A Sense of Dependence

Posted on March 11, 2017 by Jennifer Van Allen

Me: Nice bow tie Prodigal!

Prodigal: Thanks! I wanted to look nice today.

Me: Well I would have to say that you look very nice.

Prodigal: What do you have that is encouraging today?

This comes from the book Charles Spurgeon Joy in Christ’s Presence

Sweet fellowship with Christ remains when you maintain a sense of your entire dependence upon His good will and pleasure for the continuance of your richest enjoyments. Never try to live on the old manna or to seek help in Egypt. All must come from Jesus, or you are forever ruined.

We must stay forever aware that there will be whispers in our ear telling us that the manna will last and we should tried to horde what we know only God can provide us with daily. There will also be the softest direction to turn back into our bondage that we left in Egypt because it looks safe and secure. We must fight this with our dependence on Christ and realize that this is what will give us joy.

Isaiah 10:3

What will you do on the day of punishment, in the ruin that will come from afar? To whom will you flee for help, and where will you leave your wealth?

Jennifer Van Allen

www.theprodigalpig.com

www.faithincounseling.org

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In Mud

Posted on March 9, 2017 by Jennifer Van Allen

Prodigal: What is this?

Me: It is a Jewish Menorah for Hanukkah.

Prodigal: It is a large one!

Me: Yes, it is and today I wanted to share from the Midrash Exodus 24.1

This is from the book Jewish Spirituality A Brief Introduction for Christians by Rabbi Lawrence Kushner

According to ancient rabbinic legend, two people Reuven and Shimon, hurried along among the crowd crossing through the sea. But they never once looked up. They noticed only that the ground beneath their feet was still a little muddy–like a beach at low tide. “This is terrible!” said Reuven. “There’s mud all over the place!” Digusting!” said Shimon. “I’m in muck up to my ankles!” “You know what? replied Reuven. “When we were slaves in Egypt, we had to make our bricks out of mud, just like this!” “Yeah,” said Shimon. “There’s no difference between being a slave in Egypt and being free here.” And so it went, Reuven and Shimon whining and complaining all the way across the bottom of the sea. For them there was no miracle, only mud. Their eyes were closed. Even though they walked right through it, they might as well have been asleep.

We think that we could never be like that and not notice God’s miracle. Look at today though. What has God been doing this week. Yes, there has been tough times that required a lot of your emotional strength, but we can become to focused on the mud and forget to look around at the big picture. God is changing things and we are walking right in the middle of it. Yes, there is mud but also there is a big sea that was parted just for us!

1 John 4:7

Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God, and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God.

Jennifer Van Allen

www.theprodigalpig.com

www.faithincounseling.org.

God the All-Mighty

Posted on March 7, 2017 by Jennifer Van Allen

Me: Howdy, Prodigal!

Prodigal: Howdy! I was just listening to some people talk about their view of God. They said that He is far away and is not present.

Me: Well, that is not true at all. God is ever present! Let me quote from you James Boice

The God of the Bible is not weak; He is strong. He is all-mighty. Nothing happens without His permission or apart from His purposes–even evil. Nothing disturbs or puzzles Him. His purposes are always accomplished. Therefore those who know Him rightly act with boldness, assured that God is with them to accomplish His own desirable purposes in their lives.

We can chose to be distracted by the world and then we will not see with spiritual eyes all that God is doing around you this moment. Guess what, no harm came to you this morning yet? Could that have happened? Yes, and yet you were protected. Did you praise God about it? No, because life has us thinking of a million different things to do today. That is ok, because it happens to all of us. So just for the next two minutes. Be still and just praise God. It will help make a difference in your day today!

James 1:22

But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving your selves.

Jennifer Van Allen

www.theprodigalpig.com

www.faithincounseling.org

In Humility

Posted on March 6, 2017 by Jennifer Van Allen

Prodigal: You want to play a game?

Me: Sure I betcha I will win!

Prodigal: Well then let the games begin!

Charles Swindoll in his book Living on the Ragged Edge talks about leaders

A wise leader will allow the Lord God to maintain control over his or her power. He will realize that he is gifted by the grace of God to do a job, and sometimes a vast and terrible job, a hard and demanding job. In humility he will enter the Lord into his decision making process, problem-solving solutions, and future-planning strategy. But in all of the rigors and the disciplines of getting the job done, those who follow this leader will continue to feel dignity and importance. They will not feel like insignificant pawns on a chessboard of activity.

Go to the Lord right now, because some of those leaders are just using you as a pawn on a chessboard and are after their agenda and not of the Lord’s. God will show you who’s heart is really following God. You just have to ask for spiritual eyes and ears to follow the truth and not who you like in personality.

Psalm 91:2

I will say to the Lord, “My refuge and my fortress, my God, in whom I trust.”

Jennifer Van Allen

www.theprodigalpig.com

www.faithincounseling.org

Through Affliction

Posted on March 3, 2017 by Jennifer Van Allen

Me: Prodigal, It does not look like you are in a good spot right now. In fact you look like your about to get a hurtin.

Prodigal: I KNOW, I NEED HELP!

Me: Hold on I am coming to help you in your affliction.

This is from Malcolm Muggeridge

Contrary to what might be expected, I look back on experiences that at the time seemed especially desolating and painful with particular satisfaction. Indeed, I can say with complete truthfulness that everything I have learned in my seventy-five years in this world, everything that has truly enhanced and enlightened my existence, has been through affliction and not through happiness. In other words, if it ever were to be possible to eliminate from our earthly existence by means of some drug or other medical mumbo jumbo….the result would not be to make life delectable, but to make it too banal and trivial to be endurable. This, of course, is what the Cross signifies. And it is the Cross, more than anything else, that has called me inexorably to Christ.

It seems at this time this affliction just keeps given you hurt. Why would Christ lead to the way of something that hurts you? Because he is stretching you and building you up in a way that you need to be stretched. Emotionally and Spiritually, Christ is teaching you new skills. This is the same as when you train in a sport and have a new exercise. It hurts your muscle’s at first and you are sore afterward physically. Well spiritually you are hurting but your trust muscles in Christ are growing! You cannot understand this all today so maybe you just decided to hang in there and not give up and not run from God.

Acts 5:14

And more than ever believers were added to the Lord, multitudes of both men and women.

Jennifer Van Allen

www.theprodigalpig.com

www.faithincounseling.org

Growth In Between Two Stones

Posted on March 1, 2017 by Jennifer Van Allen

Me: Look at the beautiful flower that is growing in the middle of that fence!

Prodigal: Yes, something about it speaks to my heart about the struggles of life.

Me: I was reading that in a book. Let me share.

This is from the book Disappointment With God by Philip Yancey

Paradoxically, the most perplexing, Job-like times may help “fertilize” faith and nurture intimacy with God. The deepest faith, what I have called fidelity, sprouts at a point of contradiction, like a blade of grass between stones. Human beings grow by striving, working, stretching; and in a sense, human nature needs problems more than solutions. Why are not all prayers answered magically and instantly? Why must every convert travel that same tedious path of spiritual discipline? Because persistent prayer, and fasting and study, and meditation are designed primarily for our sakes, not for God’s.

The flower is beautiful and rare not because it has grown up in a field full of roses. It is beautiful because in the most unlikely places, a fence on a gravel path with no rich soil around it, the flower bloomed. We may not know the struggle it took to bloom in that spot but we can look at that flower and appreciate the beauty.

Revelation 3:20

Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come into him and eat with him, and he with me.

Jennifer Van Allen

www.theprodigalpig.com

www.faithincounseling.org