Author Archives: Jennifer Van Allen

A Fountain

Posted on by Jennifer Van Allen

Me: How peaceful is this fountain.

Prodigal: Very peaceful

This is from Illustrations for Biblical Preaching by Michael Green

Dr. R.A. Torrey, founder of the Bible Institute of Los Angeles, lost his twelve-year-old daughter in an accident. The funeral was on a rainy day. They stood there beside that hole in the ground, surrounded by loved ones. It was dark and dismal. Mrs. Torrey said to her husband, “I’m so glad Elizabeth is not in that box.” Their grief went home with them that night as they tried to sleep.

Dr. Torrey got up in the morning and went for a walk. A wave of grief broke over him anew, the loneliness of her absence, the terrible feeling knowing they would never hear her laughter again, never see her face, never witness her growth. He couldn’t take it. And he leaned against the street light and he looked up and he began to pray. This is what he experienced: “And just then the fountain , the Holy Spirit, whom I had in my heart, broke forth with such power as I think I had never experienced before. And it was the most joyful moment I had ever known in my life! It is unspeakable glorious thing to have within you a fountain ever springing up, springing up, springing up, ever springing up 365 days in every year, springing up under all circumstances.

For who hath known the mind of the Lord? or who hath been his counsellor? Romans 11:34 (KJV)

Jennifer Van Allen

www.theprodigalpig.com

www.faithincounseling.org

Performance Relationships

Posted on by Jennifer Van Allen

Me: I hope it is perfect!

Prodigal: Is it about perfection?

This is from the book The Discipline of Grace by Jerry Bridges

Because we are focusing on our performance, we forget the meaning of grace: God’s unmerited favor to those who deserve only His wrath. Pharisee-type believers unconsciously think they have earned God’s blessing through their behavior. Guilt-laden believers are quite sure they have forfeited God’s blessing through their lack of discipline or their disobedience. Both have forgotten the meaning of grace because they have moved away from the gospel and have slipped into a performance relationship with God.

You look back and grace has escaped you. The focus is on guilt or your behaviors. The why’s are always looming in your mind. They bombarded you yesterday and you were trying to do your chores. God wants you to remember the gospel. God wants you to know that you have grace. Remember His love and grace today!

Romans 8:6-8

For to set the mind on the flesh is death, but to set the mind on the Spirit is life and peace. For the mind that is set on the flesh is hostile to God, for it does not submit to God’s law; indeed, it cannot. Those who are in the flesh cannot please God.

Jennifer Van Allen

www.theprodialpig.com

www.faithincounseling.org

Women Lovin’ Jesus

Posted on by Jennifer Van Allen

Prodigal: Just making a quick call.

Me: I understand.

This is a short video devotion on Proverbs.

click here to watch the video

Proverbs 16:19

Better it is to be of an humble spirit with the lowly, than to divide the spoil with the proud. (KJV)

Jennifer Van Allen

www.theprodigalpig.com

www.faithincounseling.org

He Giveth More

Posted on by Jennifer Van Allen

Me: I hope this gift will be a blessing.

Prodigal: God will make it a blessing.

This is from Annie Johnson Flint

He giveth more grace when the burdens grow greater,

He sendeth more strength when the labors increase;

To added affliction He addeth His mercy,

To multiplied trials, His multiplied peace.

When we have exhausted our store of endurance,

When our strength has failed ere the day is half done,

When we reach the end of our hoarded resources,

Our Father’s full giving is only begun.

His love has no limit, His grace has no measure;

His power no boundary known unto men;

For out of His infinite riches in Jesus

He giveth and giveth and giveth again.

Neither as being lords over God’s heritage, but being ensamples to the flock. 1 Peter 5:3 (KJV)

Jennifer Van Allen

www.theprodigalpig.com

www.faithincounseling.org

Meekness and Lowliness

Posted on by Jennifer Van Allen

Prodigal: Where did they go?

Me: She left out o’ here.

Prodigal: Must be in a time crunch.

This is from the book Absolute Surrender by Andrew Murray

I am sure there are many Christians who will confess that their experience has been very much like my own in this, that we had long known the Lord without realizing that meekness and lowliness of heart are to be the distinguishing feature of the disciple as they were of the Master. And further, that this humility is not a thing that will come of itself, but that it must be made the object of special desire and prayer and faith and practice. As we study the word, we shall see what very distinct and oft-repeated instructions Jesus gave His disciples on this point, and how slow they were in understanding Him. Let us, at the very commencement of our meditations, admit that there is nothing so natural to man, nothing so insidious hidden from our sight, nothing so difficult and dangerous, as pride. Let us feel that nothing but a very determined and persevering waiting on God and Christ will discover how lacking we are in the grace of humility, and how impotent to obtain what we seek. Let us study the character of Christ until our souls are filled with the love and admiration of His lowliness. And let us believe that, when we are broken down under a sense of our pride, and our impotence to cast it out, Jesus Christ Himself will come in to impart this grace too, as a part of His wondrous life within us.

