SHEMA

 

In his farewell address to the children of Israel, just before they entered the promised land and before Moses was taken from them by the Lord (Deauteronomy 34:56), he outlined the commandments Israel was to live by in great detail. The very first and most important commandment was that there is only one God who should be loved and worshipped which was in contrast to the many gods worshipped by those in neighbouring lands. The existence of only one God became the Jewish credo and it began like this:

“Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God is one Lord” (Deuteronomy 6:4-6). This commandment became the dogma of Judaism to be recited both morning and evening by Jewish males. It is called SHEMA, the very first word of the declaration, which is HEAR.

So sacred is SHEMA to Jews “that the pious in Israel have always sought to die with it upon their lips. This has been true down through the ages, even to the Holocaust death camps, where Jews who were being put to death recited the SHEMA in their last moments on earth.” (Marshall D. Isaacson, “Children of the Covenant” p 56).

Have you ever heard of anything more soul wrenching? Perhaps there is this: Because Jesus claimed to be co-equal with God when He said “I and my Father are one” (John 10:30), the credo of SHEMA became the very reason why the Jews rejected Christ. Thus the Jewish staunch belief that there is only one God became the dogma of Judaism and their conversion to Christianity one of the great improbabilities of this life.

When I first read about SHEMA, I was immediately transported to the Sacred Grove and Joseph who was told: “This is my Beloved Son, HEAR Him!” (JSH 1:17). To me, this word “Hear” seemed incredibly significant. It was a confirmation to the world of the Saviour’s Sonship and Godhood, that He is indeed one with the Father and the awaited Messiah. And all with just one word, HEAR!

The Church has sent the proclamation only recently to the membership of the House of Israel to: Hear Him! It’s a call to alertness and attention, a call to obedience and repentance and to focus on the one and only way to salvation. When I remembered the First Vision whilst reading about SHEMA, I also remembered investigating the Church fifty years ago. I HEARD every word of the restored Gospel with my very soul. It resonated with me like whispers from home because I felt that’s where I was.

Ever since I heard, I have been following, and all glory be to the One who has led me. Because I have followed, I have endured much and prospered much spiritually and gratefully I have learnt that indeed there is only one God, the Father and the Son who are one……

I hear Your voice in empty silence

When loneliness envelops me;

I hear Your voice in violent storms

That plague me in mortality;

I hear Your voice in my struggles

That never let me be;

I hear Your voice when You pilot me

On dangerous journeys of earthly seas;

I hear Your voice beckoning me

To stay the course because
You will never abandon me.

I hear Your voice getting louder

And more distinct on the narrow path

That leads me home to Thee.

I see Your arms wide open

Waiting to welcome me.

- CATHRYNE ALLEN 

(Art: Guardian by Kelsy and Jesse Lightweave)

WASHED WHITE IN THE BLOOD OF THE LAMB

 

"While we profess to be followers of the Lord, while we profess to have received the Gospel and be governed by it, a profession will amount to nothing unless we have washed our robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb.

"It is not enough for us to be connected with the Zion of God, for the Zion of God must consist of men and women that are pure in heart and pure in life and spotless before God, at least that it is what we have got to arrive at....

"It is not enough for us to embrace the Gospel...and be associated with the people of God, attend our meetings and partake of the Sacrament of the Lord's supper, and endeavour to move along without much blame of any kind attached to us....

"If our hearts are not right, if we are not pure in heart before God, if we have not pure hearts and pure consciences, fearing God and keeping His commandments, we shall not, unless we repent, participate in blessings of which the prophets bear testimony."

- John Taylor, "Teachings of Presidents of the Church (2001) 114-15

You feed my soul as I meet You
At the sacramental table.
The bread of life, the living water,
Gives me strength and tells me I am able.
With parched lips I drink
So I will not thirst like before,
With eagerness I eat
Your body given forever more.

