SHEPHERDS OF ISRAEL

 

 

There is a significant promise in the Book of Jeremiah that should make us grateful for General Conference. In chapter 3, we read of ancient Israel’s betrayal of the covenant they had made with Jehovah by pursuing other gods through idolatry. This wandering away was attributed heavily to ‘the shepherds of Israel’, meaning their leaders, who led the flock astray. However, the Lord made an amazing promise through Jeremiah that in the days of ‘gathering’, meaning our day, He will give us worthy Church leaders ‘according to MINE HEART which shall feed you with knowledge and understanding’ (Jeremiah 3:15). This has been the truth for me. I am a convert of 40 years and I can say with certainty and gratitude that the Church leaders have brought me to Christ. 

 

But there is even a more blissful promise than this. Ezekiel 34 rends my heart. It reveals the sorrowful heart of the Saviour who weeps over His flock saying: “My sheep wandered through all the mountains, and upon every hill: yea, my flock was scattered upon all the face of the earth, and none did search or seek after them” (v6). He then proclaims a harsh judgment against Israel’s shepherds who scattered the flock anciently but then gives us a hope to surpass all sorrow: “Behold, I, even I, will both search my sheep and seek them out….I will seek out my sheep….and gather them…and feed them upon the mountains of Israel….I will feed them in a good pasture….I will seek that which was lost…I will feed my flock…….ye are my flock, the flock of my pasture, and I am your God…. (v11-31)…….

 

We roam this earth

Lost, scattered, disowned,

Yet forgotten nevermore.

From the anguish of Thy heart

Thou art gathering the lost

To keep them safe in Thy keep;

Thou art the Shepherd

Who desires in His bosom

The flock of His beloved sheep.

- CATHRYNE ALLEN

(Art by Liz Lemon Swindle)

WHEN THE TRUTH BURNS IN YOUR HEART

 

I love words. I love words like some people love numbers. It’s an unusual love, I know. It’s unusual when the Dictionary is one of your pals….

 

As I started my study of Jeremiah this year it was immediately confirmed to me why he is one of the two prophets of my heart. Being called to preach, as a youth, to a people whose ‘day of grace was past with them’, much like Mormon in his day (Mormon 2:15), Jeremiah was understandably relucant. The Lord not only assured him by telling him of his greatness and his foreordination before he was even born (Jeremiah 1:5), He touched his mouth with his hand and told him he has put His ‘words’ in his mouth to ‘root out, and to pull down, and to destroy, and to throw down, to build, and to plant’ (v10). Imagine the power of every word that would come out of Jeremiah’s mouth from then on…...but you wouldn’t imagine this: Jeremiah did not cease striving to save his people begging them in vain, for 40 years, to turn back to God and avert the Babylonian captivity. During that time Jeremiah was in a state of continuous suffering as he was accused of political treason, put in stocks, thrown in prison, persecuted, hunted by men of his home town who sought to kill him and so angered the elders of the Jews because his prophecies came true that they cast him into a dungeon called 'a pit prison', being lowered into it with cords through a hole in the top, where Jeremiah sank in the mire (Jeremiah 38:6).  At the height of his persecutions and suffering Jeremiah was tempted to cease preaching but he could not restrain himself because ‘His WORD was in mine heart as a burning fire shut up in my bones, and I was weary with forbearing, and I could not stay’ (Jeremiah 20:9). Jeremiah’s mission makes for captivating reading. 

 

May we, when the truth burns within us, speak and be heard in this world where men call ‘good evil and evil good’ (Isaiah 5:20; 2 Nephi 15:20). May we have the courage and more importantly, ask the God of Heaven to put His words in our mouth that we may be the force for good and be vessels in His hands of saving souls from destruction that is imminent.

 

I will spread the word

Your gift of salvation to honour

And satisfy man’s hidden hunger;

I will help them know

Your arms are their shelter,

Your heart is their home,

Their only hope

For protection from the storm.

- CATHRYNE ALLEN

(Art: Jeremiah Lamenting the Destruction of Judah by Rembrandt) 

MY HOPE

 

 

My moment of being lifted to higher ground came to me this morning. Following passages of the Second Coming, a simple short verse: “For the day of vengeance is in mine heart, and the year of my redeemed is come” (Isaiah 63:4). As I looked up the reference in the footnotes to confirm what I thought I understood about ‘the year of my redeemed’, my heart skipped a beat as I read: “And now the year of my redeemed is come; and they shall mention the loving kindness of their Lord, and all that he has bestowed upon them according to his goodness, and according to his loving kindness, forever and ever.” (D&C 133:52). Who are the redeemed? We are. We, the followers of Christ who have accepted His salvation. If you are suffering, hang on! He will come and will wipe away all our tears (Rev 7:17; 21:4) and make up for everything! In the meantime, trust in His goodness and His loving kindness that will endure forever and ever…..

