ANGELS IN OUR MIDST

 

 

“I am convinced that one of the profound themes of the Book of Mormon is the role and prevalence and central participation of angels in the gospel story….One of the things that will become more important in our lives the longer we live is the reality of angels, their work and their ministry.

"I refer here not alone to the angel Moroni but also to those more personal ministering angels who are with us and around us, empowered to help us and who do exactly that (see 3 Nephi 7:18; Moroni 7:29-32,37; D&C 107:20).

"I believe we need to speak of and believe in and bear testimony of the ministry of angels more than we sometimes do. They constitute one of God’s great methods of witnessing through the veil, and no document in all this world teaches that principle so clearly and so powerfully as does the Book of Mormon.”

-        - Jeffrey R. Holland, For A Wise Purpose, Ensign January 1996, 16-17

“In the gospel of Jesus Christ, you have help from both sides of the veil, and you must never forget that. When disappointment and discouragement strike – and they will – you remember and never forget that if our yes could be opened we would see horses and chariots of fire as far as the eye can see riding at reckless speed to come to our protection. They will always be there, these armies of heaven, in defense of Abraham’s seed.”

-        - Jeffrey R. Holland, For Times of Trouble, BYU Speeches

 

Angels are you near me

To catch me if I fall?

Do you stand guard at the entrance

Of my heart

On God’s errand and sentinel’s call?

 

Do you pave the way

And steady my feet,

And ensure my enemy’s defeat?

 

You are unsung heroes

Of every journey’s flight

You are phantoms of love

Concealed from mortal sight.

- CATHRYNE ALLEN 

(Art: Lightworkers by Greg Olsen)

EVEN AS I

 

 

Towards the end of His visit the Saviour commanded the Nephites to record all their doings because out of the books that are written shall the people be judged ‘for by them all their works will be known unto men’ (3 Nephi 27:25).

He also mentioned that the Father likewise keeps a record of all our doings and the whole world will be judged by that which He has caused to be written (v 26).

The idea of being judged seems to bring up a negative connotation of fear as we reflect on all our failings and short comings. Rarely do we look forward to it because we want to be excited about our good works and good character coming before the Father….to bring Him joy……but this is exactly what the pursuit of our lives should be.

The Saviour himself said to the Nephites as He parted from them, that His joy was great, ‘even unto fulness’ and that ‘even the Father rejoiced and all the holy angels’, because none of that generation was lost (v 30,31). Our salvation is their joy and I surmise this is what they look forward to experiencing on Judgment Day…..and there is a reason for their hope.

The Saviour asked the Nephites a crucial question in connection with the judgment we will one day face: “Therefore, what manner of men ought ye to be?” and then He answered: “Verily, I say unto you, even as I am” (v 27). Elder John M. Madsen of the Seventy had this to say about this answer:

“The meaning of the word OUGHT, as used in His question….is crucial to understanding His answer, “Even as I am”. The word OUGHT means ‘to be necessary’ or ‘to be held or bound in duty or moral obligation’…….., suggesting and the holy scriptures, ancient and modern, confirm – that it is ‘necessary’ and that we are ‘bound’, as by covenant, ‘to be’, as He declared, ‘even as I am’ (3 N 27:27; see also 3 N 12:48; Matt 5:48; 1 John 3:2; Moroni 7:48)” (in CR April 2002, Eternal Life Through Jesus Christ).

Being like the One ‘who, being in the form of God, took upon himself the form of a servant, and being found in fashion as a man, He humbled himself and became obedient unto death’ assures us of a joyful judgment because He is the blue print, He is the map, He is the way….’wherefore God also hath highly exalted him, and given him a name which is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father’ (Philippians 2:6-11).

We are bound to Him by covenant and He to us by the cross: “Behold, I have graven thee upon the palms of my hands….” (Isaiah 49:16).

 

I sorrowed for Your pain

As You entered the Garden’s gate.

I sorrowed for it

As You hung on Calvary’s cross.

Now that our hearts beat as one,

I rejoice my soul will never to be lost. 

