THE PRICE OF RUBIES 5: RUTH

 

(Art: Ruth In the Field of Boaz by Alexandre Cabanel 1868)

This is a beautiful story of loyalty of one woman towards another and the godly path it created….. a story of another ruby above price.

Ruth's story begins in Moab, her home-land, where she married Mahlon, one of the sons of an Israelite couple called Elimelech and Naomi, who had fled from their hometown of Bethlehem because of famine and came to Moab, a gentile country east of the Dead Sea. Another Moabite woman by the name of Orpah married Chilon, the other son of that family. Neither of the women produced any children before the father and both sons died leaving three women destitute.

 

Ruth's story is a prime example of how you can go from nothing to everything if you live a life of loyalty and selflessness. When the famine abated, Naomi, the matriarch, decided to return to Bethlehem and entreated her daughters-in-law to remain in Moab and return to their families. Both of the women wept at the suggestion wanting to follow her but Orpah consented after further encouragement from Naomi while Ruth refused to abandon her aging mother-in-law who faced a life of uncertainty without offspring and opportunity (Ruth 1:15-17). And here begins a life of loyalty.

 

Ruth, a convert, accompanied her mother-in-law to Bethlehem and there gained a reputation of a virtuous woman in Israel. The entire city of Bethlehem knew how good she was and told Naomi that Ruth was better to her than seven sons (Ruth 3:11, 4:15).

 

As the poor in Israel were accustomed to do, Ruth offered to go gleaning the barley fields being harvested. Gleaning was in effect gathering any stalks of barley that fell from the harvesters' hands and that were left on the field for the poor to gather to save them from starvation. Being new in the area, Ruth, unbeknownst to her, chose a field that belonged to Boaz, a wealthy relative of Naomi's husband, but not just any relative. Naomi identified him as the 'next kinsmen’.

 

This is where Ruth’s sense of duty, loyalty and care comes into play. Ruth, a young woman did not seek a man closer to her own age and of her own liking to marry. She instead heeded the counsel of her mother-in-law and approached Boaz to lay claim to a 'levirate marriage'. As the 'next kinsmen' it would be his duty to marry the widowed Ruth and provide her with offspring. This duty would have fallen to her husband's brother had he remained alive.

 

What is even more interesting is that Naomi could have laid this claim herself but Naomi was too stricken in years to bear more children. If Ruth married and had a son, she would provide a way for both women to be cared for in their old age. Lucky for Ruth, Boaz was a good man and was impressed that she was following the Israelite family law in seeking a rightful husband rather than going after her own selfish desires. He regarded her proposal as 'a proof of feminine virtue and modesty by offering herself as a wife to an old man like him rather than going after young men’. (Ruth 3:10,11)

 

Ruth, a converted Gentile, came to Bethlehem empty but was filled in every way. She went from nothing to everything. By chance that she might have a son, she married an old man she didn’t know and they had a son, Obed who was the father of Jesse, who was the father of David, who was the progenitor of Mary, who was the mother of Christ (Ruth 4:17-22).

By giving birth to Obed, Ruth brought honour again to her mother-in-law who was left childless: "And Naomi took the child, and laid it in her bosom and became nurse unto it. And the women, her neighbours, gave it a name, saying, There is a son born to Naomi; and they called his name Obed...." (Ruth 4:16,17).

 

Thus by her life's choices Ruth became a symbol of selfless loyalty to be emulated by all the daughters of God……a loyalty that alleviated the suffering of another…..there is no greater.

 

 - CATHRYNE ALLEN 

ODE TO HUMANITY

 

There is a famous passage quoted by Nelson Mandela in his 1994 inaugural speech, written by Marianne Williamson in her book “A Return to Love”, which argues that we fear our own light and potential more than our darkness, afraid that if we let our light shine it will make others feel insecure. The author’s intention was, however, to encourage us to embrace our own greatness in order to liberate others. It goes like this:

“Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure….it is our light, not our darkness, which most frightens us. You may ask yourself, “Who am I to be brilliant, talented and fabulous?”. Actually, who are you NOT to be? You were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within you. It is not just some of us…..it is all of us. And as we let our light shine, we un unconsciously give others permission to do the same. As you become liberated from your own fear, your presence automatically liberates others.” (Marianne Williamson, “A Return to Love – Reflections On the Principles of A Course in Miracles”)

A bit of history honouring parenthood…..The modern Mother’s Day was first celebrated on May 10, 1908, when Anna Jarvis held a memorial service for her mother at Andrews Methodist Episcopal Church in Grafton, West Virginia. Following her campaign, U.S. President Woodrow Wilson officially declared the second Sunday in May as Mother’s Day in 1914. The first Father’s Day was celebrated on June 19, 1910, in Spokane, Washington, spearheaded by Sonora Smart Dodd to honour her father, a Civil War veteran who raised six children as a single parent. A recognition of her valiant father by a grateful daughter, and well earned. Being a single parent is not for faint hearted.