 

You opened my heart

And searched for what 

You there did not see;

My feeble faith and lack of trust

Stood in contrast to your will for me.

You sorrowed at the tears I shed

With every step I was led to take

To find You in my hour of agony.

How patiently You stood waiting

With open arms hoping I would come to Thee.

- CATHRYNE ALLEN

(Art: Come To Me by Yongsung Kim)

HERITAGE OF JACOB

 

 

 

Isaiah has, once again, tugged at my heartstrings today. I have understood for a while now the law of the Sabbath and the direct blessings that stem from it, namely: divine protection, temporal plenty, and spiritual power. However, Isaiah chapter 58 has taken this to another level for me.

 

Isaiah referred to the sabbath day as ‘the holy of the Lord’ (v 13).  Holy means to be sanctified or be set apart for the work of God. This again I knew because Sabbath day is the day of sanctification. So important did Jehovah consider this concept that He made non-observance of the Sabbath, anciently, punishable by death to symbolise spiritual death that would come from abstinence of sanctification. 

 

Isaiah added another blessing as a promise for Sabbath observance when he said the Lord would cause us ‘to ride upon the high places of the earth’ (v14). Since mountains and high places of the earth have anciently always been sites of revelation and communication with God, this would suggest that keeping the Sabbath holy would entitle us to the same. But this is what caught in my throat as I read the finish of that sentence: ‘….and feed thee with the heritage of Jacob thy father’ (v14). As ‘heritage’ comes from the same root as ‘heir’ and ‘inherit’, it means only one thing: exaltation, even as our righteous father Jacob, or Israel, the father of our covenant, has received it (D&C 132:37).

 

This is not all. Chapter 56 says that anyone who observes ‘sabbaths’ will be exalted. Anciently, all Israel’s festivals and feast days such as Passover, Pentecost, Tabernacles, the day of Atonement and the weekly sabbath day were grouped together under the term ‘sabbaths’. Jehovah referred to the observance of these sabbaths as ‘taking hold of my covenant’ (v6), meaning that these sabbaths embraced the entire Mosaic law. It is obvious then that sabbath observance alone does not guarantee exaltation but the observance of the entire law of the gospel does.

 

I have heard it say that the extent of our Sabbath day observance is a good indication of our devotion to God the Father and His Son, who laid the foundations of this earth in order that we might ‘ride upon its high places’ and be fed with the ‘heritage of our father Jacob’. This is a devotion that is for the serious followers of Christ. This is a devotion for those who truly love Him and the Father who sent Him.

 

I have no life but this

To follow the path to Thy throne

To be greeted with a holy kiss,

And know the reality of such bliss.

- CATHRYNE ALLEN

(Art: As I Have Loved You by Greg Olsen)

DIVINE RESPONSIBILITY

 

Every time I open the book of Isaiah, it reveals to me the Son of God: His compassion, His longsuffering, His forgiveness extended to the House of Israel. It lifts me to higher ground whenever I ingest any prophecy, any witness, any wisdom from the pen of a prophet who appealed to Israel’s sense of ethnicity and origin of its’ power, namely, the God Jehovah. 

 

The scripture that caught my attention recently is this one where Jehovah tells ancient Israel that if only they had hearkened to His commandments, then their peace would have been as a river, and their righteousness as the waves of the sea (Isaiah 48:18). I understood the peace being as a river which is calm and serene but I had to think about the righteousness being as the waves of the sea.  I live in Australia and enjoy frequent trips to the beach where I have observed the waves of the sea. As I reflected on this, I understood why the Lord used this metaphor. The waves of the sea run into each other…and they cover the earth as they roll over it. I then read chapter 49 and could see the Lord’s wisdom in using this metaphor as He proclaimed the House of Israel to be His servant  in whom He will be glorified (v 3).  

 

My heart literally burned as I read the Lord say that not only will He make us mighty in restoring the preserved Israel but that He will also make us a light to the Gentiles, that we may be the means of salvation to the ends of the earth (Isaiah 49:6). In other words, we will be as the waves of the sea as our righteousness spreads over the earth and touches the souls of scattered Israel and Gentiles alike. We will roll forth to the ends of the earth glorifying Jehovah’s name and bringing salvation to the living and the dead (v 9a). We, the modern Israel  will do this, because ‘Jacob is the lot of His inheritance’ (Deuteronomy 32:9) and Ephraim is His firstborn (Jeremiah 31:9). This is what ancient Israel missed out on being as they joined the idolatrous nations surrounding them instead. But this now is our privilege and if we walk up to it, ‘the Gentiles shall see our righteousness’, and we shall be ‘a crown of glory in the hand of the Lord, and a royal diadem in the hand of our God’ (Isaiah 62:2,3).