- CATHRYNE ALLEN 

(Art: Then Sings My Soul by LDS Art)

THE CHURCH OF CHRIST

 

 

There is something significant in Christ’s explanation to the Nephites as to why the Church should be called by His name. Besides saying that it is His Church and should therefore bear His name, He explained how this can happen: “Have [you] not read the scriptures which say ye must take upon you the name of Christ, which is my name?” (3 Nephi 27:5). In other words, we are the Church and the body of Christ (Ephesians 4:12; 1 Corinthians 12:12,13).

When I was a missionary, we were told that we were representatives of Jesus Christ and that we should think, speak and do what the Saviour would do because this would show the world what the Church is about.

This mandate should not be confined to missionaries only. The reputation of the Church is built upon our backs. We are the light on a hill by which others can see the way to glorify our Father which is in heaven (3 Nephi 12:14-16).

The Church is only as good as we are. The Saviour confirmed this responsibility that we bear by saying we are built upon His gospel and we should do all things in His name and then the warning, if our works are built upon the works of men or upon the works of the devil, we will have an undesired end (3 Nephi 27:9-12).

When we take upon ourselves Christ’s name, we should represent Him in what we think, say and do. When I was baptised years ago, I heard this very poignant thought: If you were arrested for being a Christian, would there be enough evidence? Imagine being arrested for being a Latter-Day Saint, would there be enough evidence to prove the fact?

Each Sunday as we partake of the sacrament, we renew our willingness to bear the Saviour’s name. What we do as members of His Church is a reflection of our commitment to this promise, our love and connection to Christ, and our devotion to His teachings.

As Christians we are resilient to life’s trials, we forge forward with faith, we love and sacrifice for each other, we endure persecution, we resist temptation, we don’t despair…… we are the body of Christ and we reflect His works, His character, His love and when in clouds of heaven He appears, and we stand in the shadow of His frame, we will want to hear the Saviour say:

 

I love what you have done with my name!

- CATHRYNE ALLEN 

(Art: The Sign of the Dove by Liz Lemon Swindle)

ROOT AND BRANCH

 

During His visit to the Americas the Saviour quoted two prolific prophets from the Old Testament. We usually focus and remember His references to Isaiah but  equally important are His quotations of Malachi.

Who can forget Malachi’s four iconic teachings:

·        Comparing the Saviour to a ‘refiner and purifier of silver’ in that great day when He comes to judge the world, to cleanse us through His Atonement like ‘fuller’s soap’ and prepare us to stand pure and spotless before the judgment seat (Malachi 3:2-3; 3 Nephi 24:2-3; D&C 128:24; see also Mormon Doctrine, 2^nd ed [1966], 624);

·        The promise that payment of tithing and offerings can open the windows of heaven and pour out revelation from God on the faithful who are willing to so sacrifice (Malachi 3:10; The Teachings of Harold B. Lee, ed. Clyde J Williams [1966], 206);

·        The promise that you can become a jewel in God’s crown if you remain faithful and thus have your name recorded in the book of remembrance (Malachi 3:16,17);

·        And this great promise: the great Elijah who would come to restore the priesthood keys that would seal families together and allow them to be complete – both root (ancestors) and branch (posterity) (Malachi 4:5,6). If not so, the purpose of this earth which was created for exaltation of human families would come to naught and the whole earth be wasted.

Imagine the tragedy of this:

In a Church general conference Elder Rudger Clawson of the Quorum of the Twelve related a marvellous manifestation received by one faithful Salt Lake Temple worker in which the status of married couples in the spirit prison who have not been sealed for eternity in a temple was revealed:

Upon one occasion I saw in vision my father and mother who were not members of the Church, who had not received the gospel in life, and I discovered that they were living separate and apart in the spirit world, and when I asked them how it was that they were so, my father said, "This is an enforced separation, and you are the only individual who can bring us together.  You can do this work.  Will you do it? - meaning that he should go to the House of the Lord and there officiate for his parents who were dead, and by the ordinance of sealing bring them together and unite them in the family relation beyond the veil.

