Restoration Run Amuck

Restoration Run Amuck
Author: William T. Chance
Publisher: iUniverse
Total Pages: 116
Release: 2012-01-31
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 9781469745060

John chapter seventeen records Jesus prayer for unity among his followers, which did not appear to be answered in the affirmative. In the eighteenth century a movement began in the eastern United States to address the obvious division of Christendom. This Restoration Movement was inclusive, inviting people to leave Christian denominations and return to the Bible alone for spiritual guidance. Thus, speak where the Bible speaks and be silent where the Bible is silent became their mantra. In 1801 this movement kindled a large revival centered at the Cane Ridge Meeting House (cover of book) near Paris, Kentucky. Churches birthed by this movement grew and spread rapidly to both the frontier and the cities. However, within fifty years, conflict and division began to arise in these churches as some became more sectarian and others more legalistic, resulting in three primary groups: the Disciples of Christ, the Independent Christian Church, and the Church of Christ. Of these groups, the Church of Christ was the most conservative, with many congregations taking silence of the Scriptures as prohibitive of everything not written in the two thousand-year old text, resulting in more conflict and division. Thus, the Restoration Movement had run amuck, becoming mired in its own swamp of legalism. This book seeks to identify what went wrong, and what changes in attitude, behavior, and conversation are necessary to get the unity train back on its track.

The Restoration Project

The Restoration Project
Author: Matthew J. Kelley
Publisher: Xulon Press
Total Pages: 126
Release: 2007-06
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 1602664285

You are holding in your hands a book that contains every step you need to start your "RESTORATION PROJECT"! Within these pages you will find over 90 Scriptural references blended in with some real life applications. I have also included true life stories from my life as God has been restoring me over the last 25 years. I am a common man writing to you in a very personal and conversational way. You will discover that I have been where you may be and I have the scars to prove it. My prayer is that you will trust these words and learn from my mistakes! God already knows everything about you! He wants you to understand that He is ready and willing to forgive you for anything you have done! He is eager to start within you, your personal "RESTORATION PROJECT". Matthew J. Kelley is married to a loving Christian woman named Lydia. God has blessed them with a wonderful blended family which now includes three daughters ages 13, 12, and 10. Matthew currently pastors two churches in Sumter County Alabama and is enrolled in the Levelle College undergraduate program of the New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary. He is the founder of Restoring Ministries, Inc. which is a ministry dedicated to helping people come back to and enjoy an eternal relationship with Jesus Christ. Part of this ministry includes traveling abroad teaching the principles of Godly Restoration. Matthew is an avid outdoorsman and has had several articles printed in outdoor publications. However, "The Restoration Project" is his first book to author, but hopefully not his last.

Saved by Grace Lost by Works

Saved by Grace Lost by Works
Author: William T. Chance
Publisher: iUniverse
Total Pages: 130
Release: 2013-01-08
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 1475966423

How can one be assured of his or her salvation? This question has worried many Christians for centuries. Yet, the answer provided by the teachings of the New Testament is that every Christian can be certain that eternity will be spent with Christ and the Heavenly Hosts. Modern evangelical doctrine typically states that once a person recites the sinners prayer and accepts Jesus, there is nothing he or she can do to be eternally lost. Unfortunately, that idea is not supported by what one reads in the New Testament. Although Jesus said concerning His disciples I give them eternal life, and they will never perish; and no one will snatch them out of my hand, he also warned If you do not remain in me, you are like a branch that is thrown away and withers; such branches are picked up, thrown into the fire and burned. Thus, the idea presented is that as long as one chooses to remain in Christ no force will be able to separate him or her from Gods grace. However, one does retain the freedom to walk away from Jesus and walk into being separated from His grace. Jesus effectively summarized His expectations in His message to the church at Smyrna: Be faithful until death. A second question concerning salvation is What does it mean to be faithful? In the New Testament, John answers this question saying that a Christian needs to walk in the light, meaning that we live our lives within the light of Christ by following Him, maturing in Him and keeping His commandments. As we walk in the light several things happen to us to pull us away from being carnal beings. We are transformed by the renewing or our minds. We develop a Christian personality, which is not centered on self. We learn to worship and serve our Creator. We find peace and contentment that surpasses human understanding. In totality, we discover the best way to live the few years we have been given upon the earth.

