EQUALLY NEEDY

I read recently Elder Holland’s glowing tribute to his wife Patricia. He basically described a perfect woman who always had the scriptures in her hands. I walked away feeling less than good about myself wondering how anyone can be so perfect.

Do you know people who seem to have easy, wonderful lives and who seldom get touched by any trial? I do. I don’t know why some people get away with simple, seemingly perfect lives and others don’t. I would imagine a lot of factors play a part. All I know according to personal revelation is that my life was planned for me and I am trusting that. I certainly don’t begrudge anyone an easy life, in fact I am glad someone has that.  

One thing I do know. No matter how perfect you are in this life, you still need the sanctifying blood of the Atonement. Abraham, Job and Noah were the most perfect according to the scriptures but they still needed saving simply because our mortality is a fallen state. There is no other way to be redeemed and be reconciled with the Father and be brought back into His presence but through the grace of Jesus Christ.  

Noah was a ‘just man and perfect in his generations’ (Genesis 6:9). Abraham was ‘the father of the faithful’ (D&C 138:41), one of the ‘great ones’ who was in Christ’s bosom long before this earth began (Abraham 3:23), a man whom the Saviour called ‘my friend’ (James 2:23; Isaiah 41:8) and Job, what hasn’t been said about Job?  A man who ‘was perfect and upright and one that feared God, and eschewed evil’…… and yet his life turned into a ruin (Job 1:1).

Another thing I know. We do not walk in other people’s shoes. We only know what is available to the eye. We are each a walking sum of our choices, our desires, our achievements, our abilities, our responsibilities, our challenges and our opportunities. We are all different people with the same destiny. We are God’s children destined for eternal glory.

When I joined the Church I did not desire to be perfect. Instead my desire was to be a strong person. I wanted to be valiant to the end. I wanted to be like Job. This is someone I admired the most. A man who endured against all odds and still sang praises to God. He was the perfect example that the trial equals the stature of the man. The trial of faith has to have the power to destroy that faith.

Another thing I saw in Job – his humanity. His soul became weary of living and he wished to die (Job 3:3; 10:1). I have been there…more than once. Now I am learning about endurance I am often reminded of my hero Job who was rescued by the greatest hero of all who suffered it all……

You sank so deep

Into the mire of your pain;

Nobody followed you

Nobody sang praises to your name.

 

In your hour of agony

You gloried in His name

You became my beacon of hope

that I can do the same.

 

He stood as sentinel

to your yielding heart

Knowing your trust

would stand the test of time.

 

He crushed the enemy

of your soul in the final hour,

His glory, His might,

His unfathomable power.

- CATHRYNE ALLEN 

(Artist Unknown)

A PATH TO PERFECTION

 

“Abraham saw in vision all the spirit hosts of heaven. Among them were ‘the noble and great ones’ who participated in the creation of this earth and who were foreordained to serve the Almighty in special capacities while they dwelt in mortality. Christ was there, the foremost spirit of the innumerable host. Of him the account says:

“There stood one among them that was like unto God….in intelligence, in knowledge and understanding, in the possession of truth, in conformity to divine law, and therefore in power. Like God in plan and purpose, in desires for righteousness, in a willingness to serve his brethren, in all things that lead to that fulness of the glory of the Father….. (Abraham 3:24).

“But the Son of the Father had yet to pass through a mortal probation, to overcome the world, to attain a resurrection, and to come back to his Father with his own glorious and tangible body…..He had to work out his own salvation by doing on earth the will of the Father in all things.”

-        Bruce R. McConkie, The Promised Messiah, p 53-4)

It is sobering to think that Christ advanced so far in His development as a spirit child of God that such power was given Him of the Father for the creation of worlds….yet He was not perfect. That perfection could only come through the journey of mortality and resurrection.

The Saviour affirmed this truth when He gave out the mandate to the Jews prior to His death to be ‘perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect’ (Matthew 5:48). Whilst visiting the Nephites after His resurrection, the Saviour included himself in that command, because as a resurrected being, His perfection was obtained (3 Nephi 12:48).

It is equally sobering to think that He too had to pass through a mortal probation to achieve perfection. This important truth stands: one cannot obtain perfection without a resurrected body.

We knew this truth before we were born and we desired it greatly. This opportunity, when presented to us, was ‘so transcendently glorious’ that we burst forth into song and shouted for joy (Job 38:7; see also James Talmage, Jesus the Christ, 8).

I am certain that our shouts of joy and songs of elation echoed throughout eternity giving praise to the Father’s Son who was willing to pave the way to our perfection.

I am certain we sang glory to His name even as the angels heralding His birth. For without birth, there is no death; without death there is no resurrection and without resurrection there is no perfection.

The day you were born

You split the heavens open

And angels descended

Trailing in their flight

golden stars spilling over the night.

 

The moon hid in shame

As they spread Your godly light

And from their lips fell

Homage to Your glory

In the still of the night.

 

How I wish I could fly

Spreading the message far and wide:

Our God and our King was born

On a Meridian night!

