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    Trust and Tragedy: Encountering God in Times of Crisis
    Trust and Tragedy: Encountering God in Times of Crisis
    Trust and Tragedy: Encountering God in Times of Crisis
    Ebook132 pages2 hours

    Trust and Tragedy: Encountering God in Times of Crisis

    By Tommy Tenney

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    About this ebook

    With articulate words, Tommy Tenney helps lead us past tragedy to that place of trust. After reading this book, you will know what to do and know what to say. Most people-including Christians-avoid brokenness and personal failure at all costs. They will deny the truth to avoid pain. Yet tragedy visits every generation; hardship touches every life. The only question, then, is how will we respond. God promises to be near the brokenhearted. As Tenney puts it, "God is waiting to meet us on our way home from the funeral. The One who said, 'Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted,' fully intends to comfort us personally if we make the effort to detour from our road of grief to search for Him." Many believers first turned to God in the moment of crisis. Trust and Tragedy shows them how to find Him there again. For "whenever there is earthly brokenness, there is always heavenly openness."
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherThomas Nelson
    Release dateDec 9, 2001
    ISBN9781418554545
    Trust and Tragedy: Encountering God in Times of Crisis
    Author

    Tommy Tenney

    Tenney is the author of the best-selling book, The God Chasers. He has spent more than 10 years pastoring and more than 20 years in a traveling ministry visiting more than 40 countries. He and his wife, Jeannie, live in Louisiana with their three daughters.

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      Book preview

      Trust and Tragedy - Tommy Tenney

      Trust &

            Tragedy

      OTHER BOOKS BY TOMMY TENNEY

      Bestselling Series

      The God Chasers

      God’s Favorite House

      The God Catchers

      Unity Trilogy

      God’s Dream Team

      Answering God’s Prayer

      God’s Secret to Greatness

      Additional Great Resources by Tommy Tenney

      The God Catchers Workbook

      Experiencing His Presence (Devotional)

      Chasing God, Serving Man

      How to be a God Chaser and a Kid Chaser

      Secret Sources of Power

      Extreme God Chasers (for youth)

      The Daily Chase (Devotional)

      The Heart of a God Chaser

      Trust &

            Tragedy

      Encountering God in Times of Crisis

      TOMMY TENNEY

      Trust_and_tragedy_LORES_0003_001

      Copyright © 2001 by Tommy Tenney

      This Trinity Broadcasting Network special was printed by permission of Thomas Nelson Publishers.

      All rights reserved. Written permission must be secured from the publisher to use or reproduce any part of this book, except for brief quotations in critical reviews or articles.

      Published in Nashville, Tennessee, by Thomas Nelson, Inc.

      Unless otherwise noted, Scripture quotations in this publication are from THE NEW KING JAMES VERSION. Copyright © 1979, 1980, 1982, Thomas Nelson, Inc., Publishers.

      Scripture quotations noted NLT are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Wheaton, Illinois 60189. All rights reserved.

      Scripture quotations noted NIV are taken from the HOLY BIBLE: NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®. Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984 by International Bible Society. Used by permission of Zondervan Publishing House. All rights reserved.

      Scripture quotations noted KJV are taken from the King James Version.

      ISBN 0-7852-6466-3

      Printed in the United States of America

      02 03 04 05 06 PHX 6 5 4 3 2

      CONTENTS

      FOREWORD

      CHAPTER 1

      TRAGEDY AND TOWERS

      (Contemporary Crisis—Ancient Response)

      CHAPTER 2

      COMING HOME FROM A FUNERAL

      (Opportunity Hides in Crises)

      CHAPTER 3

      WHAT IS IN YOUR POCKET?

      (This Is No Time for Judgment)

      CHAPTER 4

      WE DON’T KNOW WHAT TO DO

      (But Our Eyes Are upon You)

      CHAPTER 5

      WHY DO I FEEL SO WEAK?

      (Discerning the Difference Between a Resource and the Source)

      CHAPTER 6

      THE DEMISE OF A KING

      (The Eulogy of Self-Dependence)

      CHAPTER 7

      PRESUMPTION IS A DEAD-END STREET

      (Spiritual Arrogance Will Divert Your Divine Destiny)

      CHAPTER 8

      A TALE OF TWO KINGS AND A VEIL

      (Royal Robes of Pride or Humble Coverings of Repentance)

      CHAPTER 9

      WHO IS WILLING TO BECOME A SIGNPOST OF SAFETY?

