Basking in the Goodness of God May 28, 2007
When I lead a Journey to the Heart it is an experience in intense discipleship in a group of twelve, the way Jesus did it. I do as much of the teaching as I can outdoors. Between lessons sometimes I enjoy of luxury of a snooze in the sunshine. When this picture was taken I was basking in the goodness of God.
Men of Valor
It’s Memorial Day today. My Grandfather was a WWII veteran and on Memorial Day we would often visit the farm and take in a remembrance service, and visit our family’s gravesite. I won’t be able to do that today. All my grandparents are with the Lord and now I am a grandpa.
Each of my grandparents loved the Lord, they loved their country, and they loved me. Grandpa Pierpont was a skilled storyteller and it was common for him to tell stories of manliness, honor, and valor. The success and survival of a community or a culture demands men of honor, principle, conviction and courage.
For four years I directed a Christian ministry housed in a large hotel. The hotel had sixteen floors. The building was originally a Hyatt Hotel in downtown Flint, Michigan so it looked like a public building, but it was not open to the public. Sometimes people from the street would get into the building innocently looking for services. Other times people from the street would get into the building to steal things or to do harm.
One night I was alerted by the front desk that there was in intruder in the building. I gathered a few men to investigate. We began to go from floor to floor and from room to room looking for the intruder. Word got out to the students who were housed in the building. The women stayed in their rooms but the men rallied like it was a grand adventure and when they rallied they were a sight to behold.
They looked for all the world like the invasion of the Visigoths and the Vandals. Every man had a make-shift weapon of some kind. There were ball bats, tennis rackets, table legs, pellet guns, blow darts, sections of bed frames, golf clubs and kitchen knives. One young man proudly produced a broad sword and another brandished a stout cast iron skillet. They assembled in the lobby. It was comical to see. Never before have I seen such an assembly of unbridled testosterone armed with sporting goods. If they did discover the invader I sincerely feared that he might collapse and die in violent convulsions of laughter at the sight of them. At the least he would be rendered powerless until the police arrived.
If you are a man you have an assignment from God to physically and spiritually protect those who are place in our care. Most men I know are not skilled in spiritual warfare. They are not a factor to be reckoned with. They are at best a little clumsy and ill-prepared for the enemies they face. They are aware of their responsibility to protect and provide physically but they are negligent in their spiritual responsibilities which are eternally more important.
We never found the invader and eventually the men made their way back to their rooms with their weapons to wait for another day, but the spiritual enemies a man must face are real and they are experienced and they are dangerous. Many millions of men stronger than you and I have had everything that is dear taken from them and demonically abused and mistreated before their eyes. Our enemy, Satan, would like to ravage those who are dear to you and take them into slavery in front of your eyes. Like the ancient enemies of Israel he would like to capture your loved ones, kill them and then put out your eyes so you are tortured with your last memory. He hates everything good and everyone God created, especially those who are the children of God. If you don’t deal with him he will deal with you and there are no exceptions to that rule.
Jesus said; When a strong man, fully armed, guards his own palace, his goods are in peace. When the enemy considers you does he tremble or does he just laugh?
Ken Pierpont
Brook Place
Hinsdale, Illinois
Memorial Day May 28, 2007
Mosquitoes May 21, 2007
As beautiful as our world is, it is fallen and sin-cursed. There is enough beauty here to stir our hearts with longing for God and enough of the curse to remind us that this world as it is is not our final destination.
I am headed for the Northwoods again. It is beautiful there. Tannin-stained waters clear to the bottom, the northern lights, bright stars over the lake, the call of the loon, bonfires at night, it is a beautiful place. I look forward to going there. The only thing that mars the paradise of the Northwoods is that there are enough mosquitoes there to sink the Titanic.
Yesterday at lunch Dwight Fredrickson told me that it was only twenty degrees in the Northwoods the night before. “Great,” I said, “Maybe that will kill off the mosquitoes.”
“It won’t kill them. It will just make them more irritable,” he said.
I said; “O, that’s funny.
“No, I’m not kidding,” he said. “They really do seem to be more aggressive after a freeze than before.”
Dwight reminded me that he grew up in Minnesota so he had the credentials to speak with authority about such things and he is a precise man not given to overstatement.
I just hope they will be calmed down by the time we get there. They are bad enough without getting them angry. With all the other things that complicate my life I don’t need to contend with angry mosquitoes.
The Northwoods is such a beautiful place, so peaceful, so beautiful, and so idyllic, it is good that there are mosquitoes, gnats and black flies. If they were not there we would get the false impression that we had already reached glory. God is faithful to allow enough beauty to tug our hearts heavenward and enough hardship to remind us that we are not there yet.
Ken Pierpont
Brook Place
Hinsdale, Illinois
May 21, 2007
Grandson! May 16, 2007
Can you imagine our rejoicing today? This is our first grandson… our first grandchild. He was born in Mishawaka, Indiana on the 16th of May, 2007. He was 7 pounds and 14 ounces and twenty-two inches in length. He has a set of preacher’s lungs on his designed for heralding the gospel. We drove over yesterday and I was able to bless him within the first few yours of his life. Lois was holding him in this picture. I think that is why he looks so happy and content.
Can you believe how beautiful, no radiant, his GRANDMOTHER looks!
Grandmother Lois and Kyle Kenneth. Praise to the Lord!
Just Outside the Window May 7, 2007
If I ever wrote myself into a story I would have to live in a house with a lilac bush outside our bedroom window so the evening breeze would carry the scent of lilac into the room as I say goodnight to the Lord and drift into sleep.
It is springtime now and I am thinking about things like that. This is our first spring in our house here in Hinsdale. I’ve been away some. The other morning was a glorious, sunny, spring morning. I was getting dressed and Lois opened the blinds. The sun shone in. The pines were noisy with birdsongs. To my delight, just below or second-floor bedroom window, at the corner of the stone patio was lilac bush in full flower.
A few years ago someone took the time to plant a lilac bush at the corner of the patio, just under our bedroom window. This spring it is ours to enjoy. It is my goal in life to nudge everyone I meet a little closer to the Lord Jesus, to lead as many to Christ as I can and spend my life obeying the commands of Christ and teaching others to do the same. Today I would like to plant some things and get some things started that will bring fragrance and beauty into the lives of others for years to come.
Ken Pierpont
Brook Place
Hinsdale, Illinois
May 7, 2007
Ken's new book - Sunset On Summer, now available for order, $13.95 each.