- CATHRYNE ALLEN

(Art: Washed By The Blood by Danny Hahlbohm)

THE ONE

 

“Many years ago, when I worked as a volunteer at a hospital, I got to know a little girl named Liz who was suffering from a rare and serious disease. Her only chance of recovery appeared to be a blood transfusion from her 5 year old brother, who had miraculously survived the same disease and had developed the antibodies needed to combat the illness.

“The doctor explained the situation to her little brother and asked the little boy if he would be willing to give his blood to his sister. I saw him hesitate for only a moment before taking a deep breath and saying, “Yes, I’ll do it if it will save her.” As the transfusion progressed, he lay in bed next to his sister and smiled as we all did, seeing the colour returning to her cheeks. Then, his face grew pale and his smile faded. He looked up at the doctor and asked with a trembling voice, “Will I start to die right away?”

“Being young, the little boy had misunderstood the doctor; he thought he was going to have to give his sister all of his blood in order to save her.”   (Author Unknown)

The persecution of Christians in the world is escalating at a frightening speed. World Watch List of an organization called Open Doors claims that more than 380m Christians suffer high levels of persecution and discrimination for their faith (opendoors.org). This organization lists statistics for murdered Christians, attacked churches and Christian properties, and imprisoned Christians.

The adversary is exerting his strongest efforts in an attempt to eradicate faith in Christ before His Second Coming. I fear, according to Nephi, that the Saviour’s Church will be the culmination of that effort (1 Nephi 14:12-17). I shudder to think what my grandchildren will face.

The adversary’s second method of attack is through ideologies of different sects and religions of which there are an estimated 10,000 worldwide:

“A voice from Koran acclaims Jesus as a prophet like Abraham and Moses, but sweeps aside the divine Sonship with the declaration that Allah has no need for a Son to redeem men; rather, he has but to speak and a thing is done. A voice from one sect, looking back to the cross, says: “We were saved 2,000 years ago, and there is nothing we can do about it one way or the other now.”

“Another voice proclaims: “Baptism is of no moment; simply believe, confess the Lord with your lips, no more is needed; Christ did it all. Another sect sets aside the need for good works with the assertion that there will be a final harmony of all souls with God – all will be saved. Others believe the virgin birth was only a pious fiction fabricated by simple disciples who also made up the accounts of the miracles.” (Elder Bruce R. McConkie, “Come, Know the Lord Jesus” GC 1977)

By molding Christ to fit their diverse theologies, the world is rapidly acknowledging Christ as nothing more but a great moral teacher and the doctrine of salvation is being lost. As people of the world are losing all sense of moral values, the need for salvation is becoming extinct. If there is no sin, there is no need for salvation.

May we never forget the core of our faith in Christ when one day we are asked to deny Him. It is not Allah, it is not Buddha, it is not 33,000 confusing Hindu gods. It is only ever Christ…….the Saviour who allowed every last drop of His blood to flow  to save another….you, me, every soul born from the beginning to the end.

A life laid bare in selfless giving

For man’s purpose of salvation

Crimson drops were spilt like roses

On the hill of His creation. 

- CATHRYNE ALLEN

(Art: The Rose of Sharon by Yongsung Kim)

HE IS ALL

 

Those of you who read my posts will be aware that I base a lot of my knowledge on the scriptures. I don’t profess to know it all but over the years I have followed suggestions and instructions from several Church leaders on how to study and understand the scriptures.

 Every once in a while I will get a reader who will challenge what I write. In one of my recent posts titled “A Clear View” I attempted to prove that Christ has known everything from His very beginning, including the extent of the suffering He would go through during His Atonement, thanks to the Inspired Version which points out that it was the disciples that were ‘sore amazed’ in Gethsemane and not the Saviour (JST Mark 14:36).

