GOD WILL RESTORE

Exhibit A: Sara’s Ancient Mew (can anybody tell me its current value?)

I will try to make a long story short .. my wife and I and some friends were having lunch with their grand daughter and our daughter Sara. A student from Sara’s school stopped by the kid’s table and wanted to look through her Pokeman cards. After about 5 minutes, the student was gone - AND SO WAS SARA’S MOST VALUABLE CARD ! ! I went out with Sara IMMEDIATELY to confront the student and the mother and grandmother. They VERY KINDLY checked the student’s pockets (even the jacket), but to no avail. As Sara and I walked away.. we said, “GOD WILL RESTORE ! !”

After a few days, I felt the leading of God to write a letter to the mother with a nice, logical reasoning that the child MUST still have the card and I included a color print out of both sides. I told her that we didn’t want to press any charges, but would forgive and forget :) A day later I received a phone call from the mother .. SHE HAD THE CARD and could we meet and make the transfer ! ! GOD RESTORED TO MY DAUGHTER SARA A CARD THAT IS NOW SELLING ON EBAY FOR OVER $100 : ) -- GOD WILL RESTORE ! ! !

Joseph -

Gen 37:3-8 (NIV)

3 Now Israel loved Joseph more than any of his other sons, because he had been born to him in his old age; and he made a richly ornamented robe for him. (King James - COAT OF MANY COLORS)

4 When his brothers saw that their father loved him more than any of them, they hated him and could not speak a kind word to him.

5 Joseph had a dream, and when he told it to his brothers, they hated him all the more.

6 He said to them, "Listen to this dream I had:

7 We were binding sheaves of grain out in the field when suddenly my sheaf rose and stood upright, while your sheaves gathered around mine and bowed down to it."

8 His brothers said to him, "Do you intend to reign over us? Will you actually rule us?" And they hated him all the more because of his dream and what he had said.

WATCH OUT - he’s about to LOSE his COAT ! !

Gen 37:17-36 (NIV)

. . . So Joseph went after his brothers and found them near Dothan.

18 But they saw him in the distance, and before he reached them, they plotted to kill him.

19 "Here comes that dreamer!" they said to each other.

20 "Come now, let's kill him and throw him into one of these cisterns and say that a ferocious animal devoured him. Then we'll see what comes of his dreams."

21 When Reuben heard this, he tried to rescue him from their hands. "Let's not take his life," he said.

22 "Don't shed any blood. Throw him into this cistern here in the desert, but don't lay a hand on him." Reuben said this to rescue him from them and take him back to his father.

23 So when Joseph came to his brothers, THEY STRIPPED HIM OF HIS ROBE-- THE RICHLY ORNAMENTED ROBE HE WAS WEARING--

24 and they took him and threw him into the cistern. Now the cistern was empty; there was no water in it.

25 As they sat down to eat their meal, they looked up and saw a caravan of Ishmaelites coming from Gilead. Their camels were loaded with spices, balm and myrrh, and they were on their way to take them down to Egypt.

26 Judah said to his brothers, "What will we gain if we kill our brother and cover up his blood?

27 Come, let's sell him to the Ishmaelites and not lay our hands on him; after all, he is our brother, our own flesh and blood." His brothers agreed.

28 So when the Midianite merchants came by, his brothers pulled Joseph up out of the cistern and sold him for twenty shekels of silver to the Ishmaelites, who took him to Egypt.

29 When Reuben returned to the cistern and saw that Joseph was not there, he tore his clothes.

30 He went back to his brothers and said, "The boy isn't there! Where can I turn now?"

31 Then they got Joseph's robe, slaughtered a goat and dipped the robe in the blood.

32 They took the ornamented robe back to their father and said, "We found this. Examine it to see whether it is your son's robe."

33 He recognized it and said, "It is my son's robe! Some ferocious animal has devoured him. Joseph has surely been torn to pieces."

34 Then Jacob tore his clothes, put on sackcloth and mourned for his son many days.

35 All his sons and daughters came to comfort him, but he refused to be comforted. "No," he said, "in mourning will I go down to the grave to my son." So his father wept for him.

