Ken Pierpont's Blog, page 62
July 9, 2018
Unhindered
He who believes in me out of his innermost being will flow rivers of living water. (John 7:38)
Most trout-fishermen know this beautiful quote by Robert Traver from Trout Madness:
“I fish because I love to. Because I love the environs where trout are found, which are invariably beautiful, and hate the environs where crowds of people are found, which are invariably ugly. Because of all the television commercials, cocktail parties, and assorted social posturing I thus escape. Because in a world where most men seem to spend their lives doing what they hate, my fishing is at once an endless source of delight and an act of small rebellion. Because trout do not lie or cheat and cannot be bought or bribed, or impressed by power, but respond only to quietude and humility, and endless patience. Because I suspect that men are going this way for the last time and I for one don’t want to waste the trip. Because mercifully there are no telephones on trout waters. Because in the woods I can find solitude without loneliness. … And finally, not because I regard fishing as being so terribly important, but because I suspect that so many of the other concerns of men are equally unimportant and not nearly so much fun.”
A beautiful waterway is good for your soul. Once in the fall of the year I spent an autumn evening on such water in northern Michigan. After a trip to Traverse City for a hospital call, I drove back down Michigan 37 into Baldwin. I put on my waders and spent an hour fly-fishing the White River as the sun slipped down the sky.
I was fishing for trout but it was a sweet time to be on the River because the White River is tailwater… it’s is spawning grounds for the great Salmon that come inland from Lake Michigan to lay their eggs. There was a cool, seasonal crispness in the air. Someone was burning wood and someone somewhere else, leaves. There were leaves on water running fast and clear over rocks. The river that night was clear, pure, cool, and fresh, and the air was fragrant.
Such is a life that has the continual fresh water of grace flowing into it because it is not dammed up by stubbornness and sin. This is what Jesus said about those of us who would have the Holy Spirit living within us and allow Him to work–or flow out of us unhindered. Don’t be stubborn and unwilling to change or grow. Don’t cut people off when they are trying to help you see a blind-spot in your life. If you humble yourself and allow the Spirit to flow unhindered from your life the work of God will flow fresh and unhindered out of the deepest part of you.
Ken Pierpont
Bethel Church–Jackson, Michigan
July 9, 2018
July 5, 2018
Real Faith Resists Pride, Prejudice, and Partiality (James 1:1-13) Video
Series: Real Faith; The Epistle of James
Real Faith Rejects Pride, Prejudice and Partiality (James 2:1-13)
Bethel Church–Jackson, Michigan
June 24, 2018 AM
Real Faith Resists Pride, Prejudice, and Partiality (James 1:1-13) Audio
Series: Real Faith; The Epistle of James
Real Faith Rejects Pride, Prejudice and Partiality (James 2:1-13)
Bethel Church–Jackson, Michigan
June 24, 2018 AM
http://kenpierpont.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/Real-Faith-Resists-Pride-Prejudice-and-Partiality.mp3
July 4, 2018
Fishing Off a Boulder
For some reason my mind goes back the years, I guess a quarter-century now, to a sunny afternoon in the bend of the Kokosing River flowing through field and forest of eastern Knox County, Ohio.
A long bridge passes over a stretch of the River just east of the little berg of Millwood. If you crossed that bridge that afternoon and if you weren’t distracted by hurry you would have seen a young father and two boys about 11 and 7 fishing off the great boulder in the bend of the river.
They are not catching fish but they are burning a joyful memory into their souls.
Ken Pierpont
Bittersweet Farm
Independence Day 2018
The photo above is a photo of the boys, Kyle and Charles taken about four hears before the story written above.
July 3, 2018
The Time of Tiger Lilies
Sunday evening I returned from camp. One of the Bethel faithful was on his death-bed so before I came home I drove to see him. He lives in the beautiful countryside northeast of the church. On the drive out to his house the road was lined with banks of Tiger Lilies blossoming, bending forward, waving in the breeze—bright orange in the golden hour as the sun angled down the sky. I took a picture that does not do it justice. (The other stunning close-up is a stock photo).
