A CHRIST CENTERED LIFE

For me, a Christ centered life is very demanding in our word today, where good is called bad and bad called good. But we as disciples of Christ has hope on Him because of his examples. That is why I will focus on the question and answer of The Lord, Jesus Christ in the Book of Mormon, "What manner of men ought ye to be? Verily, I say unto you, even as I am" [3 Nephi 27: 27]. And we know Christ manner of man is that of Charity, who think of others rather than self.

Finding answer to this question and being as Christ is require us constantly asking ourselves the following questions:

1.     What would Jesus do?

2.    What would He have me do?

The purpose of being like Christ is to be charitable and perfect like Him and attain our ultimate goal of exaltation like Him. And the truth is that Christ is exalted because He centered His life on God Almighty, our Heavenly Father.

EXAMPLES OF WHAT CHRIST DID NOT DO INCLUDES:

1.     Anger, if he was, he would have commanded legions from heaven to repeal his attackers in the guardian of Gethsemane. But the chief Apostle Peter told us in his first epistle, that ‘when he was reviled, reviled not again; when he suffered he threatened not; but committed himself to him that judgeth righteously’. See 1 Peter 2:23.

2.    Quarrels, if he was quarrelsome the occasion was everywhere, being provoked by the Pharisees and Sadducee's.

3.    Envy, if he was he would have overtaken the civil government with angels and became king.

4.    Pride, if he was he would not associate with the poor, sick and lowly, but he was humble and ate, slept and healed them.

5.    Indebtedness, if he was he would have been jailed by his enemies. That is why the Apostle Paul in his epistle to the Romans said we should ‘owe no man anything, but to love one another: for he that loveth another hath fulfilled the law. See Romans 13:8

We all know that these attitudes lead us to sinful life which is not example of how Christ is. These are attitudes that confronts us daily in our life struggle. And I believe that if we ask ourselves the questions, what would Christ do? And what would Christ have me do? And sincerely answer them with our focus on Christ, He will draw near to us and our life will gradually be centered on Him.

A Christ centered life is a life of charity, for charity does not envy, is not proud, endures and make us hopeful. Charity focus on others not self. So like the Apostle Paul wrote to the Corinthians that charity is the Pure love of God. [see 1 Corinthians 13:4]

I want to focus on indebtedness, perhaps because of the Christmas season some of us will engage on spontaneous buying to satisfy our ego, or out of envious spirit of competition in the process encore debts. If there is one example Jesus Christ lived and continuously advised us is to live within our means and avoid debt. The easiest way to lose trust, respect, integrity and honor is being unnecessarily indebted. It leads to dishonesty, lies and deceptions. And it is difficult for a debtor to live a Christ centered life because the Scriptures teaches that he who borrows and fails to pay commits sin and cause others to commit sin. See Mosiah 4:28. For example, if when I was a Branch President or Stake President was borrowing from members without paying back, must of those members will stop coming to church or embarrass me. I would be committing sin making them break their baptismal covenant and they might arrest me with Police. Let me share this true story, there was a leader who served with me and who has the habit of borrowing from members and not paying back without my knowledge. I noticed that respect for him was in the decline. In one of our stake conference a sister seized his cell phone because he was owing her #2000 and to stop the embarrassment I borrowed him the money to settle it and redeem his phone which he did and till date he has not paid me for over five years. And because of shame he relocated after he was released thereafter. The scriptures in 1 Timothy 3:7 gave qualifications of a bishop and other leaders that ‘he must have a good report of them which are without; lest he fall into reproach and the snare of the devil’

 let us take time to read and re-read the scriptures and ask ourselves this question if Jesus was indebted to people before His death, apart from his parents and Apostle suffering to pay his debts, they would have denied their faith and we might not have gotten the New Testaments. Also many people may have difficulty calling Him Lord, calling Him Christ or Savior. In fact, He was not indebted to anyone but He paid the debt of all people, that of all that have died since the world was created, that of those living now and that of those yet to be born. That is one reason we call Him, Lord and Savior.

So relate it to a President, Governor or even a Priesthood leader who is owing everywhere, he loses the spirit, respect and integrity and their life cannot inspire spiritual follower-ship. Such leaders live a life of pretense and eventual shame.

I have seen leaders in the Church and outside the Church who destroyed their lives and put their families in perpetual shame and bondage because of debt and that is because they did not center their life in Christ to avoid debt like Christ our exemplar did. Leaders who borrow from their members and do not pay back are abusing trust that comes with the Oath and Covenants of baptism and priesthood respectively. If you watch such people have problem paying tithe and fast offering, attending meeting and part taking of the sacrament worthily.

Today in our country, we hear news of our leaders who are involved in one scandal of looting public fund or the other, many of them may not have shame but their families and friends live in shame. If they have centered their lives in Christ nothing would have gone wrong permanently because in the end those who live the truth, and truly ‘born again’ [1 Peter 1:23] will be vindicated like our Savior.

The blessings of the gospel flow when we center our lives on Christ is my testimony in the sacred Name of Jesus Christ. Amen.