IN LIKENESS OF GOD

 

I am a very visual person and I adore good art. I have saved in my computer close to 2,000 pictures of different categories. One of my categories is ‘favourite artists’ who paint pictures of Christ and which number 30. Of all my photos, 906 are pictures of the Saviour alone.

This is what perplexes me. Of these 906 pictures of Christ, there are no two alike. Every artist has portrayed Him differently numerous times yet somehow there is a common denominator in all of them because the Saviour is recognized in every one. I have even seen pictures online of Him dressed in a suit and it still looks like Him.

When my oldest daughter was about 1 year old, I taught her to recognize the Saviour in our pictures of Him in our home. I would hold her and take her to the picture on the wall and say to her in Croatian: “Dragi Jesus”, meaning ‘Dear Jesus’ and she would stroke His face with her chubby little hand. She knew that’s who He was in every picture. When she started speaking I would point to the picture of Him and ask her who it is and she would say: “Dragi Jesus”. When she started walking, I would ask her where He is and she would immediately go to the picture.

I have posted untold amount of pictures of the Saviour on social media over the years. From time to time someone would voice their displeasure at the picture they didn’t like. We all seem to have a different perception of what He looks like in reality. The most common objection I have come across is the colour of His eyes. Some people cannot accept the possibility that the Saviour might have blue eyes. 

These people are determined that He looks Middle Eastern and has to have brown eyes. I have even had to contend with someone who insisted that Jesus was black and that all Hebrews hail from Negro origin. That had me reading their comments with my mouth open.

My point is this. Yes, it does matter what Jesus looks like…..because He is the Son of God…..in every way, most especially the physical. He re-affirmed this reality numerous times while in the flesh. It is important that we recognize this. If we do not acknowledge His physical parentage then He cannot be the Messiah.

When Philip, His disciple, asked Him to show them the Father, Jesus answered: “He who has seen me, has seen the Father….believe me that I am in the Father and the Father in me” (John 14:8,9). In other words, we think alike, we act alike and we look alike.

Apostle Paul reiterated this important fact when he said that Christ was ‘in the image of the invisible God’ and ‘in the express image of His Father’ (Colossians 1:12-15; Hebrews 1:1-3). This means that Jesus did not resemble His Jewish mother. The Father is not Jewish or Middle Eastern or of any nationality of this earth. Therefore, Jesus could very well have blue eyes.

The importance is this…..the common denominator in all the pictures of the Saviour is the fact that He is the Son of God and that reality is reflected in His image. The holiness, the godliness, the very essence of His being brings the Father to us through the pictures of the artists who all think differently yet they all manage to convey who the Saviour is. I stand in awe of this talent.

So when we see a picture of Jesus, I hope the first thing we see is the Son of God.

- CATHRYNE ALLEN 

(Art: My Teacher by Chris Brazelton)

 

HEAVEN'S BLESSING

 

 

“If the power of the priesthood were not upon the earth, the adversary would have the freedom to roam and reign without restraint. There would be no gift of the Holy Ghost to direct and enlighten us; no prophets to speak in the name of the Lord; no temples where we could make sacred, eternal covenants, no authority to bless or baptize, to heal or comfort. Without the power of the priesthood, ‘the whole earth would be utterly wasted’. There would be no light, no hope – only darkness.”

-        Elder Robert D. Hales, “Blessings of the Priesthood”, GC October 1995

I am grateful for the Plan of Salvation and for the order which has existed from the beginning for its execution here in mortality. I am grateful for God’s sons who have since the days of Adam ensured the continuation of the blessing of the holy priesthood from the Father and His Son.

Imagine if the world we were required to live in was cloaked in darkness. Imagine if everything the priesthood makes possible was taken from the earth. What would be the point of being here?

Going back in time, if there was no priesthood, there would not have been creation at the hands of the Son of Man of Holiness, no Atonement, no salvation. Our growth would have been impeded forever.

I look at the power in the Son of God on the cross. Besides the fact that He was half immortal, He was endowed with strength that is in every man which gives him the potential of achieving godhood. And not only the strength, the Saviour had amazing courage and commitment and willingness to endure suffering on behalf of another. Going back in time again, there were no women volunteering for the experience of the cross.

This courage and strength is inherent in all men for what married man on earth does not feel the responsibility and willingness to protect his wife and children? I ache to see men emasculated in our society and their importance and worth somewhat unappreciated.

I pay homage to the sons of God who take their responsibility upon this earth now and eternally with unwavering commitment. Being created in the image of the Man of Holiness, the Father, the Eternal, and having an example before them like His Beloved Son, they stood loyally by God and by Jesus in their first estate and did not flinch.

