Restoration Tag

October 28, 2012

Will Apathy Destroy America?

As I read the prophecy of Amos, I can’t help but notice the similarities between ancient Israel and modern America. It was a time of great prosperity for Israel, but it was also a time of great immorality. But in the midst of it all, they just didn’t really care. They were complacent. Do you care about the direction of our nation? Are you alarmed that our nation’s moral foundation has been cracking for the past few decades? The sad truth is many Christians don’t even care enough to vote. You should let your voice and your vote be heard.

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October 14, 2012

High Noon in Nineveh

Lanny Bridges

Conservative estimates tell us there are a hundred million people today professing to be born again, evangelical Christians. Where’s our impact? Imagine a hundred million Jonahs walking around in a culture, in the marketplace, in the government, in the schools, in the health clubs, in the neighborhoods. A hundred million people filled with resurrection power as though alive from the dead. That’s what the world is waiting to see and that’s the hope for America today.

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October 7, 2012

Can America Return to God?

It is true that locusts of all kinds come and eat up things valuable to us. They may be literal insect locusts, or they may be the financial or emotional locusts that destroy our savings or our sanity. They may be the judicial or legislative locusts that strip away the leaves from the tree our founders planted. But whatever kind of locust you’ve faced in the past. God gives an amazing promise in Joel. He says, “I will restore to you the years the locusts have eaten.” (Joel 2:25)

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August 12, 2012

Grace for the Disgraced

If you know of a fellow believer who has dropped out because of sin and shame, will you go to them? The goal of your confrontation isn’t to condemn them or demean them. Your goal is to help them deal with their sin, repent, and come clean before the Lord.

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December 5, 2010

God’s Beautiful Symphony

The church is like a symphony. When we’re in tune, we make beautiful music together, but when we aren’t, it can get ugly. Jesus knew that there would be conflicts among Christians, that’s why He gave us three four steps to follow to bring about reconciliation.

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April 13, 2008

Repentance for Dummies

There is a deep-seated need in the human heart to seek forgiveness. For those of us who know Christ, we find our forgiveness in God’s amazing grace. But what about the millions of people who claim to have no relationship with Jesus? They are still desperately seeking ways to find forgiveness and to unload their sense of guilt. Because of this need to confess and seek forgiveness, there are a number of “apology websites” in cyberspace where guilty people can go and anonymously confess their sins.

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June 3, 2007

How Should We Treat Someone Who Messed Up?

In our culture we have worn out the phrase, “I’m sorry.” We use it for everything from, “I’m sorry, but we’re out of peanuts,” to “I’m sorry I bumped into you.” But the words “I’m sorry” originally meant, “I’m experiencing sorrow over what I did.” In Corinthians 7, Paul writes about sorrow and repentance. “I am happy not because you were made sorry, but because your sorrow led you to repentance…godly sorrow brings repentance” (2 Corinthians 7:9). So the Bible teaches that godly sorrow produces repentance. There is a kind of worldly sorrow that doesn’t lead to repentance. When someone says, “I’m sorry” they might be saying, “I’m sorry I got caught.” Or if they say, “I’m sorry” but they don’t plan on changing their behavior, that isn’t godly sorrow. Godly sorrow always produces repentance. When a person truly repents, their heart is broken over their sin.

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December 18, 2005

Life’s Turning Points

The difference between Jesus and the devil is the devil always serves his best first and then it gets progressively worse. The world, the flesh, and the devil always operate according the law of diminishing returns. What starts as a moment of pleasure always ends up as an eternity of misery. But with Jesus, He always saves the best for last. If you are a follower of Jesus Christ, the best part of your existence is ahead of you–it may come after you die, but it will come. If you aren’t a Christian, this is as good as it will ever get for you.

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March 5, 2000

Learning God’s 3 Rs

There was a time in Israel’s history when they had a whole bunch of kings and they didn’t do very well. In fact, they drifted far away from God. This message is directed toward people who have come out of Egypt. They are Christians and they have come to the place of growing as a Christian for a while but then in the middle of that, something happens and they get out of favor with God. This is a beautiful picture of it in the Old Testament.

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