A MILLENIAL NATION

 

The Bridegroom by LDS Bookstore 

By Isaiah’s time, Israel, a chosen nation of God had sunk into such spiritually depraved condition that Isaiah referred to them as Sodom and Gomorrah (Isaiah 1:10). Their hypocritical performances of the Mosaic offerings and feasts was a clear indication of their superficial form of worship devoid of repentance (1:11).

As per Jehovah’s inexhaustible mercy, the following hope was issued to Israel that they can still remain chosen:

“Come now, and let us reason together, saith the Lord: though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool.” (Isaiah 1:18)

Even though this beautiful promise can be applied to individual members of Israel, it was originally issued to Israel as a nation: “No matter how many prophets the Lord sent to Israel and Judah, the how many times he pleaded with them, all through their history they were rebellious. Here we find a promise that if they would return to the Lord, their past sins would be forgotten, and he would again receive them as his people and bless them abundantly, and they should continue to be his covenant people.” (President Joseph Fielding Smith, Answers to Gospel Questions, 2:180)

The House of Israel has had a treacherous past but its destiny remains. This destiny is centred on the Millenial Day when “out of Zion shall go forth the law and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem” (2:3).

“Jerusalem shall be the gathering place of Judah and his fellow of the house of Israel, and Zion shall be the gathering place of Ephraim and his fellows, upon whose heads shall be conferred ‘the richer blessings’. These two cities, one in the land of Zion [America] and one in Palestine, are to become capitals for the kingdom of God during the Millennium (Old Testament Student Manual 1 Kings – Malachi p 139). In other words, the House of Israel will be the theocratic governing body of the world with Christ as its head during the Millenium age.

In chapter 2 of his book, Isaiah summarized the basic spiritual problems that troubled Israel in his day and made this a dualistic prophecy applicable to the last days before the Second Coming:

·         Verse 6: Ancient Israel looked to the religious philosophies and the gods of the Assyrians and other heathen countries for power and for sustenance. Today people look to may other religions and philosophies of men for wisdom and guidance instead of the gospel of Jesus Christ;

·         Verse 6: Ancient Israel was joining the heathen nations in all their wickedness, and modern society is joining with the influences of the world rather than looking to the Lord;

·         Verse 7: The people were wealthy and materialistic. Their hearts were set on the things of the world. In the last days, materialism runs rampant.

·         Verse 7: The land was “full of horses, neither is there any end of their chariots”. The horse was a symbol of warfare as was the chariot. Today is an age characterized by wars and military power.

·         Verse 8: The land was filled with idolatry then, and people still turn to false gods today, though not necessarily to idols made of wood or stone.

·         Verse 9: Nephi’s quotation of Isaiah in the Book of Mormon says that the “mean man boweth NOT down, and the great man humbleth himself NOT (2 Nephi 12:9). Here Isaiah was referring to the fact that men would not worship the true God. In the preface to the Doctrine and Covenants, the Lord indicated this failure would be a major concern of the last days (D&C 1:16).

-          (Old Testament Student Manual 1 Kings – Malachi, p 139)

To fulfil our destiny as the Millenial Nation we need to heed this call:

“O house of Jacob, come ye, and let us walk in the light of the Lord”  (Isaiah 2:5)

Like Israel of old

I foolishly sought man’s protection

Until you showed me the strength

Of Your invincible arm

And how much easier You can make

My journey’s difficult path.

How foolish I was to trust in man’s might,

How foolish to seek mortal comfort

And settle for feeble sentries of the heart.

- CATHRYNE ALLEN 

HONOURING HIS SACRIFICE

 

Salvation by Ron DiCianni

“To what purpose is the multitude of your sacrifices unto me? Saith the Lord: I am full of the burnt offerings of rams, and the fat of fed beasts; and I delight not in the blood of bullocks, or of lambs, or of he goats…..bring no more vain oblations….I am weary to bear them…..when ye make many prayers, I will not hear….” (Isaiah 1:11-15)

Animal sacrifice is something we of our day cannot relate to until we study the practice in full to understand how it pointed to the sacrifice of the only sinless man who sacrificed himself for every sinful person that will ever walk this earth. The year I studied this ancient practice I discovered the power of personal consecration and wished I could have witnessed animal sacrifice in person.