“If you had flinched, then you would not be here with the Priesthood upon you. The evidence that you were loyal, that you were true, and that you did not waver is to be found in the fact that you have received the Gospel – and the everlasting Priesthood.”

-        George Q. Cannon, azquotes.com

Men, you are strong and brave and true…..we need you!

- CATHRYNE ALLEN

(Art: The Saviour by Tina Lecour)

KEEP YOUR FORK

 

“There was a young woman who had been diagnosed with a terminal illness and had been given three months to live. She contacted her pastor to discuss certain aspects of her final wishes. As the pastor was preparing to leave after their discussion, the young woman said:

“There’s one more thing and this is very important. I want to be buried with a fork in my right hand.” The pastor stood looking at the young woman not knowing quite what to say. The young woman explained:

“In all my years of attending church socials and potluck dinners, I always remembered that when the dishes of the main course were being cleared, someone would inevitably lean over to say, ‘keep the fork’. It was my favourite part because I knew that something better was coming….like velvety chocolate cake or deep-dish apple pie. Something wonderful, and with substance!

“So I just want people to see me there in that casket with a fork in my hand and I want them to wonder, ‘what’s with the fork?’. Then I want you to tell them: “Keep your fork, the best is yet to come.”

At the funeral, people were walking by the young woman’s casket and they saw the pretty dress she was wearing and the fork placed in her right hand. Over and over, the pastor heard the question, ‘what’s with the fork?’, and over and over he smiled.

During his message, the pastor told the people of the conversation he had with the young woman shortly before she died. He also told them about the fork and how he could not stop thinking about it and that they should not either.´

-        Author Unknown

I could not help but reflect on the Saviour post Easter when I read this story. I wonder if He was reminded at every step of His difficult life that the best was yet to come. Paul tells us that He endured the cross for the joy that was set before Him (Hebrews 12:2).

I also reflect on the joy of heaven’s faithful host who bowed the knee and sang His praise to welcome Him home when the crucible of His life was finished (D&C 138:23,24). So it will be with all of us if we endure in faith to the end. The best is yet to come. Believe it, hope for it and keep your fork!

- CATHRYNE ALLEN 

(Art by Chris Brazelton)

AT CALVARY

 

I continue to glean lessons from the Saviour’s suffering during His Atonement, not theological but personal. I was given one such lesson this week.

As I was praying one day, I was given a picture in my mind of the Saviour on the cross. It stunned me to the point that I stopped praying and I just listened to the understanding that kept coming. I will attempt to share with you just one thing that I feel is needful for all of us in this divisive world we live in.

Sometimes we pray for Christ-like qualities we want to have and we imagine that heaven’s wand will be waved over us and we will magically have what we asked for. I happen to have a very strong sense of justice to the point that it has at times robbed me of mercy towards others. I was very aware of this and thought it most unattractive so I have prayed a long time to become merciful. I wanted that wand!

As I saw the Saviour on the cross experiencing everyone’s pain, I understood that because He experienced and knew our suffering personally that He obtained the depth of mercy He might not have had before.

Alma proves my point here: “And He will take upon him death, that He may loose the bands of death which bind His people; and He will take upon Him their infirmities, that His bowels may be filled with mercy, according to the flesh, that he may know according to the flesh how to succor His people according to their infirmities” (Alma 7:12).

This deep sense of mercy the Saviour acquired through His Atonement will also be the defining attribute He will employ to make a righteous judgment and satisfy the demands of justice on judgment day. The balance between justice and mercy will be so perfect that we will not be able to question it.

How did this experience apply to me? I have been suffering physically for over a year now. Of late I have prayed that I will learn the lessons I am meant to learn from it. My above-mentioned experience helped me to understand that I need to view my fellowmen through the lense of mercy because everyone suffers in some way. We don’t know each other’s lives. We only know what we see and what we project to the world. I am hoping that as I am merciful towards others, I will be endowed with the pure love of Christ as Moroni promised (Moroni 7:48). This too is my desire.

I am amazed what we can learn from the life of Christ. His teachings and His mortal life, His example and His pure love and mercy toward us in this fallen world should provide life-long lessons for us, so that we ‘may become the sons of God; that when He shall appear, we shall be like Him….” (Moroni 7:48).

Today as I communed with Thee

You took me all the way to Calvary.

My heart stood still, the lessons came

And taught me what in words

I could not name.

I bow the knee and in thanks

Ascend to Thee

For all I learnt at Calvary.

