TO SERVE GOD

 

I have very fond memories of my childhood in Croatia. I spent every school holiday with my relatives in the village from which we came. Because of it I am very familiar with the agrarian way of life. I know what shepherds are. I have witnessed harvests, attended yearly village festivals, journeyed in open wagons. It makes the New and Old Testament very relatable. My patriarchal blessing says I have a rich heritage. Indeed.

When I read the Saviour saying to his disciples, “…..look on the fields, for they are white already to harvest”, I recall running my hand through the heavy ripe heads of wheat shining like gold in the sun (John 4:35). I love that the Saviour compared those who are ready to receive the truth to ripe wheat. And I love the imagery of the harvest.  It appeals to my understanding.

The harvest began well and truly in our dispensation with Joseph and the restoration of the Church. The results of the missionary labours in 1800s were astounding. People truly were like ripe golden wheat:

“In the early days of the Restoration, thousands were prepared to receive the gospel. So many came into the Church that the enemies of the work were frightened. It was not one of a city or two of a family who joined; whole congregations united themselves with the work. Wilford Woodruff alone baptized over two thousand converts in less than a year’s ministry in Great Britain.” (Doctrine and Covenants Student Manual commentary for D&C 4:4, p 12)

In Section 4 of the Doctrine and Covenants, the Saviour used the imagery of the sickle for harvesting. This too evokes memories. I remember my grandfather cutting down the wheat with a sickle. Sometimes he would use a small sickle with a short handle and a curved blade. He would cut with one hand and hold the stalks with the other.

At other times he would use a large sickle with a long handle and cut through the field while my grandmother would walk behind him and gather the stalks that fell. It was arduous work. The trick in how fast this could be done lay in the sharpness of the sickle. If the blade was sharp it would cut through the wheat like butter and the work was quicker.

Elder Kevin R. Duncan of the Seventy spoke of the importance of a sharp sickle and how it relates to our preparedness to be profitable servants of God. He pointed out that our spiritual sickles need to be kept sharpened in order to produce a worthy harvest. The qualities needed to qualify for the work are in D&C 4:5,6  (Abandoned Seeds in Rocky Places, New Era, July 2014, 18).

Regarding chapter 4 of Doctrine and Covenants, President Joseph Fielding Smith remarked:  “Perhaps there is no other revelation in all our scriptures that embodies greater instruction pertaining to the manner of qualification of members of the Church for the service of God, and in such condensed form than this revelation. It is as broad, as high and as deep as eternity” (Church History and Modern Revelation [1953], 1:35)

I consider Joseph’s take on service superior to all the rest. While a prisoner in Liberty jail, he wrote to the Church members. Despite the iron yoke of hell, he told the saints that they still owed ‘an imperative duty to all the rising generation and to all the pure in heart….for there are many yet on the earth who are kept from the truth because they know not where to find it….’  Joseph admonished that ‘we should waste and wear out our lives in bringing to light all the hidden things of darkness’ and give the world the truth.

This is being like Christ. This is following in the footsteps of Him who indeed wore himself out in bringing truth to the world, forgiveness to the sinful, love for the righteous and joy un-surpassing for those who endure to the end. Didn’t He descend to the bottomless pit of human suffering for me and you, for the ungrateful, for the unaccepting and indeed for all creation???

He will come and He will make up His jewels from among the righteous and spare them, ‘as a man spareth his own son that serveth him’  (Malachi 3:17)

- CATHRYNE ALLEN 

(Art: Reaping the Harvest by Nathan Greene)

TO KNOW HIM

 

I wept through the early hours of my day yesterday as I mused about my love for the Saviour and what He means to me. I was walking on air when I left the house and headed for the supermarket.

I felt like the Holy Ghost was walking with me and holding my hand…..until I laid eyes on a young man in his early 20s wearing a black T-shirt. On the back of it was written in large letters the most profane, vile and vulgar description of Christ I have ever seen or heard before. I was so shocked that I was sickened and had to avert my eyes to prevent them from burning.

The Holy Ghost was gone and I was left wondering about this experience for the rest of my day. I wondered about the young man and if he understood exactly what he was doing. What kind of a home did he come from? Did he hold a grudge against God? What would possess him to like such an abhorrent saying and want to wear it on his body? I half expected those words to burn through his back and lodge deep into his soul. One thing was obvious, this young man did not know the Saviour. He simply could not have.