Israel of old lost the sacredness and solemnity of animal sacrifice as they slid into such a sinful state that it became to them a habit and an excuse for feasts and festivals (Isaiah 1:13,14). The true meaning was lost, the Saviour was not honoured for His power of salvation, and he rejected the killing of animals which held no redemptive power.

I have read the abovementioned scriptures before, but yesterday they brought a fresh perspective into my mind. There is a practice akin to animal sacrifice which we of this day participate in. Whereas ancient Israel needed an ongoing ritual to point them to Christ who was to come to atone for them, we today have an ongoing ritual to point us to Christ who has been and atoned for us. It is called the sacrament.

Well might the Saviour also reject our partaking of the sacrament if it is done without the necessary commitment of repentance. What good is our breaking of the bread in vain if it is not done with a broken heart and a contrite spirit? In partaking the sacrament without intent to repent, our sins continue to do what Paul called “crucifying the Son of God afresh” (Hebrews 6:6).

The power of the sacrament is one of purifying our souls to the state of forgiveness because the broken bread is a revered symbol of the broken flesh of the Saviour who would lift us higher to the throne of God than we can ever hope to lift ourselves. There is no sin, except the sin against the Holy Ghost, that is greater than His Atonement for ‘though our sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow, though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool (Isaiah 1:18). This is grace, this is mercy, this is forgiveness of the suffering God for all of Israel who come to Him with sincere repentance born of a broken heart.

He is the Shepherd of Israel

Who would not see us lost,

Who rescued our souls

Never counting the cost.

- CATHRYNE ALLEN 

SACRIFICE OF THE HEART

 

The Compassionate Christ by Greg Sargent

“Our God shall come, and shall not keep silence: a fire shall devour before him, and it shall be very tempestuous round about him. He shall call to the heavens from above, and to the earth, that he may judge his people. Gather my saints together unto me; those that have made a covenant with me by sacrifice.” (Psalms 50:3-5)

Psalm 50 reads more like a revelatory instruction to Jehovah’s saints than a song of praise. It accentuates thanksgiving and praise of God above the animal sacrifices of the day. Psalm 51 goes further to explain that the sacrifice God wants from us is that of a ‘broken and contrite heart’ (vs 15-17).

Psalm 51 was written by King David following that fateful visit of Nathan the prophet who exposed David’s sin with Bath-Sheeba. It is one of the most heart wrenching story of the Old Testament. After giving David a touching story of a poor man’s lamb being taken away by a rich man to sacrifice for a single meal of a traveller, David was outraged and claimed that the rich man needs to be put to death but Nathan simply replied ‘thou art the man’ and outlined the seriousness of what David had done despite all the blessings he had received at God’s hand (see 2 Samuel 12:1-14). It humbled David to the dust.

The word (Hebrew root dkh) translated as “contrite” means “to crush”, therefore, “a broken or contrite heart or spirit is one that is crushed, smashed, broken to pieces…The symbolism of our smashing or breaking or crushing our hard, wilful heart into pieces and offering the result to God is significant, because a smashed heart no longer exists in a recognizable or retrievable form….It is at this point that the Lord can replace our now broken, offered heart with a new one” (see Ezekiel 36:26). (Dana M. Pike, “3 Nephi 9:19-20: The Offering of a Broken Heart” in Third Nephi: An Incomparable Scripture)

I think David understood this principle well when he pleaded with God: “Hide thy face from my sins, and blot out all mine iniquities. Create in me a clean heart, O God; and renew a right spirit within me.” (Psalm 51:9,10)

When the Saviour comes to judge His people, He will require the spirit of repentance from us. Placing our sins on the altar of sacrifice is the ultimate we can give and if our hearts are pure and sincere, forgiveness will be HIS to give and He will be glorified for the salvation of our souls.

Before the birth of Christ, animal sacrifice was required in expectation of His sacrifice. The sacrifice of Christ fulfilled this requirement and in itself denotes a broken and contrite heart offered in the Garden through His submission and humility and upon the cross through His willingness of  extreme suffering. How little is asked of us in comparison to the greatest sacrifice of all!

I gave you my all:

My heart, my body, my soul.

I paved the way

And conquered death.

Come and take my hand;

Eat and do not hunger,

Drink and do not thirst.

I am in your midst;

I am the only,

I am the last,

And I am the first.

