Ken Pierpont's Blog, page 154

Are You A Follower of Jesus

Classic re-post

A few years ago Heidi and Wes were baptized on the same day. It was Easter Sunday 2007.

Just before the Lord Jesus ascended he said, "Go into all the world and make disciples, BAPTIZING them…." A disciple of Jesus is a follower of Jesus. A follower of Jesus is baptized. If a person will not be baptized they should not consider themselves a follower of Jesus. That is a sobering thought. It would be like my wife telling me, "I will marry you but I won't wear a ring, change my name, or have any public ceremony."

I would think, "Are you sure you want to be my wife, if you don't want anyone to know?"

Baptism is a matter of simple, humble, obedience to the plain teaching of Jesus and the clear message of the Bible. If you are not yet baptized, imagine what God might have in mind for you if you step forward in obedience to His command and follow him. What would the next exciting step be after that? What might God have in mind for you?

Good Swearing and Bad Swearing

Have you ever thought that there is good swearing and there is bad swearing? Making a serious promise and talking dirty are both called swearing. Why?

Swearing is a good thing, it is serious promise-making, but when a good thing is perverted or distorted then it becomes a bad thing, and so it is with swearing. Realizing the evil roots of perverted swearing helps us understand why we use the term swearing for dirty speech.

Hebrews 6:16 says; For men indeed swear by the greater, and an oath for confirmation is for them an end of all dispute.

Good swearing and bad swearing are connected. Let me explain: The passage here says swearing is calling on something greater to witness or to verify what we are saying. Why do we call the use of sexual terms and excremental terms—dirty talk—why do we call that swearing, if swearing and oaths are calling on something greater?

Calling on something greater is what holy, godly people do. Calling on something other than God or lesser than God is what unholy, ungodly people do—people who are in willful rebellion to God. Like so many other things it becomes a perverted substitute for what God designed.

Swearing by what is higher is evidence of a heart that regards God, so intentionally swearing on something that is low or base is an act of rebellion against God. It is shows in irreverence at the least or distain for God.

You may say, "That's not what I mean when I swear." Perhaps not, though Christ said that your words are from the overflow of your heart. If you have learned the language of those who are have turned against God, how long will it be before you learn their ways? What does it tell you about the temperature and the trajectory of your heart? Why, if you are devoted to God, and if your tongue and heart are consecrated to God, would you want to use the speech of those who are in rebellion against God?

A Personal Example

When I was in the third grade and a student at Springfield Elementary School in Battle Creek, Michigan. I began to pick up on the language around me. Sometimes the words were in my secret thoughts. Sometimes I uttered them. To this day I'm sure my parents do not know this. My soul was laden with real guilt about it. It troubled me. I prayed about it. I would go to bed at night and my conscience would be troubled. I would pray for God to forgive me and help me. Within a few months God delivered me from thinking in swear words or uttering them. I was about eight or nine years old.

All Sin is Dangerously Contagious

Don't ever forget how contagious sin can be. Sin is contagious and deadly and the human heart is a perfectly suited host for that disease to grow. It is easy to be pulled down in into the degenerate, degraded forms of swearing that come when people blasphemously reject God and profane his name. That is why we need to be very careful about the company we keep and the media we choose. This is especially true when we are at leisure or when we are seeking diversion or entertainment. If we are involved in ministry we usually go as a team and we prepared ourselves in prayer and our objectives are clear.

When we are resting or relaxed or seeking pleasure, diversion or entertainment we are less likely to have our discernment filters ready. There is the legitimate danger of contamination when we are in close proximity to evil. After a while if we are not careful our hearts begin to sympathize with forms of evil around us. We are called to be in the world, so we must be willing to be exposed to those who are in the grip of evil, but we have to have a continual inner resistance to that evil or we will eventually embrace it.

It is foolish to develop a taste for it and intentionally expose ourselves to it unnecessarily in our choice of media or in our choice of companions in our leisure time.

Can I suggest you ask God to deliver you from substitute swearing?



