Author Archives: Jennifer Van Allen

Spiritual Unity

Posted on by Jennifer Van Allen

 

Me:  That is a good book Prodigal!

Prodigal:  Yes, why don’t you share something from it today.

 

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

 

Forget thee I will not, I cannot, thy name

Engraved on My heart doth for ever remain:

The palms of My hands whilst I look on I see

The wounds I received when suffering for thee.

 

Psalm 41:13

Blessed be the LORD God of Israel from everlasting, and to everlasting.  Amen, and Amen.

 

Jennifer Van Allen

www.theprodigalpig.com

www.faithincounseling.org

Pride

Posted on by Jennifer Van Allen

 

Me:  Can you hit the target Prodigal?

Prodigal:  I think I can but the person before me couldn’t knock a hole in the wind with a sackful of hammers.

Me:  Don’t get to prideful Prodigal.

Prodigal:  No, I probably should not.

 

This is from the book Overcoming Spiritual Blindness by James P. Gills M.D

 

The sin of our belief in freedom from God will never allow us to reach quiet rest and peace found in His arms.  Just as surely, pride prevents our experiencing fulfilling relationships with others.  Through pride, we seek to be seen as superior to our brother, our friends, our spouse.  Yet, authentically, pride is mindless human horseplay.

The ministrations of a prideful spirit may whisper to us that our possessions or qualities, objects that we own, or talents we posses, make us greater and different from our neighbor.  When we receive spiritual sight, God reveals that our possessions are only “treasure on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal  Matthew 6:19

That pride ain’t going to help you today.  That pride is going to bring you down.  So get rid of it now or let God do the humbling.

 

Job 13:1-2

Lo, mine eye hath seen all this, mine ear hath heard and understood it.  What ye know, the same do I know also:  I am not inferior unto you.

 

Jennifer Van Allen

www.theprodigalpig.com

www.faithincounseling.org

Bible and Quran

Posted on by Jennifer Van Allen

 

Me:  That was an interesting conversation with the neighbor.

Prodigal:  She’s meaner than a mama wasp.

Me:  Maybe, we should just pray for her.

 

This is from the book Beyond Opinion by Living the Faith We Defend by Ravi Zacharias

 

The Quran is composed of 114 chapters known as Suras.  They are not chronologically organized.  The Arabic language is intrinsically part of the revelation.  Therefore, all its translations are regarded as commentaries and not text.  Strange as it may sound, the Quran has no coherent message, lacks clarity, and is historically inaccurate and internally inconsistent.

Apologetically speaking, the Quran has serious fear of biblical teachings and so it distorts them through allusions and by falsification of the biblical truths.  Its revelation through inspiration and its methodology are shrouded in secrecy.  The original version of the Quran, having been preserved in the eternal tablet, was brought down to the atmospheric realm of our earth.  Muslims believe that the whole of the Quran is an inspired word, with no human influence whatsoever.  It has never been subjected to the acid tests that the Bible has been.

 

Romans 5:8

but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

 

Jennifer Van Allen

www.theprodigalpig.com

www.faithincounseling.org

Dark Power

Posted on by Jennifer Van Allen

 

Me:  It is so beautiful out side right now.

Prodigal:  I know, I wish everyone would focus on the beauty around us and God our creator.

Me:  Me too, but sin has a way of distracting us.

 

This is from the book C.S. Lewis Mere Christianity

 

How did the Dark Power go wrong?  Here, no doubt, we ask a question to which human beings cannot give an answer with any certainty.  A reasonable (and traditional) guess, based on our experiences of going wrong, can, however, be offered.  The moment you have a self at all, there is possibility of putting yourself first–wanting to be the center–wanting to be God, in fact.  That was the sin of Satan: and that was the sin he taught the human race.  Some people think the fall of man had something to do with sex, but that is a mistake  (The story in the Book of Genesis rather suggests that some corruption in our nature followed the fall and was its result, not its cause.)  What Satan put into the heads of our remote ancestors was  the idea that they could “be like gods”–could set up on their own as if they had created themselves–be their own masters–invent some sort of happiness for themselves outside God, apart from God.  And out of that hopeless attempt has come nearly all that we call human history–money, poverty, ambition, war, prostitution, classes, empires, slavery–the long terrible story of man trying to find something other than God which will make him happy.

