Itching Ears May 5, 2008
I borrowed this post from the TeamPyro… Read on and you will see why Spurgeon is still on my top shelf and always will be. One day I will add a set of The Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit to my library. For now I have to settle for my digital version.
In reference to ministers, many church-members are indifferent as to the personal piety of the preacher; what they want is talent or cleverness. What the man preaches does not matter now; he must draw a crowd, or please the elite, and that is enough. Cleverness is the main thing. One would think they were looking for a conjurer rather than a pastor. Whether he preaches truth or error, the man is held in admiration so long as he can talk glibly, and keep up a reputation as a speaker.
If we had truer piety in members and deacons, pretenders would soon take their wares to other markets. Alas! I fear there has been great laxity in the admission of members, and the quality of our churches has become defiled and debased by “the mixed multitude,” among whom all manner of evil finds a congenial dwelling-place. Unhappy leader, who has an Achan in his own camp! Better that Demas should forsake us, than that he should abide with us, and import the world into the church. -Charles Spurgeon
Run to India
Last night one of our missionaries, P. V. Joseph, spoke at Evangel. He is a church-planter and educator in India. He invited me to speak to the graduation at his Bible School. There will be over a thousand people at the graduation. There will be an opportunity to train national pastors. I also have an invitation to visit Bangladesh and minister there. I’m thinking about running a marathon to raise a little air fare and taking one of my children with me to each of these places so our hearts will be enlarged for the world. When I get the details worked out I will probably ask each of you to donate a dollar for every mile I run. So save your money because, if I finish the marathon, I will hit you up for $26.20 each.
Dear Mom
(In 2005 I wrote this letter to my mother for Mother’s Day)
Thank you for all you have done for so many years for all of us and for Dad. You have put music in our lives every day. You have put bread on the table.
Above all, thank you for treasuring Christ since you were in the third grade every day. People search musty books and travel to remote places to sit at the feet of sages to discover evidence of God or form arguments for the existence of God. I never had to do that. All I had to do was look in the next room and I could always see Him in you.
Thank you for doing all the things you had to do to make our home a fine, Christian home. God has rewarded you with 31 grandchildren so far. Imagine the far-reaching impact of your quiet faithfulness in small things. It will touch the lives of thousands if Jesus’ return is not soon.
I hope you know this morning that I love you and appreciate you and cherish you. Thank you for your song. Thank you for your constant instruction and conviction about the things of Christ. Thank you for maintaining high standards all your life that clearly flowed from a heart of love for Christ. Thank you for making me clothes, meals, even making my bed. (I still feel guilty about that one).
I was traveling with the boys the other day on the way to a speaking assignment and quizzing them on basic Bible knowledge. I found myself praying that I could instruct my children in the Bible and theology as well as you did us. Thank you so much for all those JOY Clubs and Good News Clubs and Five Day Clubs and after school teachings. I have such a love for stories and for singing and for the Bible. I know that you are largely responsible for that.
I remember doing the funeral of an elderly woman one day. At the close standing at the head of the casket her son was the last one to say goodbye before the casket was closed. He stood and wept and then, suddenly, without warning grabbed his mother’s body and began to pull it up and cried out over and over again in a pitiful voice, “O mother, I’m sorry. I’m so sorry. Please forgive me mother, I’m sorry.”
His pitiful cries rang in my ears for a long time. I don’t want to come to the end of my life and leave the important things unsaid. If any good comes from my life, I owe it to you and Dad. Not just because I came into this world through you but because of your clear, continual, Christian testimony that flowed out of the fountain of love for Christ within you.
I wish I could buy you expensive gifts today and be with you and take you to a fine restaurant. I wish I could afford to take you to some lovely place that you would enjoy and remember for the rest of your life. I will tell you this, Mom. I want you to know that I am going to do my best with all my heart to see that your grandchildren carry the same temperature of faith that is in you to their children, your great-grandchildren. One day we will have riches that are beyond the scope of our finite imagination. One day we will travel to a place so beautiful and wonderful beyond human description and we will be together forever there with all the rough edges taken off, all the pain and sadness of sin lifted forever, and to think in the presence of the One whom we have loved without seeing for so long.
Thank you most of all for making Him real to my heart. I love you, Mom.