- CATHRYNE ALLEN 

(Art: Mother of God by Lester Yocum)

IN REMEMBRANCE

 

 

The approaching Easter is leading me to ponder a lot about the gift of resurrection. Two significant things have stood out to me from the Book of Mormon, that are leading me to rejoice about the resurrection of Christ:

•  When the Saviour instituted the ordinance of the Sacrament, He instructed His disciples to do this “in remembrance of my body which I give a ransom for you” (JST Matthew 26:26b). The emphasis here is on the broken body of Christ which was offered as sacrifice. When visiting the Americas, He instructed the Nephites, “this shall ye do in remembrance of my body, which I have shown unto you” (3 Nephi 18:7). The emphasis here is on the resurrected body of Christ. In other words, ‘even though I was broken and dead, I am now alive and well. Rejoice, for in me is life’. Each time we partake of the Sacrament, our sorrow for the broken body of Christ should be equaled with our joy for His resurrection and the gift of immortality.

• When yet in mortality, the Saviour told His disciples, “Ye are therefore commanded to be perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect” (JST Matthew 5:48). When visiting the Nephites, the Saviour included Himself in that statement by saying, “Therefore, I would that ye should be perfect even as I, or your Father which is in heaven is perfect” (3 Nephi 12:48). Why did He include himself? Because you cannot become perfect without resurrection. I am not saying that Christ was not perfect in character and His spirit, which He was. I am talking about perfection as in completion. In other words: resurrected, complete, finished. This should help us understand that we can only become perfect on resurrection day. Not that resurrection alone will grant that perfection, but that having completed our mortal probation and being sanctified through the Atonement of Jesus Christ, we will be resurrected to perfection of both body and spirit. Now that is something to rejoice about!

The glory and majesty of the resurrected Christ is unfathomable to me. I yearn for an experience such as this: “When I was doing missionary work with some of our brethren among the Indians…I found myself one evening in the dreams of the night, in that sacred building, the Temple. After a season of prayer and rejoicing, I was informed that I should have the privilege of entering into one of those rooms, to meet a glorious Personage, and as I entered the door, I saw, seated on a raised platform, the most glorious Being my eyes have ever beheld, or that I even conceived existed in all the eternal worlds. As I approached to be introduced, He arose and stepped towards me with extended arms, and He smiled as He softly spoke my name. If I shall live to be a million years old, I shall never forget that smile. He took me into His arms and kissed me, pressed me to His bosom, and blessed me, until the marrow of my bones seemed to melt! When He had finished, I fell at His feet, and as I bathed them with my tears and kisses, I saw the prints of the nails in the feet of the Redeemer of the world. The feeling that I had in the presence of Him who hath all things in His hands, to have His love, His affection, and His blessings was such that if I ever can receive that of which I had but a foretaste, I would give all that I am, all that I hope to be, to feel what I then felt!”   (Apostle Melvin J. Ballard, Temple Manifestations, p 153)

- CATHRYNE ALLEN 

(Art: The Risen Lord by Arnold Friberg)

LETTERS TO THE WORLD

 

When I was on my mission, it was regularly emphasized to us that we were representatives of Jesus Christ and had to act and speak as the Saviour would. We were, so to speak, no longer ourselves, but were standing in for Christ in all things. It was a large order for a group of kids  considering our tender age.

Apostle Paul suggested to Corinthian saints that they were ‘epistles known and read of all men’ (2 Corinthians 3:2). The suggestion is that we, the members, represent the Church and Christ’s gospel and through our conduct the Church and the gospel are judged. And not only the Church and the principles we have committed to live by, but even Christ himself is judged by the lives we live (see New Testament Institute Manual for abovementioned scripture explanation).

The importance of example cannot be over-rated, however, there is one problem with that. When your friends and colleagues know you are a member, they watch you like a hawk to bear witness of your mistakes. They become your judge. I have been a witness of that. I think we are judged more harshly than members of any other Church. The challenge here is then not to emphasise our mortal ‘perfection’ as members of the Church to those around us but rather our mortal ‘imperfection’ and with it our spiritual dependence on Christ relative to it.

We, like all others, have been born into the weak condition of mortality. Those who know us need to know that when we have been called upon to endure trial, our strength comes from Christ to do so; when we transgress, our forgiveness comes from Christ who shows mercy to the penitent; when we find ourselves in lack, our reliance on Christ to bless us in our need is paramount to our survival. Our example as Christians should be grounded more upon our connection to the Saviour than upon our imperfect knowledge of the Gospel and our even more imperfect adherence to its laws. Our dependence on Him to succor us needs to shine brighter than all else because this is what the world needs the most.

Our connection to Christ is ‘written not with ink, but with the spirit of the living God; not in tables of stone, but in fleshy tables of the heart’ (2 Corinthians 3:3). It is in the heart that an anchor to the divine is forged to survive the weak condition of mortality. We are letters written to the world…..letters of hope of deliverance, of strength, of endurance. We are letters of love unfeigned, signed and delivered through the grace of Christ.

- CATHRYNE ALLEN

(Art: Divine Companion by Yongsung Kim)

AGAINST THE WIND

We very often say that we ‘should’ be Christlike. In fact, the world even judges us Christians by this edict. What we overlook sometimes is that we cannot be Christlike if we do not ‘become’ like Christ by engaging Him in the process of our becoming. When we don’t rely on His enabling power, we are just walking against the wind wishing for the impossible.

