Author Archives: Jennifer Van Allen

Bricks to the Glory of God

Posted on by Jennifer Van Allen

Me:  This is a nice brick church.

Prodigal:  Yes it is!

Me:  I hope God uses it.

 

This is from the book The God Who Hung on the Cross by Dois Rosser Jr. and Ellen Vaughn

 

In one such case, the government granted a group of believers a swampland for church construction.  It took six months, but the Christians packed the marshy bog with fill dirt-wheel barrow by wheel barrow.  Once they prepared the site, they could not obtain any bricks to construct their building, so local officials permitted them to tear down a nearby unused nuclear missile silo, a relic of the Cold War in the Soviet Union.

When the believers started dismantling the silo and carrying the bricks away-again, wheel barrow by wheel barrow-one man found a fragile slip of paper, rolled tightly and stuck between two bricks.  The others gathered around as he carefully unrolled the old paper and smoothed it flat.

“These bricks,” he read out loud, straining to decipher the faded ink, “were purchased to build a house of worship.  But they were confiscated by the government to build a missile silo.  May it please the Lord that these bricks will one day be used to build a house to His glory!”

And so they were.

 

If you believe, you will receive whatever you ask for in prayer.

Matthew 21:22

 

Jennifer Van Allen

www.theprodigalpig.com

www.faithincounseling.org

 

The Dark Room

Posted on by Jennifer Van Allen

 

Me:  That room is dark.

Prodigal:  Yes, it is.

Me:  Some light is needed.

 

Let’s image the beautiful Sun outside represents Jesus.  Let’s image the world full of sin as a dark room with no windows.  The room needs light.  You noticed to receive light, there have been placed beautiful wonderful lamps.  They are plugged in and they share light.  Some of the lights are brighter and some are darker.  They have different light bulbs in them.  Some burn out sooner and some last longer.  Some lamps are small and some are bigger.  They all shine light though. They also look amazing and beautiful!  There are ones with flowers, skinny ones, and fat ones and some are brand new and others are old.
 Then there is a small hole in the wall.  In a room full of lamps with light, it appears to do nothing.  In fact it may seem to be a flaw in the design.  Some of the lamps complain, why is it even there.  The lamps feel that it is not even coming close to sharing all the light that they are sharing.
The hole says nothing.  Consistently it remains in the room.  Some days are cloudy and barely any light from the sun comes through the hole.  Other days there is nothing but light that comes through.  The hole sometimes wonders can something so small and ugly and insignificance compared to the lamps really make a difference in the dark room.
But one day, there is a power outage.  All the beautiful and different lamps can share no light.  Their source is from their plug that is connected to the room.  The small hole is now the only light available.  On that day the sun is shining brightly and can be seen coming through the hole.   In that dark room where the lamps could no longer work, suddenly they focus on the hole.  This light was a little different because it had warmth there that is different than artificial light.  It’s source was from the sun. The sun has pure energy that never dies.  It is a source that is everlasting. This light could not be stopped by the power outage.
The hole just did what it was designed to do that day.  It didn’t want the lamps to look at it.  It was nothing but a hole and they didn’t look at the hole.  Instead the hole did what it was designed to do.  The focus of the hole was to let the light from the sun to shine through.  The focus was on the sunlight and the hole was just a vessel for the sun.
The lamps represents when we work in the flesh for the Lord.
The hole represents when we work through the Holy Spirit.
John 1:5
“The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.”
By:  Jennifer Van Allen
www.theprodigalpig.com
www.faithincounseling.org

Perfection

Posted on by Jennifer Van Allen

 

Prodigal:  Where are we?

Me:  I’m back at my ol’ stompin’ grounds.

Prodigal:  I love it!

 

This is from the book When Sinners Say I do by Dave Harvey

 

Paul is keeping our hope where it ultimately belongs–in Christ.  This life, friends, is not really about you and me at all.  It’s about God’s glory expressed through us.  In this waiting room, God promises sanctification, a pattern of God-glorifying overall spiritual growth brought about by the power of his persistent grace.  But in this life he does not promise to subdue every sin, strengthen every weakness, create unbroken harmony in your marriage, or cure every ailment.

