Ken Pierpont's Blog, page 82

Tennessee and Kentucky

Red Jeep Journal

June 9, 2017

Tennessee and Kentucky

Last night I stayed in Lois’s sister’s home on the way to Tennessee. Her children Faith and Bobby were excited to see me especially since I arrived with hot pizza and cold Pepsi. Bobby eagerly helped me in with my luggage.

They asked what I wanted to watch on TV. I told them that if they would turn off the TV I would tell them stories. For the next couple hours we swapped stories. The last hour I answered their questions about the Bible. The last question eleven-year-old Bobby asked was; “How can you know you will go to heaven when you die?” I pillowed my head with a deep satisfaction, amazed at the insightful questions such young children had about the Bible and hopeful that a rich faith would take root in their little souls.

The Fellowship of the Red Jeep

Are you a part of the “Fellowship of the Red Jeep”? Here is how you join: Let us know you are praying for us and, if possible, share a gift at this link. The gifts we receive from the camps and churches are helpful, but modest for the most part and your gifts are helping sustain the ministry this summer. If you join the Fellowship of the Red Jeep you can request personally inscribed copies of my books. If you live along the way I will bring them by personally. Gifts of any amount are deeply appreciated. Monthly gifts are especially helpful so Lois can pay the bills while I’m out on the road. Your gifts are tax-deductible. God has been supplying all our needs.

Riding the Local

Vance Havner was in itinerant preacher in a different era than I. He never drove a car and rarely flew. Most of all he liked to get to his preaching destinations by train and when he got there he loved to walk. In his little book Pleasant Paths he wrote of “Riding the Local.” In his day there were express trains and local trains. The express train only stopped at major cities. The local trains made stops in all the little bergs along the way. Vance liked riding the local. That way he met more passengers taking short rides and he took in the local character is each little town and village along the way.

The other night I was making my way across south-central Michigan. I could go south and take the Ohio Turnpike, a quick by boring affair, or I could take the well-travelled, familiar and efficient Interstate 94. Instead I followed my nose south across country knowing the would have to eventually his Old U.S. Route 12—The Chicago Road… the route that connected Chicago and Detroit in the day before the interstate highway system. It was like “Riding the Local.”

For my efforts I was rewarded with undulating roads through the countryside passing trim farms and rural homes. I enjoyed the view of a sky-blue lake in the evening light. I could smell the BBQ from a roadside stand and pause for a farmer making his way in from his fields on his faithful old International Harvester. As evening set I cruised slowly down main street of a delightful Michigan town I had never visited before enjoying views of stately well-preserved homes set back from main street shaded by mature Maples back into full leaf from a long winter.

With a few exceptions, I won’t have to rush this summer. I have a very full schedule but I will have time to pace myself. Once George the Red Jeep gets to the camp or conference grounds he will have a week to rest until he carries me to my next preaching assignment. This summer for the most part my plan is to the “ride the local” and take in the sights when I can, eat at the local diners more often, frequent road-side stands, talk with people, just see where God sends me and who He wants me to encourage.

Meeting a Fatherless Boy

The other evening on such a journey I stopped in a coffee shop and God had arranged a meeting with a fine young man named Ben. His dad was a pastor who had attended the same collage as my dad but died suddenly a few years ago in his fifties. Ben and I talked at length and before I left we were both convinced that God had arranged the meeting to encourage Ben. As I aimed my Jeep west into the declining sun I wondered if Ben’s Dad had asked the Lord to send someone to his son that evening to encourage him. This would not have happened if I had not prayed before I left, sitting out front of the house, asking God to direct my path and make me a blessing. That is the kind of thing that happens sometimes when you “ride the local.”

Ken Pierpont

Middle Tennessee

June 9, 2017

Conspiracy

I used to shepherd a village church in Ohio. There were two churches in the village, about fifty houses, a general store, a township hall, a cemetery, and a park tucked in the crook of a meandering river. I pastored the Baptist Church directly across the road from the Methodist Church. The churches were almost twins in architecture, simple white clapboard and spires pointing heavenward. We had a brick educational wing. They had a basement. The Methodists had no scruples about raising support through strawberry suppers and ice cream socials. The Baptist wouldn’t think of raising money for the Lord’s work like that, but their convictions were not deep enough to keep them from enjoying Methodist ice cream and strawberries.