Mild substitute swear words we often call minced oaths… are the kindergarten of rebellion against God. They are the introduction to substitute swearing that is deeply depraved calling on excremental terms, sexual terms, and even the terms of sexual perversions to strengthen ones words. These are simply ways to willfully and rebelliously circumvent speaking simple truth before God… You should be able to see that, though our culture is descending into that darkness, the children of light should never adopt the language of the sons of disobedience and the workers of darkness. When they do something tragic is happening. That is of evil, Jesus said.

Try Thanksgiving Instead

Paul had some very strong words about corrupt speech and a practical suggestion about how to drive it out of your life. In Ephesians 5 he suggested that whenever we are tempted to use corrupt speech we substitute thanksgiving in it's place. (Eph. 5:4)

So when is swearing good and when is swearing bad?

Lawful swearing is a promise or covenant where you are calling on the name of God or reminding people of our accountability to God. Ungodly swearing is when you call on God or something that belongs to God as a confidence scheme or when you try to strengthen or enforce your promises using God's name irreverently.

An especially perverse form of swearing and oath-uttering is when you show contempt for God's glory and his name buy trying to use excremental or sexual language or the language of sexual perversion to strengthen your statements.

Ephesians 5:3-5 But fornication and all uncleanness or covetousness, let it not even be named among you, as is fitting for saints; neither filthiness, nor foolish talking, nor coarse jesting, which are not fitting, but rather giving of thanks. For this you know, that no fornicator, unclean person, nor covetous man, who is an idolater, has any inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and God.

Ken Pierpont

The Pastor's Study

Evangel Baptist Church—Taylor, Michigan

February 10, 2012

Footnote: have been informed in my thinking by reading R.J.Rushdoony's Institutes of Biblical Law (Pages 108-110). That reading is reflected in this article.

Francis Chan at Moody Founder's Week

Last night I hurried home from Prayer Meeting to watch Francis Chan speaking at my Alma Matter–Moody Bible Institute. I was delighted and challenged to hear him clearly express what has been the burden of my heart for the church for the last year and a half.

It's an hour long and worth your time…

What Will They Remember?

Classic re-post from 2010

What memories will your children cherish when they are a long way from home one day? I like to think my children will cherish the memory of my joy in the public worship of my Savoir, the Lord Jesus Christ.

I want them to remember the Lord's Day as a special day set-apart for the honor of the Lord Jesus.

I want them to remember the Lord's Day as a day different than any other day of the week. I want them to feel a great emptiness if their week does not include the assembly of the saints.

I want them to remember hundreds of songs and thousands of messages from God's word that will come back to them when things are dark or hard, or when their spirits soar up in celebration of some great good.

I want them to have the memory of the kindness of the people of God toward them. I want them to know that God's people are the greatest people on earth, the most loving, the most understanding, the most patient people they know.

I don't ever want them to doubt that Jesus was my greatest joy and that I was loyally devoted to his church. I love Christ's Church and I want them to love her, too.

Ken Pierpont

The Pastor's Study

Evangel Baptist Church—Taylor, Michigan

March 26, 2010

Communion Over Comfort

Classic re-post from 2009



I duck my head into the boys room most mornings before I get prepared for the day. Their sleeping room and my dressing room are on the same level. Wesley's bed is often empty. He is not in his bed. He likes to sleep on the floor. He has a wonderful bed with a nice mattress and box springs. He has nice flannel sheets on his bed, but he prefers the floor.

Maybe you wonder why. It is because communion is sweeter than comfort. Relationships are more important than things.

Chuck went away for a year to influence young teens in Door County, Wisconsin. It was a good experience for him in many ways. He gathered a large group of young people—regularly eighty young people met weekly in the small church up on the rocky peninsula that juts out into Western Lake Michigan.

Chuk was befriending and influencing many young men but he couldn't get his own brothers off his mind. He came home and now he sleeps in the next room. God gave Chuk another church. This one was remarkably close to home, just across a bridge to Grosse Ile in the Detroit River. He now gathers young people at Riverpoint Church on Grosse Ile and he lives at home and spends hours with his brothers.

Wes sleeps on Chuk's floor. They like to be close. Wes would rather be near him at night than be comfortable.

