Ken Pierpont's Blog, page 129

Pressed Clover-Audio

A couple years ago I began experimenting with a Podcast version of the Stonebridge Newsletter. Today I am re-posting my second experiment with it. On Saturday we will officially launch the podcast… and it will be weekly! Every week you will be able to enjoy and share a story right there wherever you are.

Subscribe to the Ken Pierpont Storytelling Podcast

Storytelling Podcast RSS Feed

Storytelling Podcast in iTunes

Storytelling Podcast (Number 2) Pressed Clover

A couple years ago I began experimenting with a Podcast version of the Stonebridge Newsletter. Today I am re-posting my second experiment with it. On Saturday we will officially launch the podcast… and it will be weekly! Every week you will be able to enjoy and share a story right there wherever you are.

Stonebridge Podcast (Number 2) Pressed Clover

A couple years ago I began experimenting with a Podcast version of the Stonebridge Newsletter. Today I am re-posting my second experiment with it. On Saturday we will officially launch the podcast… and it will be weekly! Every week you will be able to enjoy and share a story right there wherever you are.

My Faithful Witness in the Sky

This week I’m re-running a few posts from the past to stimulate your appetite for God’s creation.

This photo is by my friend Tim Rainey who knows I love the sight of the moon.

I just took Charles to work. It is about 32 degrees outside and clear, a beautiful morning. The sun is about to rise. In the west a full moon sets in the sky, a ring of haze around it, brilliantly reflecting the sun’s light. No wonder the Psalmist called the moon “…my faithful witness in the sky,” (Psalm 89:37) it has a special beauty this morning. It is beautiful and it is faithful, predictably obedient to the ordinances of God. I find myself praying; “Lord may I reflect your light into my dark world with a similar beauty.” “May the beauty of the Lord, my God be upon me – ”

Just as I wrote this into my journal I received an e-mail from my dear friend Paul Gardner who directs Camp Barakel. The Camp is clustered around a clear lake in the Huron National Forrest in the northern lower peninsula of Michigan:

Last night as I went home the moon hung low in the eastern sky. This morning as I came in it was dipping low in the western sky, and the air was not blowing– so the fog hung in the bare trees. What a great commute I have!

Day-Off Reading-Audio

I have a special announcement today. Saturday, May 10th I will launch the Stonebridge Podcast a weekly podcast from Granville Cottage. A couple years ago I was experimenting with the podcast idea and put together this podcast. Every Saturday morning you will find me here at kenpierpont.com. You can brew come coffee and I will have a story to tell. Spread the word. Tomorrow I will post another sample. The official launch will actually be Stonebridge Podcast Number 3.

Enjoy the first-ever Stonebridge Podcast. Let me know what you think. Stonebridge Podcast (Number 1)

Subscribe to the Ken Pierpont Storytelling Podcast

Storytelling Podcast RSS Feed

Storytelling Podcast in iTunes

Storytelling Podcast (Number 1) Day-Off Reading

I have a special announcement today. Saturday, May 10th I will launch the Stonebridge Podcast a weekly podcast from Granville Cottage. A couple years ago I was experimenting with the podcast idea and put together this podcast. Every Saturday morning you will find me here at kenpierpont.com. You can brew come coffee and I will have a story to tell. Spread the word. Tomorrow I will post another sample. The official launch will actually be Stonebridge Podcast Number 3.

Enjoy the first-ever Stonebridge Podcast. Let me know what you think. Stonebridge Podcast (Number 1)

Stonebridge Podcast (Number 1) Day-Off Reading

I have a special announcement today. Saturday, May 10th I will launch the Stonebridge Podcast a weekly podcast from Granville Cottage. A couple years ago I was experimenting with the podcast idea and put together this podcast. Every Saturday morning you will find me here at kenpierpont.com. You can brew come coffee and I will have a story to tell. Spread the word. Tomorrow I will post another sample. The official launch will actually be Stonebridge Podcast Number 3.

Enjoy the first-ever Stonebridge Podcast. Let me know what you think. Stonebridge Podcast (Number 1)

The Call of the Loon

The spring has been slow coming this year following a brutal winter. Like never before I long for a bit of time up north this summer and the call of the Loon and all that goes with it. Here is a note I posted in 2007:

Holly is in the Northwoods leading a Journey to the Heart and living for the week on Duck Point. She called to tell me that she had heard the loons. From what she described she must have heard male and female loons.

“It is my fervent hope that a time will never come when storytellers will say, “Once upon a time there was a bird called a loon – ..” but that grandparents will always be able to take their grandchildren to northern lakes and listen together to that most haunting of boreal wilderness sounds, the call of the loon.” (Judith McIntyre)

Awaiting the Date

Here is a classic re-posted from 2001

Working in my study one summer afternoon I found myself struggling to concentrate. At the time my charge was a small country church near a cemetery bordered in back by a stream. I thought a walk would do me some good and refresh my powers of concentration. Picking up my walking stick at the door I started off across the road, through the cemetery and woods. I spent an hour or so watching the water run over smooth stones and listing to the music of water and birdsong. I prayed some but mostly just sat quietly with the company of my thoughts.

It is just as easy to loose perspective in ministry as it is to loose concentration in study. It’s easy to forget the motives that originally pulled you into the service of Christ, loosing sight of the rewards you anticipate in eternity.

My spirit refreshed I made my way along the stream and through the trees back to my study. On the way I noticed how different the church looked from the perspective of the cemetery. I don’t think I had ever seen it from that angle before.

When I was a boy my Dad would take me on walks through cemeteries some and teach me etiquette and read the gravestones and give me some historic perspective on the lives of the people whose remains lie there. Walking back I remembered those times and the quiet, reverent way Dad always spoke when walking among the headstones.

My eye fell on a familiar name and stopped me where I stood. The name of the headstone was Eva Ernest. Beneath her name was the year of her birth followed by a dash. Eva was a long time faithful member of the church and an every Sunday attendee. She taught Sunday School there week after week for decades. She sat and listened to my messages every Sunday.

I stood quietly while a sobering reality stole over me. Everyone to whom I preach has a place somewhere on earth where their remains will lie after they have heard their last message. The date of their last day on earth will be chiseled in stone somewhere someday.

Where will my headstone be and what date will follow November 3, 1958? And what difference will it make that I lived? What will I have accomplished and whose life will I touch for eternity during my short earthly dash?

It made me want to get right back to work. In the little village church of my boyhood we sang an old hymn you don’t hear these days. One phrase of it still rings in my heart: “Work for the night is coming, when man works no more.”

(From Stonebridge Newsletter – Number 47)

But Then…

My message Sunday might be worth a listen. The text us Romans 3:21-31. This paragraph is the heart of the Bible. Let me know what you think.