I first understood how equally important men and women are when I was a single mother. I noticed how crucial is the balance that fathers bring into the family. Mothers tend to be subjective and self-sacrificing while fathers are pragmatic and objective not allowing their feelings to cloud their judgment and course of action. I was a typical self-sacrificing single mother intent on sparing my children any pain and discomfort. I realized my mistake when I saw my daughters ill equipped to deal with harshness of life. The balance that each gender brings to a child is crucial, therefore we are all equally important in the grand scheme of things. We compliment each other in every way.

Recognising the power within us is recognizing the origin of that power. We are made in the image of God in every way. An exalted God is not without a wife. Creation would have to have been a dual process, spiritually and physically. We will know this process when the Saviour comes and reveals all things (D&C 101:23-35). Until then, may we appreciate each other whether it is Mother’s Day or Father’s Day….here’s a shout out to all humanity!!!

Among valiant sons of God

Who were chosen rulers to be

Stood the daughters so fair

They echoed through eternity.

 - CATHRYNE ALLEN 

(Art: First Blossom by Annie Henrie Nader)

WALK WITH ME

 

In the 12 months of my illness and solitude, I have learnt how very important the Church is. I have suffered much isolation as I have been confined to my home. I didn’t expect the members of my ward to grace my doors every week but in this day and age when technology makes it so easy, I was not prepared for lack of contact I experienced, even from my Ward leaders.

I didn’t want to feel forgotten.  On days when I felt that even God had forsaken me, it would have mattered so much to be told that I was still remembered.

I get it, everyone is busy and dealing with their own stressful lives so thinking about others is difficult but there never has been a time of this earth where people did not live under duress of some sort and yet the call to become a Zion people has always been there.

This is my conclusion. We will never, never, never become a Zion people if we continue on this path of self-absorption and neglect of one another. Most people in the Church think the Saviour has not come because the world is not wicked enough. In reality, He will not come until we are a Zion people (see D&C 105:9-12 on how long the Lord will wait to redeem Zion and Doctrine and Covenants Student Manual commentary for these scriptures)

When the Saviour said to Enoch, “walk with Me”, He said it for this very purpose (Moses 6:34). And Enoch walked with God (v 39) and he established the city called Zion (v 18). Note, however, that this happened amidst the greatest distress for Enoch and his people as ‘from that time forth there were wars and bloodshed among the people’ and their enemies and giants of the land came to battle against them (Moses 7:13,15,16). Even so, the people of Enoch survived and still managed to establish Zion because ‘the Lord came and dwelt with them’ (v 16).

There is another who was told ‘walk with me’, with the promise that if he did, he would be perfect, and that was Abraham (Genesis 17:1). From the time he was called out of Haran, Abraham was in pursuit of the city of Zion (Hebrews 11:8-10).

“But how could he seek it if it was gone from the earth? Latter-day scripture also describes an order of priesthood available in Abraham’s day that could actually give mortals access to that translated city. According to Joseph Smith Translation of Genesis….”the order of the covenant which God made with Enoch”….for men having this faith, coming up to this order of God, .were translated and taken up into heaven (JST Gen. 14:27,32).” (E. Douglas Clark, “The Blessings of Abraham – Becoming a Zion People, p 92)

Abraham did walk with God and he became the protector, the teacher and servant of all the people he associated with. There is an endearing story in Midrash, a Jewish interpretation of biblical texts, that tells of Abraham’s concern and care of his fellowmen. It tells of Abraham sitting outside his tent one day in the heat of the day on the plains of Mamre with the breath of hell whirling the heat and the dust and the sand. He was worried thinking that there was some stranger out there lost in that dust storm so he sent his servant Eleazer out to look in all directions but Eleazer came back and said he couldn’t find anyone.

Abraham was still worried so he went out into that hell himself though he was very sick following his circumcision at such an old age (Genesis 17:24) but he found no one. Upon his return there were three strangers at his tent. It was the Lord with two others. Abraham threw himself down on his face in obeisance and it was then that he was given the promise of Isaac…..as a reward for what he had done. Abraham found someone more significant in that dust storm than he had ever imagined….he found his son Isaac.  (see Genesis 18 and “The Faith of an Observer – Conversations with Hugh Nibley, pp 28-29)

“….Abraham believed God, and it was imputed unto him for righteousness: and he was called the Friend of God.” (James 2:23). A friend is someone who walks and talks and keeps company with you. May we all do so and become not only a friend to God but to each other. Until then we will not love one another as He had loved us.....