Last summer I lived in a suburb of a major city but I was blessed to travel to Kentucky Mountain Mission to speak. The drive from Michigan to Kentucky follows interstate highway, but an hour and a half from the camp I exit the interstate and travel through some of the quaint small towns and villages of the Bluegrass. Within an hour of the camp I am in the mountains of eastern Kentucky. I drive through the small city of Irvine, the county seat of Estil County which sits in a valley on the Kentucky River. I cross the bridge in George the Red Jeep and make my way along a road that follows Millers Creek and Big Sinking Creek through the valley all the way to camp.
This came to mind when I saw the explosion of Tiger Lilies, because last summer along the Big Sinking Creek thousands of Tiger Lilies brightened the way along the river. There in my Jeep, turning along the roadway following the water running over rocks I gave thanks to my God alound that He would send me on such a mission in such a beautiful place. I did not know that less than a year later I would leave and bland suburbs and live in such a place.
The Year Before
The year before I had spoken to the Kentucky Mountain Mission staff conference. They invited me to speak at camp. I returned in the summer and spoke to the teens. I was so warmly received by the young people. My friend Sam Judd was there and it was a reunion and time of rich fellowship with him. A number of the teens began to follow Christ the week I was there. There were two young ladies who trusted in Christ to be saved my first year who greeted me joyfully when I arrived for my second year of speaking. They reported a year of spiritual growth.
When I left the camp at the end of the week I followed the beautiful way along Big Sinking Creek, but the road over Miller Creek was closed. A detour routed me over a high mountain in the Daniel Boone National Forest. It was a beautiful detour and my heart was full and glad. I prayed grateful prayers driving my faithful red jeep over those mountains.
I had some business in Irvine and then I drove to Richmond to get gas. I always feel melancholy when I have to leave the mountains and join the great stream of traffic on the interstate flowing north. While I was thinking of the sweetness of a week of ministry I checked my phone and found this entry on Facebook posted by one of those girls named Brooklyn:
“So today is my spiritual birthday and I can’t explain how much has changed since then. Before I was saved it was so hard to joy and just be happy. But last year on this day ( which was a Thursday last year ) I was in chapel at Youth Haven Bible Camp listening to Ken Pierpont speak in chapel and it has truly changed my life. Ever since then I have been so happy and continuing to grow in my relationship with God. Being saved is the most important decision any person could make, it is truly life changing. Pastor Pierpont told this story about people who were just so low at life and was addicted to drugs and alcohol, and when they got saved their life got totally flipped around. Pastor Pierpont also made the reference that when you use a paddle boat it’s so hard to get it going and continue to make it move. But when you are a Christian it’s like using a sailboat, all you have to do is put up the sail and God will provide the wind.”
That is what came to my heart on Sunday evening when I saw banks of orange lilies in the ditches bending toward the road along the way. My heart was filled joy at the power of the Story of stories and the great privilege it is to tell it to young hearts.
Ken Pierpont
Bittersweet Farm
Summit Township, Michigan
June 30, 2018
Bittersweet Farm Journal (Number 9) Twenty Years On
Twenty Years on Shear Lake
This week I’m with our two oldest grand-buddies, Kyle Kenneth and Oliver Bruce. We are at Camp Barakel. This week I am speaking here on the shores of Shear Lake for the 20th year in a row. The partnership with the people and ministry of Camp Barakel has been one of the sweetest privileges of my life.
Just outside the speakers quarters on the East Side Camp is a towering pine tree, probably almost 30 feet high. When I first spoke here I took a picture of one of the children standing by the tree. The little child was taller than the tree. When I first came here some of the children were the ages of little Kyle and Oliver. My heart is flooded gratefulness for the goodness of our God when I think of it.
This year my brother Kevin and his family have joined the year-round full-time staff of the camp. Kevin led the chapels and his wife Carolyn played the piano.
Every night when the chapel fills with campers and their songs fill the air my heart is thrilled and I am reminded of what mom and dad would say over and over again when we were growing up: “We just want you to serve the Lord.”
They were right. There is such joy, meaning, and fulfillment in it.