This all came to my heart this week when I was doing some deep thinking and Scripture searching on the power of communion with Christ to deter sin in my life. It has been my own experience that there are difficult besetting sins that darken my spirit, but communion with Jesus—fellowship with Jesus is the most powerful way to drive them from my life.

Jesus promised that if we would walk away from sin we would enjoy special fellowship with Him. If we know the sweetness of fellowship with him we will not find sin attractive. To lure us away from the guilty pleasures of the world he offers us his presence. There is no greater joy than the joy of just being with Him.

2 Corinthians 6:14-19 Do not be unequally yoked with unbelievers. For what partnership has righteousness with lawlessness? Or what fellowship has light with darkness? What accord has Christ with Belial? Or what portion does a believer share with an unbeliever? What agreement has the temple of God with idols? For we are the temple of the living God; as God said, "I will make my dwelling among them and walk among them, and I will be their God, and they shall be my people. Therefore go out from their midst, and be separate from them, says the Lord, and touch no unclean thing; then I will welcome you, and I will be a father to you, and you shall be sons and daughters to me, says the Lord Almighty." Since we have these promises, beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from every defilement of body and spirit, bringing holiness to completion in the fear of God.

Ken Pierpont

Granville Cottage

Riverview, Michigan

February 8, 2010

We Never Knew Her Name

In high school my favorite class was always study hall, because there I could read what I wanted to read. I read books about ministry, pastoring, preaching, evangelism, discipleship, prayer, and the Christian family. I don't ever remember reading textbooks. I had something else burning in my heart. I wanted to be used of God to influence people for Christ. I can't remember a time when I didn't feel that way. Today I want to share a story with you about how a woman was used to influence many for Christ in a very, very simple way. Maybe it will inspire your "people-influencing-efforts."

Knox County is a pleasant county in central Ohio. Mt. Vernon is the county seat. Most of the county is covered with hills gentle enough to farm and beautiful enough to take your breath away on a spring morning or an autumn evening. The streets of Mt. Vernon were lined with Dogwoods when we moved there the day after Easter on April 20, 1987. It was a very, very happy day for me. I was eager to be a solo pastor. Outwardly I exuded confidence but secretly I was hopeful that I had what it would take to be a pastor.

Lois and I spent ten years of our lives living and working in Knox County. While we were there four of our eight children were born. Heidi, Hannah, Daniel and Wesley. Hannah, Daniel and Wesley were born at home during our Neo-Amish years, but that is another story.

God directed us to start a church in Knox County. I often think of that decade of our lives. We have many, many happy memories there. If I was starting that church again I would do some things differently. There is a lot we could have done better. I would have been a little more relaxed about some things. I would have been more intense about other things. It was not a perfect model of church-planting by any means at all, but in spite of all that, God worked–he worked in beautiful, lasting ways.

At the time I wasn't sure my pastoral "career" was making much progress. I had to continually remind myself that pastoral work is a calling requiring faithfulness and holiness not an exercise in self-promotion and professional advancement. In spite of the many ways we could have improved there is no doubt that God allowed us to have a significant ministry there. To see it you would have to have spiritual discernment, but we planted some trees of ministry that still grow there on the gentle slopes of Knox County.

For some reason I think often of something that happened in early years of that church. One day a young woman showed up at our church. I think her little boy may have been with her that day. At the time I was working diligently to reach people. The church was small. I sent the bulletin on Thursday to everyone in the church. I often personally phoned anyone who missed the services. It was small. I could do that. The young woman who visited that Sunday was not someone I had ever met. No one in the church knew her. None of us had ever met her before.

After church we talked. She liked the church, which was remarkable because it was a small church meeting in an old converted Grange Hall on a country road. Our floors were wooden. We sat on metal folding chairs. It was a very, very simple affair. Nothing there to impress.

I asked her, "Dawn, how did you happen to find us?"

She said; "I work at a bank in Columbus. A co-worker invited me out for lunch. As we ate she said; 'Dawn let me tell you why I invited you today. I'm a Christian and I am going to take all the girls in the office out to lunch one at a time so that I can explain to each of them how to be a follower of Jesus.'

At that point Dawn said, she began to cry. She said, "That is so sweet of you. I'm already a Christian. I was raised in a church, but I've had a lot of trouble and I'm far from God."