- CATHRYNE ALLEN  

GODLY SUFFERING

 

In Section 19 of Doctrine and Covenants, the Saviour revealed the most personal details of His suffering during the Atonement. Here He dismissed ‘the insinuation’ that His sweat was ‘like’ drops of blood, as mentioned by Luke in his Gospel, and confirmed that indeed His agony was so great that He sweat actual blood from His pores (v 18; Luke 22:44).

I have experienced pain in my life but I cannot fathom such extreme form of it. This is how Elder James E. Talmage described it:

“Christ’s agony in the garden is unfathomable by the finite mind, both as to intensity and cause….He struggled and groaned under a burden such as no other who has lived on earth might even conceive as possible. It was not physical pain, nor mental anguish alone, that caused Him to suffer such torture as to produce an extrusion of blood from every pore; but a spiritual agony of soul such as only God was capable of experiencing.

“No other man, however great his powers of physical or mental endurance, could have suffered so; for his human organism would have succumbed, and syncope would have produced unconsciousness and welcome oblivion. 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)

And here is another horrific thing about it. This excruciating spiritual pain was added to the physical pain of the crucifixion as He hung on the cross: “Again, on Calvary, during the last three hours of his mortal passion, the sufferings of Gethsemane returned….if we interpret the holy word aright, that all of the anguish, all of the sorrow, and all of the suffering of Gethsemane recurred during the hours when darkness covered the land….could it be that this was the period of his greatest trial, or that during it the agonies of Gethsemane recurred and even intensified!” (Elder Bruce R. McConkie, “Mortal Messiah” 4:232, note 22; see also Talmage, “Jesus the Christ” p 661 and Tad R. Callister, “The Infinite Atonement” p 141)

There is another scripture in Section 19 of Doctrine and Covenants which I find most alarming. In His vehement command to us to repent, the Saviour explained that if we would not repent, we must suffer even as He suffered, to pay for our own sins (v 17). This drives fear into me. I have suffered in my life and the last thing I would want is to undergo suffering at such great scale as I have never experienced before.

Herein enters Christ’s unfathomable mercy. Verses 4-12 offer great insight into God’s punishment. Here we are told that the punishment given from God’s hand is ‘eternal and endless punishment’ because Eternal and Endless are two of His names. It does not mean that a sinner is to be eternally and endlessly made to suffer.

I worshipped You in heaven

As my Saviour and my King.

I knew Your holy suffering

Would pay for everything.

 

Now I am here in my mortal frame,

I am amazed at the price You paid

For the value of my name!

- CATHRYNE ALLEN 

(Art: Hail King of the Jews by Mindi Oaten)

A MOTHER OF NATIONS

 

No union of two people had a more romantic beginning. It was the union of Isaac and Rebekah.

Isaac was forty years old and Rebekah was a damsel most likely in her teens (Genesis 25:20). There was a whole generation between them. Isaac’s mother Sarah was the sister of Rebekah’s grandmother Milcah. This would make Rebekah half of Isaac’s age, if not younger.

He was well-established and rich, a man of God and the heir of the priesthood and the covenant which would make him the progenitor of all the faithful. She was a righteous, young beautiful virgin and everything Abraham desired for his son’s wife (Genesis 24:16)…like Sarah….and she was destined to become ‘a mother of nations’…..like Sarah.

The marriage of Isaac and Rebekah was born out of the covenant between Abraham and his eldest servant whom he commissioned to travel back to his family in Mesopotamia to procure a wife of his family’s lineage for his beloved son. The servant had to covenant that he would not allow Isaac to marry a Canaanite. It was a matter of preserving the rights to the priesthood,  something the Canaanites were not privileged to because they were of Cain’s lineage.

I will not recount here how successful the servant was in meeting Rebekah and her family through the obvious spiritually engineered process. The amazing thing is that Rebekah agreed to leave the security of her family and travel to a land she has never been to, to marry a man she has never seen.

Picture a man out in the field at the eventide spotting a caravan of camels approaching. A young girl he has never before seen, wearing a vail across her face, alights and is introduced as his wife. All Genesis records is that Isaac ‘brought her into his mother Sarah’s tent, made her his wife and loved her’ (Genesis 24:67). You can just feel the cupid’s bow, can’t you???

I am amazed how men used to master the frontiers of this earth and women carved dynasties by the children they bore.

