Ken Pierpont's Blog, page 6

Theology by TikTok

This morning I received a message from one of our sons. He was up early and preparing for work. He works in oil in west Texas but up until recently he was a police officer. A few years ago he was called to a home where an unspeakable tragedy occured. It was a horrifyingly sad scene. Overcome by the burdens of life and years of drug addiction a woman there had died at her own hand. He could not help but notice the near her body was a Bible opened to the book of Revelation chapter 12.

Revelation 12 is a chapter about War in Heaven and on earth—spiritual warfare. This morning our son had come across a little video on Instagram or TikTok speculating about constellations and Christ’s return. The speaker had a novel and sensational interpretation of what Revelation 12 means.

I will not go into detail about the meaning of Revelation 12 other than to say it describes spiritual warfare across time including Jesus, the Devil, and the nation of Israel past and future.

Writing Light Into the Darkness

Now I’m up early at my keyboard in the corner of my room writing light out into the darkness. Here is the thing. It is vital that you understand the world around you. It’s never been more important then it is now and things have never been more confusing or troubling. It is a matter of life and death—spiritual life and death that you understand the world around you from God’s point-of-view.

How Are We To Understand Our World?

According to God’s design every person should be a serious student of the Word of God. The Word of God should be our meditation day and night. Many, many places in the Bible teach us that to flourish spiritually—to be blessed by God one must meditate on the word of God day and night. You can read this right now in Psalm 1.

“Blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the wicked, nor stands in the way of sinners, nor sits in the seat of scoffers; but his delight is in the law of the Lord, and on his law he meditates day and night. He is like a tree planted by streams of water that yields its fruit in its season, and its leaf does not wither. In all that he does, he prospers. The wicked are not so, but are like chaff that the wind drives away. Therefore the wicked will not stand in the judgment, nor sinners in the congregation of the righteous; for the Lord knows the way of the righteous, but the way of the wicked will perish.” (Psalm 1, ESV)

When you read the scriptures carefully it is very clear that God has a plan for people to understand truth and live a life blessed by God. We are told to meditate day and night, but we are also told to assemble and systematically teach all of the Bible.

Look was Paul said when he was facing death and departing from the elders of the Ephesian church.

“…I did not shrink from declaring to you anything that was profitable, and teaching you in public and from house to house, testifying both to Jews and to Greeks of repentance toward God and of faith in our Lord Jesus Christ.” (Acts 20:20–21, ESV)

“Therefore I testify to you this day that I am innocent of the blood of all, for I did not shrink from declaring to you the whole counsel of God.” (Acts 20:26–27, ESV)

God intends for faithful pastors to teach the people the whole counsel of God and not to withhold anything that is helpful to them.

Notice what Paul wrote to young Timothy:

“Let the elders who rule well be considered worthy of double honor, especially those who labor in preaching and teaching. For the Scripture says, “You shall not muzzle an ox when it treads out the grain,” and, “The laborer deserves his wages.”” (1 Timothy 5:17–18, ESV)

Paul said, be sure those who preach the gospel can live of the gospel. Pay them so they have time to faithfully, systematically teach the Bible. If they do not teach the whole Bible faithfully they will have blood on their hands according to Acts 20:26-27 quoted above.

In 1 Corinthians Paul says this:

“In the same way, the Lord commanded that those who proclaim the gospel should get their living by the gospel.” (1 Corinthians 9:14, ESV)

Don’t Miss This

Now since this is true what does it tell us about how God has designed things to work? He wants us to sit under faithful and systematic teaching of the Bible. He does not want his church to be a social club or a special interest group. He has not designed the church to be a group gathered to influence the world culturally or politically. The church is designed to assemble and teach the Word of God.

Churches should support faithful pastors. Pastors should study deeply and take their teaching seriously. Care should be taken to see to it all the people learn all the Bible. Children should have classes arranged around a systematic teaching of the Bible

Children should be introduced to all the major characters of the Bible. They should go a number of times through the timeline of the Bible and geography of the Bible lands. They should be taught all the major doctrines of the Bible repeatedly as they pass through their childhood.

What Should You Do?

What could possibly be more important than full and faithful participation in a faithful local church built on the truth of the Bible? This should move us beyond occasional attendance.

Most pastors will tell you that faithfulness in church attendance is declining in America. We are in a time of falling away—a season of apostasy. It is critical that now of all times we not only participate in weekly church meetings, but that we take serving in the church and supporting the church very seriously.