36 Meanwhile, the Midianites sold Joseph in Egypt to Potiphar, one of Pharaoh's officials, the captain of the guard.

Gen 39:1-5 (NIV)

1 Now Joseph had been taken down to Egypt. Potiphar, an Egyptian who was one of Pharaoh's officials, the captain of the guard, bought him from the Ishmaelites who had taken him there.

2 The LORD was with Joseph and he prospered, and he lived in the house of his Egyptian master.

3 When his master saw that the LORD was with him and that the LORD gave him success in everything he did,

4 Joseph found favor in his eyes and became his attendant. Potiphar put him in charge of his household, and he entrusted to his care everything he owned.

5 From the time he put him in charge of his household and of all that he owned, the LORD blessed the household of the Egyptian because of Joseph. The blessing of the LORD was on everything Potiphar had, both in the house and in the field.

UH OH .. Joseph is ONCE AGAIN about to lose a “cloak”:

Gen 39:7-23 (NIV)

7 and after a while his master's wife took notice of Joseph and said, "Come to bed with me!"

8 But he refused. "With me in charge," he told her, "my master does not concern himself with anything in the house; everything he owns he has entrusted to my care.

9 No one is greater in this house than I am. My master has withheld nothing from me except you, because you are his wife. How then could I do such a wicked thing and sin against God?"

10 And though she spoke to Joseph day after day, he refused to go to bed with her or even be with her.

11 One day he went into the house to attend to his duties, and none of the household servants was inside.

12 She caught him BY HIS CLOAK and said, "Come to bed with me!" But he LEFT HIS CLOAK in her hand and ran out of the house.

13 When she saw that he had left his cloak in her hand and had run out of the house,

14 she called her household servants. "Look," she said to them, "this Hebrew has been brought to us to make sport of us! He came in here to sleep with me, but I screamed.

15 When he heard me scream for help, he left his cloak beside me and ran out of the house."

16 She kept his cloak beside her until his master came home.

17 Then she told him this story: "That Hebrew slave you brought us came to me to make sport of me.

18 But as soon as I screamed for help, he left his cloak beside me and ran out of the house."

19 When his master heard the story his wife told him, saying, "This is how your slave treated me," he burned with anger.

20 Joseph's master took him and put him in prison, the place where the king's prisoners were confined. But while Joseph was there in the prison,

21 the LORD was with him; he showed him kindness and granted him favor in the eyes of the prison warden.

22 So the warden put Joseph in charge of all those held in the prison, and he was made responsible for all that was done there.

23 The warden paid no attention to anything under Joseph's care, because the LORD was with Joseph and gave him success in whatever he did.

WHEREVER Joseph went, he trusted God, and God gave him another COAT or COVERING of authority .. until finally. . . :

Gen 41:33-44 (NIV)

33 "And now let Pharaoh look for a discerning and wise man and put him in charge of the land of Egypt.

34 Let Pharaoh appoint commissioners over the land to take a fifth of the harvest of Egypt during the seven years of abundance.

35 They should collect all the food of these good years that are coming and store up the grain under the authority of Pharaoh, to be kept in the cities for food.

36 This food should be held in reserve for the country, to be used during the seven years of famine that will come upon Egypt, so that the country may not be ruined by the famine."

37 The plan seemed good to Pharaoh and to all his officials.

38 So Pharaoh asked them, "Can we find anyone like this man, one in whom is the spirit of God?"

39 Then Pharaoh said to Joseph, "Since God has made all this known to you, there is no one so discerning and wise as you.

40 You shall be in charge of my palace, and all my people are to submit to your orders. Only with respect to the throne will I be greater than you."

41 So Pharaoh said to Joseph, "I hereby put you in charge of the whole land of Egypt."

42 Then Pharaoh took his signet ring from his finger and put it on Joseph's finger. HE DRESSED HIM IN ROBES OF FINE LINEN AND PUT A GOLD CHAIN AROUND HIS NECK. - (GOD RESTORES ! !)

