Ken Pierpont's Blog, page 113
June 8, 2015
We Are Weak But He is Strong (Sermon)
Series: Knowing God by Heart
Title: We Are Weak But He is Strong
Text: 2 Corinthians 12:7-10
Speaker: Ken Pierpont
Place: Evangel Baptist Church-Taylor, Michigan
June 6, 2015
Madison, Georgia; Story Podcast #25
http://kenpierpont.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/05/2015-06-06-Madison-Georgia.mp3
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June 2, 2015
June 1, 2015
My Heart’s Silent Song
Every morning of my first 18 years of life I woke up to music—Christian music. Every morning. My mother, Jane Pierpont, awakened the house with a joyful song every single day. When I was about 12 I started delivering newspapers for the Dayton Journal-Herald at about 5 a.m. six days a week so the music started as soon as mom got up—but Mom saturated our home with edifying Christian music. When I was small mom would put is in bed and then, often, play the piano softly while we went to sleep.
Mom loves to sing and signs all her notes; “Singing His Praise.” Everyone who knows mom knows she loves to sing for the Lord. It’s not about music to her but about ministry and about making known her love for the Lord. When we would travel she would always be sure to bring music with her because she was often asked to sing at the churches we visited. When someone asked her to sing she would send one of us back out to the car to get an old Avon bag she used to carry her music and she would sing.
Whenever our family had a difficulty or a hardship she seemed to have a song for the occasion. Usually she would just sing a few bars of the song and we would all drawn back to what we professed to believe. “…lovingkindness, lovingkindness, my heart is filled with lovingkindness…” or “…with Christ in the vessel we can smile at the storm…” or “…be like Jesus this my song, in the home and in the throng, be like Jesus all day long….”
Saturday nights mom would always practice her music for Church, often preparing a solo that would go with Dad’s message. She loves to sing His praise.
For that reason it was a sad to hear a couple years ago when she began to lose her singing voice. Today she can only sing a few minutes and then she is reduced to a barely audible whisper. She can’t sing in church anymore. She can’t sing around the house.
Dad and mom serve a church in south-central Michigan in a place called South Litchfield. The church is South Litchfield Baptist Church. It is an idyllic white clapboard country church with a parsonage next door, perfect for them. They work hard and faithfully shepherd the flock there. Mom really doesn’t have the health and strength to do all that she would like to do. She is able to contribute regularly to her blog. Every week she publishes a little devotional that she uses in church each Sunday morning. This week she published a little poem about her determination to be faithful in praise even though she can’t sing anymore and she can’t do what she would like to do to serve the Lord. When she wrote the poem, her son Nathan (the youngest and a pastor in Kalamazoo, Michigan) immediately went to his piano and wrote a melody.
Here is what Nathan wrote about the little song:
“After reading mom’s poem today, I sat down to the piano to play some music that seemed to fit the poem. It didn’t take long to realize a melody could fit the words and make it a song. Though it seemed it should be heard in a woman’s voice, I decided to record it so that my mom could hear how I put our her words to music. This is the song. I can’t believe mom and I haven’t collaborated on a song before. Maybe we should do more, and maybe her song is not silent alter all. Her song continues in the voices of her children and many grandchildren who share her passion for the Lord’s work.”
After listening to Nathan’s song, with tears streaming down my face, I quietly determined by the grace and with the help of God that I, too, would praise Him with all my heart at every opportunity as long as He choses to allow me to have a voice to sing.
He has given you a voice. Even if you can’t sing, will you praise Him?
You can listen to the song here:
http://kenpierpont.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/06/My-Hearts-Silent-Song-of-Praise-Take-2-1.mp3
Ken Pierpont—Singing His Praise
Granville Cottage
Riverview, Michigan
June 1, 2015
Two for a Penny and Five for Two (Sermon)
Series: Knowing God by Heart
Title: Two for a Penny and Five for Two
Place: Evangel Baptist Church–Taylor, Michigan
Text: Psalm 139:1-6
Date: May 31, 2015 AM
Speaker: Pastor Ken Pierpont
May 30, 2015
May 25, 2015
Thank You, Jim Parmalee
Thanks to Jim Evans for snapping this recent photo of the original FBC Wayland building. I helped build this building with my own hands–when I was six.
