ALWAYS THERE

 

I marvel as You lead me over mountains

and over vales;

And when I often fall,

You soothe away my pains.

I marvel at Thy patience,

I marvel at Thy love,

I marvel at Thy faith in me

And what I can become.

 

- CATHRYNE ALLEN 

(Artist Unknown)

A JUST GOD

 

Forgiven by Thomas Blackshear

On Judgment Day, the balance between justice and mercy will be so perfect that we will not be able to question it. This is the greatest lesson I learnt from David of the Old Testament.

I can think of no one who would have wept more when David forfeited his exaltation than the Saviour himself. To lose someone with so much promise and faithfulness would have been agonizing to Him. As a youth, he was said to be a man after the Lord’s “own heart” (1 Sam 13:14) and as a man, he spoke by the Spirit and had many revelations (see Guide to the Scriptures: David)

If there was anyone the Saviour could have been excessively merciful to, it would have been David but where would that have left Uriah, a man of principle and loyalty, and his innocent blood that was spilt? The man who had no say….whose wife was taken from him, who suffered an unjust death???  One truth remains….mercy cannot rob justice (Alma 42:25).

I saw the perfect nature of the God that we worship and trust through this story.  He knows all: our hearts, our capabilities, our intents, our weaknesses, our pains, our desires, our sufferings…. everything that could induce mercy….but yet He obeys all the laws that He himself is governed by. Because He is the giver of law and the sustainer of law, it is impossible for Him to violate law, including the law of justice (see Discourses of Brigham Young p1, Mormon Doctrine p 432-3, Mediation and Atonement p 168).

So  a king who was destined for exaltation fell from God’s grace and became an example of the perfect balance of justice and mercy. The justice was the loss of exaltation but the mercy was the gift of resurrection to all the human family including those who commit murder and inherit a much lesser kingdom of glory which, nevertheless, surpasses all understanding (D&C 132:38,39; D&C 76:89). David’s repentance and godly sorrow led to his gratefulness that the Saviour will not leave his soul in hell (Psalms 16:10; Acts 2:27; Acts 2:25-28; 13:22-37; Isaiah 55:3). This hope of resurrection of the unjust is known as ‘the sure mercies of David’ (see Bruce R. McConkie, The Promised Messiah, p 272).

The Psalms of David, who ‘foresaw the Lord always before his face’, are heart wrenching evidence of his unfailing love and praise of Jehovah (Acts 2:25). Even though he committed a grievous sin, he never turned away from the God of Israel. May we follow suit when sin finds us and turn to Him who can forgive and yet rescue our souls from everlasting misery and may we harbour in our heart David’s testimony forever: “The Lord is my rock, and my fortress, and my deliverer, my God, my strength, in whom I will trust, my buckler, and the horn (strength, power) of my salvation….” (Psalms 18:2).

He is the one and only giver of mercy, forgiveness and salvation and there is none else….not in heaven above, or earth beneath…..nothing, nobody, nowhere…..(Deuteronomy 4:35,39;5:8 ;Isaiah 43:10-11; 45:5,6,14,18,22; 46:9; D&C 76:1; 2 Nephi 25:20; 31:21; Moses 6:52)

 

Will You come and carry me

When all my strength is gone?

Will Your mercy spill from You

When I can walk no more?

 

Will Your mercy lift me higher

To glimpse my eternal home?

Will I see my soul there

Before Your gilded throne?

 

When the sum of my life is done

Will You bring me home to keep?

I’ll want to kneel and honour You

Before Your Mercy Seat.

- CATHRYNE ALLEN 

AND THE ANGELS SING

Angels by Wendy Keller

I pleaded with you,

In the beginning,

To bring me home again to Thee.

I promised to heed every call,

To avoid every danger,

To abhor every sin.

 

I have laboured, Father,

to bring joy to Thee

and To be worthy

Of Your love for me.

 

When my time comes,

I will come home to Thee

and I will wait

 at heaven’s door knocking

Until I hear the angels sing.

 

-      Cathryne Allen 

 

THE POWER OF CONSEQUENCES

 

In the words of C.S. Lewis: “The heart can and should obey the head”. David, the King of Israel is concrete proof of these words.

There comes a time when we rise to the top and get too comfortable….Instead of being in battle with his troops, David was idling on the roof of his house watching a woman of great beauty washing herself (2 Samuel 10:2). From the wrong place at the wrong time ensued an adulterous affair which led to murder.

