THE PRIVILEGE OF DISCIPLESHIP

 

 

I have been an admirer of Mormon for many years and here’s why: Mormon lived during the most evil period of American history and witnessed the destruction of the entire Nephite civilization. At the tender age of 16 he became the leader of  the Nephite armies (Mormon 2:1,2),  an appointment which began his valiant ministry among the Nephites with firm hopes of circumventing inevitable doom. His frantic and heart wrenching calls to repentance despite his better judgment were for one purpose only - "to declare His word among His people, that they might have everlasting life" (3 Nephi 5:13).  Likewise, his purpose in writing and compiling The Book of Mormon was to have us, in our day, "come unto Christ" (Mormon 8:35). Mormon did this for this one outstanding reason. It sends shivers up my spine when I read: "And behold I am called Mormon.....and I am a disciple of Jesus Christ, the Son of  God..." (3 Nephi 5:12,13).

 

And here is food for thought: “The word ‘disciple’ comes from the Latin meaning ‘a learner’. A disciple of Christ is one who is learning to be like Christ – learning to think, to feel, and to act as he does. To be a true disciple, to fulfil that learning task, is the most demanding regimen known to man. No other discipline compares….in either requirements or rewards. It involves the total transformation of a person from the state of the natural man to that of a saint, one who loves the Lord and serves with all of his heart, might, mind and strength.” (Chauncey C. Riddle, ‘Becoming a Disciple’, Ensign Sept 1974, p 81).

 

A further food for thought for those of you who are suffering: “…the very act of choosing to be a disciple can bring to us a certain special suffering….such suffering and chastening is the dimension that comes with deep discipleship, when the Lord takes us to the very edge of our faith, we teeter at the edge of our trust….in a form of learning as it is administered at the hands of a loving Father.” (Neal A Maxwell). 

 

What I see in Mormon as  Christ’s disciple is someone who has absolute, unrestrained devotion to His teachings and a sacrifice of all that is necessary to maintain such commitment. Despite the challenge of living in such an evil day, my hat goes off to this man who found a reason to rejoice: “I am Mormon, and a pure descendant of Lehi. I have reason to bless my God and my Saviour Jesus Christ…that he hath given me and my people so much knowledge unto the salvation of our souls” (3 Nephi 5:20). It’s the scripture that I will carry with me into 2022. 

- CATHRYNE ALLEN

NEW YEAR GOALS

 

Many of us will have begun to set goals as we approach the New Year. I gave up on that futile exercise many years ago. I discovered I don’t do well when I feel compelled to do something, even if that compulsion comes from me. Now I focus on spiritual aspects of my life’s journey more. My focus for next year will be ‘faith’. I have a burning desire to become a woman of faith at a much deeper level than what I have thus far been. This desire is linked to my understanding of faith being a component of righteousness. It has been given me to understand that learning to harness the power of faith is my next step on my life’s journey. 

 

Statistically, setting and reaching goals has very poor results. It has been estimated that 80% of people who set New Year resolutions drop out of the race after the first month. Many of you will disagree and say that goals are important. I understand if this is something you are converted to and have had success doing. The only point I am trying to make here is the highly advantageous surrender to Him who has all wisdom and knows us beyond our mortal understanding, to guide us on the path of our self-improvement and growth. When we are equally yoked with Him in our efforts to change and improve, the odds for succeeding are extremely high. Trusting Him to reveal to us where we should improve next so we can become who we need to be to fulfill our purpose here is where we should invest our finest efforts. 

 

If you are struggling with sin, weakness or addiction, the Saviour is the rudder of your ship when you put out to sea. If you have been floating on the waters of tribulation, He can point the way to the safe harbour and steady the turbulence of the storm so you can rise to your greatest potential. Do not trust in your mortal efforts alone, turn to Him who has all power to overcome and lift you to heights you need to be at.  I promise you, if you trust Him to show you the way, you will find His footprints even in the deepest seas……

 

I will step into deeper waters

And abandon the ground under my feet;

I will wade and look for You,

I will see Your footprints

Even in murky seas.

I will reach and find Your hand

To guide me where I am meant to go

I will trust, I will surrender,

Your purpose for me to know. 

- CATHRYNE ALLEN

(Art: David Bowman)

THE GIFT OF SACRIFICE

 

I mulled over the principle of sacrifice this Christmas. I am not sure why but perhaps my thoughts were ignited by my daughter who is far from the Gospel path pursuing a life that leaves me confounded. I would easily lay down my life if it would bring her back to God. And so the principle of sacrifice has made me realise an important truth.