- CATHRYNE ALLEN 

THE POWER OF SELF-FORGIVENESS

 

That I May Heal You by B. Laura Wilson

There are two worthy examples of the principle of self-forgiveness in the scriptures and the power that can come from it and they are Apostle Paul and Alma, the son of Alma from The Book of Mormon.

Paul, who considered himself ‘the least of the apostles’ and not worthy to be called such because he persecuted the church of God (1 Corinthians 15:9) became the greatest missionary in the meridian of time and one of the foremost leaders of the Saviour’s Church. When I study his epistles I am amazed at the grand scale of his growth, the depth of his understanding of the doctrine of Christ and his repeated testimony of the only source of our salvation.

He will forever be remembered as a spiritual giant among men and here is why. Even though Paul testified about God’s grace vehemently and gave credit to it for what he became (1 Corinthians 15:10), he would have had to at one stage forgiven the man who misled him to offend God, and that man was himself. I believe he arrived at that place of self-forgiveness when he could in clear conscience say: “I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith” (2 Timothy 4:7). Paul, after years of unrelenting, selfless service became a beacon of hope for all sinners.

Alma became a living testament of the Saviour's power of deliverance.  Not only because Christ forgave him for his horrendous sins and saved him from spiritual death but also because He freed him to become a great man.  After Alma came out of his three days of torment he immediately began to preach of Christ's mercy and His power to save (Mosiah 27:32). Nowhere in the scriptures does it say that he moped around and agonised over his past sins and felt bad about himself. 

Alma became a great example of someone who had his guilt ‘taken away from his heart, through the merits of God’s Son’ (Alma 24:10). Alma, who went about with the intent to destroy the Church became Alma who led the Nephite armies in battle, who sat naked with Amulek in dungeons, who was spat upon by the unrepentant, who dumbfounded an anti-Christ, who baptised thousands of souls unto repentance (Alma 4:4-5), who the Lord in the end took up unto himself (Alma 45:19). 

I learnt something about self-forgiveness recently. Sometimes we can give our imperfections power over us as much as our sins and not realise they too are deserving of self-forgiveness.  I have led a pretty good life, carefully avoiding serious sin but I have been very hard on myself because I have not been ‘perfect’ in mortality. I consider all my imperfections,  weaknesses and my very humanity as my ‘earthly indignities’.

As a result of my unwillingness to forgive myself for the minutest things, I have carried inside me a self-deprecating picture of myself, a belief that I am not ‘good enough’, for much of my adult life. It is just now that I am beginning to understand that it doesn’t matter so much what I used to be like, what matters the most is what I have repented of and changed, and as a result continue to become.

The Saviour who forgives understands mortality. This was the whole point of His earthly ministry. You might say He experienced mortal life at ‘ground zero’ because He ‘descended below all things that he might comprehend all things’ (D&C 88:6). What things? Our difficulties, our sorrows, our sins, our imperfections, our sufferings, our inabilities, our mortal weakness…..the ultimate comprehension coming through the Atonement where He came to understand what it is to be you and me.

If you are still 'harrowed' up by your past sins and the negative things you have allowed to define you, you are missing the person that you could be.  If you believe you are no good, the Lord can make nothing of you.  In this state you are not good to anyone; not to yourself, not to God, not to your fellowmen.  If you consider yourself a bad person because of your past and do not possess inner peace, you will eventually start seeking it elsewhere.  And some of the places you can end up in have the potential to distance you from God forever.

When you look at Paul and Alma, do you see broken men with a past or do you see powerful servants of the Lord?  If you have repented of your sins but can't let them go, you are giving them more power than you are giving God. The adversary wants nothing more than for your sins to continue to have power over you, even after you have forsaken them, because he hopes one day you will return to them.  Your forgiveness is not complete until you allow the Saviour to take away your remorse. The power of the Atonement can complete this process.  The Saviour can extend mercy, He can forgive, He can make of you a new person, He can wipe your slate clean. Believe it, trust it, ask for it.  The Lord has work for you to do and He is waiting.

- CATHRYNE ALLEN  

WORTH OF A SOUL

 

“I say unto you, that likewise joy shall be in heaven over one sinner that repenteth, more than over ninety and nine just persons, which need no repentance.”  (Luke 15:7)

“There is no justification for the inference that a repentant sinner is to be given precedence over a righteous soul who had resisted sin; were such the way of God, then Christ, the one sinless Man, would be surpassed in the Father’s esteem by regenerate offenders.