 - CATHRYNE ALLEN 

(Art: Redemption's Burden by Greg Collins)

FOR THE FATHER

 

We focused a lot on the suffering of Christ this Easter. Indeed, He suffered greatly to save us from our sins. His multi-faceted life, however, deserves a greater attention than we give it:

“Of the many magnificent purposes served in the life and ministry of the Lord Jesus Christ, one great aspect of that mission often goes uncelebrated. His followers did not understand it fully at the time, and many in modern Christianity do not grasp it now, but the Saviour Himself spoke of it repeatedly and emphatically.

“It is the grand truth that in all that Jesus came to say and do, including and especially in His atoning suffering and sacrifice, He was showing us who and what God, our Eternal Father, is like, how completely devoted He is to His children in every age and nation. In word and in deed Jesus was trying to reveal the make personal to us the true nature of His Father, our Father in Heaven.” (Elder Jeffrey R Holland, “The Grandeur of God”, CR October 2003).

The Saviour showed us what the Father is like through His teachings, His example, and through His very being. When Philip asked Jesus to show them the Father, Jesus answered: “He who has seen me has seen the Father” (John 14:8,9). Consider how one component of His Atonement, the resurrection, applies to this:

“Any who dismiss the concept of an embodied God, dismiss both the mortal and the resurrected Christ. If having a body is not only not needed but not desirable by Deity, why did the Redeemer of mankind redeem His body, redeeming it from the grasp of death and the grave, guaranteeing it would never again be separated from His spirit in time or eternity?” (Elder Jeffrey R. Holland, “The Only True God and Jesus Christ Whom He Hath Sent”, Ensign, November 2007)

This is more important than we think. There have been so many misconceptions about the nature of God, such as a belief that He is a spirit without ‘parts and passions’. The resurrection of Christ disproves that.

The most pious Orthodox Jews have never been able to ‘internalise’ God because of their perception of Him. They could never call Him “Father” as Christians do. This is because they have such profound reverence toward His holiness that they cannot speak or write His name. Even the rabbis admit they do not have a clear perception of who God really is.  (Marshall D. Isaacson, “Children of the Covenant”, p 30,123)

The Lord’s prayer alone teaches us that God is a father, and not some mystic unfathomable spirit floating in space. Consider the start of the prayer : ”Our Father, who art in heaven…..(Matthew 6:9). And then the nature of that Father: “….your Father knoweth what things ye have need of before ye ask him” (v 8). This is a God who is first and foremost a Father, who cares for His children like any father would do.

This was a new concept to the Jewish population of Christ’s time. This was one of the reasons why they rejected Him. The Saviour’s so called ‘blasphemous’ declaration of Himself as the Son of God was a nail in His coffin.

The Saviour spoke of the Father incessantly throughout His ministry, among the Jews and the Nephites. The references in the holy canon are too numerous to list.

We always talk about the great suffering and sacrifice of Christ having been executed because of the Saviour’s great love for us. And it is true, He certainly loved us but the real reason He did it was to bring us to the Father. He did it for Him, more than anybody.

Have there ever been more loving words than these: “Here am I, send me! Father, thy will be done, and the glory be thine forever” (Abraham 3:27; Moses 4:2).  I think not.

The Church brings us to Christ and Christ brings us to the Father. He is the final destination in our spiritual evolvement: The Father who has created us, who has reared us, who has loved us, who sent His Beloved Son to redeem us so He can have us in His arms forever….

 - CATHRYNE ALLEN

(Art: The Trial of Jesus by Mindi Oaten)

A LIFELINE OF GRACE

I was looking at my missionary photos yesterday and I got in touch with who I was back then. So young, so naïve, so inexperienced, so hopeful for the future. Life tends to knock that eagerness out of you, however, as you get older and live through heartache, hardship, trials, loss, sacrifice. I do love that clueless, inexperienced, young missionary I once was though. She made right choices even back then which brought me to this place I am in now.

There was a time in my life when I felt I had nothing to live for. It was thirty years ago. I had just divorced and I was hanging by a thread. I felt my life was in ruins. The emotional pain I was in was excruciating. I knew God was my only answer for survival. This is when the scriptures became my saving grace. I began to study them in depth, for hours at a time.

They who testified of Christ gave me strength to rise above the ashes of my life. I began to recover and to hope for 'life eternal because of my faith in him according to the promise' (Moroni 7:41). They renewed me because of Him who brings life to all that is dead and recovers all that is lost.

The more I studied the scriptures, the more my testimony of Christ grew because I was seeing Him on every page. In the Old Testament, I could see the merciful Jehovah who put up with the backsliding Israel; in the New Testament I could see a loving Saviour who gave all of himself to the undeserving; in the Book of Mormon, I saw the caring, resurrected Christ who never forgets His people; in the Doctrine and Covenants, I saw the majestic exalted God who prepares us for His return; in the Pearl of Great Price, I saw the pre-mortal Christ, the hope of all creation.

