Love Worth Knowing

By Denise Lorenz

Every moment of every day, whether you realize it or not God presents Himself to you. But all too often those signs are missed, and most often when you are seeking some sort of help or clarification about life and love. As much as you try to convince yourself that you are lost, this book will help you find that clarification and realization that Go

• Language: English
• Publisher: Life Changer Press
• Release date: Jan 23, 2012
• ISBN: 9781630227524

Denise Lorenz

Denise is a woman with a growing faith, a burning desire to pursue God's heart and a genuine love for mankind. She has spent several years as a businesswoman, raising her five children--both adoptive and biological, and inspiring and blessing many whose lives have touched hers. After many years of seeking to know Him better, God has revealed the worth of His love to her.

Book preview

Preface

I first became aware of a calling to write a book about a year ago. I initially dismissed it, because I had no idea what I would write about. But God continued to call. Eventually, I realized that He wanted me to write about what He had been teaching me over the last couple of years.

I have been in church almost all of my life. I can speak churchianity as well as anyone else. But the phrase God loves you has seemed trite, over-used, and vague.

Then God began to teach me the fresh, nonreligious nature of His love. As I grew more aware of His love for me, my love for Him grew. The love-letter aspect of the Bible started to jump off of the pages as I read. The sky was bluer; the grass was greener. I was in love with Him as if it were for the first time.

I doubt that I am the only church-going believer to have the same vague feeling of God’s love. If the church was ignited by God’s love, and shared it with better understanding, the growth of Christianity in America would be breath-taking. Love is magnetic and too powerful for any other force to overcome it.

The topic of love is way too extensive to be covered in a book of any size. But there should be enough presented here to ignite, or re-ignite, a greater understanding of His amazing love for you.

God’s love is presented from Genesis to Revelation. The Old Testament, which is often looked at as law, punishment, and

judgment, offers nearly half of the references used in this book. God didn’t give up on difficult people then, and He doesn’t give up on us today.

My prayer is that the pages of this book will increase your awareness and appreciation of God’s love for you in such a way that He will receive what He wants most from you—a relationship with Him and a life-changing love for Him.

Introduction

The hour is late. My mind and body are tired beyond words, but my spirit sings with joy, gratitude, and awe at the journey that God has brought me through. The last couple of days have been filled with laughter and friends. Friends that I am convinced would sacrifice whatever was needed to meet a need in my life, and for whom I would do the same in a heartbeat. Friends that have shared my journey in recent years as they have watched me draw closer towards God’s heart. Friends that have supported, encouraged, and challenged me, as we have enjoyed our time together.

It hasn’t always been so.

I was raised in a strict, religious home. I learned that approval and acceptance depended on my performance. If I wore the right clothes, said the right things, went to the right places, and did the right things, I had a chance of being loved.

But the problem was that I had an extremely difficult time doing that. Much to my mother’s chagrin, I had a tom-boy streak that she tried hard, but failed, to extinguish. My quick, inquisitive mind made earning good report cards easy, but it often created problems in a religious culture where girls were supposed to be domestic and dependent.

I learned very early in life that I didn’t stand a chance of measuring up. If I couldn’t please my parents, how could I ever please God? Wasn’t He the one who set the rules to begin with? The rules that I could never satisfy only served to damage my ability to enjoy relationships. I learned to pretend that I was someone that I wasn’t, or at least not show how I felt. By my teenage years I was well-protected by the walls of self-defense.

By the time I was in my early twenties, I had graduated from a community college and moved from the Midwest to California. I relished the adventure and change of scenery. I was still in the same denomination that I had been raised in, but the people I befriended in California and spent time with were more concerned with what the Bible said and less concerned with strict adherence to rules. I became interested in what the Bible said and began reading and studying it. Unfortunately, it was more of an academic