"What church did you attend growing up?"

"I went to a little Baptist Church down in southern Ohio."

"Well, why don't you get up Sunday morning early, get dressed for church and drive around and look for a Baptist Church?"

That morning Dawn started driving out across the countryside and I am convinced that God's Spirit guided her car to our little Grange Hall. She was not put off at all by the humble church–it reminded her of the church of her childhood.

Dawn returned to fellowship with Christ and his church. Eventually God would work powerfully in her family. She would enthusiastically invite many others. At one point I counted over fifty people that made our little church their home because of her invitation. I've often wondered how I could inspire other "Dawns" in churches I have served.

I don't know the name of the young lady who invited Dawn out for lunch that day to give her the gospel. I'm sure I never knew her name, but I know that God knows her name. She couldn't possibly know what happened as a result of her simple efforts. But God knows.

Ken Pierpont

Granville Cottage

Riverview, Michigan

February 6, 2012

A Friendly Argument

Lois took some beautiful pictures of Sue Lodico. Sue is a missionary who is leaving for South Africa on Valentine's Day. The pictures turned out great. She tried to give Lois money but Lois wanted the pictures to be a gift. They had a friendly argument and then, like good friends do, they arrived at a compromise.

Lois gave Sue the pictures. Sue gave Lois a gift certificate to a neat little restaurant in don't-blink-or-you-will-miss-it, Waltz, Michigan. It's been unseasonably not-so-unbearably-cold lately. We had a nice drive out to Waltz on dry roads. We ate and we talked and we took our time and enjoyed our thoughtful gift from Sue the South African Missionary.

Lois and I enjoyed spending some unhurried time together. We've been together for over 33 years now.

Earlier this evening I visited the funeral home. A young mother had lost a two-year battle with cancer leaving behind her husband and two little boys. I gave the young man a New Testament and encouraged him to seek God in his sorrow.

After dinner I walked my little wife to the car. We turned up the heat and took the long way home. It was a nice evening. It's good to have a life full of people to love. It's good to be alive.

The old wedding vows say that marriage is designed to divine all of life's sorrows and multiplies all of it's joys.

Ken Pierpont

Granville Cottage

Riverview, Michigan

February 3, 2012

Why I Write

As I write it's Monday morning. I've had a wonderfully exhausting weekend, driving north and preaching five times, and a restful night. It's a cold winter day outside. I only know because I let Hazard out for minute or two before ducking back into the warm security and comfort of our home. Now I want to write.

I realize more and more that I am probably not a writer who speaks, but I am a speaker who writes. But I do and I will write and work hard at writing for the rest of my life because there are so many people I can reach through writing who I will never have the opportunity of speaking to.

Yesterday two people in two different places wanted to meet me after I had spoken. They had been reading the Stonebrige Newsletter for years and loved the stories and wanted to meet the writer in person. Not everyone reads dense text on a page or screen but many do and for them I write. For those who I have never met and those who I will never meet I write.

I also write especially for those who I have meet and who I deeply love, many of whom share my last name. I write for my children and for the children who will be born to my children and I write for their children. I write for them so that I will pass on a rich heritage of faith and love for life and fidelity to Christ, Our Savior.

Once, years ago, when our children were all small and we were passing through deep, dangerous waters, I spent a day alone with the Lord high over some water under a pine tree writing, reading, listening to a recording–a wonderful old recording of a man's testimony of the faithfulness and direction of God. I prayed and searched through my Bible looking for answers that would steady my soul during a time of self-doubt, self-condemnation, and self-evaluation.

I'll save the heart of the story for another time, but on that summer afternoon the Lord directed my eyes to a passage in Isaiah that I seized upon as a personal promise to me. "All your children will be taught of the Lord adn great will be the peace of your children." (Isaiah 54:13) It is one of the soaring prophetic future kingdom promises to Israel. My heart so longed for it to be true of the children the Lord had given to Lois and I. Four sons taught of the Lord. Four daughters taught of the Lord. My soul longed for that to come to pass. My heart believed that it would come to pass. I may have had a simplistic understanding of how to apply the Scriptures that afternoon, but it seemed that the Spirit had directed my eyes down the page in a specific answer to the longing concern of my soul.