Redeeming Grace in the Canon of the Restoration

Redeeming Grace in the Canon of the Restoration
Author: John Draney
Publisher:
Total Pages: 410
Release: 2011-12-26
Genre:
ISBN: 9781468010558

The purpose of this book is to thoroughly contemplate redeeming grace, the power by which the faithful are set on the throne of Christ as he is set on the throne of his Father (Revelation 3:21), and the rest of the family of Adam and Eve are made recipients, to one degree or another, of the gift of salvation. I have little if any interest in so-called enabling grace, the divine help by which Moses leads the children of Israel out of Egypt, or Joseph Smith brings forth new scripture to the world. The latter often seems to be the only variety with which we members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints are familiar, but the former far exceeds it in power and permanence, for by redeeming grace the highest, eternal purposes of God are realized in us. Enabling grace helps us do something. Redeeming grace, however, does something to us. Long after the glory of the Exodus and the Restoration fades-manifestations of enabling grace in the time of fallen mortality-the culmination of redeeming grace will endure in the perfection of the once mortal citizens of the heavens. However expert we may become in matters of our pragmatic, practical religion, we must always remember the grace by which we will reign with Christ in eternity, the redeeming grace of Jesus of Nazareth, the Son of God. For many years now the notions of redeeming grace and the mechanics of the atonement have weighed heavily on my mind. I have gradually become aware of a significant disconnect between the popular apprehension of redeeming grace and what is written-hidden as it were in plain sight-in the canon of the Restoration. This disruptive dissonance is driven by the pervasiveness in the church of varying levels of legalism (the same ailment afflicting ancient practitioners of the law of Moses), the interpretive construct alleging that we enter heaven because of our own obedience to, and compliance with, commandments and covenants (sacred contracts). Through the lens of legalism, the gospel is merely an improved law of Moses, a divine to-do list such that if we "[do] those things [we] shall live by them" (Romans 10:5), obtain through our own effort and exertion the requisite skills and qualities to dwell in the presence of a holy, perfect God, and otherwise personally overcome, with the assistance of our Redeemer (to the extent necessary), all the obstacles preventing us from a joyous reunion with our Heavenly Father. Consequently, my most ambitious goal in this work is to take a figurative wrecking ball to legalism's incomplete, distorted, inconsistent, faulty, and shortsighted appraisals of redeeming grace and the atonement that seem to permeate much of the teaching on these subjects in the church. Whatever the reason for our collective reticence to acknowledge the full reach and effect of the redeeming grace of Jesus, the Savior of the world, let us cast off any and all errors accumulated over the years, disentangle ourselves from the burdensome shackles and inherent blindness of legalism, and behold with new eyes the perfect intercession of the Lord, and the merciful dissemination of its blessings through grace to the fallen family of Adam and Eve. You may scoff at the claim by an unknown like me that many, both in the restored church of Christ and in Christianity at large, miss the mark with regard to grace. You may insist that you will never alter your allegedly mainstream, orthodox appraisal-or denial-of redeeming grace. But if you pay attention to the pages that follow, and ponder the words of the canon of the Restoration contained herein, I promise you, you will do just that.

The Road To Restoration

The Road To Restoration
Author: Thomas Fitzhugh Sheets
Publisher: Christian Faith Publishing, Inc.
Total Pages: 71
Release: 2016-10-23
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 163525177X

While I have worked on this project for two years, about halfway through, I told my pastor that I felt like I was taking on the whole John 3:16 Christian culture. While I have never believed that at the moment of belief or surrender, we receive the keys to the kingdom, I have come to the understanding that Jesus is telling Nicodemus who He is and what He is going to do at His second coming. He takes care of the sin problem and shows that He has the power over the death in His first coming, initiates the age of true righteousness and sets the stage for His second coming. It is at this time that He lifts the curse and completes the promise made to Abraham, reveals who the children of God are and establishes His kingdom here on this earth. On that Day, the dead in Christ will come out of the grave and meet Him in the air. We have a choice of whether to believe that Jesus completes the work of salvation at His first coming or His second coming. There are so many scriptures that place the complete work of salvation at His second coming, that I find it difficult to believe that He completes this work at His first coming. It comes down to mankind's desire for instant gratification. In Luke 9, there is a passage where Jesus, before He picks up His cross, once and for all time, talks specifically about who He is and what He has come to do at his first coming. In that passage, he tells His disciples that they, too, along with all those who choose to follow Him, must pick up their cross daily. This does not appeal to the instant gratification crowd, but it is where faith begins. Where our faith journey begins determines where our journey will end.

Restoration: A Story of Restoration from Desperation

Restoration: A Story of Restoration from Desperation
Author: Jim Draper
Publisher: Christian Faith Publishing, Inc.
Total Pages: 57
Release: 2016-12-31
Genre: Self-Help
ISBN: 1635252342

The theme of this book is about restoration. It tells my personal life story of restoration and how I developed a successful career restoring properties at the same time. It is a parallel experience. It all started with my personal commitment to Christ. As he began to restore me from a life of desperation, I was restoring an old barn to make a house for me to live, out of necessity. I learned that the principles are the same. You have to remove all the unusable material in a structure in order to replace them with good materials so your building will be solid and will last. It is the same with your life: you have to remove all the old habits and thoughts that keep you from being a whole and successful person. It has been an incredible journey for the last thirty-six years to see the plans that God had for my life. That is what restoration is all about. When you surrender your will to him, he can then take you where he planned for you to go all along. He couldn't do it as long as you were in control. I did it my way for thirty-three years, and it ended in desperation. I have done it his way for thirty-six, and his ways are best. I have accomplished more than I ever dreamed of, and we are nowhere near finished. In the book, I share with you the twelve life-skill principles I learned from the scripture, and as I applied all of them, I experienced the results that they promised. I want to share these principles with you, and I know that they will help you as they did me, for God is no respecter of persons. The key is you have to apply them, not just know them. The old barn would have never been converted into a house if I had refused to do the work.