Some of us have brought with us spiritual gifts we developed in pre-existence like compassion, patience, tolerance, love, forgiveness. Even if we have these attributes under our belt, they can never equal the level of them that the Saviour possesses. His level is the level of perfection. For instance, I often hear that we should forgive our enemies and those that hurt us abominably like the Saviour did whilst on the cross. I ask, how many of us are capable of such forgiveness in the midst of such excruciating agony? This kind of forgiveness is a higher level that we cannot reach on our own. Forgiveness is central to Christ’s character but not to our own. Comparing us to Christ is like comparing apples to oranges. I had a conversation with a dear sister recently who told me it took her 12 years of intense therapy to forgive someone. I reflected on my own experience of much needed ability to forgive whilst in excruciating pain some years ago, which took only months to obtain through fervent and persistant appealing to the power of the Atonement. By virtue of our discipleship and by being faithful and keeping our covenants, we have ‘increased access to the power of Jesus Christ’ and need not suffer unduly. We can still become free when forgiveness is beyond us. (President Russell M Nelson, “Overcome the World and Find Rest”, Liahona 2022, p 96)

Another example of being ‘Christlike’ is in regards to charity or the pure love of Christ. This is not something that we are capable of, ever, and this is why: The ‘pure’ love means something significant. It means that the Saviour had no motive for self-gratification, self-advancement or self-aggrandizement but that His love motivated Him to put others before Himself, hence the ability to atone for us sinners, as opposed to Satan who wanted advancement of self and nobody else (Moses 4:1-2). Because we are fallen, the natural man tends to gravitate toward focus on ‘self’ rather than others. Also, It is not charity, the pure love LIKE Christ, it is charity, the pure love OF Christ. It is a love that only He is capable of. It is His unique love. We cannot develop it but we can aspire to it through prayerful seeking of it and it will be bestowed upon us if we are ‘true followers of Christ’ (Moroni 7:48). Charity or pure love of Christ is a gift. It is beyond our power to develop for ourselves.

If we don’t focus on the Saviour and His enabling power, we will sink into a river of debilitating ‘shoulds’. We beat ourselves up by our ‘shoulds’ which make us blind to the solution which is always in Christ and His power to heal, deliver, strengthen and endow with such attributes as are needed for us to rise to eventual perfection. He alone can make us like Him.

You enliven my spirit,

You enrich my impoverished heart.

You are the God of power and might;

You make of me what I alone could never be,

You light my way into eternity.

• CATHRYNE ALLEN 

(Artist: Against the Wind by Liz Lemon Swindle)

 

THE PATH TO PERFECTION

 

A friend suggested to me that the Saviour’s admonition to be 'perfect' is a verb as it was originally written, that it virtually means to be ‘perfecting’. She also said, ‘that feels totally doable’ and it certainly does because it suggests that perfection is a life long journey.

I don’t have a reference to back up that the Saviour said ‘perfecting’ as in both the Bible and the Book of Mormon it says ‘perfect’ but I have something else to offer which might support this theory. It is interesting to note that when Jesus commanded us to be perfect (Matt 5:48), He did not say ‘sinless’. For us to be sinless living by faith in this telestial mortality is an impossibility. However, what is more interesting in His statement is this: The Greek word for sinless is ANAMARTETOS. The Greek text, however, does not use this word but rather it says ‘be ye therefore TELIOS’. ‘Telios’ means to be brought to its’ end, finished, fully developed, having fulfilled one’s purpose or having fulfilled the measure of one’s creation. What is our purpose? To be tried and tested without forsaking God. This can be proved by the Saviour’s example. He said to the Jews ‘be ye therefore perfect as your Father in heaven is perfect’ (Matt 5:48) but to the Nephites He included himself in that statement (3 Nephi 12:48). Why? Because he had by then finished His purpose and endured to the end.

When it comes to perfection our focus should be first and foremost in surviving our trials without losing faith and trust in God and secondly, it is the striving to become that is the process of perfection. This is our path for now more than anything but when we are sanctified (cleansed) and justified (brought back in alignment with God), our faithfulness to Him will complete the circle of perfection.

In my quest for perfection I have found this: the closer I get to my Father in heaven, the less appealing my weaknesses and sins become because a desire to please Him has taken over the ‘I should’ mentality. It is always easier when you tackle something out of desire rather than compulsion. I spoke of this in my last post. If you gain a genuine desire to please God, your inclination to engage in your sins and weaknesses will gradually dissipate. When our desire to bring honour and glory to the Father is genuine in our hearts, our focus on self diminishes and our journey to perfection is assured. This is the path that the Saviour travelled from beginning to the end. May we follow in every footstep He left behind that we may return into the loving arms of the Father who is patiently waiting…..

I long for God’s acceptance

Of the paltry offering of my heart;

Never seeing His approval

Manifested plainly in mortal sight.

Yet crafted with the heaven’s pen,

Given through the heaven’s door,

Sealed with love and sent direct

From the seat of His eternal throne.

• CATHRYNE ALLEN 

(ART: God Calling by Youngsung Kim)

THE FLAWS WITHIN US

When I joined the Church some decades ago, I believed in my youthful naivety that all members, especially the leaders of the Church, were perfect. It has taken me 40 odd years to fully realise that perfection is a long road because I am still driven to my knees on regular basis to seek for forgiveness of my follies and imperfections. As much as I strive to be true to my covenants, it's the little things that get me, the so called flaws of character, the traits of humanity, that keep me over and over in my state of imperfection.

