Ken Pierpont's Blog, page 161

Bird-Songs

A Classic Re-post from 2005

I slept outside in a tent with the boys this weekend. The weather was ideal to sleep outdoors. The air was cool but not at all cold. The sky was clear. We enjoyed a fire each night including s'mores and a good-natured jumbo marshmallow war. We slept as well as you can on the hard ground, but well enough to sleep in until awakened as I suppose our Creator intended, by the first light of morning through branches of oak and pine and the natural music of birdsong.

One of the things that keeps me young is a long list of things I intend to do running just below the level of conscious thought in my mind. Some of those things are important and momentous. Others are simple but not less important in their own way. I was reminded of one Sunday morning at dawn. It was a beautiful birdsong too rich and musical for me to describe with a pen. That is when I was reminded of a simple project that has been waiting patiently on my list for a few years.

I would like to learn to identify birds and their songs. Maybe it was one of my mentors, Vance Havner, who first stirred this desire in me, in fact I am sure it was. Havner loved to describe his walks outdoors wherever he was preaching. It was rare for him to describe any time outdoors without some illusion to birds or birdsong.

For a few blissful years we lived in a quaint and quiet retreat at the dead-end of a road. I had a garret study on the second floor of the house with a window looking out to the east over fields. From that window I could often see the children at play with our dog. In the winter colorful birds gathered there to feed, brilliant against the white snow. I watched leaves blow down like rain from the huge Chinese Elm at the corner of the house. I could see across the field to the trees lining the creek and the hillside dotted with Dogwoods every spring.

Often I would start my day in meditation high on one of those hills overlooking the valley were our simple white farmhouse set. At the right time of the morning it was a symphony of birdsong.

I painted the small, enclosed back porch of our house bright white. On the porch I hung jackets on the wooden pegs for every season of the year as my grandfather had done. I put a pair of field-glasses there and a colorful field guide to identify birds. That's when the idea for the project formed in my mind. My intentions were good but our time there was cut short by the sudden death of our landlord. We had to move and my education in ornithology would have to wait.

A few weeks ago at Camp Barakel we conducted the Thursday night chapel outdoors at sunset. Most birds sing in the morning, a few sing in the night, but there are those that make their most beautiful music for twilight vespers. The wind was blowing in the pines all around us. While we stood listening that evening the music drifted out of the woods, beautiful and sweet. I said to Paul Gardner, "Paul, I wish I knew what kind of bird it is that sings like that." Paul said, "That is the song of a Wood Thrush" It pleased me to know it. You can listen to the song of the Wood Thrush here.

A few nights later the young people to whom I had been speaking for the week walked quietly to the natural amphitheater in the woods for their final reflections on the week of camp. Their words were sweet to the ears of those of us who's hearts long for young people to "remember their creator in the days of their youth." Between their testimonies the silence was broken by the popping of the wood fire and beautiful birdsongs like I had never heard before.

The amphitheater was ringed by rows of white pines with wispy-green needled branches. The birds must have been calling to each other from the branches of the pines. They were very near. I don't know what you call the birds that were singing the song in the woods that night but I will. Someday I will. I will stroll though God's creation and I will identify birds by their song and by their appearance.

The Master himself said, "consider the birds of the air." He even took note of the fall of common sparrows so it must please him for us to study the sound and color of his birds. Their color and their song, their flight and their antics were all programmed into them for our study and delight. We worship and serve the Creator and admire all of his creatures. (Romans 1:25). Something as simple as birdsong stirs worship in our hearts.

"Thou art worthy, O Lord, to receive glory and honour and power: for thou hast created all things, and for thy pleasure they are and were created." (Revelation 4:11 KJV)

Ken Pierpont

Riverfront Character Inn

Flint, Michigan

July 11, 2005

Keith Green Video

This video will capture your heart. Keith Green lived and died faithful to his wife and family and faithful to God. He had a prophetic voice in his time–and still does.

Bad News Baptists or Good News Baptists

Re-posted from 2009

We live in the greater Detroit area. The Cubs will win the World Series before there is any economic good news here. Here in our neck of the woods the economic news has been bad for a decade. In the last couple years it has been catastrophic. If you believe what you hear on the news, the polar ice caps are melting-threatening an environmental apocalypse, and we should feel real guilty for drinking our morning coffee since, unless it was obscenely expensive, it probably wasn't "fair-traded."

