David Brainerd was born in on April 20, 1718 to Hezekiah Brainerd, Esq, and Dorothy Hobart. He had four brothers and four sisters. Most of his brothers ended up in the ministry, although those that did not were respectable upright people. David's father died when he was nine and his mother died five years later when David was fourteen, so at a very young David was fatherless and motherless.1
David was always a type of person inclined to be melancholy. He was always a religious person. He made sure that he did everything right, because he was afraid of death. He performed all the duties of religion without a true conversion.2
Then, in 1738, David went to live with a man named Rev. Mr. Fiske. It was here that David kept a regular schedule of religious things. Here, he read the entire many times through in less than a year, and Rev. Fiske gave him the counsel, as he put it to: “wholly abandon young company, and associate myself with grave elderly people.”3 David took the advice to heart. Even after Mr. Fiske's death, David continued to be very religious.4
Then one day when he was twenty, he suddenly felt that he had the wrath of God on him. He realized that his sin was not forgiven, he was just doing good works and religious things to make up the difference. Even though he realized this, he still thought that his good works would still account for his good. He prayed and prayed but could not get anywhere. He even set a time to fast, but still God did not seem to work. All the while God was softening David's heart, David was having a problem with self-confidence. He was confident that the works and the religious things which he did were going to help him.5
Finally on July 12, 1739, David, after praying all evening...
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...stay and talk about the sermon after David was done speaking. He also began seeing the people respond to his sermons. David continued to work with Indians his illness and his death on Friday 9, 1747.18
I read the book The Life of David Brainerd. The material was well written but was kind of depressing to read because of how melancholy he acted. It was presented in a scholarly manner. It has given me a greater understanding of how they were so afraid of whether they “felt” that they were a Christian. I would not really recommend it to another person because it was hard to read without feeling depressed and melancholy. The book was good in some places, but in others it was hard to read and in general it is not something I would pick up to read again.
Works Cited
Edward, President. The Life of David Brainerd Michigan: Baker Book House, 1978.
David had strong ties and a compact relationship with his immediate family. During the course of the trial, the evidence was presented which seems to clear him:
They eventually found a building that was full of garbage and trash that someone had been putting in there for their own keeping, and they got the building for $42,000, but they had to come up with a way to make a down payment of $4,200. David and the others on his committee prayed day in and day out for this amount of money to come in, and they finally got that amount plus an extra $200 dollars. They ended up getting the building and fixing it up and calling it Teen Challenge Center. They eventually got people to come and work with them to help bring in the kids from all these broken situations, so they could help them. David continues to tell of how much prayer and faith that it took to run this kind of operation. David said “before September tenth, the money will be in our hands, I’m sure. By that Date, I’ll have a check for $15,000 to show you. I just thought we ought to than God ahead of time” (Wilkerson 212). Through out the book one can see that David is just like any other human being. He has his doubts, but he has one constant thing that keeps him going with this project and that is the complete and total trust in God and his provision over what he felt lead to do in by looking a page in a magazine of seven teens with a troubled
He lived a perfect life and was blessed with perfect parents. Everyday is a new adventure filled with fun. He loved his life and his family. After Abuse: a. David came to believe that there was no god because "No God would leave me like this" Pg.131. He had totally disconnected himself from all the physical pain.
A loss of David’s innocence appears during his killing of a magpie. This “it can be done in a flick of the finger”. The particular significance about this plays an important part in his as he considers that he also is capable of committing such unfortunate yet immoral things. “Looking in the dead bird’s eye, I realised that these strange, unthought of connections - sex and death, lust and violence, desire and degradation - are there, there, deep in even a good heart’s chambers”.
At the beginning of the Chrysalids, we meet David as a ten-year old boy who has conformed to meet his parent’s strict standards. David then meets a girl named Sophie, who turns out to be a mutant, something he should be frightened of. It is then David first begins to question his father’s beliefs, as shown in the quotation, “A blasphemy was, as had been impressed upon me often enough, a frightful thing. Yet there was nothing frightening about Sophie. She was simply an ordinary little girl,” (Wyndham 14). This phrase is the spark that will ignite the fire of rebellion inside David, as he realizes that his father’s beliefs may not be morally correct and are often flawed. Naturally, David begins to feel a bit betrayed by his father for leading him astray and forcing wrong beliefs upon him, and th...