Recently a friend of mine told me that she now believes that Joseph Smith lost his way as a prophet  because he was flawed. To this she added her dismay with the imperfections of present day leaders which she no longer considers prophets, seers and revelators because policies in the Church are changed and retracted and there doesn't seem to be consistency with leadership. I have pondered on this for quite some time. When I was on my mission in Perth I was taught that obedience is everything, no matter what the rules are. For example, my Mission President insisted that the sisters wear stockings all through summer because stockings encouraged us to be dressy when we were out proselyting. The summers in Perth were almost unbearable.  My Mission President, not being a woman, had never worn stockings and therefore did not understand how uncomfortable and unhealthy it was to wear such synthetic material in such extreme heat. But the rules were rules and we sisters wore stockings in summer. The next Mission President abolished this rule because he did things his way. And this is the point. Even though we are taught to seek revelation regarding our callings, we each bring with us, our own talents, understanding and perspective. I believe this is our prerogative. I believe we are meant to exercise our initiatives and our individual talents and skills for our own growth and to reach different people for the common good of the Church. And sometimes we make mistakes which affect others adversely. This too, however, serves a purpose of growth; repentance on the part of the offender and forgiveness on the part of the offended. The Church is not perfect, because we are the Church and we are not perfect. What is perfect is the Gospel and that does not change. The Lord uses who He has and who is willing, not who is perfect. To expect perfection from the leaders of the Church is to deny their humanity.

Peter who walked and talked with Christ was impetuous and rash in his actions and perceptions of Christ's teachings. He even denied knowing Him (Luke 22:54-60). We do not know the true reason why he did but the important thing to remember is that he only denied his association with Him, not His divinity. Peter might not have been perfect but he was also a man of faith and humility who grew almost overnight to become so mighty that people laid their sick in the streets so that the mere shadow of Peter would heal them (Acts 5:15). Another example of imperfection from the past is King David. I am constantly amazed by his life. Here was a man who loved God with all his heart and inspired the whole House of Israel to follow Him. Yet he fell from grace abominably. The Lord knew in the beginning that David would eventually fall and lose his exaltation (D&C 132:39) yet he called him anyway to be the king because He knew what He could and would accomplish. David achieved incredible heights in his leadership which to this day is regarded as the golden age of Israel. And despite his eventual gross crimes of adultery and murder, God covenanted with him anyway that he would raise Messiah through him and his lineage (Acts 2:30).

So how does the Lord choose his leaders? He certainly does not measure them by the level of their perfection. Why not?  Because firstly there aren't any perfect people to choose from and secondly, so that we would continue to worship Him and not mere mortals. Even if there were perfect people I believe they would not be chosen because they are not meant to draw people to them but to God  (D&C 1:19-24). Could we ever dispute the Lord's reasoning when He himself proclaimed it so: "Wherefore, I call upon the weak things of the world, those who are unlearned and despised, to thrash the nations by the power of MY Spirit" (D&C 35:13). Not by our own strength but by His. By 'my spirit' the Lord here indicates that in reality we are merely vehicles through whom He performs His work that all might know that He is the one true and living God and that we might not trust in the arm of the flesh (D&C 1:19); that we are to serve and worship Him and Him alone.

When the early apostles were seeking a replacement for Judas in the Quorum of the Twelve they prayed to know which of the two under consideration the Lord would have because He knows the hearts of all men (Acts 1:24). They did not ask God to tell them which of the two was more perfect. This same criteria was used to choose David as the king. The Lord told Samuel: "....for the Lord seeth not as man seeth; for man looketh on the outward appearance, but the Lord looketh on the heart" (1 Samuel 16:7). When I pleaded with the Lord to help me understand regarding the polygamy/polyandry issue in the Church history, I received an undeniable  witness of the goodness of Joseph's heart, not his perfections or imperfections, because this is what concerns the Lord most. I believe our humanity is outweighed by the inner sanctum of our hearts.

Yes Joseph was flawed. He was young, uneducated and unwise as to the ways of the world. He perhaps didn't understand a lot of things and even acted foolishly. I don't know because I wasn't there and I didn't know him. But his doings or what the history records of him is of no consequence to me, it has nothing to do with my eternal progression. One thing I do know, I am glad that he was flawed. I am glad because it gives me hope that I too am acceptable by God.  It gives me hope that God will not overlook me in calling me to do His work despite my follies, blunders and weaknesses. If Joseph was perfect, I would feel I stood no chance because I could not live by the standards of another person's perfection.  I would have no hope of God's acceptance because perfection has so far eluded me. If other people could rise to perfection, there would be no hope for the rest of us. And I am glad that Joseph was not perfect because the only perfect being who I want to look up to is Christ. Because even with all my aspirations and my efforts, I have no power on my own to rise to the level of perfection that is required for eternal life. The only hope I have of ever achieving it is through the grace of Him who has descended below all things that He might rise above all things and receive power to lift me through His Infinite Atonement to life eternal (Revelation 5:12). It is the only way perfection can be reached. That journey begins and ends here.

We might ask ourselves why God does not interfere more in the works of men? Why does he not correct our faults and smooth over our blunders in more visible and obvious ways? Why does he allow the works of imperfect men to affect and hurt the innocent? When the Saviour comes again all governments will fall and the works of men will be counted as naught. The contrast between feeble accomplishments of men and His mighty work which will be brought about by the establishment of the peaceable and perfectly governed Millenium will be plainly seen. To what purpose? To turn our hearts towards the only way to salvation; to highlight His triumph over mortality and evil; to show that His Gospel will endure forever despite the weakness of men......He will come to make all things right and to wipe away all our tears and He will draw all men to Him that we might know that He is the light, the truth and the way; the Messiah, the Healer, the Prince of Life (Acts 3:15); the Rock of Heaven, the King of Glory, the Mighty One of Israel, The Great I am.

