PRAYER OF MY HEART

 

He Hears Me by Greg Collins

Each day I seek Thee

Through the prayer of my heart;

I kneel at Thy feet and speak of my love.

You are so far and so high,

Yet I see Thee Father

Forever in my heart.

 

-      Cathryne Allen 

WE ARE WITNESSES

 

Feed My Lambs by Eva Koleva Timothy

Some years ago when I studied Isaiah 43 for the first time, I was very touched with the Saviour’s impassioned  testimony of himself. Over and over He impressed upon the House of Israel the role He played in their salvation:

“O Israel…I have redeemed thee, I have called thee by thy name; thou art mine” (v 1)

“For I am the Lord thy God, the Holy One of Israel, thy Saviour” (v 3)

“….before me there was no God formed, neither shall there be after me” (v 10)

“I, even I, am the Lord; and beside me there is no saviour” (v 11)

“I am the Lord, your Holy One, the creator of Israel, your King” (v 15)

Two chapters later I came across the same theme: “I am the Lord and there is none else” (Isaiah 45: 5,6,14,18,22: 46:9). This basically is Isaiah’s message. His testimony is that Jesus Christ is the only true source of hope for salvation: “Out of 425 separate verses of Isaiah which are quoted in the BOM, 391 say something about the attributes or mission of Jesus Christ (Monte S. Nyman, Great Are The Words of Isaiah, p 7)

Isaiah impressed me so much by his testimony of Christ that I made it my mission to search the same in other scriptures and this is what I found:

There is none else beside Him, not in heaven above, or earth beneath or waters beneath the earth, nothing, nobody, nowhere: Deuteronomy 4:35, 39; 5:8; 1 Kings 8:60.

There is no flesh that can dwell in the presence of God, save it be through the merits and mercy and grace of the Holy Messiah: 2 Nephi 2:8.

There is none other name given under heaven save it be this Jesus Christ whereby man can be saved: 2 Nephi 25:20; 31:21; Moses 6:52.

Beside Him there is no saviour: D&C 76:1.

There is something else that caught my attention in chapter 43 of Isaiah besides this testimony  of the Saviour’s salvation. Twice in this chapter we are told: “Ye are my witnesses” (vs 10,12). This is the crux of the matter, the reason for the testimony is to bear witness. The witness of His divinity can only be borne by those who possess such a testimony. This is the responsibility of the House of Israel first and foremost but it extends to all who have felt the burning witness of His love and salvation. There are many Christians throughout the world today who have spread the influence needed to help someone believe.  

I offer here an inspiration from the life of one man, composer George Frideric Handel, who became such a witness. Recovering from a stroke and tired from a largely flagging career as a composer at age 52, he returned from a long and tiring walk one late August in 1741 and found that a poet and previous collaborator, Charles Jennens, had left him a manuscript littered with words of Isaiah foretelling the birth, ministry, crucifixion and resurrection of Christ. From this, Handel’s most famous work Messiah was composed in just three weeks. At the completion of the composition he simply said: “God has visited me….I am cured and have been set free”. He became a power witness of the Saviour to the physically and spiritually captive as he donated all profits from performances of Messiah to prisoners, orphans and the sick. (see (Elder Spencer J. Condie , “Handel and the Gift of Messiah”, Ensign 2010)

Every Christmas I listen to Handel’s Messiah. Each note ‘mounts me up with wings as eagles’ and reminds me of Isaiah. I want to write like him……..

You flowed like a river through my heart

Revealing the wonder of You;

And lifted my eyes higher to see the majestic view.

You ploughed the sacred ground of my heart

And tenderly sowed your seeds of love;

In gratitude, I scatter them in the hearts of others.

- CATHRYNE ALLEN 

KNOWING GOD

 

The Fireworks of Faith by Eva Koleva Timothy

28. Hast thou not known? Hast thou not heard, that the everlasting God, the Lord, the Creator of the ends of the earth, fainteth not, neither is weary? There is no searching of his understanding.

29.He giveth power to the faint; and to them that have no might he increaseth strength.