"Lord," I prayed that afternoon, "What about my children. What about them. I'm serving you and you have given me assurance that no weapon formed against me will prosper. You have given confidence that you will condemn any voice that rises against me in judgment. (Isaiah 54:17) I believe it. But because of my weakness and failure and abrasiveness and because of the depravity of others I fear that my children will be harmed. I fear that they will be turned away from serving you." I looked away from my Bible and out over the water and prayed aloud, "What about our children?"

I glanced back down and my eyes focuses on verse thirteen. My hopeful heart seized upon it as a promise from the Lord. The passage seemed to be saying, 'I will teach them myself and they will have peace.' All your children will be taught of the Lord and great will be the peace of your children."

And so I write. I write so they will read of the works and the wonders of God and pour themselves into our grandchildren so they will set their hope in God and not forget the works of God but keep his commandments–(Psalm 78). I write so all our children will be taught of the Lord and know in personal experience what it means to live at peace with God.

I've written Sunset on Summer, collection of family stories. I've written over a thousand other essays and stories. I'm near finished with a collection of stories clustered around the theme of my grandfather's old central Ohio farm and I will keep writing. I will keep writing for my children and their children and for you and your children.

May Jesus Christ be Praised and may all your children be taught of the Lord.

Ken Pierpont

Granville Cottage

Riverview, Michigan

January 30, 2012

Our First Granddaughter, Keira

Keira Lee Hancock

This week we were surprised with the birth of our third grandchild, a tiny, beautiful, perfect little girl. Her name is Keira Lee Hancock. She was born on Tuesday to our daughter Heidi and her husband Austin in Kenosha, Wisconsin. She was born a few weeks earlier than we expected. She weighed five and a half pounds at birth and she was 18.5 inches tall. Word cannot tell the story so you might want to click here to see the photos of the young family. http://loispierpont.com/our-sweet-gra... We've been celebrating all week. Holding our first granddaughter this week, visiting with our little grandbuddies, speaking to young people all weekend has reminded me why I write.

—————————————–

Why I Write

by Ken Pierpont



As I write it's Monday morning. I've had a wonderfully exhausting weekend, driving north and preaching five times, and a restful night. It's a cold winter day outside. I only know because I let Hazard out for minute or two before ducking back into the warm security and comfort of our home. Now I want to write.

I realize more and more that I am probably not a writer who speaks, but I am a speaker who writes. But I do and I will write and work hard at writing for the rest of my life because there are so many people I can reach through writing who I will never have the opportunity of speaking to.

Yesterday two people in two different places wanted to meet me after I had spoken. They had been reading the Stonebrige Newsletter for years and loved the stories and wanted to meet the writer in person. Not everyone reads dense text on a page or screen but many do and for them I write. For those who I have never met and those who I will never meet I write.

I also write especially for those who I have meet and who I deeply love, many of whom share my last name. I write for my children and for the children who will be born to my children and I write for their children. I write for them so that I will pass on a rich heritage of faith and love for life and fidelity to Christ, Our Savior.

Once, years ago, when our children were all small and we were passing through deep, dangerous waters, I spent a day alone with the Lord high over some water under a pine tree writing, reading, listening to a recording–a wonderful old recording of a man's testimony of the faithfulness and direction of God. I prayed and searched through my Bible looking for answers that would steady my soul during a time of self-doubt, self-condemnation, and self-evaluation.

I'll save the heart of the story for another time, but on that summer afternoon the Lord directed my eyes to a passage in Isaiah that I seized upon as a personal promise to me. "All your children will be taught of the Lord adn great will be the peace of your children." (Isaiah 54:13) It is one of the soaring prophetic future kingdom promises to Israel. My heart so longed for it to be true of the children the Lord had given to Lois and I. Four sons taught of the Lord. Four daughters taught of the Lord. My soul longed for that to come to pass. My heart believed that it would come to pass. I may have had a simplistic understanding of how to apply the Scriptures that afternoon, but it seemed that the Spirit had directed my eyes down the page in a specific answer to the longing concern of my soul.