"Temple Manifestations"  p. 77, 89, 131

"The story of Elijah's return can be found in D&C 110.  Obviously, there is no need to wait for him any longer.  This became the subject of conversation between Elder LeGrand Richards and the Mayor of Jerusalem, Teddy Kollek.  Elder Richards had just dedicated the Orson Hyde Memorial Garden on the Mount of Olives.  After the ceremony, the two conversed as they ate their lunch:

Elder Richards said:  "Mayor, I want to tell you something".

"What's that?" asked the Mayor.

Looking Mayor Kollek directly in the eye, the apostle said:

"Ten years ago I was here in Jerusalem and one day I went into three synagogues and hanging up on the wall in one of them was a large armchair.  I asked the rabbi what it was there for (I knew but I wanted him to tell me, which he did).  He said that it was so that if Elijah comes 'we can lower the chair and let him sit in it'.  Now Mayor, I want to tell you something and what I tell you is the truth.  Elijah has already been.  On the third day of April 1836 he appeared to Joseph Smith and Oliver Cowdery in the Kirtland Temple".

The Mayor said:

"I guess I better tell them to take that chair down."

(LeGrand Richards, Beloved Apostle, p.301)

- CATHRYNE ALLEN 

(Art: Elijah Appearing in the Kirtland Temple by Dan Lewis)

THE GRANDEUR OF OUR GOD

 

 

I began to read The Mortal Messiah series again and could not get past the preface. I became so emotionally overcome that I could not read any further.

Many of us think that we are studying the life of Christ when we study the New Testament. This is far from the truth. The Gospels are not biographies of Jesus but a synopsis of faith promoting accounts from the Saviour’s ministry.

“No mortal can write the biography of a God. A biography is but the projection through the eyes of a penman of what the writer believes were the acts and what he feels were the thoughts and emotions of another man…. How, then, can any mortal plumb the depths of the feelings, or understand in full the doings, of an Eternal Being?

“The true Life of Jesus must be written by the spirit of revelation and of prophecy and cannot come forth until that millennial day when men have a perfect knowledge that God can show them all things [see D&C 101:32-34]. Only then will they be able to believe and rejoice in the heavenly account.”

-        (Bruce R. McConkie, The Mortal Messiah Book 1, p xvi [1979].

Even the faith promoting accounts do not contain all the words and teachings of Jesus of Nazareth. Elder McConkie goes on to say that so sacred and holy were Christ’s teachings that only a selection of them were preserved for ‘presentation to the unbelieving and skeptical masses of men into whose hands the New Testament would come’ (ibid).

We do not fully know or understand the lonely road He travelled here. We do not fully understand the condescension of a God who stepped down from His gilded throne to traverse the dusty roads of Galilee.

 I am always touched when I see the humanity in Him through scripture….the hunger when He reached for the figs on the barren fig tree, the physical exhaustion that made Him sleep through a violent storm on the sea of Galilee. How did He cope with such overwhelming humility that kept at bay His godship and divinity?

And then the ultimate subjection to become a man whose ‘visage was so marred more than any man’ by being willingly lifted upon the cross of Calvary, allowing the nails to be driven into His hands and feet and His body to be broken to ensure our eternal destiny (Isaiah 52:14; John 19:17-18,32-34; see Old Institute Manual commentary for Isaiah 52:13-15). A God in a mangled body…..Could any of us possibly understand this?

This was the man from Nazareth, who sailed on the seas of Galilee and ascended to His exalted throne in glory and majesty. This was Christ the King, the eternal God of heaven and earth, the Son of God, the Saviour of my soul. I stand all amazed.

- CATHRYNE ALLEN 

 

 

THE ROAD

 

“I find that when I get casual in my relationships with divinity and when it seems that no divine ear is listening and no divine voice is speaking, that I am far, far away. If I immerse myself in the scriptures, the distance narrows and the spirituality returns. I find myself loving more intensely those whom I must love with all my heart, mind and strength, and loving them more, I find it easier to abide their counsel.”

-        President Spencer W. Kimball (as quoted from Seek The Spirit of the Lord by Ezra Taft Benson, Ensign April 1988, p 2)

Nothing testifies to me more of the importance of scriptures than the story of the Saviour meeting two of His disciples on the road to Emmaus post resurrection. The travellers told Him they ‘trusted’ the Galilean was the Messiah who would redeem Israel but were now sceptical because He had died (Luke 24:21).

