FOR SUCH A TIME AS THIS

 

I used to skim over the four chapters of highly detailed instructions given to Moses regarding the building of the tabernacle and priestly robes during Israel’s journeying. I didn’t think it was so relevant to us in our day. I was amazed though at the workmanship required of ancient Israel and wondered how did they know how to accomplish what was commanded them to do without highly skilled labour. This is what happens when you skim…..you miss something important.

Last time we studied the Old Testament I read the abovementioned chapters in depth and I was given not only understanding but an insight I was sorry I had missed in the years past. After four chapters of explicit instructions, Jehovah tells Moses the names of the men and what tribe they are in Israel’s congregation that can do the work needed and adds that HE has ‘filled’ them with wisdom and knowledge and understanding ‘in all manner of workmanship……that they may make all that He has commanded’ (Exodus 31:1-6).

No doubt these men were inspired from birth to have an interest in specific skills that were needed for an important work they would one day do. Such is the wisdom, power and foreknowledge of our God.

This has made me reflect on two things. Firstly, God’s house is a house of order. We are all born in appointed time that is best suited for what we can achieve in this life: “When we say God has a plan, he truly has a plan – not simply a grand scale, but for each of us as individuals, allocating some special talent to this dispensation and some to another.

“I regard God as the perfect personnel manager, even though He must work with and through all of us who are so imperfect. I assume, gladly, that in the allocation to America of remarkable leaders like Thomas Jefferson, George Washington, and Abraham Lincoln, the Lord was just as careful. After all, if you’ve got only one Abraham Lincoln, you’d better put him in that part of history when he’s most needed….” (Neal A. Maxwell, “Deposition of a Disciple”, p 46)

Secondly, we who are of the house of Israel, particularly us Ephraimites who are responsible for blessing the nations of the earth with the truth, are harnessed with the Saviour in the work of salvation. Like Esther of old who saved her people from extinction, we were born ‘for such a time as this’ (Esther 4:14).

And like the ancient men of Israel’s camp, we have been imbued with wisdom, understanding and knowledge to achieve what is expected of us. In God’s great wisdom He has reserved His most valiant, the strongest, the most dependable servants to be born when evil abounds upon the earth in unequalled measure. We are the ones who can withstand the onslaught and who have covenanted long before this earth began that we would uphold the ensign of truth and proclaim to the earth that the God of our fathers is with us still.

Do you know how important you are in ‘such a time as this’???

- CATHRYNE ALLEN 

(Art: Jehovah Shalom by LDS Art)

GUIDING LIGHT

Should the stars fall

from heaven,

And the sun refuse

to give its light;

Should the earth become

the darkest night,

You will ever be

My only guiding light.

- CATHRYNE ALLEN 

(Art: Guiding Light by Annie Henrie Nader)

 

CHOICES

 

My life is a bag of choices I dare to make,

A dream of perfection eluding me still.

I grope in darkness

Hoping my choices are pleasing to Thee;

And when I leave this weak and mortal shell

And kneel on hallowed ground at Thy feet,

Then will I cry, my Lord and my God,

Forgive my reckless sins a thousand tears deep.

- CATHRYNE ALLEN 

(Art: Divine Faith by Greg Collins)

GOD'S WISDOM

 

The value of the Ten Commandments cannot be overstated. I have heard it said in the Church that the Commandments were given us for our protection and I cannot agree more. The commandments are our most valuable asset in this life and the second is our moral agency to choose to obey. If it wasn’t for our agency we would be subject to this world of sin and corruption and would naturally cleave to evil.

Consider the pull of sin and how devastating it is to our spiritual well-being:

“Whoever said that sin was not fun? Whoever claimed that Lucifer was not handsome, persuasive, easy, and friendly? Sin is attractive and desirable. Transgression wears elegant gowns and sparkling apparel. It is highly perfumed; it has attractive features, and a soft voice.

“It is found in educated circles and sophisticated groups. It provides sweet and comfortable luxuries. Sin is easy and has a big company of pleasant companions. It promises immunity from restrictions and temporary freedoms. It can momentarily satisfy hunger, thirst, desire, urges, passions, wants, without immediately paying the price. But, it begins tiny and grows to monumental proportions – drop by drop, inch by inch.”

-          President Spencer W. Kimball, “Faith Precedes The Miracle” p 229)

“It is true that the great principle of repentance is always available, but for the wicked and rebellious there are serious reservations to this statement. For instance, sin is intensely habit-forming and sometimes moves men to the tragic point of no return…As the transgressor moves deeper and deeper in his sin, and the error is entrenched more deeply and the will to change is weakened, it becomes increasingly near-hopeless, and he skids down and down until either he does not want to climb back or he has lost the power to do so.”

