Ken Pierpont's Blog, page 155
January 30, 2012
Barakel Sr. High Retreat
Last weekend I spoke to about 200 teens at Camp Barakel. Among them was a large group of young people from Grace Church in Granger, Indiana, where our son Kyle is the Youth Pastor. It was a perfect winter weekend.
There is really no way to describe the fellowship, the birds outside the dining hall, the purity of the white snow, the sun rising over the frozen lake, the trees dusted with snow, the laughter of the campers, the fragrance of wood smoke hanging in the air, the warmth of roaring wood fires wherever you go, the solitude of time alone with God, the love of those who love the Lord, the anointed singing and worship and the quietness that falls on the chapel when truth is shared in Scripture and in story. You would have to experience it to appreciate it fully.
I preached on Four Reasons to Live Missionally. The messages will be on the Barakel site within a few days. You can check for them here.
Friday Night: When You Live Missionally it Has a Simplifying Effect. (Matthew 5:25-22)
Saturday Morning …It has a Satisfying Effect (Mark 8:34-35)
Saturday Evening …It has a Sanctifying Effect (1 Timothy 4:11-16; 2 Timothy 2:19-22)
Sunday Morning …It has a Sustained Effect (Matthew 19:27-30)
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.
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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
January 22, 2012
A Prophet Has Been Among Them
Years ago, when I was going through a season of reaction and resistance to my leadership in a church, my brother Nathan was helping with music. He was living at home and attending college. Nathan came to church one particularly difficult evening and he had a note for me from Dad. It was a simple passage of Scripture to read: Ezekiel 2:4-5. Dad quickly jotted it on the back of his business card and sent it my way.
Before I went out to preach that night I looked up the passage and it was a powerful encouragement to me to take courage in leadership and to preach and lead with God in mind and not to concern myself primarily with who receives the truth and who rejects the truth. Get on our face and be sure that God is pleased with what you have to day and preach the Word of God. Then know that some will reject it and some will receive it.
This afternoon while browsing in my own library I came across the very card. (pictured) It was a powerful encouragement to me and a reminder to preach and lead to please the Lord and not to please people.
When your work on earth is done could it be said; "They will know that a prophet has been among them."
Blinded by Stubborn Legalism
If you don't love you don't really know your Bible and you don't really know God. Love is the heart of God's law.
Message: Blinded by Stubborn Legalism
Series: Matthew's Gospel
Text: Matthew 12:1-14
Date: January 22, 2012 AM
Place: Evangel Baptist Church–Taylor, Michigan
Speaker: Pastor Kenneth L. Pierpont
The Demonic Vortex of Legalism
There is good religion and bad religion. In this talk I go after bad religion. Jesus had very little patience with bad religion. He saved his straitest talk for "Bad-religion pushers."
Message: The Demonic Vortex of Legalism
Series: The Gospel of Matthew
Place: Evangel Baptist Church–Taylor, Michigan
Date: January 15, 2012
Speaker: Pastor Kenneth L. Pierpont
January 20, 2012
My Dad
Click on the photo to enlarge it.
This evening I came across this wonderful photo of my Dad preaching at Evangel for a Good Friday service. He as at his best that day. I just spent a few days alone with the Lord, just fostering fellowship with the Lord and spending time with Him.
Over and over I thanked Him for my faithful, godly parents. Driving home it occurred to me again how profoundly my parents have influenced me for good and for God and how deeply I love them.
Mostly I just wanted you to see this man.
January 19, 2012
Red Like Blood
Red Like Blood is a good read. I'm not going to take time for a review here, but I think it is very worth your time. If you like concrete narrative and good, gospel theology together, you will want to invest in this book. I read it on my Kindle and found it for 3.99.
There were a few places that just made me weep at the mercy of God and the sweetness of the gospel.
The language is salty in places and I think that is a bad trend and a bad example, but I appreciate the raw honesty of the book. The references to The Ohio State Buckeyes and the Ohio Amish Country were interesting to me.
The authors have created a web site to stay in touch with their readers.
You can meet Pastor Joe Coffey here.
You can listen to Bob Bevington preach at Camp Barakel here. (Search 2011 for Bob Bevingtion)
The book Bob co-authored with Jerry Bridges, The Bookends of the Christian Life, is valuable all out of proportion to it's size.
January 18, 2012
Quiet Time Away
The Lord allowed me a couple quiet days away and alone with Him. They are coming to an end. Tomorrow I drive out and back downstate and Downriver back to family and church with a renewed love and devotion to the Lord and with a renewed conviction my deep need for Christ.
As I pillow my head tonight the great hymn And Can it Be rings in my heart…
My chains fell off!
My heart was free!
I rose went forth and followed Thee!
She's Still Out to Change Her World
When I speak to young people, and I often do, I almost always tell them about Ann Kiemel's 1979 book "I'm Out to Change My World."
Ann Kiemel still writes and she still speaks. I think most of her books were aimed at young women, but her writing has always stirred up my heart to spread the love of Jesus. She writes an occasional blog-post in her unique small-case free-verse. Her posts have the honest rough-edge of reality to them.
January 16, 2012
Barakel Twitter Feed
If you spend a weekend at Camp Barakel in the winter there are a few things you can count on. You will leave with a sweet taste in your mouth. Sticky buns are a tradition on Sunday morning. You will feed on the Word of God. You will sing Christ-honoring music. You will smell the tang of a wood fire, and you will meet people who sincerely love Our Savior, the Lord Jesus.
I think Jeremy Linsley is the man behind the Camp Barakel Twitter account. It's worth following. A couple days ago he tweeted a Chapel Quote from Tom Harmon that made me smile: "Am I a sinner? I don't trust myself any farther than I can throw a bulldozer."
A few days earlier he linked to an worthy old re-make by Matthew Smith.
It's amazing to me that I can listen to every one of Tom Harmon's chapel messages on-line free-of-cost. I can download the messages and listen to them whenever I want. That's the coolest thing. Here is the podcast link.
Here is a link to some Barakel videos.