Our son was up early seeking answers but he was not depending on TikTok for something so important as understanding how to guide his wife and three little sons. He is in the Word daily. He is listening to teaching on podcasts. He is seeking out truth and a right and godly understanding of his world.

The Shipleys

My grandparents on my mother’s side were Bud and Charlotte Shipley. When they came to Christ as young parents everything changed. They turned from sinful empty living to Christ. God restored their broken marriage. They found a local church and participated and served and gave faithfully for the rest of their lives. At first they were at Calvary Baptist Church in South Bend. Calvary planted a church closer to their home and they were a part of that church plant called Grace Baptist Church. A few years later Grace Baptist planted Fulkerson Park Baptist in Niles, Michign just bit further north. Later I was called to be the Youth Pastor at Fulkerson.

They are now with the Lord but while they were alive you would find them among the faithful at Fulkerson Park in each service, Sunday School, Morning and Evening Worship on Sunday, and always on Wednesday night for prayer meeting. They taught and helped and gave and supported missionaries and attended revival services and invited friends and witnessed to people far from God. They had christian books and magazines by their chairs and continually talked about the things of the Lord through the week.

Their lives had been rescued and transformed. They clung to Christ and to His church. They loved the church and the people of the church and they loved and supported their pastors even though they were people of very modest means.

 

Why Have I Written This to You?

I’m up in the corner of my room as the sun comes up this morning writing this because my heart is so deeply burdened for you and for your family. The church is still God’s plan. Faithful pastors preaching the whole counsel of God are still God’s way. Thorough, faithful, systematic Bible teaching and preaching is still the way God intends for us to nourish our souls.

The other night I met a man with a wife and new child. He was a bright educated man who had studied to the doctoral level. He was intelligent and polite. He told me that he was a Christian. I asked him, “Where do you go to church?”

He said, “Well, we really haven’t been to church in years. We don’t have a church.”

Here was an otherwise intelligent man who identifies as a Christian who does not value the church at all. He does not support it. He does not serve. He does not contribute. He does not participate. He does not even attend—not even occasionally.

As a spiritual leader of his family he has blood on his hands. (Acts 20:26-27) He would never neglect his child’s nutritional needs, or educational needs, or physical needs for food and shelter, but he in completely disconnected from the church God designed for spiritual and human flourishing.

If you are an occasional church attender or if you are sporadic in your attendance and don’t contribute or serve the local expression of the church of God you are disobedient to God and you are neglecting a powerful means of grace.

If your participation and identification with the local church is a hit-and-miss pattern, if you attend only when you don’t have more interesting things to do or trips to take, it is very, very likely that the next generation of your family will walk away altogether.

There is Something About It.

Our son, Dan, who called this morning was telling me the other day about how difficult it is to get all three of the little toddlers settled into a Sunday School class and Jr. Church. He said, “The other day we got to sit through church together. I loved it. There is something to that.”

He is right. There is something to giving to missions. There is something to teaching a class. There is something to setting up and tearing down and putting away and cooking and planning and organizing and seeing to it you do what you have to do to see to it that your church is a strong church faithfully and systematically teaching and preaching the whole Bible to all the people.

Thank God for the internet and Google and cell phones and iPads and social media to spread the word. Thank God for good Christian music at our fingertips and faithful eaching on our phones and computers. Thank God for everyone trying to make truth known on Facebook, TikTok, Instagram, and Twitter, but theser are all supplimental to the way God designed things t work in humble, simple, faithful clusters of Jesus people gathered in churches doing what God said to do and hungrily devouring the teaching of the Bible.

Where is your church? How do you serve and support it?

 

Bittersweet Farm | September 19, 2023

What I Talked About Sunday

Yesterday I preached at Bethel Church. In the afternoon I drove over to visit my parents. In the evening I told stories at Northeastern Baptist in Kalamazoo driving back through the night listening to a scary podcast. I arrived home and was greeting by fresh cookies so it was a good day. Just before midnight I crawled into bed and slept soundly through the night without moving.

At Bethel Baptist I am doing a series on the effects of the fall of man described in Genesis 3. The series is called Life is Hard. Yesterday’s message was “What to Do When Marriage is Hard.” Here is the heart of the message: If marriage is God’s idea and it is good, why do so many find it hard? The answer is this: Marriage is hard because the sin-curse on the world had affected all of us and everything. The world is broken. Creation is broken. People are broken. All of us.

