THE MIGHTY ELIJAH PART 3

 

Jehovah Creates the Earth by Water Rane

The most important part of Elijah’s mission was the Melchizedek Priesthood sealing power by which things that are bound or loosed on earth are bound or loosed in heaven (D&C 128:8-18). He was the last prophet to have this power before the time of Jesus Christ.

He appeared on the Mount of Transfiguration with Moses and conferred the keys of this priesthood on Peter, James and John (Matt 17:3). He appeared again, with Moses and others, on April 3, 1836, in the Kirtland Ohio Temple and conferred the same keys upon Joseph Smith and Oliver Cowdery (D&C 110:13-16). It is for this purpose that he did not taste death. This was the second part of his earthly mission.

Elijah’s ascension into heaven on a chariot of fire is one of the most endearing accounts in the Old Testament. Elisha’s grief at the parting is heart rendering. As he cried after him, calling him ‘father’, he rent his clothes into pieces in his distress (2 Kings 2:11,12).

There is a significant connection between Elijah’s mission and the planet we presently live on. When Moroni delivered his message to Joseph Smith, he said that the earth would be wasted if Elijah didn’t come to restore the sealing power (D&C 2:2-3). Malachi goes so far as to say that if it were so, the Lord would smite the earth with a curse at His coming (Malachi 4:5).

Our Mother Earth which gave us physical birth (Moses 2:7) was foreordained and consecrated to establish on its face a family system patterned after the order of heaven and to become the future celestial abode of exalted sons and daughters of God. She also has a mission to accomplish like the rest of us.

Had Elijah not come to restore the sealing priesthood power to bind us together, the earth would not have accomplished its foreordained purpose and would not have been able to answer the end of its creation. All men and women would be forever without root and branch, meaning without ancestry and posterity that would otherwise extend into eternity.

Enoch learnt from his encounter with Mother Earth that she had a soul as deep as the river. Grief came  over him and made him weep when he heard her call us her children and witnessed her mourn over our wickedness (Moses 7:48). So overcome was Enoch at her suffering that he asked God three times, ‘’when shall the earth rest” (v 49,54,58).

You think the earth has no soul? Consider how she groaned when the Son of Man was lifted up and all nature suffered at the death of its creator (Moses 7:56; 1 Nephi 19: 12). Imagine this big beautiful perfect planet, the workmanship of God’s hands, with a soul as tender and real as you and I, utterly wasted at Christ’s coming…..Imagine how Father Adam and Mother Eve would feel to see this earth wasted after they paved the way for humanity by ‘the sweat of their brow’ (Moses 5:1). We think we have it hard…..we don’t even have to slice our bread…

When the end comes, this earth will be celestialized and crowned with the Father’s presence to be an eternal abode for those who will accept the sacrifice of His Beloved Son who was lifted upon the cross of redemption so that we can return to live with Him on this Mother Earth forever (D&C 88:17-20). 

- CATHRYNE ALLEN 

HEALING IN HIS WINGS

 

Love's Redeeming Work by LDS Bookstore

When You rose from Your grave

With healing in Your wings,

Did I live on in Your heart

As you ascended to Your throne

To seal my destiny?

Did You carry us all in Your bosom

With the crucible of the cross

Forever etched in Your memory?

 

-       CATHRYNE ALLEN

 

 

 

BEAUTY FROM ASHES

 

“Ultimately, the gospel of Jesus Christ was not given us primarily to PREVENT our pain. The gospel was given us to HEAL our pain. That is the promise of the scriptures: the Atonement not only heals us – it can sanctify our trying experiences to our growth.

“Our doctrine is not just that adversity can help us learn and grow; rather, it is that Christ, because of what flows from the redemption, gives us the power to make weak things strong, to sift beauty from the ashes of our lives.”

-          Bruce C. Hafen, “The Belonging Heart”, p 90-1

 

Thou art my Prince of Peace,

Thou art the God I know,

Thou art the love of my soul,

Thou art my comfort, my guide, my all.

