SINS

 

Be Happy by Greg Collins

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 

STEWARDSHIP

Worlds Without Number by Greg Olsen

I was born and raised in Croatia. I come from generations of poor peasants who lived under the feudal system and socialism. They never owned the land that they worked and produced on. Under both regimes, the land belonged to either the local aristocracy or the government. They worked for their survival and not for riches. They were not owners but stewards.

Today we, in the free world, get possessive of everything we produce through the workmanship of our hands and the sweat of our brows and we fail to recognise that we do so on borrowed land and borrowed time. In doing this we fail to acknowledge a greater power than us and pride fills us with misguided self-importance and wrongful ownership.  Isaiah put this in proper perspective when he reminded us who the real owner is of everything we produce here:

“I have made the earth, and created man upon it: I, even my hands, have stretched out the heavens, and all their host have I commanded.” (Isaiah 45:12).

When we recognise and acknowledge the Creator of this earth, what we once considered ownership becomes our ‘stewardship’. We come to see the rightful owner. Consider the confirmation of this truth through modern day revelation:

“For it is expedient that I, the Lord, should make every man accountable, as a steward over earthly blessings, which I have made and prepared for my creatures. I, the Lord, stretched out the heavens, and built the earth, my very handiwork; and all things therein are mine.” (D&C 104:13,14). And then the warning: “And let not any among you say that it is his own; for it shall not be called his, nor any part of it.” (v 70)

It astounds me how much crime and fraud is rampant in our society because of selfishness, greed and obsession over property that is not even ours. Another crime being committed is the exploitation of the planet earth we live on. When one day we come to understand that all we have here belongs to God, these sins will cease. This will be the condition we will live in during the Millenium.

In April 1982, the LDS scholar and professor of BYU, Hugh Nibley, gave an excellent talk entitled “Work We Must, but the Lunch is Free”. It highlights perfectly how our attitude of ‘ownership’ as opposed to ‘stewardship’ derails us from our true purpose for which we have been sent here:

“We have been permitted to come here to go to school, to acquire certain knowledge and take a number of tests to prepare us for greater things hereafter. This whole life, in fact, is a “state of probation” (2 Nephi 2:21). While we are at school our generous patron has provided us with all the necessities of living that we will need to carry us through. Imagine, then, that at the end of the first school year your kind benefactor pays the school a visit. He meets you and asks you how you are doing. “Oh,” you say, “I am doing very well, thanks to your bounty.”

“Are you studying a lot?” “Yes, I am making good progress.” “What subjects are you studying?” “Oh, I am studying courses in how to get more lunch.” “You study that? All the time?” “Yes. I thought of studying some other subjects. Indeed I would love to study them – some of them are so fascinating! – but after all it’s the bread-and-butter courses that count. This is the real world, you know. There is no free lunch.” “But my dear boy, I’m providing you with that right now.” “Yes, for the time being, and I am grateful – but my purpose in life is to get more and better lunches; I want to go right to the top – the executive suite, the Marriott lunch.” (Hugh Nibley, Approaching Zion, p 211)

Now consider the imposter who derails us from our purpose and convinces us that the toil of our hands to procure more lunch is our primary purpose. This imposter has been playing at being an employer since the days of Adam and Eve and in turn us, their posterity, by trying to convince us to work for him:

“The first employer offers us lunch, and since lunch is something everybody must have, he is in a powerful position to bargain. He explains [to Adam and Eve] that this glorious earth is his private estate, that it all belongs to him to the ends thereof, in particular he owns the mineral rights and the media of exchange, by the control of which he enjoys the willing co-operation of the military, ecclesiastical, and political establishments, and rules with magnificent uproar.

“He keeps everything under tight control, though, for all the blood and horror – nobody makes any trouble in his world from the rivers to the ends thereof….. for he claims to be the God of this world, and the Lord himself grants him the title of Prince of this World. All who are not working for him on his estate he charges with trespassing…..

“To have merely sufficient for your needs, however, is not what he has in mind – that would be the equivalent of the free lunch, lamely ignoring the endless possibilities for acquiring power and gain that the place offers; this developer has a vision of unlimited sweep and power – “You can have anything in this world for money!” Beginning, of course, with lunch. Because money is the only thing that will get you lunch – and since everybody must have lunch, that is the secret of his control.”  (ibid p 209)

If we do not allow the God of heaven and earth to direct our course in this life, His enemy will. The adversary will do anything he can to convince us that this is his world and while we are in it, we belong to him and his values. He is not the creator, nor the owner, he is the steward of deception.

