A CALL TO RIGHTEOUSNESS

 

I think it is safe to say that most of us are by now looking forward to the Millenium. I also think the day will come all too soon when we will be begging for it. 

I remember reading years ago a dedicatory prayer of one of the American temples, offered by Elder Featherstone, in which he said that the day will come when the only place the saints will feel peace will be within the walls of the holy temples. He also said that we will long to be able to bring our children to the temple to escape the world. Imagine the desperation……

Right now the adversary reigns supreme. Why? Because the world is giving him the power. The only power he can have is the power that we give him. Seeing he has no body, he operates through us who do. He has taken possession of the minds of many who are in power to be able to control the rest of us. Hence the Lord’s warning in the scriptures about ‘the conspiring men of the last days’ (D&C 89:4). 

One of my favourite passages of scripture in Isaiah are the ones that describe Satan’s eventual fall. Isaiah says he will be reduced to such nothingness that people will look upon him and ask: “Is this the man that made the earth to tremble, that did shake kingdoms?” (Isaiah 14:12-20). We, as the body of the House of Israel, have an amazing responsibility. Mormon expressed it well when he said: “….for we have a labour to perform whilst in this tabernacle of clay, that we may conquer the enemy of all righteousness….” (Moroni 9:6). The conquering will result in the binding of Satan for a whole one thousand years. 

When the Saviour comes and all the telestial people are destroyed, there will be no one left who will heed Satan’s call, he will no longer have anyone who will give him any power and will therefore be ‘bound’. He will lose all power……but until then it is our responsibility to build ourselves, firstly by being aware of his tactics:

 

HIS THREE DOCTRINES:

1.     There is no punishment for sin;

2.     There is nothing after death;

3.     He does not exist.

HIS THREE LIES:

1.     Just once won’t hurt;

2.     No one will know;

3.     Everybody is doing it.

HIS VALUE SYSTEM:

1.     Selfishness;

2.     Self-indulgence;

3.     Immediate gratification.

HIS SALES TECHNIQUES:

1.     Pacifying;

2.     Flattering;

3.     Lulling.

HIS GOAL:

1.     To steal our spiritual identity;

2.     To kill our faith in God;

3.     To destroy our commitment to Christ.

 

Our only recourse to fight this foe is in Him who has already overcome and paved the way for the rest of us. By the virtue of our discipleship, we can have access to His power to overcome the enemy of all righteousness that we may meet Him at His appearing clothed in robes of righteousness (Isaiah 61:10; 2 Nephi 9:14; D&C 29:12;109:76), with clean hands and pure hearts worthy to be sanctified and exalted to our rightful place…..

Grant me power God

For purity of my thoughts

The cleanliness of my lips

The righteous paths I need to walk;

Grand me power to crush each tempter’s snare

That my hands may be clean

The hem of Thy robe to touch

When I kneel before Thy throne

To enter the splendour of my celestial home.

 

- Cathryne Allen 

(Art: The Robe of Righteousness by Phil McKay) 

 

ISRAEL, THE CHOSEN

 

Up until now I always believed that the persecution which the early saints suffered was brought upon them unjustly and unfairly. This year somehow as I have studied Doctrine and Covenants yet again, I took notice of something rather significant which I missed before. More than once, the Lord warned the saints that if they were not obedient to His commandments they would be visited 'with sore affliction, with pestilence, with plague, with sword, with vengeance, with devouring fire' (D&C 97:26; 101:1,2,6; 103:1-4). The saints, however, did not fully heed this warning and the promised devastation ensued starting in early November of 1833. 

This reminded me of ancient Israel who didn't heed God's warnings either and suffered greatly through persecution at the hands of the heathen nations around them until they lost their inheritance and were scattered throughout the world. They say history repeats itself......mostly because we don't learn from it. 

Nephi, the great visionary, saw us in the last days and the persecution that is facing us also (1 Nephi 14:12-17) but with a great difference. He says in verse 14 that even though our numbers were small on the face of the earth, we were armed with 'righteousness and with the power of God in great glory'. This to me accentuates the responsibility placed on us to be the people who will prepare the way for the Lord to fulfil all God's covenants which He has made with His people Israel (vs 17). Now is the time to up our obedience so we can increase our power. We don't know what is waiting for us but we do know that we will have the power to endure it and ensure the glorious destiny of the House of Israel.

