I kneel before Thy throne each day
Never knowing what first to say.
Then I remember what my soul foremost needs
Is my heartfelt devotion to only Thee.
My thoughts, my words, my earthly deeds
I consecrate as a memorial in prayer to Thee.
I spread my heart before Thy feet,
As the Sacrificial Lamb I come to see.
I see You smile, I hear You say:
You are in my heart today.
The sacrifice was mine to give,
Your soul I purchased that you might live.
-
Cathryne
Allen
There was once a king by the name of Ahab who ruled the northern kingdom of Israel from 885-874 B.C. He was the most wicked king Israel had ever had and in my mind, the most brainwashed man if there ever was one because he married the notorious Jezebel.
Jezebel was a Phoenician princess who brought with her the worst worship of Baal as the religion of state (1 Kings 16:30-33). Ahab and Jezebel killed God’s prophets and had Elijah on their hit list persecuting him to the point of madness. More of that when we study Elijah.
Ahab teaches us, however, something profound in the manner of his death. When he led his army against the forces of Syria, he took every precaution to avoid being injured, even disguising himself so that the Syrians would not recognise him to focus on his destruction. The only thing he didn’t do was wear enough protection so someone drew his bow at random and hit the king between the sections of his armour. By night-time he had bled to death (1 Kings 22:30-35). Random indeed…..
Ahab’s manner of physical protection from danger equalled the negligent spiritual protection he provided for himself. So it is with us…..The degree of protection we have from the adversary is proportional to the diligence and heed we give to the Lord's commandments. The extent and strength of our armour is a good indication of how valiant we are in our testimony of Jesus. We cannot afford to choose which commandment we will obey and which we will let slide because each commandment provides a section in our armour against sin.
If you ever wanted to be a hero, this is the time and the place. Examine the cracks in your armour and sharpen your sword of righteousness. President Ezra Taft Benson said: "You will never have a better opportunity to be a greater hero in a more crucial battle than in the battle you will face today and in the immediate future. Be warned that some of the greatest battles you will face will be fought within the silent chambers of your own soul. David's battles in the field against the foe were not as critical as David's battles in the palace against a lustful eye. We will each find our own battlefield". (Ezra Taft Benson, "In His Steps", 1979, Devotional Speeches of the Year, 60).
The most important battlefield we will ever get to fight on is in our souls. The adversary will use every tactic to bring us down. When Joseph lost 116 pages of the Book of Mormon manuscript, the Saviour told him that if he had been faithful and not feared man He would have supported him against all the fiery darts of the adversary (D&C 3:7,8). The foundation of our faith in Christ and our obedience to Him is the strength of our defence. When the war is over and the battle won, whose side will you be found on?
He is the Captain of our souls:
His
arms are our shelter,
His heart is our home,
Our only hope
For protection
from battle’s storm.
- CATHRYNE ALLEN
I wrote my 350th poem the other day. I was quite stunned at that number because I have been writing them for a relatively short time. They are expressions of my heart and soul so they come easy. According to the scriptural record, Solomon spoke or compiled 3,000 proverbs and wrote 1,005 songs (see 1 Kings 4:32). I am so grateful he did that because his wisdom was a gift from God so the spiritual substance in them is something I value.
When I was doing my degree some years ago I was really excited to
take a subject on philosophy because I thought studying the ‘wisdom’ of the
ancient Greek philosophers would make me wise. After all, their words are
recognised and revered the world over. It was my worst subject. So much so that my
professor called me up and asked me if I had trouble understanding the course.
Frankly, I found the theories of the meaning of life by these
philosophers incomprehensible. They stood in stark contrast to the plain and
simple truth of the Plan of Salvation as per the LDS theology that I lived by. It
taught me something valuable. Never trust in the theories of the world. Now
when I hear something ‘meaningful’ I have to find it in the scriptures to
verify it before I believe it is true.
If you want wisdom, you will find it in the scriptures because
true wisdom must encompass knowledge, understanding and moral conduct. The
wisdom you follow must comply with your inner spiritual compass and religious
beliefs. It must produce a positive outcome, protect you from the negative and
be in alignment with the witness of the spirit. This to me is true wisdom. (see
also Old Testament Student Manual, 1 Kings – Malachi, p 13)
It is impossible to come away from the books of Proverbs and Ecclesiastes with
one major or common theme for they deal with application of wisdom in so many different
facets of life, as per Ecclesiastes 3:1-8, which so aptly teaches ‘to
everything there is a season’. One can, however, always walk away from them
having found something of vast importance particular to them to correspond with
their 'time and season'. Wisdom is not wisdom if it lacks application and
application of all things cannot happen all at once. Progression is a journey
which requires patience and repentance when the heart is ready.
The greatest wisdom of Solomon is found in chapter 3 of Proverbs. The
advice it gives is invaluable: to have peace in this life means to know and
trust God, to keep His commandments, to hold onto His mercy and truth, and to
write it on the tables of one’s heart (vs 1-6).