The heathen land of Canaan that Isaac and Rebekah lived in was not a paradise but it was the promised land for their posterity and they embraced it with trust and faith. Abraham passed on an estate of great wealth to Isaac which gave him a position of influence and prestige in the land but here is the sting… Life is not smooth sailing even for the most noble and chosen……

Like Sarah who waited 38 years for Isaac, Rebekah waited 20 years to become a mother. Genesis records that Isaac was 40 years old when he married Rebekah and 60 years old when she had Jacob and Esau (Genesis 25:20,26). What went through their minds for those 20 years, no doubt knowing the promises, would have tested them to the limit….

We are told that Isaac ‘intreated’ the Lord so that Rebekah could conceive (Genesis 25:21). The dictionary defines this word as: ask earnestly, beseech, implore, BEG….

The faith and trust paid of. Through one of the children Rebekah had were all the promises realized. Jacob’s 12 sons became the Tribes of Israel which roam this earth to this day….through which all the nations of the earth will be blessed.

And the God of Israel? He ALWAYS fulfils His promises. Mormon testified of this throughout the Book of Mormon with phrases such as ‘all this was done that the word of the Lord might be fulfilled’ and ‘God is powerful to the fulfilling of all his words’ (Mosiah 21:4; Alma 37:16; 50:19; Mormon 1:19; Helaman 4:21; Ether 15:3; Words of Mormon 1:4; 3 Nephi 1:13,20).

- CATHRYNE ALLEN 

(Art: Rebekah at the Well by Michael Deas)

THE DEMISE OF LOT

 

There is a very valuable lesson one can learn from the downfall of Abraham’s nephew Lot and it goes like this…..Following their sojourn in Egypt, Abraham and Lot were blessed so abundantly that the land could not contain them and it became apparent they would have to go their separate ways in the land of Canaan (Genesis 13:7).  

 

Abraham, being the man that he was, offered Lot his choice of the land first.  Lot who was not as generous and mindful of others, chose the fertile plain along the Jordan River and left Abram the rocks of upper Canaan. There was only one problem. Lot’s land had a majestic view….of Sodom (Genesis 13:12). And so Lot began his demise by pitching his tent toward the city of wickedness while Abraham and his household found refuge and distance from it by the rocks which obscured their view (v 18).

 

The demise of Lot proves that our daily focus manifests its reality in our lives because by the time the messengers from the Lord came to do a little inspection of Sodom, Lot was no longer living toward Sodom, he was living IN it (JST Genesis 19:1).

 

When the destruction of Sodom was imminent and the time came for Lot to leave, the sons-in-law who married his daughters refused to leave and mocked Lot for suggesting so (JST Genesis 19:19-22). Lot and his wife and two unmarried daughters had to be physically dragged out of the city (Genesis 19:16).  In the process of the flight Lot lost his wife too as she turned toward Sodom, no doubt longing for the daughters she left behind (v 26).

 

From there came more wickedness as Lot was left alone with his two daughters who didn’t think twice of securing children for themselves by their father (v 30-38). Where did they learn such behaviour?  In Sodom.  In reality Lot had lost his whole family to the wickedness of the world.  Sooner or later the world sucks you in if you are looking at it longingly enough.

 

Consider the opposite example in Abraham. Sometime after he and Lot first settled in Canaan, a confederation of kings attacked the cities of that valley. Lot didn't fare very well in that attack and was captured with his family and taken away together with all their possessions.  Abraham pursued the invading kings with his servants and conquered them bringing Lot and his family back. When he returned to his home he was met by the king of Sodom who offered Abraham all the booty he had captured in the war but Abraham refused to take anything from this king of wickedness for fear he would say that he, and not God, made Abraham rich (Genesis 14:8-24).

 

Not only did Abraham acknowledge the true source of his prosperity, he was careful not to be a partaker of anything that was unrighteous and unclean, that had the potential to make him a part of the world. It reminds me of Alma who said:”…come ye out from the wicked…..and touch not their unclean things…..(Alma 5:57). Because if you do, it will surely lead to destruction.

 

Our constant focus matters more than we think. If you are sitting in a tent looking longingly at the world, look the other way, change the paltry view to a majestic one…..it wears the crown of a King….the King of Kings, the Lord of Lords (Rev 19:16); The Rock of Heaven (Moses 7:53), The Rock of our Salvation (Deut 32:15)….Endless and Eternal is His name (D&C 19:10-12).

 

Who is a God like unto Thee,

Jehovah, our King?

Who protects the weak

And the broken hearted;

Who sorrows for the lost

Who paid the price of

The crucible cost. 

CATHRYNE ALLEN 

(Artist Unknown)

THE RECOMPENSE OF GOD

 

Our beginning on this earth through Adam and Eve is an incredible witness that God’s purposes cannot be frustrated and that His success is imminent and without fail.

