file: /pub/resources/text/Our.Daily.Bread: db941023.txt
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OUR DAILY BREAD                  Sunday, October 23, 1994
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READ: Matthew 23:1-12



                       "CARELESS PREACHERS"

                Do not do according to their works;
                   for they say, and do not do.

                          - Matthew 23:3


Some opponents of Christianity may not be so much against
Christ as they are against hypocrisy. Ironically, it hasn't
occured to them that no one was more opposed to hypocrisy
than Christ Himself.

We've all met scoffers who mindlessly parrot the phrase,
"The church is full of hyprocrites!" But let's not be mind-
less in our response and dismiss such pronouncements without
taking heed lest they be true.

We tend to think that it's not true of us. But let's think
again. How many times have we been like the Christian woman
who glanced through her window, only to see a nosy, noisy
neighbor approaching her door! Her young, impressionable
children heard her as she growled, "Oh, no - not her again!"
Whereupon she opened the door and gushed insincerely, "How
very nice to see you!"

Our lips and our lives often preach a mixed message. In
today's reading, Jesus described the hypocritical teachers
of the law and warned His disciples, "Do not do according to
their works; for they say, and do not do" (Mt. 23:3).

God forbid that some opponent of Christ would be influenced
by careless hypocrisy in our lives. Lord, help us to be
careful "preachers."

Author: Joanie E. Yoder

        You can fool the hapless public,
        You can be a subtle fraud,
        You can hide your little meanness,
        But you can't fool God!

        - Kleiser

THOUGHT FOR THE DAY
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A hypocrite prays on his knees on Sunday
   and preys on his neighbors on Monday.

The Bible in One Year: Mark 1-3

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