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Day 228, or August 16. Actions are better than words. Our thoughts today come from Ezekiel

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chapter 11 verse 20. Then they will follow my decrees, and be careful to keep my laws.

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They will be my people, and I will be their God.

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And now the big picture surrounding this verse. Ezekiel's sermons must have been totally

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breathtaking. Not only did he speak powerfully on behalf of God, but he also used some amazing

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visions and illustrations, which even today many have difficulty understanding in full.

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In amongst all his apocalyptic language there is still the confirmation that God wants to

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restore his people, but he reminds them that he wants them to do more than just believe

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the right things. He wants them to do the right things too.

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And now today's action step. One of the most common criticisms of the church today

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is that it includes too many hypocrites. My response to that is always to say, please

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come and join us, because there is always room for one more. I am not being sarcastic

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for the sake of it, but I do believe there is as much hypocrisy outside the church as

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there is inside it. Having said that, Ezekiel writes what God is saying to his people, and

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it seems he is addressing those who know what to do, but choose not to. I remember a well-known

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footballer making harsh comments about a fellow footballer following a particularly hard tackle.

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When challenged by the interviewer in the studio where the discussion was taking place

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about his own less-than-pure history on the football pitch, he simply said, well, that's

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different. James totally refutes this when he tells us in his letter, remember, it is

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a sin to know what you ought to do and then not to do it. James 4 verse 17. When you are

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next tempted to make excuses for yourself as a special case, just think how you would

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react to someone else doing the same. Wouldn't the word hypocrite spring to mind? So how

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should your behaviour appear? It must be godly do-haviour rather than scholarly believe-haviour.

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.