One reader pointed out the scripture in Matthew 24:36 that quotes the Saviour saying that only His Father knows the day and the hour of His Second Coming, so in his opinion, the Saviour doesn’t know everything……this in spite of me citing two references in the Doctrine and Covenants where the Saviour said that only men and angels don’t know the day or the hour indicating that He knows too (D&C 39:21; 49:7).

I don’t need to tell you how aghast I was that a member of the Church considered His opinion of Christ to be more accurate than what the Saviour has said of Himself, namely that He knows the end from the beginning (Abraham 2:8); that all things past, present, and future are before Him continually (D&C 130:7); and that He knows all things and there is not anything that He doesn’t know (2 Nephi 9:20).

To me, the Matthew scripture is either mis-translated, as Joseph indicated in his teachings about certain errors in the Bible (Teachings, p 327) , or the Saviour was saying to His disciples, ‘I know also but I am not going to tell you the day and the hour because no man is supposed to know…..as when I come I will come quickly, meaning suddenly, as a thief in the night so all I will give you are the signs to watch for’ (Doctrine and Covenants Student Manual commentary for 34:7-12).

In my mind, the Saviour didn’t need to spell out that He knows when He will come. He is not some junior apprentice in the Celestial Kingdom who has to be told what to do and when to do it. He is a God and He is one with the Father (D&C 50:43; 93:3; 3 Nephi 11:27; John 14:9-11). What the Father thinks, the Saviour thinks, what the Father knows, the Saviour knows, what the Father wants, the Saviour wants. He is in all and above all and through all, the light, the truth, and the way. Why would He not know when He is supposed to come the second time?

My point is this. How can we have faith in a God who doesn’t know everything? It doesn’t make sense to me….so it behooves us to know Him like we have never known anything or anyone before. And this is how we can know Him: “Search the scriptures……..they are they which testify of me.” (John 5:39; 3 Nephi 23:5).

And in Joseph’s words: “Search the scriptures – search the revelations which we publish, and ask your Heavenly Father, in the name of His Son Jesus Christ, to manifest the truth unto you, and if you do it with an eye single to His glory, nothing doubting, He will answer you by the power of His Holy Spirit. You will then know for yourselves and not for another. You will not then be dependent on man for the knowledge of God, nor will there be any room for speculation. No, for when men receive their instruction from Him that made them, they know how He will save them.” (History of the Church, 1:282)

Daily I stand in my holy place

As I feast upon Thy word,

Ever hopeful I will meet You there,

Thy Spirit to embrace

And the cares of this world to arrest.

I reach for You in darkness

And step up to heaven’s door;

I am bathed in light

And am granted entrance to Your heart.

- CATHRYNE ALLEN 

(Art: Majestic Christ by Chris Brazelton)

ETERNAL REWARD

 

“Sometimes the tests and trials of those who have received the gospel far exceed any imposed upon worldly people…..sometimes the Lord’s people are hounded and persecuted. Sometimes He deliberately lets His faithful saints linger and suffer, in both body and spirit, to prove….that they may be found worthy of eternal life.

“But come what may, anything that befalls us here in mortality is but for a small moment, and if we are true and faithful God will eventually exalt us on high. All our losses and sufferings will be made up to us in the resurrection.” (Elder Bruce R. McConkie, In CR October 1976 or Ensign Nov 1976)

I believe in this promise because some years ago I had a memory from my pre-mortal existence where the Saviour was saying to me: “I will save you and I will make up for everything.” I believed it back then and I believe it now because a God cannot lie.

Section 58 of the Doctrine and Covenants begins with such a promise. It tells us that we cannot ‘behold with our natural eyes the design of our God concerning those things which shall come hereafter, and the glory which shall follow after much tribulation’ (v 3).

I know of no one in this dispensation who has suffered more tribulation than Joseph, the Prophet of the Restoration. In comparison, my life is a breeze compared to his. The endurance and faithfulness of this man, despite the jaws of hell that were at his heels is beyond reproach. You would think that he would have been spared the hell he went through in his life considering he was on God’s errand.