Seeing the Saviour so clearly in the scriptures gave me faith that He could restore me to wholeness. I began to see that my life was not over, that with Him by my side, I would survive and I would flourish.

God began to speak to me through the scriptures all those years ago. When I needed to hear Him loud and clear, I would allow the scriptures in my hands to open at a random page and see there exactly what I needed to know. To this day this is my favourite way of receiving answers.

Here is a story that proves my point:

“A man whose business was failing terribly and who was so deep in trouble was contemplating suicide. As a last resort he went to a priest who advised him to take a beach chair and a Bible to the water's edge, put the Bible on his lap, to open it and let the wind rifle the pages and when it rests on a page he should read the first words he sees. He assured him this will be his answer that will tell him what to do.

“A year later this same businessman went back to the priest in apparent affluence and success. The priest asked him if he did what he instructed him to do. The man assured him he did.

"You sat on a beach chair with the Bible in your lap?"

"Absolutely"

"You let the pages rifle until they stopped?"

"Absolutely"

"And what were the first words you saw?"

"Chapter II"

 

(Author Unknown)

- CATHRYNE ALLEN 

(Art by Liz Lemon Swindle)

 

 

 

 

BURNING HEARTS

 

“Did not our hearts burn within us…….while he opened to us the scriptures?” was the heartfelt reflection of two believers who enjoyed the company of the resurrected Christ on the road to a village called Emmaus (Luke 24:32). Some historians believe one of these travelers was Luke himself who recounted the story in such amazing detail.

The story goes that the Saviour joined two men, post resurrection, travelling to Emmaus, who were discussing the hottest topic of the day, His possible resurrection. The travelers told Him they ‘trusted’ the Galilean was the Messiah who would redeem Israel but were now sceptical because He had died (v 21). It would seem that nobody besides Isaiah understood the necessity of His death.

The Saviour was gracious even though He chided them for their disbelief (v 25). He then expounded to them all that was prophesied of Him ‘beginning at Moses and all the prophets’ (v27). His point was, ‘how is it that you know the scriptures but you don’t believe them’???

Perhaps the disbelief came from the lack of understanding that the Messiah would be a ‘suffering servant’ before He is the King of Glory (Isaiah 53; 9:6,7)

This lack of understanding and ensuing confusion about His death would explain why their eyes were restrained from recognising the resurrected Christ (Luke 24:16a). It was not until the Saviour administered the sacrament to them that they fully understood who He was (v 35). It was then that they reflected on their burning hearts as they listened to Him expound the scriptures. The lesson is this: the ‘burn’ comes from only one place: The Holy Ghost.

The lesson is also this: the Holy Ghost is with us still. It is he who can open our eyes and our hearts so that we will not only believe but KNOW Christ. And where is Christ most if not in the scriptures? If we study the scriptures without the presence of the Holy Ghost we are just building upon our knowledge and not our testimony. We need to feel ‘the burn’ to know.

As you travel on your personal road to Emmaus may the scriptures be burnt upon the tablets of your heart and may you know, and not just believe, that Jesus is the Christ, the Messiah, the Saviour of the world. He is the Resurrection and the life. He is the Redeemer of your soul. He is the sacred road to your burning heart…..

I gave you My all:

My heart, my body, my soul.

I paved the way

And conquered death.

I am in your midst;

I am the only,

I am the last,

And I am the first.

- CATHRYNE ALLEN 

(Art: The Road to Emmaus by Liz Lemon Swindle)

BELOVED MASTER

 

The most exhilarating part of the Saviour's earthly life would have to be post resurrection.

Imagine abandoning your life’s work to be an apostle of a man who claimed to be the Son of God. Imagine all the hours you have put in being His disciple, all the hope you had in His promises and His teachings. Imagine the tutoring and the love you have experienced at His side.

Then imagine all of that coming to an end as you saw Him crucified.   Imagine having your witness of His divinity crushed as you saw Him dying on the cross because He would not fight back. All your belief in His divinity would be crushed and an enormous wave of doubt would flood your whole being. Could the Romans, who were mere men, kill Christ if He were really God?

All hope seemed to be gone. Then on the third day, the grief would not end for the Master whom His disciples loved was gone from the sepulchre where He lay. With haste Peter and John ran to the sepulchre with eagerness, no doubt with the Master’s words echoing in their ears:

“A little while and ye shall not see me: and again, a little while, and ye shall see me…..ye shall weep and lament….and ye shall be sorrowful, but your sorrow shall be turned into joy” (John 16:16,20). Did they have hope in His saying that He must rise again from the dead as they ran to that tomb??? (John 20:9).