 

It has become clear to me that the parental bond is strong within us so that it would motivate us to continuously sacrifice ourselves for our children, but for a very important reason. Basically, we are here on this earth for three reasons: 1. To gain a body; 2. To be tested and; 3. To become like Christ and thus become co-heirs with Him in the kingdom of God. It is this third reason that is in my mind connected to the principle of sacrifice. Self-sacrifice is central to Christ’s character, therefore, it stands to reason that we need to follow this path in order to become like Him. Thus sacrifice is a gift of immense proportions. What the Saviour achieved in His momentous death, we have the opportunity to emulate in the entire course of our lives through our children. The self-sacrifice we invest ourselves in is a similitude of the Saviour’s sacrifice for us. It is significant to note that because of His sacrifice, He has become our spiritually begotten ‘father’…..hence accentuating the parental bond that unites us through the medium of sacrifice. 

 

And here is another important thought: our children more often than not do not recognise or appreciate our sacrifices for them. Often it becomes an act of appreciation when they are adults and parents themselves but even then, not always. This too is a similitude of Christ’s sacrifice for us. Many people don’t appreciate His sacrifice, or they reject it, and even deny it, as atheists do. Some of our children do the same with us,  even defiantly pointing out that they didn’t ‘ask us’ to do so, that it was more or less our parental duty.  The difference in regards to the Saviour’s sacrifice is this: we DID ask Him to sacrifice himself for us long before this earth began. The minute we sustained Him as our Saviour and Redeemer, our sustaining vote became a plea. His birth, his death and everything in between was a sacrifice of an exemplary path to godhood. May we honour the God of our salvation and lay upon the altar our sacrifice alongside His. 

 

Did You count me amongst Your valuable host

As we met in the councils of heaven?

Did I stand strong and ready to defend Your godship;

To smite the enemy,

To secure Your path to my eternity?

Was I brave and willing to carry the cross

Some of the way to Calvary?

Did I weep with You in the garden

And held You as You bore the burdens of mortality?

Did I wipe the sweat of Your brow

As I wept for You and weep even now?

Did I promise to bear Your name

Etched in my mortal heart for all to see?

Am I now worthy to carry Your sacrifice

With me into eternity?

- CATHRNE ALLEN 

THE STORMS OF LIFE

 

 

I once had a discussion with a group of friends where a question was asked if we chose our parents in pre-mortal life. Many of them agreed that we didn’t because if we did, we would have all wanted to be born in the Church to goodly parents. I disagreed because I do not believe that we wanted to land on  a bed of roses and glide through mortality, otherwise what would have been the point of coming here? I believe we wanted to come to receive further progress and not to languish in worldly ease. We wanted the storms. We wanted storms because we wanted to become big ships at sea and not languish as little boats at the shore. 

 

I get it. Now that we are here, we don’t want the storms. It’s called being human. When we walk out of the baptismal font with hope of a better life, or walk out of the temple freshly wedded to the eternal companion of our choice, we tend to feel that we have made it and are on our way to celestial kingdom. Never in our wildest dreams do we envisage storms that are ahead of us. We do not plan on divorcing when we marry; or plan to bury a child when we enter the labour ward; or schedule chemotherapy when we commit to live the Word of Wisdom. When we commit ourselves to the journey that will take us to eternal life, we often expect, by virtue of our obedience, a smooth ride that will deliver us to the pearly gates.  Obedience, however, is not the teacher but the means of arriving at our chosen destination. The teacher is life. 

 

Every opposition in life is meant to teach us something,  help us overcome something, or make us rise to heights unknown. It all depends on our response. Will we sink or swim in the face of the storm? The ultimate though is to walk on water. Peter had the chance to learn that when he walked towards the Saviour in the midst of the billowing storm. He couldn’t grasp the lesson back then but I am guessing it didn’t take long after the Master was gone. Peter became so powerful that people brought out their sick into the street in the hope that his shadow would heal them (Acts 5:15). Now THAT is a big ship.

 

The naked truth is that God will not spare us the discomfort or hardship in this life if it will be for our ultimate good. We placed that trust in Him long ago. He will, however, be there to lift us up when we can’t go on; when the storms of this life seek to swallow us and the winds combine against our strength to break us. He will come in the final hour after we have learnt to trust, accept and seek His help to overcome. He will come. This is exactly why we were not afraid to come to difficult lives. We knew that He would come and empower us to overcome, to endure, to rise. We had faith back then in His capacity, His ability and His integrity. We did not only have faith that He COULD save us, but that He WOULD, at all cost, without fail.

 

This Christmas may we reflect on the faith that we had in Him long before He was born. May we renew our devotion to the Shepherd who desires to lead us, to love us, to protect us, to honour us, to exalt us. He would have us become our best…..to this end was He born.

 

How dear to the heart of the Shepherd

Is the flock of His sheep!

