The day you ploughed the sacred ground of my heart
You scattered Your seeds of love,
Like golden stars along the deepest night.
I water and nurture them gently,
To sow joy in the harvest of my heart.
- Cathryne Allen
Wednesday, 7 October 2026
THE SOWER
THE KING OF GLORY
“For
unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given: and the government shall be
upon his shoulder: and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, The
Mighty God, The everlasting Father, the Prince of Peace.
“Of
the increase of his government and peace there shall be no end, upon the throne
of David, and upon his kingdom, to order it, and to establish it with judgment
and with justice from henceforth even for ever. The zeal of the Lord of hosts
will perform this.” (Isaiah 9:6,7)
The
second part of the Messianic Hope promises the “King of Glory”, the prophecy of
which foretells the Second Coming of Christ when He will
subdue all enemies under His feet; put down all kingdoms, will sit on the
throne of David, and ‘the government shall be upon his shoulder’ (Isaiah 9:6). His
second advent will bring in one thousand years of His Millennial reign.
The period
of the Millenium will be so glorious it will overshadow the previous six
thousand years of the history of this earth. There will be no sorrow, sickness,
crime or death; all things will become new, the enmity between man and beast
will cease, the knowledge of the Lord shall flood the earth and all will be
revealed, even how the earth was made (D&C 101:23-34), Satan will be bound so
he can tempt no man (D&C 101:28) and the pure language of Adam will be
restored so that we can all serve Him ‘with one consent’ (Zephaniah 3:9).
And here is
something brilliant. When we think of the ‘Messianic prophecies’, we usually
think of the prophets and the scriptures, but in truth, every believer in
Christ has a part in these prophecies.
“Every
proper and perfect prayer uttered by a righteous man, woman, or child, from the
day Adam stepped through Eden’s portals into his lone and dreary habitation, to
the day the angelic hosts acclaimed the birth of God’s own Son, was in fact a
Messianic prophecy.
“The mere
saying, with sincerity and understanding, of the words of the prayer itself
constituted a Messianic affirmation…..thus witnessing that they knew that
salvation came through Him and His atoning blood.
“Similarly,
every true prayer today is a reaffirmation that Jesus is the Lord and that
through His blood the believing saints are redeemed.
“And so
with every baptism, every priesthood ordination, every patriarchal blessing,
every act of administering to the sick, every divine ordinance or performance
ordained of God, every sacrifice, symbolism, and similitude; all that God ever
gave to His people – all was ordained and established in such a way as to
testify of His Son and center the faith of believing people in Him and in the
redemption He was foreordained to make.
“The words
of those who have spoken of Christ since He lived upon this earth, and believed
in His coming, are ‘Messianic testimonies’……in fulfilment of the prophecies of
His birth and His Second Coming..”
(Bruce R. McConkie, The Promised Messiah, 26,27
And so every
testimony we bear of Christ, every prayer we utter, and every act done in His
name, affirms that Christ lived and that He will return. Each time we do so, we
confirm the fulfilment of the Messianic Prophecy of His birth and the Messianic
Hope of His Second Coming. Every man, woman and child who believes and lives
with expectation of salvation through His name, has the power of this prophecy.
If you are a believer, this is Christ’s promise to you:
“In
righteousness shalt thou be established: thou shalt be far from oppression; for
thou shalt not fear: and from terror; for it shall not come near thee….No
weapon that is formed against thee shall prosper; and every tongue that shall
rise against thee in judgment thou shalt condemn. This is the heritage of the
servants of the Lord, and their righteousness is of me, saith the Lord.” (see Isaiah
54:12-17)
One
day when You return
from
your glorious throne
In
Millenial splendour
Your
power to display;
I
will kneel and confess Your greatness;
I
will join the heavenly throng in song,
And
I will sorrow for the lost
For
whom You suffered for so long.
- CATHRYNE ALLEN
Tuesday, 6 October 2026
SINS
Like a bird in flight
My sins ascend to Thee;
Rising from the ashes of mortality,
They seek Thy love to set them free
That I might happy be.
- Cathryne Allen
THE SUFFERING SERVANT
Christ’s
salvation for mankind has been taught through the prophets from the beginning
of time. This is called the Messianic Hope. And hope it certainly is…hope of
redemption from the fall, sanctification from sin, justification to reconcile
us with the Father. Isaiah prophesied of the Messiah in a dualistic manner which
the Jews either didn’t understand or they ignored because their ignorance
brought the Saviour to the cross.