- CATHRYNE ALLEN 

(Art: Lord and Master by Greg Collins)

A SACRED HOPE

 

As I reflected on my life recently I had a surreal experience where I saw myself before the Father who was asking me questions about my mortal experience. As I stood before Him I could not answer one question such as: How did you enjoy your mortal probation, what do you think you learnt from it, how do you think you did overall? Every time I opened my mouth, I could say nothing.

I understood there and then that there was nothing I could hide or tell half-truths about because He knew the very essence of my being: my innermost thoughts and intents, my sins, my rebellious moments in response to my sufferings, the times I had questioned Him and His goodness, my dislikes and likes, my conduct, my earthly indignities, my ingratitude, everything that made me tick….there was nothing, absolutely nothing about me or in me that He did not know.

I felt He was not watching me but looking into the very depths of my soul. It was as if He was inside me. I understood clearly as I understand that day follows night because I can see it, that God is so inter-connected with His children that it defies our mortal understanding. We, here and now, do not know and cannot fathom our spiritual origin or the Father’s connection with His children. God is beyond our understanding.

Then hope flooded my being. I had nothing to say and would not need to. There was someone who would absorb the totality of my life to answer all the questions the Father would have of my conduct, my intentions, my achievements, my failings. It would all be absorbed in the atoning blood of The Advocate who suffered for my soul. He would with His strength make up for my fragility.

This is grace, the ultimate all-encompassing gift, second only to eternal life. This grace too is beyond our understanding. We will fully come to know it when we are face to face with justice of the Father. We will know then who the Saviour truly is…a sacrifice that none of us could give, a hope of salvation, another God we are yet to comprehend.

When those who accept the gospel stand before the judgment bar of God, the Lion of Judah, the protector, will step forward in all His majesty and might as the guardian of our redemption. He will then ask the Father to judge His righteousness instead, to appease justice, saying:

“Father, behold the sufferings and death of him who did no sin, in whom thou wast well pleased; behold the blood of thy Son which was shed, the blood of him whom thou gavest that thyself might be glorified; Wherefore, Father, spare these my brethren that believe on my name, that they may come unto me and have everlasting life.” (D&C 45:4,5)

 

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 

(Art: Strength and Fragility by Greg Collins)

REDEEMER

 

“The Eternal Father well understood the diverse natures and varied capacities of His spirit-offspring; and His infinite foreknowledge made plain to Him, even in the beginning, that in the school of life some of His children would succeed and others would fail; some would be faithful, others false; some would choose the good, others the evil; some would seek the way of life while others would elect to follow the road to destruction.

“He further foresaw that death would enter the world, and that the possession of bodies by His children would be of but brief individual duration. He saw that His commandments would be disobeyed and His law violated; and that men, shut out from His presence and left to themselves, would sink rather than rise, would retrograde rather than advance, and would be lost to the heavens.

“It was necessary that a means of redemption be provided, whereby erring man might make amends, and by compliance with established law achieve salvation and eventual exaltation in the eternal worlds…..It was not His design that the souls of mankind be lost; on the contrary it was and is His work and glory, “to bring to pass the immortality and eternal life of man” (Moses 1:39).

“The offer of the firstborn Son to establish through His own ministry among men the gospel of salvation, and to sacrifice Himself, through labour, humiliation and suffering even unto death, was accepted and made the foreordained plan of man’s redemption from death, of his eventual salvation from the effects of sin, and of his possible exaltation through righteous achievement.”

-          (James E. Talmage, “Jesus the Christ” p 18)

FATHER’S CHARGE:

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 

(Art: All Is Calm by Gabriel Heaton)

BLESSED SORROW

 

When I was a very enthusiastic convert in the Church at 18 years of age, I was convinced that if I was obedient to the Gospel teachings, my life would be a dream, a picture of perfection, devoid of hardship and pain. This of course, never happened.

Very seldom do we reflect on our first parents to remind ourselves of the reality of life. I read an amazing poem this week, which left me in tears, written by Arta Romney Ballif called “Lamentation” in which she imagined Eve’s experience of losing her two sons. The poem depicts her cries for understanding and through it, her quest to know God, something we all experience. The poem is long but I have edited it lightly for the sake of this post:

God said, “BE FRUITFUL, AND MULTIPLY”

And God said, “I WILL GREATLY MULTIPLY THY SORROW”

Thy sorrow, sorrow, sorrow –

I have gotten a man from the Lord

I have traded the fruit of the garden for fruit of my body

For a laughing bundle of humanity.