43 He had him ride in a chariot as his second-in-command, and men shouted before him, "Make way!" Thus he put him in charge of the whole land of Egypt.

44 Then Pharaoh said to Joseph, "I am Pharaoh, but without your word no one will lift hand or foot in all Egypt."

Exhibit B: Carrie’s Pikachu -

Yesterday, as we were coming home from vacation, we had to take a taxi from the shipyard to the airport. A few minutes after our taxi driver dropped us off, Carrie realized that her stuffed Pikachu (let the reader understand - this is a ten inch tall stuffed YELLOW Pokeman character) had been LEFT IN THE TAXI ! ! A quick run outside by me proved to be fruitless as the first YELLOW CAB Taxi driver informed me that he couldn’t just alert all the drivers by radio - there were 200 of them ! ! I would just have to call 777-7777 like everybody else. We went inside and got our boarding passes for our flight to Detroit, then I went to the phone - SAME STORY ... “I can’t help you sir .. unless you know the driver’s name or taxi # .. there are 200 drivers .. we cannot contact them all by radio .. would you like the number for the lost & found?” I told her no thanks, and I decided ONCE AGAIN to give God the first chance. I saw the kids waiting at the other side of the terminal, but I felt LEAD to go out front instead. I saw one Yellow Cab go by, then another, then . . . THERE HE IS ! ! ! THAT’S THE GUY - he was from Haiti - he waved - I waved - he pulled over and handed me the Pikachu through the open passenger side window and I gave him a nice tip for the fact the came came all the way back ! ! GOD LOVES CARRIE, and GOD WILL RESTORE EVERYTHING to YOU ! ! !

Joel -

Joel 2:25-27 (KJV)

25 And I will restore to you the years that the locust hath eaten, the cankerworm, and the caterpillar, and the palmerworm, my great army which I sent among you.

26 And ye shall eat in plenty, and be satisfied, and praise the name of the LORD your God, that hath dealt wondrously with you: and my people shall never be ashamed.

27 And ye shall know that I am in the midst of Israel, and that I am the LORD your God, and none else: and my people shall never be ashamed.

HOW DO YOU GET GOD TO RESTORE TO YOU ??

-- WE ARE PEOPLE OF FAITH .. GOD IS ALREADY DOING HIS PART ! ! ! YOU will HAVE to do YOURS .. for example, what’s the FIRST feeling that comes along once we discover we have lost something .. fear .. worry .. what does God tell us NOT to do ???

Fear and worry tells us the WE have the problem and that we are expecting to solve the problem ourselves .. You will HAVE to give God a chance to work ! ! Resist the fear .. resist the worry .. say, “God will RESTORE ! ! “

God is HARD at work right now - ministering to you, sending out angels, speaking to your spirit about what YOU should do ...

WHAT IS IT THAT YOU NEED RESTORATION FOR ??

Jesus came to seek and to save that which was lost . . .

What have you lost ?? Your innocence ? Talk to Mary Magdalene to see if Jesus can restore that ! ! Your HEALTH ?? Talk to the leper and see if Jesus can restore that ! ! ! Your RELATIONSHIP with God ?? Talk to almost ANYONE HERE and see if Jesus can restore THAT ! ! :)

Have you lost MONEY ?? Something PHYSICAL ?? Talk to Job to see whether or not God restores ! ! Have you lost your self confidence ?? Talk to PETER who DENIED Jesus, then not many days later preached one of the GREATEST SERMONS in the Bible !!

Whatever you have lost, let’s take it the Father God RIGHT NOW .. you can do this now AND later - ANYTIME you remember something which was lost :)

“Heavenly Father ... remember the _____ that I lost ?? ... I believe that You want to restore EVERYTHING to me ! ! I believe Jesus came to seek and to save that which was lost ... so I lift up _____ to You ... I will not worry about it ... I will have NO FEAR over getting it back ... I turn it over to YOU ... I will say, “God will RESTORE” ... I will do the things that You LEAD me to do, but I will NOT FEAR ... I will act like the Bible is TRUE ... THANK YOU FATHER ... for restoring to me ... my ______ :) In Jesus’ Name “