Something wonderful happened to Adam and Eve after they buried their hopes and dreams and plans for their righteous son Abel. He it was that was groomed by his parents to be the heir of the Priesthood and thus become the presiding high priest over the kingdom of God on earth. He was to succeed his father and become the head of a whole new cultural pattern of righteous living that would take the humanity on a different path than what was up to that time established by Satan among the children of men (Moses 6:15).

Only those parents who have buried their children after an unjust death would understand the deep sorrow experienced by Adam and Eve when they lost Abel. These parents, I believe, will be compensated for their loss, just like our first parents were, sometime, somewhere, somehow.

Adam was 130 years old when Eve had another son. This was the golden boy that replaced Abel. He was tutored and taught the science of righteous living and gave his parents cause to have hope for the future. This was Seth who in every way resembled his father Adam. The Lord in modern revelation said this of him: “Seth was a perfect man, and his likeness was the express likeness of his father….and could not be distinguished from him only by his age.” (D&C 107:43)

This was the compensation, the recompense, the reward for all our first parents suffered because of their children: “Seth lived a total of 912 years (ibid v 46), and during his long ministry he saw the Church of God become a great organized power for good among the children of men………. Seth prophesied and preached repentance for 840 years. As a result, many who would have otherwise grown up in wickedness caught the vision of faith which his daily conduct and sermons portrayed (Moses 6:23). (W. Cleon Skousen, “The First Two Thousand Years” p 132)

Seth, the recompense and the beginning of the patriarchs.

Some years ago I had a memory from my pre-earth life. I was sitting with the Saviour and He was saying to me: “I will save you and make up for everything”. My life to this day does not resemble any ‘make-up’ but I still believe in the promise. If not in this life, then most assuredly in the next, and the next life is what truly matters to me. In the meantime, all glory be to His name for the greatest recompense He has given me…..the close association I now have with Him and our Father….and that to me is the greatest reward I could possibly have.

May you, who are in your sorrow, believe in Him who has the power to say: “I will restore to you the years that the locust hath eaten……… (Joel 2:25)

- CATHRYNE ALLEN 

(Art: Acquainted with Grief by Jenedy Paige)

A LIGHT IN THE DARKNESS

 

“God sent His Son to overcome the world – the world of carnality and evil; the world of lust and lewdness and license; the world of hate and sin, of war and murder, of wickedness and ungodliness. The Son of Righteousness came to bring righteousness and peace. And when he came, the world had sunk into a lower abyss than at any time since all flesh, being corrupt and evil, save eight souls only, had been drowned in the waters of Noah.

“Egypt, Assyria, Babylon, Persia, Greece, and all the kingdoms of the world had ruled by blood and the sword, by torture and death. But always there had been a leaven of righteousness, a kingdom devoted to goodness, a few people who loved the Lord and sought His face.

“But now, in the time set apart for our Lord’s coming, corruptions and evils were everywhere. A few righteous souls – a Zacharias here, an Elisabeth there – stayed, as it were, the plagues of destruction, but the wickedness of the world was everywhere and the stench of sin covered the earth.

“Even the covenant people, in the main, had gone astray. No longer were they a leaven to the worldly lump; subject to their priestcrafts, they would soon be in a state where they would crucify a God. Naught but a new day of righteousness and light, ushered in by one greater than the prophets could bring hope again to men.

“The advent of Christ was the breaking of the ‘dayspring from on high’ through a gloom that had been gathering for ages; a great light dawning on a world which lay in darkness, and in the shadow of death.”

-          Bruce R. McConkie, “The Mortal Messiah Book 1” p 289-292

The day You were born

You split the heavens apart

And angels descended

Trailing in their flight

Golden stars spilling over the night.

 

The moon hid in shame

As the angels spread Your godly light

And from their lips fell homage

To Your glory in the still of the night.

 

How I wish I too could fly

Spreading the message far and wide:

Our God and our King was born

On a Meridian night!

- CATHRYNE ALLEN 

(Art: Light of the World by Jay Bryant Ward)

THE TEST

 

The other day I wrote a post about compassion and I claimed that we are not here to ‘learn and to grow’ but rather to be tried and proven as per the scriptures (Abraham 3:25). One sister thankfully commented: “yet didn’t Christ learn by the things He suffered?”. I immediately recalled the scripture which had not up to now provided a proper understanding for me.

The scripture states: “Though he were a Son, yet learned he obedience by the things which he suffered” (Hebrews 5:8). I had read this scripture many times and always wondered what the Saviour had to learn when His obedience was perfect even before He came here and then all of a sudden it began to make sense for the first time.

