Ken Pierpont's Blog, page 110

Delight in Jesus

Every day in which I do not delight in Jesus is a waste–worse, it is a scandal, a tragedy, a perversion of God’s beautiful design for life.

When I don’t delight in Jesus my life is distorted, I am in danger and vulnerable to temptation and confusion. I’m like a fish on the bank in a desperate struggle for life.

-Ken Pierpont

A Week on Lincoln Lake

This morning I am writing in a lodge overlooking a large quiet lake about an hour northeast of Grand Rapids, Michigan. Jim Lockwood is the director here. Tom Shaw is the director of operations. Micah Steiner is the director of ministries. Joel Schmuland is the program director.

Forty-eight years ago I spent a week here as an eight-year-old camper, now I have been invited back to speak. At Lincoln Lake the cabins are clustered together along a hillside overlooking the lake in a grove of towering white pines. Today the breeze is coming off the lake, the sky is blue, and the humidity and temperature are perfect. When the summer sky is clear and the humidity is low the water is a deep shade of blue that has a calming effect on my spirit.

I just walked outside and Joel gestured overhead. A huge bald eagle was soaring high overhead. He drifted out over the lake and plunged down to the water after his prey. The Loons are calling right now and have been most of the week.

Tomorrow night I will drive away. On my way home the sun will set and the moon will rise full. My heart will be full, too, with the memory of two strait weeks of ministry to young people. God has given me the desire of my heart to preach. In a kind providence He has assigned me to this beautiful peninsula called Michigan.

Sunday I will be back in the Evangel Pulpit and resume my duties as a pastor to the flock God has entrusted to my care. I’ll sleep in my own bed, eat familiar food, and be reunited with Lois. I’ll not forget the color of the water, the sound of the Loons, the fragrance of a wood fire, or the quiet that settles over the chapel at night when we descend into what I call “the storyteller’s moment” and we entrust to yet another generation the story that has changed all our lives.

Speaking at Lincoln Lake

This is where I started camping when I was eight years old… This week I am speaking to a great group of 150 Junior Campers! They are a lively but attentive bunch. Please pray if you think of us. Pray that I will make the gospel clear to their little hearts and that God will do in them what he did in the heart of my mother when she started following Jesus almost 70 years ago! Little children are capable of genuine faith.

There are Loons nesting on Lincoln Lake this summer. Joel, one of the staff, said he witnessed a Bald Eagle snatching a baby Loon from his family… That would have been a little hard to watch, but as they say, you never loose your place in the food chain.

Last night I got to visit Kyle and Elizabeth, treat Kyle, Oliver and Leland to ice cream and tell them a couple stories before bedtime. When Oliver prayed he said, “Lord, don’t let anyone on the neighborhood get hurt of have a heart attack.” None of us will ever forget our “Uncle Bobby” Dunbar, who went to be with the Lord last February 1. He spent the last beat of his heart getting his family to worship that day.

Where God Has Blessed; Story Podcast #32 (Special Edition)

http://kenpierpont.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/07/2015-07-26-Where-God-Has-Blessed.mp3
Subscribe to the Ken Pierpont Storytelling Podcast

Storytelling Podcast RSS Feed

Storytelling Podcast in iTunes

Stay Close; Story Podcast #31

http://kenpierpont.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/07/2015-07-27-Stay-Close.mp3
Subscribe to the Ken Pierpont Storytelling Podcast

Storytelling Podcast RSS Feed

Storytelling Podcast in iTunes

Five Ways to War Against Sin

On Sunday evening, July 20, 2015 I gathered some ideas that have been helpful to me in my struggle against my own sin and shared them with Evangel. Here they are for you. I hope they are a help as you struggle against “…the lusts which wage war against the soul…”

Five Ways to War Against Sin

Yoder, the Amish Beagle; Story Podcast #30

http://kenpierpont.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/07/2015-07-20-Yoder-the-Amish-Beagle.mp3
Subscribe to the Ken Pierpont Storytelling Podcast

Storytelling Podcast RSS Feed

Storytelling Podcast in iTunes

Thinking Clearly About Grace

Here is an excerpt from my little .99 e-book Sacred Stories and Strong Families.

One of the things that makes raising sons and daughters in our age so dangerous and so difficult is that we live in a time of apostasy in our nation. The drift from God is so dangerous it is like a rip-tide of evil that pulls the young and the weak to their death. As always there is a theology behind this. It is a theology that redefines grace. You can read this theology in the popular evangelical writing of our time. You can hear it from the popular pulpit. It is the theme of our song, literally. Much of the Christian products packaged and sold to our children lack an accurate definition of grace. The grace we often hear about from the popular pulpit, the evangelical press, and in the watery lyrics of popular evangelical music is little more than a license to sin and it masquerades as “freedom in Christ.”

This should not surprise us. We were warned that we would have to contend earnestly for the faith because people would come into the church to subtly re-define grace as a license for sensuality. Here is how Jude put it: I found it necessary to write appealing to you to contend for the faith that was once delivered to the saints. For certain people have crept in unnoticed who long ago were designated for this condemnation, ungodly people, who pervert the grace of our God into sensuality… (Jude 4 ESV)

Paul and Peter also warned of the same thing. Paul devoted the whole sixth chapter of Romans to it: “Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound? God forbid.” (Romans 6:1ff; 21-23; 7:4-5) He warned the Galatians about it too. “For, brethren, ye have been called unto liberty; only use not liberty for an occasion to the flesh, but by love serve one another.” (Galatians 5:13) Peter was careful to warn that we do not have freedom in Christ to sin. “Live as people who are free, not using your freedom as a cover-up for evil, but living as servants of God.” (I Peter 2:16)

These men who walked with God warned that freedom is Christ is not freedom TO sin. Freedom in Christ is freedom FROM sin. Our children need to have a clear understanding of grace. If they listen to the weak theology of the popular church they will slowly poison themselves with error. They will come to believe that holiness is legalism. They need to understand grace so they will not consider holiness legalism or legalism holiness. (Romans 1:28-32; James 4:4)

Legalism and Licence in Romans 6-8

To abuse grace with sensual indulgence is sin. That is the danger Paul is discussing in Romans 6. To abuse the law by teaching that holiness is achieved through human effort and carnal struggle is another form of error. That is the danger Paul is treating in Romans 7. Our children need to have a right understanding of grace and experience freedom from the condemnation of sin, freedom from the domination of sin and the freedom of walking in the power of the Holy Spirit. That is what Paul is talking about in Romans 8.

Grace, rightly understood should be our theme and our anthem. Our children should drink deep at the fountain of grace. They should be taught to embrace but not to abuse grace. How can we make this vital truth clear to them?

(get the book to read the rest. It is free for Amazon Prime subscribers and only .99 for everyone else…

How To Have A Quiet Heart (Psalm 131)