Did You ever feel the weight
Of Your calling as You spoke the Word
For heavens and earth to be?
From the valleys, the hills, the
oceans
And grand mountains that be,
You left Your mark of power for all to
see.
Were You heavy hearted
When You created the hill of Calvary?
And did You hear it whisper Your
victory
When You were in Your agony:
The mighty God, the Author of
Creation,
The fountain of all salvation…..
- CATHRYNE ALLEN
(Art: Jesus Christ the Creator by SKAI Studios)
The
most important element of the restoration of Christ’s Church through the
Prophet Joseph would have to be the priesthood. Elder Bruce R. McConkie spoke
in the October 1977 General Conference of the ten blessings of the priesthood.
Notice how many you can identify that relate to the priesthood ordinances in
the Church and consider the amazing privileges the priesthood represents for
all of us, married or not:
First,
being members of the Church and receiving the fulness of the everlasting
gospel;
Second,
receiving the gift of the Holy Ghost and the other gifts of the Spirit.
Third,
becoming sanctified by the Spirit, thereby becoming fit to dwell with God.
Fourth,
representing Jesus Christ in administering salvation to mankind.
Fifth,
becoming children of God in the family of the Lord Jesus Christ.
Sixth,
having the opportunity of eternal marriage, without which there is no
exaltation in the highest degree of the celestial kingdom.
Seventh,
having the power to govern all spiritual and temporal things.
Eight,
having power to gain eternal life, the greatness of all the gifts of God.
Ninth,
having power to make one’s calling and election sure while yet in mortality.
Tenth,
having the power and privilege, if pure in heart, to see the face of God while
yet in mortality.
-
(As
quoted by Bruce C. Hafen in “The Belonging Heart” p 213-4)
When
we consider that the author and the source of the priesthood is Christ himself,
the importance of it goes way beyond the privileges listed. When we participate
in the ordinances of the priesthood we inadvertently receive of His power and
influence in our lives. This is evident through the ritual of the sacrament
which promises His Spirit will be with us as we symbolically partake of His
body and His blood. (D&C 20:77).
It
is Christ’s power which sustains us in this life and prepares us for the next.
Without it there would be no salvation. The forgiveness which we are granted
through the Atonement and His suffering would be wasted if there was no
priesthood to move us along the path of progression to the eternal reward.
May
we remember this source of power next time we press the cup to our lips…..
- CATHRYNE ALLEN
(Art: Restoration by Liz Lemon Swindle)
There is a scripture in Section 36 of the
Doctrine of Covenants which issues a challenge to the members of the Church to have
an aversion to sin. This is a tall order considering we live in a fallen world
with the inclinations of the natural man.
This scripture says we are to ‘come forth out
of the fire, hating even the garments spotted with the flesh’ (v 6). This has
reference to Jude 1:23 and this is a clearer explanation of it:
“To stay the spread of disease in ancient
Israel, clothing spotted by contagious diseases was destroyed by burning (Lev.
13:47-59; 15:4-17). And so with sin in the Church, the saints are to avoid the remotest
contact with it; the very garments, as it were, of the sinners are to be burned
with fire, meaning that anything which has had contact with the pollutions of
the wicked must be shunned” (Bruce R. McConkie, Doctrinal New Testament
Commentary, 3:428).
Again I ask, is it possible to be in total
control of the inclinations of the natural man? Well, it would appear so. When
King Benjamin delivered his address, his people were so overcome that they
viewed themselves in their carnal state and begged for the Atoning power of
Christ to purify their hearts and grant them forgiveness of their sins (Mosiah
4:2).
It didn’t stop with forgiveness though. Because
of their willingness to believe in Jesus Christ and in His power, this
willingness led to His spirit working a ‘mighty change’ in their hearts to such
a point that they had no more disposition to do evil but to do good continually
(Mosiah 5:2).
The key to a sinless state then has to be ‘a
mighty change’ for our hearts to become like Christ’s, devoid of desire to sin.
The thing is, the Saviour did not come to this fallen world immune to sin and
temptation. It was His choice to be sinless.
“Christ was perfect because he wanted to be. It
is important to remember that Jesus was capable of sinning, that he could have
succumbed, that the plan of life and salvation could have been foiled, but that
he remained true.
“Had there been no possibility of his yielding
to the enticement of Satan, there would have been no real test, no genuine
victory in the result. If he had been stripped of the faculty to sin, he would
have been stripped of his very agency. It was he who had come to safeguard and
ensure the agency of man [hence] He had to retain the capacity and ability to
sin had he willed so to do…..
“He was perfect and sinless, not because he had
to be, but rather because he clearly and determinedly wanted to be. As the
Doctrine and Covenants records, “He suffered temptations but gave no need heed
unto them (D&C 20:22).” (Teachings
of Howard W. Hunter, p 4; see also Jesus the Christ, p 134)
The Saviour did not overcome sin for himself,
He resisted it. No painful repentance needed because no sin was committed. We
might argue that because of His divine nature it was easy for Him to resist His
temptations but that is not so. Every temptation has to equal the stature of
the man, otherwise it is not a temptation. It has no substance if it does not
carry with it potential power to destroy.
Lest we feel totally disheartened because we
are not sinless….we can have the power to become so. Because of His Atonement,
the Saviour overcame the effects of sin for the natural man and can give us
strength beyond our own to keep our garments unspotted from the world through
the enabling power of His grace.