      (Paying the Price to Preserve Divine Purpose and Human Potential)

      CHAPTER 10

      WHERE DO YOU GO AFTER YOU COME HOME FROM A FUNERAL?

      (You Must Depose the Old King to Discover the Real King)

      CHAPTER 11

      WILL YOU BE WAITING AFTER THE FUNERAL?

      (Becoming God’s Lighthouse of Compassion in the Storm of Crisis)

      ABOUT THE AUTHOR

      NOTES

      CHAPTER 1

      TRAGEDY AND TOWERS

      (Contemporary Crisis—Ancient Response)

      Tragedy. Death. Sorrow. Pain.

      The grim reality lurking behind these words has made the strongest men cry and has forced entire nations to their knees.

      Each day thousands face personal tragedy and sorrow. Loved ones slip away into eternity and medical reports deliver the frightening prognoses we hoped we’d never hear. Marriages wither and die and layoff notices blanket a production floor, snuffing out countless personal dreams of security and a better life.

      The common sorrows of life often seem impossible to carry. None of us were prepared when tragedy violently changed the course of human history and established September 11 as humanity’s new date that will live in infamy.

      We watched in disbelief while office workers in bloodied dresses and torn business suits fled from the burning World Trade Center towers in wide-eyed panic. We saw the images lurch and sway on our television screens as news camera operators were urged to run for their lives by anxious New York police officers and firefighters fitted in masks and oxygen tanks.

      Viewers around the world heard the screams from New York’s streets and watched live television images of New York’s twin towers collapsing one after another in flames and smoke. Tragedy never seemed nearer as the bright morning sun disappeared behind the gloom of a choking cloud of ash. When the dust finally cleared enough for us to grasp what had happened, all we found was a twisted pile of steel and concrete measuring five stories high.

      It didn’t matter that the scene replayed before our eyes over and over again courtesy of the wonder of modern digital technology. Neither did it matter that the scene was beamed from one of the world’s most cosmopolitan centers of culture. People were dying and hearts were breaking.

      The news from Washington, D.C., and the Pentagon was nearly as grim. There, at least, the loss of life had been limited to the hundreds instead of the thousands, but this didn’t ease the pain of those who would never see their loved ones again.

      Then the gut-wrenching feelings that were by now all too familiar were ratcheted even higher when news broke of a fourth plane that had crashed into a Pennsylvania field.

      An emotional paralysis set in—the pain and shock were so great that we didn’t dare yield to the feelings of loss, rage, and violation we knew were boiling within.

      For many, a river of tears broke through at the first sight of brokenhearted firefighters and weeping police officers struggling to maintain their courage in the ashes of what once was. Others lost control when they glimpsed the gaunt faces of individual family members searching for any sign of their loved ones among the living.

      PRAYING THE EMOTIONAL

      DAM WOULD NEVER BURST

      While rescue workers worked around the clock to sift through the ashes and rubble, agonizing hours stretched into days and the chances of survival grew less and less. Yet some family members still held on, hoping for the best and praying the emotional dam would never burst. They feared they couldn’t survive its fury.

      The truth is that tragedy seemingly visits every generation. The question is, How do we deal with it? Especially how, as Christians, do we deal with tragedy—not only tragedy in our lives, but also tragedy visited upon neighbors, whether near or far? Can we mourn with those who mourn? Is there purpose buried somewhere in the rubble?

      The Christian response to tragedy of any proportion— whether it is the collapse of great towers or the collapse of a marriage—should be modeled after Jesus Christ’s answers in a similar situation.

      This was not the first time mighty towers in a leading metropolis have fallen and crushed the hopes of men and nations. Violent events and tragic deaths rocked another international city with a preeminent position on the world scene. Sometime after A.D. 32, a banner headline shocked Jerusalem citizens: Tower Collapses, 18 Die! Perhaps in the same year, another shocking headline had read, Pilate Spills Blood of Worshippers in Temple Attack.¹

      WHAT DO YOU THINK ABOUT THIS, JESUS?

      These first-century events seem especially relevant right now. Jesus was preaching to thousands of people about understanding right and wrong without hypocrisy when some people told Him about a tragedy that had just struck the city. They essentially said, "What do You think about this, Jesus?"

      Now there were some present at that time who told Jesus about the Galileans whose blood Pilate had mixed with their sacrifices. Jesus answered, "Do you think that these Galileans were worse sinners than all the other Galileans because they suffered this way? I tell you, no! But unless you repent, you too will

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