Hosea 10:13 We will reap what we sow.

 Job 4:8

Even as I have seen,

Those who plow iniquity

And sow trouble reap the same.

Our hope lies in Jesus, that in Him and in His righteousness, and not ours we can be healed. Wicked men in high places seek to destroy what God has created. In Him there is no male nor female, Gentile nor Jew, slave nor free. We are all one in Christ. Jesus came as a template of how we are to live our lives. Until His coming we only saw in part that which He knew in full. We are to love God above all and treat others the way that we want to be treated. Those who love Him will love others. Divine love  covered a multitude of our sin and tore the veil that separated us from our holy God. Every person born deserves the respect and dignity that is inherent in the spark of God that resides in each of us. We are blessed by God to be a blessing to others. God told Abraham that all nations will be blessed by his faith. We are the children of Abraham. Fear God not man. Carla

Hosea 10:13

You have plowed wickedness;

You have reaped iniquity.

You have eaten the fruit of lies,

Because you trusted in your own way,

In the multitude of your mighty men. (NKJV)

The process of repentance and restored blessing outlined in verse 12 contrasts sharply with reality. Israel had planted the seeds of sin and reaped the inevitable consequences. Fruit of lies likely refers to the people’s lack of loyalty to God (verse 4). The NKJV Study Bible

Hosea 9 and 10 continue the prophet’s poetic account of Israel’s spiritual history, focusing on the religious unfaithfulness and moral injustice that characterized their most prosperous period since King Solomon. The prophet looks back on Israel’s sin and lack of repentance, and he warns of imminent judgment. Faithlife Study Bible

Galatians 6:7–8

Do not be deceived, God is not mocked; for whatever a man sows, that he will also reap. For he who sows to his flesh will of the flesh reap corruption, but he who sows to the Spirit will of the Spirit reap everlasting life. 

Psalm 33:16

No king is saved by the multitude of an army;

A mighty man is not delivered by great strength.

Hosea 7:3

They make a king glad with their wickedness,

And princes with their lies.

We went to the outskirts of Bourke (Mother Teresa writes), where all the Aborigines were living in those little, small shacks made of tin, and old cardboard. I entered one of those little rooms and told the man living there, “Please allow me to make your bed, wash your clothes, to clean your room.”

He kept saying, “I'm alright, I'm alright.”

“But you will be more alright if you allow me to do it.”

Then he allowed me, and at the end, he pulled from his pocket a little old photograph of his father. I said, “You are so like your father.”

He was overjoyed. I blessed the photo, gave it to him, and it went back into the pocket near his heart.

After I cleaned the room I found in the corner a big lamp, full of dirt. I said, “Don't you light this lamp, such a beautiful lamp?”

He replied, “For whom? Months and months nobody has ever come to me. For whom will I light it?”

So I said, “Won't you light it, if the Sisters come to you?”

And he said, “Yes.”

So the Sisters started going to visit him for only about 5 to 10 minutes a day. They started lighting that lamp. After some time, the man got into the habit of lighting the lamp himself. Slowly, slowly, slowly, the Sisters stopped going to his shack (although they used to go every morning). I forgot completely about my first visit, and then after two years he sent word, “Tell Mother, my friend, the light she lit in my life is still burning.”

We are fortunate people. We do not live in shacks made of tin and old cardboard. But each one of us knows what it is like to let the light go out, or to leave the lamp unlit, or to bury the lamp (for any number of reasons, whether it be fear or shame or being just plain stuck) in the corner, under the debris of disillusionment and disconnection.

I don’t tell this story as a motivational tool. As if there is an obligation to “be kind.” I tell it as an affirmation and a reminder (mostly to myself) that within each of us there is a light. And that this light—of hope, dignity, delight, passion, justice, beauty, grace—still shines, regardless of the dirt that covers it. Yes, there are times we forget (and throw our hands into the air). However, there are also times when a simple act of kindness, or gift of compassion, rekindles the light in our own spirit. This gift we give to another, becomes a gift we gratefully receive. In the story, both—the giver and the receiver—are liberated.

 “Sabbath Moments” Terry Hershey