 

Adam, where are the boys?

Where is Abel?

He is long caring for his flocks.

Are the ewes lambing in this storm?

 

Why your troubled face, Adam? Are you ill?

Why so pale, so agitated?

Dead?  What is dead?  Merciful God!

 

I am trying to understand.

You said, “Abel is dead.”

But I am skilled with herbs….

Herbs will not heal?  Dead?

 

And Cain? Where is Cain?

Listen to that thunder.

Cain cursed?

God said, “A fugitive and a vagabond?”

But God can’t do that.

They are my sons, too.

I gave them birth in the valley of pain.

 

This is his home

This the soil he loved

Where he toiled for golden wheat

For tasseled corn.

 

To the hill country?

Quick, we must find him

I worry, thinking of him wandering

With no place to lay his head.

Cain cursed? A wanderer, a roamer?

 

Abel, my son dead?

And Cain, my son, a fugitive?

Two sons Adam, we had two sons

Both – oh, Adam – multiply sorrow.

 

Dear God, why?

Tell me again about the fruit.

Please tell me again,

Why?

“Ultimately, the gospel of Jesus Christ was not given us primarily to PREVENT our pain. The gospel was given us to HEAL our pain. That is the promise of the scriptures: the Atonement not only heals us – it can sanctify our trying experiences to our growth.

“Our doctrine is not just that adversity can help us learn and grow; rather, it is that Christ, because of what flows from the redemption, gives us the power to make weak things strong, to sift beauty from the ashes of our lives.”

-          Bruce C. Hafen, “The Belonging Heart”, p 90-1

- CATHRYNE ALLEN

(Art: Eve by Rose Datoc Dall)

LOVING MORTALITY

 

There is a scene in a movie called “The City of Angels” where a deceased little girl is escorted out of the hospital by an angel who asks her: “What did you like best?” The little girl, in her innocence, replied: “Pajamas”.

I have often wondered what my answer would be if I was asked this question by an angel at the pearly gates. I used to feel guilty for a long time that I couldn’t say I love life but I have learnt over the years to be grateful for it, as hard as it is, for what it is making of me and where it is taking me.

Sometimes we get caught up in the pressure put on us to cultivate a positive attitude. Some of us consider  being negative in any way a downfall. Whereas, I believe there is a place for being positive, I equally believe it is dangerous to systematically deny negative things about life believing if we do so we will be happy.

I knew someone who considered positive attitude a virtue and who boasted that life was always beautiful and that he never let anything get him down. What he in actuality succeeded at the most was denying a full spectrum of human emotions, invalidating truth and reality and exerting a projection of superiority over others.

When Nephi said, “Adam fell that men might be; and men are, that they might have joy” (2 Nephi 2:25) he had more than this life in mind. Adam and Eve rejoiced in the joy of their redemption and eternal life which will follow (Moses 5:11). If anybody found this mortal life a burden it would have to be Adam and Eve. Living out their mortal lives remembering what it was like to be in God’s presence would have been excruciating, therefore, their joy was rightfully in being redeemed from The Fall.

I cannot imagine the Saviour saying that He enjoyed His mortality. Paul tells us that ‘He endured the cross despising the shame of it for the joy that was set before Him’ (Hebrews 12:2). In reality, He endured His mortality, and gruesome death, looking forward to eternity.

And I think this is the point. If we were too comfortable here, if we had all the happiness we wanted, if our lives were smooth and easy, none of us would want to leave here. We would not yearn for eternal life with God where there is no trial, no pain, no misery.

Having said all that, I will now say this. It’s not about the quality of life you were given or how happy or unhappy it made you. It’s what you have become because of it that counts. This is what I know. Every righteous and good desire I have had in my life was met by God. He gave me all the trials and difficulties I needed to become who I wanted to be.

