THE MEDIATOR

 

Advocate With the Father by LDS Bookstore

“Each of us lives on a kind of spiritual credit. One day the account will be closed, a settlement demanded. However casually we may view it now, when that day comes and the foreclosure is imminent, we will look around in restless agony for someone, anyone, to help us….

“Unless there is a mediator, unless we have a friend, the full weight of justice untampered, unsympathetic, must, positively must, fall on us. The full recompense for every transgression, however minor or however deep, will be exacted from us to the uttermost farthing.

“But know this: Truth, glorious trust, proclaims there is such a Mediator. ‘For there is one God, and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus’  (1 Timothy 2:5). Through Him mercy can be fully extended to each of us without offending the eternal law of justice. This truth is the very root of Christian doctrine.”

-          Boyd K. Packer, “The Mediator”  General Conference April 1977

 

Like a bird in flight

My sins ascend to Thee;

Rising from the ashes of mortality,

They seek Thy love to set them free.

- Cathryne Allen 

TRUSTING HIM

 

Behold Him The One Who Transforms

“On the night of the greatest suffering the world has ever known or will ever know, He said, “Pease I leave with you, my peace I give unto you….Let not your hearts be troubled, neither let it be afraid.” (John 14:26-27)

“I submit to you that may be one of the Saviour’s commandments that is, even in the hearts of otherwise faithful Latter-day Saints, almost universally disobeyed; and yet I wonder whether our resistance to this invitation could be anymore grievous to the Lord’s merciful heart.

“I can tell you this as a parent. As concerned as I would be if somewhere in their lives one of my children were seriously troubled or unhappy or disobedient,  I would be infinitely more devastated if I felt that at such a time that child could not trust me to help, or should feel his or her interest were unimportant to me or unsafe in my care.

“In that same spirit, I am convinced that none of us can appreciate how deeply it wounds the loving heart of the Saviour when He finds that His people do not feel confident in His care or secure in His hands or trust in His commandments.”

-          Elder Jeffrey R. Holland, Created For Greater Things, A Collection of Inspiring Quotes

 

You come to me to dispel the darkness

And embrace me in the splendour of Your light.

Even in the midst of Your Godly moments

You attend to the needs of my feeble heart.

I give my all to You who are

My wings of protection,

The Saviour of my soul,

The path to my eternal home.

 

- Cathryne Allen 

THE ONE

 

The One by Haley Miller

He is my Sovereign,

He is the king of all kings,

He is my wings of protection,

He is my everything.

 

-      Cathryne Allen 

THE ROBE OF HIS RIGHTEOUSNESS

 

Robe of Righteousness by Phil Mckay

“It was the custom for one fleeing for his life in the desert to seek protection in the tent of a great sheik, crying out, “Ana dakhiluka”, meaning ‘I am thy suppliant’, whereupon the host would place the hem of his robe over the guest's shoulder and declare him under his protection.

“In one instance in the Book of Mormon, we see Nephi fleeing from an evil enemy that is pursuing him. In great danger, he prays the Lord to give him an open road in the low way, to block his pursuers, and to make them stumble. He comes to the Lord as a suppliant: ‘O Lord wilt thou encircle me around in the robe of thy righteousness! O Lord, wilt thou make a way for mine escape before mine enemies! (2 Nephi 4:33).

“In reply, according to the ancient custom, the Master would place the hem of his robe protectively over the kneeling man’s shoulder (kafata). This puts him under the Lord’s protection from all enemies. They embrace in a close hug, as Arab chiefs still do: the Lord makes a place for him (see Alma 5:24) and invites him to sit down beside him – they are at-one.

“This is the imagery of the Atonement – the embrace. ‘The Lord hath redeemed my soul from hell; I have beheld his glory, and I am encircled about eternally in the arms of His love! (2 Nephi 1:15).

-          Hugh Nibley, “The Atonement of Jesus Christ, Part 1” Ensign July 1990

 

Your saving grace

Has lifted me to Your cross

Becoming my mortal weakness’ greatest foe.

I now walk with You

In paths I dare not walk alone;

In the valley of shadow of death,

I rejoice to be Your own. 

