THE GATE KEEPER

 

Clouds of Glory by Greg Sargent

“If there is an imagery upon which I would focus, it is two scriptures from the Book of Mormon. The one in which we are reminded that Jesus himself is the gate keeper and that ‘he employeth no servant there’ (2 Nephi 9:41).

“I will tell you….out of the conviction of my soul….what I think the major reason is (why he ‘employeth no servant there’), as contained in another Book of Mormon scripture which says He waits for you ‘with open arms’ (Mormon 6:17). That’s why He’s there!

“He waits for you with open arms. That imagery is too powerful to brush aside….It is imagery that should work itself into the very center core of one’s mind – a rendezvous impending, a moment in time and space, the likes of which there is none other. And that rendezvous is a reality. I certify that to you. He does wait for us with open arms, because His love for us is perfect.”

-          Neal A. Maxwell, But A Few Days, p 7

 

I have no life but this,

To know the scope of You.

I have no wish but this,

To feel that You want this too.

I have no life but this,

To know Thy approving glance;

To kneel at Thy feet,

To know there is a chance.

I have no life but this

To follow the path to Thy throne

To be greeted with a holy kiss,

And know the reality of such bliss.

- CATHRYNE ALLEN 

HOLY GHOST

 

Receiving the Spirit by Danny Hahlbohm

“I fear that some members of the Lord’s Church live far beneath their privileges with regard to the gift of the Holy Ghost. Some are distracted by the things of the world that block out the influence of the Holy Ghost, preventing them from recognizing spiritual promptings. This is a  noisy and busy world that we live in. Remember that being busy is not necessarily being spiritual. If we are not careful, the things of this world can crowd out the things of the Spirit.

“Some are spiritually deadened and past feeling because of their choices to commit sin. Others simply hover in spiritual complacency with no desire to rise above themselves and commune with the Infinite. If they would open their hearts to the refining influence of this unspeakable gift of the Holy Ghost, a glorious new spiritual dimension would come to light.

“Their eyes would gaze upon a vista scarcely imaginable. They could know for themselves things of the Spirit that are choice, precious, and capable of enlarging the soul, expanding the mind, and filling the heart with inexpressible joy.”

-          Elder Joseph B. Wirthlin  (1917-2008), The Unspeakable Gift, GC April 2003

 

How silently, how diligently

You work for the salvation of men.

Your witness of my life

Written in your heart as with a holy pen.

When face to face one day we meet

I will kneel at your holy feet.

 

-       CATHRYNE ALLEN

 

PRINCE OF PEACE

 

The Waves Still Know by LDS Bookstore

He arose and rebuked the roaring winds

and the raging sea,

He, who with His word

caused the earth to be,

Spoke to the Galilean tempest:

 “Peace, be still”.

He who has all things

under His command,

Calmed the troubled sea of dismay

in the souls of men.

He, who holds all humanity

in the palm of His hand,

Caused the waves of the sea

to whisper His name.

 

-      CATHRYNE ALLEN 

ON CHILDREN

 

Joyful Teachings by Ivan Guaderrama

ON CHILDREN:

And a woman who held a babe against her bosom said, Speak to us of Children. And he said:

Your children are not your children. They are the sons and daughters of Life’s longing for itself. They come through you but not from you, and though they are with you, yet they belong not to you.

You may give them your love but not your thoughts, for they have their own thoughts.

You may house their bodies but not their souls, for their souls dwell in the house of tomorrow, which you cannot visit, not even in your dreams.

You may strive to be like them, but seek not to make them like you. For life goes not backward nor tarries with yesterday.

You are the bows from which your children as living arrows are sent forth. The archer sees the mark upon the path of the infinite, and He bends you with His might that His arrows may go swift and far.

Let your bending in the Archer’s hand be for gladness; for even as He loves the arrow that flies, so He loves also the bow that is stable.

-          Kahlil Gibran, The Prophet – A Timeless Masterpiece

Come to me, O ye children!

For I hear you at your play,

And the questions that perplexed me

Have vanished quite away.