It was not just these influences but he also had a deep interest in science and chemicals. He was alone for the early part of his child hood because of his father’s work habits and his mother’s illnesses. This being the case, David found it easy to become engulfed in books but more specifically The Golden Book of Chemistry Experiments. The Golden Book was a large factor in most of his early experiments, and even played a part in some of his experiments in the later years. This book contained many science experiments and different types of chemical reactions. He used this book as a guide to learn how different experiments work, and also showed David how he could create his own tests. Although his mother and father were not very supportive he did have one family member that was. His grandfather always backed him up and realized he had a love for science. Then, the boy scouts came along. His father saw this as a way to get David out of the house and create more of a social life. What he did not know is that David was using the perks of being a boy scout to obtain more chemical to further the needs for his
As a new born, David was adopted and grew up a troubled child. He grew up with the thought that his biological mother had died during childbirth with him and he lived with the guilt and anger of that which is believed to have caused his mental illness. He suffered from depression
human, a soul who knew nothing but love. Ironically, David was programmed to provide unconditional love and also served the purpose of being the perfect replacement of a ‘human’ boy.
David growing up as a child lived in a house where there was no love shown or caring relationships. He grew up not knowing what good relationships looked like or felt like. David did not think too highly of his dad or aunt and always had
And Solomon said, Thou hast showed unto thy servant David my father great mercy, according as he walked before thee in truth, and in righteousness, and in uprightness of heart with thee; and thou has t kept for him this great kindness, that thou hast given him a son to sit on his throne, as it is this day.
After reading a few of the chapters in "Psychology Through the Eyes of Faith", I feel as if I have learned more in one sitting than many in years of my life. The chapters were not life altering, but simply stated things that I have overlooked. The topics that affected me most were on living with the mysteries of faith, benefits of true rest, and the emotion of happiness. Yes, they are really in no way related, but each of these topics impacted me in a different way, and made me think about what was being presented.
One of the primary strengths I found in Is God a Christian by Kirby Godsey, is its relatability. What makes a book interesting to a reader, is their ability to put themselves into the text. Throughout my time reading this book, I constantly felt like I was able to look back into my own life and compare myself to Godsey’s own life. For example, towards the beginning of the book when he mentions "The Plague of Certainty", it was something that truly hit home as throughout my childhood and progression to adulthood I have always held a strong fear of uncertainty.
God spoke to David through Nathan the Prophet. While David was a man after God's own heart he still was not perfect. In 2 Samuel 11 David saw Bathsheba, the wife of Uriah, bathing and invited her over. David and Bathsheba broke the boundaries of Bathsheba's marriage. While trying to cover up his
He has extremely low confidence and belief in himself which is to be expected since he is in unfamiliar territory. His father tries to teach David the ways his grandfather taught him. David’s father is a responsible hunter, he only hunts what is legal and not threatening them, “Are we going to shoot him? […] We don’t have a permit” (Quammen 420). One of the steps to adulthood is learning to be responsible when others are not around, at the age of 11, David learns young but rather unfortunately in the end. Morals and values are an important step to adulthood, like Albert Einstein once said “Try not to become a man of success. Rather become a man of value.” Having a solid set of values and good morals could be the difference in many of David’s future choices, and his father set him on the right path from an early age even though their relationship had several issues. This starts the journey to David’s mental strength shown throughout the story because it brings the right versus wrong to the center of attention. Taking care of family, taking care of the environment and the animals that inhabit the environment and not taking life for granted as he might have before tragedy struck are all part of the journey to adulthood. David’s father was extremely bothered by the moose that had been shot many times by a small caliber hand gun and the scene showed no signs of an attack; a senseless killing of an animal that was left to rot in a pond. David’s father wanted to teach him that if you were going to kill an animal, at least take the meat and use what you can from the
Lust rose up inside of him. He was, attacked by the flesh. His mind started to play out scenarios, and instead of returning to his wife, he asked to have that beautiful woman brought to his room. His physical body was under attack by the flesh, and David succumbed to temptation and it brought tremendous pain into his life.