OUR PURPOSE

 

Jehovah Creates the Earth by Walter Rane

All suffering and all endurance of this life denotes the very purpose of God, to exalt his children. All that is asked of us, our sacrifices, our suffering, our difficulties, our development and our progression is God’s work and His glory, “to bring to pass the immortality and eternal life of man” (Moses 1:7). The next level of our purpose in life is to become gods ourselves.

This is a hard doctrine for many people to believe that mere man can rise to such stature. I once wrote on Facebook that God’s purpose is to exalt His children to godhood and enraged one reader who claimed there is only one God and ever will be and therefore we are a Church of blasphemy. The funny thing is, deep down in us are seeds of the very idea. I have been watching a lot of AI generated historical periods. The Roman Empire in particular is a very interesting time. Everybody it seemed was vying for the position of pharaoh even though the risk of being murdered was exceptionally high. The most interesting thing is that many pharaohs proclaimed themselves to be gods.

When Moses encountered God on Mt Sinai, God showed him all the worlds He had made and Moses was astonished and proclaimed: “Now, for this cause I know that man is nothing, which thing I never had supposed” (Moses 1:10). Having been raised in an Egyptian court, Moses was trained to believe there is none greater than the Pharoah….until he saw God and what He can do and by this he concluded that man is nothing. God then repeated the vision of all His works to ensure that Moses understood the purpose of all His creations was to exalt His children (Moses 1:7).

To rise to such heights as godhood, the price has to be paid. The Saviour has paved the way but He could not make us godly. Only we can do that by accepting all the tutoring that God will give and all that we will give in return.

We are told that: 1. we must be chastened and tried, even as Abraham was, who was commanded to offer up his only son and if we will not endure chastening but deny God, we cannot be sanctified (D&C 101:4-5); and 2. We will be proven in all things even unto death by abiding in His covenant (D&C 98:12-15).

“This seems like such a high standard. Why must one be tested and chastened before he can be sanctified? Why can a person not be worthy of God unless he is willing to abide in the covenant even to death? To understand these questions and to gain greater insight into why Abraham had to prove himself, think in the eternal perspective for a moment. Imagine the disastrous consequences of making a person a god who was not perfect in every respect.

“How would the universe survive if it were controlled by a god who could not withstand even intense pressure? Where would we be now if our God had not been disposed to endure the suffering of seeing His Only Begotten Son go to the cross? If Abraham had failed his test, he would have lost his position.

“If God the Father had failed the same test there would have been no Atonement and all mankind would have “become subject to that angel who fell from before the presence of the Eternal God, and became the devil….And our spirits must have become like unto him, and we become devils….to be shut out from the presence of our God.” (2 Nephi 9:8-9)

-          (Old Testament Student Manual, Genesis – 2 Samuel, p 79)

In other words, we must give our all for God to give His all…..the bar is high but help is near and the eternal in us yearns to be more than this mortal sphere can give us. The Saviour made sure our purpose has an eternal destination.

 

If not for You,

Where would I be?

I would belong to the enemy.

 

If not for You,

Where would I be?

I would be lost in obscurity.

 

If not for You,

Where would I be?

As death would claim me for eternity.

- CATHRYNE ALLEN 

A SYNOPSIS OF LIFE

 

Seasons of Change by LDS Bookstore

Teenage years: Life is great and possibilities are great.

Twenties: My Prince has come, not on a steed but in a small second-hand Toyota, but that’s OK. I am about to sail off into the sunset of perfection and a glorious thereafter.

Thirties: The sunset faded all too soon and the prince has turned into a toad. I am divorced with two children in tow.

Forties: I am penniless but the tabloids tell me I am a superwoman and I can yet re-invent myself and create another life because for women life begins at 40.

Fifties: Still penniless and wrung dry by single motherhood. My mother is in her 70s and she refuses to walk with a cane. What the heck is wrong with her? Doesn’t she know how old she is????

Sixties: My body is breaking. The thought of having a shower fills me with fear and dread and actually having one that lasts all of five minutes is a monumental achievement. And no way am I walking with a cane!

I don’t know if it happens to everyone but it seems that when we reach the last leg of the journey, we start evaluating a lot and calculating the worth of our lives by a very short synopsis. I was struggling with a very low number I was coming up with until my friend recently confided in me the same struggle. She felt she has not achieved much and therefore she herself must not be worth much.  

