t know what claim to advantages AI can make but I know the warnings that we have been given by our leaders and so I am following that. I have no interest in AI, especially since I am no longer in the workforce and cannot see the need for it in my life.

I know who I would rather spend my first 10 moments with upon awakening and here is how I know. Almost immediately as I closed YouTube I received one of the greatest revelations I have had in the past year I have suffered from bad physical health.

All my life I have had a strong sense of justice to the point that it robbed me to a great degree of mercy. I recognised this in myself years ago and always thought it was mercy towards others that I lacked but this morning I was shown different.

This morning I recognised that it was needful for me to experience my greatest weakness through bad health to see that I lacked mercy towards myself. I have been hard on myself my whole life and have always felt not good enough. It has a lot to do with my upbringing but I won’t go into that.

This morning I could see so plainly that my greatest need for mercy was for my humanity. And you cannot experience that a better way than through physical senses because having a body is what makes us human. As this revelation came upon me, the tears flowed and then another realisation.

This revelation could not have come from any external source but only from the spiritual connection I have with the Saviour as one of His disciples. Only from Him…..because He is the one that received a glimpse into my human experience and my soul so that He would know how to ‘succor me according to my infirmities’ (Alma 7:12).

This morning gave me the greatest 10 minutes of my life. All honour, glory and praise be to my Saviour who has given me a portion of His mercy that I might know myself and through it show love to the person who right now needs it the most, me. In a month, I won’t know myself….

You have fed me from the banquet of your love;

Your arms have cradled me

in the eye of the heaviest storm;

You have led me to reach the heights of faith

to me unknown.

You are my Sovereign,

My wings of protection from the cold,

My eagle in flight

To pilot me home.

- CATHRYNE ALLEN 

(Art: In Solemn Prayer by Greg Collins)

OUR EARTHLY ABODE

 

I recently read a BYU speech by President Oaks in which he pointed out 20 ways that Satan uses to attack us through our strengths, not our weaknesses. He listed our strong desire to understand everything about every principle of the gospel as Number 3. He went on to say that this desire can cause us to search mysteries to which there are no answers rather than seeking greater understanding of the gospel principles (Dallin H. Oaks, “Our Strengths Can Become Our Downfall” June 7, 1992)

I have an example of this. Some years ago I did a post in which I quoted the seven days of Creation form the scriptures. I suggested the seven days were really 7,000 earthly years as 1 God’s day is our 1,000 years (Abraham 3:4; 2 Peter 3:8; Psalms 90:4). One reader called me naïve because according to the scientific evidence our planet is millions and millions of years old.

My comeback was that we don’t really know how long the creation took as time only is measured unto men (Alma 40:8) and that days of creation are really just “periods between two identifiable events – a division of eternity” (see “The Creation” by Russell M. Nelson, April 2000 GC). So because we don’t really know, I am going with what the scriptures say as a point of reference. She replied that scriptures were just symbolic and are not to be taken literally and that scientific proof cannot be ignored. I asked her if we should not then take the Atonement literally…..and I wondered by what method science can ascertain that something is 60 million years old…….she didn’t answer.

There are many theories about the age of the earth. One of them is that the earth was ‘organised’ from elements of older worlds which had come and gone (Moses 1:35). This appeals to me as the greatest explanation. The word “created” really comes from a Hebrew word which means “to organise”. The elements of everything are eternal and cannot be created out of nothing so the Lord’s power of creation is really His organising power.

And here is something important: “Apparently it was not easy for the Lord to present the creation story. It is obvious from His statements to Moses that He was conscious of the fact that the children of men do not have the present capacity to comprehend many of the eternal principles used during the creation process. To describe the creation in detail would have raised more questions than it would have answered.” (Cleon Skousen, “The First Two Thousand Years” p 19)

I tend to believe that even science creates more questions than its ‘proofs’ can answer but there will come a day when the Saviour returns and all things will be revealed to us including how the earth was made …..and then, its “purpose and the end thereof” (D&C 101:33,34)…..but we already know that, don’t we? And knowing that the purpose of the earth is OUR purpose is all we need to know for now.

But the most important revelation of all will not be how and what but it will be the magnificence of the God who created it……

- CATHRYNE ALLEN 

(Art: The Creator by Chris Brazelton)

A BOOK OF ROOTS

 

I have gravitated towards the Old Testament during my entire Church membership and for one reason. It has so many roots: the root of our existence, the root of the Abrahamic covenant, the root of the identity of the House of Israel, the root of the generations of Christ.

I love beginnings and roots are beginnings. I love to see how things started and I love seeing people rise to great heights: Abraham, the father of the faithful with whom God made the greatest covenant ever for the benefit of the children of men; the mighty Jacob who became Israel; Moses, who rose to be the great lawgiver of God’s favoured people; the Plan of Salvation which propelled the Son of God to become the God of Creation and Redeemer of mankind. I love beginnings and I love evolvement.

The Old Testament begins with the root of Creation but to me it begins with its author, Moses, who wrote the first five books of the Old Testament and to whom was revealed the why and how we came to be here…..the most important part which was lost and which the population at large wonders about still.

God knew that this would happen so he promised Moses that He would ‘raise up another’ like him to restore His words which were taken away (Moses 1:40-41). Enter beloved Joseph who received this vital information through revelation whilst translating the Bible in June 1830 to February 1831.

Both these men prove one thing – God chooses His most valiant children for key positions on earth as they can be trusted to accomplish their assignments, because “the works, and the designs, and the purposes of God cannot be frustrated, neither can they come to naught (D&C 3:1)

God knew in the very beginning that Moses would have the fortitude to turn his back on the luxuries and glories of the Egyptian court, accept the role of a shepherd for forty years and then be called to lead 2 million people out of Egyptian bondage and slavery.

Imagine being an 80 year old shepherd, removed from a complicated life in Egypt and enjoying the ease of pastoral life until one day you happen to come across a burning bush and are asked to take the shoes off your feet and show reverence to the maker of the Universe (Exodus 3:4-5)

That sacred experience was the beginning of the tutoring of Moses to whom God revealed himself and showed him the roots of man’s identity who is in the similitude of God’s Only Begotten, the Saviour of all mankind (Moses 1:6). And then the greatest root of all, God’s purpose of creation of this earth and of all the living on it: “For behold, this is my work and my glory to bring to pass the immortality and eternal life of man.” (Moses 1:39) 

- CATHRYNE ALLEN

(Art: Moses by Greg Sargent)