 

- CATHRYNE ALLEN 

 

 

PROVERBS AND ECCLESIASTES

 

Light Vessel by Annie Henrie Nader

It is important to consider three practical things when studying these two books of scripture:

 

1.      The wisdom given in these books is wisdom that is applicable to this life only.  It is wisdom from a worldly perspective meant to aid us in earthly life. When Ecclesiastes repeatedly says 'under the sun', he is meaning he is intentionally restricting his point of view to this world;

2.      The reason we need to apply wisdom 'under the sun' is because everything is 'vanity'. 'Vanity' in Ecclesiastes means transitory or fleeting, thus the repeated and frequent use of this word denotes that he who applies wisdom in his life is wise, for this life is fleeting and will one day come to an end (Bible Dictionary, s.v. "Ecclesiastes");

3.      Wisdom in these two books of scripture is allegorized as a woman because the word 'wisdom' is feminine in gender thus an adulterous woman in Proverbs is a metaphor for foolishness as foolishness is the opposite of wisdom.

 

The most valuable lesson we can take away from Proverbs and Ecclesiastes is the admonition 'to trust in the Lord with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding' (Prov. 3:5). This is true wisdom.  

 

The italic preface to chapter 8 of Proverbs tells us that 'the Lord and the sons of men possessed wisdom in premortal life'. 'Sons of men' refers to anyone who has been born in mortality, in other words, earthly beings.

 

The wisdom we possessed in premortal life enabled us to choose the Firstborn as our Saviour and to fight the forces of evil opposed to the Father's plan. Now that we are living on the other side of the veil, wisdom is once again needed to enable us to trust the choice we made so long ago. In this respect wisdom and trust go hand in hand. One day when this fleeting existence is ended we will have to account for our use of wisdom by which we conducted our mortal lives.

 

The other side of our trust in the Lord is His trust in us: "The Lord wants us to trust  him, but He also wants to be able to trust us. One of our great prophet leaders said, 'To be trusted is a greater compliment than to be loved' (David O. Mckay, "Character", True To The Faith, Bookcraft, 1966, p. 274).

 

One of the principal purposes of this life is to find out if the Lord can trust us: “One of our familiar scriptures says, 'And we will prove them herewith, to see if they will do all things whatsoever the Lord their God shall command them' (Abraham 3:25). We are destined to be tried, tested, and proven during our sojourn on earth to see if we are trustworthy” (Robert E Wells, "The Cs of Spirituality", Ensign Nov 1978, p 24).

 

I tend to agree with the importance of trust. I receive a great boost of self-esteem when I attend to my responsibilities which are based on this principle. I learnt about this in great detail many years ago. One of the self-help gurus I used to follow impressed upon me how much she loves paying her bills. I was taken aback by it but she assured her readers that paying her bills increased her self-respect because whenever she paid a bill it affirmed to her that the person who provided her with a service trusted her to pay for it.

Even though I always paid my bills, I had never considered this concept before but I took it to heart and have seen the benefits of it. To this day I pay all my bills with cheerfulness and on time. I am never late paying anyone. Whenever I pay what I owe straight away it not only makes me feel good about my trustworthy character, but it tells me that I am not poor. I come from a poor family so not feeling poor goes a long way with me.

I love that I can be trusted. This principle has infiltrated my spiritual life too. The importance of being trusted has helped me to stay true to my convictions and my testimony of the Gospel. I honour the witnesses I have received from the Holy Ghost regarding Gospel truths to the point of stubbornness. Whereas I don’t hold it against people who move away from the Church, I often cannot understand how they can be baptised promising to join the body of Christ and not following through.  

I have a great desire to meet God one day with a pure heart, having honoured all my covenants with Him and having done all I could to obey His commandments. I have sacrificed much over the years to make this desire a reality.

I marvel that You could perceive

every thought of my heart,

Long before you gifted one to me;

That you trusted my will to obey

With You so dim in my memory.

I stand amazed at Your sufferance

Of the struggling sinner like me,

And the steadfast flow of help You bestow

From the merciful heart that is in Thee.