This was the moment in time when the lives of Peter and John changed forever. The Saviour’s life came to an end but theirs was just beginning. They saw their beloved Master again, in His immortal body, and were given the understanding of the scriptures which spoke of His death and rising from the dead the third day (Luke 24:45,46).

The third time Jesus showed himself to His disciples at the sea of Tiberias, He made it clear what their mission was. Lacking in direction, Peter and some the Twelve went fishing (John 21:1-3). After all, this is what they knew best but that night they caught nothing.

When in the morning they saw Jesus standing on the shore, they followed his instruction to cast the net on the right side of the ship and when they did so, the net came up full of ‘the multitude of fishes’ (John 21: 6). This was the lesson: they were to ‘feed His sheep’ and be the fishers of men (vs 15-17)

Peter and John were spiritually transformed following the ascension of Him whom they called the Beloved Master (Luke 8:24; Mark 9:5; 13:1; John 13:13). A leader in his own right, appointed by the Saviour himself to hold the keys of the Kingdom (Matthew 16:13-19), Peter became a spiritual giant whose very shadow was believed would heal the sick in the streets (Acts 5:15).  

He accepted graciously the manner of his death as foretold by Jesus (John 21:18,19; 2 Peter: 1:13, 14) and died in Rome during the reign of emperor Nero in 64 A.D. In the Roman Empire, crucifixions took many shapes which are too indelicate to mention (Seneca, Dialogue “To Marcia on Consolation”, in Moral Essays, 6.20.3).

According to tradition, Peter was crucified upside down, a death of his choice having felt unworthy to die in the same manner as his Master. Perhaps his three denials of Him echoed in his pool of memories to the very end (John 13:38; Mark 14:66-72).

And what can we say of John, the most beloved disciple (John 21:7,20) whom the Saviour named the Son of Thunder (Luke 9:52-56: Mark 3:17)?  He who lives still and sorrows for the sins of the world. Peter chose a speedy death to be reunited with the beloved Master but John chose a more noble path by remaining on earth to bring souls unto Him until the end of the world. I am in awe of John the Beloved.

I am grateful for the legacy these men left behind, a legacy of faith and works and their powerful testimonies in the words that I am privileged to read.

- CATHRYNE ALLEN 

(Art: Hope by Liz Lemon Swindle)

BEYOND THE GRAVE

 

 

“I am the resurrection, and the life: he that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live.” – John 11:25

Imagine if death was the marker of finality. Imagine if all the effort of self-improvement and human evolvement became null and void at death. Imagine the futility of the few years that are afforded to us here: the loss of loved ones, the wasteland of our dreams and hopes and achievements of humanity. No wonder so many of us who don’t believe there is anything beyond the grave, cling to this life so tenaciously. What surprise awaits them when they discover there is more, so much more!

The crowning glory of the Atonement is the Resurrection. If the Saviour did not overcome the sting of death, the suffering of Gethsemane would have been useless, the humiliation of Calvary even more so. What good would all His suffering be if we ceased to exist when mortality lays its claim on us and sends us to Mother Earth? If there is no ‘tomorrow’, ‘yesterday’ was a waste and ‘today’ is futile.

I give thanks to the Father of my soul who created me, who created the plan for my eternal existence, who sacrificed His Son so that I might live and have joy eternally. I give thanks to the Son who considered nothing was too hard to bear in ensuring this plan worked for my advantage and my eternal destiny. He is the truth, the light and the way, He is the resurrection and the life…..

 

If You were not,

I would not be,

Silence would have wept at Calvary!

 

If You were not,

I would not be,

As death would claim me eternally.

 

If You were not,

I would not be,

Joyless would be my destiny.

 

- CATHRYNE ALLEN 

(Art: On The Third Day by Chris Brazelton)

A BIRTH AND A DEATH

 

 

I cannot celebrate the Saviour’s birth without being reminded of His death. Every time I see the baby in the manger these words echo in my mind: “To this end was I born and for this cause came I into the world….” (John 18:37). You cannot have birth without death and you cannot have death without birth.

When I think of both, my consolation comes from remembering that the jubilation of Christ’s birth was outdone by the jubilation upon His return in triumph beyond the veil. Imagine the tears of sorrow at the cross and compare them to tears of celebration and gratitude that greeted the Saviour as He entered the spirit world:

“And there were gathered together in one place an innumerable company of the spirits of the just, who had been faithful in the testimony of Jesus while they lived in mortality…they were filled with joy and gladness and were rejoicing together because the day of their deliverance was at hand….while this vast multitude waited and conversed, rejoicing in the hour of their deliverance from the chains of death, the Son of God appeared, declaring liberty to the captives who had been faithful…..