Is there any good news? Yes, indeed… there is good news. The Bible calls is The Gospel—a term that means good news. God has sent his Son Jesus into the world to die for sin and for sinners to reverse the effects of the fall and one day there will be a new heaven and a new earth and no more curse. The New Heavens and the New Earth will be populated by the forgiven—those who have received God’s mercy. So here is the good news regarding marriage:

God has made a way for us to bring him glory in any and every marriage circumstance. There are examples in scripture of people who are single who give glory to God and live honorably in every circumstance… married, single again, divorced, separated, married to an unbeliever, sinners married to sinners—every marital situation you can imagine—there is a way for them to live in a way that brings glory to God.

God Can Grow Beautiful Things In The Dark Soil of Suffering

Devote your marital condition to the Lord and purpose to flourish by seeing the intent of God.  When you trust God and Obey him in your struggle, when you do not sin or despair when others hurt you, when you turn to God and see the hand of God and trust the hand of God in the struggle of your marital situation, he will grow beautiful things in that dark soil. Don’t sin when you are sinned against. Don’t despair when things don’t go they way you expected. Lay the Gospel over your marital hardships. When bad things are happening to you, God is always doing something good. Seek holiness first and happiness will always follow. Pursue God and enjoy pleasures forevermore.

Pursue God. Obey God. Trust God. Do your best to use your marital situation, whatever it is to bring honor and glory to God…

Casting Down Idols of the Heart.

When we marry we are tempted to look to our spouse for what only God can do. We tend to give to our spouse what belongs to God alone. This is idolatry. We can make money and idol or things. We can turn people into idols, relationships, even good ones like marriage into God substitutes—idols of the heart. God wants us to look to him and point to him above every other thing so he will see to it that our marriage cannot meet our deepest needs so we will not make an idol of our relationships and miss the beautify and glory and ratification of God.

You can watch the message here. I would love to hear your feedback on the message.

Writing for the Local Paper

In the late 90’s we lived in the village of Fremont, Michigan in the parsonage of the First Baptist Church at 515 East Pine Street. Our youngest, Hope America, was born in Fremont. It was the last place where all ten of us lived together under the same roof.

Fremont is a small town about an hour north of Grand Rapids and about thirty minutes from Lake Michigan. It as the home of Gerber Baby Food. Our church and home were a few blocks apart in the village. I loved living in Fremont.

In about 1998 my brother Kevin encouraged me to start posting my stories on-line. He created a site for me—kenpierpont.com. Soon I started posting new stories regularly. What I was doing would be called a blog now but the term was not widely used when I started doing it. I have published no less than once a month and usually at least once a week without interruption since then for over 25 years.

Rising Early to Write in Quietness. The family was young and noisy and I loved spending time with them so to write I had to rise every morning and five and write over in the corner of our bedroom in the darkness, the glow of the monitor my only light. When the sun came up the kids would rise and my writing would be done for the day.

The Stonebridge Newsletter. About that time I started an e-mail newsletter. I called it the Stonebridge Newsletter (Pierpont is a French word that means stone bridge). The newsletter grew quickly to over 5000 subscribers. I published essays weekly that were often picked up and published by Heartwarmers4u by Azriela Jaffe and Hearttouchers by Michael Powers and even a few for Stories for the Teen’s Heart and Chicken Soup for the Soul. I was published in few large and a few small home school publications. I spoke for some homeschooling organizations and these all helped grow my newsletter.

The Local Paper. Rich Wheater, the editor of the local Times-Indicator began to run my story every week in the local pape—every Tuesday as I remember. That was one of the most satisfying publishing experiences I have ever had. He included a bi-line and a photo so people would often meet me in stores and strike up conversations about my stories.

I still smile when I think of the simple joy of sharing stories with new friends at Bill’s Shop and Save or at the Wise Office Supply or the Haveman True Value Hardware a few blocks from the church.

On Wednesday nights through the school year our church sponsored a kid’s club called AWANA. Many Christians who attended other churches participated along with our own families. Our children loved the club. They loved the games social opportunities especially, I think. In the parking lot of the church on a fall or spring evening I would often mill around among the people waiting for their children, talking and playing in the parking lot. People would sometimes tell me that my story made them laugh or cry or both or they would tell me how it reminded them of something that happened to them. Those memories still warm my heart.

I suppose that is one of the reasons I write—to make that human connection. To share a touching or funny incident. I have always included stories in my messages but once used they cannot be used again in the same pulpit so versions of those stories were included in my blogs or my outside speaking.