Nowdays I am ok with not loving life. It’s been hard but worth it. When I cross the bar and stand with God  face to face and He asks me what I liked best, I will say: ME. This is what I came for and what I will take back. I know deep down, I will kneel before Him and my heart will overflow with gratitude for my mortality. I hope that’s what will be written about me in the Book of Life.

 

Your teaching moments

 feed me like a bird in flight

Searching for a morsel

That gladdens its hungry heart.

These gifts are laid at my feet

And I, I come to You Father

Clutching these riches

That are mine to keep.

- CATHRYNE ALLEN 

(Art: Book of Life by Chris Brazelton)

MERCIFUL REDEMPTION

 

“I once heard a child tell the parable of the lost sheep in a way that stirred fresh thoughts about who the lost sheep is. A little girl so tiny that we could barely see the top of her ponytails over the pulpit told the story in a sacrament meeting….She said:

“There was once a shepherd who had a hundred sheep. He loved his sheep, so he counted them every day. One day he counted: ‘……ninety-seven, ninety-eight, ninety-nine.’ A little sheep was lost. The shepherd went to find him. The little sheep was far off in the rocks and bushes. He was frightened and lonely. The shepherd went to find him. The little sheep heard him and was glad. He said: ‘Baa-aa’. The shepherd came and found the little sheep. He picked him up and carried him on his shoulder back to his mommy. Then he counted again: ‘…..ninety-eight, ninety-nine, one hundred.’ All the sheep were safely home.” (Bruce C.  Hafen, “The Broken Heart”, p 37-8)

Elder Hafen said that it dawned on him as he listened, that he was the lost sheep, that those he knew and loved were the lost sheep, that the people in the Church were the lost sheep, indeed he said we are all lost sheep…..because of our first parents, Adam and Eve who “were cast out of their garden of innocence into the lone and dreary world, and ‘out in the desert they wandered, hungry and helpless and cold’ (p 38).

The Atonement has so many facets that it is difficult at times to grasp it all. Perhaps the most important  would have to be Christ’s power to redeem us from The Fall. Having been removed from the Father’s presence, we are born strangers and pilgrims on this earth (D&C 45:13) but the Saviour’s Redemption means we can one day be restored to our former home.

The greatest scriptural symbol of Redemption is Ruth, a lowly woman of Moab who married an Israelite. She was a convert to the Lord, God of Israel ‘under whose wings she had come to trust’ (Ruth 2:12). When her Israelite husband died and left her with no children, Ruth became one of the lowliest of the earth, devoid of security or livelihood. When she returned to Bethlehem with her mother Naomi, she consented to a ‘levirate’ marriage with Naomi’s next of kin, as was the custom in Israel.

Through a levirate marriage, the woman was provided with children and restored to security and society and brought back to the family home. Here is where things become interesting. The Hebrew word for a man who would step up to this responsibility was GO’EL. The King James Version of the Bible translates it as simply ‘kinsman’ but the proper and literal meaning of GO’EL is ‘redeemer’ (Rasmussen, “Introduction to the Old Testament”, 1:157)

Ruth’s GO’EL was Boaz. Boaz became Ruth’s redeemer and restorer of all she had lost. Boaz and Ruth had a son whose name was Obed, who became the father of Jesse, who was the father of King David, who was the progenitor of Mary, who was the mother of Christ.

Consider for a moment how Christ redeems us from our fallen state and restores us to the presence of the Father and our eternal home. The Saviour himself affirms His role as the GO’EL when He refers to himself as the bridegroom and us, Israel, as the bride (Matthew 25:1-13; D&C 33:17; 65:3; 88:92; 133:10). He is the greatest GO’EL of all….. the Redeemer, the Restorer, the Hope of Israel, the Shepherd who leads home all that are lost.

