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The Character of God

Elder Jerry Wilson’s devotional entitled, “The Character of God,” focused on the characteristics of Heavenly Father and the “Lectures on Faith.” Elder Wilson began his July 5th devotional by advising students to, “be careful of what you allow in your knowledge bases, from the world…Please know that you have plenty of examples of those who sought advanced degrees all the while deepening their faith in God in the process.”

Elder Wilson is an instructor in BYU-Hawaii’s Religion Department and a retired Church Educational System employee who is now serving a mission at BYUH along with his wife, Kathy.

He highlighted the “Lectures on Faith” and said that “there are two kinds of faith, one is the moving cause of all action in us.” The second faith mentioned in Lecture One is a principle of power.  He also said, “There is an order, a pattern, a manner by which we know there is a God.” We rely on chosen vessels like Joseph Smith to increase our testimonies.

We also learn the attributes of God from the “Lectures on Faith.” God is “a God of Creation, a God of Mercy, the Same, and No respecter of persons, a God of Truth, and Love.  He also is a God of Knowledge, Power, Justice, and Judgment.”  In the Lectures, we learn the “nature of our salvation” and how we develop due to our life’s challenges.

Elder Wilson also described his teaching methods in religion classes. He encouraged students to mark in their scriptures information about the nature of God in a different color so that students can use the scriptures as a tool to better understand the Lord.

He told the story of Martin Harris who disobeyed the Lord, so he lost precious scriptures.  However, the Lord prepared a way for others to have the information. “God’s knowledge of Martin’s experience, moved upon Nephi, around 570 BC, encouraging him to go back over the large plates and extract and edit, bringing about a record with spiritual highlights,” Elder Wilson described. This shows that the Lord will provide the means for salvation. He is omniscient and has prepared things so that nothing necessary for salvation will be lost.

He told a personal story of the Lord preparing his family. They were living in Washington when his wife felt a prompting to prepare to sell their home. They did so and one day got a phone call from Salt Lake asking if they would move to the Midwest in a short amount of time. They were able to sell their home and move quickly because the Lord had been preparing them. Wilson quoted Elder Bednar, “I testify that the tender mercies of the Lord are real and that they do not occur randomly or merely by coincidence. Often, the Lord’s timing of his tender mercies helps us to both discern and acknowledge them…to recognize and treasure these important blessings…”

His final story was of a young elder who had just become a missionary in Brazil. After a three-day bus ride, he arrived at Sao Paolo Missionary Training Center, he was informed he would begin tracting right away. He was nervous and shy so it was difficult for him to do. His senior companion took the first door and he took the second.

Wilson said, “When this young elder knocked on the second door, the senior companion stepped back and indicated for him to proceed. He shrank back. When the door opened, to the young Elder’s utter astonishment, the person standing there was his older sister. She had run away from home three or four years earlier. The family had not heard from her since and had no idea where she was, or even if she was still alive. One can imagine the sweetness of that reunion and the tears of joy that were shed that night.”

He ended with his testimony of about God’s nature: “I believe in this God of Creation, this God of Justice and Mercy.  I submit that we are here to become like He is, to be assimilated into His likeness, and to exercise faith in Him, unto Salvation.  I testify of the Godhead, that the Father, and the Son, and Holy Ghost, are one, in their natures, which beckons us, by our covenants, to have that same oneness.”

Click here to read or watch Elder Wilson's Devotional address.

Photo by Monique Saenz.