30. Even the youths shall faint and be weary, and the young men shall utterly fall;

31.But they that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run, and not be weary; and they shall walk, and not faint.”

The first time I heard these verses of Isaiah 40 was whilst watching a highly moving movie called “Chariots of Fire” back in 1981. I was enthralled. Nothing speaks better to a soulful person like me than beautiful words. They embolden, inspire, elevate, enlighten…you name it, words do it for me.

The above-mentioned verses were Isaiah’s attempt to accentuate God’s ability to empower His people Israel, and in turn, all of us. Preceding these scriptures is his almost frantic attempt to help Israel understand who God is in verses 22-27. It is obvious Isaiah knew God and had not failed to see His obvious power and is amazed that others fail to, by asking: “Have ye not known? Have ye not heard? Hath it not been told you from the beginning? Have ye not understood from the foundations of the earth? “ (v21).

There is an interesting word in verse 28 that tells us it is virtually impossible for us to grasp the grandeur of God. Isaiah says: “there is no searching of his understanding.” That word ‘searching’ is clarified in Romans 11:33 which says: “O the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are his judgments, and his ways past finding out.” In other words, you cannot fathom God.

I had an experience some months ago where I came to understand just how much we do not understand and know God. I was reflecting upon my life one day wondering how I would feel on judgment day when I found myself in my mind standing in front of God himself and hearing Him ask me three questions: How did you enjoy your mortal probation? What do you think you learnt from it? How do you think you did overall?

And this is what amazed me. I could not answer. Whenever I opened my mouth nothing would come out. I realised in that moment that I could not say anything that He did not already know. I could not lie, I could not tell half lies, I could not even tell the truth. I understood that He already knew everything about me: my deeds, my thoughts, my desires, my attitudes, my good moments, my resentments, my rebellious moments, my likes, my dislikes. As I stood there I felt like I was transparent before Him and He was looking right through me as if He was almost inside me, so well aware was He of all that made up what is me. I could see that we do not understand how inter-connected He is with His children and mostly, how incredibly powerful He is, which is beyond our understanding. He truly is ‘unsearchable’ to mere mortals.

If the concept of God and His existence is this difficult to understand, how do we come to the ability to have faith that He gives power to the faint, that he increases our strength and mounts us up with wings as eagles?

When I used to post on Facebook, I had one lady accuse me of encouraging people to put their trust in someone whom they cannot even see. She claimed she doesn’t rely on anyone to help her achieve anything but herself. She saw trust in invisible power as something dangerous that would surely bring about failure. It is difficult to explain God to someone. How do you explain the feelings of the spirit, or the breath that you breathe or revelations you have, or anything of spiritual nature? Even Isaiah asked on Lord’s behalf: “To whom then will ye liken me, or shall I be equal? saith the Holy One.” (Isaiah 40:21)

We can look at all of God’s creations and come to the conclusion that the big bang theory is ridiculous, that a greater power must have created everything. Some people explain God in those terms. I look at myself and ask, how did all that God saw in me come to be? The body perishes and returns to mother earth but the earth cannot contain this soulful spirit that is in my mortal heart. It came from someone great who had the power to create it. It flies on wings like eagles ‘trailing clouds of glory’ to the one who created it. This to me is who God is.

The winds of tribulation

Bend down and lift me to the sky

To see the tapestry of my life.

I understand the hows and whys, Father,

But the pains of mortality drag me to the ground

To forget your perfect design.

 

In my moments of darkness

Lift me to higher ground

That I might bow

in praise of Thy wisdom divine.

 

 - CATHRYNE ALLEN 

A MESSAGE OF COMFORT

 

Jerusalem O Jerusalem by Greg Olsen

“Speak ye comfortably to Jerusalem, and cry unto her, that her warfare is accomplished, that her iniquity is pardoned: for she hath received of the Lord’s hand double for all her sins.” (Isaiah 40:1,2)

Imagine having in your family a history of suffering and humanity’s hatred. The Jewish nation has been hated and persecuted from the time of their dispersion into the world. Isaiah prophesied all the calamities that would befall them from the time of their scattering to the arrival of the long-awaited Messiah who would come at the end of time.