This power is ours for the asking, and seeking,
and longing to keep our garments unspotted from ‘the flesh’ of this world:
“….I will be merciful unto you; he that is weak
among you hereafter shall be made strong.” (D&C 50:16)
- CATHRYNE ALLEN
(Art: Return to the Fold by Greg Sargent)
“Christ was perfect because he wanted to be. It
is important to remember that Jesus was capable of sinning, that he could have
succumbed, that the plan of life and salvation could have been foiled, but that
he remained true. Had there been no possibility of his yielding to the
enticement of Satan, there would have been no real test, no genuine victory in
the result. If he had been stripped of the faculty to sin, he would have been
stripped of his very agency. It was he who had come to safeguard and ensure the
agency of man [hence] He had to retain the capacity and ability to sin had he
willed so to do…..He was perfect and sinless, not because he had to be, but
rather because he clearly and determinedly wanted to be. As the Doctrine and Covenants
records, “He suffered temptations but gave no need heed unto them (D&C
20:22).” (Teachings of Howard W. Hunter,
p 4; see also Jesus the Christ, p 134)
I am constantly amazed by the difficulty of
Christ’s life long before the cross and the garden’s gate. Here is the reality
of that: “He was called upon to choose the right in the hardest and most
difficult situations ever imposed upon mortals…..That His temptations were over
and above those of any other person is shown from the Messianic prophecy: “Lo,
he shall suffer temptations, and pain of body, hunger, thirst, and fatigue,
even more than man can suffer, except it be unto death” (Mosiah 3:7). (Bruce R.
McConkie, The Mortal Messiah, p 418).
We might argue that because of His divine
nature it was easy for Him to resist His temptations but that is not so. Every
temptation has to equal the spiritual stature of the man, otherwise it is not a
temptation. It has no substance if it does not carry with it potential power. The
Saviour’s three greatest temptations are
proof of this.
At the onset of Christ’s ministry, during His
40 days of fasting in the wilderness, the Saviour enjoyed intense communion
with His Father which confirmed His Messianic role (JST Matthew 4:1,2; Talmage,
Jesus the Christ, p 128,9). Each of the Temptations of Christ, were tailored
as a challenge to His divinity. Satan tempted Him with each one to prove that
He really was the Son of God, and disprove the Father’s confirmation of the
same during His wilderness experience. The second temptation is the one that, in
my mind, proves this the most. When the spirit took Him to the pinnacle of the
temple (JST Matthew 4:5a), Satan tempted Him to cast himself down in the midst
of the worshippers below and fulfil the Messianic prophecy that angels would
‘bear him up’. What a beginning to His ministry that would have been! It would
have insured public recognition of Jesus being superior to mortals, “the fame
of which would have spread as fire in the dry grass; and all Jewry would have
been aflame with excitement and interest in the Christ” (Jesus the Christ, p
131). This would have been His great hour! (see Bruce R. McConkie, The
Mortal Messiah, p 414-5).
The restraint that the Saviour exercised not to
use His godly powers whilst in mortality deserves our greatest admiration. His
determination and resistance to sin of any proportion that He might fulfil His
responsibility to save us, deserves our utmost gratitude. He accepted it all
and suffered it all that He might succor us in our extremities (Hebrews
2:17,18) and pave our way to salvation and eternal life.
I gave you my all:
My heart, my body, my soul.
I paved the way
And conquered death.
I wait for you to come
Into the shadow of my wings;
I have paid the price: come unto
Me,
Your God and Your King.
- CATHRYNE ALLEN
(Art: Wounded for our Transgressions by Greg Collins)
Nephi’s testimony of the Saviour Jesus Christ is
intoxicating, is it not? In describing, in magnificent detail, the Jewish fate
of scattering and gathering in 2 Nephi chapter 25, Nephi’s prophecy of their
rejection of Messiah and His consequent death is heart wrenching but the hope
he also offers is unmistakable. In verse 13, Nephi says after the Jews shall
crucify the Christ and ‘he is laid in a sepulchre for the space of three days
he shall rise from the dead’ and here is the hope of all hope and the truth of
all truth, on which salvation rests…..’with HEALING IN HIS WINGS’.
In scriptural use of symbolism, the wings are ‘a
representation of power, to move, to act, etc.’ (D&C 77:4). So Christ rose
from the dead, healed, with power……the power to also heal us, to succor us, to
protect us, to enable us, to save us, to resurrect us, to sanctify us, to exalt
us.
The Jewish race, God’s covenant people, will one day
experience the healing power of their Shiloh (JST Gen 50:24) when He comes to
save them from their foes. They will experience the power of His protective
wings and be converted to the Holy One of Israel.
Daniel F. Gerhartz who painted this magnificent
painting titled ‘In the Shadow of Your Wings’ said: “My desire as an artist is
that the images I paint would point to the Creator, and not to me, the
conveyor. Johann Sebastian Bach said it well as he signed his work, ‘Soli Deo
Gloria’, ‘To God alone be the glory’”…….indeed.
I
long to reside in Your presence;
To
never know sadness
Or
the wretched heat of my tears.
I
know I will be safe there
Where
fears cannot find me
And
trials cannot scar me.
I
know there will be safety
In
the shadow of Your wings
My
burdens You will lift
And
wipe away my sins.
- CATHRYNE ALLEN
(Art: In The Shadow of Your Wings by Daniel H. Gerhartz)
