THE PLAN

 

“In the theology of the restored church of Jesus Christ, the purpose of mortal life is to prepare us to realize our destiny as sons and daughters of God – to become like Him….. through the Atonement of the Only Begotten of the Father, our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ” (President Dallin H. Oaks, “Apostasy and Restoration”, Ensign May 1995, 86-87).

Even though the Doctrine and Covenants describes our latter-day theology of our ultimate destiny, it does not give it a name. The Book of Mormon, on the other hand, refers to it by many names among which is the name we use in the Church, “the plan of salvation” (Jarom 1:2; Alma 24:14, 42:5).

Among other names given in the Book of Mormon are these: “the merciful plan of the great Creator (2 Nephi 9:6); the plan of our God (2 Nephi 9:13); “the great and eternal plan (2 Nephi 11:5); “the great plan of the Eternal God (Alma 34:9); “the plan of happiness (Alma 42:8,16). The “plan of redemption” appears fifteen times in the Book of Mormon. You could write books about this subject.

We are told one of the reasons we are here is to learn lessons through mortality that we could not otherwise learn while we were spirits, that mortality alone can propel us into further progression in our quest for godhood. I have come to see throughout my life that through opposition and conflict one truly does need a body to overcome and learn resistance, wisdom, and most importantly the process of cause and effect, in other words, consequences that come through exercise of free will.

I have a fourteen-year-old grand-daughter who claims she is old enough to make her own informed decisions. If only she could see that her brain is still so under-developed she can’t grasp life at all. Later she will learn that obeying parents when you are young trains you for higher obedience to God when you are an adult.

We are so eager for the adventure called life when we are young but we tend to miss many lessons when we need them most. And some of those we miss tend to repeat themselves a few times until we get it, thanks to God’s mercy. I marvel how merciful, tolerant and forgiving He is towards our humanity. Where would we be without Him?

When Moses encountered God on Mount Sinai, God revealed Himself to him and Moses saw the glory of God and every particle of this earth and all the children of men (Moses 1:8,27) that have ever been created. The vision of God's power was overwhelming to a man who grew up in an Egyptian court believing that Pharoah was god and there was none greater than him so he exclaimed that now he could see that man is nothing (v 10).

God, however, didn't want Moses to miss the point so He showed him the same vision again and He ended it with the sum of what we call The Plan of Salvation: “For behold, this  is my work and my glory – to bring to pass the immortality and eternal life of man” (Moses 1:39)….because Moses, among all of God’s creations, none are greater than man, man is everything.

The lessons of my life flowed like a river

Winding through days, months and years;

I rescued a few but missed so many

From the currents as I saw them passing;

They drowned in the daze of my ignorance,

Unwanted and ignored but yet abiding.

I fish them now from the pool of my memory

And give them life everlasting.

- CATHRYNE ALLEN 

(Art: Moses by Greg Sargent)

BEAUTY FOR ASHES

 

“Some Church members feel weighed down with discouragement about the circumstances of their personal lives, even when they are making sustained and admirable efforts. Frequently, these feelings of self-disappointment come not from wrongdoing, but from stresses and troubles for which we may not be fully to blame.

“Atonement of Jesus Christ applies to these experiences because it applies to all of life. Saviour can wipe away all of our tears, after all we can do. In Luke 4:18, Jesus quotes part of a passage from Isaiah that describes the heart of His ministry. The Isaiah passage reads:

“The Spirit of the Lord….hath anointed me to preach good tidings unto the meek; to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, to appoint unto them that mourn in Zion….beauty for ashes.” (Isaiah 61:1,3)  The Saviour’s Atonement is thus portrayed as the healing power not only for sin, but also for carelessness, inadequacy, and all mortal bitterness.”  (Bruce C. Hafen, “Beauty for Ashes”, Ensign April 1990)

One of the hardest things in life can be the suffering of injustice. It is difficult to imagine and understand that the Atonement of Jesus Christ covers the sins and actions of those who hurt others. I remember some years ago listening to a sister in the Church of her experience with her now ex-husband who chose to leave her and their two sons because “he didn’t want the responsibility of a family anymore”.

This sister prayed in her darkest moments hoping to avert the disaster but the answer she got was not something she wished for. She was given to understand that even though Heavenly Father disapproved of her husband’s actions vehemently, He still loved her husband and had to respect his freedom of choice. Instead of becoming bitter, this sister understood that not even God can interfere in unjust treatment some of us get at the hands of another. This understanding set her on the path of forgiveness which gave her the power to survive.

This story is in stark contrast to the experience of another sister in the Church that I know who could not accept her divorce and who went around to different wards expounding her ex-husband’s faults. She was not looked at in a favourable light by others who found it distasteful and eventually she stopped coming to Church.