Judah was to be sent through the ‘furnace of affliction’ (Isaiah 48:10) for rejecting her King when He came among them. A look at Jewish history and present-day circumstances tells us that this nation is still going through that furnace but one day soon her sentence will be served and her penalty will be paid. Think for a minute of the furnace of the Holocaust. Imagine having that in your family history. However, the most extreme heat of the furnace is yet to be felt when the nations of the earth join against the nation of Israel:

“The bankrupt nations, envying the wealth of the sons of Judah, will seek a pretext to make war upon the, and will invade the ‘holy land’ to ‘take a prey and a spoil’……At the crisis of their fate, when the hostile troops of several nations are ravaging the city and all the horrors of war are overwhelming the people of Jerusalem, He [the Christ] will set his feet upon the Mount of Olives, which will cleave and part asunder at his touch.

“Attended by a host from heaven, he will overthrow and destroy the combined armies of the Gentiles, and appear to the worshipping Jews as the mighty Deliverer and Conqueror so long expected by their race; and while love, gratitude, awe, and admiration swell their bosoms, the Deliverer will show them the tokens of his crucifixion and disclose himself as Jesus of Nazareth, whom they had reviled and whom their fathers put to death. Then will unbelief depart from their souls, and ‘the blindness in part which has happened unto Israel’ be removed”. (Elder Charles W. Penrose, “The Second Advent”, Millenial Star, 10 Sept 1859, pp 582-83).

Then will the warfare be over and her iniquity pardoned but the immediately preceding devastation of Judah will be colossal. One-tenth of Jerusalem will be destroyed, and 7000 men will be slain (Revelation 11:13). We are talking here about fathers and brothers and husbands…..and families left destitute without male protection.

“So great will be the devastation that for seven years Israel will be able to live off the spoils of war left behind (see Ezekiel 39:8-10). It will take seven months to bury the dead, and thereafter burial teams will search out the remaining bodies in an attempt to cleanse the land. Isaiah said that the Lord “hath delivered them to the slaughter…and the mountains shall be melted with their blood (Isaiah 34:2-3).”  (Old Testament Student Manual Book 2, Enrichment I, p 295)

Of equal interest to the scripture of comfort and promise of deliverance is the third verse in Isaiah 40 which speaks of “the voice of him that crieth in the wilderness”. This is a dual prophecy which speaks of John the Baptist who prepared the way for the Saviour’s first advent and who has had a role in such like preparation for the second advent.

Luke quoted Isaiah 40:3-5 which are clearly millennial in application. When Joseph Smith revised Luke’s passage, he added five verses that also apply to the Second Coming which clearly identify the Saviour for whom the forerunner would again prepare the way (see JST Luke 3:5-9).

This forerunner of the last days was to make possible the preaching of the gospel to the Gentiles and to gather together those who are lost, who are of the sheepfold of Israel. John the Baptist came to this forerunner, Joseph Smith, on May 15, 1829, to restore the Aaronic Priesthood in preparation for the preaching of the gospel and the gathering of Israel:

“The Lord declared, through one of his prophets, that before his second coming a messenger should be sent to prepare the way and make it straight…..John, the messenger who came to prepare the way before the Lord in the former dispensation, also came in this dispensation as a messenger to Joseph Smith….I maintain that Joseph Smith was the messenger whom the Lord sent to prepare the way before him. He came, and under direction of holy messengers laid the foundation for the kingdom of God and of this marvelous work and a wonder that the world might be prepared for the coming of the Lord.” (President Joseph Fielding Smith, Doctrines of Salvation, 1:193-95)

 

When in the clouds of glory You appear

To save Judah distressed and all alone

Your mercy will flow from the dreaded hill

Where in times past they crucified their own.

When on the Mount of Olives suddenly you meet

They will know You

And accept salvation at Your feet.