- CATHRYNE ALLEN 

LONGING FOR HOME

 

I Am The Light of the World by Mindi Oaten

How I long to see Your face

And to come home to You;

To feel our souls knit together

As I know You want this too.

 

Lift me above this world of doom

Show me the wider view

Where our eternal home awaits me

And the splendour and love of You!

-      Cathryne Allen 

OUR PURPOSE

 

Jehovah Creates the Earth by Walter Rane

All suffering and all endurance of this life denotes the very purpose of God, to exalt his children. All that is asked of us, our sacrifices, our suffering, our difficulties, our development and our progression is God’s work and His glory, “to bring to pass the immortality and eternal life of man” (Moses 1:7). The next level of our purpose in life is to become gods ourselves.

This is a hard doctrine for many people to believe that mere man can rise to such stature. I once wrote on Facebook that God’s purpose is to exalt His children to godhood and enraged one reader who claimed there is only one God and ever will be and therefore we are a Church of blasphemy. The funny thing is, deep down in us are seeds of the very idea. I have been watching a lot of AI generated historical periods. The Roman Empire in particular is a very interesting time. Everybody it seemed was vying for the position of pharaoh even though the risk of being murdered was exceptionally high. The most interesting thing is that many pharaohs proclaimed themselves to be gods.

When Moses encountered God on Mt Sinai, God showed him all the worlds He had made and Moses was astonished and proclaimed: “Now, for this cause I know that man is nothing, which thing I never had supposed” (Moses 1:10). Having been raised in an Egyptian court, Moses was trained to believe there is none greater than the Pharoah….until he saw God and what He can do and by this he concluded that man is nothing. God then repeated the vision of all His works to ensure that Moses understood the purpose of all His creations was to exalt His children (Moses 1:7).

To rise to such heights as godhood, the price has to be paid. The Saviour has paved the way but He could not make us godly. Only we can do that by accepting all the tutoring that God will give and all that we will give in return.

We are told that: 1. we must be chastened and tried, even as Abraham was, who was commanded to offer up his only son and if we will not endure chastening but deny God, we cannot be sanctified (D&C 101:4-5); and 2. We will be proven in all things even unto death by abiding in His covenant (D&C 98:12-15).

“This seems like such a high standard. Why must one be tested and chastened before he can be sanctified? Why can a person not be worthy of God unless he is willing to abide in the covenant even to death? To understand these questions and to gain greater insight into why Abraham had to prove himself, think in the eternal perspective for a moment. Imagine the disastrous consequences of making a person a god who was not perfect in every respect.

“How would the universe survive if it were controlled by a god who could not withstand even intense pressure? Where would we be now if our God had not been disposed to endure the suffering of seeing His Only Begotten Son go to the cross? If Abraham had failed his test, he would have lost his position.

“If God the Father had failed the same test there would have been no Atonement and all mankind would have “become subject to that angel who fell from before the presence of the Eternal God, and became the devil….And our spirits must have become like unto him, and we become devils….to be shut out from the presence of our God.” (2 Nephi 9:8-9)

-          (Old Testament Student Manual, Genesis – 2 Samuel, p 79)

In other words, we must give our all for God to give His all…..the bar is high but help is near and the eternal in us yearns to be more than this mortal sphere can give us. The Saviour made sure our purpose has an eternal destination.

 

If not for You,

Where would I be?

I would belong to the enemy.

 

If not for You,

Where would I be?

I would be lost in obscurity.

 

If not for You,

Where would I be?

As death would claim me for eternity.

- CATHRYNE ALLEN 

THE SCHOOLMASTER

 

Day 6 of Creation by Nathan Greene

“We will acknowledge someday, before God and all his children, that life on this earth, that which we longed for as premortal spirits desiring mortality, was the perfect school for our development. Though the curriculum was exacting, the tests were more than adequately supervised by the schoolmaster. Though the homework was extensive, again our teacher was our constant support.” (Jerry A. Wilson, The Great Plan of Happiness – Insights From the Lectures on Faith, p 75)

Looking back on Job’s life and considering the perfection of his character, it is obvious that the test of his life had to equal the stature of the man otherwise it would not have qualified as a test. I don’t know how long Job’s test of faith lasted. The Bible does not tell us the exact length though most biblical scholars and estimates suggest it lasted anywhere from several months to under a year, composed of these timeline clues:

-          Initial Losses: Job’s sudden loss of children and livestock happened rapidly, unfolding over a single catastrophic day (Job 1:13-19)

-          The Silent Mourning: Job’s three friends sat with him in silence for seven days and seven nights after seeing his physical affliction (Job 2:13)

-          Months of Suffering: Job laments in Job 7:3 that he has been allotted ‘months of futility’ and wearisome nights, suggesting his physical misery lasted a prolonged period.