The reason why it can never succeed is this.  God made us:  invented us as a man invents an engine.  A car is made to run on petrol, and it would not run properly on anything else.  Now God designed the human machine to run on Himself.  He himself is the fuel our spirits were designed to burn, or the food our spirits were designed to feed on.  There is no other.  That is why it is just no good asking God to make us happy in our own way without bothering about religion.  God cannot give us a happiness and peace apart from Himself, because it is not there.  There is no such thing.

 

Ezekiel 16:62

And I will establish my covenant with thee; and thou shalt know that I am the LORD:

 

Jennifer Van Allen

www.theprodigalpig.com

www.faithincounseling.org

Sacrifice for God

Posted on by Jennifer Van Allen

 

Me:  Howdy!

Prodigal:  What have you been thinking about over yonder.

Me:  Just what I have been seeing lately!

 

This is from the book The Pursuit of God by A.W. Tozer

 

This is the only real harbinger of revival which I have been able to detect anywhere on the religious horizon.  It may be the cloud the size of a man’s hand for which a few saints here and there have been looking.  It can result in a resurrection of life for many souls and a recapture of that radiant wonder which should accompany any faith in Christ, that wonder which has all but fled the Church of God in our day.

But this hunger must be recognized by our religious leaders.  Current evangelicalism has (to change the figure) laid the altar and divided the sacrifice into parts, but now seems satisfied to count the stories and rearrange the pieces with never a care that there is not a sign of fire upon the top of lofty Carmel.  But God be thanked that there are a few who care.  They are those who, while they love the altar and delight in the sacrifice, are yet unable to reconcile themselves to the continued absence of fire.  They desire God above all.  They are athirst to taste for themselves the “piercing sweetness” of the love of Christ about.  Whom all the holy prophets did write and the psalmists did sing.

 

Thank you that when I look at you.  I know that you are focus on the Lord and you are a leader that has a hunger and that you do have sacrifice in your heart.  Thank you Lord that He placed you in my life!

 

Romans 8:18

For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us.

 

Jennifer Van Allen

www.theprodigalpig.com

www.faithincounseling.org

 

 

I Asked

Posted on by Jennifer Van Allen

 

Me:  I wonder who else has been in these parts?

Prodigal:  I wonder what people were thinking as they looked around.

Me:  Here is a poem from an unknown Confederate soldier.

 

I asked God for strength that I might achieve.

I was made me weak that I might learn humbly to obey.

 

I asked God for health that I might do great things.

I was given infirmity that I might do better things.

 

I asked for riches that I might be happy.

I was given poverty that I might be wise.

 

I asked for power that I might have the praise of men.

I was given weakness that I might feel the need of God.

 

I asked for all things that I might enjoy life.

I was given life that I might enjoy all things.

 

I got nothing I asked for

but everything I had hoped for…

 

Almost despite myself

My unspoken prayers were answered.

 

I’m among all men am most richly blessed.

 

 

Come to me, all of you who are weary and carry heavy burdens, and I will give you rest.  Matthew 11:28

 

Jennifer Van Allen

www.theprodigalpig.com

www.faithincounseling.org

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Islam

Posted on by Jennifer Van Allen

 

Me:  Prodigal, you look mad?

Prodigal:  If that guy come around me one more time I’ll hit him in the Adam’s apple so hard he’ll be spittin’ cider for a week.

Me:  Maybe we need to look at forgiveness, which is what Jesus is all about.

 

This is from the book Beyond Opinion Living the Faith We Defend by Ravi Zacharias

 

In Islam, the highest sacrifice is not that of self-denial for the good of others but of self-sacrifice for the sake of Allah in killing his enemies.  The benchmark of true believers is not their ability to love their enemies but how much they can hate them, even if they are their own parents, children, brothers, or kinsmen.  Allah has declared his enmity with them forever and ever if they resist him and Muhammad.

