Document: /pub/resources/text/Our.Daily.Bread: db931209.TXT
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    OUR DAILY BREAD                      Thursday, December 9, 1993
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    Read:  Genesis 45:1-15

                           HOW CAN I FORGIVE?

                   Forgive, and you will be forgiven.
                               --Luke 6:37

    A seminary student earned his way through school driving a bus on
    Chicago's south side.  One day a gang of young thugs boarded  the
    bus  and  refused  to  pay the fare.  The  young  man  spotted  a
    policeman, stopped the bus, and reported them.  The officer  made
    them  pay,  but then left.  After the bus rounded a  corner,  the
    thugs beat the driver severely.

    The  gang  members were rounded up, brought to trial,  and  found
    guilty.  As soon as their sentences were announced, however,  the
    student  asked the judge if he could serve their jail  terms  for
    them.  The judge and gang members were astounded.  "It's  because
    I forgive you," he explained.  The request was denied, but in the
    months  that followed, the student visited the young men in  jail
    and led several of them to faith in Jesus Christ.

    When Joseph's brother stood before him in Egypt asking for  food,
    Joseph  faced a great test.  Years before, these men had  planned
    to  kill  him,  but they changed their minds and  sold  him  into
    slavery.  Now  Joseph was in a position of power and  could  take
    revenge, but because he trusted God's sovereignty he offered them
    forgiveness.

    Have  you  been wronged?  Just as you trusted Christ  to  forgive
    you, ask Him for grace to forgive others.

    Author:  Haddon W. Robinson

                  Lord help me be kind and forgiving --
                   So oft Your forgiveness I've known
                    For sins I have daily committed;
                    Lord, grant me a love like Your own.  --Anon.

    THOUGHT FOR THE DAY:
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    Forgiveness is Christianity in action.

    THE BIBLE IN ONE YEAR:  1 Timothy 1-3

          
          












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