We tend to only see the tragedy of David in this story and forget there was a woman embroiled in his sin. David did not spiritually destroy just one person. I often wonder about the woman in this equation. She was a subject of David’s kingdom. Did she have a say in whether she followed him into sin? Was she subjected to his command and had no say? Did she try to dissuade him? Did she love her husband and went against that love because David was king and had the power to command? Whichever was the truth, he was the king and she was the subject. He was in charge.  And what about the husband who lost his life because David’s heart did not obey his head?

And this makes it even worse….. David had many wives and concubines which were given to him of the Lord by the hand of Nathan, the prophet. It is Nathan who was sent to prick David's conscience regarding the one wife that was not given to him of God and which 'displeased the Lord' (2 Sam 11:27). It was Jehovah through Nathan, his servant, that brought David to his knees.

 

Nathan recounted a parable to David in these words:  "There were two men in one city; the one rich, and the other poor. The rich man had exceeding many flocks and herds: But the poor man had nothing, save one little ewe lamb, which he had bought and nourished up: and it grew up together with him, and with his children; it did eat of his own meat, and drank of his own cup, and lay in his bosom, and was unto him as a daughter. And there came a traveller unto the rich man, and he spared his own flock and his own herd to prepare a meal for the wayfaring man but took the poor man's lamb instead and dressed it for a meal for the man that was come to him” (2 Sam 12:2-4).

 

Perhaps the most sombre words spoken to anyone in the scriptures were Nathan's words to David as he responded to his outrage about the rich man who took the poor man's lamb and prepared it as a meal to a weary traveller whilst sparing so many lambs that he owned. At David's insistence that the man should be put to death for such a selfish act, Nathan's response to him cut deep as he said: "Thou art the man" (2 Sam 12:7).

 

Nathan then continued to recount all that the God of Israel had done for David, pointing out his gross sin of murder and prophesying all the calamities that would befall him. He would not be put to death as the law required but he was given a worse punishment than that. The child born to David and Bathsheeba died and David lived to see many of his wives and sons turn against him and much of his household turn to infighting and blood.

Such is the reward of sin…..devastation and destruction….

- CATHRYNE ALLEN 

(Art: David by Harry Ahn)

KAHLIL GIBRAN ON PAIN

The Master Potter by Paige Payne

Your pain is the breaking of the shell that encloses your 

understanding.

Even as the stone of the fruit must break, that its heart 

may stand in the sun, so must you know pain.

And could you keep your heart in wonder at the daily

miracles of your life,

your pain would not seem less wondrous than your joy;

And you would accept the seasons of your heart, 

even as you have always accepted the seasons that pass your fields.

And you would watch with serenity through the winters

of your grief.

Much of your pain is self-chosen.

It is the bitter potion by which the physician within you

heals your sick self.

Therefore trust the physician, and drink his remedy in

silence and tranquility;

For his hand, though heavy and hard,

is guided by the tender hand of the Unseen,

And the cup he brings, though it burn your lips, has been

fashioned of the clay which the Potter has moistened with His

own sacred tears.

- Kahlil Gibran

 

A FALL FROM GRACE

 

The year I studied David’s story for the first time, I was as devastated with his fall from grace as much as I was enthralled by the Israelite boy who slew a lion and a bear (1 Samuel 17:34-36) and ‘the uncircumcised Philistine who dared to defy the armies of the living God’  because  ‘there was a cause in Israel’ (1 Samuel 17:26,29). His Israelite blood coursing through his veins with valour and warrior spirit won my heart. I considered him one of the inspirational voices of the Old Testament as I followed his rise from the heroic Israelite boy to the king of the golden age of Israel.

David’s achievements impressed me but his psalms blew me away. His words appealed to the poet in me. I was enchanted by the depth of his soulful worship of Jehovah and the national sovereignty of Israel that was so closely knit with his heart. However, I learnt much from David and his humanity. He showed very well that no matter how high you climb, the ground beneath your feet is never 100% steady. In this life of uncertainty, if we are not alert enough, we will likely one day fall. The worst of it is when the fall costs you your exaltation.

