Prodigal: Just shootin’ the breeze today.
Me: Let me join ya.
This is a video devotion about Proverbs
Proverbs 9:11 For by me your days will be multiplied, And years of life will be added to you. (NKJV)
Jennifer Van Allen
www.theprodigalpig.com
www.faithincounseling.org
Prodigal: What a cozy spot.
Me: A perfect place for a tale.
Prodigal: I am ready to listen.
This is from the book Why Jesus? by Ravi Zacharias
The tale would go something like this:
In the beginning, God.
God spoke. But that was a long time ago.
We wanted certainty-now.
For this, only Reason and Rationalism would do.
But that was not enough. We wanted to “test.”
So we went into the senses and found the empirical.
But that’s not what we meant by testing. We really meant “feeling.”
So we found a way to generate feeling into the picture.
Truth was framed into a scene.
But the scene was left open to interpretation. Scenes are not absolute.
So the story was told as an art form.
But the reader still didn’t like it, because he was not the author.
So he read the story while he sat in a reconstructed and deconstructed cubicle to make of the story whatever he wished.
But what does one do with the long reach of the empirical?
The best way was to find a blend between the empirical and the satirical and end up with God again.
The only difference was that God could not be the storyteller.
We still needed God.
So we became God.
Are you going with your on tale today? Or you going to stick with God’s truth? Your choice. Your turn.
James 2:10
For whoever keeps the whole law and yet stumbles at just one point is guilty of breaking all of it.
Jennifer Van Allen
www.theprodigalpig.com
www.faithincounseling.org
Prodigal: I would love to sit and jaw with you, but I got to be moving on.
Me: One more think before you go, and this might help.
Prodigal:I reckon I can give you a second.
This is from the book David: A Man of Passion & Destiny by Charles Swindoll
So often, when facing our giants, we forget what we ought to remember and we remember what we ought to forget. We remember our defeats and we forget the victories. Most of us can recite the failures of our lives in vivid detail, but we’re hard-pressed to name the specific, remarkable victories God has pulled off in our past.
Focus on the victories you have had with the Lord in the past. That will help your faith during this time.
Philippians 2:1-4
So if there is any encouragement in Christ, any comfort from love, any participation in the Spirit, any affection and sympathy, complete my joy by being of the same mind, having the same love, being in full accord and of one mind. Do nothing from rivalry or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves. Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others.
Jennifer Van Allen
www.theprodigalpig.com
www.faithincounseling.org
Prodigal: Jesus turns a victim into a victory.
Me: Amen
This is a short video devotion on Proverbs.
Proverbs 9:10 “The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom, And the knowledge of the Holy One is understanding. (NKJV)
Jennifer Van Allen
www.theprodigalpig.com
www.faithincounseling.org
Me: I love your boots!
Prodigal: Well thank you kindly.
This is from Elizabeth Sherrill
Of all times to have the airline lose my luggage! It was only my toiletries case with my one pair of good shoes, but of all places to wind up without them!
I’d flown out to Farmington, New Mexico, for a one-day seminar sponsored by the Southwest Christian Writer’s Association. “No one will care about your shoes,” Margaret, the group’s president, assured me.
Doubtless Margaret was right, but of all times. Even as I said it, a phrase came to mind:”……we should at all times, and in all places, give thanks unto Thee.” At all times.
We met at the First Presbyterian Church. At the seminar’s close, several writers came up to the speaker’s stand. Suddenly there was a terrifying crack. Then a woman shouted, “Lie down! Everyone!”
Two men were outside, one of them brandishing a gun. The sound of exploding glass had come from the window. Later we learned that the men had been drinking and shooting at telephone poles. From the wall beyond the speaker’s stand the police recovered the tip of an electric screwdriver fired from a homemade pistol.
While Margaret filled out the police report, the rest of us said good-bye, each no doubt recalling a step forward or a delay that had kept him or her out of the line of fire.