Elder Hafen tried to imagine how he would feel if he was found unworthy on Judgment Day to return to Father’s presence. He said he didn’t think he could stand a longing for eternity that could not be fulfilled (p 88). I am of certainty that I would feel like Cain of old who said when he was banished from God’s presence to be a vagabond on this earth: “My punishment is greater than I can bear.”  (Genesis 4:13)

- CATHRYNE ALLEN 

(Art: Guiding Them Home by Yongsung Kim)

FULNESS OF JOY

 

When the Saviour was still with His disciples, they asked Him of the signs of His second coming. One might wonder why they would be so anxious to know that, seeing so much time would transpire between the meridian of time and the last days. Herein is the actual answer. They knew it would be a long time and that they would anxiously await the day of Redemption, for one reason: they would look ‘upon the long absence of their spirits from their bodies’ as a ‘bondage’ (D&C 45:17).

The evidence of this truth is recorded in Section 138 of the Doctrine and Covenants which describes the jubilation of the righteous in the spirit world when the Saviour came to them following His death ‘declaring liberty to the captives who had been faithful’ from the chains of death, ‘for the dead had looked upon the long absence of their spirits from their bodies as a ‘bondage’ (v 18).

Years ago I read one General Authority saying that we were so eager to come to earth that we were willing to accept lame, infirm, handicapped and even dysfunctional bodies. It puzzled me terribly because I had never looked upon my body as a great blessing.

At the time I presumed that we understood possessing a body only theoretically but not experientially, that we didn’t really know what it is like to have a body because we had never had one before. It was theory vs reality, like a woman who longed for a child ignorantly, not knowing what giving birth is really like.

So why would we look upon the absence of our bodies as bondage once we have experienced earth life with all its pains and sorrows, most of which are due to having a ‘corruptible’ body subject to illness and discomfort, a body which is ‘subject to the power of the Devil, and is under the mighty influence of that fallen nature that is of the earth’ (David A. Bednar, “Ye Are the Temple of God”, Ensign Sept 2001). This is why:

“When we go out of this life, leave this body, we will desire to do many things we cannot do at all without the body. We will be seriously handicapped and we will long for the body; we will pray for early reunion with our bodies. We will know then what advantage it is to have a body.

“Then every man and woman who is putting off until the next life the task of correcting and overcoming the weakness of the flesh are sentencing themselves to years of bondage, for no man or woman will come forth in the Resurrection until he has completed his work, until he has overcome, until he has done as much as he can do. (Melving J. Ballard, “Crusade for Righteousness, p 213).

A sobering thought, but this is the real reason. We are told that those who awaited the day of Resurrection in the spirit world, awaited it with eagerness ‘that they might receive a fulness of joy’ (D&C 138:17).

Think of all the pain and suffering of this life and contrast that to the perfect happiness we saw our heavenly parents in possession of before we were born. We wanted that……and we wanted this:

“The body that has been given to us was for the purpose of allowing the spirit to exalt itself to a nobler condition.”  (Melvin J. Ballard, “Crusade for Righteousness, p 12)

And so ‘the morning stars sang together, and all the sons of God shouted for joy’ when the Saviour of our souls ‘laid the foundations of the earth’ (Job 38:4,7)…..and all glory and honour be to His name!!!  Forever and ever…...

- CATHRYNE ALLEN 

(Art: World by Greg Olsen)

 

THE CONSOLATION OF ISRAEL

 

I love the story of Simeon and Anna who witnessed that Messiah had come when Jesus was presented in the temple following His birth (Luke 2:22-24; 25-38). Not much is known of these witnesses except that they were faithful and devout but much can be seen in the testimonies that they bore.

What we know of Simeon is that he was elderly, just and devout, that he had the Holy Ghost with him and that he waited for ‘the consolation of Israel’ (Luke 2:25)

Simeon rejoiced over baby Jesus testifying that God had allowed him to see His ‘salvation’ and ‘a light to lighten the Gentiles and the glory of thy people Israel’ (v 30,32). I reflected a lot on Simeon’s joy and was intrigued that the Messiah was awaited in the meridian of time as ‘the consolation of Israel’.

According to the dictionary, the correct definition of ‘consolation’ means: the comfort received by a person after a loss or disappointment. I pondered on what that word would mean in relation to Israel.

At the time of Christ’s advent, Israel had been scattered, conquered and tattered. Not since King David had Israel been recognized as a true and dignified power in the world. Under David, Israel enjoyed prominence, power and glory. His reign was defined as ‘the golden age of Israel’. Under his direction the chosen people of God controlled the whole land promised to Abraham’s posterity nearly a thousand years earlier.