As the day wore on different thoughts came into my mind. One of them was God weeping over his children during his encounter with Enoch (Moses 7:28). I half understood the pain. If I was so grieved to see such offence committed against His Son, I cannot fathom how the Father would feel.

I read recently an article about the creation of this earth with a very plausible proposition that the worst and the best of the Father’s children were chosen for this planet. That is evident when we consider that no other group of humanity would crucify their God (2 Nephi 10:3).

Every time I see someone mock, deny, and tread Christ under their feet it makes me feel like we are  crucifying Him afresh. Paul spoke of this concept in relation to those who have the truth and then deny it but I think it applies to most of our society (Hebrews 6:6; see also JST Hebrews 6).

I have always been highly impressed with Joseph’s praise of the Saviour. You cannot read it and not know that Joseph knew Him. It stands in such stark contrast to the T-shirt that I am not surprised it was recalled to me. You cannot read it and not feel it in the depths of your soul:

“Let the earth break forth into singing. Let the dead speak forth anthems of eternal praise to the King Immanuel…..Let the mountains shout for joy and all ye valleys cry aloud, and all ye seas and dry lands tell the wonders of your Eternal King! And ye rivers, and brooks, and rills, flow down with gladness. Let the woods and all the trees of the field praise the Lord; and ye solid rocks weep for joy!....And let the eternal creations declare his name forever and ever……”  (D&C 128:23)

This is what we should feel about Christ. When He comes we will want to be the ones who know Him. When He comes, we will want to kneel before Him and profess His greatness and confess that  He is the Rock of Heaven, the Lord Omnipotent, Alpha and Omega, the Son of God, Wonderful, Counselor, The Everlasting Father, the Prince of Peace……Jesus Christ, the Son of God…..

 

- CATHRYNE ALLEN 

(Art: Jesus the Anointed by Greg Collins)

OUR MORTAL FOLLIES

 

I am certain that some of us have wondered how is it that Joseph went to the Lord three times to get permission to allow Martin Harris to take home the translated pages of the Book of Mormon. The lesson is twofold….be careful what you ask for and yield to God rather than to the persuasions of men. And not only persuasions but counsels also (D&C 3:6,7).

Lucky for Joseph, the Lord who was overseeing his calling was a God of mercy who forgives His servants in their weakened state of mortality (v 10).

Joseph was forgiven and called back to the work. The Book of Mormon was translated to the end, published and is flooding the earth, minus the Book of Lehi…for now. And all because of the Lord’s un-surpassing wisdom. What the Lord knew over 2,000 years earlier was that the larger plates which were essentially The Book of Lehi would become the 116 pages of the lost manuscript in 1828.

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. He must have wondered if he was repeating himself by doing so, 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).   

Both of these men were far more experienced spiritually than Joseph Smith was at 23 years of age. Besides the fact that he had the gospel his whole life, Nephi wrote his book 30 years after arriving in America, plenty of time to rise to his spiritual stature (2 Nephi 5:28). Mormon was spiritually endowed from the time he was 10 years of age (Mormon 1:2).  

Between the time of the First Vision and Moroni’s visit, Joseph recounts in his history that he was ‘left to all kinds of temptations and mingling with all kinds of society….which denotes a serious spiritual deficit (JSH 1:28). Martin Harris, being 23 years Joseph’s senior, who believed in Joseph’s calling, assisted him in the work and supported the endeavour financially, would have been of large influence in Joseph’s experience (D&C Student Manual, p 10)

As I re-visited this story I was reminded of many blunders I have made in my life. Some were made because I relied on my own wisdom, some because I turned to my friends for advice and received counsel based on their life experience and paltry wisdom and some because I disregarded my revelations unsure of their authenticity because of my lack of confidence in receiving such.

There have been times when I have received revelation to steer me in the right direction, I would get distracted by the pressing hardships around me and I would forget what I was told. Then I would circle back to the same problem wondering how it is that I am back there…and then the revelation would come to my mind as if the Lord was giving me a second chance.

The Lord knew we would make many blunders in this life due to our dulled spiritual senses and mortal understanding. Should you find yourself with a blunder at your feet, be kind to yourself, not all is lost. God still has faith in you. He can help you repair what is broken and correct your present course.

If you have missed the lessons you are meant to learn, He will return them to you. His mercy and long-suffering is unfathomable. His forgiveness even more so…..

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: Joseph by Liz Lemon Swindle) 

 

FOREORDAINED AND CONSECRATED

 

I have been pondering Moroni’s message to Joseph Smith regarding the earth being wasted if Elijah didn’t come to restore the sealing power (D&C 2:2-3). Malachi goes so far as to say that if it were so, the Lord would smite the earth with a curse at His coming (Malachi 4:5).