“Unqualifiedly offensive as is sin, the sinner is yet precious in the Father’s eyes, because of the possibility of his repentance and return to righteousness. The loss of a soul is very real and a very great loss to God. He is pained and grieved thereby, for it is His will that not one should perish (Matthew 18:14; Moses 1:39)”

-          James Talmage, Jesus The Christ, p 461

 

I stand all amazed

That You would offer Your sinless heart

For every sinful soul.

That You would deem us worthy

And suffer for us so.

 

- CATHRYNE ALLEN 

(Art by Ivan Guaderrama)

CORROSIVE FRUITS OF IMMORALITY

 

I was horrified the year I learnt how Eli’s sons seduced women by misusing their office of priest and engaged in adulterous acts at the very door of the tabernacle (1 Samuel 2:22). It reminds one of fertility rites and the groves of idolatry, does it not?

Eli paid a high price for not correcting this abomination as a parent and as the high priest. An unnamed ‘man of God’ came to him and pronounced the Lord’s curse upon Eli’s house because he honoured his sons above Him (vv 27,29). The inference was that Eli didn’t want to rock the boat with his sons but apparently he didn’t mind rocking God’s…..

When Alma of the Book of Mormon called his son Corianton to repentance for his sexual misconduct during his mission to the Zoramites, he pointed out that sexual sin is so serious, it is a sin next to murder (Alma 39:5). Elder Jeffrey R. Holland explains this is so because of the connection between the worth of a soul and the Atonement:

“In exploiting the body of another – which means exploiting his or her soul – one desecrates the Atonement of Christ, which saved that soul and which makes possible the gift of eternal life. And when one mocks the Son of Righteousness, one steps into a realm of heat hotter and holier than the noonday sun. You cannot do so and not be burned.

“Please, never say: ‘Who does it hurt? Why not a little freedom? I can transgress now and repent later.’  Please don’t be so foolish and so cruel. You cannot with impunity ‘crucify Christ afresh’ (see Hebrews 6:6). ‘Flee fornication’ (1 Corinthians 6:18), Paul cries, and flee ‘anything like unto it’ (D&C 59:6), adds the Doctrine and Covenants. Why? Well, for one reason, because of the incalculable suffering in both body and spirit endured by the Saviour of the world so that we could flee. We owe Him something for that, we owe Him everything for that.

‘Ye are not your own’ Paul says, ‘Ye have been bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God’s (1 Cor 6:19-20). In sexual transgression the soul is at stake – the body and the spirit.”  (in Conference Report, Oct 1998, 99-100; or Ensign Nov 1998, 76)

Very often we think we have the principle of repentance up our sleeve so not all will be lost if we deviate from the path, thinking we can always repent later. Many people have ‘sowed their wild oats’ in their youth and later returned to God’. Elder Holland goes on to clarify the foolishness and unfairness of such attitude:

“There is peril in playing the prodigal son knowingly, expecting God to forgive us, expecting Christ to bleed for us, expecting mercy to cover us. Among the most grievous sins a mortal can commit is to crucify Christ ‘afresh’ to knowingly ask Him to suffer on the cross a little longer – or again and again and again – while such an one commits knowingly, with planning and premeditation, his or her ‘presumptuous sins’.” 

Will the sinner for whom you suffered,

Who rejected and reviled Thee

Weep in the end for Thy pain and Thy sorrow?

Will his heart understand

When he kneels before Thee

The debt he owes for the existence

Of his merciful tomorrow?

 

- CATHRYNE ALLEN 

(Art: The Cross by Ron DiCianni)

GODLY SUFFERING

 

In Section 19 of Doctrine and Covenants, the Saviour revealed the most personal details of His suffering during the Atonement. Here He dismissed ‘the insinuation’ that His sweat was ‘like’ drops of blood, as mentioned by Luke in his Gospel, and confirmed that indeed His agony was so great that He sweat actual blood from His pores (v 18; Luke 22:44).

I have experienced pain in my life but I cannot fathom such extreme form of it. This is how Elder James E. Talmage described it:

“Christ’s agony in the garden is unfathomable by the finite mind, both as to intensity and cause….He struggled and groaned under a burden such as no other who has lived on earth might even conceive as possible. It was not physical pain, nor mental anguish alone, that caused Him to suffer such torture as to produce an extrusion of blood from every pore; but a spiritual agony of soul such as only God was capable of experiencing.