God's wisdom would tell us that the sacrifice of the moment is
worth the blessings of eternity. Trusting in God means trusting in our eternal
destiny to which we were committed from the beginning. It means knowing who we
are and using wisdom to honour that spiritual identity. It means standing firm
in our convictions at all cost.
I knelt before Thy throne today
Asking for the words of wisdom
You had to say.
They fell with ease from Thy tongue
Coated gently with holy love.
My heart was opened
The heavens wept
Our union, a divine sacrament.
- CATHRYNE ALLEN
You opened my heart
And searched for what
You there did not see;
My feeble faith and lack
of trust
Stood in contrast to your
will for me.
You sorrowed for the
tears I shed
With every step I was led
to take
To find You in my hour of
agony.
How patiently You stood
waiting
With open arms hoping I
would come to Thee;
How patiently You hoped
I would give You all that
was lacking in me.
- CATHRYNE ALLEN
How easy it would have been for the Saviour to wash his hands of the children of Israel when they rejected Him and asked for a king to rule and preside over them. How easy it would have been to turn his back on them and to walk away, but the Saviour who is full of 'grace, equity and truth', did not forsake the children of the covenant and sought to still be their king through the best men He could find, that His watchful eye might be over them 'with a stretched out arm; for his mercy endureth forever' (Alma 13:9; Psalm 136:12).
Because under the kingship of Solomon, they disregarded the power and might of the God who delivered them, and put their trust in the arm of the flesh instead, Israel faltered and stumbled in its prosperity and spiritual welfare. Worst of all, they lost unity as a nation. Following the death of Solomon, under the leadership of his very unwise son Rehoboam, who sought to increase the burdens of his people rather than decrease the oppression with which his extravagant father afflicted the people, the house of Israel became divided, never to be the same again.
Rehoboam refused to heed the counsel of his father’s wise old counselors, 'to serve the people and be their servant, then they will be thy servants forever' (1 Kings 12:6,7). Rather than serve, he sought to elevate himself even further causing the Ten Tribes of Israel to break their alliance with the House of David and appointed Jeroboam as their king. And thus began a new nation referred to as the Northern Kingdom consisting of 10 tribes while the tribes of Judah and Benjamin remained under the reign of the House of David, a house which was preserved by the hand of the Lord to ensure the prophesied lineage of the Messiah.
Jeroboam, an Ephraimite, had been a military leader in the army of Israel under King Solomon. He was an administrator over the territorial districts of the tribes of Ephraim and Manasseh, two of the most powerful tribes in Israel. Ahijah, a prophet of that day, revealed to Jeroboam that he would become the ruler of 10 tribes which would be 'rent' from the house of David. He demonstrated this by rending Jeroboam's robe into 12 pieces and giving him 10, saying: "...thus saith the Lord, the God of Israel, Behold I will rend the kingdom out of the hand of Solomon, and will give ten tribes to thee" (1 Kings 11:31).
When this prophecy was made known to Solomon, he sought to kill Jeroboam who fled into Egypt and lived there in exile until Rehoboam ascended the throne and the 10 tribes who were dissatisfied with Rehoboam's 'attitude' brought him back and anointed him king. And thus began a history of darkness for the Northern Kingdom of Israel as Jeroboam established a state religion of idolatrous worship. (1 Kings 12:25-33).
And here is an insight into Jeroboam’s insecurity and floundering faith in God. He feared that he would lose the kingdom to Rehoboam if his subjects travelled to the temple in Jerusalem and decided to defect. Instead of securing his position by endearing the people to him, he foolishly used religion to serve his political purposes’ (see Adam Clarke, Commentary, 2:437).
The question begs to be asked, why would his subjects want to go back to Rehoboam and his oppression which they rejected? You cannot help but wonder if Jeroboam at all possessed a logical mind. To keep the 10 tribes away from Jerusalem, he made 2 calves of gold, installed them in cities of Bethel and Dan and told the people: "It is too much for you to go up to Jerusalem: behold thy gods, O Israel, which brought thee up out of the land of Egypt" (1 Kings 12:28).
It blows one’s mind…in one fell swoop, he replaced Jehovah as Israel’s God in the minds of the people and he rationalised it by using the same wording as Aaron back in the wilderness suggesting this form of worship was nothing new and was used by their fathers in the desert (Exodus 32:4). And how did that work out for them???
And so the Northern Kingdom was led into idolatry by their very first king from which they never repented and which contributed to their downfall. Twenty monarchs ruled the Northern Kingdom from its beginning until its destruction by the Assyrians in 724 B.C. and all of them were characterized as evil or wicked by scriptural records (Old Testament Student Manual 1 Kings-Malachi, p. 33).
Of the twenty rulers who reigned over the Southern Kingdom, from the death of Solomon to the fall of Jerusalem and the Jews' captivity at the hands of the Babylonians in 605 B.C., twelve are characterized in the scriptural records as evil or wicked. Only four advanced their nation economically and religiously.