The more I thought, the more compassionate I became towards this planet we right now call home. As I reflected, I realized this is not just a planet of hard inanimate components but a living organism with a soul as deep as the river.

Elder M. Russell Ballard confirmed that the habitat of our probation is a living organism: “Astronauts viewing the earth from space have stated how incredibly beautiful it is and how alive it is (“God’s Love for His Children”, Ensign May 1988).

Our Mother Earth which gave us physical birth (Moses 2:7) was foreordained and consecrated to establish on its face a family system patterned after the order of heaven and to become the future celestial abode of exalted sons and daughters of God.

Had Elijah not come to restore the sealing priesthood power to bind us together, the earth would not have accomplished its foreordained purpose and would not have been able to answer the end of its creation. All men and women would be forever without root and branch, meaning without ancestry and posterity that would otherwise extend into eternity.

I could not help but re-visit Enoch’s encounter with Mother Earth and what impact it had on him. The grief that took over him made him weep when he heard her call us her children and witnessed her mourn over our wickedness (Moses 7:48). So overcome was Enoch at her suffering that he asked God three times, ‘’when shall the earth rest”? (v 49,54,58).

You think the earth has no soul? Consider how she groaned when the Son of Man was lifted up and all nature suffered at the death of its creator (Moses 7:56; 1 Nephi 19: 12).

Imagine this big beautiful perfect planet with a soul as tender and real as you and I, utterly wasted at Christ’s coming…..it simply cannot be.

It is not our carbon foot print that would destroy our Mother Earth but our wickedness that can destroy her purpose of creation. Elijah came to make that purpose fruitful. It is now up to us.

Imagine how Father Adam and Mother Eve would feel to see this earth wasted after they paved the way for humanity by ‘the sweat of their brow’ (Moses 5:1). You think you have it hard? Don’t kid yourself…..you don’t even have to slice your bread!!!

I am constantly amazed at the extent to which our Father has gone to ensure the success of His sons and daughters, to become celestialized eternal families to receive the fulness of joy in His presence forever (Psalm 16:11), when we shall sit down in His kingdom and be as His Beloved Son, sanctified, perfected and glorified amidst the love and happiness such as we have never known before.  

He has risked the loss of many of His children who will never return to Him but the greatest sacrifice of all was when He lifted up His Beloved Son upon the cross of redemption to atone for those of us who will return to live with Him on this Mother Earth forever.

- CATHRYNE ALLEN 

(Art: Adam and Eve by Rose Datoc Dall)

A LINK TO ETERNITY

 

When I wrote a post recently about the coming of Elijah to the Kirtland Temple to restore the priesthood sealing power,  I received a very direct 3 word comment from an unbeliever: “It never happened.”

I get these kinds of comments from time to time from anti-Mormon activists. I have learnt not to try to prove anything to them because they usually come into LDS Facebook Groups to cause contention and not to be converted. When I was a missionary, we missionaries were told not to ‘Bible bash’ when people try to oppose our beliefs, but to only bear our testimony.

I never replied to this comment I received but I have been thinking about it ever since. How would I bear testimony of the spirit of Elijah to someone who is not a Church member? It’s a witness of the spirit and helping others to understand that and believe it is virtually impossible. Even Elder Boyd K. Packer admitted to that (refer to "The Candle of the Lord", Ensign Jan 1983, 51-52)

It has always amazed me that the Spirit of Elijah courses throughout the world prompting people to seek out their ancestors and find their roots yet nobody really knows why. The world at large knows very little of proxy work for the dead. And some who know think it is un-ethical to be baptising people ‘into our religion’ without their consent. In this day and age of human rights, it even becomes problematic to talk about this subject.

I am amazed at the boldness by which Elder LeGrand Richards testified of Elijah’s return:

 "The story of Elijah's return can be found in D&C 110.  Obviously, there is no need to wait for him any longer.  This became the subject of conversation between Elder LeGrand Richards and the Mayor of Jerusalem, Teddy Kollek.  Elder Richards had just dedicated the Orson Hyde Memorial Garden [in year 1979] on the Mount of Olives.  After the ceremony, the two conversed as they ate their lunch:

Elder Richards said:  "Mayor, I want to tell you something".

"What's that?" asked the Mayor.