THE WEAKNESS IN US

I have always considered my weaknesses to be my curse. I imagine this is the case for most people who seek after perfection. After all, who likes to feel 'weak' instead of strong? I have never dreamed that my weaknesses are in fact the key to not only my strength but the key to my eternal destiny.

I come from generations and generations of poor, struggling and oppressed peasants whose core belief was that life is extremely hard. Because of this background I grew up believing the same and hate to say that I have not yet arrived at the point of total appreciation for my mortality. Because of the inter-generational beliefs and weaknesses that have been passed onto me, I have made choices in life which have made my life rather difficult. And because of my upbringing, I have the tendency to gravitate towards the insidious habit of complaining. I am aware of it, I sometimes try to justify it and most of the time I try to correct it but I invariably fail to eradicate it. I have concluded this is one of my thorns in the flesh. One of these days I will give it a badge. Of course not all weaknesses are as subtle as this one. 

Some people consider weaknesses to be personality traits whilst others believe  they were given to us that we might learn through them and grow. Whereas it is true that through them we learn the exercise of free will and accountability, their primary purpose is far greater than all that. The true purpose of our weaknesses is so that we will develop humility. The Lord Himself said "I give unto men weakness that they may be humble" (Ether 12:27). Then he proceeds to say that if we humble ourselves before Him, meaning if we come to Him, He will grant us strength through His grace to overcome our weaknesses. So why humility? Why didn't He ask something else of us so we would quality for His help? The obvious reason would be because humility means absence of pride. The proud do not accept that they even have a problem let alone that they can't lick it themselves. So humility brings us to Christ, the well of all perfection, for our improvement and refinement.

There is however, one other greater reason. Humility is a giant step towards godhood. Without it, it is impossible to get there. Think about it. Consider a god without humility. It means He would be full of pride instead. The downfall of pride is that pride seeks to elevate you above others whereas godhood seeks to elevate others to the station that you yourself are at. If God the Father was full of pride and devoid of humility He would not seek to elevate His children through the sacrifice of His Son to His station so that they could possess all the riches of eternity that He Himself has. When you and I become gods, we will not be blinded by the infinite power and riches and want to keep them for ourselves, we will instead desire the same for our children. This is where Satan misunderstood what it means to be a god. The status and power of godhood cannot endure if they are contained by one person, they can only endure if they are added upon by other gods. The Saviour Himself has said, "This is my work and my glory, to bring to pass the immortality and eternal life of man" (Moses 1:39). So you see, our glory adds to God's glory. Without exalting his children to the status of godhood, God could not be a god.

So what are we to do with our weaknesses? Do we shrug our shoulders and embrace the way we are, not assuming responsibility? Do we cave under their heavy burden and give up, thinking it is beyond us to change? For those of us who want to excel, there is a way. When the Saviour said, "I would that ye should be perfect even as I" (3 Nephi 12:48)' He was giving us a very big clue as to how we can reach that perfection. All who believe in Him and follow Him inherit the right of access to His own perfection. We can become perfect by virtue of His perfection through the power of the Atonement. We can call upon this power to make us even as He is, so that we will know that it is by His grace that we are saved, after all we can do.....(2 Nephi 25:23)

"By the grace of God I am what I am"

1 Cor 15:10

THE WISDOM OF OUR GOD

In the Lectures on Faith, a document which was the basis for instruction in the School for the Elders in late 1834 and which appeared in the Doctrine and Covenants from 1835 until 1921, Joseph Smith stated that a man cannot exercise sufficient faith in God unto salvation without having a 'correct idea of his character, perfections and attributes (Lecture 3). This means that before we can move on to experiential faith meaning faith derived from our experience with God, such as faith derived from His power to save, or to forgive, or to lend comfort, we need to possess faith that He has the attributes that would lead us to such experiences. Where do we learn of Christ's attributes so that we may put trust and faith in them? The scriptures: "The scriptures, in a marvelous way, are the repository of the characteristics and attributes of God. It is as if the prophets were giving evidence that God was worthy of our trust, that we could indeed depend on him in the most difficult trials of our lives. In fact - and this is a wonderful point to consider - 'the God of heaven, understanding most perfectly the constitution of human nature, and the weakness of men, knew what was necessary to be revealed, and what ideas must be planted in their minds in order that they might be enabled to exercise faith in him unto eternal life' (LF 4:2)" (Jerry A. Wilson, The Great Plan of Happiness, Insights from the Lectures on Faith, p. 28). When I first learnt of Joseph's statement about knowing God I determined that I would read the Book of Mormon with that in mind. I looked for His characteristics in the way He dealt with the inhabitants of ancient America and in what the prophets said of Him. I still do so. Whenever I find something relating to His character, I pencil it in the margins. Now when I flick through my Book of Mormon I am amazed to see pencil markings on just about every page. This has made me conclude that we can 'see' the Saviour on every page of the Book of Mormon.