Isaiah
prophesied of the ‘suffering servant’ in Isaiah 53 who would be a ‘man of
sorrows’ (v3); one who stands ‘as a sheep before her shearers’ (v7); and one
who takes our transgressions upon Himself. The ‘suffering servant’ foretells
the first advent and mortal life of Christ which was to offer spiritual
deliverance of His people.
The
other picture of the Messiah that Isaiah painted was the “King of Glory”. This
title promises physical deliverance, political power, and the destruction of
Israel’s enemies. The “King of Glory”
prophecies foretell His second coming when He will subdue all Israel’s enemies
under His feet; put down all kingdoms; will sit on the throne of David; and
‘the government shall be upon his shoulder’ (Isaiah 9:6).
The
Jewish nation missed the importance of these two time periods and here is why. As
Israel toiled under the oppression of different ruling powers such as
Babylonians, Persians, Greeks, Ptolemies and Seleucids from 586 B.C. until 70
A.D., they hungered for liberation and their hope of the Messiah gained
political overtones. They wanted a Moses and a David, both of whom had
delivered them from their enemies and thus they discounted the prophecies of
the ‘suffering servant’. When Jesus came they recognised Him as the rightful
heir of David’s throne due to His lineage, but when He refused to take up the
sword against the Roman Empire, they used His refusal as proof that He could
not be the promised Deliverer.
This
is what blows my mind: the mortal life of Jesus was prophesied in such detail
that it is hard to believe the Jews were so blinded that they ‘looked beyond
the mark’ (Jacob 4:14) awaiting another Messiah. Among many here are some details of His mortal
life contained in ancient prophecies: he would be born in Bethlehem; He would
be preceded by a forerunner; His ministry would begin in Galilee; He would
teach in parables; He would perform miracles; His message would be rejected; He
would enter Jerusalem in triumph on the back of an ass; He would be sold for
thirty pieces of silver; smitten, spat upon and rejected. And the details of
His crucifixion in ancient prophecies are staggering.
The
Saviour’s death is a complex necessity to contemplate. I read a comment the
other day on social media which was accusatory of the Jewish nation and which
said: Jesus didn’t want to die. He was only 33 years old!” I suppose there are people in the world who
view the Saviour’s death as an unjustified murder because of our modern-day
standards. And unjustified it was but yet the most sacred, dignified and
necessary death in the history of mankind. I wondered what the person who made
that comment would think of Isaiah saying that it ‘pleased God to bruise His
Son and put him to grief ’….(Isaiah 53:10). Maybe she would be horrified at
that and would miss the rest of the scripture that says ‘his soul was made an
offering for sin’.
Elder
Melvin J. Ballard explained that it was not a pleasure on the Father’s part but
a sacrifice like no other to allow the murder and death of His Beloved Son:
“In
that hour I think I can see our dear Father behind the veil looking upon His
dying struggles until even he could not endure it any longer, and like the
mother who bids farewell to her dying child, has to be taken out of the room,
so as not to look upon the last struggles, so he bowed his head, and hid in
some part of his universe, his great heart almost breaking for the love that he
had for his Son.
“Oh,
in that moment when he might have saved his Son, I thank him and praise him
that he did not fail us, for he had not only the love of his Son in mind, but
he also had love for us. I rejoice that he did not interfere and that his love
for us made it possible for him to endure to look upon the sufferings of His
Son and give him finally to us, as our Saviour and our Redeemer.
“Without
him, without his sacrifice, we would have remained, and we would never have
come glorified into his presence. And so this is what it cost, in part, for our
Father in Heaven to give the gift of his Son unto men.” (Bryant S. Hinkcley, Sermons
and Missionary Services of Melvin Joseph Ballard, 154-155)
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
the foot of Your gilded throne.
-
Cathryne Allen
Monday, 5 October 2026
YOUR LIVING WORD
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
A CALL TO ZION
I call Chapter 51 of
Isaiah ‘a call to Zion’. This chapter is specifically directed to ‘the redeemed’
of the last days as is thus addressed:
“Hearken
unto me, ye that follow after righteousness, ye that seek the Lord… (v 1);
“Hearken
unto me, my people…..(v 4);
“Hearken unto me, ye that know righteousness, the people in whose heart is my law.. (v 7)
The ‘redeemed of the Lord’
are those who are of the Abrahamic covenant ‘as in the ancient days, in the
generations of old’ (v 1,9). They are called to ‘look unto Abraham your father
and unto Sarah that bare you, the rock from whence you are hewn” (v 1,2). Not
only is this a reference to our ancient parents of the covenant because they
were righteous and had set the path of example but because they provided the
path to the seeking of Zion which they themselves were devoted to :
“Abraham’s diligence in
seeking God is mentioned in the book of Abraham at the very point of his
departure from Haran when he will, a Hebrews say, go looking for the city with
foundations (Abraham 2:12). It is the same city, as scholars point out, that is
also referred to in the next chapter of Hebrews: “But ye are come unto mount
Zion, and unto the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to
innumerable company of angels, to the general assembly and church of the
firstborn” (Heb 12:22-23).