The economy isn't the only thing in chaos. Troubles are hitting frighteningly close to home lately. You don't have to watch the news to know that marriages are in trouble and families are fragmenting. Homelessness and poverty are growing. Education is in turmoil. Sporting events are a happy diversion until we remember our heroes are probably on steroids or on the take. There is a crisis of morality, ethics and character that reaches from the prison to the pulpit. Scandals are so commonplace that they don't really shock us any more. Christians are nervous about unsympathetic people in the White House, Congress, and the Supreme Court. We haven't had a national revival in over a century and we've never needed one worse. It's not hard to find reasons to be pessimistic. Jesus wept and warned people of sin and of judgment. He grieved when people rejected the good news, but He lived and died and rose again for sinners and that is the best news there has ever been. God is still in His heaven. Leaders rise and fall. Companies come and go. Rulers rage, enemies threaten, and allies abandon us, but God is still in control. He is still working all things together for good for those who love him and-that is still very good news in the worst of times.

Our church name, "evangel" means, "messenger of good news." Joyful, happy, hopeful, good news is built into our DNA at Evangel. It's who we are. Our church name means Good News. For seventy-five years the cornier of Telegraph and Pennsylvania has been a "good news stand" while thousands of burdened people have sped back and forth. There is still good news on the corner of Pennsylvania and Telegraph.

Bad times are good times to remember how magnetic hopeful people and hopeful places can be. Let's keep a clear perspective. We have good news. Our church is a good-news place. We are good-news people. That should make Evangel a very happy place. That should make us very happy people. There always have been and there always will be things that can burden us or get us down. Sometimes life deals us big crushing blows. Other times it is the splinters and hangnails that put lines in our foreheads and makes us surly and touchy.

We are not here to tell what we are against. We are not here to tell people what we don't like about them. We are not "Bad News Baptist Church" We are "Good News Baptist Church," so our members are not the neighborhood police or morality squad. We are not the spiritual CIA on a covert operation to seek and destroy the enemy. We are not here to shout-down the opposition. We're not here to beat up on atheists. We are here to faithfully tell a story-a good story. We have an angelic role – we are messengers with a message of good news. We are heralds of the King, criers for the King who have a message of unbelievably good news.

That should put a song in your heart, a spring in your step, and a smile on your face. Joyful people are magnetic – attractive people. And we want Evangel to continue to be a magnetic, attractive place.

According to the New Testament, it is vital that we treat one-another with special love and care. It is important how we treat outsiders who are not a part of Evangel-who may not even be Christians, but throughout the New Testament there is an emphasis on how we treat one another. People who are not in the family notice how we treat our brothers and sisters.

John 13:35 says, By this all will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another." John 17:21 says, that they all may be one, as You, Father, are in Me, and I in You; that they also may be one in Us, that the world may believe that You sent Me

I once was invited by my brother-in-law to a golf outing sponsored by another Baptist group. There were a good bunch of guys we will share heaven with, but here on earth we sort of sit on opposite sides of the Baptist aisle. These guys are in my circle, but I'm not sure I am in their circle. They think my circle is a little too big. I understand that. But one of the pastors was pretty sharp on ecclesiastical separation and a little dull on personal skill. As I stood there preparing to hit a few practice drives, he drove up in his golf cart and "warmly" greeted me with these words; "What are YOU doing HERE?"

I smiled and said, "Uh, just hitting golf balls with some dear pastor friends."

He said, "I was surprised to see you here," and drove away.

He left me with the distinct impression that he would be equally surprised to see me in heaven. Maybe my pastor friend was just having a bad bed-side manner day, but on that day he didn't seem like a Good News Baptist, he seemed like a Bad News Baptist to me.

Good News people have a "there-you-are" spirit, not a "what-are-you-doing-here" spirit.

Good News people have a "how-can-I-help-you" spirit, not a "don't-touch-that" spirit.

We should have a "do-you-need-this" spirit not a "do-you-have-permission-to-use-that-be here-say that-wear that-spirit."

A good news spirit attracts people to Christ. A bad news spirit attracts only unhealthy people with a distorted idea of the gospel and a twisted view of what God is like. You don't build a healthy, happy, joyful, good news center like that.

Joy is evidence to the world that Jesus can fully satisfy the human heart, and love for the brothers and sisters is evidence that you really know God.

Acts 4:32-35; 1 John 3:10-14; 1 John 4:20-21

Speaking at Barakel

This week I have been speaking at Camp Barakel in the northern lower peninsula of Michigan. This is my twelfth year to minister on the shores of Shear Lake on the northern edge of the Huron National Forest.

