Author Archives: Jennifer Van Allen

Go Tell Thy Father

Posted on by Jennifer Van Allen

Me: Don’t live in the past.

Prodigal: Know Christ has given us a future.

This is from R. Leighton

Whatsoever it is that presses thee, go tell thy Father; put over the matter into His hand, and so thou shalt be freed from that dividing, perplexing care that the world is full of. When thou art either to do or suffer anything, when thou art about any purpose or business, go tell God of it, and acquaint Him with it; yea, burden Him with it, and thou hast done for matter of caring; no more care, but quiet, sweet diligence in thy duty, and dependence on Him for the carriage of thy matters. Roll thy cares, and thyself with them, as one burden, all on thy God.

Let my prayer come before thee: incline thine ear unto my cry; Psalms 88:2 (KJV)

Jennifer Van Allen

www.theprodigalpig.com

www.faithincounseling.org

Prayer

Posted on by Jennifer Van Allen

Me: Sometimes the way forward looks difficult to manage.

Prodigal: Yes, but we don’t walk the path alone.

This is from P. Melancthon

Trouble and perplexity drive us to prayer, and prayer driveth away trouble and perplexity.

The road you see, make you very uncertain what is going on around you. You want to focus on why it does not make sense, but that is not the point. The point is to take you along a journey that will show you how God works in people’s life and your own.

For we cannot but speak the things which we have seen and heard. Acts 4:20 (KJV)

Jennifer Van Allen

www.theprodigalpig.com

www.faithincounseling.org

And Just So

Posted on by Jennifer Van Allen

Prodigal; I’ll be darn, I’m in a tight spot.

Me: Yes, it looks like it.

This is from Andrew Murray

And just so God gives Christians the Holy Spirit with this intention, that everyday all their life should be lived in the power of the Spirit. A man cannot live one hour a godly life unless by the power of the Holy Spirit. He may live a proper, consistent life, as people call it, and irreproachable life, a life of virtue and diligent service; but to live a life acceptable to God, in the enjoyment of God’s salvation and God’s love, to live and walk in the power of the new life–he cannot do it unless he be guided by the Holy Spirit every day and every hour.

Brethren, I beseech you, be as I am; for I am as ye are: ye have not injured me at all. Galatians 4:12 (KJV)

Jennifer Van Allen

www.theprodigalpig.com

www.faithincounseling.org

Be Reasonable

Posted on by Jennifer Van Allen

Prodigal: Goin’ over yander.

Me: I will be there too!

This is from The Strong Family by Charles Swindoll

In it all you must be reasonable.

Perfect children do not live in your home or mine. Neither do perfect parents. Understand, there will be times when you will break your own rules. To live under the assault of constant guilt will do neither you nor your family any good. For lack of a better way to put it, leave a little “wobble room.” Try very hard not to demand perfection or to bring up past-and-forgiven wrongs or to set your expectation level to high. A family must remain a team. That means you must pull together..flex, adjust, give, take. When children grow up in a “reasonable” environment, they feel the freedom to fail without a ton of guilt falling all over them. They also grow up with better memories of how things were in their younger years.

Even in laughter the heart may ache, and joy may end in grief. Proverbs 14:13 (NIV)

Jennifer Van Allen

www.theprodigalpig.com

www.faithincounseling.org

External Testimony

Posted on by Jennifer Van Allen

Prodigal: That is pretty as a picture!

Me: It took a minute to finish.

This is from M.A. Schimmelpenninck

I believe that no Divine truth can truly dwell in any heart, without an external testimony in manner, bearing, and appearance, that must reach the witness within the heart of the beholder, and bear an unmistakable, though silent, evidence to the eternal principle from which it emanates.

And to you who are troubled rest with us, when the Lord Jesus shall be revealed from heaven with his mighty angels, 2 Thessalonians 1:7 (KJV)

Jennifer Van Allen

www.theprodigalpig.com

www.faithincounseling.org

A Clear Perception

Posted on by Jennifer Van Allen

Me: God wanted me to tell you something.

Prodigal: What?

Me: God forgives you–yes, even for that.

This is from Samuel D. Robbins

There is a faith in God, and clear perception of His will and designs, and providence, and glory, which gives to its possessor a confidence and patience and sweet composure, under every varied and troubling aspect of events, such as to man can realize who has not felt its influences in his own heart. There is a communion with God, in which the soul feels the presence of the unseen One, in the profound depths of its being, with a vivid distinctness and a holy reverence, such as no words can describe. There is a state of union with God. I do not say often reached, yet it has been attained in this world, in which all the past and present and future seem reconciled, and eternity is won and enjoyed; and God and man, earth and heaven, with all their mysteries, are apprehended in truth as they lie in the mind of the infinite.

