Ken Pierpont's Blog, page 108
September 23, 2015
Good Morning, Autumn
It’s the first day of fall.
Soon the furnace will kick on.
Men and beasts who can will flee away to warmer places.
Biting wind and numbing cold, ice and sleet and snow will turn a simple commute to work into a struggle for our very survival.
After a brief cheery holiday season we will descend into darkness and cold and we will not emerge until we find ourselves begging on our knees for sun and warmth and spring.
The roads will freeze and thaw and break into pieces and remind us of a bombed-out war zone.
All this and more we have to look forward to as the earth tilts a bit for it’s annual journey around the backside of the sun… It’s all true.
But I will not join the cynics and the skeptics and the “glass-half empty” people who miss the beauty and glory of autumn with all their hand-wringing and belly-aching about winter.
I will not join their groaning, moaning death-rattle, but I will lift my voice every glorious autumn morning in praise that rises out of the deepest part of my grateful heart.
Today along the ground the first yellow locusts leaves were blowing in their happy autumn dance and I joined them in my heart. Soon the Maples will flame red and glow orange and irradiate yellow turning the whole horizon into a palate of color against the October-blue sky. The Oaks will follow modestly-the last act of the autumn show in gold and rust and brown November and when autumn exits I will be thankful.
Good Morning Autumn. It’s nice to have you here again this year. I always look forward to everything about you. Let’s put a log on the fire and have some cider and talk about anything but winter right now.
Ken Pierpont
Granville Cottage-Riverview, Michigan
September 23, 2015 -The First Day of Autumn
September 18, 2015
FAQ on Things to Come
Message 1. Why Study Prophecy?
Message 2. The Rapture of the Church
Message 3. The Judgement Seat of Christ.
Message 4. Crowns for His Feet
Message 5. Tree Forts and Starlight
Message 6.The Tribulation
Message 7. The Second-Coming of Christ
Message 8. The Millennium
Message 9. The Resurrections and Judgements
Message 10. The Eternal State of the Unbeliever
Message 11. The Eternal State of the Believer
Message 12. More On The New Heavens and the New Earth.
September 16, 2015
Seven Ways to Recognize the Voice of God (Sermon)
God is continually speaking, continually communicating. One of His names is Word. I believe if we would cultivate the habit of listening, we would have a more intimate and practically exciting walk with the Lord. In this message I start with a remarkable story about God guiding a man on the ALCAN Highway. Enjoy.
Ways to Deepen Your Prayer Life (Sermon)
On a Sunday night in August I preached to the folk at Evangel about ways to increase and deepen their prayer experience. It was just a series of practical ideas. I hope you find them helpful. I would love to get your feedback.
As the days pass and we move into the season of autumn and then deeper toward harvest I think of the great Day of Harvest to come when we will so long to see fruit from our labor. If we could see the importance of prayer from the perspective of eternity, it would change the way we live and think.
Are You Devoted to Prayer? (Sermon)
Last month I was out on the porch after the Sunday evening service just listening to the night sounds and thinking about the day. God began to work in my heart in a very powerful way. The next Sunday I aimed my message at what God was showing me. Many who have listened to the message have told me that God was leading them in the same way. I have a very strong sense the God is doing something.
Just a few weeks after this message the War Room movie came out. God is stirring our hearts to pray in a new and fresh way and it is changing our lives and changing Evangel. Here are is the message that many have said was very helpful to them. I’d love to have your feedback on it.
September 8, 2015
How Mountain Girls Can Love
36 years ago I drove away from a little church in Ypsilanti with this little dark-eyed beauty in my car. That Saturday night we had no way of knowing the blessed life we would have. Four sons. Four daughters. Five grandchildren and counting.
We served churches in Ohio, Michigan, and Illinois. She has been a faithful ministry companion, her heart true to her Lord. She is a woman of simple and sincere faith. She is truly a God-fearing woman.
She is the most loyal person I know. She is not afraid to tell me what she thinks I need to know, but she will come to my side in an instant if anyone means me harm.
She quietly bore, nurtured, fed, bathed, nursed, clothed, taught, trained, prayed, wept-with, comforted, rebuked, disciplined, each of the children with selfless devotion 24 hours a day, seven days a week. If people didn’t understand or agree it did not phase her or discourage her from fulfilling her duties.
Every Sunday morning of our lives together I drove away from the house alone while it was still dark. When I rose to preach, she would be sitting there with the whole beautiful, scrubbed, well-behaved clan on the second row, baby included giving powerful, silent support to the Gospel I preached. You should have seen them on Easter Sundays.
She worked hard constantly six days a week to earn extra money to pay the bills. She was content with simple things, het tiny diamond, an occasional trip to Walmart and Burger King. She made the girls clothes. She nursed each baby until the next one came.
She taught me to she her love for Bluegrass and Kentucky. She shares everything. She will never let me go hungry.
That Saturday night thirty-six years ago I had no idea the gift God had bestowed upon me. I just thought I had found a pretty Christian girl to marry.
We married like the forging of two great rivers. We needed all the help we could get. We had to cling to Christ and our convictions, but God has been faithful.
I love her today with a deep and seasoned love you could never have until you fought, prayed, dreamed, argued, sang, journeyed, saved, spent, worked, played, failed, forgave, and started-over with a thousand times. God must have had a tear in the corner of his eye when He gave this girl to me.
How mountain girls can love… Happy Anniversary Lois Pierpont. I love you Lois Gail. I will love you to the last beat of my heart.