We are modern day Israel. We have to do better and be better than we were in the past....so to Him who has chosen us from 'the hole of the pit whence we are digged' and 'the rock whence we are hewn'....from Abraham our father and Sarah our mother (Isaiah 51:1,2) we say this:

We are Israel, Thy chosen seed

Who in times past disregarded Thee

But now Thine angels rejoice over us

And Thou art as promised dew unto us

To bring us to life and nurture our growth

To make us mighty in this earthly abode;

In Thine mercy Thou has sought to gather us

In Thine heart Thou hast chosen to cherish us

In Thee is deliverance from our barren years

In Thee is mercy for our penitent tears

Fear not Israel, you are free; you are special, you are loved, you are in the bosom of your God.....there to remain forever.

·       Cathryne Allen 

 

FEAR NOT THE WORLD

 

For the past year and a half I have allowed the state of the world and its' future to trouble me; so much so that it has started to emotionally and physically affect me. This morning as I studied Isaiah chapter 54, a ray of sunshine broke in on my vision of the whole situation and gave me clearer understanding. The chapter deals with the promises the Lord has made to the House of Israel in the last days.

My heart ached with vibration of words I heard the Saviour speak:

"For the mountains shall depart, and the hills be removed; but my kindness shall not depart from thee...O thou afflicted, tossed with tempest, and not comforted.....In righteousness shalt thou be established: thou shalt be far from oppression; for thou shalt not fear: and from terror; for it shall not come near thee.....whosoever shall gather together against thee shall fall for thy sake.....no weapon that is formed against thee shall prosper..."

The dawning of truth that came to me is this: we do not need to fear the world, because we are not OF the world. We are altogether a separate entity. This chapter speaks a lot about the Lord's protection of us, who are His inheritance (Deuteronomy 32:9) and His favoured people above all the people of the earth (Deuteronomy 7:6). We might be scattered throughout the world and not be gathered into one country physically but we are spiritually gathered under the shadow of His wings. This is our heritage as His servants (Isaiah 54:17). This is our right and our promise. This is our life line wherein should lie our hope.

Fear not Israel, your God is with you......He has graven you on the palms of His hands......(Isaiah 49:16).

• Cathryne Allen

(Art by Yongsung Kim)

WHEN LIFE IS UNFAIR

 

I was tempted my problems

To lay to Your charge

I considered them acutely unfair;

Then You opened my heart

And showed me Your godly task

Beyond human capacity to bear;

Knowing where you had gone

I would never need to go

I sorrowed and sought my arrogance to bury;

In humility I assent Your mortal burden

So valiant, so holy

I would never in this life have to carry.

I was feeling the weight of my problems and the state of the world the other day to the point of tears when for a split second I was given to understand the reality of the Saviour's mortal life and the crucible that was His and His only and I was humbled to the core of my being....for no other could bear what He bore. Elder Renlund delivered a talk relating to this subject in last General Conference entitled "Infuriating Unfairness" that is worth while to reference when we feel our life is unfair. To his remarks I add this, the sum of the Saviour's mortal life:

• Members of His family did not at first accept Him as the Messiah (John 7:5);
• People in His home town sought to kill Him (Luke 4:16-30);
• His countrymen rejected his Messianic calling (John 1:11);
• One friend betrayed Him, another denied knowing Him (Luke 22:48, 54-62);
• In the end all His disciples forsook him and fled (Matthew 25:56);
• His enemies demanded his crucifixion (Matthew 27:22-23)

We all know how the story ended.....the climax of His life, the crucible of Gethsemane and Calvary.....surely He who has 'borne our griefs and carried our sorrows' (Isaiah 53:4) has the power to bear us up now in the thick of things in these the last days.....

Be strong no matter what happens and believe.

• Cathryne Allen

THE POWER OF ANGELS

 

Angels are you near me

To catch me when I slip

Does your embrace break my fall;

Do you stand guard at the entrance of my heart

On God’s errand and sentinel’s call;

Do you pave the way

And steady my feet

And ensure my enemy’s defeat;

You are unsung heroes

Of every journey’s flight

You are phantoms of love

Concealed from mortal sight

In the ancient world there were men who held an important job. They were required to go ahead of a travelling party to clear the path of fallen trees, rocks, undesirable persons or any obstacles that would prevent the travelling party from finishing their journey. They prepared the way. They were called 'forerunners'.

The most famous 'forerunner' to whom this title was applied symbolically was John the Baptist. Not much is known of John's personal life besides the role he played in the accomplishment of Christ's mission. What we do know is that he was born to two elderly people according to God's promise to be 'the voice crying in the wilderness' to herald the arrival of one greater than he, as prophesied by Isaiah (40:3) and Malachi (3:1).; that he was saved from Herod's death decree by his parents and was raised in the wilderness. So apart from his miraculous birth and a rough upbringing what we know most from the scriptures is that John's life was solely focused on being the 'forerunner' of the long awaited Messiah. One might ask why the Son of God would need anyone to prepare the way before Him?

