THE LIVING WORD

 

“For the gospel to be written in your heart, you need to know what it is and grow to understand it more fully. That means you will study it. When I say study, I mean something more than reading. For conversion you should care more about the amount of time you spend in the scriptures than about the amount you read in that time.

“I see you sometimes reading a few verses, stopping to ponder them, carefully reading the verses again, and as you think about what they mean, praying for understanding, asking questions in your mind, waiting for spiritual impressions, and writing down the impressions and insights that come so you can remember and learn more.

“Studying in this way….you will be giving place in your heart for the word of God, and He will be speaking to you. Remember Alma’s description of what it feels like: “It beginneth to enlarge my soul; yea, it beginneth to enlighten my understanding, yea, it beginneth to be delicious to me.”

“You will know that the gospel is being written in your heart, that your conversion is happening, as the word of the Lord from His prophets, past and present, feels more and more delicious to your soul.”

-          Elder D. Todd Christofferson, “When Thou Art Converted” April 2004 GC

I add my testimony to that of Alma and Elder Christofferson. I began to study the scriptures in earnest 30 years ago during the darkest time of my life. They became my lifeline……I would get lost for an hour or more every day as I pondered, searched and savoured how delicious those words became to my soul…..and in them I found more than I expected. I found the Saviour.  

In the Old Testament I saw the merciful Jehovah; in the New Testament I saw the loving Saviour; in the Book of Mormon I saw the promised Messiah; in the Doctrine and Covenants I saw the majestic Christ and in the Pearl of Great Price I saw the pre-mortal promise of salvation. I saw the whole of Him.

The scriptures are still my lifeline. It’s the place I go to whenever I want to hear Him speak……

I stand in awe of Your sacrifice

And Your soul’s pain;

The body freely given

For nothing of You to remain.

 

I ache, I ache,

Knowing the cost;

Then I read Your living word

And I am comforted

Knowing nothing is lost.

- CATHRYNE ALLEN 

(Art: Hosanna to God and the Lamb by LDS Art)

A GLORIOUS HOPE

 

“When we go out of this life, leave this body, we will desire to do many things we cannot do at all without the body. We will be seriously handicapped and we will long for the body; we will pray for early reunion with our bodies. We will know then what advantage it is to have a body….” (Melvin J. Ballard, “Crusade for Righteousness” p 213)

I have never much appreciated my body in until I entered the stage of prolonged bad health. Simple tasks became huge ordeals and successfully putting on socks came to be a triumph. I have longed to walk unassisted and to perform the simplest tasks with ease, the ones I used to take for granted.

The other day as I was struggling with my socks and its frustration, I came to understand the above quote. I could see how a spirit without a body he or she once experienced would feel without it. Indeed, we get a glimpse of that from President Joseph F. Smith’s vision of the spirit world which tells us that ‘the dead looked upon the long absence of their spirits from their bodies as a bondage’ (D&C 138:50). I began to appreciate that maybe my body is a privilege……

The other day I quoted Melvin J. Ballard who shared his conviction of our unreserved willingness to come to earth and obtain a body whether it be cripped, maimed, or deformed. I thought as I was struggling with my socks, surely those afflicted with such bodies would have regretted that choice. I know all about physical pain and limit of movement. I cannot imagine that to be my whole earthly experience.

Elder Ballard continued to express our pre-earthly knowledge of the necessity of a body for our ascension to godhood which enabled us to be centered on an eternal view rather than the sorrows and troubles of this life ("Sermons and Missionary Services of Melvin J. Ballard, p 179). Reconciling our pre-earthly perspective and the reality of living on this side of the veil is something of a challenge though.

In his last conference talk Elder Bednar spoke about enduring to the end and he connected to it a very necessary component, that of trust. It is something that has been on my mind of late. As I considered his talk I realized that this is the key to acceptance of earthly suffering and the power to endure to the end.

I realized my willingness to trust that my life is playing out according to God’s plan for me and my trust that what is to come in next life is imperative for my existence here and now.

And my ultimate trust comes with a hope which is this: to be faithful and valiant in my testimony of Jesus whilst in mortality with ‘a hope of a glorious resurrection, through the grace of God the Father and his Only Begotten Son, Jesus Christ’ (D&C 138:12-14)

Because the valleys do not

Lead to where I need to be,

You give me mountains to climb

To reach Your divinity.

 

You are so high

And my reach is so low.

To come to Your arms

I accept the mountains

That show me which way to go.

- CATHRYNE ALLEN 

(Art: Ponder Anew by LDS Book Store)

MOMENTS OF DESPAIR

 

When I feel forsaken

In my greatest moments of despair,

I yearn to feel You near me,

I wonder if You are there.

 

I know You are watching,

And whispering for me to know:

To know your strength to conquer,

Some moments you have to face alone.