In response
to Israel’s wish to have kings, the words of Jehovah to Samuel echo loud and
clear: “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).
- CATHRYNE ALLEN
Did You count me amongst
Your valuable host
As we met in the councils of heaven?
Did I stand strong and ready
To defend Your godship;
To smite the enemy,
To secure Your path to my eternity?
Was I brave and willing to carry the cross
Some of the way to Calvary?
Did I weep with you in the Garden
And held You as You bore the burdens of
mortality?
Did I wipe the sweat of Your brow
As I wept for You and weep even now?
Did I promise to bear Your name
Etched in my mortal heart for all to see?
Am I now worthy to carry Your sacrifice
With me into eternity?
- CATHRYNE ALLEN
Solomon's is the ultimate story of corruption. His wealth was
staggering. The scriptures suggest that Solomon received annually 666 talents
of gold (1 Kings 10:14; 2 Chronicles 9:13). At today's prices that is $3,051,800,000
USD (over $3.05 billion). And herein begins Solomon's downfall. The riches turned
him into a man of excess. The description of his wealth and extravagances is
astonishing (1 Kings 10:14-23).
Solomon's reign enforced great economic changes in the kingdom and
his massive building projects created serious problems: “He taxed the people
heavily and used forced labour to complete his projects. The people began to
complain and a deep resentment, especially in the northern tribes, began to
fester......For the first time in Israel's history, there began to be a
distinct difference between 'rich' and 'poor'. The king and his household were
rich; the common people were poor. In between were the salaried civil servants
and the merchants and artisans, many of whom had organised craft guilds by that
time. Such class separations had not been known in the Israel where a shepherd
boy like David could be anointed king - only 50 years earlier" (Great
People of the Bible, pp 192-93, Old
Testament Student Manual Vol 2., p 8).
Solomon’s riches were just the beginning. Where
is the end for a man who has everything? Is everything ever enough? Such riches
would turn you into believing you are limitless and invincible. In the end you
would believe there is nothing that should be denied you and Solomon proved
this to be true For all his wisdom,
Solomon became incredibly unwise for 'one was not wise, regardless of his vast
learning, if his actions did not comply with his righteous beliefs' (Old
Testament Student Manual, Vol. 2, p. 13).
Following the dedication of Solomon's
temple, the Lord appeared to Solomon for the second time and acknowledging the
dedicatory prayer, accepted the temple which Solomon dedicated to Him. At the
same time, however, he issued a grave and serious warning to the king of
Israel. He warned Solomon that if he and his children do not keep his
commandments and if they go and serve other gods and worship them, that He will
cut off Israel out of the land which He had given them, that He will destroy
the temple which was built, and 'Israel shall be a proverb and a byword among
all people' (1 Kings 9:1-9).
Imagine the Lord himself appearing to you
and warning you about a calamity that will befall you if you stray, and you go
and do exactly that. The beginning of the end came for Solomon when he made a
marriage alliance with Pharoah and took his daughter for his wife. This marriage alliance was the greatest act of
Solomon's foolishness. It was the beginning of him marrying many idolatrous
women out of the covenant and his many political alliances which signalled that
he had more faith in them than in God who was willing to fight and win Israel's
battles. You might say he was beginning to lose the plot.
Marrying foreign women who led him and all
Israel into idolatry aborted Solomon’s ability to endure to the end and changed
the course of Israel's history. This is the damage that one king can do to a
whole nation. By introducing idolatry to the children of Israel, the history of
Israel became a losing battle fought by prophets against the forces of
disloyalty to God.
The greatest mistake Solomon made was that he went to his grave
unrepentant, unlike his father David. He who loved the Lord, and even saw Him
twice (1 Kings 3:5; 9:2), forsook the integrity of his heart and came to
worship false gods who had no power to give him any of the blessings he
received from the God of Israel. He who had the greatest wisdom ended up
being the most foolish.
So it is sometimes with us. We overlook what the Lord has done for
us and what He is capable of giving us if we stay the course so we become
foolish and dabble in sin. And this is the outcome of sin:
“…..sin makes you stupid, stupid because when we sin we become
'deaf, dumb and blind to the ways of the Lord. Stupid because habitual sin
drives the Spirit away, leaving us outside the protective influence of the Holy
Ghost. Stupid because it makes us incapable of drawing upon the powers of
heaven. Being stupid costs a lot. Sin costs a lot too. It can cost time, money,
peace of mind, progress, self-respect, your integrity and virtue, your family,
the trust of those you love, and even your Church membership. Sin is just plain
stupid. And the cost is off the charts. So repent now. Repent daily. If you
want to be sanctified, repentance is not optional'. (Sheri L. Dew, You Were Born to Lead, You Were
Born for Glory, BYU Speeches, Dec. 2003)
- CATHRYNE ALLEN