Earthly suffering has the power to create animosity towards God and foster the attitude of disobedience (Job 2:4,5). Many people turn away from God because they cannot accept that He allows bad things to happen to good people.

Over the years I have learnt a lot about the Plan of Salvation but there was always a piece of the puzzle missing for me about suffering. I couldn’t understand why it was so necessary for our eventual rise to godhood. I felt the core reason for it was missing for me. Then two years ago I entered a stage of physical suffering that unbeknownst to me was trying to teach me what I wanted to know.

I still stand by my understanding that we came here to be tried and tested but this time I can see the connection between suffering and this test. The connection is obedience. The test is to prove we will be obedient when it is the hardest to be so. If we can be obedient in our extremities, we have arrived.

I think of that perfect baby in the manger. He who was perfect in His obedience before He was born yet He too had to prove Himself. I think of His earthly life and how that proving ground led Him to HIS extremity – His greatest suffering which forged the example of obedience for all mankind when He uttered: Thy will be done. That’s obedience.

And here is the greatest act of mercy on Father’s behalf. His ability to send us to temporary affliction shows His utmost trust in the process of the Atonement, knowing full well that because of it we would survive the test. Our trust in this most miraculous and supernal gift also would have been supreme when we voted for it. No sane person would accept a painful plan with risk of being lost, without a sure way of eventual escape. It would be like entering a tunnel knowing there is no exist at the end. But because of that babe in the manger there is an exit.

This Christmas I am reflecting not only on His birth but His life of suffering as I accept my  own. And I will give thanks for all He has to teach me…..

The baby in the stable

So innocent and sweet,

On the altar of sacrifice

Lay at Father’s feet.

- CATHRYNE ALLEN 

(Art: Heavenly Peace by Eileen Whitehead)

THE LINK

 

I wrote recently on how important the Church is in our preparation for Zion. The Church as an administrative institution is vital but the members of it even more so. If there were no members, there would be no Church.

There was a time when I was saved by two Wards I belonged to. The first was in my youth when I walked away from my family to be baptised and the second was following my divorce. I had never felt more loved and valued as I had in those two wards. I survived both crisis of enormous loss because of Church members who embraced me and would not let me become lost.

One of the greatest lessons I learnt from the Old Testament is the importance of belonging to a body of saints. Some of you will remember, when the children of Israel conquered the promised land following their captivity in Egypt, they were divided geographically by the River Jordan. The inhabitants of Canaan were ripe in iniquity and idol worship, and as a thorough and complete cleansing of the land was not achieved, they presented a very real threat to the covenant people (Joshua 23:11-16).

Among the first to receive land were the tribes of Reuben, Gad and half of Mannesah. They settled in the land of Gilead which divided them from the rest of Israel by the river Jordan (Numbers 34:14,15; Deuteronomy 3:12,13; Joshua 22:9). When these tribes settled they built an altar by that river.

When the rest of Israel heard of it they were outraged presuming the altar was built for idol worship. They sent Phineas, the son of Eleazor the priest, with the heads of the remaining tribes, to call these two and a half tribes to repentance. In their defense, these tribes explained that the altar was not made for any worship but was meant to stand as a witness to the rest of Israel that the tribe of Reuben, Gad and Mannesah were united with them in the worship of one true and living God.

These three tribes recognised that even though they were geographically divided from the rest, they were still a link in the chain. They knew that if they turned to the worship of other gods, the ripple effect would be detrimental to the whole House of Israel. They recognised the importance of unity in their righteousness.

Today the chain, being the Church of Jesus Christ, spreads across the globe. It unites me, who am an Australian, with you who are an American, European or African. It unites us through our faith in Him who is the Saviour of all, regardless of nationality, colour or culture.

Our faith in Christ and our commitment to that faith is our commonality. It creates a spiritual umbilical cord between us that tells us we are one. It tells us to be united in spirit, in love, in care, because you don’t know who you can one day save.

Next time you take the sacrament, think about every member in every ward in every stake in the world doing the same and that by it we are, like the Israelites of old "witnessing between us that the Lord is God" (Joshua 22:34) and thereby keeping the chain unbroken because one day this chain will bring us together to live with Him in Zion in preparation for the celestial kingdom of our eternal home.

- CATHRYNE ALLEN 

(Art: Sacrament Meeting by Doc Christensen)

SELF-CONFIDENCE

 

“It is not just the mistake-free, no-fault life that pleases God. He has deliberately placed us in a sphere where the most sharply focused purpose is to learn from our experience and to grow in both our desires and our understanding to be like Him.

“Obviously that includes the greatest effort and integrity we can must as we seek to do His will. But the heart of it all is not SELF-confidence. It is confidence in HIM, and in His power to make us into creatures far beyond the reach of what our goal-setting and goal-achieving can ultimately accomplish in the process of becoming as He is.