“And the saints rejoiced in their redemption, and bowed the knee and acknowledged the Son of God as their Redeemer, and Deliverer from death and the chains of hell. Their countenances shone and the radiance from the presence of the Lord rested upon them, and they sang praises unto His holy name….” (D&C 138:12-18; 23-24)

And what of us who had not yet been born into mortality? We who awaited the return of Him who knew our earthly lives before we did? I imagine the gratitude would have been overwhelming. I imagine we fell down before Him in adoration and praise, knowing our salvation was secure and that the Atonement was fixed and in place to enable us to endure our tribulations and resist the evil forces that would seek to destroy us.

I imagine that the very heavens echoed the shouts of our praise. I imagine we wept tears of exquisite joy as we saw our God take His place upon His throne and I imagine all eternity shook as we cried with one voice: “Glory and honour, and power, and might, be ascribed to our God…..let the sun, moon and morning stars sing together and let all the sons of God shout for joy! And let the eternal creations declare his name forever and ever!” (D&C 84:102; 128:23)

 

Did you miss Your throne divine

When You crossed the threshold of the stable?

 And did You clutch my worth inside You

That made Your mortal task divinely able?

 

I heard the angels in the field

Sing praises to Your name;

And I sorrowed knowing, like holy water,

Your love would spill on sacrificial altar.

- CATHRYNE ALLEN

(Art: Jesus Ascends by Chris Brazelton)

THE HOUR OF DEEPEST HUMILIATION

 

I have always been amazed at the humiliation that the Saviour must have suffered at the hands of His captors prior to the crucifixion.

Mark records that after His arrest, Jesus was brought into the palace of the high priest (Mark 14:53,54) where a mockery of a trial was conducted condemning Him to death and where His accusers ‘began to spit on him, and to cover his face, and to buffet him….and the servants did strike him with the palms of their hands’ (v 65).

Luke records that ‘the men that held Jesus mocked him, and smote him, and when they had blindfolded him, they struck him on the face and asked him, saying, Prophesy, who is it that smote thee? And many other things blasphemously spake they against him’ (Luke 22:63-65).

Imagine a God who creates worlds, controls the elements, performs miracles, and has the power to subdue all enemies under His feet, allowing and enduring such humiliation at the hands of pathetic, weak and sinful humans. That’s godly self-control and godly focus without which He could not have submitted himself to the greatest act of mercy ever.

The treatment that Christ endured at the hands of His captors was nothing compared to Gethsemane from which He had just come. The experience of the Garden was ‘the hour of His DEEPEST humiliation’ (Jesus the Christ, p 611).

In that hour of anguish Christ met and overcame all the horrors that Satan, “the prince of this world”, could inflict’ (Jesus the Christ, p 613). Imagine a man who would NEVER do anything wrong, to any degree, taking upon himself all the existent sins as if He had committed them Himself.

The spiritual anguish He suffered was no doubt due to all the corroding feelings associated with sin such as guilt, shame, embarrassment, lack of esteem, self-hatred, fear of God’s wrath….indeed, deepest humiliation for one so sinless. Following the humiliation of Gethsemane, would any other be worse???

But then there is Golgotha…..where like a criminal He was nailed to a cross on the side of the road for all to see His nakedness and His suffering. And as the Roman custom demanded, a plaque nailed to the cross outlining all his crimes, only He had committed none…..so what would have been on His plaque? My sins, your sins, our families’ sins, our nation’s sins, the world’s sins and the sins of all mankind from Adam to the end of the world.

 

Will the sinner for whom you suffered,

Who rejected and reviled Thee

Weep in the end for Thy pain and Thy sorrow?

Will his heart understand

When he kneels before Thee

The debt he owes for the existence

Of his merciful tomorrow?

- CATHRYNE ALLEN 

(Art: Behold the Man by Christopher Young)

JOY

 

I was reminiscing with an old friend the other day. We laughed about the memories of our youth and I cried when our conversation was over. I am often taken back to my past during this hard adjustment to what I consider the last stage of my life.

I reflected on how carefree we were but on serious reflection, we were not really happy because we yearned for what we did not have, marriage and family. It seems to be in the nature of all mortals to long for something else other than what they already have. I guess it is because we are so intent on being happy all the time that we always think something else will give us that.