“No other man, however great his powers of physical or mental endurance, could have suffered so; for his human organism would have succumbed, and syncope would have produced unconsciousness and welcome oblivion. In that hour of anguish Christ met and overcame all the horrors that Satan, ‘the prince of this world’ could inflict….. (Jesus the Christ, p 613)

And here is another horrific thing about it. This excruciating spiritual pain was added to the physical pain of the crucifixion as He hung on the cross: “Again, on Calvary, during the last three hours of his mortal passion, the sufferings of Gethsemane returned….if we interpret the holy word aright, that all of the anguish, all of the sorrow, and all of the suffering of Gethsemane recurred during the hours when darkness covered the land….could it be that this was the period of his greatest trial, or that during it the agonies of Gethsemane recurred and even intensified!” (Elder Bruce R. McConkie, “Mortal Messiah” 4:232, note 22; see also Talmage, “Jesus the Christ” p 661 and Tad R. Callister, “The Infinite Atonement” p 141)

There is another scripture in Section 19 of Doctrine and Covenants which I find most alarming. In His vehement command to us to repent, the Saviour explained that if we would not repent, we must suffer even as He suffered, to pay for our own sins (v 17). This drives fear into me. I have suffered in my life and the last thing I would want is to undergo suffering at such great scale as I have never experienced before.

Herein enters Christ’s unfathomable mercy. Verses 4-12 offer great insight into God’s punishment. Here we are told that the punishment given from God’s hand is ‘eternal and endless punishment’ because Eternal and Endless are two of His names. It does not mean that a sinner is to be eternally and endlessly made to suffer.

I worshipped You in heaven

As my Saviour and my King.

I knew Your holy suffering

Would pay for everything.

 

Now I am here in my mortal frame,

I am amazed at the price You paid

For the value of my name!

- CATHRYNE ALLEN 

(Art: Hail King of the Jews by Mindi Oaten)

JOSEPH THE PURE IN HEART

 

"Young man, a thousand miles away from home, can you keep the standards of your mother and father?  One man changed the history of the world by taking into a foreign country these standards: He was good looking, he had personality; he was young.  Because of his physique and general carriage, he carried prestige.  She was a woman of importance….. She tempted him once - she tempted him twice - yes, and many more times.  Each time he remembered the teachings of his folk at home.  He looked sin in the face and stood like a rock….. “ (Bishop Marvin O. Ashton, Improvement Era, Vol. XIviii, December, 1945, No. 12)

 

Joseph's ultimate test of faith came in the form of a woman.  This test of faith became the crowning glory of proof that he would never stray from his faith and commitment to live God's laws.  Joseph referred to Potiphar's wife's invitation as 'great wickedness' (Genesis 39:9).  The following insight into Joseph's character helps us have appreciation of his tenacity and ability to overcome what could have been an overwhelming sense of hopelessness as his life took a turn for the worse.

 

Joseph never failed to recognise that something good always comes out of something bad.  He believed that even his unjust imprisonment was a blessing.  The Testament of the Twelve Patriarchs quotes Joseph as saying: "I gave thanks to the Lord and sang praise in the house of darkness, and how I rejoiced with cheerful voice, glorifying my God, because through her trumped-up charge I was set free from this Egyptian woman".

(James H. Charlesworth, The Testament of the Twelve Patriarchs, The Old Testament Pseudepigrapha, Apocalyptic Literature and Testaments)

 

Joseph felt it was better to sit in a dark dungeon for two years then to have succumbed to sin. How easy it would have been to embrace a sinful life far away from his family….nobody would have known! But God would have known and this was more important to Joseph….because God sees all and He knows all. And Joseph knew if he was faithful to the God of his fathers, he would have the right to hope for help from Him.

 

It is staggering to think of what lay on the line when Joseph was tempted by his master's wife.  Had Joseph succumbed, his destiny, the destiny of his family and the destiny of his descendants would have all been in peril. Had he chosen the life of sin, he would never have become the man that he became.  This would have had disastrous effects not only on him but on us too.