We subscribed to the fundamentals of the faith, they considered themselves a little more enlightened. They were more likely to have a pastor who was neo-orthodox or even liberal in theology. (Norman McLean said Methodists are just Baptists who can read. I read that and I’m a Baptist. I guess that’s what you get for reading Presbyterians).

Once a year we joined the congregations together on Thanksgiving eve and agreed on one thing, that we owed thanks to the Lord for another year of soft showers, gentle breeze, nourishing sun, healthy children, freedom to worship and other evidence of God’s eternal bounty. Since he causes his rain to fall in the just and the unjust alike, I guess that would include most Methodists and Baptists too.

All in all I suppose the people in my pews were less conservative than I and the people in his pews were more conservative than he. Mostly the pews of both churches were occupied by steady rural people with years of experience resisting the enthusiasms of young pastors.

Important theological distinctions aside, on a Sabbath morning the sound of both bells mingled together and drifted across the village and surrounding fields summoning families to worship. Our services started at the same time. They ended roughly the same time too except that the Methodist preacher was also in charge of two other churches so when he was done in our village he had to drive over to another village for a service right away. He did not have time to enjoy the luxury I did of circling to land his sermons.

On a nice day the ushers would swing the main doors open and leave them open throughout the service. Sometimes you could hear birdsong between hymns. Sometimes you could smell new mown hay. At the conclusion of the Methodist service they would ring their church bell again. On a nice day when our church doors were open I am quite sure you could hear the Methodist bell ringing in the Baptist church better then they could hear it themselves. It happened from time to time usually just as I was building toward the climax of my message.

One summer morning one of the Methodist children got permission to ring the bell at the conclusion of the service and the ringing must have gone on for five minutes. I tried to preach over the sound but eventually I lost the attention of the congregation and had to stop. After a moment of uncomfortable silence the entire congregation erupted into laughter and we all just agreed to go have Sunday dinner.

I have heard of many creative approaches to getting a pastor to shorten his message. I’ve been threatened with termination, publicly shamed, even bribed with pot roast and home-made rhubarb pie, but this is one of the most creative approaches ever. You will never convince me that some of our people were not slipping over to the Methodists and paying them to ring that bell like the whole county was on fire. The culprits who hatched that evil plot should have been locked in the basement of the Methodist church and forced to listen to old sermon cassettes. Or at the very least they should be last in line down at the Sunday Buffet. You’ve gotta’ get this kind of thing stopped before it gets out of hand and plunges the entire church into neo-orthodoxy.

(From Stonebridge Newsletter – Number 44)

Existential Emptiness

Last night in the darkness,

And in my haste,

And in my frustration of only having been given one packet of barbecue sauce for 10 chicken nuggets,

I lost one of my nuggets-

Which went unnoticed

Until this morning

In the broad light of day

When I opened the car door

And in frustration

And disappointment I found it

Lying there on the floor of my car

Lonely and cold.

Which explains that nagging sense of emptiness that would not leave me all the way home. I was a nugget short and had an existential awareness of it somewhere in the dark reaches of my soul.

[I think I heard the voice of Billy Collins in my head when I wrote this little nugget of a poem-like-thing.]

Johnson Canyon-Canadian Rockies

Red Jeep Journal

June 1, 2017

The hike up Johnson Canyon in the Canadian Rockies

I like to tell the story of my visit to Johnson Canyon in the Canadian Rockies. The water roaring down through the rocky river-banks of the canyon was a unique hue of blue-green. I asked our host and guide Jared, “Why is the water that color?”

He said; “It glacial water. The water is from snow melt high on the mountains. From early fall into late spring snow gathers up in the mountains. When it mets it runs down through this canyon carrying minerals that give it that blue-green color.”

