FBC Daily Devotional – July 5, 2021

Faith Baptist Church

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Well, good Monday to you. First full week of the month of July, also probably a holiday for you.

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At least it's the recognized day of celebrating the 4th of July. Although I'm sure most of the celebration happened over the weekend.

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I noticed, let's see, was it last Friday night the fireworks were supposedly shot off in Sterling and then last night in Dixon and so forth.

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Yeah, so I don't know what celebrating is going on today other than maybe some picnics or recovering from the weekend or something like that.

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I don't know. But anyway, well, here we are actually doing this devotionals this week.

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I was questioning whether or not I would get them done. And we actually had a change of plans.

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I mentioned last week at one point that my wife and I were probably going to be backpacking in the

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Ice Age Trail up in Kettle Moraine State Forest in Wisconsin. We had a little change of plans and ended up just going out for a couple of days rather than for six.

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Made life a little easier for my better half, if you will. And for me too.

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We just did some other things. Well, anyway, getting on to the important things of the day. We read in our

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Bible reading today in Deuteronomy as well as in Proverbs. I wanted just to point out this interesting little note.

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You know, one of the big problems of our day is the issue of sex trafficking.

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It's a horrible, horrible crime that's being committed. Young children and, you know, up through teenage girls primarily are just being kidnapped and stolen by some creep and then sold, sold into slavery.

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And, you know, they're never heard from again. Or if they are, it's rather unusual.

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And it's a terrible travesty that this is happening. Well, I wonder if the

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Old Testament law for such crime, penalty for such a crime,

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I wonder if that would be a deterrent. Notice this in Deuteronomy chapter 24 and verse 7.

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Listen to what it says. It says, It shall die.

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And you shall put away the evil from you. What effect would it have if our nation enacted a similar kind of penalty for those involved in sex trafficking, kidnapping children, minors, and selling them, abusing them terribly?

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Some of the stuff that they do to these primarily girls but also some boys to get them into this horrible, horrible trade is just awful.

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It's just deplorable. These are people who ought to be treated very harshly by the criminal justice system if they're caught.

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And, boy, could you imagine if the judge handed down the verdict, you know, guilty, and then at the sentencing phase sentenced you to death by hanging or something like that.

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You say, well, that's a horrible thing. Well, no, you know, God communicated to his people just how sacred human life is and just how horrible such a thing would be to kidnap another and abuse them, sell them for personal gain, just a horrible thing.

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So this is quite a deterrent. Didn't much happen in Old Testament Israel. So that was one thing that I came across.

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The other is in the book of Proverbs. We read just a couple of verses, well, three, 12, 13, and 14 in Proverbs chapter 12.

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And, you know, Christianity does not promote the Buddhist concept of karma.

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You know, that is your actions are going to come around. But there is a similar biblical principle.

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And I don't know if Buddhism borrowed it from biblical truth or if it's just a truth that is observable just in humanity, that it can be codified or put into a pithy statement or a way of looking at life, you know, like Buddhist karma.

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Well, in Proverbs 12, there's a couple of verses that communicate this idea that, you know, what you sow, you're going to reap.

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You know, that's a New Testament concept, right? Galatians, what sober man sows, that shall he also reap.

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He that sows to his flesh will of the flesh reap corruption. It's true on a spiritual level.

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But it's also true on, generally true, on a practical everyday level.

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So, for example, in verse 12 of Proverbs 12, it says, The root of the righteous yields fruit.

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The root of the righteous yields fruit. And the contrast is what is said in the first part of the verse.

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The wicked covet the catch of evil men, but the root of the righteous yields fruit.

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And the idea there, of course, is that a person who is essentially righteous, he's made righteous by the gracious work of God and he practices righteousness, he's going to bear the fruit of that righteous behavior, that righteous practice.

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In verse 14, the writer puts it this way.

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He says, A man will be satisfied with good by the fruit of his mouth, and the recompense of a man's hands will be rendered to him.

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What a man sows, that he's going to reap. How a man works and what he does with his hands, he's going to be recompensed for that.

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Not necessarily talking about wages for labor. He's talking about the consequence or the benefit, the blessing of one's life.

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So here in the book of Proverbs, we see this principle that what a man sows, he'll also reap. So that, of course, brings up the question, what am

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I sowing? Is the root of my life one of righteousness?

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Am I sowing righteousness? Am I reaping the fruit of it? And what are the works of my hands?

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What are the works of my hands? And what is the fruit that's coming out, that's being borne by what comes out of my mouth?

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You see, those are all good things to think about. Because, what a man sows, that he will also reap.

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Well, I trust these thoughts will be a challenge and encouragement to us today. Let's pray and ask

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God to speak to us about this and to sow well. So, our Father and our

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God, we do thank you today for this challenge to our lives. To give some thought to what we're sowing with our mouths, with our hands, with our lives.

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That will affect what we reap. So, Father, I pray. Bless these thoughts to our hearts, we ask in Jesus' name.

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Amen. Alright, well, if you've got the day off and you're just celebrating, relaxing, having a good day,

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I trust that God will bless you in it and you will get some refreshment from this day. Have a good day.