Ken (Mother’s Day—May 8, 2005)
Well, there you go. Now you have almost a week to write your mom a letter or find her a nice gift, or plan a visit to make her Mother’s Day special.
Ken Pierpont
Granville Cottage
Riverview, Michigan
May 5, 2008
Pre-tour Tour May 2, 2008
Next week the girls head to Kentucky on a pre-tour tour. In June they will be doing their Kentucky Mountain Parkway Tour. They will sing on TV, porches, churches, the street, Hoedown Island at Daniel Boone State Park, Bethany Children’s Home in Breathitt County, and other places. They will start by going through Ohio and singing at Zion Christian Union Church in Perry County, Ohio.
We Will Never Die
It’s a nice warm day in the Downriver by Sunday morning the lilacs will have burst into bloom here at the church. While spring is bursting into life around us it seems that we have been visited with dying of late. On the way home from the church to Granville Cottage there is a cemetery. There are at least a half dozen fresh mounds there. It’s good to be alive, but it is better to know that in Christ we will never, never die.
Dan Cummings is a pastor friend who I admire in so many ways. He is one of the finest preachers in the state. He is a marathoner. He is a good dad and a fine husband. He is a leader of men. I admire him more than I can say and often listen to his preaching on my iPod.
A few weeks ago it was announced that he has inoperable cancer. If God does not choose to intervene in a miracle, he will not live. He is trying to write and preach to the glory of God while he is dying. He is writing and preaching through his affliction. This is his blog. There are links to his preaching, too.
We often quote Richard Baxter who said; I preach as a dying man to dying men. We all preach as dying men to dying men. In light of Dan’s condition the reality of that is very sharp now. May God give Dan grace to die if that is what He has chosen for him. May he give each of us grace to live and die.
May each of us seize every moment of life we are given for the Glory of God and for things eternal that will never pass away. It’s good to be alive but it is much better to know that in Chrsit we will never, never die.
Pastor Ken Pierpont
The Study
Evangel Baptist Church
May 2, 2008
The Simple Joy of Missions April 28, 2008
In May 2006 I skipped my graduate school commencement and Chuk skipped his college graduation ceremony to take advantage of a missionary opportunity. Our family went with an evangelistic team to Mexico. One evening we visited a tiny, humble village on Lake Chapala. Most of the streets in the village were dirt. The main street was cobblestone.
The street was filled with children when we got there. We had a big watermelon to use for a skit, but someone had the idea that we should just slice the melon and give it out to children. A long line of children formed for watermelon. One of our team members made animal balloons. Another line formed there. Three or four girls visited in homes. I walked to a little shop that opened up to the street and ordered a Coke. I didn’t drink the water in Mexico but I put away the Coke. In Mexico they are cheap and cold and sold in real glass bottles.
Dan, Wes, and Chuk juggled. We sang to draw a crowd, told stories and did skits. Finally it was time to go. Most of the team made their way to the bus, but two of our young women stayed behind. The sun had set and the street was getting dark. I stayed with them. One of them knew Spanish. She interpreted while the other told the gospel story to a group of about five teenaged girls from the village. I watched. None of the girls looked away from her eyes for even a second. She explained the gospel and prayed with the girls, then we all walked back to the bus in the cool night air.
That spring night in a tiny, poor village in Mexico, a young lady from Indiana and another from Boston were learning missions first-hand. On the bus home they were tired but joyful that they had been able to give the gospel and pray with the girls. I will never forget the look in the eyes of each of the girls, the joyful chatter of our young ladies, the cool of the night, or the worn cobblestone streets of the village. I will never tire of telling the story.
Ken Pierpont
Granville Cottage
Riverview, Michigan
April 28, 2008
Be an Inviter April 25, 2008
A few years ago I stumbled across a unique restaurant in Fenton, Michigan called “The French Laundry.” One morning I took Lois there. We sat and watched what people ordered. The waiter walked past the table one morning with a waffle the size of a small state piled with a mountain of fresh strawberries and a mound of whipped cream. Lois said, “I’m getting that when I come back.” Over the years we lived in the area Lois and I split not a few of those strawberry waffles. I would get the waffle at the end and drown it with real maple syrup. With the French Laundry house coffee it was memorable.