Joseph spent the winter of 1838-39 in Liberty Jail where ‘his soul was bowed down and his nerve trembled from long confinement and where pen, or tongue, or angels, could not adequately describe the malice of hell that he suffered there during the coldest winter on record in the state of Missouri’ (Jeffrey R. Holland, “Lessons from Liberty Jail”, speeches.byu.edu)

“Every one of us, in one way or another…..is going to spend a little time in Liberty Jail – spiritually speaking. We will face things we do not want to face for reasons that may not have been our fault. Indeed, we may face difficult circumstances for reasons that were absolutely right and proper, reasons that came because we were trying to keep the commandments of the Lord.”  (ibid)

I don’t remember what godhood or the mansions on high look like so I am not particularly keeping that in mind. What I am looking forward to is the fulfilment of the promise spoken of by Elder Bruce C. Hafen who has said that “the deep hurt we have experienced here is the mirror image of the deep joy that still awaits us’ because of the Man of Sorrows who has born all our griefs. (The Belonging Heart, p 315). I want that for Joseph.

“When we promise to follow the Saviour, to walk in His footsteps and be His disciples, we are promising to go where that divine path leads us. And the path of salvation has always led one way or another through Gethsemane”.  (Jeffrey R. Holland, “Lessons from Liberty Jail”, speeches.byu.edu)

All those who journey, soon or late,

Must pass within the garden’s gate;

Must kneel alone in darkness there,

And battle with some fierce despair.

God pity those who cannot say:

“Not mine, but thine”; who only pray:

“Let this cup pass”, and cannot see

The purpose in Gethsemane.

- (Ella Wheeler Wilcox)

- CATHRYNE ALLEN 

(Artists Unknown)

BEAUTY FOR ASHES

 

“Some Church members feel weighed down with discouragement about the circumstances of their personal lives, even when they are making sustained and admirable efforts. Frequently, these feelings of self-disappointment come not from wrongdoing, but from stresses and troubles for which we may not be fully to blame.

“Atonement of Jesus Christ applies to these experiences because it applies to all of life. Saviour can wipe away all of our tears, after all we can do. In Luke 4:18, Jesus quotes part of a passage from Isaiah that describes the heart of His ministry. The Isaiah passage reads:

“The Spirit of the Lord….hath anointed me to preach good tidings unto the meek; to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, to appoint unto them that mourn in Zion….beauty for ashes.” (Isaiah 61:1,3)  The Saviour’s Atonement is thus portrayed as the healing power not only for sin, but also for carelessness, inadequacy, and all mortal bitterness.”  (Bruce C. Hafen, “Beauty for Ashes”, Ensign April 1990)

One of the hardest things in life can be the suffering of injustice. It is difficult to imagine and understand that the Atonement of Jesus Christ covers the sins and actions of those who hurt others. I remember some years ago listening to a sister in the Church of her experience with her now ex-husband who chose to leave her and their two sons because “he didn’t want the responsibility of a family anymore”.

This sister prayed in her darkest moments hoping to avert the disaster but the answer she got was not something she wished for. She was given to understand that even though Heavenly Father disapproved of her husband’s actions vehemently, He still loved her husband and had to respect his freedom of choice. Instead of becoming bitter, this sister understood that not even God can interfere in unjust treatment some of us get at the hands of another. This understanding set her on the path of forgiveness which gave her the power to survive.

This story is in stark contrast to the experience of another sister in the Church that I know who could not accept her divorce and who went around to different wards expounding her ex-husband’s faults. She was not looked at in a favourable light by others who found it distasteful and eventually she stopped coming to Church.

Justice comes to all of us for our wrongdoings but it certainly does not come in this life time. This time is the time for repentance and restitution to those we have put in the state of pain and hardship. This is a huge indication of the mercy of Christ. If we were all judged immediately after our wrongdoings without the chance of repentance, we would all be lost.