The most prominent characteristic of Jesus Christ that comes up over and over again for me in the scriptures is that of mercy. For the first time in my life when we studied  The Old Testament the year before last, I learnt about the God of mercy as I witnessed through the power of the spirit His dealings with ancient Israel. Not many people would describe Jehovah as merciful, the world at large sees Him as a vengeful God of the Old Testament but to me the mercy is so much more evident. After all, who can forget Jehovah passing by Moses on Mount Sinai saying to him: "....the Lord, the Lord God, merciful and gracious, longsuffering and abundant in goodness and truth" (Exodus 34:6)? Or Jehovah leading Israel into promised land with an admonition "know therefore that the Lord thy God, he is God, the faithful God, which keepeth covenant and mercy with them that love him and keep his commandments to a thousand generations" (Deut 7:9) Who could possibly say they possess mercy towards another being 'to a thousand generations', meaning infinitely? We can also discover the God of mercy on just about every page of The Book of Mormon. This book of scripture also teaches us of another prominent characteristic that I wish to discuss here and that is wisdom. I will cite two examples of this. The first is found through Nephi who upon Lord's command created two sets of golden plates, the purpose of which he did not know. But one thing he did know and that was that the Lord knows all things from the beginning (1 Nephi 9:5,6). What the Lord knew in this instance was that the larger plates which were essentially The Book of Lehi would become the 116 pages of the lost manuscript translated by Joseph Smith in 1828, over 2,000 years later. The smaller plates which Nephi was commanded to make without knowing why covered exactly the same period as the lost manuscript and basically summarised Lehi's prophecies. The story does not end there either. Mormon, under the inspiration of the spirit, included these smaller plates in his own abridgement of the plates we now know as the Book of Mormon. He must have wondered if he was repeating himself including these plates, having just abridged Lehi's account but Mormon being obedient did as he was prompted to do admitting he did not know all things but like Nephi, he knew that the Lord knew (Words of Mormon 1:7). One cannot but be convinced that Nephi and Mormon knew God and of His wisdom and were therefore able to exercise sufficient faith and trust in His commands so that we today could have the richness of Lehi's prophecies such as his dream of the tree of life.

Another example of God's wisdom that is found in The Book of Mormon has to do with the Nephite's failure to record Samuel's prophecy that many saints would rise with Christ at the time of His resurrection. Why would the Saviour call them up on this particular prophecy? Why would this error have been significant enough for the Lord to correct it? Well, it has to do with the fact that The Book of Mormon, being "Another Testament of Jesus Christ", was specifically written for our day and in our day the accuracy of historical events recorded in the Bible is greatly under fire. One of these historical events recorded in the Bible that is greatly misunderstood and refuted is the resurrection. Jesus's rise from the grave is the subject of much modern scholarly debate. This debate was brought to the attention of one Latter-Day Saint whilst attending a well-known graduate theological school. He recounts: "In a class on Christ, entitled Christology, the professor was asked a question about the resurrection. He became very animated as he explained that this was the subject of his doctoral dissertation in Germany. He said that the answer to the student's question was complicated by the fact that there are various interpretations of the biblical account. He proceeded to draw a rectangle on the board representing the Bible and began to explain that this well-known scholar had his opinion based on these verses, while another theological had her opinion founded on some other passages. He then humorously noted that he differed from their interpretations due to still other verses. All the while he was banging away with his chalk at the rectangle representing the Bible. Then this professor, unacquainted with the Restoration, did an amazing thing. He said to the class, 'You know what we need? We need another book'! At this point he drew another rectangle next to the first, representing the 'other book' and said, 'If we had another book it would prove them (the other scholars) wrong and me right!' I sat stunned. Here was a learned man, a student of the Bible, who recognized the inadequacy of that single record to teach accurately about the resurrection. Soon after this event I was reading in 3 Nephi 23 and was amazed at the significance of the Saviour's correction to the Book of Mormon record. I understood more fully why the inclusion of Samuel's prophecy being fulfilled literally was so significant" (Philip Allred, BOM Lesson 41 "The Lord Esteems His Prophets", Meridian Magazine)

So often we, who are required to live by faith, fail to understand why the Lord deals with us in certain ways. For instance, we are told to 'ask and ye shall receive; knock and it shall be opened unto you; for he that asketh receiveth; and unto him that knocketh, it shall be opened" (3 Nephi 27:29) and yet when we do just that and pray, often our prayers go unanswered. We want what we want when we want it and we usually want it now. Consider this modern day story related by Elder Bateman of the Seventy who inadvertently proves this point by relating a story of a returned missionary he interviewed when he was a Stake President:

"One interview in particular left an indelible impression on me when a young man shared an experience that had changed his life. This elder had spent two years serving a mission in Mexico. Like many others, his gospel foundation had been somewhat shaky before he entered the missionary training center. But as the interview progress, I could tell that significant changes had occurred within him. After a few weeks in the field, this elder had become concerned that he was telling people that the Book of Mormon was true and that Joseph Smith was a prophet when he didn't know for himself. How could he assure others when he did not have his own assurance? In discussing the problem with him, his companion challenged him to follow the counsel he was giving investigators: read the Book of Mormon and pray with a sincere heart, with real intent, even if he could only desire to believe. a month went by and my friend's feelings did not change. he read parts of the Book of Mormon and prayed daily that he would know the truthfulness of the message, but nothing happened. Two or three more weeks passed. He was obedient in his scripture study, prayers, tracting, and teaching, but he still lacked conviction.

As this missionary and his companion were tracing during the third week, they made an appointment to teach a new family the next evening. When they arrived home that night, the elder, who, at his companions' request, had agreed to teach the Joseph Smith story to the new investigators, began reading the Book of Mormon again. He read and prayed and then read some more. he was determined to have an answer before teaching the family. Through most of the night he repeated the pattern of reading and praying. As morning came he was disappointed; no swelling motions, no particular enlightenment or feeling had been received.  he dutifully followed his companion during the day but worried about the evening appointment. When the our came, they knocked on the door. The husband answered and ushered them into a small home. Sitting on the dirt floor were nine children, and the father joined the mother behind them. Soon it was time for the struggling elder to teach his part of the lesson. he began by describing rather methodically young Joseph's confusion regarding which church to join and his subsequent prayer on a beautiful spring day in 1820 in a secluded wooded area near his father's farm.