I the LORD search the heart, I try the reins, even to give every man according to his ways, and according to the fruit of his doings. Jeremiah 17:10 (KJV)

Jennifer Van Allen

www.theprodigalpig.com

www.faithincounseling.org

Women Lovin’ Jesus

Posted on by Jennifer Van Allen

Prodigal: Pretty day!

Me: Yes, it is.

This is a short video devotion on Proverbs.

click here to watch the video

Proverbs 16:18 Pride goes before destruction, And a haughty spirit before a fall. (NKJV)

Jennifer Van Allen

www.theprodigalpig.com

www.faithincounseling.org

Strive to See God

Posted on by Jennifer Van Allen

Me: What God has made is beautiful!

Prodigal: Amen!

This is from St. Francis De Sales

Strive to see God in all things without exception, and acquiesce in His will with absolute submission. Do everything for God, uniting yourself to Him by a mere upward glance, or by the overflowing of your heart towards Him. Never be in a hurry; do everything quietly and in a calm spirit. Do not lose your inward peace for anything whatsoever, even if your whole world seems upset. Commend all to God, and then lie still and be at rest in His bosom. Whatever happens, abide steadfast in a determination to cling simply to God, trusting to His eternal love for you; and if you find that you have wandered forth from this shelter, recall your heart quietly and simply. Maintain a holy simplicity of mind, and do not smother yourself with a host of cares, wishes, or longings, under any pretext.

For the drunkard and the glutton shall come to poverty: and drowsiness shall clothe a man with rags. Proverbs 23:21 (KJV)

Jennifer Van Allen

www.theprodigalpig.com

www.faithincounseling.org

Our Life Himself

Posted on by Jennifer Van Allen

Prodigal: I’m noodling my noogin.

Me: Let’s hear it.

This is from Saint Augustine Confessions

Our Life himself came down into this world and took away our death. He slew it with his own abounding life, and with thunder in his voice he called us from this world to return to him in heaven. From heaven he came down to us, entering first the Virgin’s womb, where humanity, our mortal flesh, was wedded to him so that it might not be for ever mortal. Then as a bridegroom coming from his bed, he exalted like some great runner who sees the track before him. He did not linger on his way but ran, calling us to return to him, calling us by his words and deeds, by his life and death, by his descent into hell and his ascension into heaven. He departed from our sight, so that we should turn to our hearts and find him there. He departed, but he is here with us. He would not stay long with us, but he did not leave us. He went back to the place which he had never left, because he, through whom the world was made, was in the world and he came into the world to save sinners. To him my soul confesses and he is its Healer, because the wrong it did was against him. Great ones of the world, will your hearts always be hardened? Your Life has come down from heaven: will you not now at last rise with him and live? But how can you rise if you are in high places and your clamour reaches heaven? Come down from those heights, for then you may climb and this time, climb to God. To climb against your fall.

Wisdom has built her house,
She has hewn out her seven pillars; Proverbs 9:1 (KJV)

Jennifer Van Allen

www.theprodigalpig.com

www.faithincounseling.org

Women Lovin’ Jesus

Posted on by Jennifer Van Allen

Prodigal: You look free as a bird!

Me: I am!

This is a short video devotion on Proverbs.

click here to watch the video

Proverbs 16:17

The highway of the upright is to depart from evil; He who keeps his way preserves his soul. (NKJV)

Jennifer Van Allen

www.theprodigalpig.com

www.faithincounseling.org

The Root of the Tree

Posted on by Jennifer Van Allen

Me: Beautiful!

Prodigal: Darn tootin’

This is from the book Absolute Surrender by Andrew Murray

If this be the root of the tree, its nature must be seen in every branch and leaf and fruit. If humility be the first, the all-including grace of the life of Jesus,-if humility be the secret of His atonement, then the health and strength of our spiritual life will entirely depend upon our putting this grace first too, and making humility the chief thing we admire in Him, the chief thing we ask of Him, the one thing for which we sacrifice all else.

And it shall come to pass in that day, that his burden shall be taken away from off thy shoulder, and his yoke from off thy neck, and the yoke shall be destroyed because of the anointing. Isaiah 10:27 (KJV)

Jennifer Van Allen

www.theprodigalpig.com

www.faithincounseling.org