-          The Discourses: Time passed during the lengthy back-and-forth dialogue between Job and his friends, followed by Elihu’s speeches and God speaking from the whirlwind (Job 38-41).

I have looked back to the greatest test of my faith and have been amazed to discover how perfectly fitted it was to me even though I would never want to repeat anything like that. This test of faith challenged my best attribute and my very essence of being and who I am. I have only just now discovered how intricate the schoolmaster has been with me. The attribute that was tested also happens to be my biggest strength that has kept me active in the Church and ensured my obedience to the Gospel.

The test that I passed lasted much longer than Job’s. It lasted for 11 years and in fact added another 30 years of ensued issues and fears that needed to be resolved. This has been my extensive homework that has made my life difficult but has in the process developed the strength of character I will carry with me into eternity.

The teacher has indeed been my constant support and has because of my endurance granted me the wish of my heart….to keep me in His sight.

 

I failed to understand

Why such deep trials in my life,

I expected much better in my arrogant pride.

How merciful You were Father

To help me see the purpose of the tide;

That through my bruised and aching heart

You kept me by Your loving side.

- CATHRYNE ALLEN 

THE MIGHTY JOB 3

 

Do You Trust Me by Yongsung Kim

I have written nine blogs about Job over the years but this year as I re-visited his story, I felt that I had missed the crux of his experience. It pierced my heart because it related to me in a personal way.

To recap, Job went from fabulous wealth, exquisite righteousness and being a pinnacle of society to living in rags on the outskirts of the city, in constant pain but remaining devoted to God.

Refusing to curse God and die, Job lost the support of his wife and through the merciless scorn of Job’s self-proclaimed integrity, his friends offered no support. Through it all, Job stood firm defending God. The more they opposed his strength, the more Job praised God insisting ‘with Him is wisdom and strength’ (Job 12:10-24). And in his sorrow, he exclaimed: “My friends scorn me: but mine eye poureth out tears unto God” (Job 16:20).

It’s the tears that get me because in the midst of his repeated pleading to God, the heavens remained silent:

“…..as we know, silence had become part of the test. But what a problem this posed for Job. Deep, depressing darkness cowed him by its awful blackness and terrified him by its pervasiveness. Listen to his anguished plea with the Lord for soul-relief, relief that included an answer to his persistent but continually unanswered question: Why? Why? Why? Wherefore hidest thou thy face, and holdest me for thine enemy? (Job 13:20-24)…..He hath fenced up my way that I cannot pass, and he hath set darkness in my paths (19:6-8) (Keith H. Meservy, Job, Yet Will I Trust In Him, pp 139-53)

Job’s greatest pain was not losing his children, his health or his wealth but the betrayal he felt as God turned away from his suffering.

In Lecture 3 of Lectures on Faith, Joseph Smith said that there are three things necessary 'in order that any rational or intelligent being may exercise faith in God unto life and salvation': 1. The idea that God actually exists; 2.  A correct idea of his character, perfections and attributes; 3.  An actual knowledge that the course of life he is pursuing is according to His will.

The Book of Job proves this teaching to be true. To exercise true faith and endure in faithfulness one must be convinced that God exists, have knowledge of His character to foster hope for deliverance and salvation and be assured that his life is acceptable to Him. All three necessary attributes listed above are reflected in Job's life.

When he proclaimed "I know that my Redeemer liveth" (19:25), he was basically bearing testimony of His existence. When he said, "Though He slay me, yet will I trust in Him" (13:15) is a clear indication that he knew of God’s merciful nature, His power and His strength (26:6-14).  Job also knew that the life he was living was according to God's will and this he proved by recounting his good deeds ((29:12-17) and by asserting his righteousness (27:2-6).

