Escape Through the Jungle

Posted on February 5, 2016 by Jennifer Van Allen

Me: Howdy Prodigal, who are you with today?

Prodigal: These are my friends from the jungle and we decided to go shopping.

Me: It is nice to meet you and I actually have just heard a story about a jungle from the book Voices of the Faithful with Beth Moore.

Drought conditions in the state of Orissa, India, caused many deaths one year. People looked to the village priest to perform rituals to appease the spirits, but even the priest suffered as he helplessly watched his malnourished wife die after birthing her fifth child. Fearing his dignity would be tarnished for not saving his wife, he decided a greater sacrifice must be made. He choose to offer his baby daughter as a human sacrifice.

As the father prepared to cremate his wife, he commanded his sister to throw the baby onto the burning pyre. But the aunt had sympathy for the child and tossed a bundle of rags instead. For 15 days, she drugged the infant to prevent her from crying. But the angry father found out and torched his sister’s hut for deceiving him.

The aunt escaped with the child and ran miles through the jungle to a mission hospital, where she abandoned the baby. Later, she returned and identified the child. After three months, a Canadian Baptist missionary was given custody of the infant, who was named Lakki Joy.

Lakki thrived under the missionary’s care. Through her guidance, Lakki came to know Christ as her personal Lord and Savior.

Lakki shares the gospel with her people group, the Soura at every opportunity. This once unwanted baby has become a testimony of God’s love and is truly a joy to others.

Never count your story over, no matter how unwanted to may have been at the beginning! With God, all things are possible.

James 5:11

As you know, we consider blessed those who have persevered.

Jennifer Van Allen

www.theprodigalpig.com

www.faithincounseling.org

Tumblr

Facebook Save

Flattr

Stumbleupon

Exposed to God’s Light

Posted on February 3, 2016 by Jennifer Van Allen

Me: Prodigal, what are you doing?

Prodigal: I am staring at the light that this candle is giving off. It is pretty and smells good too!

Me: Well, as you look at that light I can share with you about God’s light. I was reading What In The World is Going On by Dr. David Jeremiah and I wanted to share today.

I will turn you around, put hooks into your jaws, and lead you out, with all your army, horses, and horseman” Ezekiel 38:4 It will be in the latter days that I will bring you against My land. (v16) and I will turn you around and lead you on, bringing you up from the far north, and bring you against the mountains of Israel (39.2)

Passages such as these confuse many people because of the seeming implication that God leads men to be evil or to do evil things. But the Bible never says that God instills evil in the hearts of men. Some would attempt to refute this claim by pointing out that during the Exodus, the Bible explicitly says that God hardened Pharaoh’s heart. It does say that, of course, but the statement speaks about the nature of Pharaoh’s heart, not about God overriding man’s free will. Some hearts are like clay; the sun’s heat will harden them. Others are like wax; the sun will cause them to melt. It’s not the sun’s fault that it hardens one substance and melts the other; it all depends on the nature of the material. Pharaoh’s heart was the sort that would harden when exposed to God’s light. It had nothing to do with God coercing him to do evil.

The Old Testament, especially, is intended to show that God is the sovereign ruler over all. Even though men try to thwart His plan and wreak great destruction, God’s purpose will always win out. When Ezekiel wrote that God will bring the enemy against His land, he was simply saying that God will bring these nations to the doom that their wickedness inevitably demands. Everyone accomplishes God’s will in the end. Those who conform to His will accomplish it willingly; those who do not conform accomplish it inadvertently as an unwitting tool in His hands.

Jennifer Van Allen

www.theprodigalpig.com

www.faithincounseling.org

Battle

Posted on February 1, 2016 by Jennifer Van Allen

Me: Prodigal, what are you doing with all the weapons and gear?

Prodigal: Getting ready for battle!

Me: Well, I have some very wise words about going into spiritual battle.

Dr. Lewis Sperry Chafer the founder of Dallas Theological Seminary wrote these words about spiritual battles.

Committed Christians are placed on the front lines of the battle. It’s the place where the enemy’s fiercest pressure is felt, but it also offers the best view of his crushing defeat. You’ll never grow beyond the power of temptation. You’ll see it in ever-new, more devious forms. But your eyes will be filled with the glorious sights God reserves for those who follow Him with the utmost devotion.

You are asking what is going on and you have just been called to the front lines my friend! Yes, you see the enemy but you are about to see the enemy’s defeat!

2 Corinthians 1:8-10

For we do not want you to be ignorant, brethren, of our trouble which came to us in Asia: that we were burdened beyond measure, above strength, so that we despaired even of life. Yes, we had the sentence of death in ourselves, that we should not trust in ourselves but in God who raises the dead, who delivered us from so great a death, and does deliver us; in whom we trust that He will still deliver us.

Jennifer Van Allen

www.theprodigalpig.com

www.faithincounseling.org