For my part, I was tracing a trajectory, from the window to the wall, an inch over the spot where I’d been standing. I was thinking of a pair of two-and-half inch heels in a missing bag, and echoing a prayer:” ……we should at all times, and in all places, give thanks to Thee, O Lord.”
Hebrews 11:11
By faith Sarah, herself received power to conceive, even when she was past the age, since she considered him faithful who had promised.
Jennifer Van Allen
www.theprodigalpig.com
www.faithincounseling.org
Prodigal: This fire feels good!
Me: Yes, and the hot chocolate taste good also.
Prodigal: I think I will spend a couple of minutes praying before I leave.
Me: That is a great idea.
This is from the book Out Live Your Live by Max Lucado
Gracious Lord, in the Bible you are called “the One who sees me,” and I know that your eyes are always upon me to guide and protect and bless and correct. You have given me eyes too. Grant me the power to use them to truly see. Help me see those you put in my path–really see them, with all their hurts, their desires, their longings, their needs, their joys, and their challenges. As you open eyes, prompt me to open wide my arms to offer whatever help and encouragement I have to give.
In Jesus’ name I pray. amen.
Give thanks unto the Lord, call upon his name, make known his deeds among the people. Sing unto him, sing psalms unto him, talk ye of all his wondrous works.
1 Chronicles 16:8-9
Jennifer Van Allen
www.theprodigalpig.com
www.faithincounseling.org
Prodigal: There is a lot of lip flapping.
Me: The spirit of truth always stands out!
This is a short video devotion on Proverbs
Proverbs 9:9
Give instruction to a wise man, and he will be yet wiser: teach a just man, and he will increase in learning. (KJV)
Jennifer Van Allen
www.theprodigalpig.com
www.faithincounseling.org
Me: What are you doing over yonder’?
Prodigal: Thinking about my prayers to God from the past.
Me: Great reflection
This is from J. Oswald Sanders in Robust in Faith
I asked of God that He should give success
To the high task I sought for Him to do;
I asked that every hindrance might grow less
And that my hours of weakness might be few;
I asked that far and lofty heights be scaled—
And now I humbly thank Him that I failed.
For with the pain and sorrow came to me
A dower of tenderness in act and thought;
And with the failure came a sympathy,
An insight which success had never brought.
Father, I had been foolish and unblest
If Thou hadst granted me my blind request.
Habakkuk 3:17-18
Though the fig tree should not blossom, nor fruit be on the vines, the produce of the olive fail and the fields yield no food, the flock be cut off from the fold and there be no herd in the stalls, yet I will rejoice in the LORD; I will take joy in the God of my salvation.
Jennifer Van Allen
www.theprodigalpig.com
www.faithincounseling.org
Prodigal: He’s so stupid he couldn’t roll rocks down a hill.
Me: I don’t know if that is the nicest thing to say to someone.
Prodigal: Probably not.
This is from the book The Pursuit of God by A.W. Tozer
Whoever will listen will hear the speaking Heaven. This is definitely not the hour when men take kindly to an exhortation to listen, for listening is not today a part of popular religion. We are at the opposite end of the pole from there. Religion has accepted the monstrous heresy that noise, size, activity and bluster make a man dear to God. But we may take heart. To a people caught in the tempest of the last great conflict, God says, “Be still, and know that I am God,” and still He says it, as if He means to tell us that our strength and safety lie not in noise but in silence.
Today is a day to listen. Just listen.
The living, the living, he shall praise thee, as I do this day: the father to the children shall make known thy truth.
Isaiah 38:19
Jennifer Van Allen
www.theprodigalpig.com
www.faithincounseling.org
Prodigal: So Many books…..so little time!
Me: Tell like it is…
This is a short video devotion on Proverbs.
Proverbs 9:8 Reprove not a scorner, lest he hate thee: rebuke a wise man, and he will love thee. (KJV)
Jennifer Van Allen
www.theprodigalpig.com
www.faithincounseling.org
