BEAUTY FROM ASHES

 

“Ultimately, the gospel of Jesus Christ was not given us primarily to PREVENT our pain. The gospel was given us to HEAL our pain. That is the promise of the scriptures: the Atonement not only heals us – it can sanctify our trying experiences to our growth.

“Our doctrine is not just that adversity can help us learn and grow; rather, it is that Christ, because of what flows from the redemption, gives us the power to make weak things strong, to sift beauty from the ashes of our lives.”

-          Bruce C. Hafen, “The Belonging Heart”, p 90-1

 

Thou art my Prince of Peace,

Thou art the God I know,

Thou art the love of my soul,

Thou art my comfort, my guide, my all.

- CATHRYNE ALLEN 

(Art: Lord and Master by Greg Collins)

ODE TO MOTHER EVE

 

HOMAGE TO MOTHER EVE WHO WAS THE FIRST WOMAN TO KNOW SORROW:

God said, “BE FRUITFUL, AND MULTIPLY”

And God said, “I WILL GREATLY MULTIPLY THY SORROW”

Thy sorrow, sorrow, sorrow –

I have gotten a man from the Lord

I have traded the fruit of the garden for fruit of my body

For a laughing bundle of humanity.

 

Adam, where are the boys?

Where is Abel?

He is long caring for his flocks.

Are the ewes lambing in this storm?

 

Why your troubled face, Adam? Are you ill?

Why so pale, so agitated?

Dead?  What is dead?  Merciful God!

 

I am trying to understand.

You said, “Abel is dead.”

But I am skilled with herbs….

Herbs will not heal?  Dead?

 

And Cain? Where is Cain?

Listen to that thunder.

Cain cursed?

God said, “A fugitive and a vagabond?”

But God can’t do that.

They are my sons, too.

I gave them birth in the valley of pain.

 

This is his home

This the soil he loved

Where he toiled for golden wheat

For tasselled corn.

 

To the hill country?

Quick, we must find him

I worry, thinking of him wandering

With no place to lay his head.

Cain cursed? A wanderer, a roamer?

 

Abel, my son dead?

And Cain, my son, a fugitive?

Two sons Adam, we had two sons

Both – oh, Adam – multiply sorrow.

 

Dear God, why?

Tell me again about the fruit.

Please tell me again, why?

 

-          Arta Romney Ballif

- CATHRYNE ALLEN 

(aRT: Eve by Mandy Jane Williams

- 

 

COME UNTO ME

 

Come unto me you who are heavy laden
And I will give you rest.
Come unto me you who are oppressed
And I will give you peace.
Come unto me you who are enslaved by sin
And I will make you free.
Come unto me you who are dejected
And I will gather you under
The shadow of my wings.
Come unto me you who sorrow
And I will give you a brighter tomorrow.
Come unto me you who have forsaken me.....

- CATHRYNE ALLEN

(Art: Come Unto Me by Gabriel Heaton)

ETERNAL PROTOTYPE

 

“As with many other truths of the gospel, our present knowledge about a Mother in Heaven is limited. Nevertheless, we have been given sufficient knowledge to appreciate the sacredness of this doctrine and to comprehend the divine pattern established for us as children of heavenly parents. Latter-day Saints believe that this pattern is reflected in Paul’s statement that “neither is the man without the woman, neither the woman without the man, in the Lord.

“Men and women cannot be exalted without each other. Just as we have a Father in Heaven, we have a Mother in Heaven. As President Dallin H. Oaks has said, “Our theology begins with heavenly parents. Our highest aspiration is to be like them.

“Indeed, as Elder Rudger Clawson wrote, “We honour woman when we acknowledge Godhood in her eternal Prototype.”

-          Mother in Heaven, Gospel Topics Essays, lds.org

 

ODE TO HEAVENLY MOTHER

You nurtured me so lovingly

And placed me on the godly path;

You bid me follow in Your footsteps,

To bring honour to Your noble heart.

 

I long to bring You my earthly memories

And tell You of them, one by one;

I hope to bring You endless joy

When home at last I come.

 

- CATHRYNE ALLEN 

(Art: In Her Image by Joyfully Artful)

THE FINAL HARVEST

 

Chapter 23 of Leviticus contains a series of holy days that the Lord commanded all Israel to observe. Three of the most important are: 1. The Feast of Trumpets; 2. The Day of the Atonement and; 3. The Feast of the Tabernacles.

The Feast of Trumpets in particular signifies: 1. The beginning of Israel’s final harvest; 2. The day God had set to remember His ancient promises to gather Israel; 3. A time for new revelation that would lead to a new covenant with Israel and; 4. A time to prepare for the Millenium.