I wish you could be there on Friday and Saturday night, after the campers have been there for a week, and hear them sing. It one of the sweetest sounds on earth.

Please pray that God will forever change the hearts of the young people who camp and counsel and work at Camp Barakel this week.

Heaven, by Randy Alcorn

The last three posts have been about Hell. Let me recommend a wonderful book on Heaven. It is by Randy Alcorn and it is titled simply; Heaven. I give it ten stars out of ten.

Invest in this book and read it. You will thank me.

Here is a link to Randy's site.

How Could a Loving God Send People to Hell?

Tim Keller inspired me to preach a series of messages based on honset questions people have about the Bible and Christianity. His book The Reason for God got me thinking about it. This post is a link to my message on hell.

Re-posted from 2008

11:00 AM
Ken Pierpont
Series: Straight Answers for Honest Questions; Luke 16:19-31

Summer's Swift Passing

Summer swiftly passes and my bike is still hanging on hooks on the ceiling of the garage. This year I never made it to the Metroparks to get a sticker for my car. Last night I wanted to spend some time with the Lord and didn't want to buy the sticker because summer is so near being gone. I had to find a new spot that didn't require a pass.

I've kept my nose to the grindstone this summer until last Monday when our family vacation began. This week I head north to Barakel to push young people into the Lake… the Great Lake of God's Love… Twice a day I will speak to them. My plan is to plunge them into Psalm 139. In the afternoon I will have the sun on my head and my feet in the water of Shear Lake. I'm planning some prayer walks and I'm longing to hear the call of the loon on the lake.

Why Talk About Hell?

Re-posted from 2008

It is unpopular and uncommon in most churches in America to hear a message on Hell. I am going to preach on Hell Sunday morning. It would be a good service to invite people to if you care about their souls. Let's admit it Hell is not a popular subject, so why would we preach on it? What good can come from preaching on Hell?

This should be answer enough: Jesus preached about Hell. Jesus had a lot to say about Hell. Why did he talk about Hell so much? It must have been good to talk and think about Hell. Here are just a few of the good things that happen when we talk, think, and preach about Hell:

- It makes us we examine ourselves.

- It stimulates efforts to evangelize.

- It magnifies God's grace.

- It illustrates God righteousness, holiness, and justice.

- It reminds us to examine ourselves.

- It causes us to hold God in awe.

- It causes us to hate sin more.

- It sobers us and we are often told to be sober.

- It makes Heaven sweeter.

- It makes the things of this world smaller.

In American colonial days Jonathan Edwards preached his famous sermon; Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God. Listen to a version here. Read it here. Was Jonathan Edwards wrong to preach that way? Is it possible that one of the reasons there is so little fear of God in America and so much disregard for God, because there is so little preaching on Hell in America? We believe there is a hell. Why don't we warn people about it? If we don't warn people about it, is it because we really don't believe in Hell?

Let's talk about Hell. It will do us good.

Pastor Ken Pierpont

The Study – Evangel Baptist Church

June 6, 2008

Erasing Hell vs. "No Hell Rob Bell"

I want to recommend a book I have not yet read. I bought it the other day, but I promised our son Daniel he could read the book first. He is training for ministry in Grand Rapids–the home of Rob Bell (No Hell Rob Bell). Some of his classmates have been enthusiastic about Rob Bell's heresy about Hell.

He's been reading Francis Chan's new book on Hell–Erasing Hell. As we drive along he keeps asking questions and reading portions of the book. He quickly read half the book even while with all the distractions of vacation.

There is a mobile site associated with Francis Chan's Ministry.

I enjoyed this interview of Rob Bell:

Young People Leaving the Church

This morning I came upon this thoughtful article about young people who are raised in the church, leaving the church during their post-high school years. It's worth your time.

Somehow I have a feeling that young people are not leaving the church because we didn't have enough rules. They are not leaving the church because we didn't try to schedule enough "fun." That is all much of youth ministry has been for the last 30 years. It's been the Christian "Party Plan." Now thousands don't take the church or the things of the Lord seriously.

Where did we ever get the idea that playing games in the musty church basement was the power of God unto salvation?

Why have we allowed ourselves to be seduced again into the idea that organization, rules and manipulation are the power of God unto salvation?

What is it going to cost us before we learn to return to the means of grace and the power of the Gospel instead of our entertainment or our systems?

Read this post on the studies and the statistics.