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Lois and Hope and I are in Oregon visiting Jesse and Holly this week on a vacation. We have seen many of the local sites, Cannon Beech, Haystack Rock, the Astoria Column, Mt. Hood, and Multnomah Falls. There is much, much more to see. Our first morning we had breakfast at a coffee shop built out on an old cannery built on pilings over the Columbia River. We sipped our coffee and ate amazing lemon and blueberry muffins overlooking the vast waterway. Out in the mouth of the Columbia River huge ships were at anchor. It is a place of stunning beauty.
Yesterday we enjoyed a great service at Coastline Christian Fellowship then strolled along the streets of Astoria’s Sunday open-air market among sounds of a folk band and smells of street-vendor food. Today we are spending time with Jesse and Holly and some of their friends, quietly remembering the war dead, and longing for our nation to return to God.
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Thank You, Jim Parmalee
by Ken Pierpont
Jim Parmalee was a Marine ROTC from Wheaton College. He was a farm boy from Michigan. When I was a boy of about 6 years old. He and his family owned the house we lived in. It was the home-place of their family farm. They donated it to the church to use as a parsonage. The lived just down the road and we saw them every day and worshipped with them on Sunday. My Dad was the founding pastor of the church First Baptist Church of Wayland, Michigan.
Jim was a strong, athletic young man. I remember him leaning a ladder against a shed and going up and down the ladder like it was a staircase without using his hands. In my six-year-old eyes he was a young man of heroic qualities. In just a short time he would be a hero to everyone. He went off to Vietnam. He never returned.
One day Dad was walking me through the church building and pointed out the new carpet. He said; “Kenny, when Jim Parmalee died his parents used the insurance money to donate the carpet for the church. That was in 1963. My Dad told me it was anonymous. Jim’s dad, Russell died last year at 102. Today is Memorial Day. I thought it would be O.K. to tell our secret today.
I’m remembering First Baptist Church in Wayland, Michigan and the Parmalee family and the sacrifice Jim made so that we could enjoy a strong, free nation today.
Ken Pierpont
“Seaside Bed and Breakfast”
Seaside, Oregon
May 25, 2015
May 22, 2015
May 19, 2015
The Two Peninsulas
Adam in Florida
My friend Adam has moved to Miami, Florida. He had his devotional time on the beach at sunrise this morning. He grabbed his phone and shot a video of the sand and water and palms bending in the gentle breeze to send to his wife. It was a beautiful scene. He knew I loved nature and beauty and he knew I was praying for him as he tries to get a foothold in Florida and he sent me a copy of the video including a close up of his Bible and a promise underlined there from Proverbs 13:4 “A sluggard craves and gets nothing, but the desires of the diligent are fully satisfied.” I will follow his story with interest as he does what he has to do to make his vision for his family come to be. He will have some hard days ahead. I hope he also has time to walk the beach at sunrise and know that his Heavenly Father watches over him and he keeps his promises.
I walk out into an unusually cool May morning here in Michigan—the other Peninsula. As beautiful as his video is—from May to October, Michigan is my favorite peninsula. It’s refreshing and rarely so hot that by evening you cannot stroll out on the street with a glass of tea and chat with neighbors. I will have a few chances this summer to have my devotional time watching the sun come up over a northern lake. If all goes well I may even get to hear the call of the Loon on a summer evening or watch the stars appear in a darkening sky. I will knife through the clear waters in a kayak and in the evening I will aim all my stories at the great story of Christ and his plan to redeem and restore this earth and everything in it and all who believe in Him one day.
This morning, after many years of walking with the Lord and many years of trying to write a beautiful story for my family I especially need the assurance of his presence and a fresh reminder of his promises. I step out onto the porch. It’s a cool, green, refreshing May morning. I turn to the 19th Psalm and to the Proverbs. I drink in his promises. I trust Him to do what only He can do. He is the Author of Life (Acts 3:15) the Author and Finisher of our faith (Hebrews 12:2) and the faith of each of our children.
When I face hard challenges, when I am wrestling against dark powers that threaten to crush me and those I love, I get up early, I find a quiet spot, I search His word for his promises, and I trust Him to do what only He can do. And it doesn’t hurt if I’m doing all this with a cup of hot black coffee in hand.
Ken Pierpont
Granville Cottage
Riverview, Michigan
May 19, 2015
