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Day 237, or August 25. We are the Church of Christ.

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Our thoughts today come from Ezekiel 41 verse 5. Then he measured the wall of the temple.

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It was six cubits, that's nine feet, thick, and each side room around the temple was four

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cubits, that's six feet, wide.

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Now the big picture surrounding this verse. With the destruction of the temple, Ezekiel

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details what the new temple will look like. His vision is truly mind-blowing in its detail,

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as it is accurately measured and proves to be many times bigger than Solomon's temple.

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You certainly get the impression that the size and details were vital. It was Solomon's

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temple which Nebuchadnezzar destroyed and which would be rebuilt by Zerubbabel, but

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Ezekiel's was so much grander. Ironically, the temple where Jesus taught would be the

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biggest of all, but when Jesus died and rose again, it became clear to believers that we

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are the temple of God, so no further temples are necessary. Jesus is our sacrifice, once

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and for all time.

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And now today's action step. When the Jews are in exile, they have no temple for sacrifices,

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so they concentrate on the Word of God in groups that become known as synagogues. When

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they return to the promised land, they bring this new idea with them, but when the temple

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is rebuilt, it proves to still be the centre of their faith. I remember reviewing names

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from our membership role at elders' meetings many years ago, and before we knew where we

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were, we began assuming that if folk attended regularly, then they were okay, but if they

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didn't, then we wondered if they were backsliding. We had to remind ourselves that the church

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is made up of individual people who live seven days a week. I smile whenever I recall a church

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notice board I saw years ago. It read, This is the building where the local church meets

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every Sunday. Whatever you do this coming week, you are just as much a member of the

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Church of Christ as you are on Sunday, so behave like it.