-      Cathryne Allen 

HIS SHEEP

 

Shepherd of My Soul by Gabriel Heaton

How grateful to know Your voice

In this world of utter despair

And hear it echo

In Your loving tender care.

 

How fiercely You watch,

How tenderly You care,

How safe You make me feel

Knowing You are ever there.

 

How grateful I am to be in Your flock,

How grateful to be in Your keep;

You are my shepherd

And I am Your sheep.

 

-      Cathryne Allen

 

THE GATHERING

 

Redeemer of Israel by LDS Bookstore

God intends to consummate the great latter-day work in five steps: 1. The literal gathering of Israel; 2. The restoration of the Ten Lost Tribes; 3. The building of Zion (the New Jerusalem) upon the American continent; 4. Christ’s personal reign upon the earth known as the Millenium; and 5. The renewal of the earth in its paradisical glory. (see Hugh Nibley, Approaching Zion, p 1-2)

We are currently engaged in the first step. The gathering began in 1836 when Moses, the great lawgiver of Israel, appeared in the Kirtland Temple to give Joseph Smith “the keys of the gathering of Israel from the four parts of the earth” (D&C 110:11).

What exactly is ‘the gathering’. It is proclaiming the Gospel of Jesus Christ to the nations of the earth for one reason: there is none else beside Him through whom salvation can come. There is none else in heaven above, or earth beneath or waters beneath the earth, nothing, nobody, nowhere, beside Him there is no saviour, there is none other name given under heaven save it be this Jesus Christ whereby man can be saved (Isaiah 43:10-11; 45,5,6,14,18,22; 46:9; Deut 4:35,39; 5:8; 1 kings 8:60, 2 Nephi 2:8; 25:20; 31:21; Moses 6:52; D&C 76:1)

To be gathered means to come into the fold of Christ and be baptized in His name. It means that all who will receive their salvation have to belong to the House of Israel, through Him who is the God of Israel. The tribes of Israel are being gathered from every nation where the Lord’s servants, under the direction of the Prophet of the Church, are able to go. This gathering is happening in fulfillment of Jeremiah’s prophecy:

“Therefore, behold, the days come, saith the Lord, that it shall no more be said, The Lord liveth, that brought up the children of Israel out of the land of Egypt; But, the Lord liveth, that brought up the children of Israel from the land of the north, and from all the lands whither he had driven them….Behold, I will send for many fishers, saith the Lord, and they shall fish them; and after will I send for many hunters, and they shall hunt them from every mountain, and from every hill, and out of the holes of the rocks….Hear the word of the Lord, O ye nations, and declare it in the isles afar off, and say, He that scattered Israel will gather him, and keep him, as a shepherd doth his flock.”  (Jeremiah 31:7,8,10-12)

As complete as was the scattering , so shall be the gathering of ‘treacherous Judah’  and  ‘backsliding Israel’ (Jeremiah 3:11): “Though smitten of men, a large part of them gone from a knowledge of the world, Israel are not lost unto their God. He knows whither they have been led or driven; toward them His heart still yearns with paternal love…” (James Talmage, Articles of Faith, p 328-9)

I know something of paternal love of Christ. After I was baptized into the Church at the tender age of 18, I had a very significant dream. In the dream, I was in a high rise building with my parents who opposed my baptism. As we conversed, there arose some commotion on the street below us. We hurried down to see the cause and as we reached our destination a white matter akin to snow fell on top of us. We had to burrow our way to the top. My parents never made it but I did. As I emerged I surveyed the street and saw it covered everywhere with exquisite whiteness. When I turned to my right I saw the Saviour coming towards me with His outstretched arms saying: “Where are my children?” I knew from that moment that my baptism was my re-birth and that through it, I belonged to Him.

When we are baptized we take upon ourselves the name of Christ and become His spiritually begotten children (Mosiah 5:7-12). The baptismal covenant instituted by Jesus himself during his ministry fulfilled the law of Moses and opened the way of spiritual re-birth and salvation for all by joining the House of Israel through baptism.  

When the scattering of the Ten Tribes happened, some members of these tribes were scattered throughout what we now know to be Europe. My patriarchal blessing tells me I am a true Israelite by birth being of ‘the seed of Abraham’. This is one of my most prized blessings of this life. It makes me grateful for my Croatian roots because I am one of the sheep of the House of Israel and I have come home to the Shepherd….