Following David’s death, the kingdom was divided, Assyria scattered the Ten Tribes and Babylon and Rome had desecrated and conquered Judah. The land was lost as was the honour and glory of the House of Israel.

And so the Jewish nation has awaited the Messiah to restore the glory of Israel. To the Jews of old, it meant deliverance from occupation by foreign nations and restoration of the golden age. Simeon’s joy could very well have been based on that hope.

Anna’s testimony was based in redemption (Luke 2:38). The Guide to the Scriptures defines redemption as ‘the plan of salvation, the plan of happiness, and the plan of mercy’.

I pondered on what that would mean for Anna, a prophetess who was married for only 7 years before her husband died  leaving her a widow for ‘four score and four years’ (84 years). That’s a lot of years of being alone, especially for a woman in the meridian of time who was heavily dependent on marriage.

Was Anna’s joy in child Jesus based on her knowledge of the Plan of Salvation which would restore to her all that which she lost? That once again she will be a wife through God’s plan for eternal families? Did she also have faith in the consolation she would receive in her personal life as a faithful member of the House of Israel?

We of the last hour await ‘the consolation of Israel’ when the Saviour will come to gather us all into the household of faith and the Kingdom of our Christ. When He will restore all that was lost, individually and collectively.

When He comes the believing blood of Israel will course through our veins as it has never before. When He comes He will restore Israel’s glory that was lost which will never again be dimmed.

When He comes He will bring perpetual peace, where there will be no tears and no suffering and no death.

When He comes He will be our God and we will be His people.

We, Israel, Thy chosen seed

Bow before Thee on bended knee.

Look upon us in our sorrow;

And help us wait for Thee

In the dawning of tomorrow.

 

Please note that redemption means much more than I have elaborated on here. I used one aspect of it that would apply to Anna's situation.

- CATHRYNE ALLEN 

(Art: The Prophetess Anna Greets the Christ Child by Lester Yocum)

A SINLESS LIFE

 

“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)

FOR OUR FREEDOM

 

 

Some of us live with what others would deem insurmountable mountains to climb whilst some of us live with what others would deem easy obstacles and trials. I don’t know why some are living under extreme earthly conditions while others appear to live in the lap of luxury but I do believe in the wisdom of God and trust that He has us all under His watchful eye. I believe He is the master architect and planner of our eternal welfare. 

 

The Greek word translated as ‘redemption’ means liberation through payment of a ransom. It was a term widely used anciently to refer to payment for slaves in order to set them free. Through the Atonement, the Saviour purchased our freedom from ‘slavery’ to sin and every effect of mortality, including death. There is no sin or condition of mortality that is bigger than the Atonement therefore there is nothing that we cannot be saved from. I think of Alma the Younger being 'in the darkest abyss', his soul being 'racked with eternal torment' (Mosiah 27:28,29). Amidst all that anguish of soul, Alma describes his deliverance with an interesting word. He says he was ‘snatched’ from eternal torment and everlasting burning. Imagine the Saviour's willingness to go to the fires of hell to deliver one of the vilest of sinners. To me this means He would go to the darkest abyss of eternity to rescue us from suffering. 

 

Each of us lives in our own personal slavery. It’s called mortality. I live with the ‘inadequacy syndrome’. No matter how well I am doing, I can always see my faulty side much clearer than my good side. I sometimes fear I am offending God with my very being……..I am a slave to inadequacy and self-criticism....and other mortal weaknesses. Some of us are slaves to depression, anxiety, low self-esteem, feelings of worthlessness and a myriad of other mental disorders. All of these bring with them a degree of suffering, no less than more extreme conditions some of us live under. Our sufferings are personalised but our escape is assured. Whether it comes in this life or the next, we WILL be free because of the root of our salvation, the facilitator of our happiness, the well of living water, the fountain of all righteousness, Christ the King. 