As the elder reached the point in the story where the Father introduced the Son, saying, 'This is My Beloved Son, Hear Him!'  (JSH 1:17), a warm feeling began to envelop him, starting in the deep recesses of his soul. Within moments, it had filled his entire being, and he began to cry. He dropped his head in embarrassment. Why was he crying? What were these feelings? he had never felt them before. The feelings were sweet and penetrated his very being. As thoughts rushed through his mind, he realized the he knew that the Father and the Son had appeared to the boy Joseph, that the Book of Mormon was true, and that the gospel had been restored. Regaining control of his emotions, he looked up at the father and mother. Tears were streaming down their faces! They were feeling the same powerful influence of the Spirit that he was feeling. He looked at the children. They, too, had tears in their eyes. The Spirit had borne witness to them of the truthfulness of his words. he continued the story and finished with a humble witness that the Father and the Son had appeared to the boy Joseph.

As this elder concluded telling me his story, he said: 'President, I never had a problem teaching people after that. I knew the gospel was true, for I knew that the Father and the Son appeared to Joseph Smith. I knew why I was in the mission field'. As I listened the Holy Spirit bore witness of the extraordinary missionary that the young elder had become. I thought of how efficient Heavenly Father is. The father, the mother, the nine children, and the young missionary were all converted that evening. Twelve were converted that night, whereas only one would have been converted the night before" (Elder Merrill J. Bateman, Living a Christ-Centered Life, Ensign Jan 1999, p 7)

When Joseph went back to translating after the loss of 116 pages of the manuscript, the Lord told him not to translate the same pages again because of undergoing conspiracy which might disprove his ability to translate. The Lord explained it to him this way: "I will not suffer that they shall destroy my work; yea, I will show unto them that my wisdom is greater than the cunning of the devil" (D&C 10:43). This plan certainly didn't seem like it would be such proof at the time. It most likely seemed to the men of Joseph's day that he couldn't translate the same pages but we of our day, who know of Joseph's fate understand this plan perfectly, and can say with assurance that God knows all things from beginning to the end. Why is it necessary for us to know this about Him? So that we can more fully trust those things we cannot understand. Trusting is important because when we trust, we do not seek to re-invent the wheel. I am often amazed how much we seek to reject our parents' acquired knowledge and wisdom once we grow into adults. We want to make our own mistakes, learn on our own terms and basically we believe that our parents know nothing, mostly because they come from a different generation and time 'when things were different'. The Saviour however, is not like that. He is a God who knows all things from beginning of times to the end of times. Because of this knowledge He often protects us where we don't see it, denies those things that would be our undoing, puts us in places that would elevate us in faith and basically puts up with our blunders because He knows we are just now learning to walk and the running will come later. Because He can see further down the road, He tolerates our mistakes and sins of today knowing that one day we will be in a better place. All these lessons and more can be gleaned through the scriptures to better convince us that we can trust Him whose work and glory it is to 'bring to pass the immortality and eternal life of man' (Moses 1:39). If we believe that this is His purpose, then we need to trust Him that He can get us there.

Jesus became a god before He even proved Himself in mortality. How come? Because His obedience to the Father was perfect and absolute. In other words, He did not seek to re-invent the wheel. Surely, He who became a God without the need of mortality is qualified enough to pave the path to godhood for us if we would but learn of Him and trust in his might and power. This trust is called faith and we can have it if we know about Him whose virtues and attributes we learn about in writings that testify of Him and His divinity: The Old Testament, The New Testament, Doctrine and Covenants, Pearl of Great Price and most importantly, the Book of Mormon.

BY THE GRACE OF GOD PART 2

".....I will go before your face. 
I will be on your right hand and on your left, 
and my Spirit shall be in your hearts, 
and mine angels round about you, to bear you up." 
(D&C 84:88)

As disciples of Jesus Christ we have been given the mandate to become perfect. This perfection will be reached long after we pass on from this mortal life, nevertheless, whilst we are here we are to strive for excellence which will one day qualify us for godhood. Along this path however, we frequently, if not constantly, lack patience to cope with our sense of personal inadequacy. This impatience makes us prone to discouragement and a belief that because of our inadequacies perfection seems an unattainable goal. The gap between the ideal (perfection), and reality for some of us seems like a painful place to exist. In this gap we tend to encounter extreme guilt which makes many of us believe that we will never 'make it'. Women especially are susceptible to feelings of guilt to the point where some dread family-oriented lessons in Relief Society because emphasizing the ideals of motherhood makes them more aware of their own shortcomings and failure to live up to them. The truth is, all of us are falling short of the ideal for who among us could not relate to this family's scenario of the gap between reality and the ideal: "Then there are the family home evenings and scripture study sessions in our home. Somehow it has not been altogether natural for our children to glide reverently into their places all at once and all on time, prepared to ponder thoughtfully the wonders of eternity. More than likely, especially when they were young, they seemed to come swinging into the family room on the chandeliers like Tarzan on the vines, then would stand on their heads or flip themselves over the back of the couch during most of the lesson. During that stage of our family's history, our bishop lovingly referred to our children as curtain climbers, rug rats, and house apes. There were times in those days  when the gap yawned as wide as the Grand Canyon" (Bruce C. Hafen, The Broken Heart, p. 178). 