One day, speaking in our college chapel, I described the French Laundry and their legendary waffle. I think I noticed the students drooling. (Chapel was always just before breakfast). Immediately our students began to frequent the Laundry. This made me very popular with the owner. Sometimes on a Saturday morning I fight a strong temptation to get Lois, jump in the car, and drive to Fenton—but I resist the urge because I want to thoroughly explore and patronize Downriver businesses.
Evangel is one of the best-kept secrets around. If we describe it to others with genuine enthusiasm many will come and share what we enjoy.
If you are in the Evangel family one of the things you are going to hear from us over and over again is: “Learn to be an inviter.” Keep a running list in your heart of people you are going to invite to join you here at Evangel. There is nothing quite as pure and powerful as the testimony of a “satisfied customer.”
This may surprise you, but one of the most significant things you can do to serve the Lord, help people, and make your life count for eternity is learn to enthusiastically invite others to church. You don’t want to badger or button-hole people. You just want to show them your enthusiasm and joy in what you have enjoyed.
Pastor Ken Pierpont
The Study
Evangel Baptist Church–Taylor, Michigan
April 25, 2008
Spring Watch
Lois invited me on a walk last night. I’m glad I went. It’s a lot less punishing than the game of “21″ the boys and Hope were putting me through in the driveway. After months of pale winter the neighborhood finally has some color in it’s cheeks. There are scores of flowering ornamentals in our neighborhood. They are fragrant and beautiful and they do my heart good after a long, snowy, monochrome winter. It rained last night and deepened the shade of green in the grass to emerald. Branches that have been bare and black all winter are fringed with fresh green or decorated with blossoms now. The highlight of our walk was around the corner from our house. One of our neighbors has a dogwood. Right now the blossoms are a greenish yellow, but in a few more warm days the little tree will display bright while blossoms. It is the tree that dotted the hillsides of my childhood. Maybe one day we will find a spot for a Flowering Dogwood at Granville Cottage. Every day the creation displays the glory of God.
Spring at Granville Cottage April 21, 2008
We moved into the Granville Cottage just as the last leaf fell from the trees. I have to count again to make sure, but I think we have nine trees in our yard. There are a number of shrubs and bushes. Now that spring is here we’ve had some happy surprises around the cottage. A few days ago we were delighted to discover daffodils springing up along the fence in back and from the ground cover. Along the very back fence is a huge, brilliant, yellow forsythia bush. It just flames in the morning sun. We open the back door to the beautiful sound of dozens of birds. Maybe someday I will even get a Dogwood to grow in our yard.
Last week I had a happy experience. Jan Karon read a little piece I wrote about her and posted at www.kenpierpont.com and she posted on my site. So I guess I’m mixin’ it up with the big-hitters now. She is a very gracious Christian lady.
I hope you will take time to listen to the messages in my series Everything You Ever Need based on Psalm 139. You can find it on the podcast page at www.evangelbaptist.com
Well, Hope turned nine yesterday and we are going out for her little birthday breakfast today—so until next week, I have to run. I have a little girl here that’s growin’ up on me and I have to spend time with her while I can.
Left Behind
One night the older girls went out on their in-line skates and left little Hope behind because she can’t keep up. Usually they take her almost everywhere they go so it is hard for her to be left behind. She told me about it with a little catch in her voice so I knew it was time for Dad to practice some dadness. I said; “Would you like me to take you to the park?”
She said; “Sure!” (She has the sweetest way in the world of saying “sure,” you would have to hear it for yourself).
In a few minutes we were at our lovely neighborhood park. For about a week we had been enduring record heat but the night before the temperature was dropped off and it was pretty chilly. I could tell we would not be able to stay at the park too long.
After a few minutes I said, “Hey you wanna’ call and have mom meet us at the ice cream shop?”
She said, “Sure!”
So in a few minutes we were sitting in the window of the ice cream shop watching the traffic in the village. Hope ordered an ice cream that tasted like cotton candy and looked like it was from outer space and she forgot all about being left behind.
Some day she will skate away. I won’t be able to keep up. I will be left behind. I’ll have a catch in my voice then. I hope somebody will notice and take me to the park or buy by ice cream.
Ken Pierpont
Granville Cottage
Riverview, Michigan
April 21, 2008
Ken's new book - Sunset On Summer, now available for order, $13.95 each.