{"id":521,"date":"2015-04-23T14:46:54","date_gmt":"2015-04-23T14:46:54","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.theprodigalpig.com\/?p=521"},"modified":"2015-04-10T15:27:48","modified_gmt":"2015-04-10T15:27:48","slug":"celebrity-or-friend","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.theprodigalpig.com\/?p=521","title":{"rendered":"Celebrity or Friend"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"24\"<\/a><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Me:\u00a0 Prodigal, who are you with today?<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Prodigal:\u00a0 Mr.Lizard, he is a celebrity here on the beach.\u00a0 All the animals know him.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Me:\u00a0 How did you meet him then.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Prodigal:\u00a0 I was walking the beach and just ran into him and had to say hello.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Me: Meeting a celebrity, imagine that.\u00a0 That does lead me to the story today.\u00a0 I will tell it to both of you.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Tommy Tenney in the book the God Chasers.\u00a0 Talks about our relationship with God.\u00a0 I liked how he explained it compared to our culture today.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

You can know all about presidents, royalties, and celebrities; you can know their eating habits, address, and marital status.\u00a0 But knowing about them doesn’t imply intimacy.\u00a0 That doesn’t mean you know them.\u00a0 In this information age, with tidbits of gossip passed from mouth to mouth, from paper to paper, and from person to person, it’s possible to traffic in facts about someone without knowing him personally.\u00a0 Were you to overhear two people conversing about the latest calamity befalling some celebrity, or the latest victory he experienced, you might be led to think that they know that individual, when really all they know is facts about him!\u00a0 For too long the Church has been only conversant in the things of God.\u00a0 We talk techniques, but we don’t talk with Him.\u00a0 That’s the difference between knowing someone and knowing about him.\u00a0 Presidents, royalties, and celebrities-I may know many facts about them, but I don’t really know them.\u00a0 If I ever met them in person, they would have to be introduced to me because mere knowledge about a person is not the same as an intimate friendship.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Have you ever had a close relationship or a close friendship where you could feel that they knew you?\u00a0 Think of them now.\u00a0 What made it special?\u00a0 Was it that they knew you loved sports and you bake and whatever else you want to add in there.\u00a0 That might have been part of it but there is more.\u00a0 A lot of people know I like sports and that I love to bake.\u00a0 They don’t have an intimate friendship with me though.\u00a0 So what is that difference?<\/p>\n

Spending time with each other of course.\u00a0 I would like to add more though.\u00a0 I think that\u00a0the close intimacy in that relationship\u00a0wants to encourage you with a closer relationship with God and given you freedom to walk your own walk.\u00a0 See we can encourage that closer relationship but can sound like a list of to do’s and don’ts and\u00a0no intimacy is present.<\/p>\n

I have relationships where I see they encourage me through prayers and words and just being there.\u00a0 I feel a\u00a0genuine love behind their actions.\u00a0 I value this so much.\u00a0 So if little ole me could figure out if you have genuine love behind your actions, could God do the same?\u00a0 If people are encouraging me, could God do the same for you?\u00a0 Is God raging with anger if He knows you only have facts versus an intimacy with Him or is He ever so softly calling your name.\u00a0 God has known all along.\u00a0 He is not rejecting you because of it, he is just patiently waiting.<\/p>\n

Psalm 139:1-5<\/p>\n

O Lord, you have searched me and known me! You know when I sit down and when I rise up; you discern my thoughts from afar.\u00a0 You search out my path and my lying down and are acquainted with all my ways.\u00a0 Even before a word is on my tongue, behold, O Lord, you know it altogether.\u00a0 You hem me in, behind and before, and lay your hand upon me.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Jennifer Van Allen<\/p>\n

www.theprodigalpig.com<\/p>\n

www.faithincounseling.org<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

  Me:\u00a0 Prodigal, who are you with today?   Prodigal:\u00a0 Mr.Lizard, he is a celebrity here on the beach.\u00a0 All the animals know him.   Me:\u00a0 How did you meet him then.   Prodigal:\u00a0 I was walking the beach and just ran into him and had to say hello.   Me: Meeting a celebrity, imagine … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-521","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\nCelebrity or Friend - The Prodigal Pig<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"http:\/\/www.theprodigalpig.com\/?p=521\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Celebrity or Friend - 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