POSSIBLE
Christmas is a time to think deeply about Jesus Christ.
1. What is the first Christ people worship?
2. What is the second Christ which people revere?
3. What is the third Christ which people focus on?
4. What is the fourth Christ which is important to people?
5. How do these four different conceptions of Christ affect the way people worship the Savior?
6. What is the best way to worship the Savior?
7. What does it mean to say, “In the name of Jesus Christ shalt thou serve him?”
8. Would you please explain the meaning of the terms heart, might, mind, and strength?
9. Why are these four in that particular order: Heart, might, mind and strength?
10. Is there another order in which these four could be placed for understanding?
11. How does one go about worshiping God with Heart, Might, Mind and Strength?
12. That sounds like a good beginning. What comes next?
13. Is there a recognizable step after that?
14. What is the goal of these steps?
15. Now tell us what worshiping God in the way we have described has to do with the four Christs which people worship.
16. What you have described seems like a difficult task. How can one actually do these things?
Possible answers to these questions:
1. The first Christ people worship is the Babe in the Manger.
2. The second Christ people worship is the Great Healer and Teacher.
3. The third Christ people worship is the Atoning Christ on the Cross.
4. The fourth Christ people worship is the risen, reigning Lord of heaven and earth.
5. Worshiping the Babe is so easy, because as a baby He makes no demands.
Worshiping the healer and teacher is difficult, because the life he commends is strait and narrow.
Worshiping the suffering Christ on the cross brings both gratitude and sorrow. Gratitude for His willingness to suffer for all of us humans, sorrow that we humans have made so much suffering necessary for Him.
Worshiping the reigning Lord brings love for Him for those who obey Him, fearful looking for His Second Coming for those who reject Him.
6. The best way to worship Christ is to become his covenant servant and try to become as He is,
7. To serve Him in His Name is to become His covenant servant and to bless others in His power.
8. Heart: the desires of a person.
Might: the power one has to affect other beings and persons.
Mind: our understanding of the truth of existence.
Strength: The powers of our physical body, including the power to beget children.
9. This given order is the order of importance.
10. Another ordering of these elements is: Mind, heart, strength and might. This order is the temple order and follows the time sequence in which we actually use these elements.
11. One fully worships God be keeping all of his commandments, especially following the temple order.
12. What comes next is enduring to the end, which end is to become like Christ Himself.
13. Being like Christ Himself, the next step is to minister as He does to all eternity.
14. The goal of these steps is to bring as much happiness as is possible to the universe.
15. We need to learn to worship all four Christs at once, and to do that for the rest of eternity.
16. We can do these things only if we want to do so with all of our heart.