To The Call of the Barred Owl
I month ago I sat down in the evening to make a journal entry. I want to share it with you in this edition of the Bittersweet Farm Journal:
Tonight Hope made dinner. I had worked at the church and worked in the yard. Lois was returning from a trip out of town and we timed dinner for her arrival.
Hope piled the table with BBQ chicken, new red potatoes and butter, slaw and corn-on-the-cob.
The corn was the first of the season, tender and sweet and with real butter and salt and pepper, a delicacy. It’s as if the winter numbs your taste buds and the new corn of early summer awakens them. (Sometimes eating can be idolatry-on this evening it was worship).
After dishes we moved out to the “evening porch” to read while Lois puttered among the flowers.
It is May 29th. A year ago tomorrow I drove into Jackson to meet with the Pulpit Committee for the first time. Now, a year later, we have made our lives among you and live in our little farmhouse right on the border of Summit Township and Spring Arbor Township, were when evening falls we sleep to the sound of the Barred Owl calling from the woods across the road.
Ken Pierpont
Camp Barakel
June 30, 2018
June 29, 2018
Is Your Eating Worship or Idolatry?
Is My Eating Worship or Idolatry?
Every day many times a day I have had to wrestle with my self-indulgent nature to eat what is good and in the amounts that are healthy for me. I have had many days of wise and appropriate eating and I have had seasons of discouraging failure—and it really is a life-and-death matter.
Today I finished preaching at chapel at Camp Barakel and I was walking with two of our grandsons to lunch and a helpful thought occurred to me.
I know that for me over-eating and eating the wrong things is usually an expression of idolatry. The times when I have been able to have self-control in my eating have been times when I consciously saw over-eating as the sin of idolatry—putting food in the place where only God should be.
When I eat the right things in the right portions and receive that food as a gift from God it is an act of worship to eat. But when I eat the wrong things or even the right things in wrong portions then I am usually trying to get from food what only God can give. I’m looking to food for what only God can be.
As I walked to the dining room it occurred to me to ask of my soul this question through the day: Is this meal going to be worship or an indulgence in idolatry? Is this snack going to be an act of worship or sinful idolatry?
A Suggestion
As you plan your meals and before you eat bow your head and pray; “Lord, I want this meal to be an act of worship not an indulgence in idolatry.”
For everything created by God is good, and nothing is to be rejected if it is received with thanksgiving (1 Timothy 4:4)
Have you found honey, eat only as much as you need. (Proverbs 25:16)
Whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God. (1 Cor. 10:31)
Eating can be idolatry, but it was meant to be an act of worship.
Ken Pierpont
Camp Barakel
Fairview, Michgian
June 28, 2018
Don’t Wrestle Idols Away From People
I’m at Camp Barakel preparing my heart to preach to young men in the woods tonight and thinking about the power of loving God to drive out of our lives illegitimate things and this thought occurred to me. Peter said that fleshly lust war against our souls. I’m at war. The young men I deeply love are at war… Fleshly lusts war against our souls. How can a man prevail against the things that war against his soul? How can I help the young men I love win the war against the things that would destroy them: Here was a thought that formed in my heart:
If you want to help someone don’t try to wrestle their idols out of their trembling hands or shame them… They will just pick up another darker idol and continue in bondage and emptiness… Show them Christ as infinitely more satisfying. Let them see how your own heart is satisfied in Him. Help them experience the love of God–fellowship with God.
Ephesians 3:14-21 “For this reason I bow my knees before the Father, from whom every family in heaven and on earth is named, that according to the riches of his glory he may grant you to be strengthened with power through his Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith—that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may have strength to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God. Now to him who is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think, according to the power at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, forever and ever. Amen.
“If you want to build a ship, don’t drum up people together to collect wood and don’t assign them tasks and work, but rather teach them to long for the endless immensity of the sea.” Antoine de Saint-Exupéry
So it with men. We must help them see–we must show them how our souls are satisfied in the endless beauty and glory of Christ, then when they are Spirit-enlightened and the Morningstar rises in their hearts… they will willingly drop their idols and embrace Christ.
God, help me. Help me show the young men I love what that looks like.