The Saviour was gracious even though He chided them for their unbelief (v 25). He then expounded to them all that was prophesied of Him ‘beginning at Moses and all the prophets’ (v27). His point was, ‘how is it that you know the scriptures but you don’t believe them’?

These two disciples indeed came to believe. Upon heartfelt reflection they identified how: “Did not our hearts burn within us….while he opened to us the scriptures?” (Luke 24:32)

Luke tells us that these disciples’ eyes were restrained from knowing Him (v 16a). Could it be that it was more important for Jesus that they believed on Him through the scriptures than through showing them His resurrected body because the lesson is this: the ‘burn’ comes from only one place: The Holy Ghost.

The lesson is also this: the Saviour is in our midst STILL through the medium of The Holy Ghost. It is he who can open our eyes and our hearts so that we will not only believe but KNOW Christ. And where is the Christ most if not in the scriptures? If we study the scriptures without the presence of the Holy Ghost we are just building upon our knowledge and not our testimony.

We need to feel ‘the burn’ to know. We all know what we must do to be worthy of the sacred companionship of the Holy Ghost. As you travel on your personal road to Emmaus may the scriptures be burnt upon the tablets of your heart and may you know, and not just believe, that Jesus is the Christ, the Messiah, the Saviour of the world. He is the Resurrection and the life. He is the Redeemer of your soul. He is the road……

I gave you My all:

My heart, my body, my soul.

I paved the way

And conquered death.

I am in your midst;

I am the only,

I am the last,

And I am the first.

 - CATHRYNE ALLEN

(Art: Emmaus by Liz Lemon Swindle)

THE SACRAMENTAL PROMISE

 

One of the focal points of Christ’s visit to the Americas was the instituting of the priesthood ordinance of Sacrament, the principal purpose of which was to remember Him (3 Nephi 18:6,7). In return those who partake receive the fulfilment of this glorious promise:

1.     They will be filled with the Holy Ghost (3 Nephi 18:9; 20:8,9), who is “our comforter, our direction finder, our communicator, our interpreter, our witness, and our purifier – our infallible guide and sanctifier for our mortal journey toward eternal life” (Elder Oaks, in Conference Report, Oct. 1996);

2.     They will be built upon the rock (3 Nephi 18:12): “But whose among you shall do more or less than these are not built upon my rock, but are built upon a sandy foundation; and when the rain descends and the floods come, and the winds blow, and beat upon them, they shall fall, and the gates of hell are ready open to receive them” (v 19).

3.     They will have the ministering of angels: “Through the Aaronic Priesthood ordinances of baptism and the sacrament, we are cleansed of our sins and promised that if we keep our covenants we will always have His Spirit with us. I believe that promise not only refers to the Holy Ghost but also to the ministering of angels, for ‘angels speak by the power of the Holy Ghost; wherefore they speak the words of Christ’ (2 Nephi 32:3) (Elder Dallin H. Oaks, in Conference Report, Oct 1998, 50-51 or Ensign Nov 1998).

I had my most personal Sacrament experience during the covid lockdowns. I sat at my daughter's kitchen table as my son-in-law reverently blessed the sacrament. Each time I did so I was overcome emotionally and truly understood the spirit of this sacred occasion. As I sat there I was reminded of the very first Sacrament where the Saviour sat at just such an ordinary table and blessed the emblems of His sacrifice. 

For Him there was no chapel with cushy seats, no organ to assist the song, no fluffy white bread to pleasure the tongue. As my son-in-law passed the sacrament to me on the kitchen plate I came to know what it means to 'eat His body' as I have eaten off that kitchen plate before. Never before have I felt so close to the Saviour during Sacrament as I have at my daughter's kitchen table. His sublime words echoed in my heart: “He that eateth my flesh, and drinketh my blood, dwelleth in me, and I in him…..he that eateth of this bread shall live forever” (John 6:56-8).

Thy body for me broken

Thy blood for me spilt

Thy death for me offered

That I might live with Thee still.

- CATHRYNE ALLEN 

(Art: Remembering Jesus by Simon Dewey)