01-21-23

The accomplished French moralist Francois de La Rochefoucauld once remarked, "The truest mark of being born with great abilities, is being born without envy." However ideal this thought might be, here is our reality . . . "The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it?" Jeremiah 17:9.

Powerfully stated in the book Patriarch and Prophets, Ellen G. White shares this thought, "Envy is one of the most satanic traits that can exist in the human heart, and it is one of the most baleful in its effects." PP 385.1.

Our sinful condition makes living without envy an impossibility. That's where Peter reminds us that with God all things are possible. Notice what he says in 2 Peter 1:4, "Whereby are given unto us exceeding great and precious promises: that by these ye might be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust."

The promises of Scripture make a moral impossibility a literal reality. This is fully accomplished in our lives by a constant connection with the Master Jesus. Our responsibility is to avoid the Egyptian Trap! What is the Egyptian Trap? What does it have to do with you and me today? I will be sharing the concept of the Egyptian Trap in a coming sermon. Watch for it and you can avoid it and live the life you were born to live!

So until the next time, this is Pastor Tello reminding you that thoughts do change lives!

Pastor Howard Tello