OUR DAILY BREAD             Friday, April 14, 1995
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READ:  Luke 23:26-56

                  TRIUMPH IN TRAGEDY

       "When they had come to the place called
          Calvary, there they crucified Him."

                                - Luke 23:33

We call it "Good Friday," but no one standing there
that day would have called that Friday "good."  The
best man that history ever knew was nailed to a
Roman cross and murdered.  For His enemies it was a
victory of sorts; for the soldiers it was simply
another day's work; for His followers it was the
death of their brightest hopes and greatest dreams.
But no one would have called that Friday "good."

That is true of many "bad Fridays" if you consider
them apart from Resurrection Sunday.  They make
life seem futile -- without purpose and meaning.
But God's most striking victories rise out of the
graves of apparent defeats.

In his book "Idols for Destruction," Herbert
Schlossberg wrote, "We are not the lords of history
and do not control its outcome, but we have assurance
that there is a Lord of history and He controls its
outcome.  We need a theological interpretation of
disaster,  one that recognizes that God acts in
such events as captivities, defeats, and crucifixions.
The Bible can be interpreted as a string of God's
triumphs disguised as disasters."

Face each day with trust in Jesus Christ.  God's
greatest victories often come disguised as defeats.

                                -- Haddon W. Robinson

        The purposes of God are right,
           Although we may not see
     Just how He works all things for good
            And transforms tragedy.

                                -- Sper
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           THOUGHT FOR THE DAY
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      God's most striking victories
rise out of the graves of apparent defeats.
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THE BIBLE IN ONE YEAR:  1 Chronicles 1-3

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Our Daily Bread, Copyright 1995, used by permission of Radio Bible Class,
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Our Daily Bread, having originated from his distribution to the 
Conservative Christian Discussion List. This copy was written permission 
from RBC.

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