Looking Mayor Kollek directly in the eye, the apostle said:

"Ten years ago I was here in Jerusalem and one day I went into three synagogues and hanging up on the wall in one of them was a large armchair.  I asked the rabbi what it was there for (I knew but I wanted him to tell me, which he did).  He said that it was so that if Elijah comes 'we can lower the chair and let him sit in it'. 

“Now Mayor, I want to tell you something and what I tell you is the truth.  Elijah has already been.  On the third day of April 1836 he appeared to Joseph Smith and Oliver Cowdery in the Kirtland Temple".

The Mayor said:

"I guess I better tell them to take that chair down."

- (LeGrand Richards, Beloved Apostle, p.301)

Maybe boldness is what we all need. I am certain, however,  that Elder Richards would have told the Mayor all about the Church prior to this conversation. I am certain that his conviction of its truthfulness was something that the Mayor could not oppose, hence the respect for the information he was given. If only all people would be so respectful of our beliefs…..

I guess you cannot bear witness of Elijah’s return without bearing your testimony about the whole restoration of Christ’s Church. You cannot have a testimony of family history if you don’t have a testimony of Joseph Smith and the priesthood that was given him; of the scriptures that speak of Elijah’s return; of temples and proxy baptisms; of living prophets that build those temples; of resurrection and eternity, that being the whole purpose for Elijah’s sealing power, and of continuation of families beyond this life.

And most of all, Christ’s power of redemption and His work and His glory to bring to pass the immortality and eternal life of man (Moses 1:39). We need to know it all and have an iron clad testimony of it all.

Our testimony needs to be a light to the world and our link to eternity…..like our parents and their parents and their parents and their parents.....You know what I mean.

- CATHRYNE ALLEN

TURNING OF THE HEARTS PART 2

 

The power of the Spirit of Elijah amazes me. It bridges time and space and unites families in miraculous ways. And in the process, it heals and changes us forever. I am a witness to this process.

It started with my father who gave me a priceless gift. He gave me the Gospel.

When he was just a youth growing up in a poor peasant household in the socialist republic of Croatia, my father rejected the expected role of the oldest son to remain on family land to inherit it along with the care of his parents.

He chose instead a trade at the expense of his father's displeasure and rejection....a trade which enabled him later to move our family to the city life when I was 3 years old. This heroic move led to another even a more heroic one which took our family to a land of more opportunity, Australia. I was 14 years old when we left our homeland.

We hailed from a strong Catholic community. I attended our local Church regularly but my parents and my sisters were not so committed. My father had never expressed any deep spiritual convictions and I had never seen him at Church.

Unbeknownst to him, my father had brought me to a country, by spiritual design, where I could receive the greatest opportunity of all: the Gospel of Jesus Christ. I was 17 when I approached my parents with my desire to join the Church.

My father does not show emotion but this news outraged and scared him. We were immigrants of 3 years in a strange country and my father’s fear was that I was joining a polygamous cult. He gave me an ultimatum. If I insisted on joining the Church, I had to leave home.

I was driven. The spirit of conversion burned inside me. I left home and was cut off from my family. It was the most devastating event of my then young life which ripped the fabric of my family for many years.

My sister stepped in and reconciled me with my parents a year later. All seemed well but our rift was never addressed properly and the reconciliation was too little too late. My father had become disillusioned with Australia and took my mother back to Croatia.

We corresponded over the years and I visited just once, after my mission. Whilst there I showed great interest in my Croatian roots and with my father’s help I gathered a lot of our family history, which pleased him greatly. So you see he was my accomplice in the temple work I did for my family.

I didn’t see my parents for 20 years before they passed away. I had their temple work done…….except for one ordinance. I was never sealed to them. For some reason, I didn’t feel the spiritual connection with them and could not see my father as someone who would accept the Gospel. The temple work I did for them was perfunctory. I did it out of duty.

And then ‘the turning of my heart happened’….. 15 years later. Suddenly I started thinking about my father. I was his favourite child and the magnitude of the pain I caused him when I left home bore heavily on me. I cried day after day….and I would plead in my prayers that he be told how sorry I am that I hurt him. I could not understand why after all these years I was sorrowing over that experience of my young life.

Then one day I understood, I was not sealed to my parents. The thought came to me that all that pain was wasted for something I believed in and sacrificed for that would never be ours. It was as if my father was speaking to me. I felt I had dishonoured my parents and basically rejected them and I felt enormous guilt. I made a commitment to get the sealing done. As I did so, the sorrowing left and I was at peace. I knew I had been forgiven.