Ken Pierpont
Camp Barakel
June 28, 2018
June 20, 2018
Bittersweet Farm Journal (Number 8) Why We Do What We Do
The Latest News From Out on Bittersweet
A week from Sunday it will be July and no summer in my life has ever flown so swiftly past. Next week I will make a holy pilgrimage to preach at Barakel. This week all the children are coming in. This is a rare and wonderful thing. We have a family wedding on Friday in South Bend. On Saturday the plan is for the whole clan to enjoy a walk out to the Grand Haven Light for sunset like we described in my first book Sunset on Summer.
Out here on Bittersweet Farm it is impossible to describe the beauty of the month of June. The day begins when the sun rises over the trees east of the farm. The trees are all wearing their canopies of rich green and the countryside is covered with growing things. the grass grows swiftly. Keeping Bittersweet Farm isn’t really farming, because our only crops are grass and flowers and our only livestock is Hazard, the Wonder-Yorkie. Keeping the farm is a little more like grooming a park, but it’s a delightful hobby and rewarding and a good excuse to be out in the fresh air and sun. I have a good tractor with a 54-inch deck for mowing and a nice hydraulic bade for plowing the snow.
There are about 50 trees on Bittersweet Farm not including dozens growing over the stone wall on the west property line that runs along the border between Summit Township and Spring Arbor Township. Bittersweet is in Summit.
About 25 of the trees growing on Bittersweet Farm are Walnuts, the rest are mostly Maple and a couple Oak. The two acres of Bittersweet Farm are a rectangle long-end running north and south. It is high on the north and south ends and low in the middle and the walnut grove grows low center of the property. The house and barn are in the south-west quarter of the rectangle.
The air is alive with birdsong especially in the hour after dawn and the hour before sunset—the golden hours. Beginning at dusk the fireflies begin to blink and hover over the laws and fields. The way the land is laid over the earth creates an amphitheater-effect. Sounds carry beautifully. So when I play my harmonica on the porch at night or whistle or play the guitar the sound is lively. On a good evening at dusk the birdsong quiet and the Owls begin to call. Barred Owls call from the forest across the road south of the farm. It’s a loud, haunting beautiful sound.
If you have been paying attention you know that the little farmhouse on Bittersweet was built with two porches. Hope rises early and brews coffee and goes out on the east-facing porch to read her Bible and have a time of quiet. She likes to call that porch the Sunrise Porch. Almost every evening the three of us and whatever guests visit spend the last hour or so of daylight out in the south-facing porch, or the front porch. I like to call it the Evening Porch. Lois has splash both porches with color and beauty using hanging pots of flowers.
A year ago was the summer of travel and preaching and camps and the summer of the Red Jeep Journey and the Red Jeep Journal. This summer is the summer of Bethel—just staying in town and serving my church. I have only scheduled one week of summer camp this year. I’m preaching and teaching and coaching and leading and encouraging and comforting and challenging and praying and counseling and getting to know the families of Bethel and their stories.
Why We Do What We Do
In the ministry at Bethel we often have a “…why we do what we do…” moment. We’ve been having quite a few lately.
A few weeks ago I drove back to the Downriver and officiated at a weeding for a couple who came to follow Christ when we pastored there. A week ago Sunday we baptized them here at Bethel. They testified of their joy and deliverance from bondage to drugs and alcohol. They have been clean and sober for five years now. They attend Bethel every Sunday. There was much joy in the church when they followed Jesus in Baptism.
Last week another family we met and baptized in the Downriver came out to visit Bethel, Dennis and Shanon Rosales with their delightful daughters Divinna and Dempsi. Divinna played her guitar and sang the we rejoiced at what God has done in their lives. When I met Dennis he told me with uncommon bluntness that he had no patience with “churchies” and now, he says; “I guess I am one now.” Dennis has been a great friend and a great help to me. God has been at work in the Rosales Family in a beautiful way. They love the balcony at Bethel when they get out this way.
I should sign-off for now. I think I smell coffee brewing and the house stirring to live downstairs. The fun is about to begin.
