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)

BE SANCTIFIED

 

“It is the right of all members of the house of Israel to see their King and enjoy His presence. This is a specific promise to those who will sanctify themselves (D&C 50:45-46; 67:10; 93:1). Since the scriptures teach that no unclean thing can dwell in His presence (see Moses 6:57), it is clear that the Saints who are caught up to meet Him must be sanctified.”  (Doctrine & Covenants Student Manual, p 336)

Sanctification is the second step in our preparation for the Second Coming as per D&C 133:4. The purpose of sanctification is to have our minds become single to God, through our repentance, so that we can be purified by the power of the Holy Ghost (D&C 88:68). Without sanctification we cannot be in Christ’s presence or the presence of the Father.

The Book of Mormon states that we can be ‘sanctified in Christ by the grace of God’ and that sanctification comes as a result of yielding our hearts to God through prayer, fasting and humility (see Helaman 3:35 and Moroni 10:33). However, repentance plays a major part in this  process because it leads to forgiveness which leads to sanctification. But not just any repentance:

“To every forgiveness there is a condition. The plaster must be as wide as the sore. The fasting, the prayers, the humility must be equal to or greater than the sin. There must be a broken heart and a contrite spirit. There must be ‘sackcloth and ashes’. There must be tears and genuine change of heart. There must be conviction of the sin, abandonment of the evil, confession of the error to properly constituted authorities of the Lord. There must be restitution and a confirmed, determined change of pace, direction and destination.”  (Spencer W. Kimball, “The Miracle of Forgiveness”, p 353)

A broken heart and a contrite spirit means ‘godly sorrow’ and not just abandonment of sin. It is going through godly sorrow that we lose the inclination to sin (see Alma 13:12 and 2 Nephi 4:31). Not that temptation no longer exists, because that is the nature of this fallen world, but we no longer seek it or are attracted by it (D&C 20:33-34). Because our hearts have been changed we have ‘no more disposition to do evil’ (Mosiah 5:2)

Imagine living in your finest outfit for a long time without changing. Imagine the collected dirt. Even though you realise where you’ve gone wrong and have made that outfit dirty, and you now try all you can to avoid adding more dirt, you are still dirty. The outfit needs to be washed to match your new life-style. This is what sanctification does. It washes you clean so you can be the new you.

Grant me the strength dear Saviour

To embrace the grandeur of my eternal goal,

That I might sin less and obey more.

Thou who art the deliverer of my soul,

May glory be Thine forever more.

- CATHRYNE ALLEN 

(Artist Unknown)

A PERSONAL GOD

 

I came across a comment recently on YouTube by a well-meaning Catholic man who admonished us to repent and to ask “our Lady of Fatima to pray for us and give our hearts to her as an offering to the Lord”.

I asked this person who this lady is and why we should pray to her. He gave a short description of her but never said why we should pray to her. I concluded that he himself didn’t know, only that his religion has taught him to do it, and I sorrowed that this man might never come to know God in this life.  

I have over the years expressed many times my gratitude to God for the truth that I have in my life. This truth has come to me by way of the restored Gospel of Jesus Christ which has taught me to have a personal relationship with God.

Until the recent years, the Saviour was in the forefront of my mind. He was all that I could see. Now who I see first and foremost is the Father. This has always meant to be so. The Church brings us to Christ and Christ brings us to the Father. Revealing the Father and making Him personal to us was one of the main purposes of the Saviour’s ministry among men (see Jeffrey R. Holland, “The Grandeur of God”, October 2003 GC)

Now when I pray to the Father I feel such closeness to Him that I yearn for His presence. This I believe is the culmination of years and years of yielding my heart to His Son. I also believe that yearning for the Father’s presence is the true and higher purpose of prayer.

This yearning was so strong in me one day as I prayed that immense fear gripped me that I might not ever enjoy being in His presence again. This opened the visual vista of being lost and living eternally with loneliness and unfulfilled longing. But then hope came to me so forcefully because what followed that fear was the deepest understanding I have ever received of the Atonement of Jesus Christ which filled me with inexpressible joy.

This time my understanding of this crucial Gospel principle was not educational, theological or intellectual but something so personal that it made God more real to me than ever before. I felt rescued and saved from eternal damnation. I understood what Jesus had done for me. That moment in my life was the beginning to my ever-growing desire to please the Father and be a source of joy and delight to Him.

It should sear our hearts when we read of Him weeping over His disobedient children (Moses 7:28,29). On Judgement Day, those who refused the redemption of Christ will know the deepest sorrow known to man. They will long for the Father they once knew and loved. Imagine the sorrow the Father too will know in that moment. It should be the quest of our lives to never allow Him to experience this…..but so live that we will make up for His loss.

