Turning Point

Posted on January 8, 2016 by Jennifer Van Allen

Me: Howdy Prodigal, What are you doing?

Prodigal: Running a race and this is the turning point. Now I have to turn around and finish the race.

Me: I hope you do well and stay on course! While you are running I will share with the others here.

Chuck Swindoll in his book Start Where You Are gives us a personal story of a turning point for him.

There was a time in my ministry, many years ago, when a single verse of Scripture jolted me back to a place of confidence, delivering me from the trap of telling a group of influential people what they wanted to hear. I realize now it was a turning point in my leadership pilgrimage from “slave to others” to “servant of Christ.” It reads, “For am I now seeking the favor of men, or of God? Or am I striving to please men? If I were still trying to please me, I would not be a bond-servant of Christ” (Galatians 1:10).

A leader who wants to be respected can afford flattery no more than he can deception. As someone once said, “I don’t know the secret of success, but I do know the secret of failure–try to please everybody!”

No successful leader maintains the respect of others with out making decisions that inevitable prove unpopular.

How hard it can be to push forward with that decision that God wants us to make. We know that it will be unpopular with some. God knows that. What we can’t see is the future and this decision needs to be made so that the future can unfold in an amazing way that is beyond our hopes and dreams. God is with you and let Him give you the strength during this hour.

Galatians 1:11,12

For I would have you know, brothers, that the gospel that was preached by me is not man’s gospel. For I did not receive it from any man, nor was I taught it, but I received it through a revelation of Jesus Christ.

Jennifer Van Allen

www.theprodigalpig.com

www.faithincounseling.org

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Escape

Posted on January 6, 2016 by Jennifer Van Allen

Me: Howdy Prodigal, Where are you going?

Prodigal: Life is difficult at the moment and I think I am just going to escape for a while.

Me: Prodigal, before you leave let me try to encourage you with something I read in the book called Lessons I Learned in the Dark Steps To Walking By Faith, not by Sight by Jennifer Rothschild

We often think that faith is a recipe for getting what we want from God. If that were true, it would mean that if I could just muster enough faith, I would no longer be blind. But faith is not meant to offer an escape from life’s difficulties; its purpose is to give us strength to endure them. God allows hardship because of His great mercy and love for us, and He often removes it for the same reason. However, we should not thank Him more fervently on the day our difficult gift is removed than we do on the days we carry it. It takes just as much faith to bear a burden as it does to believe that it can be removed.

Your faith shows itself in a response of thankfulness in all circumstances. Bitterness never kneels at God’s throne; it just shakes an angry fist. Gratitude, however, like the lone leper, throws itself before Christ. When you smash the last brick of your wall of bitterness with the hammer of gratitude, you will hear the echo of the words Jesus spoke to the leper: Your faith has made you well” (Luke 17:19)

I am walking in faith beside you. God is walking with you too!

You are worthy, our Lord and God, to receive glory and honor and power, for you created all things, and by your will they were created and have their being.

Revelation 4:11

Jennifer Van Allen

www.theprodigalpig.com

www.faithincounseling.org

Leading the Way

Posted on January 4, 2016 by Jennifer Van Allen

Me: PRODIGAL…..PRODIGAL….

Prodigal: Sorry, I thought you were right behind me.

Me: I was but you got further away from me because you were going to fast.

Prodigal: Sorry I just trying to lead the way.

Me: Well lets take a break first before we continue and I can share something about leading the way from Chuck Swindoll in his book Start Where You Are.

Leaders with power and brains are common. So are leaders with riches and popularity. But a competent leader full of integrity and skill, coupled with sincerity, is rare indeed.

Deception creates suspicion. Once the leader’s followers begin to suspect motives or find that what is said publicly is denied privately, the thin wire of respect that holds everything in place snaps. Confidence drains away.

The late President Dwight Eisenhower stated his opinion with dogmatism: “The supreme quality for a leader is unquestionably integrity. Without it, no real success is possible, no matter whether it is a section gang, on a football field, in an army, or in an office. If his associates find him guilty of phoniness, if they find that he lacks forthright integrity, he will fail. His teachings and actions must square with each other. The first great need, therefore, is integrity and high purpose.

I know and follow competent leaders and really respect them. Thank you for your integrity! It is a breath of fresh air!

1 Thessalonians 2:4-5

But just as we have been approved by God to be entrusted with the gospel, so we speak, not as pleasing men but God, who examines our hearts. For we never came with flattering speech, as you know.

Jennifer Van Allen

www.theprodigalpig.com

www.faithincounseling.org

What We Cherish Most

Posted on January 2, 2016 by Jennifer Van Allen

Prodigal: You want to help me feed the ducks?

Me: Sure, that would be fun!

Prodigal: What have you been reading lately?

The book Beyond OurSelves by Catherine Marshall

For I have always felt that God is not half so concerned about our having a few negative thoughts as He is concerned with what we do. And the act of placing what we cherish most in His hands is to Him the sweet music of the essence of faith. This kind of faith can be used to solve any type of problem.

When we hold on tight to anything of this world then we lose our joy and our focus. Our thoughts and behaviors become obsessed with that object. We forget the joy of just being alive and knowing Jesus. We are so scared then to release that to God. Yet after we do release this to God then he has a way of changing everything and we then are able to see how MUCH God really does love us!

2 Chronicles 7:14

If my people who are called by my name humble themselves, and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and heal their land.

Jennifer Van Allen

www.theprodigalpig.com

www.faithincounseling.org

Something For Nothing

Posted on January 1, 2016 by Jennifer Van Allen

Me: What are you doing here by this building with nothing in it?

Prodigal: Even though there is nothing here, I can’t help but to dream that it will be something.

Me: Now, Prodigal you are starting to sound a little like C.S. Lewis

C.S. Lewis writes

Christ offers, something for nothing; He even offers everything for nothing. In a sense, the whole Christian life consists in accepting that very remarkable offer. But the difficulty is to reach the point of recognizing that all we have done and can do is nothing.

Is this statement depressing to you because you can not earn YOUR: salvation, promotion, relationships, ministry.

Is this statement full of hope and freedom because GOD has given you: salvation, promotion, relationships, ministry because GOD wants to show you LOVE.

Psalm 62:8

Trust in him at all times, O people; pour our your hearts to him, for God is our refuge.

Jennifer Van Allen

www.theprodigalpig.com

www.faithincounseling.org