Boast not thyself of to morrow; for thou knowest not what a day may bring forth. Proverbs 27:1 (KJV)

Jennifer Van Allen

www.theprodigalpig.com

www.faithincounseling.org

God Who Bears

Posted on by Jennifer Van Allen

Prodigal: Here is the bear!

Me: Now, that is a bear! We are not talking about that bear though..

This is from the book The Cost of Discipleship by Dietrich Bonhoeffer

For God is a God who bears. The Son of God bore our flesh, he bore the cross, he bore the sins, thus making atonement for us. In the same way his followers are also called upon to bear, and that is precisely what it means to be a Christian. Just as Christ maintained his communion with the Father by his endurance, so his followers are to maintain their communion with Christ by their endurance. We can of course shake off the burden which is laid upon us, but only find that we have a still heavier burden to carry–a yoke of our own choosing, the yoke of our self. But Jesus invites all who travail and are heavy laden to throw off their own yoke and take his yoke upon them–and his yoke is easy, and his burden is light. The yoke and the burden of Christ are his cross. To go one’s way under the sign of the cross is not misery and desperation, but peace and walk under our self-made laws and burdens, but under the yoke of him who knows us and who walks under the yoke with us. Under his yoke we are certain of his nearness and communion. It is he whom the disciple finds as he lifts up his cross.

If he say thus, It is well; thy servant shall have peace: but if he be very wroth, then be sure that evil is determined by him. 1 Samuel 20:7 (KJV)

Jennifer Van Allen

www.theprodigalpig.com

www.faithincounseling.org

Our Lord Speaks

Posted on by Jennifer Van Allen

Me: That was some shindig at your place.

Prodigal: Glad we could all relax and have fun!

This is from the book Absolute Surrender by Andrew Murray

Listen to the words in which our Lord speaks of His relation to the Father, and how unceasingly He uses the words not, and nothing, of Himself. The not I, in which Paul expresses his relation to Christ, is the very spirit of what Christ says of His relation the Father.

“The son can do nothing of Himself” (John 5:19) “I can of My own self do nothing; My judgment is just, because I seek not Mine own will” (John 5:30) “I receive not glory from men” (John 5:41) “I am come not to do Mine own will” (John 6:38) “My teaching is not Mine” (John 7:16) “I am not come of Myself” (John 7:28) “I do nothing of Myself” (John 8:28) “I have not come of Myself, but He sent Me” (John 8:42). “I seek not Mine own glory” (John 8:50) “The words that I say, I speak not from Myself” (John 14:10). “The word which ye hear is not Mine” (John 14:24).

Who hath saved us, and called us with an holy calling, not according to our works, but according to his own purpose and grace, which was given us in Christ Jesus before the world began, 2 Timothy 1:9 (KJV)

Jennifer Van Allen

www.theprodigalpig.com

www.faithincounseling.org

May God Preserve Me

Posted on by Jennifer Van Allen

Me: Tell the truth and let the Lord love them!

Prodigal: Amen

This is from the book No Man is an Island by Thomas Merton

May God preserve me from the love of a friend who will never dare to rebuke me. May He preserve me from the friend who seeks to do nothing but change and correct me. But may He preserve me still more from one whose love is only satisfied by being rebuked.

Beloved, let us love one another: for love is of God; and every one that loveth is born of God, and knoweth God. 1 John 4:7 (KJV)

Jennifer Van Allen

www.theprodigalpig.com

www.faithincounseling.org

Keep Preaching

Posted on by Jennifer Van Allen

Me: I got a plan today and Lord willing it will get done!

Prodigal: Lord willing!

This is from The Soul Winner by C.H. Spurgeon

Keep to your preaching; if you do anything else, do not let it throw your preaching into the background. In the first place preach, and in the second place preach, and in the third place preach. Believe in preaching the love of Christ; believe in preaching the atoning sacrifice; believe in preaching the new birth; believe in preaching the whole counsel of God. The old hammer of the Gospel will still break the rock in pieces. The ancient fire of Pentecost will still burn among the multitude. Try nothing new, but go on with preaching.

Then the same day at evening, being the first day of the week, when the doors were shut where the disciples were assembled for fear of the Jews, came Jesus and stood in the midst, and saith unto them, Peace be unto you. John 20:19 (KJV)

Jennifer Van Allen

www.theprodigalpig.com

www.faithincounseling.org