When my days on earth are done

I will lift above the world below

And I will seek the gilded gate

To welcome me to my eternal home.

 

I will approach the foot of His throne,

I will kneel and I will weep

When in hope I give Him joy

For eternity to keep.

- CATHRYNE ALLEN

(Art: Father and Son by Danny Hahlbohm)

LIAHONA

 

I have a ‘rearview mirror syndrome’. I am forever evaluating and re-evaluating my life to see if I had followed God’s plan for me properly or if I have missed opportunities to make my life better or if I have plain and simple, made blunders. The dictionary defines this word as a stupid or careless mistake. I know I have been faithful to God’s commandments my entire life but it’s those finer things that always have me questioning. It doesn’t help that I am an idealist and a perfectionist which is a double challenge to live with and be kind to yourself at the same time.

I am fascinated with Alma’s insight into the function of the Liahona, a compass prepared by God and given to Lehi and his family which was to guide them to the promised land (Alma 37:38). The first point of interest is that the Liahona didn’t work without any effort of the people who possessed it. There had to be faith in God for the compass to work (v 40). The second was that Lehi’s company became ‘slothful’ in exercising their faith hence the eight years of travel in the wilderness where they suffered hunger and thirst (v 42). The inference here is that they would have travelled the direct course and avoided the affliction they suffered had they not become complacent about their faith in God. No doubt, however, the journey would still have been difficult enough through a desert "so compelling that even the hardened Bedouins avoid like the plague...detestable certainly describes the place in the eyes of Lehi's people, who 'murmured' bitterly at being led into such a hell." (Hugh Nibley, Lehi In the Desert, p 51). It was not, however, necessary to wander in this wilderness for eight years suffering constant hunger, being the rule of the desert; danger from encounter with ever warring Arab tribes; loneliness from isolation; taxing marches down the Arabian Peninsula and fear from possible camp raiders. The lesson here is that we make our lives harder sometimes than they need to be. Isn’t life hard enough without us complicating it more through complacency and disobedience?

Alma’s most powerful insight came as he compared ‘the words of Christ’ to the Liahona (v 44-45). He pointed out that the way which has been prepared for us to obtain eternal life is the easy part. Our complacency and slothfulness in being observant of Christ’s words, and living by them, will not make our life’s journey as easy as it could be, but if we will ‘look’ on Him as the Liahona of our lives, we will ‘live forever’ (v 46)

I guess it comes down to what we ultimately want. Some of us are content to wander through this life and never arrive at our destination. Some of us are content to live in the wilderness. If only we could have a glimpse of the destiny which awaits us. We are told that ‘the glory of the telestial world surpasses all understanding’ (D&C 76:89). Imagine what life with God the Father and His Son would be like. I don’t think we are capable of that kind of imagination. We shouldn’t want to imagine it anyway, we should want to live it.

I long to be where I once was,

To return to my eternal home.

I long to see the God of love

And with Him walk the heaven’s floor.

 

- CATHRYNE ALLEN

(Art: Guiding Light A Serene Encounter by Ivan Guaderrama)

LONGING

 

I long to be where I once was,

A child in my eternal home.

I long to see the God of love

And with Him walk the heaven’s floor.

The most endearing thing that Alma said about his miraculous conversion was this: “……I saw, even as our father Lehi saw, God sitting upon his throne, surrounded with numberless concourses of angels, in the attitude of singing and praising their God; yea,  AND MY SOUL DID LONG TO BE THERE” (Alma 36:22).

I often think that it’s just as well we cannot remember our Father in Heaven vividly else we would not be able to endure being here in this dismal world of sorrow and pain and wickedness. My mind reverts to the rebellious Cain who was pained at the very thought of not seeing God’s face again when he was banished from His presence. I can just hear the desperation in these words: “….from thy face shall I be hid…..my punishment is greater than I can bear” (Genesis 4:13,14).

I am certain that Alma’s conversion had such a strong bearing on him because of his godly suffering for his sins but I am also certain that longing to be in God’s presence was a great motivator for the rest of his life. His drive to cry repentance to others so they can be spared of suffering for their sins was no doubt aided also by his desire to bring them back into God’s embrace else why would he have  exclaimed: “O that I were an angel, and could have the wish of mine heart, that I might go forth and speak with the trump of God, with a voice to shake the earth, and cry repentance unto every people!” (Alma 29:1).

The longing can be ours for the taking if we draw ever closer to the Father and His Beloved Son as we live the Gospel and are recipients of His spirit on daily basis. The closer we draw to Him, the greater the frequency of enjoying His spirit which will make Him a reality we will long for. May we not be found saying on Judgment Day: from thy face shall I be hid, my punishment is greater than I can bear…..

- CATHRYNE ALLEN 

(Art: He Lifts Me Up by Danny Hahlbohm)