The beauty that rises from the ashes is one of repentance and saving grace for the perpetrator and one of developing the forgiving Christ-like nature for the victim. This proves unfathomable love of God for all his children who struggle with the weakness of mortality.

“Each of us will taste the bitter ashes of life, from sin and neglect to sorrow and disappointment. But the Atonement of Christ can lift us up in beauty, not only from our own ashes but also from the ashes of him who fathers the rebirth of our spirits. We then soar toward the sun on the wings of a sure promise of immortality and eternal life. Thus may we be lifted up, not only at the end of life but in each day of our lives.

“Hast thou not known? Hast thou not heard, that the everlasting God, the Lord, the Creator of the ends of the earth….giveth power to the faint; and to them that have no might he increaseth strength. But they that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles, they shall run, and not be weary, and they shall walk and not faint” (Isaiah 40:28-29, 31) (ibid)

- CATHRYNE ALLEN

(Art: Christ's Light by Land of Dreams)

THE POWER OF THE SPIRIT

 

“Years ago as a missionary, I taught investigators that faith was a belief strong enough to cause one to act. In other words, one could define faith as “belief” plus “witness”. The Prophet Joseph Smith changed one word when translating Paul’s definition of faith found in Hebrews 11:1. The king James Version says, “Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.”

“Joseph Smith changed the word substance to assurance (see JST, Hebrews 11:1). Substance means something tangible, something that one can hold, whereas assurance refers to an inner conviction or witness that comes from the Holy Ghost. Thus, faith is belief plus action plus a spiritual witness.”

-        Elder Merrill J. Bateman, “Living a Christ-Centered Life, Ensign January 1999

Faith without the witness of the Holy Ghost that gives us an assurance of the truth, is simply just a pragmatic belief. It is the assurance of the spiritual witness that moves one to action and to keep acting. Without the inner conviction endowed by the Holy Ghost, this Church would not exist. Indeed, some of us struggle to stay in the Church because the ‘assurance’ of our faith is lacking making it impossible to adhere to the commitment and this is why:

“There is…..a difference between the gift of the Holy Ghost and the enjoyment of the gift. All saints after baptism receive the gift or right to the sanctifying power of the Spirit, but only those who are worthy and who keep the commandments actually enjoy the promised reward.” (Bruce R. McConkie, “A New Witness for the Articles of Faith” [1985] p 257).

Before His death, Jesus told the Twelve: “It is expedient for you that I go away: for if I go not away, the Comforter will not come unto you; but if I depart, I will send him unto you.” (John 16:7). Thus the Holy Ghost comforts, guides, purifies, testifies and makes known the things of God (see Bruce R. McConkie, Mortal Messiah 2, p 66).

The greatest promised reward we have is that of eternal life so the greatest role of the Holy Ghost is his guidance to assist us in adhering to our commitment to arrive at that destination. When we have the presence of the Holy Ghost with us, we are assured we are on the right path to that goal:

“The actual enjoyment of the gift of the Holy Ghost is a supernal gift that a man can receive in mortality. The fact of its receipt is a witness that the saints so blessed are reconciled to God and are doing the things that will assure them of eternal life in the realms ahead.” (ibid)

President Nelson has warned us that “it will not be possible to survive spiritually without the guiding, directing, comforting, and constant influence of the Holy Ghost” in the days to come (“Revelation for the Church, Revelation for Our Lives” GC April 2018).

The prophesied calamities of the last days are frightening. Some of us will not be able to press forward to the reward of eternal life if we do not have the assurance of the Holy Ghost that we are safe and secure on the Gospel path.

ODE TO THE HOLY GHOST

The days you embrace my heart,

I can scarcely contain my tears.

The truths of heaven distil upon me

And lifts me higher than all my fears.

Take my hand, take my soul,

Take me home beyond it all. 

- CATHRYNE ALLEN 

(Art: Outpouring of the Spirit by Danny Hahlbohm)