God Is Your Home

Posted on July 30, 2022 by Jennifer Van Allen

Prodigal: I’m plum tired.

Me: We need rest at times, and a break. Maybe this will be a good one for you.

This is from the book Let The Journey Begin by Max Lucado

Don’t think you are separated from God, he at the top end of a great ladder, you at the other. Dismiss any thoughts that God is on Venus while you are on earth. Since God is Spirit (John 4:23), he is next to you: God himself is our roof. God himself is our wall. And God himself is our foundation.

Moses knew this. “Lord,” he prayed, “you have been our home since the beginning” (Ps 90:1). What a powerful thought: God as your home. Your home is the place where you can kick off your shoes and eat pickles and crackers and not worry about what people think when they see you in your bathrobe.

Your home is familiar to you. No one has to tell you how to locate your bedroom; you don’t need directions to the kitchen. After a hard day scrambling to find your way around in the world, it’s assuring to come home to a place you know. God can be equally familiar to you. With time you can learn where to go for nourishment, where to hide for protection, where to turn for guidance. Just as your earthly house is a place of refuge, so God’s house is a place of peace. God’s house has never been plundered, his walls have never been breached.

Proverbs 15:16

Better is a little with the fear of the LORD than great treasure and trouble with it.

Jennifer Van Allen

www.theprodigalpig.com

www.faithincounseling.org

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Women Lovin’ Jesus

Posted on July 28, 2022 by Jennifer Van Allen

Prodigal: Why in the world would you eat that?

Me: What is good to me, might not be good to you. It is ok though. We can make it work.

This is a short video devotion.

click here to watch the video

Proverbs 8:35

For whoever find me finds life, and obtains favor from the LORD; (NKJV)

Jennifer Van Allen

www.theprodigalpig.com

www.faithincounseling.org

A Prayer

Posted on July 26, 2022 by Jennifer Van Allen

Prodigal: It is so quiet you can hear a pin drop.

Me: Good time to seek the Lord in prayer.

This is from Out Live Your Life by Max Lucado

Father, you have used all types of people for your holy purposes: prostitutes, murderers, persecutors, liars, thieves, swindlers, the illiterate, the blind, the lame. Grant me the grace to treat everyone I meet as someone for whom Jesus died and rose again. Let there be no unwholesome or unholy distinctions in my eyes and no unworthy favoritism in my actions. Rather, make me into a vessel through whom Jesus shines. In Christ’s name I pray. amen.

You are worthy to take the scroll and to open its seal, because you were slain, and with your blood you purchased men for God from every tribe and language and people and nation.

Revelation 5:9

Jennifer Van Allen

www.theprodigalpig.com

www.faithincounseling.org

When The Lights Came On

Posted on July 24, 2022 by Jennifer Van Allen

Prodigal: I needed some light so I turned this on.

Me: I have a story about someone else needing some light.

This is from Franklin Graham

In 1971, as a newly licensed pilot, I was flying with my flight instructor from Vero Beach, Florida, to Longview, Texas. That night, we hit bad weather over Mobile, Alabama, and air-traffic controllers suggested we fly north toward Jackson, Mississippi, to avoid an approaching storm.

As we rose above the clouds, I noticed the instrument panel lights flicker. A minute later, radios and instruments started going dead; then all our lights went out. Our situation was desperate, and as we flew an emergency triangle, we prayed to God for His protection. We decided to drop below the clouds and try to see the ground. Soon we spotted the distant lights of Jackson and headed for the airport’s rotating beacon.

We circled the control tower twice, then got a green light to land. Without any electrical power, we had to lower the landing gear manually. At that moment, all the strobe landing lights came on and slowly, safely we touched ground.

Then the landing lights went off. That’s odd, I thought, at least they could have waited until we taxied to the ramp. It was even odder when a man from the tower asked us, “Who gave you permision to land?”

And then, little by little, we learned no one in the tower had seen us circling overhead. The green light had been flashed by a traffic controller who was explaining to his visiting pastor what he would do in a case a plane ever attempted to land without radio communication. The emergency landing lights were part of the same demonstration.

But the whole story can never be explained–just accepted with gratitude, as I strive to serve the Lord each new day.

Why, my soul, are you downcast?

Why so disturbed within me?

Put your hope in God,

for I will yet praise him,

my Savior and my God.

Psalm 42:11

Jennifer Van Allen

www.theprodigalpig.com

www.faithincounseling.org

Women Lovin’ Jesus

Posted on July 22, 2022 by Jennifer Van Allen

Me: Here is your guidance for today.

Prodigal: I’m ready for it.

Me: For a healthy heart, exercise your faith.

This is a short video devotion on Proverbs

click here to watch the video

Proverbs 8:34

Blessed is the one who listens to me, watching daily at my gates, waiting beside my doors. (ESV)

Jennifer Van Allen

www.theprodigalpig.com

www.faithincounseling.org

Faith Believes

Posted on July 20, 2022 by Jennifer Van Allen

Me: Well, golly you did find you some mushrooms!