We moved away from Fremont many years ago and since then I have written five books and published hundreds of stories. I have gathered many other cherished “writing memories,” but those conversations around the little village of Fremont are tucked away like cherished photos—yellow around the edges. Those stories are still in my archives deep in my webpage. You can find them here.

I have had a few large paydays for my writing and I always welcome them, but still after all these years of writing and publishing I cherish the simple human connections that sharing heartwarming stories can bring and most of my writing is and probably always will be free. I hope you enjoy the stories. I would be well-rewarded by hearing from you.

Bittersweet Farm | September 15, 2023

 

 

 

 

 

 

Life is Hard

 

Life is Hard

If you have been around a few years you have already discovered that life can be very hard. I’m a Christian pastor. I believe the Bible is the word of God and I believe you can build you life on it’s truths, rightly understood. The Bible plainly explains why life is hard and what to do about it.

Why Life is Hard

To state things in a straightforward way, life is hard because sin has cursed the whole world. You can read about this within the first three chapters of the Bible. It’s not happy reading but it explains a lot. The world we live in is cursed. It has a sin-curse on it. As a result the very earth itself is damaged. Relationships are affected by the curse. Theologians call it “the fall of man.” Relationships between husbands and wives, parents and children, brothers and sisters are affected by the fall—the curse.

The rest of the story of the Bible details God’s gracious plan to reverse and to lift the effects of the curse on people and on the earth itself.

When a person no longer has hope that he can cope with the multiplied hardships of life he is overcome with despair. But there is a story, a series of stories and poems and letters and discourses given to us by God through men, that is designed to restore your confidence that the sin curse can be overcome and that one day we can live on a renewed earth together with people we love in peace. The effects of the curse on creation will be lifted. The pain of broken relationships will be withdrawn.

How to Cope When Life is Hard

If you carefully follow the storyline in the Bible you will see that it is through Jesus that the curse is reversed and the earth and those who are redeemed—restored by Jesus and forgiven and rescued—are able to live on earth one day without the curse. By the end of the Bible a New Heaven has descended to a New Earth and it is a place of beauty and order and the worship of the One True God, Jesus Christ.

So one day Jesus himself will reverse the curse on earth and those who have turned from their sin and believed in him. Until then the scriptures teach us how to live in a world still cursed with hope and confidence—how not to be overwhelmed and overcome with despair. The scriptures give clear and practical guidance to those who want to live with hope in a world that is hard, but the Bible does not yield these treasures to those who do not take the time and make the effort to study, understand, and apply those truths.

Next time you feel crushed by the sadness of life, the curse and the brokenness of the sinful world among sinful people. Next time you feel defeated by your own sins and failures, look to Jesus and study the story of the Bible. Get a Christian mentor who can help you understand what steps to take to experience a life of hope. You will see in the scriptures why life hurts and why life is hard and what Jesus has done about it. You can make your way back to God through Jesus Christ. There is hope when life is hard. There is help when life hurts.

Send me a note. I will coach you on this if you like. Don’t yield to despair when life is hard.

Bittersweet Farm | September 7, 2023

School Again?

Yesterday at Bethel Church we might have had the high attendance of the summer. You get the feeling things are changing. Summers are shorter. They don’t just feel shorter. They are shorter. Schools are starting sooner. Camps are shortening their summer programs. Last week the weather was even cooler, fall-like. Stores are stocked with school supplies. Young families are shopping for back-to-school school clothes.

In our neck of the woods school starts this week.

Lois and I raised eight children without ever sending them off to school. If we had it to do over again, we would do it all over again in a heartbeat. We would try hard to do it better, but we would absolutely do it again. We liked not being driven by the school schedule. Monday was my day off and every Monday was a field trip or family time.

Still in our neighborhoods there was a difference once school started you could feel in the air in our little town. Things just felt more businesslike—more academic. No cluster of kids out under the streetlight. No children riding bikes out in front of the house. The trampoline sat silently in the back yard. No sound of clacking skateboards. A burst of traffic around 3:30 p.m. but by early in the evening the streets grew quiet and empty.

Home-schooling is not for everyone, of course. But learning together at home happens in every family. Of our 20 grandchildren, some of them are in public schools, some in Christian schools, some of them are taught at home.

For all of them we pray that above every other thing they come to know and love God with all their heart, soul, mind, and strength.