If God fixed everything on the list you have now, don’t you think you would just make another list?  Then another list, and another after that?  What’s the end of that process?  Perfection, which we don’t get in this life.  That’s why we wait.  Perfection is coming.  Perfection will arrive when the Son of God returns and we dwell with him in the new heavens and the new earth.

 

It is a tough day isn’t it.  No, your life isn’t perfect but you would just like the landslide of problems to stop for just an hour.  Well, you may get mud all over you ,but you will make it.  You will stand after this and God will be praised after.  I am with you.

 

Where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.

Matthew 6:21

 

Jennifer Van Allen

www.theprodigalpig.com

www.faithincounseling.org

The Fall Years

Posted on by Jennifer Van Allen

 

Me:  What happened to your friend?

Prodigal:  She’s like a bicycle with no handlebars.

Me:  Well maybe she will find her way someday.

 

This is from the book Living on the Ragged Edge by Charles Swindoll

 

The late Canon C.H. Nash, who founded the Melbourne Bible Institute and trained a thousand young men and women for Christian service, retired from his principalship at the age of seventy.  At eighty, he received assurance from the Lord that a further fruitful ministry of ten years lay ahead of him.  This assurance was abundantly fulfilled During those years he was uniquely blessed in a ministry of Bible teaching to key groups of clergy and laymen–probably the most fruitful years of his life.  When he was nearly ninety, the author found him completing the reading of volume six of Toynbee’s monumental history as a mental exercise.

Mr. Benjamin Ririe retired as a missionary of the China Inland Mission when he reached the age of seventy.  When he was eighty he decided to learn New Testament Greek.  He became proficient in reading the Greek New Testament in his eighties.  At ninety, he attended a refresher course in New Testament Greek in a seminary.  When he was a hundred years old, he was present at a meeting at which the author was speaking.  In his pocket was a small well-worn Greek lexicon which he used to brush up on his Greek while traveling by public transport!

 

God has a life that is full of possibilities, so don’t think that this is the end.  Just because you are having a slow week.

 

Colossians 3:15

And let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, to which indeed you were called in one body.  And be thankful.

 

Jennifer Van Allen

www.theprodigalpig.com

www.faithincounseling.org

Sanctification

Posted on by Jennifer Van Allen

 

Me:  Who were y’all just talking to?

Prodigal:  A neighbor.  She’s so windy she speaks to ten words a second with gusts to fifty.

Me:  Probably should pray for her.

 

This is from the book How Firm A Foundation:  A Gift of Jewish Wisdom for Christians and Jews. by Rabbi Yechiel Eckstein

 

Man is intrinsically pure since he was created by God, the embodiment of absolute purity and goodness.  The Jewish view of the nature of humankind stands in sharp contrast with the classical Christian one that suggests that as a result of Adam’s sin, all future generations of man became tainted with Original Sin.  In the Jewish view, sin is a human action, not a condition.  In the dominant Christian view, however, man is so caught up in his sinfulness that he lacks the ability for self-regeneration.  God, therefore, sent his only begotten Son into the world to die for man’s sin so that those believing in him might be saved.

 

Are we really pure as a Human race.  We lie more than just 30 years ago.  There are more suicides, more murders, and yet are we sure that we don’t need a savior to cover our sins.  Ask God if you are perfect with no sin.  He shows us all that we fall short of His glory.

 

1 John 5:15

Whosoever shall confess that Jesus is the Son of God, God dwelleth in him, and he in God.

 

Jennifer Van Allen

www.theprodigalpig.com

www.faithincounseling.org

Portrait of God

Posted on by Jennifer Van Allen

 

Prodigal:  The Lord’s beauty is amazing!

Me:  Yes, it is

 

Whom have we, Lord, but Thee,

Soul-thirst to satisfy?

Exhaustless spring!

The water’s free!

All other streams are dry.

 

Author unknown.

 

Psalm 139:14

I will give thanks to You, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made; wonderful are Your works, and my soul knows it very well.

 

Jennifer Van Allen

www.theprodigalpig.com

www.faithincounseling.org

Your Petition

Posted on by Jennifer Van Allen

Prodigal:  I am so good at pickin’ strawberries!

Me:  Oh, quit blowin’ your own trumpet.