Prodigal: It takes patiences sometimes.

This is from the book All of Grace by C.H. Spurgeon

Faith also believes that Christ will do what He has promised. Since He has promised to cast out none who come to Him (John 6:37), it is certain that He will not cast us out if we come to Him. Faith believes that since Jesus said, “The water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water springing up into everlasting life” (John 4:14), it must be true. Faith believes that if we get this living water from Christ, it will abide in us and will well up within us in streams of holy life. Whatever Christ has promised to do, He will do, and we must believe this in order to look for pardon, justification, preservation, and eternal glory from His hands, since He has promised them to believers in Him.

Then comes the next necessary step. Jesus is what He is said to be. Jesus will do what He says He will do. Therefore, we must each trust Him, saying, “He will be to me what He says He is, and He will do to me what He has promised to do. I leave myself in the hands of Him who is appointed to save, so that He may save me. I rest on His promise that He will do even as He has said.” This is saving faith, and he who has it has everlasting life. Whatever his dangers and difficulties, whatever his darkness and depression, whatever his infirmities and sins, he who believes thus on Christ Jesus is not condemned and will never come into condemnation.

Acts 4:10-12

Let is be known to all of you and to all the people of Israel that by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom you crucified, whom God raised from the dead-by him this man is standing before you well. This Jesus is the stone that was rejected by you, the builders, which has become the cornerstone. And there is no salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved.

Jennifer Van Allen

www.theprodigalpig.com

www.faithincounseling.org

What Good Will It Be for a Man

Posted on July 18, 2022 by Jennifer Van Allen

Me: You took off like two hound dogs backed into a porquipine.

Prodigal: I just wanted to get a closer look.

Me: Now that we are closer, let’s sit a spell.

This is from the book The Applause of Heaven by Max Lucado

An interesting story surrounded the burial of Roman emperor Charlemagne. Legend has it that he asked to be entombed sitting upright in his throne. He asked that his crown be placed on his head and his scepter in his hand. He requested that the royal cape be draped around his shoulders and an open book be placed in his lap.

That was A.D. 814. Nearly two hundred years later, Emperor Orthello determined to see if the burial request had been carried out. He allegedly sent a team of men to open the tomb and make a report. They found the body just as Charlemagne had requested. Only now, nearly two centuries later, the scene was gruesome. The crown was tilted, the mantle moth-eaten, the body disfigured. But open on the skeletal thighs was the book Charlemagne had requested–the Bible. One bony finger pointed to Matthew 16:26. “What good will if be for a man if he gains the whole world, yet forfeits his soul?”

Jennifer Van Allen

www.theprodigalpig.com

www.faithincounseling.org

Women Lovin’ Jesus

Posted on July 16, 2022 by Jennifer Van Allen

Me: We have a lot to be thankful for.

Prodigal: Yes, we do!

This is a short video devotion on Proverbs

click here to watch the video

Proverbs 8:33

Hear instruction, and be wise, and refuse it not. (KJV)

Jennifer Van Allen

www.theprodigalpig.com

www.faithincounseling.org

Apostle Paul

Posted on July 14, 2022 by Jennifer Van Allen

Prodigal: I am looking at my reflection in the water.

Me: What do you see?

Prodigal: I wonder what God sees in me.

Me: Good question.

This is from the book Vocabulary of Faith by Hampton Adams

The Apostle Paul discovered that faith brought into his life a power for righteousness that he had not had before. There was no such power that accompanied knowledge of the Law of Judaism. The Law was frustrating because it showed him what he ought to do but did not enable him to do it. Faith, however, opened his life to the Spirit of God which, working in him, made him feel that he could do all things through Christ who strengthened him.

Remember it starts with a humble approach. Seeking Christ and allowing Christ to help through the Holy Spirit. It does not start with pride and thinking you know all the answers. You don’t have to know all the details of the plan.

And thou shalt not glean thy vineyard, neither shalt thou gather every grape of thy vineyard; thou shalt leave them for the poor and stranger: I am the Lord your God.

Leviticus 19:10

Jennifer Van Allen

www.theprodigalpig.com

www.faithincounseling.org

Lukewarm Again

Posted on July 12, 2022 by Jennifer Van Allen

Prodigal: Sometimes we need different reminders.

Me: Yes, I agree.

Prodigal: This is what God is sharing today.

This is from the book Crazy Love by Francis Chan

LUKEWARM people are continually concerned with playing it safe; they are slaves to the god of control. This focus on safe living keeps them from sacrificing and risking for God.

“Command those who are rich in this present world not to be arrogant nor to put their hope in wealth, which is so uncertain, but to put their hope in God, who richly provides us with everything for our enjoyment. Command them to do good, to be rich in good deeds, and to be generous and willing to share (1 Tim. 6:17-18).

“Do not be afraid of those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Rather, be afraid of the One who can destroy both soul and body in hell. (Matt. 10:28)

Jennifer Van Allen

www.theprodigalpig.com

www.faithincounseling.org