“You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might.” (Deuteronomy 6:5, ESV)

Yesterday I needed to pick something up at the store. I noticed huge school supply displays and fall clothes for little children. A woman and her about 12-year-old daughter were having a serious conversation about notebooks. The little girl had a look of concern on her face. I was just a stranger walking by, but if I am any judge of the human countenance it was a look of anxiety.

It made my soul prayerful for all the little ones going out in this big, scary world of opportunity and danger, knowledge and adventure and delight, friends and foes.

Oh. God. Watch over each of them wherever they go. Help them learn and grow and flourish. Give them grace and mercy. Help each teacher and school worker and bus-driver and lunch-room helper and teacher’s aide to do their part to guide each young soul well.

For the children, the carefree days of summer are gone and soon, too their childhood will pass and they will enter the great steam of adulthood. Prepare them Lord. Protect them. They are little lambs really, all of them, and you are the Good Shepherd.

In a train car in Sugarcreek, Ohio | August 21, 2023

Kids Stories | Stories of Answered Prayer | Meat for Every Meal

Check out this story..

Bus Ride Home | Stories from Bittersweet Farm Podcast

I have been reading my book For A Few Days as podcast episodes. Today is chapter 15. Keep an eye on the podcast. I will be posting every day until the book is finished.

One of the few remaining actual pictures of the farm. (This is a watercolor version of a photo taken in the late 50’s).

Questions to Open the Heart of Your Child

I love my children deeply but there are times when I feel an emotional or spiritual distance like they are drifting a little out of reach. Sometimes one or both of us are distracted or busy. The distance may be the result of my own selfishness or irritability or hurt that steams from anger. Sometimes we will have a hurtful exchange or they may say, “You don’t understand,” or “You don’t listen.” I have been humbled often to realize that there were important things I just did not know about my children. Those secrets are often used by the enemy of their souls to separate them from myself and their mother and eventually from God.

One of the most powerful ways to “discover” the heart of your son or daughter is to spend time listening to them. I like to plan and “event” that may be a full day or a weekend and include a specific hour or two of intense, focused listening.

I have taken my sons on camping and hiking trips for this purpose. I have spent the day with my daughters walking the lakeshore and having dinner and spending time on a long drive with the radio off talking. It can be as simple as going to breakfast together or going to a quiet cafe or coffee shop for a couple hours. We agree to turn off our cell phones and give that time to each other. During this event or session, thoughtful questions are a powerful instrument to become an expert at each child.

I try to ask questions, look them in the eyes, ask follow-up questions, hold my tongue, avoid lectures or exhortations, and try to probe down as many layers as I can. All I want to do is discover during this time. I don’t have to act or fix anything. Just careful listening is enough.

Listening your way into the heart of our sons and daughters helps me to identify the custom-made lies that Satan is using to try to destroy each one of them. I can take their answers to my wife and we can take them to the Lord together and plan projects, outings, assignments, and support that will help them. Each child has dreams, goals, and desires. Each child has fears, troubles, guilt, and hurts that they are unlikely to tell you unless you are skilled and diligent at asking questions.

The effect of these outings, sessions, questions, and projects is a growing “bond” between you and them. They know you care about them. You understand them and help them understand themselves. They see that you are devoted to their good and helping them achieve their dreams.

These questions have been floating around for years and I have found them to be very powerful. I think they originated in Mr. Gothard’s office, perhaps directly from his pen with the assistance of the men he was working with at the time. They are not original with me, but I have used them a lot and they are very powerful.

My (Youth Pastor) Son, Kyle called this evening and mentioned that some of the men in his church were meeting this evening and the material below was brought up in the conversation. Sometimes people have trouble finding this because it is buried in the archives, so I re-posted it here where it would be easy to find, at least for a while. If you are interested in a printed copy of this with come additional material, send me an e-mail and I will send it to you.

ken@kenpierpont.com

Duet. 6:4-9 Mal. 4:6

Set aside time just to ask questions and listen. Don’t teach or answer, just ask more questions and, if you need to, write the answers down. Make a careful study of each of your children. You could make a notebook for each child and record their answers in it.

1. What foods do you like or dislike the most?
(Goal) To break the ice.

2. Who is your best friend? I Cor. 15:33
(Goal) Who is the greatest influence of their peers?

3. Who do you most want to be like when you grow up? (Goal) Whoever it is they are moving toward that type of character.

4. What embarrasses you most in our family relationships?
(Goal) To discover what we are doing or what is going on in the family that causes them to reject themselves.

5. What is the greatest fear in you life?
(Goal) Tells us where Satan is getting into their lives. (Fear is of Satan)

6. What is your favorite activity?
(Goal) To design ways and projects to have special fellowship with your children. To have a better relationship.