This is the significance of the Feast of Trumpets as it relates to us and this last dispensation. The final harvest of Israel began on 22 September 1827, the very day Israel celebrated the Feast of Trumpets. This is the day that Moroni gave the golden plates to the Prophet Joseph Smith. The timing of its deliverance was not coincidental. This was a carefully orchestrated and rehearsed event for four years prior. Picture Joseph receiving the golden plates from Moroni whilst trumpets blew in Israel. (see The Golden Plates and the Feast of Trumpets by Lenet Hadley Read, Ensign 2000)

We know that many truths have been lost and taken away from the Bible, but none more significant that the prophecies of the restoration of the gospel in the latter days missing from Isaiah 29 and which Nephi quoted in its completion in 2 Nephi 27 as were contained on the brass plates:

1.      Letter-day context of the prophecy (2 Nephi 27:1)

2.      A ‘book’ that Isiah prophesied would come forth in the last days (verse 6)

3.      The book would be ‘sealed’ (verses 7-8)

4.      Roles of Moroni and Joseph Smith in bringing forth the Book of Mormon (verses 9-10)

5.      ‘Three witnesses’ who would behold the ‘book’ and testify ‘to the truth of the things therein’ (verses 12-13)

I stand in awe of God who orchestrates His work with such perfect precision to fulfil His purposes which cannot fail. The adversary might be working hard to ‘pervert the right ways of the Lord that he might blind the eyes and harden the hearts of the children of men’ (1 Nephi 13:27) but he cannot win. God’s plan for our salvation runs like clock-work with every step put into place long before its’ reality.

So ordered are the events that will transpire upon this earth that they cannot possibly fail, because ‘God created all things spiritually before they were naturally upon the face of the earth’ (Moses 3:5). Everything was designed, proven and tested before it came into being.

The Final Harvest is under way and in our hands we hold the book that is gathering Israel…..

 

We Israel, His chosen seed

will come to Zion

With songs of everlasting joy

To worship our Lord and our King

And to Him forever our praises we will sing. 

- CATHRYNE ALLEN 

(Art: Reaping the Harvest by Nathan Greene)

HEAVEN'S GATE

 

I wept today to feel Your touch

As You lifted me on wings of faith

And brought my soul to heaven’s gate.

My grateful heart burned within

When I felt, that for me,

You rose above Gethsemane.

- CATHRYNE ALLEN 

(Art: His Glorious Light by Greg Collins)

BEFORE HE COMES

 

It has been over 2,000 years since the Lord’s first advent. Many of us are eager to see Him return. I have heard a lot of anxious members of the Church speak of it as if it could happen within months. I understand. We are all tired of the wickedness of this world, however, He will not come until all the prophecies of His return are fulfilled, “…nor until everything for the Bridegroom is ready (“History of the Church” Volume V, p 291).

The readiness of the Kingdom is very much dependent on the readiness of its members : “He told his disciples that the day would come when men were unawares, as the thief in the night. For this reason we should watch and pray, “For as a snare shall it come on all them that dwell on the face of the whole earth” (Luke 21:34-35). There is no excuse for any of us, then, not to be prepared, for we have been fully and frequently warned.” (President Joseph Fielding Smith, “Church History and Modern Revelation”, 1:157)

And here is something very important: “For yourselves know perfectly that the day of the Lord so cometh as a thief in the night…..But ye, brethren, are NOT in darkness, that that day should overtake you as a thief. Ye are children of light, and the children of the day: we are NOT of the night, nor of darkness” (1 Thessalonians 5:2-5).

This is our advantage…. We as members of His Church, are not the ones that are unaware…..we live in the light as opposed to many in the world who do not have that advantage and live in darkness. Our advantage is the Holy Ghost, the scriptures, continuous revelation and the living prophets.

 I am always amazed when I hear a teacher at Church ask this pointless question: “If you knew that the Saviour was coming tomorrow, what would you do to prepare?” I am equally amazed by some answers such as, missionary work. I ask, how much missionary work could you do in one day to make up for years of not doing it? My answer is, you could do nothing in one day to prepare for His coming. The time to start preparing is yesterday.

The signs of His coming are too numerous to mention here. It is the responsibility of each of us to search them in the prophecies that we might know them and recognize them as they come. We are the chosen for this time and this place to usher in the greatest event of the history of mankind. The winding up scenes will not be easy, they will not be pleasant, but they will be worth the sacrifice, the perseverance, the wait…..and when He comes, the tears of the faithful….

 

When in clouds of glory I see you come,

I will run….

I will run to meet You with hope of

Everlasting life.

I will bend the knee and offer You my heart,

Lived these many years in Your glorious light.

- CATHRYNE ALLEN 

(Art: Behold He Comes by Danny Hahlbohm)