Justice comes to all of us for our wrongdoings but it certainly does not come in this life time. This time is the time for repentance and restitution to those we have put in the state of pain and hardship. This is a huge indication of the mercy of Christ. If we were all judged immediately after our wrongdoings without the chance of repentance, we would all be lost.

The beauty that rises from the ashes is one of repentance and saving grace for the perpetrator and one of developing the forgiving Christ-like nature for the victim. This proves unfathomable love of God for all his children who struggle with the weakness of mortality.

“Each of us will taste the bitter ashes of life, from sin and neglect to sorrow and disappointment. But the Atonement of Christ can lift us up in beauty, not only from our own ashes but also from the ashes of him who fathers the rebirth of our spirits. We then soar toward the sun on the wings of a sure promise of immortality and eternal life. Thus may we be lifted up, not only at the end of life but in each day of our lives.

“Hast thou not known? Hast thou not heard, that the everlasting God, the Lord, the Creator of the ends of the earth….giveth power to the faint; and to them that have no might he increaseth strength. But they that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles, they shall run, and not be weary, and they shall walk and not faint” (Isaiah 40:28-29, 31) (ibid)

- CATHRYNE ALLEN

(Art: Christ's Light by Land of Dreams)

AN UNBEATABLE PARTNERSHIP

How can we be spiritually self-reliant when  the scriptures clearly teach that we need to be reliant on God in all things?  President Lorenzo Snow has said that the gospel was purposely designed to be  difficult to live so that it would turn us to God for supernatural aid to enable us to live it, that without Him we could NOT live it.  I think it was designed to lead us to God and to make us dependent on Him. (Teachings of the Presidents of the Church, pp 178, 179) 

What does it mean to be spiritually self reliant then? This is my take on it. To me it means to have your own testimony and your own relationship with God and not put your trust in the arm of the flesh when it comes to the things of the spirit and how you will live your life.  We cannot live on borrowed light, just as the Ten Virgins proved.  In the beginning when our faith is weak and we are just starting on our spiritual journey, it is essential for us to believe in the faith of others and to be nourished by their testimony but as you grow and mature in the Gospel, you have to come to stand on your own two feet and make the Atonement active in your life. Only you can do this.  By being spiritually reliant on God in all things, we also become spiritually self-reliant. It becomes a matter of your relationship with God. If you do not have this relationship with God and do not rely on him you will eventually end up relying on priesthood leaders to help you solve your problems and give you guidance on your spiritual path.  This is a grave mistake because it is putting your trust in the arm of the flesh and that arm very often fails. Priesthood leaders are overburdened these days with their responsibilities, earning a living and taking care of their families.  They are there to assist people with their process of repentance but I do not believe they should be holding our hands while we work out our salvation.  That responsibility belongs to God.  We are responsible for our own spiritual wellbeing and we have all the tools to help us: scriptures, prayer, temple, fasting. The list goes on.  If we would just do it our lives would be less complicated.  There is more depth to this.

A friend asked me recently 'how do we fully submit our will to God in the light of the fact that we are also taught to be self-reliant'?  It seems a contradiction in terms doesn't it?  Firstly, our will is the only thing that truly belongs to us that we have to give, all else we have comes from God, including the breath we breathe.  Secondly, God's perspective is always eternal and our eternal welfare is the one He is mostly concerned about. A good friend taught me this.  Very often these two facts clash in our lives.  For us to submit our will to the Father means to want for ourselves what the Father wants and not what we want.  That means changing our perspective from a temporal one to a spiritual one.  We live in a fallen world and our first instinct is to act as 'the natural man' (Mosiah 3:19)  In other words, we are very short sighted.  What is needful is for us to come to think as God thinks, to know Him, His mind and His will for His children to such an extent that our first instinct will be to make choices that would benefit us eternally, that which is good for us in the long run and not here and now. 

I stand in awe of Third Nephi whose faith on the Lord Jesus Christ was so great that angels ministered to him daily. (3 Nephi 7:18).  Imagine having angels coming to you every day.  I think his faith was so great because he became so in sync with the Lord that he did nothing that God would not do himself.  Because of this God came to have such trust in him that he promised him that 'all things shall be done unto thee according to thy word, for thou shall not ask that which is contrary to my will'. (Helaman 10:5)  In other words, God knew Nephi and that he would not ask for anything inappropriate or not beneficial to his eternal salvation and the salvation of others.  When you come to the this point where you are of one mind with the Lord, you are spiritually self-reliant on a deeper level.  When you come to this point, it is extremely difficult for the adversary to shake you or entice you to put your trust in the arm of the flesh in any form.  And this is where we want to be.

Remember that Satan's way is to have us rely on ourselves and our wisdom, which is very finite and inadequate for the salvation of our souls and he would have us temporally reliant on others.  Both of these spell only one thing, bondage.  God seeks to make us free, he wants us in partnership with Him so that we will make wise choices that would lead us to optimal freedom.