7. What is your favorite song? Favorite kind of music? Favorite group?
(Goal) Music is a window to the soul

8. What person outside our family relationships has most influenced your life? How have they influenced you? (Goal) To determine who has influence over your children as role-models.

9. What do you like to learn about the most?
(Goal) To give direction for what to train them in.

10. What accomplishment in your life so far gives you the greatest sense of achievement?
(Goal) To discover what I can use to help build their self-worth and then put a spiritual emphasis to it.

11. What irritation in our family bothers you the most?
(Goal) To discover what problems in the family I need to work on and then teach the child how to respond to sources of irritation.

12. What really makes you angry?
(Goal) To find out in what areas are they not yielding their rights and expectations to God; and then help them work on those areas. Phil. 2:3-11

13. What do you want to do when you grow up?
(Goal) To discover what they are moving toward. To help them develop a sense of destiny.

14. What has been the biggest disappointment in your life so far?
(Goal) To know what is hurting them at times; and then to explain God’s purposes for disappointments.

15. If you had the power to change anything about the way you look, would you use that power; if so what would you change?
(Goal) Find out where they are rejecting themselves.

16. What do you appreciate the most about each member of our family?
(Goal) Focus on positive qualities in family. (Later) Encourage them to go tell that member of the family.

17. What biographies have meant the most to you? (Goal) To see if they are getting life stories from Godly people.

18. What do you like to do the most as a family?
(Goal) How can we have family fellowship that this child will enjoy. Then plan an activity.

19. Encourage them to be honest. If you could change anything about me, what would you change?
(Goal) To discover where I am damaging my relationship with them.

20. When you get to the end of your life, what do you want to look back on and say that you accomplished for God? (Goal) Discover if they have a purpose in life.

The next steps are the most important:

Pray with your wife about some of the things you learned during your session. This question times will bind your heart together with your son or daughter.

Spend a little time during the week to discuss some goals or to spend time talking about one of the questions.

Develop projects or thoughtful responses and goals based on what their answers were.

47 Years Ago | The Faithfulness of God

It was 47 years ago last Tuesday on August 11,1976 that I was called to pastor my first Church. I was seventeen. I had been preaching since I was 14 in rest homes and jails and prayer meetings and such. I preached wherever I could. I even preached at a large Boy Scout Jamboree once in the Greenville City Park. That summer and in the summer of 1977 I worked through the week at the Union City Body Company building GM delivery trucks.

My first church was a small church in the countryside. Before I left for Moody in late August of 1977 we had a baptism service. I baptized my little brother Nathan and almost all the young people in the church. I think there were over a dozen baptized that day. The little white church was near the Ohio-Indiana border in beautiful Ohio farm country. It was named Pleasant Ridge.

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There was a little rise in the road east of the church. Embedded in my memory is the sight of that old church—light shining out from large stained class windows as I drove down the little knoll toward the church.

I tried to study and stay ahead of the people I pastored. I studied when I could. During the school year I would rush home every Wednesday afternoon and sit at a little typewriter stand at the foot of my bed and write my message for Wednesday night. On Saturday I got up early and wrote my messages for Sunday morning and Sunday night. I leaned heavily on people my dad told me were good to read so I wouldn’t tell the people at Pleasant Ridge anything wrong.

For the first summer my job at the UCBC was to get truck chassis from the lot and drive them into the factory to the assembly line. I would go the truck and wait until they were ready for it. Much of my job was waiting. That gave me time to read in the cab of the truck. That summer one of the books I read was by John R. Rice. The book was called Prayer: Asking and Receiving. It was rich with scripture, simple, clear, strait-forward and helpful. I was growing my own faith and my own walk with God and discovering the God loves to hear and answer prayer.

I loved to read about God answering the prayers of others, but the question in the back of my mind was, will God hear and answer my prayers. I was conscious of my own sinfulness and weakness.

Years have passed but the memory returned to me this week because I was preaching on prayer. I’ve lived long enough to have a journal full of personal evidence that God does indeed answer prayer, even for those who don’t deserve it.

Bittersweet Farm | August 13, 2023

 

 

 

 

 

 

Prayer: Back to the Basics (Eph. 6:18-20) Video

 

Prayer: Back to the Basics (Eph. 6:18-20)

Bethel Church | Jackson, Michigan

Ken Pierpont, Lead Pastor

August 23, 2023 AM