I saw You
today in my heart
and I wept knowing
as more believe, the tree that bore
Your weight keeps growing.
I saw the love
flow from
the deepest well
within Your soul –
Your salvation
for us all.
My heart was
rent knowing Your pain
And the tears
You spilt on that day remain.
They are the
gems I treasure in my heart…
I am one of Your
many children of light.
-
CATHRYNE ALLEN
(Art: Sands of Serenity by Ivan Guaderrama)
“Joseph Smith continued visiting me and others up to a
certain time and then stopped. The last time I saw him was in heaven. He came
and spoke to me. He said that he could not stop to talk to me because he was in
a hurry.
“The next man I met was Father Smith; he couldn’t talk
to me because he was in a hurry. I met half a dozen brethren who held high
positions on earth, and none of them could stop to talk to me because they were
in a hurry. I was much astonished.
“By and by I saw the Prophet again, and I got a
privilege to ask him a question: “Now”, said I, “I want to know why you are in
a hurry? I have been in a hurry my whole life, but I expected my hurry would be
over when I get into the kingdom of heaven, if I ever did.”
“Joseph said: “I will tell you Brother Woodruff, every
dispensation that has had the priesthood on earth and has gone into celestial
kingdom, has had a certain amount of work to do to prepare to go to the earth
with the Saviour when He goes to reign on earth. Each dispensation has had
ample time to do this work. We have not. We are the last dispensation and so
much work has to be done and we need to be in a hurry in order to accomplish
it.
“Of course, that was satisfactory with me, but it was
new doctrine to me.”
-
Wilford
Woodruff, Discourses Delivered at Weber Stake Conference, Ogden, 19
October 1896; as published in Deseret News Weekly, Volume 53, #21)
- CATHRYNE ALLEN
(Art: Time Is At Hand by Danny Hahlbohm)
a
-
I
stood at the veil
As
You were about to leave
Sorrowing
that not all would believe.
I
prayed for the Father’s power
To
protect Your gentle heart
From
the blow that might tear You apart.
I
knew my soul You would save
And
all Your promises You would fulfil.
I
stood at the veil, unable to leave,
Holding
Your crown for You to receive.
I
stood and waited that fateful day
In
awe of what You did to pave the way.
I
could scarcely comprehend
Your
godly enduring might
I
stood at the veil and gave You my heart.
- CATHRYNE ALLEN
(Artist Unknown)
Perhaps one of the saddest events in the history of Israel was the time they requested the cessation of judges and asked Samuel to appoint a king over them (1 Samuel 8:5). Samuel warned them that kings will among other things, evoke heavy tax burdens on them; conscript their children into his service and seize private lands (vs 11-17). Ancient Israel would not listen because they had become weak and sinful and were envious of surrounding kingdoms, even though their governments were wicked and oppressive.
And here is another example, like the sons of Eli, of how we can cause people to sin. Samuel had two sons who he appointed as judges in Beersheba. They too did not walk in their father’s footsteps but exploited their position with bribes and perverted judgment (1 Samuel 8:3). This is all the elders needed to use as a reason why Israel should be ruled by a king like the other nations (v 4).
Samuel was not pleased to say the least since all the evils and misfortunes which Israel suffered always resulted from their apostasy from their God. Their request for a king therefore was an outright rejection of the sovereignty of Jehovah, who had always proclaimed himself as their God and King and the House of Israel as His special people, above all people upon the face of the earth (Det 7:6; Exodus 6:7; 19:5; 33:16; Leviticus 20:26; Jeremiah 10:4).
Perhaps the most heart breaking words that came out of the Saviour’s mouth was His response to Samuel who had prayed about the matter: “Hearken unto the voice of the people…for they have not rejected thee but they have rejected me, that I should not reign over them” (1 Samuel 8:7). Imagine the heaviness of heart with which the Saviour would have uttered these words.
But as ancient Israel tragically sought to follow other nations, they became like other nations. We all know the ending to that. The downfall began with the very first king….Saul. Be careful what you want, for you will surely get it.
There was not among all Israel a goodlier person than Saul. He was honest, reliable, considerate of his parents and physically a potential hero and man of valour all Israel sought yet he too, like Samson became another tragedy. He was the lesson that Jehovan wanted to teach Israel about kings:
“Though Saul, had at first, a great regard for the law of Moses, and for God, yet ‘ the consciousness of his own power, coupled with the energy of his character, led him astray into an incautious disregard of the commands of God; his zeal in the prosecution of his plans hurried him on to reckless and violent measures; and success in his undertakings heightened his ambition into a haughty rebellion against the Lord, the God-king of Israel.” (Keil and Delitzsch, Commentary, 2:2:79; see also The Old Testament Student Manual Book 1, p 272)
Samuel anointed Saul to be ‘captain’ and not a king, even though he was later called such (1 Samuel 10:1). This should have served as a reminder that the Lord was still king…..only it didn’t.