“Through the power of the Atonement, the Saviour himself compensates ultimately for our inadequacies, even as He leads us along and strengthens our capacity for good. For that reason HE is the desired repository of our confidence.  To repose our confidence in ourselves rather than in Him is to trust in the arm of flesh…..”

-          Elder Bruce C. Hafen, “The Broken Heart”  p 120,121

 

When in heaven we meet,

Will you want my soul to keep?

 

Will I be worthy of forgiveness,

And a loving word from Thee?

I will kneel and I will weep when I witness

How graciously You accept

So little You find in me.

- CATHRYNE ALLEN 

(Art: Within Our Grasp by Jay Bryant Ward)

KNOW WHO YOU ARE

 

“Why did the Lord ask such things of Abraham? Because knowing what his future would be and that he would be the father of an innumerable posterity, He was determined to test him. God did not do this for His own sake for He knew by His foreknowledge what Abraham would do; but the purpose was to impress upon Abraham a lesson and to enable him to attain unto knowledge that he could not obtain in any other way.

“That is why God tries all of us. It is not for His own knowledge for He knows all things beforehand. He knows all your lives and everything you will do. But He tries us for our own good that we may know ourselves; for it is most important that a man should know himself.”  (George G. Cannon, “Gospel Truth”, comp. Jerreld L. Newquist, 2 Vols [1974] 1:113)

Years ago I read something I saved as a guide to my own personal development: “Someone who takes the time to understand their relationship with God, who actively seeks alignment with their broader perspective, who deliberately seeks and finds alignment with who they really are; is more charismatic, more attractive, and more powerful than a group of millions who have not achieved this alignment.”  (Abraham Hicks)

Think of what Abraham achieved in his life and how powerful he became….his obedience was unparalleled and his pursuit of righteousness and seeking the blessings of the fathers through the priesthood brought him into alignment with God and the revelations he received regarding the Plan of Salvation (Abraham 3:22-28).

Abraham’s faithfulness to God, however, through the trial of Isaac’s sacrifice, gave him the knowledge of his role as the father of all the faithful through the Abrahamic Covenant. This trial of his faithfulness to God truly taught Abraham who Abraham was.   

Now look at the Saviour. Repeatedly throughout His earthly ministry, He affirmed who He was:

-        I am the bread of life (John 6:31, 51)

-        I am the light of the world (John 8:12)

-        I am the door of the sheep (John 10:7,9)

-        I am the good shepherd (John 10:11,14)

-        I am the resurrection and life (John 11:25)

-        I am the way, the truth and the life (John 14:6)

-        I am the true vine (John 15:1,5)

The Saviour was not born with this knowledge. This knowledge was added to Him in increments as He grew and progressed through His obedience until His ministry began (D&C 93:12-14). No need to mention of what the Saviour achieved because He learnt who He was through His alignment with the Father and through the trials He suffered “even more than man can suffer” (Mosiah 3:7).

Could He ever have been the Christ if He didn’t know who He was destined to be???

We too can know our destiny….

-     CATHRYNE ALLEN

(Art: The Light by Land of Dreams)

A PERSONAL GOD

 

I came across a comment recently on YouTube by a well-meaning Catholic man who admonished us to repent and to ask “our Lady of Fatima to pray for us and give our hearts to her as an offering to the Lord”.

I asked this person who this lady is and why we should pray to her. He gave a short description of her but never said why we should pray to her. I concluded that he himself didn’t know, only that his religion has taught him to do it, and I sorrowed that this man might never come to know God in this life.  

I have over the years expressed many times my gratitude to God for the truth that I have in my life. This truth has come to me by way of the restored Gospel of Jesus Christ which has taught me to have a personal relationship with God.

Until the recent years, the Saviour was in the forefront of my mind. He was all that I could see. Now who I see first and foremost is the Father. This has always meant to be so. The Church brings us to Christ and Christ brings us to the Father. Revealing the Father and making Him personal to us was one of the main purposes of the Saviour’s ministry among men (see Jeffrey R. Holland, “The Grandeur of God”, October 2003 GC)

Now when I pray to the Father I feel such closeness to Him that I yearn for His presence. This I believe is the culmination of years and years of yielding my heart to His Son. I also believe that yearning for the Father’s presence is the true and higher purpose of prayer.

This yearning was so strong in me one day as I prayed that immense fear gripped me that I might not ever enjoy being in His presence again. This opened the visual vista of being lost and living eternally with loneliness and unfulfilled longing. But then hope came to me so forcefully because what followed that fear was the deepest understanding I have ever received of the Atonement of Jesus Christ which filled me with inexpressible joy.