Sometimes in ‘turning our hearts to our fathers’, some resolutions need to happen and most often than not they involve some form of forgiveness. Some of us hail from dysfunctional families, some from abuse, some from abandonment but all come from flawed humanity.

If something is holding you back from the sealing ordinances, know that forgiveness is the key. It will free and change you and it will replace all the grief that is in your heart with unearthly love.

We cannot be saved without our dead. Elijah was not the only one to appear at the Kirtland Temple. The Saviour came too, in acceptance of it to impress upon us this truth. To Him our salvation is everything because this is His work and His glory.

- CATHRYNE ALLEN 

(Art: The Lord's Appearance to Joseph Smith and Oliver Cowdery in the Kirtland Temple by Theodore S. Gorka)

TURNING OF THE HEARTS PART 1

 

 

I know something of the turning of the hearts to the fathers.

 

I struggled with a sense of powerlessness most of my life. I knew instinctively that this is not who I really am but the feeling persisted for most of my adulthood which led me to struggle with feelings of inadequacy.

 

I came to a realisation at one stage that this weakness had come to me from many generations of my family. I come from a long line of poor oppressed European peasants who had lived under the oppression of feudalism followed by socialism, the oppression which drummed into them that they could never rise above their station in life.

 

I had seen this mentality of powerlessness perpetrated in my family throughout my childhood and early adulthood in Europe. I have known my family's negative thoughts and their beliefs that influenced their lives and invited suffering.

 

From the time my family immigrated to Australia when I was 14,  and the Gospel came into my life, I could not understand why I was born into my family. I am the different one, the one that seeks and knows and loves God.

 

One day some years ago my frustration over my life which I felt was controlled by this sense of powerlessness sent me to my knees where through bitter tears I spat out to God that I hated my family and all the generations I have come from; that I hated who they were and what they had saddled me with. I felt I could not rise…..

 

I had never expressed such venomous thoughts before, to myself or to others, let alone to God. I begged to understand why I was sent into this family and why I carried their burden.  Within half an hour of my prayer, my heart and mind were flooded with immense understanding.

 

When the Saviour said 'my sheep hear my voice' (John 10:27) he was referring to those who are so spiritually advanced and who, because of it, recognise and wholeheartedly embrace the truth when it is presented to them. Bruce R. McConkie taught that this is a spiritual gift that was developed in pre-existence (Mormon Doctrine, p 81).

 

I count myself as one of His sheep. I was brought up in a strong Catholic community but I wanted to know God and I found the religion of my youth inadequate. I was 16 years of age when I sought and immediately accepted the Gospel into my life.

 

What has all this got to do with my ancestors? It has everything to do with our hearts being turned to our fathers. It was given to me to understand that those who are His sheep are often sent to families who need a spiritual shepherd. Someone who will, through their belief, give strength to those who need to be saved from their disbelief.

 

I understood through my revelation that what once was a physical oppression of my ancestors had become a spiritual one. How could a people who were made to believe that they could never rise above their station in this life, ever believe that they could rise to such a great station as godhood? When I understood this my heart was ‘turned’ to my fathers.

 

Elder Jeffrey R. Holland of the Quorum of the Twelve said that not only has God made the priesthood promises to the ancient patriarchs through which the nations of the earth will be blessed but that we “undoubtedly made them to our own lineal fathers and mothers, those who came to earth before the gospel was restored but whom we promised to provide its saving ordinances” (Christ and the New Covenant 1977, p. 297)

 

My patriarchal blessing tells me that I made a great promise in my pre-existence and that many of those spirits who were with me rejoiced when by my own testimony I fulfilled that ‘vow’ when I entered the waters of baptism. I know that vow was a promise to my fathers that I would make available to them the saving ordinances of the Gospel which would remove their stumbling block of disbelief. I know that I was chosen to be an under-shepherd in my family.

 

Oh the great mercies of our God!!! The mere ways of His wisdom are too overwhelming to contemplate! Who can comprehend His great works and means by which He saves and exalts His children??? And who can comprehend the path His Beloved Son willingly paved to bring all the sheep home…..to save every soul in His keep??? Surely every knee will bow and every tongue confess that He is the Christ, the Holy One of God in whom all mercy, power and glory belongs!

 

See Father, I brought home the sheep!
I did all that I could
To guard them in my keep.
They come to You Father
In whose arms they belong,
They come to You,
Whom they loved all along.

 

- CATHRYNE ALLEN 

(Art: Finding the One by Liz Lemon Swindle)