The thing is, there is only one thing we take with us when we die….ourselves, therefore our worth cannot be measured by earthly achievements but by the worth of our souls. I have not attended one funeral where the financial worth of the deceased was on display for everyone to admire. Who they were was always remembered over what they have achieved and acquired.

When God the Father showed Enoch His corrupted children that would be swept away in the flood, He wept at the loss (Moses 7:28). Enoch was beyond perplexed when he considered that God would sorrow over a ‘handful’ of His children compared to the immensity of His creations (v 29-31). The Father simply answered that these His children were ‘the workmanship” of His hands (v 32). The dictionary defines ‘workmanship’ as ‘the product or result of labour and skill, or work executed’.

I pondered on this some years ago and considered the work that went into the making of us such as: 1. our spiritual creation which depended on the Father’s rise to Godhood; 2. Our spiritual tutoring for eons of time; 3. The creation of the earth for our mortality; 4. The overseeing of our earthly tutoring; 5. The preparation of kingdoms for our eternal destination; 6. The redemption of our souls through the sacrifice of another.

I also thought of our earthly lives and the scale of guidance, protection, care, anguish and sorrow of our Heavenly Parents, the Holy Ghost, our guardian angels, our ancestors, our departed loved ones and all the hosts of heaven who know us….and not just what others have put into us but what we have put into ourselves….in this life and before we even came here. Progression is a long journey.

As I spoke to my friend, I said to her that I have come to the conclusion that I would gladly repeat all the trials and hardships of my life if it would bring me back to this time and place where I am the closest I have ever been to the Saviour of the world. As I spoke, I became cognizant of my worth and that I was my greatest asset. The height of my value I owe to Him who has not only bled for my soul but who has fine tuned me like an old violin……..

“Twas battered and scarred and the auctioneer thought it hardly worth his while to waste his time on the old violin, but he held it up with a smile. “What am I bid, good people”, he cried, “Who starts the bidding for me?”

“One dollar, one dollar, Do I hear two? Two dollars, who makes it three? Three dollars once, three dollars twice, going, going for three.”

“But no, from the room far back a gray bearded man came forward and picked up the bow.

Then wiping the dust from the old violin and tightening up the strings, he played a melody, pure and sweet. As sweet as the angel sings.

“The music ceased and the auctioneer with a voice that was quite and low said, “What now am I bid for this old violin?” As he held it aloft with its’ bow. “One thousand, one thousand, do I hear two? Two thousand, who makes it three? Three thousand once, three thousand twice, Going and gone”, said he.

“The audience cheered, but some of them cried, “We just don’t understand, What changed its worth?” 

Swift came the reply, “The touch of the Master’s Hand.”

- Myra Brooks Welch [1877-1959]

- CATHRYNE ALLEN 

 

MORTALITY

 

"On my way to visit the Jameses the other evening, I saw a wheat field that appeared to be greener and taller than the others. Thinking about it for a while, I concluded that occasionally some loving farmer drives over the field with his tractor and dumps manure all over it. I thought, "My, it's just like life. Here we are minding our own business, growing our little hearts out. We're really quite green, somewhat productive and very sincere. When out of the blue, life deals us a dirty one, and we're up to our eyebrows in manure. We, of course, conclude that life as we have known it has just ended and will never be the same again. But one day, when the smell and the shock are gone we find ourselves greener and more productive than we have ever been! Unfortunately, no matter how often we go through these growing experiences, we are never able to appreciate the sound of the tractor or the smell of the manure."

- Harold W. Wood

 

My mortality spreads before me day and night,

I wince at bearing this heavy load.

I stumble and I fall,

The darkness seeking to swallow me whole.

I know He waits at heaven’s gate

Till I have learnt to walk the rough domain;

I will hurry, I will run

I will grasp the heaven’s hand

That will lift me to His arms

Forever there to remain.

 

- CATHRYNE ALLEN 

(Art by Ivan Guaderrama)

THE PLAN

 

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

The lessons of my life flowed like a river

Winding through days, months and years;

I rescued a few but missed so many

From the currents as I saw them passing;

They drowned in the daze of my ignorance,

Unwanted and ignored but yet abiding.

I fish them now from the pool of my memory

And give them life everlasting.

- CATHRYNE ALLEN 

(Art: Moses by Greg Sargent)