When I was a boy, we lived in front of LaGuardia Airport in Queens, NY. On one occasion my father was working at his taxi driver job, my older brother was with his friends and my younger brother was . . . well, I don't know where he was. I only remember where I was. I was playing in our front yard when a strange man approached our property fence and started to talk to me. He was showing me some candy that he had and wanted to give to me.
As I got up to take the candy, the man reached over the fence and grabbed a hold of me, pulling me over the fence. I heard my mother screaming from the kitchen window calling for my father who wasn't home (but the kidnapper didn't know that). Realizing that my kidnapping was drawing too much attention, he dropped me and got into his car and raced away. As a small boy, I didn't understand why my mother was so worried and yelled at me for taking candy from a stranger!
What if there was no fence to my property? What if my mother had not been keeping an eye on me from the kitchen? What if this kidnapper would have succeeded in taking me away from my family? What if . . . While the fence around our property didn't deter this man from his dastardly deed, it showed him down. We are on the 19th Fundamental Belief of the SDA Church which is on the Law of God. You will hear today the benefit God has left for us to protect us.
While the Law of God can protect us, it cannot stop someone from abusing the Law. What keeps a person from abusing the Law of God? The Grace of Christ abiding in the heart of man! We are reminded in the Signs of the Times, May 30, 1895, paragraph 2, "Human nature could not keep the law, even if it would. Apart from Christ, without union with Him, we can do nothing." The abiding of Christ in the heart is what makes the possibility of keeping the Law of God a reality.
May you this Sabbath learn the you, benefit, and gift of the Law of God. May you realize that it's not you and your own power that keeps the Law, but Christ in you that gives you the ability to do the impossible!
So, until he next time, this is Pastor Tello reminding you that thoughts do change lives!
Pastor Howard Tello