Renewing of your Faith Part 2

David Allen Brown

"Lovenotes from Above: Breaking down the walls to Heaven"

"Renewing of your faith"

How can we even begin to understand what He is all about and why He is here for us for to begin with? It’s simple, so simple—too simple—as simple as putting on the full armor of God. Do what? The full armor of God? By reading and learning what’s in the Bible, we retain the knowledge of how to defend ourselves from the sins and temptations of this world. We equip ourselves for battle by putting on the full armor or protection that God’s Word provides for us. If we don’t know what Jesus has to say about something, then how do we expect to know what Jesus would do, or say, about anything?

How many kids and adults are running around with a little bracelet that says WWJD on it, and they haven’t got a clue as to what it means or how to find out what Jesus would do in any given situation? Half of them have one on because it was given to them or it looked good on some other kid, and they had to have one too. On the positive side, this book is for the kid or adult that really wants to know.

The Bible is an instruction book for life. If I ask you to read the instruction manual for life and you are a female, your eyes are probably wide open; you’re taking notes, highlighting verses and looking for answers.

If we are talking about the typical male here, I will assume that most of you do not read the instruction manual on most anything. That being said, when men run into trouble the first time that mower won’t crank or that new DVD recorder doesn’t record, we call out, “Honey, do you know where the instructions are to the mower? How about to the DVD player? I know they are here somewhere.”

I know people who are like that, and it’s not always just the guys. Gals can make the same egregious errors that men make as well. We don’t go looking for a Bible until there’s a problem, and by then, it’s probably too late to make a positive impact on our lives or to change how we handled our latest dilemma.

What would Jesus do? Find out before the situation arises and be ready. Have your armor on beforehand. In other words, make a habit of reading your Bible, and day-by-day, you will increase your capabilities to fend off attack and gain victory over your enemy.

There is not a situation or problem that is not addressed and answered in our instruction book. However, if we haven’t followed up on our salvation promise, then this is where we need to pick up the walk we began. The moment we asked God to show us the way and take us down the road to a better life, was just the starting whistle.

Now there’s a lifelong journey to take. A journey that never ends because the journey is the true adventure and the destination only exists in the hereafter. Whether or not you have just received salvation and you are on fire for God or you are a down-and-out or depressed Christian who knows there is more to this, stop for a moment and ask yourself, “Am I determined to change my life? Do I want to be happy? Do I have the commitment to see this through?” 

If you answered yes to all three of those questions, then read on. You are a candidate for greatness.

"Renewing of your faith"

David Allen Brown

 "Lovenotes from Above: Breaking down the walls to Heaven"

About a year ago I decided to write a simple book on how to grow as a Christian but I wanted it to be a little different from the rest of the "How to grow" books that are out there. The question is not "how do I do that?" but rather "why would I do this?" The reason is simple. After getting saved, about 99% of us are thrown to the dogs within a couple of days. We all get the same walking orders. Go read your Bible and get into a good church. Within a month or so we are burned out and slipping right back into our old lives again. I decided that we need more.

We need a book that points us in the right direction for years to come. A book that serves more as a mentor rather than a 1-2-3 plan. This book is designed for "Newbies". People who have just turned their lives over to God or those that are thinking about turning their lives over to God. This chapter entitled    is my own personal short story of what happened to me and why I wanted to write a book like "Lovenotes from Above: Breaking down the walls to Heaven". I hope you enjoy and let me know if your story is anything similar to mine. Lovenotes is designed to get all Newbies past the point of burning out and keep them on the path to growth. God Bless, Dave.

                                     " RENEWING OF YOUR FAITH"

There’s one thing we are all born in need of—a friendship with Jesus. I remember with such clarity the day I was saved. I was 12 years old, and I was at vacation Bible school. I jumped off the bus and ran up to the house to tell my mom about the cool experience I had that day.

We had always gone to church and Sunday school, but salvation had never really registered until that week in vacation Bible school. I couldn’t wait to get home. I was excited. I was pumped with a capital ‘P’. They gave me a small pamphlet welcoming me to the body of Christ and explained what the wonderful promise I had accepted meant to me and to the Kingdom of Heaven. It told me that a place was being prepared for me on a street of gold. I was twelve-years-old, and all I could think about was telling everyone I knew.

Twelve is a wonderful age. We get so on fire for things, and if taken by the hand and molded at that age, we could become world changers. The problem is how many people are going to take the time to mentor a twelve-year old? If only someone, anyone, is willing to guide us at that time, then some real good could be accomplished. Lives could be changed forever. People could grow up to be things they never imagined and do things that would change the world.

When I got home, I went upstairs, sat down, and started reading the Bible like they told me to, and in a week…I was bored out of my mind—and then it was back to life as usual. I say back to usual, but it wasn’t really back to the way it was before. I still had a little fire left, but I had no idea what to do or how to do it. There was no one to lead me or books to guide me, except for the one that was so hard to understand and so intimidating just to look at!

I was cool as a cucumber in two weeks, except now I had some things that felt like negatives because I didn’t understand what I was feeling or what it meant. Now I had a guilty conscience most of the time, and it made me feel very, very ashamed of most of the things I did. I didn’t understand why they were wrong, only that I felt sick to my stomach if I stared too long at a pretty girl with the wrong thoughts running through my head.

Mostly because I was too young to get it on my own, and there was no one around to tell me that God loved me and that He wasn’t there to simply punish me for everything I did wrong. Being the grandson of a true Southern Baptist, fire and brimstone, you’re-all-going-to-hell preacher, I was raised on gobs of guilt and constant fear of going to hell. It wasn’t so much about doing well for God and pleasing Him.

It wasn’t so much about going to Heaven and meeting a loving father who forgives me of my imperfections. It was about how “bad” David really was. In a very short amount of time, I was back to worrying, feeling guilty and blaming God for everything that went wrong in my life. How little I truly understood about how God really worked.

Although Jesus is all about faith and love, education plays a vital role in understanding all about the man Himself. If, after all, we don’t really know Him or His words, then how do we get to draw Him deeper into our hearts and our everyday life?

What is the essence of Lovenotes?

David Allen Brown

 The "esence" of the site

"Lovenotes from Above"

What is the essence of "Lovenotes from Above"? What is this site SUPPOSE to be? It's supposeto be a place where Christians and Non-Christians alike can work and play well together.

It's suppose to be a place where I can learn from you and you can learn from me. It's about addiction problems, anger problems, ego problems, a place to cry if you're about to lose your home and your car to get some prayer .

You name it, we got it here. It's suppose to be a place where Christians don't have to sound like christians because we don't want to have to hide behind a wall of "Holiness".

My writing has been called too simple a time or two and that makes me feel good because I want to speak and appeal to every one at every level.

Mostly I am interested in psychology and how it affects Christian attitudes. You gotta admit.When most people have problems, they start somewhere between their ears so if you are hurting or angry or afraid or feel guilty or whatever, this is the place to speak about it.

God knows I've opened up here and I tell you about my dirty laundry and in doing so I hope every story touches one heart at a time.