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Good food?

Daniel 1:8 But Daniel resolved that he would not defile himself with the king's food, or with the wine that he drank. Therefore he asked the chief of the eunuchs to allow him not to defile himself.   Thought for the day – Where God is Many years ago I was invited to join some Muslim friends for Iftar, the breaking of the fast during Ramadan. I was honoured to be asked, but found myself wondering about whether or not the food that I would be eating would be clean. I’m not Jewish, but it was the only way I could think about it. In the back of my head was the challenge the Corinthian Church faced in 1 Corinthians about food offered to idols. In the end I went for the meal and had a great time. The reason I felt okay joining my Muslim friends for Iftar was because I was well aware of what I was doing. I was also reminded of Paul’s words in 1 Corinthians 10:27 : ‘ If an unbeliever invites you to a meal and you want to go, eat anything set before you without raising questions ...
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God is there

Ezekiel 48:35 The city will measure about 31,500 feet all the way around. From then on the city’s name will be: The Lord Is There.   Thought for the day – Where God is Today we finish the book of Ezekiel. And I can’t help but think what a wonderful ending Ezekiel presents us with. The land is reallocated to the tribes and in the centre of it all, not in Jerusalem, is the city of God. The holiest place that is separate from the worldly power of the Prince of Israel. The city of God called ‘The Lord is there’.   I don’t know about you but that’s a place I would want to be in. A place that in Revelation is described as having no tears, or sickness, or death. A place of complete peace and love, because God is love and where God is will be a place so beyond our wildest imaginations, we’ll spend the rest of eternity simply in awe and wonder of where we find ourselves.   I’m not going to apologise if I come across all gushing and silly. And I’m not going to apolo...
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Healing Waters

Ezekiel 47:8 Then the man said to me, “This water flows through the land to the east, down into the Jordan Valley, and into the Dead Sea. When the water flows into the Dead Sea, it will replace the salt water there with fresh water.   Thought for the day – Healing waters Remember how I said when we started Ezekiel, that one of the best commentaries on the book of Revelation is the Old Testament and specifically Ezekiel. Today’s chapter is another example of John using Ezekiel as a source to describe his visions. You see the readers of the Revelation would have known about Ezekiel’s visions and they would have understood the meaning in the light of the OT readings. And while the readings are similar there are significant differences and they are as loaded as the similarities and there are 3:   Firstly, the source: Ezekiel's river comes from under the temple threshold — water seeping out from the presence of God still housed in a building. In Revelation there's no temple at all...
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Raspberry Beret

  Ezekiel 46:2 The prince must enter from the outside through the entrance hall of the gateway. He must stand by the doorposts of the gateway.   Thought for the day – Raspberry beret One of the musicians I enjoy listening to is Symbol, or the artist formally known as Prince. It’s a tenuous link to today’s reading but hey I’ve had more tenuous links. And the reason I mentioned Symbol because for the last few days I’ve been wondering who the prince of the New Temple is or represents. And it seems that many Biblical scholars think that the prince in Ezekiel is a symbol of how the role of leader is even more distinct from the role of priest than it was before.   The prince mediates worship but never leads it. The prince functions less as a prediction of one particular ruler and more as a foil: an authority who mediates worship but is still barred from the inner sanctuary, pointing beyond himself to a greater priest-king who would not need to offer for his own sin ...
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Unknown sin

Ezekiel 45:20 You must do the same on the seventh day of the month for everyone who unintentionally does something wrong and is unaware of it. So you must make peace with the Lord for the temple.    Thought for the day – Unknown sin There’s an idea forming in my head. What are the things we do that may or may not unintentionally be sinful? Intentional sin is easy. It’s the conscious things we do that bring us into rebellion against God. Having said that, even that’s not clear cut because so much of what we deem to be right is driven by the zeitgeist, the spirit of the age. So, what about the unintentional sins we commit? Unintentional sin is defined as acts that are objectively wrong or harmful in effect, but where the actor lacked the guilty knowledge or deliberate will. Things we do because we don’t know they’re wrong or we didn’t consciously choose to commit them. And before someone says it’s unfair for God to hold us accountable for things we do not know what we’re doing,...
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We are a royal priesthood

Ezekiel 44:23 They must teach my people the difference between what is holy and what is unholy. They must show the people how to tell the difference between what is clean and what is unclean.    Thought for the day – We are a royal priesthood Today’s chapter in Ezekiel is striking in that it is very specific to the priests that would lead worship in the new Temple. There are strict conditions for what they wear, how they look, and what they do. and one the ones that stand out to me is how they were to demonstrate the holiness of God. Something I believe we as the people of God, who are now his royal priesthood, should be doing as well.   You may well think ‘Wait Ray, I’m not a priest!’ Well, we are. Peter reminds us that we are a "chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s special possession," called to proclaim God’s excellencies. (1 Peter 2:9); we all serve as representatives of God. Priesthood in its widest sense is a representative ministry. We represent ...
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Glory to God! YHWH Shammah!

  Ezekiel 43:5 The Lord's Spirit lifted me to my feet and carried me to the inner courtyard, where I saw that the Lord's glory had filled the temple. Thought for the day – Glory to God In Chapter 10 we see the God leave the Temple because of the sin of the people of Israel, and in today’s chapter in Ezekiel sees the glory of God return to his new Temple. How things have been turned around. Israel has been judged and punished and will now be redeemed and bought home. And so God is going back to the place where he will be worshipped again. Ichabod, the Spirit has departed, has become YHWH Shammah. The Lord is here. There is a nice arc to this, and I think this arc of God leaving and returning has profound implications for us as the people of God. So much of what we’ve been reading about in Ezekiel has felt hard. It’s been brutal and disheartening. And as I’ve read Ezekiel I couldn’t help but think the Church and if Ezekiel is speaking to us as the Body of Christ. In...
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