Desperate for Restoration

Desperate for Restoration
Author: Dan Hubbard
Publisher: Independently Published
Total Pages: 194
Release: 2021-07-14
Genre:
ISBN:

We read on almost a daily basis of pastors, assistant pastors, and ministry workers that have fallen into sin. Even though they are our brothers and sisters in Christ, we, as the body of Christ, tend to judge, reject, or at the least become indifferent to these fallen servants. What can and should be done for these men and ladies that have fallen? Should they be left to themselves to figure it out or earn their path to restoration? The Bible is a book of restoration. My hope and desire with this book are to help many not only to understand the devastation of one that has fallen but also to help the fallen on the path to restoration. Many of our Biblical heroes were guilty of moral failures, yet over and over we see a gracious and loving God and Saviour that picks up the fallen. He not only forgives them but also restores them to fruitful service in ministry once again. Often, we see their lives afterward become greater and more effective in the kingdom of Christ. The tragedy is, though, that many do not know what to do with a fallen Christian. Many struggle to counsel a marriage or a family that has been broken and hurt because of sin. This book helps the reader to understand the mind of God regarding restoration and gives direction on how to guide one back to usefulness and victory. Read about my own personal testimony of failure and my path to being restored. God has been gracious to me and has helped me to help others. May He help you as well.

Biology Run Amok!

Biology Run Amok!
Author: Mark C. Glassy
Publisher: McFarland
Total Pages: 256
Release: 2018-05-07
Genre: Performing Arts
ISBN: 1476664722

Science fiction movie audiences may sometimes wonder how fictitious the science in a film really is. Yet for many--call them the "Jurassic Park generation"--film and popular media can present a seemingly plausible melding of science and fiction that forms a distorted understanding of scientific facts and concepts. Recognizing that film is both the dominant entertainment medium and an effective tool for teaching, this book--featuring articles originally published in the magazine Scary Monsters--separates biological reality from fantasy in dozens of science fiction films, including The Island of Lost Souls (1933), The Incredible Shrinking Man (1957), War of the Worlds (1953), A Clockwork Orange (1971), Scanners (1980), The Serpent and the Rainbow (1987) and Outbreak (1995).

Restore Such a One

Restore Such a One
Author: Lance M. Bacon
Publisher: Wipf and Stock Publishers
Total Pages: 326
Release: 2024-08-01
Genre: Religion
ISBN:

Widespread deficiencies in spiritual formation see an increasing number of ministers buckle under the significant burdens common to the task. There are seasons when a powerful triad of the flesh, the world, and the devil converge (Eph 2:2–3, cf. Jas 3:15 and 1 John 2:16). Misdirected attempts to fulfill emptiness, find worth, or heal longstanding wounds ensue. Widespread instances of sexual immorality result. Sound exegesis and analysis of theological doctrine presents an allowance, in certain cases, for ministerial restoration. However, this necessitates an intimate and intricate approach that differs significantly from the varied solutions churches and denominations offer. Few restoration programs bring a biblical response to bear. Remarkably rare are restoration programs that look to correct causal factors and commit to congregational care. This program orients itself on an understanding of brokenness and the need for holistic (re)formation. The latter requires fallen ministers to progress beyond biblical confession and repentance to partner with the Holy Spirit and key authorities such as an overseer, mentors, Christian mental health professionals, and a designated congregation. The unitive goal is a “sanctifying psychopathology” that properly diagnoses spiritual and emotional health; eradicates the adverse influences of emotional, cultural, and spiritual factors; and redirects self-oriented patterns of thought and behavior.

Encounters with Jesus

Encounters with Jesus
Author: William T. Chance
Publisher: iUniverse
Total Pages: 154
Release: 2015-11-19
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 1491781505

Jesus is by far the most influential human to ever walk the earth. He was and still is a polarizing figure, with people either praising or excoriating him. As fully God and fully man Jesus had a unique perspective on life that was usually at odds with the thinking of most people. Therefore, the results of an encounter with Jesus were often unpredictable. In "Encounters with Jesus" the effects of Jesus on the lives of twenty-six people in the New Testament are examined. Each chapter begins with a soliloquy of the persons thoughts prior to and after meeting Jesus. Following the soliloquy there is a discussion of the experience based on relevant New Testament Scriptures. Questions are located at the end of each chapter to aid the reader or class to make appropriate applications to their lives. Encounters with Jesus is a useful book for personal Bible study that is also appropriate for class or small group settings. In each of these situations the readers will discover how Jesus has affected their lives as they come to appreciate a better way of being human.