We know that first and foremost there needed to be a person with proper priesthood authority that could baptise Jesus, even though He needed no baptism. John had this priesthood power and authority. His father Zacharias would have been the high priest had that office not been corrupted earlier in Jews' history by making it a political appointment reserved primarily for those of wealth and prominence. Upon his death, John would have been the next reigning high priest. The leadership in Jerusalem, including the Pharisees, scribes, Sadducees and the Sanhedrin knew who John was and what his lineage was. Therefore, his teaching of the Saviour's coming, the gospel, the performing of miracles and baptising would have created a fertile environment for Jesus as He began his ministry. It also provided a nucleus of faithful baptised believers from whom he could call His apostles. These were men already converted and ready to serve, hence their ability to walk away from their professions and families the instant the Saviour called them. Such was the power of John the Baptist, a martyr, who valiantly testified, taught and prepared the way for the greatest man who ever lived and whom Jesus characterized as "a burning and a shining light" (John 5:35).

Here is the crux of this story. In my patriarchal blessing there is an interesting sentence that goes like this: "As you remain faithful to your trust, your guardian angels will never forsake you. They will go before you to 'prepare the way' and will be close to you and give you strength to resist evil." As I studied about John the Baptist my thoughts were cast upon this sentence and I realised I had 'forerunners' in my life. I wondered how much harder I would have struggled in my life had not an obstacle been removed from my path here and there, a temptation repressed , a hurtful incident prevented. I realised that I could very well have come this far more on the merits of my forerunners than on my own strength.

Angels come in all forms. Sometimes the Lord prepares us humans to be an angel to someone in need. It is easy to recognise angels in human form but not so easy to acknowledge and appreciate those who are our guardians behind the veil. These guardian angels perform miracles. If we are sincerely striving to accomplish our life's mission, they will ensure that obstacles of any kind will not keep us from accomplishing the purposes of our second estate. And one day when we look back on our lives we will plainly see just how much these guardian angels have helped us and we will be compelled to say as Elisha of old said to his servant who trembled at the sight of the approaching Syrians:

Fear not: for they that be with us are more than they

that be with them

And Elisha prayed, and said, Lord, I pray thee,

open his eyes, that he may see.

And the Lord opened the eyes of the young man;

and he saw:

and behold, the mountain was full of horses and

chariots of fire....."

2 Kings 6:16,17

- Cathryne Allen

(art by Annie Henrie Nader)

THE SCHOOL OF LIFE

 

I asked the school of life

What it could teach me best;

The teacher I was given

Never gave me rest.

She gave me many useful lessons

That helped me shun despair

And taught me how to master

The magic art of care.

But the greatest skill she gave me

Was the skill to banish fears

Which spared me untold moments

Drowned in helpless tears.

Right now the world is drowning in fear. This fear is mostly generated by the governments of the world. Whoever is at the top has the most power to dictate which way the tide will go. Not only is this fear debilitating mentally but it is turning us against each other and depriving us of family togetherness.

I met a lady last year who told me her sister had died of Covid. I said to her: "Oh that's terrible! How are you coping?" She answered: "We're ok. People die. People die of all sorts of things, every day. My sister died of Covid." And never a greater truth has been spoken. People die just walking out of their house. My father-in-law did. He was hit but a car crossing the road and died instantly. Consider all the deaths that happen that we rarely anticipate and fear: wars, natural disasters, crime, sickness that comes and goes, traffic accidents....just too name a few.

The thing is, we often fear things that never come to pass so a lot of distress is experienced unnecessarily. A lot of times though, we attract what we fear. Energy is a real thing. The law of attraction works both ways, it attracts the negative as much as it attracts the positive. I am reminded of a little story I read years ago that goes something like this: A man was walking on a road one day when he met Plague and Fear. They told him they were on their way to a neighbouring town where they were going to kill 2,000 people. The man said to the Plague: "I guess you have your work cut out for you" but the Plague replied: "Oh no, I am only going to kill 200, Fear is going to do the rest".

This life is a life of opposites. We cannot expect joy, happiness and wellness without experiencing sadness, grief and sickness. Otherwise, what would be the point of us being here? God knew we would experience all the bad with the good so He gave us the gift of resilience, power and faith. Fear is inverted faith. With each situation in life we are choosing either one or the other. May we greet each day of this precarious life with the echo of these words of wisdom and decide which way our day will go:

"For God hath not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind." (2 Timothy 1:7)

• Cathryne Allen
  (ART: The Doors by Markus)