People who know me know that I am a story-teller. But I don’t tell stories to entertain. I tell the stories of the Bible or I tell stories to illustrate or apply Bible truths. Getting the truth of the Bible into your soul is like snow on the mountains. Sometimes learning Bible truth has an immediate affect. More often it is like snow on the mountain. Over the weeks, and months, and years it melts and runs down into our lives and makes life flourish.

I get to teach the Word all summer long and into the fall in churches and in camps. According to the promises of God it will bring life to those who receive it. (Read Isaiah 55:9-10)

Sunday morning after preaching in St. Clair two different people came up to me and tearfully said; “Pastor, that message was for ME today… It was for ME…” It is a powerful thing to simply read, explain, and apply the Word of God to the lives of people. After over four decades of ministry of the Word it still surprises and delights me to have someone tell me that power effect of the Word of God. That is what I get to do almost every single day all summer long in about five or six states and two countries.

Thanks for praying and thanks for those of you who are sharing gifts to keep George the Red Jeep on road so I can teach the Word like snow on the mountains.

Band of Brothers, Hillsdale County, St. Clare and Indiana

Since I last wrote a Red Jeep Journal I spoke to a men’s group called Band of Brothers sponsored by Oakwood Community Church, pastored by Don Jackson, drove into beautiful Hillsdale County to preach at Mom and Dad’s church and, last Sunday, I discovered that St. Clair Shores and St. Clair are different cities with similar names. I had a delightful time preaching in both services of Crossroads Community Church in China Township, Michigan. Sunday I will return to Bremen, Indiana for morning and evening services.

Would You Be Willing to Help?

Please consider visiting our missionary sending-agency to donate to help us fund our ministry. We are grateful for whatever you can do.

The South Litchfield Baptist Church Parsonage

South Litchfield Baptist Church

How to Marry Well

Sitting in the student center at grad school I was getting to know a new friend. We drank coffee and talked about our families. He slid a picture of his wife across the table. “She is lovely,” I said. He must have sensed that required an explanation.

“Here is how I see it,” he said. “I believe that everyone will have at least fifteen minutes of absolute brilliance in his life and fifteen minutes of absolute ignorance. When I met my wife it just happened that it was during my fifteen minutes of brilliance and her fifteen minutes of ignorance. My fifteen minutes of brilliance and her fifteen minutes of ignorance happened at the same time.”

You might me thinking, “I would like to marry over my head, too. How can I attract a good wife or a noble husband?

What to Look For

Most people base the selection of their mate on physical appearance or animal attraction. Beyond that I suppose there is a mystical attraction some call chemistry that drives our choice of a partner. But physical attributes are not something you need to spend time considering. Physical attractiveness should take care of itself. You will probably not be able to convince yourself to marry someone you don’t find physically appealing. But it is possible if not likely that if you marry based on physical appearance that you may overlook important qualities that are essential to a happy marriage and a healthy family.

The qualities that should occupy your mind when considering a life partner for yourself or for your children should be character qualities. These are the qualities that improve with age and make the plainest person magnetic over time. They contribute to a radiance that is not immediately evident to one whose values have been distorted by our shallow culture.

If you don’t get lucky like my grad-school friend, how are you going to secure the love of a fine person? Perhaps you should do what my college roommate did. I entered the room one evening to find him kneeling by his bed in fervent prayer. I could not help but overhear that he was praying earnestly for a wife and outlining very specifically the qualities he desired in one.

That’s not an altogether bad idea. I would suggest that the Bible contains a very helpful list of qualities desirable in a life-partner in 2 Peter 1. They are eight in number, faith, virtue, knowledge, self-control, perseverance, godliness, brotherly kindness and love. They could be listed in the form of questions:

1. Is he a follower of Jesus, genuinely converted? “faith”

2. Does he have godly character? “virtue”

3. Does he know his Bible? “knowledge”

4. Does he have control of his appetites? “self-control”

5. Has he developed any vocational skills? “perseverance”

6. Is there evidence of spiritual graces in his life? “godliness”

7. Does he have social skills “brotherly kindness”

8. His he selfless and kind. “love”

This is just one of a number of useful lists in Scripture to help you evaluate potential life-partners. Don’t expect to have a happy marriage if you base your choice on material possessions, personal magnetism, physical beauty or cultural status. Instead get in the habit of evaluating the character and virtue of people you know based on qualities of character.