With tenderness and love

He watches over those in His keep.

How much do they love their Shepherd!

How closely they stay by His side,

With every footstep they follow

To forever in His care abide.

- CATHRYNE ALLEN

(ART: He Is My Refuge by Yongsung Kim)

THE FOUNTAIN OF LIVING WATER

 

Christ was born to lift the lowliest of us to heights unknown. Consider the woman of Samaria whom Christ encountered at Jacob’s well (John 4:1-42). An encounter not by chance…..When all of Jewry chose to travel an indirect and longer route from Judea to Galilee rather than go through Samaria because they hated the Samaritans due to their mixed blood, Jesus chose to travel the direct route and sat himself down at Jacob's well at noon having sent his disciples to procure provisions. For a Jewish man to speak to a Samaritan woman in public would have been unheard of. 

 

The Saviour knew well the woman who came to draw water from the well. He knew that she had had five husbands and was now living with a man who was not her husband. This was a fallen woman who chose to come to the well in the heat of the day rather than the cool of the morning when it was the custom for women to gather and enjoy social interaction. The timing of her visit to the well emphasized her despised and outcast position. In general Jewish men didn't speak to women much in public, especially not to ones of ill repute. 

 

The Saviour came to heal the sick and bind the broken hearted (Isaiah 61:1; D&C 138:42). He did not minister to those who were well and rejected Him in the pride of their hearts. This is why He mixed with the publicans and the sinners. How better could He have demonstrated the power He had to lift us to eternal life? When I think of the Samaritan woman and consider His important message, I also see through my 21st century view the Saviour sending a message to the women of our day, a message of healing and hope. A great number of women today feel fragmented and damaged  having been divorced, widowed, abandoned or simply ignored by the opposite sex. Among the damaged are women who have been embroiled in sin, abused and enslaved in oppression. Perhaps they are all depicted in this Samaritan woman. She is the symbol of the downtrodden and the lowliest of us who can qualify for eternal life if we are but willing to accept the God in the babe of Bethlehem. 

 

In this modern world where so much suffering abounds, some of us are barely keeping our heads above the water and some of us are scraping up sludge of dry wells.   In all our suffering and stumbling in the dark we tend to turn to the ways of the world to fill us up. Sometimes we get so blinded by the glare of this world that we dive headlong into Jacob's well eager to assuage our thirst with that which does not satisfy, benefit or fulfill us. We seek for the corruptible things of this earth that have no lasting power to fill our cracks, heal our sorrows and make up for our lack. 

 

Drawing water from a well was a thankless and miserable daily burden designated to women. The water the Samaritan woman drew out of the well was dead heavy water of this earth, much like the burdens and cares of this world. The Saviour offered her that this water does not in the long term satisfy and that in Him was the fountain of living water that springs into eternal life. If we would but drink from this fountain of living  water we could be filled with hope believing Him who has said, "....eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love him" (1 Corinthians 2:9). He can give all this to us. This Christmas, be filled and thirst no more.   

 

You paved the way to glories untold

With drops of blood and hallowed tears,

Gifting me life beyond these mortal years;

The bread of life and the living water,

Flowing into my heart from yours,

With parched lips I approach

So I will thirst never more.

- CATHRYNE ALLEN

(Art by Liz Lemon Swindle)

THE POWER OF "I AM"

 

I am mesmerised by the method of identity used in the Book of Mormon. It is not a method we use today in our written communication but to me it is enchanting. It says volumes about the person who proclaims “I am”. It ignites my heart with tenderest of emotions to hear this:

  

“I am Moroni; I am a leader of the people of the Nephites” (Alma 54:14). I just have to read this sentence and know who Captain Moroni was. I have been enthralled by his staggering passion for liberty, the welfare of his people and his faith in Christ as I have studied and admired his warfare acumen through the pages of the book of Alma. He is a fearless man who boldly addressed the leader of the Lamanites, as ‘a child of hell’ (Alma 54:11); he is the man at whose feet the Lamanites threw their weapons (Alma 52:38); he is the man who was beloved by all the people of Nephi (Alma 53:2); he is the man that Helaman addressed as his ‘beloved brother Moroni’ (Alma 56:2,45;58:41). All these things and more rush into my mind when I hear his name. His greatness is too numerous to name here. 

 

Another proclamation of self-identity that gets to me is, “I am Helaman, the son of Alma” (Alma 58:41). When I hear his name I remember the warrior who became a ‘Father’ to 2,000 young men he affectionately called his ‘little sons’ (Alma 56:30,39,44,46) and led them into war with valour and trust in God. To me, when Helaman says “I am the son of Alma” he is referring to more than just a biological connection but to his upbringing by a man who sorrowed for his people (Alma 8:10,14; 31:1,2,30,31;35:15) and sacrificed himself over and over to rescue them from the jaws of hell. Helaman walked in the footsteps of a father whose  accomplishments will echo throughout eternity. When I hear that he is the son of Alma, I know who Helaman is….because he was raised by a great man.