What hurt Job the most was God’s silence. He had lived a perfect life, he believed in God, he knew him and yet God was silent. He was a good person and he had done all.  How many times do we come across scriptures that say God is merciful, and He will answer our every prayer and yet at the most crucial time of our lives, we feel abandoned by Him and experience the silence?

How abandoned and rejected Job must have felt. The disdain of his friends was bad enough as was the lack of support from his wife but to be shunned by God was the end of the line. He had nowhere else to go for relief and understanding.  The only place he could go from there was to wish for death (Job 3:3; 10:1). Job was not just alone, he was utterly alone. Many of us understand this place. Yet still in the midst of his longing for the end, Job remained steadfast and in the end he heard the voice of Jehovah ‘out of the whirlwind’ which revived his soul and confirmed the greatness of God who watched over him still (see Job 38).

I remember my tears to God some years ago about facing my trials alone when He answered me: “was it you or I who suffered at Calvary?” I understood back then the lonely road He had travelled in mortality all the way to the cross, abandoned by His friends who ran from Him and betrayed Him and His countrymen who rejected Him. And then the Father’s withdrawal and silence. How utterly, utterly alone the Saviour must have felt in His most crucial moment at Calvary. Those who would be Christ’s have to know ‘the fellowship of His sufferings’ (see Philippians 3:8-10).

What Job did not foresee in the midst of his suffering was that his life would take a turn for the better, and he would be recompensed for not turning his back on one greater than him. His trust in God’s mercy  did come as 'the Lord blessed the latter end of Job more than his beginning' (Job 42:12). Job lived another 140 years in prosperity and wellness after the trial of his faith. Would he have ever imagined in the mire of his pain such a glorious ending to his life if he had cursed God and died???

ODE TO JOB

You sank so deep

Into the mire of your pain;

Nobody followed you

Nobody sang praises to your name.

 

You longed for the comfort

That nobody could give

But He who gave you life

In whom you believed still.

 

He stood and He waited until

In your hour of agony

You gloried in His name

And became my beacon of hope

that I can do the same.

- CATHRYNE ALLEN 

THE FINISH LINE

 

His Hand Is Stretched Out Still by Yongsung Kim

You warned me there would be mountains to climb

But promised there would be resting spots along the way;

You warned me of the subtle pitfalls

And how deep and wide the waters I would wade.

But you promised me Your hand in mine

Every minute of the day

And that You would meet me at the finish line

When I had conquered all there was to pay.

 

-       Cathryne Allen 

ETERNAL BOND

 

In His Tender Care by Jay Bryant Ward

The most comforting of LDS doctrine is one of family eternal bond, especially when it comes to death of children. There is no greater sorrow. It’s the unknown of what could have been had they lived.

The Prophet Joseph Smith and his wife, Emma, who had six of their eleven children die, had reason to ask why. The Prophet said: “I have meditated upon the subject, and asked the question, why is that infants, innocent children, are taken away from us, especially those that seem to be the most intelligent and interesting. The strongest reasons that present themselves to my mind are these: This world is a very wicked world…..The Lord takes many away, even in infancy, that they may escape the envy of man, and the sorrows and evils of this present world; they were too pure, too lovely, to live on earth; therefore, if rightly considered, instead of mourning we have reason to rejoice as they are delivered from evil, and we shall soon have them again. (Teachings of Presidents of the Church: Joseph Smith (2007), 177)

Emma lived almost 35 years after the martyrdom of her prophet-husband. A few days before she died she told her nurse, Elizabeth Revel, that Joseph had come to her in a vision and said: "'Emma, come with me, it is time for you to come with me'.

As Emma related it, she said, 'I put on my bonnet and my shawl and went with him; I did not think that it was anything unusual. I went with him into a mansion, and he showed me through the different apartments of that beautiful mansion'. And one room was the nursery.

In that nursery was a babe in the cradle. She said, 'I knew my babe, my Don Carlos that was taken from me'. She sprang forward, caught the child up in her arms and wept with joy over the child. When Emma recovered herself sufficiently, she turned to Joseph and said, 'Joseph, where are the rest of my children?'