What Do You Do When You Find Them?

Now, let’s just suppose you do that. Suppose you do discover someone who is not only reasonably attractive but in possession or in progress toward mastery of most of the aforementioned qualities. How are you going to get a person this fine to pay any attention to you, let alone meet you at the marriage altar and vow life-long fidelity to you? How will you even get their attention? How will you secure their affection? At the risk of being unnecessarily blunt, how are YOU going to get a person like THAT to give YOU the time of day let alone the rest of their life?

After the initial shock you have to admit that is a fair question. I think I have a sound answer. It came to me years ago. I was seventeen years old and the question at the time was very pertinent to my situation and very personal. How am I going to find a good wife? This is not a new question. The question is posed in the ancient wisdom literature of the bible like this: “Who can find a virtuous woman for her price is far above rubies.”

Sage Advice

One spring night I drove my powder-blue VW Beetle to Immanuel Baptist Church in Arcanum, Ohio. They had announced special meetings with a visiting preacher. I wish I could remember his name but I cannot. I do remember very clearly two things he said. I wrote them down in the front of my Bible. One of them was the answer to our question; “How can I get a good wife or husband?” Here is what he said, “If you will concentrate on being the person God wants you to be, He will bring you who he wants you to have.”

So if you are in the market for a life-partner you might want to be very careful to take the right approach. You might want to be careful to ask the right question. The question is not, “Does the candidate for marriage have these qualities?” but rather, “Do I have these qualities?” If you will concentrate your efforts on the progressive development of Christ-like character, you will be the kind of person that will attract others of similar character. Like attracts like. If you want to attract a person of character, you must become a person of character.

That is the specific counsel of Scripture, that our adornment and focus should be on the hidden person of the heart and the ornament of a meek and quiet spirit, which are very valuable in the sight of God. If your heart longs for the fellowship of a mate, concentrate on fellowship with Jesus. If you want a person with fine moral qualities concentrate on acquiring the same moral qualities you admire and desire. If you want to spend the rest of your life with a person of character, become a person of character.

As a seventeen-year-old young man the advice of the old preacher seemed sound to me and I still believe it:

If you will concentrate on being the person God wants you to be,

He will bring you who He wants you to have.

When Wrinkles Discourage You

Jesus said our words reveal the content of our hearts. I was teaching a small class one day when one of the ladies opened her heart in an unusual way and revealed a dark thought that lay in the bottom of her soul. It was troubling.

She said; “When my husband left me I had a lot of life still ahead of me and I thought I was a catch for someone, but now years have gone by and no one seemed to want me. Now I feel like I am going to grow old and die on the couch, old, and wrinkled, and alone.”

The room grew silent with the pain of her admission. Immediately I recognized that what she had just shared with me was a lie that the enemy had embedded deep in her soul. Jesus would never tell his daughter something like that… He would never say to his beloved daughter; “You are going to die alone on the couch old and wrinkled.” He has brighter plans for his daughters than that.

Helen Barth was my mother’s role model as a pastor’s wife and as a singer. This spring I gave the eulogy at her funeral. She was lovely in her youth, but radiant in her old age despite the wrinkles that lined her face. Even in old age her voice was beautiful and her testimony was powerful. The years of faithfulness to God only added to the impact of her songs and her stories. She had a powerful spirit and a bright radiance about her.

Have you ever seen a picture George Beverly Shea, or Ruth Graham? Their faces were wrinkled but they lived meaningful lives and died surrounded by people who loved and admired them not because of their physical strength or beauty but because of their spiritual vitality.

Corrie TenBoom was plain in personal appearance and it was hard for her to move around, when she was released from the Nazi prison-camp, but she called herself a “Tramp for the Lord” traveling all over the world telling the story that there is no pit so deep God is not deeper still. She was wrinkled but she was not lonely.