- CATHRYNE ALLEN 

 

I AM THE WAY

 

The Way by Greg Olsen

“How can we know the way? Asked Thomas, as he sat with his fellow apostles and their Lord at the table after the supper on the memorable night of the betrayal; and Christ’s divine answer was:

“I am the way, the truth and the life….(John 14:5-6). And so He is! He is the source of our comfort, the inspiration of our life, the author of our salvation. If we want to know our relationship to God, we go to Jesus Christ. If we would know the truth of the immortality of the soul, we have it exemplified in the Saviour’s resurrection.

“If we desire to learn the ideal life to lead among our fellowmen, we can find a perfect example in the life of Jesus. Whatsoever our noble desires, our lofty aspirations, our ideals in any phase of life, we can look to Christ and find perfection. So, in seeking a standard for moral manhood, we need only to go to the Man of Nazareth and in Him find embodied all virtues that go to make the perfect man.”

-          David O. MacKay, General Conference Report, April 1968, pp 6-7

 

You are my soul’s desire that I breathe in the morning light

That lays me to peaceful rest in day’s twilight of my mortal life.

You lift me on wings of faith above all my sorrow

And make clear the path I cannot alone follow.

I rejoice in Your goodness, in Your infinite sacrifice,

and Your everlasting love,

I struggle to contain You in the hollow of my heart.

The purpose of my existence I offer to You,

You are all I am,

my love, my devotion and my soul too.

- CATHRYNE ALLEN 

KAHLIL GIBRAN ON LOVE

 

Shades of Lavender by Alfred Gockel

When love beckons you, follow him, though his ways are hard and steep. And when his wings enfold you yield to him, though the sword hidden among his pinions may wound you.

And when he speaks to you believe in him, though his voice may shatter your dreams as the north wind lays waste the garden. For even as love crowns you so shall he crucify you.

Even as he is for your growth so is he for your pruning. Even as he ascends to your height and caresses your tenderest branches that quiver in the sun, so shall he descend to your roots and shake them in their clinging to the earth.

Like sheaves of corn he gathers you unto himself. He threshes you to make you naked. He sifts you to free you from your husks. He grinds you to whiteness. He kneads you until you are pliant; and then he assigns you to his sacred fire, that you may become sacred bread for God’s sacred feast.

All these things shall love do unto you that you may know the secrets of your heart, and in that knowledge become a fragment of Life’s heart.

But if in your fear you would seek only love’s peace and love’s pleasure, then it is better for you that you cover your nakedness and pass out of love’s threshing-floor, into the seasonless world where you shall laugh, but not all of your laughter, and weep, but not all of your tears.

Love gives naught but itself and takes naught but from itself. Love possesses not nor would it be possessed; for love is sufficient unto love.

When you love you should not say, “God is in my heart”, but rather, “I am in the heart of God”. And think not you can direct the course of love, for love, if it finds you worthy, directs your course.

Love has no other desire but to fulfil itself. But if you love and must needs have desires, let these be your desires:

To melt and be like a running brook that sings its melody to the night. To know the pain of too much tenderness. To be wounded by your own understanding of love; and to bleed willingly and joyfully.

To wake at dawn with a winged heart and give thanks for another day of loving; to rest at the noon hour and meditate love’s ecstasy; to return home at eventide with gratitude; and then to sleep with a prayer for the beloved in your heart and a song of praise upon your lips.

 - KAHLIL GIBRAN, The Prophet - A Timeless Masterpiece

THE VEIL

 

I stood at the veil

As You were about to leave

Sorrowing that not all would believe.

 

I prayed for Father’s power

To protect Your gentle heart

From the blow that might tear You apart.

 

I knew my soul You would save

And all Your promises You would fulfil.

I stood at the veil, unable to leave,

Holding Your crown for You to receive.

 

I stood and waited that fateful day

In awe of what You did to pave the way.

I could scarcely comprehend

Your godly enduring might

I stood at the veil and gave You my heart.

 

-      CATHRYNE ALLEN

(Artist Unknown)