This time my understanding of this crucial Gospel principle was not educational, theological or intellectual but something so personal that it made God more real to me than ever before. I felt rescued and saved from eternal damnation. I understood what Jesus had done for me. That moment in my life was the beginning to my ever-growing desire to please the Father and be a source of joy and delight to Him.

It should sear our hearts when we read of Him weeping over His disobedient children (Moses 7:28,29). On Judgement Day, those who refused the redemption of Christ will know the deepest sorrow known to man. They will long for the Father they once knew and loved. Imagine the sorrow the Father too will know in that moment. It should be the quest of our lives to never allow Him to experience this…..but so live that we will make up for His loss.

When my days on earth are done

I will lift above the world below

And I will seek the gilded gate

To welcome me to my eternal home.

 

I will approach the foot of His throne,

I will kneel and I will weep

When in hope I give Him joy

For eternity to keep.

- CATHRYNE ALLEN

(Art: Father and Son by Danny Hahlbohm)

MERCIFUL REDEMPTION

 

“I once heard a child tell the parable of the lost sheep in a way that stirred fresh thoughts about who the lost sheep is. A little girl so tiny that we could barely see the top of her ponytails over the pulpit told the story in a sacrament meeting….She said:

“There was once a shepherd who had a hundred sheep. He loved his sheep, so he counted them every day. One day he counted: ‘……ninety-seven, ninety-eight, ninety-nine.’ A little sheep was lost. The shepherd went to find him. The little sheep was far off in the rocks and bushes. He was frightened and lonely. The shepherd went to find him. The little sheep heard him and was glad. He said: ‘Baa-aa’. The shepherd came and found the little sheep. He picked him up and carried him on his shoulder back to his mommy. Then he counted again: ‘…..ninety-eight, ninety-nine, one hundred.’ All the sheep were safely home.” (Bruce C.  Hafen, “The Broken Heart”, p 37-8)

Elder Hafen said that it dawned on him as he listened, that he was the lost sheep, that those he knew and loved were the lost sheep, that the people in the Church were the lost sheep, indeed he said we are all lost sheep…..because of our first parents, Adam and Eve who “were cast out of their garden of innocence into the lone and dreary world, and ‘out in the desert they wandered, hungry and helpless and cold’ (p 38).

The Atonement has so many facets that it is difficult at times to grasp it all. Perhaps the most important  would have to be Christ’s power to redeem us from The Fall. Having been removed from the Father’s presence, we are born strangers and pilgrims on this earth (D&C 45:13) but the Saviour’s Redemption means we can one day be restored to our former home.

The greatest scriptural symbol of Redemption is Ruth, a lowly woman of Moab who married an Israelite. She was a convert to the Lord, God of Israel ‘under whose wings she had come to trust’ (Ruth 2:12). When her Israelite husband died and left her with no children, Ruth became one of the lowliest of the earth, devoid of security or livelihood. When she returned to Bethlehem with her mother Naomi, she consented to a ‘levirate’ marriage with Naomi’s next of kin, as was the custom in Israel.

Through a levirate marriage, the woman was provided with children and restored to security and society and brought back to the family home. Here is where things become interesting. The Hebrew word for a man who would step up to this responsibility was GO’EL. The King James Version of the Bible translates it as simply ‘kinsman’ but the proper and literal meaning of GO’EL is ‘redeemer’ (Rasmussen, “Introduction to the Old Testament”, 1:157)

Ruth’s GO’EL was Boaz. Boaz became Ruth’s redeemer and restorer of all she had lost. Boaz and Ruth had a son whose name was Obed, who became the father of Jesse, who was the father of King David, who was the progenitor of Mary, who was the mother of Christ.

Consider for a moment how Christ redeems us from our fallen state and restores us to the presence of the Father and our eternal home. The Saviour himself affirms His role as the GO’EL when He refers to himself as the bridegroom and us, Israel, as the bride (Matthew 25:1-13; D&C 33:17; 65:3; 88:92; 133:10). He is the greatest GO’EL of all….. the Redeemer, the Restorer, the Hope of Israel, the Shepherd who leads home all that are lost.

Elder Hafen tried to imagine how he would feel if he was found unworthy on Judgment Day to return to Father’s presence. He said he didn’t think he could stand a longing for eternity that could not be fulfilled (p 88). I am of certainty that I would feel like Cain of old who said when he was banished from God’s presence to be a vagabond on this earth: “My punishment is greater than I can bear.”  (Genesis 4:13)

- CATHRYNE ALLEN 

(Art: Guiding Them Home by Yongsung Kim)