-          President Spencer W. Kimball, “The Miracle of Forgiveness [1969] p 117)

We fought for our spiritual freedom in pre-mortal life (Rev 12:7-11; Moses 4:1-4). It is interesting to observe the world today and see how we have convoluted the meaning of this principle. It is most obvious in the way people are not willing to obey the laws of the land. The cry seems to be, “I have my rights, I can do whatever I want”. This is the world’s definition of freedom.  Pride is corrupting us as we reject correction from any source and insist on a ‘me’ society. This is Satan’s doctrine and his path to eventual destruction.

The Ten Commandments are as relative today as they were when they were first given and never more needed than today. They not only offer personal freedom but they also bring order to a society. I cannot look at one and think it is not needed. Our obedience to them brings honour, self-respect and spiritual strength beyond our own. The wisdom of our God is beyond understanding. 

- CATHRYNE ALLEN

(Art: Keep My Commandments by B. Laura Wilson)

ARMS OF FAITH

 

Some days, Father, I cannot bear,

The absence of Your touch.

I cannot wait for Your embrace

That I have missed so very much.

 

In this abyss of worldly darkness

I stumble but I fall into the arms of Him

Who lifts me higher than I can go.

 

I fly to You, Father, on my wings of faith,

I sail through stormy skies,

Seeking for Thy face.

Look Father, no hands!

Only trust in these strong arms

Of my Saviour’s loving grace.

- CATHRYNE ALLEN 

(Art: Arms of Faith by Yongsung Kim)

A GODLY PRIVILEGE

 

“I know of a great man who held his dead son in his arms, and said, “In the name of Jesus Christ and by the power and authority of the Holy Melchizedek Priesthood, I command you to live.” And the dead boy opened his eyes.

“This great brother could not have possibly done that had he been looking at a pornographic piece of material a few nights before or if he had been involved in any other transgression of that kind. The priesthood has to have a pure conduit to operate.” (Elder Vaugh Featherstone, in CR April 1975, 100; or Ensign May 1975, 66)

Such is the power of the priesthood which demands utmost obedience from the men whose privilege it is to have it.

When Moses ascended Mt Sainai for the second time to intercede for Israel’s sin of breaking the covenant they entered into, he was given another set of plates which contained the same thing, with one exception.  The Lord told him: “And I will write on the tables the words that were on the first tables, save the words of the everlasting covenant of the holy priesthood…..” (JST Deut 10:2)

Israel was forgiven and given another chance to live the law but the everlasting covenant of the priesthood was denied to the congregation because of their wickedness. But there was mercy, always mercy from the merciful Jehovah, and the Levitical law and priesthood was given to Aaron for the benefit of the House of Israel (“Teachings of the Prophet Joseph Smith”, p 60)  

Consider these powers of the priesthood to better understand the relative worthiness that is required:

“We have power to govern all things, both temporal and spiritual, both the kingdoms of the world, and the elements and storms and powers of the earth: “For God having sworn unto Enoch and unto his seed with an oath by himself; that everyone being ordained after this order and calling should have power, by faith, to break mountains, to divide the seas, to dry up waters, to turn them out of their course;

“To put at defiance the armies of nations, to divide the earth, to break every band, to stand in the presence of God; to do all things according to his will, according to his command, subdue principalities and powers; and this by the will of the Son of God which was from before the foundation of the world.” (JST Gen 14:30-31; Bruce R. McConkie, “The Ten Blessings of the Priesthood” GC October 1977)

And here is the origin of the everlasting covenant of the priesthood which “was made between three personages before the organisation of the earth, and relates to the dispensation of things to men on the earth; these personages, according to Abraham’s record, are called God the first, the Creator; God the second, the Redeemer, and God the third, the witness or Testator”. (“Teachings of the Prophet Joseph Smith”, p 190)

I am in no way an expert on this subject but I am in awe of the priesthood, the backbone of the Plan of Salvation: its origin and its power of creation, eternal life and resurrection. Such power in the hands of man…..

- CATHRYNE ALLEN 

(Art: My Father's Work by Chris Brazelton)

SEEKING HIS FACE

 

I lift and I float in this vast

Universal space,

Seeking and hoping to see Your face.

Angels are near me,

They beckon and call

Ensuring I find a soft place to fall.

 

I fly in night’s dreams above

The earth below,

Seeking my heavenly home.

I think I am high but really I am low.

You meet me at dawn,

In sacred prayer we have often met,

I hear You say:

My Beloved, it is not time yet.

- CATHRYNE ALLEN 

(Artist Unknown)