 

Thy love burns within us ever so bright

We bear Thy holy name

And proclaim Thy salvation

To the ends of the earth.

We are the servant in Thy might,

We are Israel, children of light.

 

 

 

 - CATHRYNE ALLEN

(Art by Annie Henrie Nader)

 

YOU ARE MY WITNESSES

 

I was lifted heavenward today……..”O Israel, fear not: for I have redeemed thee, I have called thee by thy name; thou art mine….For I am the Lord thy God, the Holy One of Israel, thy Saviour…I, even I, am the Lord: and beside me there is no saviour.”  (Isaiah 43:1,3,11)

 

As I read Isaiah 43, I saw the tender heart of Jesus.  His expressions of love, tenderness and forgiveness He feels for the House of Israel overwhelmed me.  And then this: “….therefore YE ARE MY WITNESSES, saith the Lord, that I am God” (v12). The desire to be a witness of who He is exploded in my heart and made up for my feelings of inadequacy in my worship and reverence of Christ.

 

I offer here an inspiration from the life of one man, composer George Frideric Handel, who became such a witness. Recovering from a stroke and tired from a largely flagging career as a composer at age 52, he returned from a long and tiring walk one late August in 1741 and found that a poet and previous collaborator, Charles Jennens, had left him a manuscript littered with words of Isaiah foretelling the birth, ministry, crucifixion and resurrection of Christ. From this, Handel’s most famous work Messiah was composed in just three weeks. At the completion of the composition he simply said: “God has visited me….I am cured and have been set free”. He became a power witness of the Saviour to the physically and spiritually captive as he donated all profits from performances of Messiah to prisoners, orphans and the sick. 

 

“Each of us, like Handel, is engaged in a creative enterprise in this life. Both the physical fostering of mortal life and the righteous living of our days on earth are spiritual achievements. I pray that we may be sensitive to inspiration from on high, that we may be inspired in such a way that the fruits of our labours are inspiring to others…..” 

(Elder Spencer J. Condie , “Handel and the Gift of Messiah”, Ensign 2010)

 

You flowed like a river through my heart

Revealing the wonder of You;

And lifted my eyes higher to see the majestic view.

You ploughed the sacred ground of my heart

And tenderly sowed your seeds of love;

In gratitude, I scatter them in the hearts of others

Like golden stars scattered along the deepest night.

 

- CATHRYNE ALLEN

(Art: Worlds by Greg Olsen)

A VIRTUOUS WOMAN

 

This is for all the rubies in Christ’s crown…."Who can find a virtuous woman? for her price is far above rubies"(Proverbs 31:10). This priceless question came from a woman followed by wisdom that King Lemuel’s mother taught him (v 1). Now here is something interesting about rubies: Even though they vary in colour, the most valued rubies are bright red....The Mogok Valley in Upper Burma  was for centuries the world's main source for rubies and has produced some of the finest rubies ever mined. However, in recent years very few good rubies have been found there…..…. just as a virtuous woman, as valued as a bright red ruby, is fast becoming a rare possession in today's world.  

 

The adversary is seeking to dull our inherent spiritual natures that we as women are born with by using the world and its ideals to weaken and eliminate our influence to the great detriment of our families and the society at large.  He does this by devaluing marriage and motherhood;  reinforcing the lie that a woman’s sexuality is what defines her worth; erasing of differences between the masculine and the feminine and even convincing us that we don’t know what a woman is. Women today  are encouraged to be more aggressive, tough and confrontational yet the Father made us gentle, kind, tender and loving.  Nurturing our spiritual selves and putting aside the values of the telestial world will ensure that we sharpen these attributes and become powerful enough to lift others to higher ground; this means our children, our spouses, our extended families, our friends, our co-workers, our communities.  When we know who we are and don't allow the world to confuse us, we are being single minded, in other words, we are being at one with God who made us.

 

The inherent spiritual qualities we are born with are closely related to the Saviour’s attributes because, as mothers, we are co-creators with Him in the plan of salvation. This is a divine advantage that we should acknowledge with immense gratitude. May we strive to be rubies in a world that so desperately needs us and with that striving bring to pass the Saviour’s promise: "….. they shall be mine in that day when I shall come to make up my jewels".

(D&C 101:3; Malachi 3:17)

 

I lift, I lift,

Above the world below.

I reach and find Your hand

To guide me where I am meant to go.

I trust, I surrender

I follow to the very end

Your purpose for me to know.

 

 

 - CATHRYNE ALLEN

(Art: Living Water by Liz Lemon Swindle)