 

Ye open the eastern windows,

That look towards the sun,

Where thoughts are singing swallows

And the brooks of morning run.

 

In your hearts are the birds and the sunshine,

In your thoughts the brooklet’s flow,

But in mine is the wind of Autumn

And the first fall of the snow.

 

Ah! What would the world be to us

If the children were no more?

We should dread the desert behind us

Worse than the dark before.

 

What the leaves are to the forest,

With light and air for food,

Ere their sweet and tender juices

Have been hardened into wood –

 

That to the world are children;

Through them it feels the glow

Of a brighter and sunnier climate

That reaches the trunks below.

 

Come to me, O ye children!

And whisper in my ear

What the birds and the winds are singing

In your sunny atmosphere.

 

For what are all our contrivings,

And the wisdom of our books,

When compared with your caresses,

And the gladness of your looks?

 

Ye are better than all the ballads

That ever were sung or said;

For ye are living poems,

And all the rest are dead.

 

-          Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

SEEKING HIS FACE

 

Arms of Faith by Yongsung Kim

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 

A VIEW OF ETERNITY

 

Joy Cometh In The Morning by LDS Bookstore

For years now I have tried to understand fully the necessity for suffering in mortality. From time to time different insights and portions of understanding have been given to me but recently I received what I consider an adequate and favourable theory of the same.

What came to me first is the reason for our lack of understanding of this subject. It is simply this: it is easy not to understand the here and now because we cannot see beyond this life to the rewards of the splendour of eternity and our eternal place within it.

There are three things I am very convinced of and the first is this. We could see the reward in our pre-earth life and we chose which level of the splendour we wanted  to live in for all eons of time. In other words, we chose there and then where we wanted to end up.

The second is that not everyone wanted godhood. We could see it when we made the choice but we could also see the responsibility of such a state of being and the high price attached to it. Some of us were more spiritually inclined than others and as such we sought for higher spiritual levels of intelligence and power that godhood could give us.

The third is this. Since we are not here to choose our eternal destiny, we are here to prove ourselves worthy of the choice we have already made. All kingdoms are kingdoms of glory and they all have degrees of splendour of eternity.

 And here is the wonder of eternity. The telestial kingdom, being the lowest, is a kingdom of glory that passes all understanding even though it is a kingdom where murderers, rapists, liars, adulterers and all manner of wicked people will go (D&C 76:89). It is also worth noticing that the inhabitants of only this kingdom will be as innumerable as the sand of the seashore (v 109). This is the kingdom for those who sought the ease and glory of earthly life. This is the kingdom that comes with the lowest price. But a price has to be paid even for this kingdom…..the souls who will inherit it will pass through hell to earn their place therein. This is outer darkness where they suffer torments of hell until their resurrection day following the Millenium (Alma 40:11-14; D&C 76:103-106; see also Bruce R. McConkie, Mormon Doctrine, pp 349-50)

And now the necessity for suffering. This life offers us something valuable that helps us prove we deserve the outcome we have chosen: our moral agency. Suffering reveals to us our true nature and refines within us the attributes needed through the exercise of our agency to become worthy of the splendour of our eternal reward. If we wanted godhood, our agency has to develop within us a godly character. Water meets its own level.

For years I have felt my life has been unjust. I have had to live through some major trials and the suffering has been acute. This week I made a list of all the growth I have experienced throughout my life and the qualities I have acquired through my choices to endure, trust, overcome, forgive…..qualities like compassion, love and tolerance. I have learnt mercy and even humility as I was brought down to the dust of the earth. One day I will kneel at the throne of my God and present these gifts as the greatest treasures I have come to own.

Herein is the mercy of two Gods: God the Father who sacrificed His best child for the lowest of His children, and God the Son who willingly submitted to that sacrifice. Honour and glory be theirs forever for the joy that awaits us…..

"In my Father's house are many mansions....I go to prepare a place for you." (John 14:2)

I pledged my life into thy hands

When by example you showed me how;

I promised my trials to endure

When I was with You and do so even now.

