His
gift, the beauty of the earth,
To
soften the blow of turbulence
So
relentlessly near;
With
every movement of the trees
And
the rustle of its leaves,
He
whispers:
“I
am here”
- CATHRYNE
ALLEN
Saturday, 25 July 2026
THE BEAUTY OF THE EARTH
ON SACRIFICE
"The World" by LDS Bookstore
“For a man to
lay down his all, his (1) character and reputation, his honour, and applause,
his good name among men, (2) houses, his lands, his (3) brothers and sisters,
his wife and children and even his (4) own life also….requires more than mere
belief or supposition that he is doing the will of God; but actual knowledge,
realizing that, when these sufferings are ended; he will enter into eternal
rest, and be a partaker of the glory of God” (Jerry A. Wilson, Lecture 6:5, The
Great Plan of Happiness, Insights From the Lectures on Faith, p 68)
Just as the
Saviour paid an enormous price for the gift of eternal life that is on offer to
all of us, we are asked to sacrifice our all here in mortality, to basically
become like Him and be worthy of such a gift.
Paul called
all things that he sacrificed and walked away from ‘but filth and dross for the
excellency of the knowledge of Jesus Christ’. A real Jew, circumcised, of the
stock of Israel, a Pharisee of the tribe of Benjamin, as he called himself
(Philippians 3:5,8; Romans 11:1), walked away from his Jewish upbringing,
family, lucrative career, and social standing amongst the Romans, and chose to
believe in the gifts of eternity.
As well defined
as the path of sacrifice is in the above quote, I wish to write about another form
of sacrifice and that is the sacrifice of ego and self-importance because I
believe this is the power base of all other forms of sacrifice. This is the
root out of which all forms of sacrifice can grow.
I have a
friend currently on vacation in Bali. She has been very impressed with the people’s
kindness and helpfulness. She has learnt a lot of their customs, among which is
the traditional responsibility among Balinese people to care for their aging
parents. She found it amazing that ‘the poorer they are, the more caring and
loving they are.
I replied to
her that it is a proven truth that when you are not spoilt and encumbered by
the comforts and luxuries of the world, you care about things that truly matter
much easier and better. I also pointed out that we are so intent on ‘having
things’ and we do not realize how that pursuit encourages and motivates
self-importance to the detriment of the important things like giving of
yourself to others which is one of the sacrifices we are asked to make.
We live in a
world of ego called “me, myself and I”. Somehow, we have lost the sight of
sacrifice as we seek to elevate ourselves instead. The nature of our world is
undergirded by possession of worldly things, of houses and lands, of honour and
applause. We cannot survive without two incomes, professional unfulfillment, a
house in a well to do neighbourhood, private schools, latest cars…..and so
called holidays essential for our mental health.
While
Balinese people live on scooters from the age of 17 and care for their aging
family members, a lot of us are relying on aged care homes to care for our parents
and grandparents so we can ‘get on with our lives’.
If we are to
secure that gift of eternal life by emulating the life of Him who can give it
to us, we need to place the self on the altar of sacrifice more often that we
do as sacrifice of self reveals the face of eternity and the view is glorious
because of the greatest sacrifice there ever was:
“For God so
loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth
in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.” (John 3:16)
- CATHRYNE ALLEN
Friday, 24 July 2026
HIS EARTHLY SUFFERING
I
heard You in my heart today
And
all You tried so hard to say.
My
soul split open and I could see
What
You suffered in Gethsemane.
My
tears spilled and climbed that hill
Where
Your suffering increased yet still.
My
sorrow spilt, I saw my guilt
As
You absolved me on that cross of Calvary
When
one day soon again we meet
I
will sorrow at Your feet.
My
hands raw from clutching still
That
gruesome cross of Calvary.
You
have my heart,
You
have my soul,
My
purchased self is Yours to own.
In
my memory, Your blood runs still
On
that ruthless hill of Calvary.
- CATHRYNE ALLEN
HUMILITY 2
When Moses went up to Mount Sinai for the second time
with new plates the Lord descended in the cloud, and stood with him there and
proclaimed His name:
“And the Lord passed by before him, and proclaimed,
The Lord, the Lord God, merciful and gracious, longsuffering, and abundant in
goodness and truth. Keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity and
transgression and sin….” (Exodus 34:4-7)
There is real significance in this. When God restores
or renews covenants, He reveals himself by confirming His impeccable character so
His people can know Him, trust Him and follow Him. In other words, He is saying, this is who I am, who you are covenanting with. It is meant to build faith
in people and invite them back into a real relationship with Him. In this
instance, Israel had broken the covenant by worshipping the golden calf.