 

Now consider another greatness of valiancy: “I am Mormon, and I am a disciple of Jesus Christ, the Son of God” (3 Nephi 5:12,13) . I believe that’s exactly who Mormon is when I read the greatest discourse in holy writ that he has penned on faith, hope and charity  (Moroni 7).  Someone who has produced a mammoth witness of Jesus Christ such as the Book of Mormon can with surety declare himself as His disciple. But nothing speaks to me volumes about this man as much as this poignant advice to his son which echoes in my heart repeatedly: “For we have a labour to perform whilst in this tabernacle of clay, that we may conquer the enemy of all righteousness” (Moroni 9:6). This was his creed and he went down fighting in the quest of its achievement. 

 

This Christmas, however,  may our hearts and minds be turned to the greatest I AM of all times….

·       I am the bread of life (John 6:31, 51)

·       I am the light of the world (John 8:12)

·       I am the door of the sheep (John 10:7,9)

·       I am the good shepherd (John 10:11,14)

·       I am the resurrection and life (John 11:25)

·       I am the way, the truth and the life (John 14:6)

·       I am the true vine (John 15:1,5)

·       I am Jesus Christ, the Son of God (3 Nephi 9:15)…….

 

Such magnitude of power

Of love, mercy and light

Cradled in the body

Of a baby’s heart.

- CATHRYNE ALLEN

(Art: Light of the World by Nathan Greene)

THE FATHER TO REVEAL

 

The babe that lay in the manger 2021 years ago came for two reasons: to secure our salvation and to reveal to us the Father.  Until Christ came people mainly understood God’s power, His holiness and His anger and judgment but when Christ came, He showed them the Father’s deep devotion and His merciful love towards His children. This He did through himself because that’s the way He was. He has said that He and the Father are one to the Jews, to the Nephites and to us (John 14:9-11; 3 Nephi 11:27; D&C 50:43; 93:3) therefore the way He is, is the way the Father is. I highly recommend that you read this Christmas  Elder Holland’s conference talk of 2003 entitled “The Grandeur of God” to fully understand this. 

 

There is a strong depiction of father-son relationships in the Book of Mormon. This is rightfully obvious because the records were kept by men and handed down to their sons. What else can be seen, however, is the spiritual legacy passed on from father to son. Consider for a moment just these few sons who had been righteously influenced by their fathers: Nephi, who believed all the words of his father Lehi (1 Nephi 2:16) and became crucial to preserving the tribe of Joseph in Americas; Enos who allowed the words of his father Jacob to sink deep into his heart (Enos 1:3) and because of which he was led to such mighty prayer that God could not be restrained from covenanting with him regarding the preservation of records and imminent salvation of the Lamanites (Enos 1:16);  Alma the Younger's concern for his son Corinaton which prompted an entire discourse on God's justice, mercy and resurrection spanning three chapters of his book (Alma 40,1,2); Moroni who accepted the incredible responsibility to safeguard the records and who gave us the discourse on faith, hope and charity as taught by his father Mormon (Moroni 7:1).

 

What do we learn from these family associations? That the testimony of righteous fathers could never be expunged from their sons' souls. There is one relationship that stands out the most in the Book of Mormon but this time it is the son-father relationship. Nobody has been a greater son to his father than Jesus, who fulfilled the will of the Father in all things (3 Nephi 1:14); the son who 'does always those things that please him" (John 8:29) and was consequently called by the Father "Well Beloved" (Helaman 5:47). During His visit to the Americas, according to my calculations, Jesus made 148 references to the Father. He came not only to affirm his divine Sonship but to teach the people to worship the Father. It is the Saviour's love for the Father, more than His love for us, that motivated Him to become the author of our salvation. He is the perfect son because of the perfect father. 

 

The men of the Book of Mormon leave me enthralled, the father-son relationships even more so for is there a more heart searing declaration than this: "I am Helaman, the son of Alma" (Alma 58:41)......except, there is this one: "I am Jesus Christ, the Son of God" (3 Nephi 9:15).

 

I wish to gift you my heart

Eternal Father of mine;

I wish to glorify Thy name

Through endless moments of time.

I wish to worship you each day that I greet,

I wish to honour you with each breath that I breathe.

Then one day soon when I kneel at your throne

And bring you my deeds from my earthly home;

Accept them with mercy,

Consider them bliss,

And greet me joyfully

With an holy kiss.

 

- CATHRYNE ALLEN

(Art: Danny Hahlbohm)