"Lord," I prayed that afternoon, "What about my children. What about them. I'm serving you and you have given me assurance that no weapon formed against me will prosper. You have given confidence that you will condemn any voice that rises against me in judgment. (Isaiah 54:17) I believe it. But because of my weakness and failure and abrasiveness and because of the depravity of others I fear that my children will be harmed. I fear that they will be turned away from serving you." I looked away from my Bible and out over the water and prayed aloud, "What about our children?"

I glanced back down and my eyes focuses on verse thirteen. My hopeful heart seized upon it as a promise from the Lord. The passage seemed to be saying, 'I will teach them myself and they will have peace.' All your children will be taught of the Lord and great will be the peace of your children."

And so I write. I write so they will read of the works and the wonders of God and pour themselves into our grandchildren so they will set their hope in God and not forget the works of God but keep his commandments–(Psalm 78). I write so all our children will be taught of the Lord and know in personal experience what it means to live at peace with God.

I've written Sunset on Summer, collection of family stories. I've written over a thousand other essays and stories. I'm near finished with a collection of stories clustered around the theme of my grandfather's old central Ohio farm and I will keep writing. I will keep writing for my children and their children and for you and your children.

May Jesus Christ be Praised and may all your children be taught of the Lord.

Ken Pierpont

Granville Cottage

Riverview, Michigan

January 30, 2012

A Surprise in the Driveway

When I was small, before my Grandfather Pierpont had retired from Owens Corning Fiberglass in Newark, we visited the farm one weekend. It was in those first few warm and wonderful days of summer. We suburban kids longed so deeply to feel the grass between our toes. We longed for the touch of the evening breeze on our face, the sun on our heads, the scent of things that grow.  We longed for a ride on the tractor-for a evening with our cane poles on the edge of the quiet pond as the summer evening set in and the sound of the crickets crecendoed with the waning light. 

When we arrived Grandpa announced that he had a surprise for us. It was in the lane. We would have to search. We all scurried to see what it was. The factory had discarded dozens of large green balls that looked like dark green glass marbles a little darker in color than telephone insulator glass, but similar. Each round class ball had a certain imperfection in it. Grandpa had spread them in the drive and told us if we found them we could have them. We gathered them like greedily little pirates.

Back home marbles this size were called "boulders" and we discovered to our delight that they were coveted by the neighbor kids. I had a large supply of them at one time so a swapped them for "stealeys" and for other "boulders," and sometimes for baseball cards. 

Grandma and Grandpa survived the depression, but not without hunger and not without hardship and not without watching my great grandfather lose my Grandfather's childhood home–a pleasant farm whose house crowned a hill looking out over hills and valleys of pasture and field. It was on the main road through Chatham just north of town so we often reversed the sad story. I think it must have been a part of who my grandparents were. 

Grandma and Grandpa were serious about their work. They were diligent about their savings. They were conscientious about  the smallest expenditure. They didn't waste things. They didn't throw away things that were used. They salvaged and found multiple uses for things. They saved things others threw away. They saw value in things others had no use for. Grandpa immediately saw value in the unique green glass balls. 

That was years ago. The farm is no longer in family. The place is still there but almost nothing survives now that I remember from my youth except for the great Spruce still standing on the bank of the spring run. You could sift every stone in the lane that winds down from the road over the creek to the house and you would find nothing but white native limestone gravel. I'm sure over the years we mined every green glass ball from that lane. I would very much love to have one of those marbles today. A stranger would never understand their value, but if you were to show one to my bothers or my sister I'm sure it would start a bidding war. 

What if we had the ability to see today the value something would have once the years have past? What if we could see ahead and know how worthless somethings are that preoccupy us and worry us now? Wouldn't it be good to be able to see things that way. 

God help me see the value of things the way you see it–through the lens of Your perfect eternal evaluation. When time is no more what will I value, what will I cherish? What among the things that I worry about here will lose it's value when time is no more? Are you sure what you are worrying about right now is worth worrying about? Are you sure the things you squander now won't have value one day?

A wise teacher once told me: "Wisdom is seeing life from God's point-of-view, and God's will is exactly what you would choose if you knew the future." (Bill Gothard)