Amy Charmichael served the Donavour Fellowship in India for 54 years. It was hard, unrelenting labor. It was spiritual warfare. I’m sure it took it’s toll on her. Before they laid her body beneath the bird-bath that marked her simple grave no doubt her face showed some age, but those who knew her said she glowed with an unearthly radiance.

I watched Elisabeth Elliot hold the attention of thousands of people as she spoke of God’s faithfulness to sustain her through the loss of two husbands. She was poised and well-dressed, but her influence was not dependent on her appearance.

Wrinkles don’t have to take away from your radiance, because radiance does not depend on youth. Radiance comes from deep within–from a spirit alive with God. It shows up in your life and in your face and it is more powerful than the wrinkles and baldness and bulges and aches and pains that slow us with age. Praise be unto our Eternal God!

Don’t let wrinkles discourage you. If God is your Father you have life that is eternal. One day you will step from this life into eternal life in the presence of God! Your outward person may be wasting way but your inner person–your spirit, is getting stronger every day! Live like you believe it with a smile in your heart and a spring in your step!

Ken Pierpont

Granville Cottage

Riverview, Michigan

May 27, 2017

Joy on the Road

Red Jeep Journal

May 16, 2017

Last week I preached at Bailey Road Baptist and then attended a conference at Parkside Church in Cleveland, where Alistair Begg is the pastor. It was a great time of fellowship, singing, preaching, laughter and good food. My little brother Nathan and brother-in-law Jim Evans were with me.

George the Red Jeep

George the Red Jeep is a very important part of our new traveling ministry. He is seventeen years old, but he runs well, looks good, and gets me where I need to go. I feel a special joy when I check my fluids, pray, turn the key, and start off down the road to wherever God has assigned me. Today I will replace his windshield glass the better to see the beauty of God’s creation on the way to speak to God’s people.

Last Sunday I preached at the Open Door Bible Church in Hudson, Michigan. It is in beautiful Hillsdale County. Saturday I will preach at a men’s retreat in Rose City, sponsored by Oakwood Community Church pastored by my friend Don Jackson. I will travel to South Litchfield Baptist Church on the Lord’s Day. (Mom and Dad’s church). Next Sunday I will head north to St. Clare, Michigan to speak at Crossroads Community Church.

Thanks to the “Fellowship of the Red Jeep”

Jesus’ ministry was sustained by the gifts and hospitality of people who believed in Him. He went about teaching and doing good. In a similar way, the Pierpont Family has been sustained financially by the gifts of God’s people who believed in what we were doing. It’s still that way. Thanks so much for all of you who have been a part of our team. Visit Ripe for Harvest to share a monthly amount for our support.

Full Travel Schedule

Many of you have asked where George the Red Jeep will be taking us. You can now follow us on-line. Check it out. Click this link to see our travel schedule. We will be on the road preaching the gospel and telling stories of Jesus and His love almost non-stop from now to September 10 and beyond as the schedule fills out into the fall and winter of 2018.

Ken Pierpont

Granville Cottage

Riverview, Michigan

May 16, 2017

Bad Hair Day?

Do you have a minute for an encouraging story? I was on the road in Ohio and took a minute to share a story. Here it is. Hope is puts a spring in your step today…

Four Facts About Church

1. If you go to church you are going to be amazingly blessed by church people.

2. If you go to church you are also going to be deeply hurt by church people.

3. Sometimes the people who bless you are the same people who will hurt you.

4. Sometimes you will be both the one who blessed and the one who hurt.

Don’t doubt that God will work through imperfect church people. Jesus died for the church. Jesus loves the church–she is His bride.. The local church is the hope of the world… Don’t doubt it.

I want to be faithful to Jesus’ church. It’s the least I can do after all He has done for me.

The Fellowship of the Red Jeep

Those who join our support team through regular monthly giving are a part of “Fellowship of the Red Jeep.” As you can imagine, this is a very special group to us.

To join our monthly support team or send a gift that is tax-deductible follow this link.