The Gospel of John records Christ’s proclamations of
who He is which identifies Him as the Saviour of all mankind. These
proclamations are known as the “7 I AMs:
·
I
am the bread of life (6:31,51)
·
I
am the light of the world (8:12)
·
I
am the door of the sheep (10:7,9)
·
I
am the good shepherd (10:11,14)
·
I
am the resurrection and life (11:25)
·
I
am the way, the truth and the life (14:6)
·
I
am the true vine (15:1,5)
I have often been amazed at the confidence with which Jesus
proclaimed Himself as the Messiah. The Jews expected Him to come in the clouds
of glory, not through the stench of a stable. Judging Him to be a mere mortal led
some to say that He was mad because of these proclamations (John 10:20) and some
that he was possessed of a devil (John 8:48; 8:52; Mark 3:22; Luke 11:15). But
imagine if He didn’t openly proclaim what He was like and what He had to offer
as the Saviour of the world. Who would have had faith in Him if He held back
and denied His attributes and characteristics and His role in the human
experience? How blind the people of Jesus’s time were not to see that His
confidence was grounded in humility and not pride.
Sometimes we are reluctant to vocalise our good
qualities for fear that people will consider us prideful. Martin Luther said:
“True humility does not know that it is humble. If it did, it would be proud
from the contemplation of so fine a virtue.” I do not completely agree with
this statement. We are told that
humility is the mother of virtues and rightly so but I wonder if we know how to
properly appreciate it for our benefit.
There is one person we should affirm our humility to
and that is ourselves. There would have to be a day when our trials and obedience have humbled us enough to be able to say to
ourselves: I am humble enough to be corrected, I am humble enough to admit I am
wrong, I am humble enough to be teachable, I am humble enough to be chastised,
I am humble enough to receive instruction, to be taught, to receive help, to
apologise, to correct a wrong, to make restitution when I have caused damage. I
love a person who can say, “when I’m wrong, I’m wrong”….We should be able to
acknowledge humility within us when it is for our benefit and the benefit of
our fellowman.
The Book of Mormon tells us that humility before God
will grant us these four things (Mosiah 4:12-13):
·
We
will be filled with the love of God;
·
We
will grow in knowledge of Him’
·
We
will retain a remission of our sins;
·
We
will love our fellowman
We want this, don’t we? So the commitment should be: I
choose to be humble enough to believe in a higher power than myself, to be
taught about Him, to obey Him, to amend my ways and recognize I am no better
than my fellowman. That’s humility – minimizing self-importance and finding a
healthy place for it on your priority list.
One man in the scriptures who knew full well who he
was, what he became and by what power he got there was Paul who said: “For I am
the least of the apostles, that am not meet to be called an apostle, because I
persecuted the church of God. But by the grace of God I am what I am…..” (1
Corinthians 15:9,10). In other words, I was wrong, I was humble enough to repent
and accept salvation from Him who saved me from the jaws of hell. That’s
humility.
- CATHRYNE ALLEN
Thursday, 23 July 2026
THE MESSIANIC HOPE
The messianic hope is the expectation of an Anointed
Deliverer that has its roots in pre-mortal life and that was prophesied about
extensively in the scriptures (Abraham 3:27; Moses 4:1,2).
The English word Messiah comes from the Hebrew Meshiach,
meaning ‘anointed’. The Greek equivalent is Christos. The Hebrew
word Yeshua (Jesus in Greek) means ‘Saviour’ or ‘deliverer’. The two
words combined denote one anointed of God to save or deliver His people.
The Old Testament prophets prophesied of the Messiah
in incredible detail. The prophecies tell of him being born of a virgin (Isaiah
7:14); that He would be born in Bethlehem (Micah 5:2); that He would be raised
a prophet like unto Moses (Deut 18:15);
that He would be of the lineage of David
(Genesis 49:10; Jeremiah 23:5-6) and that He would have the government upon his
shoulder (Isaiah 9:6,7).
The New Testament prophecies revealed the life and
mission of the Messiah in detail. The writers of the four Gospels especially pointed
out how Jesus Christ fulfilled the Old Testament prophecies that referred to
the coming Messiah, the references of which are too extensive to record here.
The most well known messianic prophecy belongs to
Isaiah who spoke of Him dualistically. Isaiah 53 describes the role of Christ as
a ‘suffering servant’, ‘a man of sorrows’, one who stands ‘as a sheep before
her shearers’, one who takes our transgressions upon Himself. The other picture
of the Messiah is that of the “King of Glory” contained in Isaiah 9, which
paints a picture of deliverance, political power, and the destruction of the
enemies of Israel. They speak of two time periods which the Jewish population
of Christ’s time either did not understand or they chose to ignore. The ‘suffering
servant’ was a reference to Messiah’s first advent when He would deliver His people spiritually and
the King of Glory who would be sitting on the throne of David and have the
government upon His shoulder refers to the Millenial reign.