I understand, it has to be so,

I faced mine at Calvary long ago.

- CATHRYNE ALLEN 

(Art: In the Wilderness by Ron DiCianni)

THE FOOT OF HIS THRONE

 

I carry my cross every day to the foot of Calvary

Where You carried yours so valiantly to the top;

I wait for You there to lift me

To meet You at the foot of Your gilded throne.

 - CATHRYNE ALLEN 

(Art: Behold the Man by Simon Dewey)

THE GOD OF VICTORY

 

As the children of Israel marched toward Canaan, their magnitude and size drove fear into the nations they encountered along the way. The most warlike nation they encountered inhabited the lands of Gobolitis and Petra and were called Amalekites (the descendants of Esau).

This is what the Amalekites saw: a formidable army of strangers, which by their strength, escaped the slavery of Egypt and which needed to be crushed before they came to be prosperous and take over the cities and all their goods…..therefore they had to be destroyed. (Josephus, “Jewish Antiquities” Book 3, Chapter 2:1).

The Amalekites made two big mistakes. The first was making the wrong assumption of the Hebrews which were ill prepared for war, who had nothing and only escaped Egypt through the strength of their God. The second mistake they made was cowardly attacking the rear end of the marching Israelites killing the feeble and the faint and the weary. This did not sit well with God who commanded the Israelites to “utterly put out the remembrance of Amalek from under heaven” (Exodus 17:14; The Old Testament Student Manual p 123).

This slaughter of their weak members drove incredible fear into the rest of the camp. Lucky for them they had one great advantage over all the other nations they would encounter in their sojourn. They had a living prophet among them. Moses exhorted his people to be courageous and to look upon their entire prosperity at the hands of God since they left Egypt and to believe that God will deliver them again (Josephus, "Jewish Antiquities" Book 3, 2:2).

Moses had a brilliant battle strategy: First, he appointed as the captain of the army a man of great courage, of great abilities and very serious in the worship of God, and very much like Moses who the people could have confidence in. Enter Joshua, the son of Nun, of the tribe of Ephraim. Secondly, he directed his brother Aaron and Miriam’s husband, Hur, to stand on each side of him and uphold his hands to be a beacon of God’s power which would ensure the victory (Exodus 17:8-13)

The children of Israel won that war, terrified the neighbouring nations and enriched themselves with the spoils, having not lost one soul while those of the enemy’s army were too many to be numbered (“Jewish Antiquities” p 117).

I wasn’t going to write about this part of the Israelite’s journey but I saw something very significant in it. I saw the importance of a living prophet who represents the one who stands at the head. The Israelites could never have made it to the promised land if they did not have a prophet holding his hands up invoking the power of Him who had said:  “….and ye shall know that I am the Lord your God” (Exodus 16:12)

Never in the history of the world have we needed a living prophet as much as we do now. The spiritual battle is raging, the evil power is the greatest it has ever been. The battle ground is fierce. Our promised land awaits but we need not fear.  I offer thanks this day that we have a prophet who is willing to hold up his hands to remind us we are led by the God of victory.

- CATHRYNE ALLEN 

(Artist Unknown)

SEEDS OF LOVE

 

I will scatter the seeds of Your love

Along humanity’s path

To feed the hungry souls

For many years;

Until each cared for soul

Will pave the trail of my happy tears.

- CATHRYNE ALLEN 

(Art: You Are Loved by Alex Kovych)

 

AN ETERNAL VIEW

 

"I am convinced that no soul has ever been whipped into this mortal existence; that each one of us came willingly, cheerfully, and gladly; even though we might have known that we were to inherit a body that was crippled, maimed, and deformed, still we were glad to come.....

“We knew that it meant sorrow, pain, and ultimately, death, and yet we rejoiced in the prospect to come. We saw beyond the valley of the shadow of death, with all of its pain, with all of its suffering, the grand vistas of the eternities, providing for man's eternal and endless progress, on, up and up, until we should attain unto what God is. Yet we knew that we could never ascend until we had descended and had been given a mortal tabernacle, and the union of the spirit and the body had become an accomplished fact.

“So by the attraction of it all we came gladly and willingly, for our eyes were not so much centred upon the sorrows and troubles of life as upon the grandness of that which lies beyond." (Melvin J. Ballard, "Sermons and Missionary Services of Melvin J. Ballard", p. 179)

 

Teach me dear God

to till my little plot of earth

And give me strength

To overcome the imperfections

of my mortal heart.

Teach me to look upward

And hope for the glories

That will one day be mine;

Help me to rise on wings of faith;

Lift me above valleys,

Mountains and seas

That I might forsake this world

And fly with haste to Thee.

- CATHRYNE ALLEN 

(Art: Homecoming by Danny Hahlbohm)