He said to her, 'Emma, be patient and you shall have all of your children'. Then she saw standing by his side a personage of light, even the Lord Jesus Christ." (Gracia N. Jones, My Great-Great-Grandmother, Emma Hale Smith, Ensign Aug 1992)

And this is the most comforting doctrine of all:

“President Joseph F. Smith (1838-1918) lost many children to early deaths. He was comforted by the doctrine that little children would be resurrected as little children and raised to maturity by their righteous parents after the Resurrection. President Smith once shared the following: “Joseph Smith taught the doctrine that the infant child that was laid away in death would come up in the resurrection as a child; and, pointing to the mother of a lifeless child, he said to her: “You will have the joy, the pleasure and satisfaction of nurturing this child, after its resurrection until it reaches the full stature of its spirit.”

“There is restitution, there is growth, there is development, after the resurrection from death. I love this truth. It speaks volumes of happiness, of joy and gratitude to my soul. Thank the Lord he has revealed these principles to us.” (Teachings of Presidents of the Church: Joseph F. Smith (1998), 132)

Not only will little children reach full maturity, but they will also reach full exaltation. Abinadi taught that “little children also have eternal life” (Mosiah 15:25). The Prophet Joseph Smith taught that “you shall have your children, for they shall have eternal life, for their debt is paid.” (Teachings of Presidents of the Church: Joseph Smith (1998), 177)

We owe the payment of this debt to one man: our Creator, our God, our Saviour Jesus Christ. Gethsemane was not only the place of sweat but a place of tears. The payment for the Fall and the sins of the world was paid by the sweat and blood of Him who satisfied the law of justice but His tears flowed in the Garden of sorrow for all the broken hearts of grieving parents to this day.

- CATHRYNE ALLEN 

MERCY 2

 

In God's Care by Greg Collins

“We need mercy. Whether it is because of our “weakness and liability to sin” or for the trials we are called to pass through, we need the tempering mercy of God to sustain us. Both our weaknesses and our trials bring suffering, which are ameliorated by the compassion of God himself.

“A 1986 Guideposts magazine contains the story of a woman who discovered what she called “the nevertheless principle”. She had been facing a difficult experience with her husband’s having a malignant brain tumor. She said that in the midst of the experience, at a moment of her greatest pleading, God granted her a word in a moment of inspiration. This single word was nevertheless:

“I knew it had to be a special word, though I didn’t yet know it would become a life-style. I was sure only that it was a kind of promise. It was even a powerful little phrase: never the less.

“Never the less with God, no matter what. Always the most….Though doctors pronounced Jerry incurable, nevertheless, he would be gloriously healed. Perhaps not here on earth as we had all prayed. If Jerry’s physical body should die, nevertheless, he would go on living in another, greater dimension. (Marion Bond West, “One Simple Word from God”, p 12).

“The woman began researching this word in her Bible, finding it 90 times. Her story, simple but intriguing, has potential to lead any of us to the scriptures to find the “nevertheless” verses…..”nevertheless” verses in the scriptures quite often direct our attention to God’s mercy, such as:

“For I the Lord cannot look upon sin with the least degree of allowance: Nevertheless, he that repents and does the commandments of the Lord shall be forgiven (D&C 1:31-32)

“If the Lord could not look upon sin with the least degree of allowance, ‘period’ or ‘exclamation point’, then all of us would be lost. But since that scripture uses a semicolon, along with that merciful word nevertheless, you and I have hope, born of God’s mercy.”  (Jerry A. Wilson, The Great Plan of Happiness-Insights from the lectures on Faith, p 39-40)

I had a memory from my pre-earth life some years ago. I was sitting with the Saviour and He was saying to me: “I will save you and I will make up for everything.”

I think what He meant by the ‘making-up process’ is this: You will go through some tough spots and you will have to endure them but when you are alone, I will send you people who care; when you need understanding to help you cope, I will send you the Holy Ghost to teach you; when you need somewhere to lay down your head, I will provide a shelter for you. You will be hurting, you will be impoverished, you will be sick, nevertheless I will always be there…..this is mercy.

I can testify that this has come true for me. Over the years of my difficult life, I have lacked for nothing: I have been provided with friends that became my family, a network of help from the Church, anything I have lacked has come to me from different sources…..furniture, car, utilities, homes….never the less, always the most…..

There is none like Thee,

My Saviour and my King,

Showing mercy and kindness

To someone insignificant like me.

Who can compare and who can equal Thee

In Thy merciful care of me?