 

Just as Joseph became a saviour of his family temporally, I am convinced his morally clean life has had an impact on his progeny and their role in becoming spiritual saviours to their brethren of Israel and the rest of the Father's children:

 

"Wherefore thy brethren (the other tribes of Israel) shall bow down unto thee, from generation to generation, unto the fruit of thy loins (Ephraim and Manasseh) for ever; For thou shalt be a light unto my people, to deliver them in the days of their captivity, from bondage; and to bring salvation unto them, when they are altogether bowed down under sin". (JST Gen. 48:10-11)

 

When I consider Ephraim’s responsibility of salvation, I am convinced that the lives that we live have an impact on our generation and on the generations to come: “No one sins in isolation. We cannot say that our actions influence only ourselves for even if we do something sinful that is completely personal, our individual loss of spiritual power means a lessening of power for all mankind and contributes to the withdrawal of the Lord’s Spirit, and that is damaging to all…..” (Old Testament Student Manual Gensis – 2 Samuel p 243)

 

But there is hope…in repentance and a God who can extend mercy to the penitent….

 

Like a bird in flight

Our sins ascend to Thee;

Rising from the ashes of mortality

They seek Thy mercy to set them free. 

- CATHRYNE ALLEN 

(Art: Though Your Sins Be As Scarlet by Greg Collins)

THREE PILLARS OF ETERNITY: THE ATONEMENT

 

“You shall have eternal life, which gift is the greatest of all the gifts of God (D&C 14:7). It is a pure gift – we have no right to it: we have proved our helplessness to achieve it and our unworthiness to possess it. Jesus Christ bought it for us: He paid the ransom price, He redeemed us when we could not redeem ourselves, and He gave us eternal life as a free gift. He has taught us how to qualify for the gift, but the gift itself we could never earn by our own efforts.” (Hugh Nibley, “Approaching Zion” p 137)

The above quote is the greatest understanding that I have received regarding the Atonement of Jesus Christ, the study of which can be overwhelming.  I don’t think we will ever come to understand how it was executed, in this life or even the next. It’s an experience exclusive to one person and to fully understand someone’s experience one has to be a partaker of it to some degree.

The best we can do is understand the three principal purposes of the Atonement:

1.      To restore all that was lost by the Fall of Adam which brought about physical death (1 Corinthians 15:21-22).

2.      To overcome the first spiritual death by bringing us back into God’s presence to be judged and the second spiritual death for those who will repent (Helaman 14:16-18).

3.      To provide the power necessary to exalt us to the status of a god (D&C 76:69).

Much can be said about all three of these reasons but I would like to expound a little on the third one as I feel that exaltation is the main purpose of the Plan of Salvation. The role of the Atonement of Jesus Christ plus our own efforts of repentance is meant to produce one thing and that is not only to live with God the Father, but to become like Him. God the Father is not only a perfect, resurrected being but an exalted one, meaning He is God, therefore our goal is exaltation:

“To live with God does not assure us we will be like Him. All who live in the celestial kingdom dwell with God, but only those who are exalted become as He is. The objective of the Atonement is not just to cleanse us, but to so transform our lives and our way of thinking and acting that we become like God.” (Tad Callister, “The Infinite Atonement”, p 27)

What is the life of God the Father like? It is one of eternal joy in a marital capacity that never ends, being a co-creator of posterity and worlds without end with someone who loves you with a perfect love, a love that lasts forever and ever. This is the crowning blessing and the perfect state of a God. This is where we hail from and this is where the Atonement of our Saviour Jesus Christ can take us to.

 My heart is full of love for Thee,

As I stand in awe of Thy Godly majesty,

The magnitude of worlds

And the stars of heaven

That roll upon their wings praising Thee.

The creation of man, a crowning glory

To Thy priesthood and Thy throne,

In endless praise of Thy name

In the splendour of Thy celestial home.

- CATHRYNE ALLEN 

(Art: Worlds Without Number by Rose Datoc Dall) 

LEAVING THE PAST

 

I tend to look back a lot now that I am in my twilight years. Not surprisingly, my rear-view mirror syndrome has brought up a lot of issues that have long been buried and caused me a great deal of guilt that I was not aware of. I have lived a good life but this is what happens when you are very hard on yourself. You are never good enough to the most important person you have to live with – yourself.

I realised in my reverie that I was in sore need of self-forgiveness. This made me reflect on the two men from scriptures who are in my mind perfect examples of this principle, Paul of Tarsus and Alma, the son of Alma.