“When similar language is
used in latter-day scripture, it describes the people of Enoch. Those attaining
celestial glory are said to “come unto Mount Zion, and unto the city of the
living God, the heavenly place, the holiest of all. These are they who have
come to an innumerable company of angels, to the general assembly and church of
Enoch, and of the Firstborn” (D&C 76:66-67). Clearly Abraham was seeking
Enoch’s city of Zion.” (Bruce R. McConkie, Mormon Doctrine, 805)
That we are to prepare to
live a terrestrial life of the Millenial reign is evident by Isaiah 51:11 where
he says that ‘sorrow and mourning shall flee away and everlasting joy shall be
upon our heads’ (Isaiah 51:11). These are the conditions of the Millenium. Right
now we are in a telestial world. The Millenium will be a terrestrial existence.
It will be a lifestyle that will prepare the most righteous for a celestial
life, a life with God the Father. I am more convinced of it when I look at the City
of Enoch and its ascension to God.
There is a pattern that
we will follow during the Millenium to prepare us for the celestial life with
the Father, Eternal God, and this is it.
The
golden age of the City of Enoch is the blueprint of New Jerusalem, the modern
day Millenial Zion upon the American continent. Enoch’s city had another name:
the City of Holiness (Moses 7:19). There is only one reason why this city was
called the City of Holiness and that’s because ‘the Lord came and dwelt with
his people’ and ‘dwelt in the midst of Zion
(Moses 7:16;69). It was He who was the embodiment of holiness and not
its people. Much like He will be in New Jerusalem during the Millenium.
When the Saviour comes and
resides in New Jerusalem, “the need will disappear for the sun and the moon to
give light to God’s covenant people. The Lord Himself will be an everlasting
light…and all the city will be lighted up by the glory of His presence….”
(Orson Pratt, in “Journal of Discourses”, 14:355-56; see also D&C
133:57-58)
Because the Saviour was there
with the people of Enoch, they ‘were of one heart and one mind and dwelt in
righteousness and there was no poor among them’ (v 18). This description tells
us one thing: because the citizens of Zion were true followers of Christ, they
were endowed with His pure love.
Without the pure love of Christ
we can never become citizens of Celestial Kingdom. A Zion life-style prepares
us for this eventuality. And here is something we need to know. This pure love
is unique only to Christ. It is solely His kind of love. We do not possess it
and neither are we capable of developing it. His pure love is an endowment to
those who love Him and follow Him (Moroni 7:48). That’s the good news.
It took Enoch’s city 365 years of
‘walking with the Saviour’ to reach the state of holiness which ‘lifted them
up, even into the bosom of the Father and of the Son of Man’ (Moses 7:24,69).
Much like 1,000 Millenial years will prepare us for the same.
When the Saviour returns, those
who are spared will be those who are only ‘more’ righteous than those who will
not be spared, like the Nephites of old when he appeared to them after His
resurrection (3 Nephi 9:13). There will be no perfect people on earth when He
comes. Perfection only comes in and through Him. The Saviour will live with His
saints upon this earth for a thousand years to perfect them through His grace
and endow them with His pure love in preparation for the celestial realm.
When the Saviour returns, Enoch’s
city will return with Him to live with Zion, the New Jerusalem (Moses 7:62).
This is us. They will meet us there and “we will fall upon their necks, and
they shall fall upon our necks, and we will kiss each other” (Moses 7:63)….it
will be a meeting of hearts knit together with the pure love of Christ. The
Saviour is at the door….the Millennium imminent.
- CATHRYNE ALLEN
Sunday, 4 October 2026
LIFT ME UP
I look to Thee to lift me up
When into the depths of sorrow
I sink and comfort cannot find;
I look to Thee to lift me up
When nothing makes sense
In my troubled finite mind.
I look to Thee to lift me up
When forsaken I happen to be;
I look to Thee to lift me up
When trials seek to swallow me.
I will look to Thee to lift me up
When farewell I have to say,
Lift me up with tender mercies
In Thee is the light, the truth and the way.
- Cathryne Allen
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)