Despite all his great accomplishments David made one very big error of judgment. He became very comfortable as a monarch of a successful kingdom. This comfort zone became detrimental to his ability to endure to the end. As his kingdom ran like a well-oiled machine, his approach to his kingly duties became somewhat lax. "At the time when kings go forth to battle" (2 Sam 11:1) David chose to send Joab and all Israel to fight Ammonites while he remained in Jerusalem, strolling upon the roof of his house to cool off in the heat of the night.

 

This was David's first and big mistake that began his gradual demise into depths of sin from which he could not extricate himself. Sin seldom happens in one giant leap. As Elder Boyd K. Packer says: "I don't think anyone steps off a precipice into the depths of immorality and apostasy. They slide down the slippery sides of the chasm...." (Improvement Era. May 1970, p. 7)  

 

It would seem that David didn't think he needed his armour of God on such a hot night while he was lounging and relaxing away from battle but the adversary doesn't take sabbaticals and he took advantage of David's lack of protection. David spotted a temptation bigger than the Goliath he slew so valiantly some years prior. Not turning away once he happened to see a woman washing herself his gaze lingered enough to discover she was beautiful. Not content with leaving it there, he inquired about her. This should have stopped him in his tracks for the reply he got was that her name was Bathsheba (which means "daughter of the covenant") and that she was married to a man called Uriah (which means "Jehovah is my light").

 

The adultery that happened next was tragic but what happened after it was devastating. David dared to believe that he could conceal his sin, not just from Israel but from God. As he devised one plan after another to cover his sin, he developed a treacherous character that led him to the loss of his salvation. When he failed to entice Uriah to spend time with his wife so that the conceived child could be passed off as his, David allowed the spirit of murder to enter his heart. He devised a plan that would ensure Uriah's death at the front lines of battle and took Bathsheeba to be his wife.

 

At what point do you think David could have stopped himself from advancing towards the edge of the precipice? None of this need have happened if David was at the right place at the right time, namely, out on the battlefield instead of the roof of his house.

 

A warrior with a battle he so tragically lost….a loss that no doubt pierced the heart of Jehovah…..

 

What win I if I gain the thing I seek?

A dream, a breath, a froth of fleeting joy?

Who buys a minute's myrth to wail a week

Or sells eternity to get a toy?

For one sweet grape, who would the vine destroy?

Or what fond beggar but to touch the crown,

Would with the scepter straight be stricken down.

- William Shakespeare

- CATHRYNE ALLEN 

(Art: David's First Victory by William Strutt (1825-1915)

THE BOOK OF LIFE

 

Book of Life by Chris Brazelton

Because I am a writer, the very essence of me has been spilt on paper….in my journals, my blogs, my poetry.  My thoughts, feelings, perceptions, understanding, my lessons, my experience here on earth…is all documented. I often look at my journals and notebooks I have used as my companions over the years and I feel sorrow that I will leave them behind when I am called home.

I am convinced that I was a writer in my pre-earth life and that all my writing is waiting for me somewhere in a room that was my very own….and so I  have also hoped that there would be someone I know in heaven who has copied all my earthly writing to add to the existing stash for me to own for eternity.

There just so happens to be a book in heaven in which are recorded names of the righteous who will be immortalized in the analls of eternal history. This book is called the Book of Life:

“In one sense the Book of Life is the total of a person’s thoughts and actions – the record of his life. However, the scriptures also indicate that a heavenly record is kept of the faithful, including their names and accounts of their righteous deeds (Rev 3:5; 20:12; D&C 88:2;128:6-7; Alma 5:58) .”  (LDS Guide to the Scriptures, Book of Life)

A St George Temple worker by the name of Elder John Mickelson Lang received a revelation in 1928 regarding the Book of Life that explains the process of this record keeping:

“Every spirit that comes to earth has a guardian angel, whose duty it is to keep a record of the individual’s parentage, the conditions under which it was born, its inheritance, environment, thoughts and desires, and when the individual’s life is completed, the guardian angel’s mission ends. It returns, makes its report and hands in the record it has kept. This record is placed upon the other book, spoken of as The Book of Life. All this gave me to understand that in this other book is preserved the names and perfect dates of every spirit that ever came to earth.” (Joseph Heinerman, Temple Manifestations, (1836-1930), St George Temple)

 

I want to remember the beauty

Surrendered by the withered rose

And all the memories of my life

Near and far,

I want to take them with me

When I am called to cross the bar.

- CATHRYNE ALLEN