When I study Paul’s epistles I am amazed at the grand scale of his growth, the depth of his understanding of the doctrine of Christ and his repeated testimony of the only source of our salvation. His words expounding doctrine have been studied for over 2,000 years. Yet in the beginning, presumably because of his guilt, he considered himself ‘the least of the apostles’ and not worthy to be called such because he persecuted the church of God (1 Corinthians 15:9).

Paul eventually came to recognise his good deeds and self-worth through the greatest tool of all: “By the grace of God I am what I am: and his grace which was bestowed upon me was not in vain; but I laboured more abundantly than they all: yet not I, but the grace of God which was with me” (1 Corinthians 15:10). I believe he arrived at that place of self-forgiveness when he could in the end, in clear conscience say: “I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith” (2 Timothy 4:7).

In his day, Alma became a living testament of the Saviour's power of deliverance.  Not only because Christ forgave him for his sins but because He freed him to become a great man.  After Alma came out of his three days of torment he immediately began to preach of Christ's mercy and His power to save (Mosiah 27:32).

Nowhere in the scriptures does it say that he moped around and agonised over his past sins and felt bad about himself because ‘he had his guilt taken away from his heart, through the merits of God’s Son’ (Alma 24:10). Alma, who went about with the intent to destroy the Church became Alma who led the Nephite armies in battle, who sat naked with Amulek in dungeons, who was spat upon by the unrepentant, who dumbfounded an anti-Christ, who baptised thousands of souls unto repentance (Alma 4:4-5), who the Lord in the end took up unto himself (Alma 45:19). 

When you look at Paul and Alma, do you see broken men with a past or do you see powerful servants of the Lord?  If you are still 'harrowed' up by your past sins, you are missing the person that you could be.  If you believe you are no good, the Lord can make nothing of you.  If you have repented of your sins but can't let them go, you are giving them more power than you are giving God. Your forgiveness is not complete until you allow the Saviour to take away your remorse. The power of the Atonement can complete this process. 

Remember, consequences of sin keeps your wrong doing in your memory discouraging backsliding better than guilt. Guilt just stops you from moving forward.

Mortality is not for the faint hearted. It affects each of us negatively in different degrees but the grace of Him who died to make all things new is our only saving grace (2 Corinthians 5:17)

- CATHRYNE ALLEN 

(Art: Lean On Him by Chris Brazelton)

THE REWARD OF THE RIGHTEOUS

 

 

Some years ago I was conversing with a friend from my Ward when she said to me: “If the Saviour came to our Ward next Sunday, He would walk right past you and go to the struggling sinners  instead.” I understood what she meant, the Shepherd would always be concerned about His straying sheep, but it hurt me deeply to think that I would not matter just because I was being obedient.

I guess we tend to think that the sinner is more worthy of His attention because of the scripture that says that more joy shall be in heaven over one sinner that repents that over ninety and nine just persons which need no repentance (Luke 15:7). Because this scripture followed the parable of the lost sheep, I believe the Saviour was on that occasion speaking of the value of one soul, who should not be lost.

Cast your mind on the Parable of the Prodigal Son. When the good son felt threatened by the return of his erring brother, his father said to him: “Yes, it is wonderful your brother has repented and is back but make no mistake, all that I have is yours because you did not stray (Luke 15:31,32).

Consider the insight regarding this concept: “There is no justification for the inference that a repentant sinner is to be given precedence over a righteous soul who had resisted sin; were such the way of God, then Christ, the one sinless Man, would be surpassed in the Father’s esteem by regenerate offenders.”  (James Talmage, “Jesus the Christ”, p 461)

The reward for righteousness is this: if the Saviour came to your Ward next Sunday, and you were one of the faithful, He would gather you in His arms and bless you for your faithfulness. I am convinced of this because of President Joseph F. Smith’s vision of the spirit world.

When the Saviour arrived in the spirit world following His triumphant mortal mission, the multitude of FAITHFUL spirits who ‘awaited the hour of their deliverance from the chains of death’ rejoiced and bowed before Him acknowledging Him as the Redeemer and Deliverer, their countenance shone and they sang praises unto His holy name (D&C 138:18,23,24).

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 come to the faithful who rejoiced in His sacrifice, who believed in Him, who accepted Him, who loved Him??? Did they not deserve to be the ones He came to?

The Saviour never went to the unjust and the ungodly in the spirit world 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).