 

We know Jesus so we try to live like Jesus.  Love your enemies.  This means you will live by the spirit and not the flesh.

 

Ezekiel 14:23

And they shall comfort you, when ye see their ways and their doings: and ye shall know that I have not done without cause all that I have done in it, saith the Lord GOD.

 

Jennifer Van Allen

www.theprodigalpig.com

www.faithincounseling.org

 

 

Dunkirk

Posted on by Jennifer Van Allen

 

Me: What a nice day on the beach!

Prodigal:  I agree!

Me:  We all need to just look around us and enjoy the day.

 

This is from the book Psalm 91 by Peggy Joyce Ruth and Angelia Ruth Schum

 

C.B. Morelock, a war corespondent in World War II, reported an unexplainable and miraculous occurrence:   sixty German aircraft strafed more than four hundred men who were pinned down on the sandy Dunkirk beaches without the benefit of anyplace to take cover.  Although the men were repeatedly attacked by machine guns and bombed by enemy aircraft, not one single man was hit.  Every man in that group left the beach without a scratch.  Morelock stated, “I have personally been told by Navy men who picked up those particular survivors from Dunkirk, that the men not only recited Psalm 91, but they shouted it aloud at the top of their lungs!”

 

Psalm 30:1

I will extol you, O Lord, for you have drawn me up and have not let my foes rejoice over me.

 

Jennifer Van Allen

www.theprodigalpig.com

www.faithincounseling.org

 

 

Reflections on the Author of the Quran

Posted on by Jennifer Van Allen

 

Me:  How is it out there?

Prodigal:  It’s hotter than a burnin’ stump.

Me:  Try to stay in the shade then!

 

This is from the book Beyound Opinion Living the Faith We Defend by Ravi Zacharias

 

Unlike the Bible, the Qur’an has no historical authentic document that can witness to its literary reliability or to its historical authenticity.  Its followers claim divine origin from the eternal table.  They also claim that the Qur’an has come to perfect the Bible by adding to it.  Yet the Qur’an’s teachings contradict the very biblical teaching it claims to have come to complete.  It does not teach anywhere the Ten Commandments, remains inconsistent with its own teaching, and at best portrays a totally different nature.

And there is the character of its author:  Allah.  As described in the Qur’an, Allah is not a covenant-making god, for if he were to do that it would diminish his absolute authority and might find him subject to his creatures due to such a covenant.  As portrayed, he is master of deception.  He contradicts himself and justifies that by calling it abrogation, meaning the replacement of earlier revelations with latter ones as they were out of date and no longer applicable–all within a period of twenty-three years.

All non-Muslims are Allah’s enemies, with specific emphasis on Jews and Christians.  He commands the followers of his prophet, whom he calls Muslims, to kill them and regard all non-Muslims as profane.

 

Romans 1:16-17

For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek.  For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith for faith, as it is written, “The righteous shall live by faith.”

 

Jennifer Van Allen

www.theprodigalpig.com

www.faithincounseling.org

Foundation Stone

Posted on by Jennifer Van Allen

 

Prodigal:  Cole is very sweet!

Me:  I agree with that but that boy sticks to his mama tighter than wallpaper.

Prodigal:  He is still fun to be with.

 

Today’s story is found in the book Great Women of the Christian Faith by Edith Deen

 

Pandita Ramabai built a church and put this on the foundation.

Praise the Lord.  Not by might, not by power, but by my spirit, saith Jehovah of Hosts.  That Rock was Christ.  Upon this rock I will build my church; and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.  Jesus Christ Himself being the chief cornerstone, in whom all the building fitly framed together groweth unto an holy temple in the Lord.  That our sons may be as plants grown up in their youth; that our daughters may be as cornerstones, polished after the similitude of a palace.

September 20,1899

 

2 Timothy 1:7

for God gave us a spirit not of fear but of power and love and self-control.

 

Jennifer Van Allen

www.theprodigalpig.com

www.faithincounseling.org