Prodigal:  Well, let’s just hear some wisdom then.

 

This is from Dr. Bing Hunter

God’s delay in giving answers seems to be a major way He encourages faith.  Having seen that He is faithful following prayer over a week, you find it easier to trust Him for ten days.  Seeing the answer to persistence after a month strengthens me to wait in faith even longer for another…Patience and faith thus develop together in prayer.

 

The journey of faith takes us beyond what we thought it would.  God still loves us and it just teaches us to keep praying and share with others our faith along the way.

 

Proverbs 3:5-8

Trust in the Lord with all your hearts;

do not depend on your own understanding.

Seek his will in all you do,

and he will show you which path to take.

Don’t be impressed with your own wisdom.

Instead, fear the Lord and turn away from evil.

Then you will have healing for your body

and strength for your bones.

 

Jennifer Van Allen

www.theprodigalpig.com

www.faithincounseling.org

Forming Man

Posted on by Jennifer Van Allen

 

Prodigal:  Politicians’ are an interesting bunch.

Me:  They are deaf in one ear and can’t hear out the other.

Prodigal:  Now that will put a smile on your face!

 

This is from the book I have a friend Who’s Jewish Do You?

 

Did you know that that NASA Ames Research Center in California analyzed the elements found in the human body and they confirmed that Genesis 2:7 is actually accurate? “And the Lord God formed a man’s body from the dust of the ground and breathed into it the breath of life.  And the man became a living person.”  They not only found that we are made of the same elements as those of dirt, but did you notice that God breathed life into us?

That life is ordained by God and not man’s hand.  We have the ability to think, breathe and eat because of the Lord on this day.  Praise you God that you are in control of the details of our body also!

 

1 John 4:6

We are from God.  Whoever knows God listens to us; whoever is not from God does not listen to us.  By this we know the Spirit of truth and the spirit of error.

 

Jennifer Van Allen

www.theprodigalpig.com

www.faithincounseling.org

Just Consider

Posted on by Jennifer Van Allen

 

Me: Howdy Prodigal!

Prodigal:  How are you?

Me:  I am good, I saw you alone and was checking on you.

Prodigal:  I am just spending some time alone with God.

Me:  I can share about some good things to focus on with your time alone with God.

 

This is from Joy in Christ’s Presence by Charles Spurgeon

Meditate upon the gracious acts that procured such blessings for you.  Consider the labors that your Lord endured for you and the sufferings by which He purchased the mercies that He bestows.  What human tongue can describe the unutterable misery of His heart or tell so much as one of the agonies that crowded upon His soul?  How much less can we comprehend the vast total of Christ’s sufferings!  But all his sorrows were necessary for your benefit, and without them not one of your innumerable mercies could have been bestowed.

 

Psalm 90:17

Let the favor of the Lord our God be upon us, and establish the work of our hands upon us; yes, establish the work of our hands!

 

Jennifer Van Allen

www.theprodigalpig.com

www.faithincounseling.org

Gospel Core

Posted on by Jennifer Van Allen

 

Me:  Howdy Prodigal!

Prodigal:  I was just thinking about Jesus.

Me:  Let me share about Jesus.

 

This is from the book The Cross of Christ by John R. W. Stott

 

Jesus was a man who was accredited by God through miracles and anointed by the Spirit to do good and to heal.  Despite this, he was crucified through the agency of wicked men, though also by God’s purpose according to the Scriptures that the Messiah must suffer.  Then God reversed the human verdict on Jesus by raising him from the dead, also according to the Scriptures, and as attested by the apostolic eyewitnesses.  Next God exalted him to the place of supreme honour as Lord and Saviour.  He now possesses full authority both to save those who repent, believe and are baptized in his name, bestowing on them the forgiveness of sins and the gift of the Spirit, and to judge those who reject him.

 

Titus 3:4-7

But when the goodness and loving kindness of God our Savior appeared, he saved us, not because of works done by us in righteousness, but according to his own mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit, whom he poured out on us richly through Jesus Christ our Savior, so that being justified by his grace we might become heirs according to the hope of eternal life.

 

Jennifer Van Allen

www.theprodigalpig.com

www.faithincounseling.org