Ken Pierpont
Bittersweet Farm
Summit Township, Michigan
June 20, 2018
(Bittersweet Farm Journal #8)
The Latest News From Out on Bittersweet
A week from Sunday it will be July and no summer in my life has ever flown so swiftly past. Next week I will make a holy pilgrimage to preach at Barakel. This week all the children are coming in. This is a rare and wonderful thing. We have a family wedding on Friday in South Bend. On Saturday the plan is for the whole clan to enjoy a walk out to the Grand Haven Light for sunset like we described in my first book Sunset on Summer.
Out here on Bittersweet Farm it is impossible to describe the beauty of the month of June. The day begins when the sun rises over the trees east of the farm. The trees are all wearing their canopies of rich green and the countryside is covered with growing things. the grass grows swiftly. Keeping Bittersweet Farm isn’t really farming, because our only crops are grass and flowers and our only livestock is Hazard, the Wonder-Yorkie. Keeping the farm is a little more like grooming a park, but it’s a delightful hobby and rewarding and a good excuse to be out in the fresh air and sun. I have a good tractor with a 54-inch deck for mowing and a nice hydraulic bade for plowing the snow.
There are about 50 trees on Bittersweet Farm not including dozens growing over the stone wall on the west property line that runs along the border between Summit Township and Spring Arbor Township. Bittersweet is in Summit.
About 25 of the trees growing on Bittersweet Farm are Walnuts, the rest are mostly Maple and a couple Oak. The two acres of Bittersweet Farm are a rectangle long-end running north and south. It is high on the north and south ends and low in the middle and the walnut grove grows low center of the property. The house and barn are in the south-west quarter of the rectangle.
The air is alive with birdsong especially in the hour after dawn and the hour before sunset—the golden hours. Beginning at dusk the fireflies begin to blink and hover over the laws and fields. The way the land is laid over the earth creates an amphitheater-effect. Sounds carry beautifully. So when I play my harmonica on the porch at night or whistle or play the guitar the sound is lively. On a good evening at dusk the birdsong quiet and the Owls begin to call. Barred Owls call from the forest across the road south of the farm. It’s a loud, haunting beautiful sound.
If you have been paying attention you know that the little farmhouse on Bittersweet was built with two porches. Hope rises early and brews coffee and goes out on the east-facing porch to read her Bible and have a time of quiet. She likes to call that porch the Sunrise Porch. Almost every evening the three of us and whatever guests visit spend the last hour or so of daylight out in the south-facing porch, or the front porch. I like to call it the Evening Porch. Lois has splash both porches with color and beauty using hanging pots of flowers.
A year ago was the summer of travel and preaching and camps and the summer of the Red Jeep Journey and the Red Jeep Journal. This summer is the summer of Bethel—just staying in town and serving my church. I have only scheduled one week of summer camp this year. I’m preaching and teaching and coaching and leading and encouraging and comforting and challenging and praying and counseling and getting to know the families of Bethel and their stories.
Why We Do What We Do
In the ministry at Bethel we often have a “…why we do what we do…” moment. We’ve been having quite a few lately.
A few weeks ago I drove back to the Downriver and officiated at a weeding for a couple who came to follow Christ when we pastored there. A week ago Sunday we baptized them here at Bethel. They testified of their joy and deliverance from bondage to drugs and alcohol. They have been clean and sober for five years now. They attend Bethel every Sunday. There was much joy in the church when they followed Jesus in Baptism.
Last week another family we met and baptized in the Downriver came out to visit Bethel, Dennis and Shanon Rosales with their delightful daughters Divinna and Dempsi. Divinna played her guitar and sang the we rejoiced at what God has done in their lives. When I met Dennis he told me with uncommon bluntness that he had no patience with “churchies” and now, he says; “I guess I am one now.” Dennis has been a great friend and a great help to me. God has been at work in the Rosales Family in a beautiful way. They love the balcony at Bethel when they get out this way.
I should sign-off for now. I think I smell coffee brewing and the house stirring to live downstairs. The fun is about to begin.
Ken Pierpont
Bittersweet Farm
Summit Township, Michigan
June 20, 2018
