The second section in the President Kimball lesson manual centers on the eternal mission of Christ. Though we usually think of Christ’s time on earth as the primary substance of His mission, we must keep in mind that, like all of Heavenly Father’s spirit children (that’s us), He existed before the creation of the world, and will continue to exist long after. During that time, He continuously obeys the will of God and keeps Him as a primary focus.
As Latter-day Saints, we know that Christ was Jehovah of the Old Testament. He organized the physical world we live on today. He communed with the prophets. However, I love the phrase President Kimball used to refer to our Savior: “the organizer of the kingdom of God upon the earth.” In every dispensation, Christ prepared God’s kingdom on Earth. In the Old Testament, He spoke to Abraham, Moses, and Isaiah as Jehovah, keeping in touch with the prophets and revealing the will of the Father, both for the present and for the future. In the New Testament, He served His mortal ministry on the earth and set up the church as it needed to be. In the Book of Mormon, He performed both actions; He spoke with the prophets who kept the law of Moses and He visited the saints of the new world following His resurrection. And in the Doctrine and the Covenants, as well as throughout this dispensation, He communed with the modern-day prophets and re-established His church in the world.
But His mission did not end once He set up the church in these latter days. Not only does He continue to speak with living prophets, but He also must prepare for His second coming. After His death, He organized spirits who had passed on to serve as missionaries to others who had not yet received the fullness of the gospel. One assumes that He continues to supervise or participate in this spiritual missionary program. Similarly, once He has come to Earth and completed His ministry there, He will not have finished serving the Father. He has served God throughout eternity; I doubt He will kick back after His millennial reign and take a vacation. No, I suspect He will continue to labor to bring just one more soul home again to the Lord.
What, then, of us? Do we get to take a vacation from our “Sunday responsibilities”? Those who serve a mission do so formally for a short period of time. Yet, are we not to emulate Christ in all things? I suspect He would have us keep our eye on our – and His – long term goals. We need to be certain that, even when we are not actively building up the kingdom, we are carrying His spirit and the light of Christ with us. No weekends off for bar-hopping! Even when we take vacations, we should seek ways to be anxiously engaged in doing His work. Often we can do this simply by keeping our eyes open to those who are around us. Whether they are family, friends, or strangers, we can constantly ask the Lord how He would have us best serve. We, too, have an eternal mission, to be God’s hands on Earth. How well are we serving?
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