We live in a 'feel good' day and age. Modern day psychologists and spiritual gurus advise strongly against any negative feelings that have the potential to harm our self-esteem. One such therapist claims that being seriously religious "is significantly correlated with emotional disturbance" and goes on to say: "People largely disturb themselves by believing strongly in absolutistic shoulds, oughts, and musts, and most people who dogmatically believe in some religion believe in these health-sabotaging absolutes....The less religious people are, the more emotionally healthy they will tend to be" (Albert, Ellis, "Psychotherapy and Atheistic Values", Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology (1980), p 635-7). The world's solution to coping with the gap between the reality and the ideal is to eliminate the ideal and make peace with your reality. By doing this, we are meant to be free from frustration, guilt and unhappiness. This solution is an appealing one to many who are encouraged to accept themselves as they are. Because not having to change is a more comfortable place to be, we convince ourselves that we are not 'celestial material' and fall out of the race. 

Our modern day pre-occupation with self-acceptance limits severely our possibilities for growth and change restricting the power of repentance. Many of us go so far as to believe that we cannot change human nature at all and that we are what we are. Those of us who are of that belief deny the power of the Atonement and are in effect saying to the Saviour, I don't need you, you have no power to do anything for me. When we come to that point we believe the world more than we believe Him. We then lose all faith that we can ever attain godhood because we know our own capabilities cannot get us there. The other choice we have in this matter is to focus on Him who overcame the world, resisted every temptation and avoided every sin. We must understand that the only way perfection is possible at all is through the grace of Him who has paved the way. Through His grace we too can overcome the world, resist every temptation and avoid every sin because His grace enlarges our capacities and turns our weaknesses into strengths but the most important gift of grace "along that path is the gift of hope, which is a source of comfort and strength for those who move courageously forward toward the perfecting ideal of the Saviour" (Bruce C. Hafen, The Broken Heart, p 183)

It astounds me to hear an active member of the Church exclaim "oh, I know I will never make it". This proclamation indicates a lack of understanding of the Atonement and a lack of acceptance of its' power. To me this belief is akin to sin. Contrast that mentality with active members of the Church in Jacob's time: "Wherefore, we search the prophets (scriptures), and we have many revelations and the spirit of prophecy (testimony); and having all these witnesses we obtain a hope, and our faith becometh unshaken, insomuch that we truly can command in the name of Jesus and the very trees obey us, or the mountains, or the waves of the sea. Nevertheless, the Lord God showeth us our weakness that we may know that it is by his grace, and his great condescensions unto the children of men, that we have power to do these things" (Jacob 4:6-7). It is clear from this scripture that those who believe that they will never 'make it' are the ones who put their faith in their capacities alone rather than in the grace of God which is the only way we can ever make it. If we can by the grace of God command the trees, the mountains or the waves of the sea to obey us, surely we can by this same grace also change the human nature. 

The spiritual endowments of hope are perspective, patience, serenity, peace, insight and endurance. When we press forward with steadfastness in Christ (2 Nephi 31:20), we do so with a hope that we can make it for the one who has made it is before us, behind us and by us (D&C 88:84, 49:27). We desperately need these endowments of hope because they help us to see that development toward spiritual maturity and godhood "is a process and not an event....it is a distance race, not a sprint....it is thus no race for the short-winded. To develop toward a Christlike character is a process, not an event. There may one day be some crowning event, in which the final endowment of grace completes a process that may take longer than mortal life. But to qualify for such a conclusion requires patience and persistence more than it requires flawlessness. It is indeed, our own groping and reaching in the struggle for growth that qualifies us for divine help." (Bruce C. Hafen, The Broken Heart, p 184, 186)

In our quest for the ideal, we are like a toddler just learning to walk. The closer we get to the ideal, the more that ideal expands and creates new aspirations and a new gap, until we finally reach godhood: "When our capacities are small, God's expectations are not very demanding.......but just as we master these elementary demands, we discover greater expectations that we didn't quite see before. Gradually our capacity grows, but so does our understanding of what more we must become, 'For of him unto whom much is given much is required' (D&C 82:3). The Lord would have us stretch - but not out of shape.....in the midst of this process, the blessing of hope keeps the gap at a manageable distance. Our perceptions and attitudes really can be shaped and lifted by a gift of divinely given insight that lets us feel, even with some anticipation and optimism, that we can do it.....Hope, a divinely given blessing of atoning grace for those who seek it, after all they can do on their own, establishes in the way our mind sees things just the right distance between where we are and where we strive to be. It also reassures us, somehow, that the ever-receding ideal is not a trick, but part of a growth process that can be not only acceptable but exhilarating" (Bruce C. Hafen, The Broken Heart, p 187,188)

We need only search the scriptures in order to know the God we speak of; to know that to Him man is the underlying and over-riding purpose of all His works, that to Him we are everything (Moses 1:39); that it is for our sakes' He willingly laid Himself on the cross; that beside Him there is no Saviour; that the extent of His doings none can find out; that there are none who can stay His hand; that great is His wisdom and marvelous are His ways; that He is gracious and merciful unto those who fear Him and that He delights to honour those who serve Him in righteousness and in truth unto the end (D&C 76:1-5). This is the God we worship, this is the God we serve and this is the God we should believe.

"Behold, I have graven thee 

upon the palms of my hands;

thy walls are continually before me.......

come unto me thy Saviour"

(Isaiah 49:16, D&C 19:41))