The
Lord knows us intensely and intimately. He has known us from the beginning and
He knows who will fail him and who will serve Him to the end. Make no mistake
about that. It should motivate us to follow closely our life’s plan so that in
the end we won’t hear Him say: “You chose your own importance over Me, your God
and your King”
- CATHRYNE ALLEN
(Art: King of Kings by Danny Hahlbohm)
“I say unto you, that likewise joy shall be in heaven
over one sinner that repenteth, more than over ninety and nine just persons,
which need no repentance.” (Luke 15:7)
“There is no justification for the inference that a
repentant sinner is to be given precedence over a righteous soul who had
resisted sin; were such the way of God, then Christ, the one sinless Man, would
be surpassed in the Father’s esteem by regenerate offenders.
“Unqualifiedly offensive as is sin, the sinner is yet
precious in the Father’s eyes, because of the possibility of his repentance and
return to righteousness. The loss of a soul is very real and a very great loss
to God. He is pained and grieved thereby, for it is His will that not one
should perish (Matthew 18:14; Moses 1:39)”
-
James
Talmage, Jesus The Christ, p 461
I stand all amazed
That You would offer Your sinless heart
For every sinful soul.
That You would deem us worthy
And suffer for us so.
- CATHRYNE ALLEN
(Art by Ivan Guaderrama)
I was
horrified the year I learnt how Eli’s sons seduced women by misusing their
office of priest and engaged in adulterous acts at the very door of the
tabernacle (1 Samuel 2:22). It reminds one of fertility rites and the groves of
idolatry, does it not?
Eli paid a
high price for not correcting this abomination as a parent and as the high
priest. An unnamed ‘man of God’ came to him and pronounced the Lord’s curse
upon Eli’s house because he honoured his sons above Him (vv 27,29). The
inference was that Eli didn’t want to rock the boat with his sons but
apparently he didn’t mind rocking God’s…..
When Alma
of the Book of Mormon called his son Corianton to repentance for his sexual misconduct
during his mission to the Zoramites, he pointed out that sexual sin is so
serious, it is a sin next to murder (Alma 39:5). Elder Jeffrey R. Holland explains
this is so because of the connection between the worth of a soul and the
Atonement:
“In
exploiting the body of another – which means exploiting his or her soul – one
desecrates the Atonement of Christ, which saved that soul and which makes
possible the gift of eternal life. And when one mocks the Son of Righteousness,
one steps into a realm of heat hotter and holier than the noonday sun. You
cannot do so and not be burned.
“Please,
never say: ‘Who does it hurt? Why not a little freedom? I can transgress now
and repent later.’ Please don’t be so
foolish and so cruel. You cannot with impunity ‘crucify Christ afresh’ (see
Hebrews 6:6). ‘Flee fornication’ (1 Corinthians 6:18), Paul cries, and flee
‘anything like unto it’ (D&C 59:6), adds the Doctrine and Covenants. Why?
Well, for one reason, because of the incalculable suffering in both body and
spirit endured by the Saviour of the world so that we could flee. We owe Him
something for that, we owe Him everything for that.
‘Ye are not
your own’ Paul says, ‘Ye have been bought with a price: therefore glorify God
in your body, and in your spirit, which are God’s (1 Cor 6:19-20). In sexual
transgression the soul is at stake – the body and the spirit.” (in Conference Report, Oct 1998, 99-100; or
Ensign Nov 1998, 76)
Very often
we think we have the principle of repentance up our sleeve so not all will be
lost if we deviate from the path, thinking we can always repent later. Many
people have ‘sowed their wild oats’ in their youth and later returned to God’.
Elder Holland goes on to clarify the foolishness and unfairness of such
attitude:
“There is
peril in playing the prodigal son knowingly, expecting God to forgive us,
expecting Christ to bleed for us, expecting mercy to cover us. Among the most
grievous sins a mortal can commit is to crucify Christ ‘afresh’ to knowingly
ask Him to suffer on the cross a little longer – or again and again and again –
while such an one commits knowingly, with planning and premeditation, his or
her ‘presumptuous sins’.”
Will
the sinner for whom you suffered,
Who
rejected and reviled Thee
Weep
in the end for Thy pain and Thy sorrow?
Will
his heart understand
When
he kneels before Thee
The
debt he owes for the existence
Of
his merciful tomorrow?
- CATHRYNE ALLEN
(Art: The Cross by Ron DiCianni)
Among
valiant sons of God
Who
were chosen rulers to be
Stood
the daughters so fair
They
echoed through eternity.
- CATHRYNE ALLEN
(Art: Devotion of the Heart by Greg Collins)
