"My friend, my Savior, my Lord, my God"

One of the heroes of my young adult life, as I was beginning a family and a career, was Spencer W. Kimball, who served as the twelfth President of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints from 1973 to 1985. As a humble servant of the Lord Jesus Christ, as a sweetly bold prophet of the living God, he fired my mind and heart and soul with faith and love and a resolute desire to keep the commandments of God and to bless and lift the lives of those about me.

This evening I came across this stirring witness he once bore of the Savior he knew and loved so well:

We place [Jesus Christ] on a pedestal as no other group I know of. To us he is not only the Son of God, he is also a God and we are subject to him. . . .

No matter how much we say of him, it is still too little.

He is not only the Carpenter, the Nazarene, the Galilean, but Jesus Christ, the God of this earth, the Son of God, but most importantly, our Savior, our Redeemer. . . .

I add my own testimony. I know that Jesus Christ is the Son of the living God and that he was crucified for the sins of the world.

He is my friend, my Savior, my Lord, my God.

I add my own witness, given me by the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, that Jesus Christ is the Son of God, the Only Begotten of the Father, my Savior, my Redeemer, the Light and Life of the world. His divine work is alive and well in this sick old world that needs His gospel and His love so very much. And, borrowing President Kimball's simple, straightforward words, I also declare, "He is my friend, my Savior, my Lord, my God."