What we forget is that this life was not designed for consistent and lasting happiness but only for snippets of such so that we will have the motivation for its pursuit in the long run. If true happiness could be found in this life, we would cease to strive for our eternal destiny, which can offer us not only lasting happiness but also JOY. As Lehi put it so wisely to his children: “Adam fell that men might be, and men are, that they might have joy.” (2 Nephi 2:25)

So what is this joy? Immediately following this statement, Lehi expounded on redemption through Jesus Christ, obedience to His commandments, and eternal life. The Saviour confirmed this when he said: “….in this world your joy is not full, but in me your joy is full” (D&C 101:36). He elaborated on that by saying we should not fear death, nor care for the life of the body, but to look beyond, to eternal life (D&C v 37). In other words, look toward what I can give you, which is the fullness of joy as you embrace eternal life. This is the happiness worth waiting for.

The downside of the pursuit of happiness here and now is losing the eternal perspective. Some of us  get confused and think that happiness can be found in unholy places, with Satan’s counterfeits which give us pleasure in the guise of happiness and joy.

I know of one mother who encouraged her son to ‘come out of the closet’ and be ‘who he is’ so he can be happy. He is now a chronic alcoholic, inactive and alone. And what does she do to support him? She drinks with him to make him feel better about his choice of escapism. She too has turned her back on the Church.

Everything in this life is fleeting. This is only a temporary state of being in our eternal existence. The pursuit of happiness should not be our objective here but to prepare for life everlasting.

This is what Christ’s sacrifice was all about. Deep within His pain, was the potential for our joy for it was for our ‘joy that was set before Him’ that He endured the cross (Hebrews 12:2).

Who is like unto Thee,

Jehovah, our God?

Who protects the weak

And the broken hearted;

Who sorrows for the lost

And pays the price of

The crucible cost.

- CATHRYNE ALLEN 

(Art: The Glory of Jesus Christ by Ralph of Gratis Graphics)

WILLINGNESS TO OBEY

 

There is a rather sad story in Doctrine and Covenants involving a man called James Covill who was a minister for forty years.

In short, James Covill came to Joseph Smith, like many others, wanting a revelation from God as to what God wanted him to do. By this action alone, he affirmed he believed Joseph to be a servant of God. In fact, he believed so strongly that he made a covenant with God that he would obey whatever he was told to do.

Unfortunately, James Covill had done this before ‘many times’ but because of pride and cares of the world he never followed through but kept pursuing a path that would give him acceptance of the world (v 9).

Herein enters the Saviour’s mercy. He gives James Covill another chance. In fact, he calls it ‘his deliverance’ from his lack of weakness to obey (v 10). He tells him to be baptized and move to Ohio to build up the Church there. In return, the Lord promised him ‘a blessing such as is not known among the children of men’, twice (vs 10,15).

James Covill rejected the revelation given and returned to his former principles and people. One wonders what kind of a blessing he missed out on. Whatever it was, it was conditional. President Harold B. Lee related this to us in his conference talk of October 1972:

“I sat in a class in Sunday School in my own ward one day, and the teacher was the son of a patriarch. He said he used to take down the blessings of his father, and he noticed that his father gave what he called ‘iffy’ blessings. He would give a blessing, but it was predicated on…..’if you will cease doing that’. And he said, ‘I watched these men to whom my father gave the ‘iffy’ blessings, and I saw that many of them did not heed the warning that my father as a patriarch had given them, and the blessings were never received because they did not comply’.”

President Lee continued saying that he took notice of warnings that Joseph had given through revelations to men like “Thomas B. Marsh, Martin Harris, some of the Whitmer brothers, William E. McLellin, warnings which, had they heeded, some would not have fallen by the wayside…and some had to be dropped from the membership of the Church.”  (Ensign Jan 1973, p 107-8)

The Saviour explained that James Covill “received the word with gladness, but straightway Satan tempted him; and the fear of persecution and the cares of the world caused him to reject the word” (D&C 40:2).

If only James Covill had remembered this and had pondered its warning and its promise: “The thief cometh not, but for to steal, and to kill, and to destroy: I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly.” (John 10:10).

Rejecting blessings is bad enough but rejecting deliverance at the Lord’s hand is worse. One shudders to think what his outcome was when you read this: “Wherefore he broke my covenant, and it remaineth with me to do with him as seemeth me good” ( D&C 40:3).

- CATHRYNE ALLEN

(Art: Time to Ponder by Greg Collins)

THE GARDENER

 

 

“An anonymous text from the Tradition says that, in life, each person can take one of two attitudes: to build or to plant. The builders might take years over their tasks, but one day they finish what they are doing. Then they find they’re hemmed in by their own walls. Life loses its meaning when the building stops.