- CATHRYNE ALLEN 

THE SCATTERING

 

Jerusalem O Jerusalem by Greg Olsen

“In the desert of Sinai, Moses gathered the children of Israel at the foot of a mountain. There the Lord declared that he wanted to turn this group of recently liberated slaves into a mighty people. “Ye shall be unto me”, He said, “a kingdom of priests, and an holy nation” (Exodus 19:6). He promised that they would flourish and prosper, even when surrounded by larger, more powerful enemies.

“All this would happen not because the Israelites were numerous or strong or skillful. It would happen, the Lord explained, if they would “obey [His] voice indeed, and keep [His] covenant” (Exodus 19:5). God’s power, not their own, would make them mighty.

“Yet the Israelites didn’t always obey God’s voice, and over time they stopped keeping His covenant. Many worshipped other gods and adopted the practices of the cultures around them. They rejected the very thing that made them a distinct nation – their covenant relationship with the Lord. Without God’s power protecting them, there was nothing to stop their enemies (see 2 Kings 17:6-7; 2 Chronicles 36:12-20).” (Jesus Will Say to All Israel, Come Home, Come Follow Me For Home and Church, LDS Gospel Library, month of July)

Before Israelites entered the promised land  Moses prophesied they shall turn away from the worship of Jehovah and as a consequence be utterly destroyed and scattered among all nations (Deuteronomy 4:25-31).

This prophecy was fulfilled with the first dispersion of the Ten Tribes of the Southern Kingdom of Israel in 724 B.C. The King of Assyria besieged Samaria and after 3 years of the siege he carried the Ten Tribes into captivity.  A repentant portion of the Ten Tribes were led away by God into the north countries and will return at an appointed time. They are called the Ten Lost Tribes and are spoken of in the Apocrypha (2 Esdras 13:41-46; Jeremiah 3:18; 16:15; 31:8; 1 Nephi 22:4; 3 Nephi 17:4).

The Kingdom of Judah was led into Babylon by King Nebuchadnezzar in three main waves of exile: 1. 605 B.C. – all skilled and educated and less evil which included Daniel and his three friends; 2. 597 B.C. – the second and largest wave included the royal court and thousands of skilled craftsmen; 3. 586 B.C. – the third and most devastating wave, following the siege and destruction of Jerusalem and Solomon’s Temple.

The fourth and final wave was the most horrific of all. In the Olivet Discourse, Jesus prophesied to his disciples of the destruction of Jerusalem and the temple (see Matthew 24; Mark 13; Luke 21). This prophecy was fulfilled in 70 A.D. when Roman Emperor Titus marched into Jerusalem.

And this is the interesting part. I always thought that the Romans were the aggressors and villains who destroyed Jerusalem but it would seem that Titus didn’t have such a big job to do. When he arrived, he discovered that different factions of the Jewish population were at each other’s throats, destroying their food supplies and basically killing each other.

Titus summed up the situation beautifully. A trench was dug around Jerusalem to ensure isolation and make it difficult for people to get out past the walls to search for food. Whoever escaped the city was crucified.  When the food supplies ran out, a terrible famine struck the once opulent city and turned it into a scene of carnage and plunder. Even Titus was sick at heart at the daily horrors he witnessed or heard of. As the temple became a fort, Titus attacked it as such. It wasn’t long before fire was set to it and not one stone upon another was left, as Jesus foretold. Six thousand people perished in the flames of the temple and more than a million and a half of Jews perished in this war. Many were also sold into slavery and thus ‘scattered among all nations’ (see Smith and Sjodahl, Commentary, pp 260-261)

The scattering of the 12 Tribes of Israel is the greatest tragedy of this earth’s history. To be promised so much and to reject it defies logic. The scattering is also the greatest witness, bar the Atonement, of Jehovah’s mercy. He has promised He will never break His covenant with Israel (Deut 4:31; Leviticus 26:44,46; Isaiah 49:15,16; 2 Kings 13:23).

The gathering has commenced…..now is the time when “Jesus will say to all Israel, Come home”.

- CATHRYNE ALLEN