The lesson is this: the danger is in straying. Every repentant soul can come back and recoup what he had lost but not all do. The gravity of sin is very real and some never can catch up to those who never stray hence the promise of eternal life can be lost.

The Saviour did not come to earth just for the sinners but also for those who would believe. He came to offer salvation to all but if you are one of the faithful, know also that you are one of the “favourites of heaven”  (Joseph Smith, Lectures On Faith, Lecture 6, p 66)

- CATHRYNE ALLEN 

(Art: Home by David Bowman)

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 SAVING WORD

 

“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 tumour. 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. She said:

“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 I was alone in this automobile, nevertheless God Himself was right here beside me. Though doctors pronounced Jerry incurable, nevertheless he would be gloriously healed. Perhaps not here on earth as we had 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)

-       (Jerry A. Wilson, “The Great Plan of Happiness” p 40)”

This woman researched the word ‘nevertheless’ in her Bible and found it 90 times. There is a scripture in the Doctrine and Covenants which uses this word to its biggest potential to teach us of Christ’s character:

“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).

Imagine if that word was not there. Imagine if instead of a semicolon there was a fullstop. Instead this one simple word introduces not only three doctrinal principles but the Saviour’s attribute which makes salvation possible: repentance>obedience>forgiveness…..born out of mercy.

If there was no mercy, we would all be lost. If He was not, we would not be, silence would have wept at Calvary!

- CATHRYNE ALLEN 

(Art by Land of Dreams)

EVERLASTING FREEDOM

 

I watched an episode of Border Security the other day that made me reflect on the principle of the Gospel that grants us everlasting freedom. This is the principle is forgiveness.

In this particular episode I watched a British citizen being denied entry into Australia because he had a brush with the law seven years ago and had served 18 months in jail as a consequence. He was pretty devastated about this refusal but more so because he claimed sorrowfully that this one transgression in his life was going to follow him around for the rest of his life despite the fact that he has learnt from that experience and has strived ever since to be a law-abiding citizen. I could see how demeaning it was for him to be still considered ‘a criminal’. I wondered if he would ever see himself as a good person again.

My first thought was, indeed a criminal conviction is something that you are never free from. Once you are a criminal, you pay the price for the rest of your life. My second thought was, I wish I could shout from the rooftops that there is someone who does not only forgive wrongdoing but remembers it no more (D&C 58:42)…..that there is someone who can make you clean again and grant you freedom forever.

I thought about all my weaknesses and ‘earthly indignities, as I call them, and how sensitive I have become over the years to any wrongdoing, and I could not imagine a life without repentance and forgiveness.

I knew someone years ago who had left his wife to live a homosexual lifestyle. A few years later I saw him and his forgiving wife at the temple. It was a success story of repentance and forgiveness like no other. I reflected back then too on the amazing grace of our God who has secured our freedom from sin and paid the price of justice we could never pay ourselves.

Imagine the loss of souls if there was no forgiveness. Without it we would become nothing. Consider Alma the Younger who suffered the godly sorrow asked of every repentant sinner, an intense sorrow which lasted for three days and which cast him into the very 'gall of bitterness' (Alma36:18). 

Obviously’, the Saviour didn't require more than that of Alma.  He did not require him to live in the past or the future beating himself up for what he did.  What He did require of Alma was for Alma to become a great man.  A man who would be an instrument in His hands to convince others of His great power to save. 

Alma, who in his youth went about with the intent to destroy the Church became Alma who led the Nephite armies in battle, who sat naked with Amulek in dungeons, who was spat upon by the unrepentant, who dumbfounded an anti-christ, who baptised thousands of souls unto repentance (Alma 4:4,5), who the Lord in the end took up unto himself (Alma 45:19).  Alma certainly did become that great man that the Lord needed.  Could he have ever become a great man if he had not been forgiven? I rather think he would have spent the rest of his life thinking he was worthless.

I am in awe of the ‘Man of Sorrows’ who had promised forgiveness ‘though our sins be as scarlet’ even before he had felt the burden of our infirmities (Isaiah 1:18). I am in awe of His mercy and His love. The older I get the more I feel the overwhelming reliance I have on His salvation. He has made my earth life possible and my eternal life a surety because of His forgiveness of my humanity. I am in awe of His ability to liberate the beauty in me. 

- CATHRYNE ALLEN 

(Art: I Will Comfort You by Jay Bryant Ward)