Welcome to today's encouragement from Our Daily Bread.

Our Reading titled, Transformed from the Inside, was written by Monica LaRose.

In the worst UK residential fire since World War II, fire engulfed the 24-story Grenfell Tower building in West London, claiming the lives of 70 people.

Investigations revealed a primary reason the flame spread so quickly was the cladding used as part of a renovation that covered the

building's exterior. The material was aluminum on the outside, but had an extremely flammable

plastic core. How was such a dangerous material allowed to be sold and installed. The product sellers failed to disclose

poor fire safety test results, and buyers, drawn by the material's cheap price tag, failed to heed

warning signs. The shiny cladding looked nice on the outside. Some of Jesus's harshest words were directed

at religious teachers he accused of covering corruption behind a nice-looking exterior. In Matthew 22,

he said they were like whitewashed tombs, beautiful on the outside, but inside, full of dead bones.

Instead of pursuing justice, mercy, and faithfulness, they were focused on looking good, cleaning the outside of the cup, but not the greed and self-indulgence

inside. It's easier to focus on looking good than to bring our sin and brokenness honestly

before God, but a nice-looking exterior doesn't make a corrupt heart any less dangerous.

God invites us to let him transform all of us from the inside.

Today's Our Daily Bread devotional scripture reading is from Matthew, Chapter 23, verses 23 through 33.

Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites!

You give a tenth of your spices, mint, dill, and cumin.

But you have neglected the more important matters of the law, justice, mercy, and faithfulness. You should have practiced the latter without neglecting

the former. You blind guides. You strain out a gnat, but swallow a camel.

Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites. You clean the outside of the cup and dish, but inside, they are full of greed and self-indulgence. Blind Pharisee, first, clean the inside of the cup and dish, and then the outside will also be clean.

Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You are like whitewashed tombs, which look beautiful on the outside, but on the inside are full of the bones of the

dead and everything unclean. In the same way, on the outside, you appear to people as righteous,

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