GOOD THINGS TO COME

 

I watched this week a video detailing the tragic life of deceased Matthew Perry who struggled with alcoholism and prescription drug abuse from age 14. In his interview before his death Perry said he had a spiritual hole that he was always trying to fill with a material thing which just kept perpetrating his need for his addictions. These addictions became so severe that he found himself one day praying to God in desperation for help. As he did so, a light appeared in his room brighter than the sun emanating from a heavenly messenger. Even though he could not discern who it was, Perry said he knew he stood in God’s presence because he had never before been encased in such love as he then felt. This experience afforded him several years of abstinence and well-being, but Perry continued to struggle on and off with his addictions. This led him to open his home to rehabilitation of alcoholics. In one of his final interviews he said he wanted to be remembered for the work he did with people who needed help rather than for being an actor.

In his attempt to persuade the converted Hebrews struggling to stay in the Church, Apostle Paul wrote extensively in his epistle to them about the Saviour offering Himself as sacrifice for our sins that outranked any sacrifice offered by Levite priests. In so doing he named Christ as ‘the high priest of good things to come’ (Hebrews 9:11). Even though this had reference to Christ’s sacrifice bringing us eventually into God’s presence, Elder Jeffrey R. Holland used this description of Jesus to provide encouragement to those struggling in despair here and now. He said:

“There really is light at the end of the tunnel. It is the Light of the World, the Bright and Morning Star, the ‘light that is endless, that can never be darkened’ (Mosiah 16:9; John 8:12; Revelation 22:16)….To any who may be struggling to see that light and find that hope, I say: Hold on. Keep trying. God loves you. Things will improve. Christ comes to you in His ‘more excellent ministry’ with a future of ‘better promises.’ He is your ‘high priest of good things to come’. (An High Priest of Good Things to Come, Ensign, Nov 1999, p 36)

 

I look to Thee to lift me up

When into the depths of sorrow

I sink and comfort cannot find;

I look to Thee to lift me up

When nothing makes sense

In my troubled finite mind.

I look to Thee to lift me up

When forsaken I happen to be;

I look to Thee to lift me up

When trials seek to swallow me.

I will look to Thee to lift me up

When farewell I have to say,

Lift me up with tender mercies

In thine arms to gently lay.

- CATHRYNE ALLEN 

(Art: Rescue Me by Yongsung Kim)

WITHOUT HIM

 

“The greatest definition of ‘the pure love of Christ’ is not what we as Christians try but largely fail to demonstrate toward others but rather what Christ totally succeeded in demonstrating toward us. True charity has been known only once. It is shown perfectly and purely in Christ’s unfailing, ultimate, and atoning love for us. It is Christ’s love for us that ‘suffereth long, and is kind, and envieth not’. It is His love for us that is not ‘puffed up, not easily provoked, thinketh no evil’. It is Christ’s love for us that ‘beareth all things, believeth all things, hopeth all things, endureth all things’. It is as demonstrated in Christ that “charity never faileth”. It is that charity – His pure love for us – without which we would be nothing, hopeless, of all men and women most miserable. Truly, those found possessed of the blessings of His love at the last day – the Atonement, the Resurrection, eternal life, eternal promise – surely it shall be well with them….”  (Elder Jeffrey R. Holland, Christ and the New Covenant [1997], 336-37)

 

If You were not,

I would not be,

Silence would have wept at Calvary!

 

If you were not,

I would not be,

As death would claim me eternally.

 

If You were not,

I would not be,

Joyless would be my destiny.

- CATHRYNE ALLEN

(Art: Christ in Reflection by Greg Collins)