War Room: Another Poorly-Rated Christian Movie
What makes a Christian movie good? Critics don’t think War Room was a good movie. Here are some reviewers comments:
“But much of what follows is turgid and, for non-believers, ridiculous…”
“Badly-acted, poorly written, a hackneyed sermon that (barely) preaches to the choir.”
“It’s not so much the plot or themes of the film that’s the problem as the ham-fisted execution.”
Here is what USA Today’s movie reviewer wrote about War Room: War’s box-office might is made all the more impressive by the fact that it includes no stars and received a weak critical reception (just 36% positive reviews on Rotten Tomatoes, compared to a striking 91% approval rating from audiences.)
What makes a Christian movie good?
Is a movie good if secular critics give it good critical reviews? Often reviewers or critics are enemies of God and of the things of God. Of course they would not give a godly movie a good review. They would either oppose it or simply not get it, because to get it would require spiritual discernment. Some will “see it” only when the light of the Spirit goes on in their souls.
Some are people who think the movie misses their criterion for critical commendation. But for centuries songs or books or movies not considered worthy by the “critics” have done much enduring good long years after the critics have come and gone and the industry has changed it’s criterion for evaluation.
I don’t recommend the movie Napoleon Dynamite but due to pressure from unnamed family members I watched the movie. It’s just mildly-entertaining bizarre foolishness. Nothing about it was inspiring or edifying or meaningful. Out of curiosity I looked it up on Rotten Tomatoes. The “critics” said it was a “…charming, quirky, and often funny comedy.” Rotten Tomatoes gave it a high rating of 71% but War Room was rated 36%. I think we should evaluate the critics not listen to the critics evaluate the movies.
Is a movie good because believers think it matches the quality of popular films? Others who criticize movies like War Room are believers who like to think of themselves as too culturally sophisticated for such drivel. They are embarrassed by these movies. They want unbelievers to think highly of them. I also know many Christians who have little or no discernment in their movie choices regularly watching and defending movies with very godless content. But was War Room a good movie? That depends on your criterion for judgment.
I recently read a blog post mocking Christian movies, specifically A Thief in the Night. In the post the author mentioned thousands were saved after watching the move, sarcastically tagging “some for the first time,” as if their conversion may not have been genuine. I can say the same for some of “my professions of faith” and I know the blogger to be an honest man. He would quickly say the same for his, and that does not make him stop doing what he does and it shouldn’t. I personally know many who were genuinely and sincerely saved watching movies that I would be embarrassed to recommend in these days of cinematic sophistication, but the people, including my own wife were soundly and eternally saved, not because the movie was cool, but because the Gospel is powerful–even if it is sometimes preached in an unsophisticated way.
Is a movie good when it makes lots of money? Making a lot of money does not necessarily make a movie good. Making lots of money is not universally good. It depends if it is honorably made and honorably used. A movie that makes lots of money stirring people to do things that are morally bad cannot be considered a good movie by good people. It won’t be judged ultimately as good by a good God.
What if it’s critical ratings are very low? If a the critical ratings of a movie are low that does not necessarily mean it is a bad movie. Many songs and books and movies endure to good and useful effect that never achieve any critical acclaim. If millions of people were to buy my books and be moved God-ward I would not care for a moment if I ever achieved any critical success. Why should that matter at all?
Since this is my blog, let me tell you what makes a good movie a good movie. Wouldn’t virtue have to be seen as virtuous for a movie to be “good” in the truest and most primal sense? It would have to extol what is good and do it well.
Here’s what I would tell you. War Room touched my heart. War Room stirred me to prayer and holy living. I left the theatre determined to pray more faithfully for those I love. At the end of the day those are good things. Therefore War Room was a good movie, good in the most important sense of the word. If at the end of the day I pillow my head with pure and godly thoughts, if I am stirred up to love and good deeds, why does it matter that unregenerate men and women, who often heap praise on movies that glorify godless things, don’t speak highly of it? It’s an honor to win their aspersions. If a movie makes me a better husband, a better dad, a better citizen, a better pastor, then I say it was a good move. War Room inspired me to raise up a powerfully praying church. War Room was a very good movie.
Ken Pierpont
Granville Cottage
Riverview, Michigan
September 8, 2015
September 2, 2015
The Meaning of Dreams
Jesus promised His followers that when he ascended the Holy Spirit would come and indwell each of us. He said the Holy Spirit would bring things to our memory. This is recorded in John 14:26. Sometimes that happens in our sleep, in dreams. I’m always especially sensitive to my dreams. In Scripture God often used dreams to communicate with people. Sometimes it’s clear to me that God is communicating a warning to me in my sleep. Other times I have dreams that comfort or encourage me. I have often had whole messages–sermons come to me in a dream. Other times I can make absolutely no sense whatever of my dreams.
Last night I dreamed that I was back at Moody. We were singing “Great is Thy Faithfulness” like we often did at Moody. I had an overwhelming sense of the goodness of God and his faithful provision. I just lifted my voice with the other students and I sang with all my heart. “All….. I…… have…. needed, Thy hand has provided…. Great…. is…. Thy…. faithfulness, Lord unto me….”
When I was a student years ago at Moody and I sang that beautiful song, I had no idea how true it would be for me. Provision was a major area of concern for me when I was a student and it has been a major area of concern for me all through my life, but I can sing now with greater joy and conviction than I did then, “All I have needed Thy hand has provided. Great is Thy faithfulness Lord, unto me.”