“Then there are those who plant. They endure storms and all the many vicissitudes of the seasons, and they rarely rest. But, unlike a building, a garden never stops growing. And while it requires the gardener’s constant attention, it also allows life for the gardener to be a great adventure. Gardeners always recognize each other because they know that in the history of each plant lies the growth of the whole World.”

-        Paulo Coelho, “Brida”

My daughter is a florist. She gives me bouquets of exquisite blooms. I have them in my bedroom where I can see them the most. My bedroom is where I spend most of my time. This is where I study and write.

I am not a gardener but I love the flowers that grace my bedroom and I often wonder what it takes to grow the dahlias that I constantly admire. I cannot imagine how barren this world would be without flowers.

How clever God must have been to grace this planet with beauty. I think of Him as the ultimate gardener but with a difference. I think of Him as the Gardener of each soul who has ever lived because we, like plants, have within us the growth of the whole world.

God makes out of some of us a rose, and some a daffodil, and some a geranium. I am amazed how some of us are sturdy flowers who survive the harshest weather and some die out during the first frost of the season. And then some of us, as delicate as we appear, push through the clumps of snow to herald the start of spring.

I like to think I am one of the sturdy flowers because He has pruned me and nurtured me through the harshest storms….but deep down I want to be a beautiful flower in the end that can bring not only growth but also beauty to the world. He knows this is my desire and so He keeps pruning….

I think of that every time I look at the dahlias in my bedroom.

- CATHRYNE ALLEN 

(Art: The Divine Gardener by Greg Collins)

UNSPOTTED IN A WORLD OF SIN

 

There is a scripture in Section 36 of the Doctrine of Covenants which issues a challenge to the members of the Church to have an aversion to sin. This is a tall order considering we live in a fallen world with the inclinations of the natural man.

This scripture says we are to ‘come forth out of the fire, hating even the garments spotted with the flesh’ (v 6). This has reference to Jude 1:23 and this is a clearer explanation of it:

“To stay the spread of disease in ancient Israel, clothing spotted by contagious diseases was destroyed by burning (Lev. 13:47-59; 15:4-17). And so with sin in the Church, the saints are to avoid the remotest contact with it; the very garments, as it were, of the sinners are to be burned with fire, meaning that anything which has had contact with the pollutions of the wicked must be shunned” (Bruce R. McConkie, Doctrinal New Testament Commentary, 3:428).

Again I ask, is it possible to be in total control of the inclinations of the natural man? Well, it would appear so. When King Benjamin delivered his address, his people were so overcome that they viewed themselves in their carnal state and begged for the Atoning power of Christ to purify their hearts and grant them forgiveness of their sins (Mosiah 4:2).

It didn’t stop with forgiveness though. Because of their willingness to believe in Jesus Christ and in His power, this willingness led to His spirit working a ‘mighty change’ in their hearts to such a point that they had no more disposition to do evil but to do good continually (Mosiah 5:2).

The key to a sinless state then has to be ‘a mighty change’ for our hearts to become like Christ’s, devoid of desire to sin. The thing is, the Saviour did not come to this fallen world immune to sin and temptation. It was His choice to be sinless.

“Christ was perfect because he wanted to be. It is important to remember that Jesus was capable of sinning, that he could have succumbed, that the plan of life and salvation could have been foiled, but that he remained true.

“Had there been no possibility of his yielding to the enticement of Satan, there would have been no real test, no genuine victory in the result. If he had been stripped of the faculty to sin, he would have been stripped of his very agency. It was he who had come to safeguard and ensure the agency of man [hence] He had to retain the capacity and ability to sin had he willed so to do…..

“He was perfect and sinless, not because he had to be, but rather because he clearly and determinedly wanted to be. As the Doctrine and Covenants records, “He suffered temptations but gave no need heed unto them (D&C 20:22).”  (Teachings of Howard W. Hunter, p 4; see also Jesus the Christ, p 134)

The Saviour did not overcome sin for himself, He resisted it. No painful repentance needed because no sin was committed. We might argue that because of His divine nature it was easy for Him to resist His temptations but that is not so. Every temptation has to equal the stature of the man, otherwise it is not a temptation. It has no substance if it does not carry with it potential power to destroy.

Lest we feel totally disheartened because we are not sinless….we can have the power to become so. Because of His Atonement, the Saviour overcame the effects of sin for the natural man and can give us strength beyond our own to keep our garments unspotted from the world through the enabling power of His grace.

This power is ours for the asking, and seeking, and longing to keep our garments unspotted from ‘the flesh’ of this world:

“….I will be merciful unto you; he that is weak among you hereafter shall be made strong.” (D&C 50:16)

- CATHRYNE ALLEN 

(Art: Return to the Fold by Greg Sargent)