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Day 134, or May the 14th. Be careful what you hear and say.

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Our thoughts today are rooted in Esther chapter 6 verse 6. When Haman entered, the king asked

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him, What should be done for the man the king delights to honour? Now Haman thought to himself,

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Who is there that the king would rather honour than me?

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Now the big picture surrounding this verse. Queen Esther plans two banquets, with her

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enemy Haman as the guest of honour. In fact, he was the only guest to dine with the king

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and queen. It was such a treat for Haman, and he was sure that there were more honours

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to come. He couldn't have been more wrong. Sadly for him, it was all a plan to stop him

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fulfilling his plot to wipe out the whole Jewish race, and in the end he dies on the

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gallows that he built for the execution of the first Jew, Esther's cousin Mordecai.

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And now today's action step. The king in our narrative today knew what he meant when

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he spoke to Haman, but it was not clear to Haman, and he totally misunderstood it. On

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a humorous level, I remember recounting to a group of folk in the USA an event that happened

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to me in one of my early walk through the Bible seminars in the UK. I told them that

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I travelled by car and took a suitable change of clothing with me only to find that I had

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forgotten to take a pair of shoes. I travelled in an old pair of trainers, so I had to wear

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them with my seminar teaching outfit. The Americans thought this was a hoot, but far

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funnier than I did. It was only when we talked afterwards that I was told the image of me

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wearing trainers was on the border of being unbelievable. Trainers in the UK are tennis

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shoes or sneakers in the USA. Trainers in America are rubber pants worn by babies as

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part of their potty training. I was very careful when using particular words from that moment.

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Be clear when you talk about your faith, because for many that is all they will ever hear about

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Christianity. Be careful how you listen to. Listen to what is being said rather than hearing

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what you want to hear.