The Jews of Christ’s first advent recognized that
Jesus was from the lineage of David but
when He refused to take up the sword against Rome and take upon himself the
government of their nation, His crucifixion was seen by the majority as a proof
that He could not have been the promised deliverer. Remember the mocking: “He
saved others, himself he cannot save. Let Christ the King of Israel descend now
from the cross, that we may see and believe. And they that were crucified with
him reviled him.” ( Mark 15:31, 32).
This is where the Jewish nation went wrong in their
expectation of the Messiah:
From the time of the fall of Jerusalem in 586 B.C.
until the destruction of Jerusalem by the Romans in A.D. 70….the Palestinian
remnant of Israel was subjected to the rule of many great powers: the
Babylonians, Persians, Greeks, the Ptolemies, the Seleucids, and finally the
Romans.
During this great period of bondage to different
powers, the Jewish people came to see the Messiah not as one who would provide
Atonement for their sins but one who would deliver them from their enemies by
physical force. They wanted freedom from people who ruled them.
And so the Jews looked beyond the mark which was
Christ (Jacob 4:14) and crucified their God. When He did not come in a manner
that they anticipated, they looked beyond Him for another who should come…..and
they wait still.
Oh that I were an angel and could have the wish of
mine heart!!!! I would shout from the rooftops to unbelieving Israel: your King will
come!!!!
“Behold, the day of the Lord cometh, and thy spoil
shall be divided in the midst of thee. For I will gather all nations against
Jerusalem to battle….then shall the Lord go forth, and fight against those
nations….and his feet shall stand in that day upon the mount of Olives…and one
shall say unto him, What are these wounds in thine hands? Then he shall answer,
Those with which I was wounded in the house of my friends.” (Zechariah 13:6;
14:1-4)
THE PLAN
“As Neal A. Maxwell has said, we rightly praise God
when requested blessings are received, “but transcending all such praise should
be our everlasting praise to God for His plan of happiness – for making us the
very center of His work and purposes! (A Wonderful Flood of Light, p
59). Though we are here in mortality, separated from God by the veil, his “work
and his glory” are to bring to pass our “immortality and eternal life” (Moses
1:39).
“While many people will live their mortal existence
without even knowing of the plan, it is incumbent upon those who are members of
the restored Church to have a deep and appropriate understanding of the plan.
We cannot live our lives as “perpetual youth” with only a shallow knowledge of
the work that God is preparing for us.
“When David O. McKay was only 13 years of age, John
Smith, the Patriarch to the Church, stopped at the home of Bishop David McKay
to give blessings to the children. The patriarch laid his hands on this young
boy’s head and pronounced a powerful blessing, part of which included these
words:
“The Lord has a work for thee to do, in which thou
shalt see much of the world, assist in gathering scattered Israel, and also
labour in the ministry. It shall be thy lot to sit in council with thy brethren
and preside among the people and exhort the Saints to faithfulness.”
“After completing the blessing, the patriarch gave
David O. a serious look and said, “My boy, you have something to do besides
playing marbles.” Later the boy found his mother getting dinner ready and said,
“If he thinks I am going to stop laying marbles, he is mistaken.” The mother
then took her son aside and told him the meaning of the patriarch’s words. (Inspirational
Stories From the Life of President David O. McKay, p 769)
“Each of us must understand theologically that we have
more to do than “play marbles”, not only here in mortality but especially in
the worlds to come. Each of us must know that our theology is more
fundamentally encompassing than just a principle about tea and coffee. We are
the children of God. He has a plan of happiness filled with powers, principles,
and doctrines that are wonderfully promissory.”
-
Jerry
A. Wilson, The Great Plan of Happiness, Insights from the Lectures on Faith,p 4
When in the realms of heaven
You created all the worlds that be,
You created with godly care
A divine plan for me.
Did you gaze long and hard into eternity
To see the path I would willingly follow
To find Your love waiting for me
In my every tomorrow?
Each step I took brought me closer
To where I needed to be,
Each mountain You gave me to climb
Grew easier because You carried me.
Your mercy, Your love, Your infinite care,
It all spoke to me that You were always there.
It helped me follow to do my part
And seal You forever in the depths my heart.
- CATHRYNE ALLEN
Wednesday, 22 July 2026
HIS LOVE
Your love, O
Your love!
Like a
soothing balm
From gilded
courts on high;
It flows, and
it calms,
It seeks and
it finds the troubled mind.
It gathers and
it lifts the sorrowing,
the lame, the
weak;
Ever and ever
Your mercy divine
Looks for
those who achingly weep.
-
CATHRYNE ALLEN
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