 

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

TRIUMPHANT CHRIST

 

 

Nothing touches my heart like the jubilation that greeted the Saviour when He arrived in the spirit world following His triumphant mortal mission. As the multitude of FAITHFUL spirits who ‘awaited the hour of their deliverance from the chains of death’ rejoiced and bowed before the Saviour, when He appeared, acknowledging Him as the Redeemer and Deliverer, their countenance shone and they sang praises unto His holy name (D&C 138:18,23,24).

 

Can you envisage this scene of joy and heartfelt gratitude? Can you imagine the sung praises  echoing throughout the heavens??? Was it not fitting that after the rejection, humiliation, derision and torture of the Garden and the cross at the hands of sinners, the Saviour would receive such a triumphant welcome from the faithful who rejoiced in His sacrifice, who believed in Him, who accepted Him, who loved Him??? Did He weep at such heartfelt acceptance and gratitude for what He had done and the honour that was paid to Him? 

 

The Saviour did not go to the unjust and the ungodly and to them His voice was not raised for they resided where the darkness reigned (vs 20,21,37) but following such heart rendering joy, the never ending merciful heart of the Saviour of the world would not forget that He atoned for them also and so to them He sent ‘the spirits of the prophets who had testified of Him in the flesh’ to proclaim His power of deliverance (vs 28,29,30,36). Amongst the wicked was the multitude of spirits who had perished in The Flood, over whom the Father wept when He showed them to Enoch (Moses 7:29-34) and to whom Noah preached for 120 years before the flood came (Genesis 6:3; Moses 8:17). Is this second chance not the merciful heart of God? Is this not love unfeigned and mercy unflawed? Is not this the heart of Jesus? This is the God we love, this is the God we worship, this is the Redeemer of our souls and the Saviour of our hearts and should we not sing praises to His holy name now and forever???

 

There is none like Thee,

My Saviour and my King

With power and glory in Thy wings!

How great Thy wisdom,

How great Thy mercy,

How great Thy love

That fills my joyful heart;

How very great Thou art!

- CATHRYNE ALLEN 

(Art: Jesus of Nazareth by John Zamudio)

THE WEIGHT OF THE CROSS

 

I carried my cross to the foot of Calvary,

While you carried yours to the top.

I cried bitter tears over the injustices of my life,

While you bled valiantly for all that was lost.

I carried my hurts like a badge

So scornfully proud and spiritually poor,

While you rose to the heights of your exalted throne:

Perfected, ennobled and infinitely more.

You are so high

And I am so low;

I consent to climb to Calvary’s top,

I consent to be lifted to Thy throne.

 

 

“If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me” (Matthew 16:24). The Saviour’s mandate to the true followers of Christ to deny themselves and be like Him, takes His gospel of obedience to the next level. 

 

Prior to this reference to individual cross, the Saviour spoke to His apostles of His imminent death and resurrection (Matthew 16:21; Luke 9:22; Mark 8:31). Not fully understanding Christ’s mission of redemption, Peter was outraged to hear such talk and began to rebuke Jesus saying, “Lord, this shall not be unto thee” (Matt 16:22,23). Being wounded by the suggestion of His unfaithfulness to Father’s trust of Him to fulfil His earthly purpose, the Saviour’s reply to Peter was forceful and suggestive of Satan’s temptation to evade the sacrifice and suffering that lay before Him (see Talmage, Jesus the Christ, p 364). It was unthinkable to the Saviour that He would not take up His cross and carry it to Calvary. This speaks volumes of His character and integrity, does it not?

 

I have contemplated a lot about something I have noticed this year during my study of the New Testament. The Saviour’s focus on His mission to atone for us and to bring honour and glory to the Father has at times left me breathless and in awe of this man we call Jesus who has become our Saviour, our God and our King. This, above all of His examples He has given us, should be the greatest. Whether our cross is one of denial of appetites and passions and worldly pursuits; or one of avoidance of obedience and good works, that we find difficult to do, our cross should be strapped to our backs every day, never losing focus, to the end of our destination.  If we, unlike the Saviour, fail to carry our cross to the foot of Calvary, He will not help us walk the rest of the way to the top. 

- CATHRYNE ALLEN

(Art: Crucifixion by Liz Lemon Swindle)