For who maketh thee to differ from another?
and what hast thou that thou
didst not receive?
now if thou didst receive it,
why dost thou glory,
as if thou hadst not received it?
1 Corinthians 4:7
"It is that man may obtain the life that measures with the life of God
that the Lord breaks up his worldly ambitious projects, which, if
permitted to engross the mind, would unfit him for the future world.
God is testing every one of us.
He entrusts us with talents, to see whether we will be thoroughly unselfish in the use we make of them.
--Let us remember that we are to be tried by the laws of Christ's 
kingdom.
--We are not our own to do with ourselves as we please.
--We have been
bought with a price, and the laws of Christ's kingdom, the ten holy
precepts, present the standard that we are to reach.
--God is jealous of
His law. He tests every man, to see whether he will obey or not.
Man sinned, and death is the penalty of sin.
Christ bore the penalty,
and secured for man a period of probation.
God expects every man to use
his gifts in a way that will give him an increased knowledge of the
things of God, and will enable him to make improvement, to become more
and more refined, ennobled, and purified." E.G.W.