Let me worship Thee

With my lips and my heart

And help me be steadfast

From Thy favour never to part.

- Cathryne Allen 

FATHER'S CHARGE

 

Soul's Surrender by Greg Collins

Long ago,

When you lived in my arms

You wanted to fly

In the vast expanse of the skies.

I gifted you wings,

And promised I would

Teach you to fly.

Just remember, I am here, but

It is your turn now,

To rise.

 

-      Cathryne Allen 

SEEKING HIS FACE

 

Arms of Faith by Yongsung Kim

Some days, Father, I cannot bear,

The absence of Your touch.

I cannot wait for Your embrace

That I have missed so very much.

 

In this abyss of worldly darkness

I stumble but I fall into the arms of Him

Who lifts me higher than I can go.

 

I fly to You, Father, on my wings of faith,

I sail through stormy skies,

Seeking for Thy face.

Look Father, no hands!

Only trust in these strong arms

Of my Saviour’s loving grace.

-      CATHRYNE ALLEN 

A VIEW OF ETERNITY

 

Joy Cometh In The Morning by LDS Bookstore

For years now I have tried to understand fully the necessity for suffering in mortality. From time to time different insights and portions of understanding have been given to me but recently I received what I consider an adequate and favourable theory of the same.

What came to me first is the reason for our lack of understanding of this subject. It is simply this: it is easy not to understand the here and now because we cannot see beyond this life to the rewards of the splendour of eternity and our eternal place within it.

There are three things I am very convinced of and the first is this. We could see the reward in our pre-earth life and we chose which level of the splendour we wanted  to live in for all eons of time. In other words, we chose there and then where we wanted to end up.

The second is that not everyone wanted godhood. We could see it when we made the choice but we could also see the responsibility of such a state of being and the high price attached to it. Some of us were more spiritually inclined than others and as such we sought for higher spiritual levels of intelligence and power that godhood could give us.

The third is this. Since we are not here to choose our eternal destiny, we are here to prove ourselves worthy of the choice we have already made. All kingdoms are kingdoms of glory and they all have degrees of splendour of eternity.

 And here is the wonder of eternity. The telestial kingdom, being the lowest, is a kingdom of glory that passes all understanding even though it is a kingdom where murderers, rapists, liars, adulterers and all manner of wicked people will go (D&C 76:89). It is also worth noticing that the inhabitants of only this kingdom will be as innumerable as the sand of the seashore (v 109). This is the kingdom for those who sought the ease and glory of earthly life. This is the kingdom that comes with the lowest price. But a price has to be paid even for this kingdom…..the souls who will inherit it will pass through hell to earn their place therein. This is outer darkness where they suffer torments of hell until their resurrection day following the Millenium (Alma 40:11-14; D&C 76:103-106; see also Bruce R. McConkie, Mormon Doctrine, pp 349-50)

And now the necessity for suffering. This life offers us something valuable that helps us prove we deserve the outcome we have chosen: our moral agency. Suffering reveals to us our true nature and refines within us the attributes needed through the exercise of our agency to become worthy of the splendour of our eternal reward. If we wanted godhood, our agency has to develop within us a godly character. Water meets its own level.

For years I have felt my life has been unjust. I have had to live through some major trials and the suffering has been acute. This week I made a list of all the growth I have experienced throughout my life and the qualities I have acquired through my choices to endure, trust, overcome, forgive…..qualities like compassion, love and tolerance. I have learnt mercy and even humility as I was brought down to the dust of the earth. One day I will kneel at the throne of my God and present these gifts as the greatest treasures I have come to own.

Herein is the mercy of two Gods: God the Father who sacrificed His best child for the lowest of His children, and God the Son who willingly submitted to that sacrifice. Honour and glory be theirs forever for the joy that awaits us…..

"In my Father's house are many mansions....I go to prepare a place for you." (John 14:2)

I pledged my life into thy hands

When by example you showed me how;

I promised my trials to endure

When I was with You and do so even now.

 

You dried my tears when I barely coped

And carried me when I could walk no more;

You fed me truths I needed to know

And nurtured my flight into the unknown.

 

As I promised to obey,

You promised we’d never part;

I remember, I remember

And carry it all

In the shadow of my heart.

 

- CATHRYNE ALLEN