 

You dried my tears when I barely coped

And carried me when I could walk no more;

You fed me truths I needed to know

And nurtured my flight into the unknown.

 

As I promised to obey,

You promised we’d never part;

I remember, I remember

And carry it all

In the shadow of my heart.

 

- CATHRYNE ALLEN 

JOSIAH WHO LOVED GOD

 

There is nothing that excites me more than coming across someone in scripture who loved the God of Israel. One such man was King Josiah of the Kingdom of Judah. You might have gathered by now that there weren’t many kings of Israel like him. He stole my heart the year I discovered him in the Old Testament.

Before we can appreciate Josiah, it’s imperative to look at his predecessors. Josiah’s grandfather was Manasseh who ascended the throne of Judah at the age of twelve. He reigned for fifty years and became the most loathed and cursed king in the history of Judah.

Manasseh exceeded the idolatry of his predecessors by adding a third form of worship: devotion to the heavenly bodies and constellations. Remnants of this worship are seen today in astrology (The Old Testament Student Manual Book 2 p 213). If you live by your horoscope, give this some thought…..

Not only did Manasseh exceed the idolatry of his forefathers, he defiled the temple and the whole country out of contempt for God and barbarously slew all the righteous Hebrew men, ‘ till Jerusalem was overflown with blood’ (Josephus, Antiquities of the Jews, bk 10, chap 3, par 3)

This evil king repented when he was in affliction, after the king of Assyria captured him and took him to Babylon. He pleaded with the Lord who had mercy on him and brought him back to Jerusalem. Upon his return Manasseh cleaned house by putting away all the idols out of the temple and the country but it was too little too late. Idolatry was so engrained in his people by then that they continued to worship in ‘high places’ and when his son Amon succeeded him, he returned the people to full blown idolatry again (2 Chronicles 33:10-22).  This is a perfect example of how much damage one man can do to a whole nation.

Enter Josiah. He was only eight years old when he began his 31 year reign. This was a man who as a child watched babies scarified to the god of fire, Moloch. A man who in adulthood became highly troubled by the spiritual decay of the kingdom he inherited. The  truth had been lost and the covenant between Israel and Jehovah forgotten…..until he set about repairing the temple and ‘the book of the law’ was found (2 Kings 22:8-11). Some historians have suggested this book was Deuteronomy and some have concluded it was the entire Pentateuch (the first five books of the Bible written by Moses).

When the book of the law was read to Josiah,  he realized how far Israel had strayed from the one true and living God and in his grief he tore the clothes on his body (2 Kings 22:11). Josiah cleaned the land of idolatry even more scrupulously than Manasseh but he could not bring about a thorough conversion of the people. Chapter 23 of 2 Kings outlines his detailed efforts of cleansing the insidious practice of idol worship but he could not undo the damage his grandfather Manasseh had done. Not even by putting his people under the covenant could he uproot the deep inward apostasy of the people. (2 Kings 23:26)

History records there was no king like Josiah before or after him. That he loved the Lord with all his heart, his soul and with all his might (2 Kings 23:25).

This is the lesson we can learn from Josiah. No matter what family we come from, what our upbringing was like and who raised us, we still have a choice to forge our own path in the world. No habit, false belief, addiction or immoral behaviour of those around us has to have power over us. We are in charge of our own destiny and have the ability to say: ‘this ends with me’.

The God of Israel saw Josiah’s grief when he heard the book of the law and when he tore his clothing. He recognized his sincerely and his desire for obedience and his efforts to turn the tide. He promised him that he will be ‘gathered unto his fathers and into his grave in peace’ so that he will not see all the evil which He would bring upon Jerusalem to punish the people for their disobedience (2 Kings 22,19-20).  Josiah died at age 39 in the Valley of Megiddo at the hands of the king of Egypt (2 Kings 23:29). And all Judah and Jerusalem mourned for him (2 Chronicles 35:24)

- CATHRYNE ALLEN 

(Art by AI)