Communication February 29, 2008
At the end of March I will be speaking at an Effective Communications Seminar in Dallas. Click here for information. Or Here
Freedom
Satan wants to destroy believers. He hates everything about us. He wants to make us defeated and ineffective. If he can’t have us in hell he will try to introduce elements of hell into our lives here on earth. He will torment us and try to separate us from fellowship with our Father. I know this because the word clearly teaches it, but I also know it because it has been my personal experience. Even now the evil one is trying to destroy me, defeat me, damage my testimony, and reduce my effectiveness for God. He is trying to keep me from sweet, intimate fellowship with Jesus by getting me to give my worship, loyalty, and attention to food.
I have discovered a helpful site and a 60-day Bible study on being free in my eating habits. Click here to visit the site. It is called Setting Captives Free. Let me know what you think.
Prodigal Advice February 28, 2008
Here is a good article about what to do when you have a wayward loved one.
Here is another version with a little more detail.
This one includes comments and thoughts from Dad.
It was sweet to be at the Desiring God Pastor’s Conference early this month with three of my sons and hear Abraham Piper introduce his Dad who would do a biographical message on his grandfather, Bill Piper. Take hope all who pray for wayward loved ones.
My Protective Instinct February 25, 2008
God has gifted Lois and I with four sons and four daughters. He has also gifted me with a strong protective instinct. You have to be very careful with a strong protective instinct. It can get you in trouble if you’re not careful. (more…)
Preaching Notes for Romans 3-5 February 21, 2008
Notes for Sunday Morning’s Message: Justification by Faith
Notes for Sunday Evening’s Message:
You can listen to these messages by clicking here.
The Moon in the Mountains February 18, 2008
One evening we took a drive through the mountains of Eastern Kentucky, near the birthplace of my wife. We went to the southeast into the mountains from Wolfe County to Breathitt County on our way to Jackson. It was a clear night and the moon was rising full. That night we had a delightful experience. We noticed something we had never seen before. Because we the mountains were rising and falling beneath us our perspective on the moon—the angle from which we viewed it was constantly changing. It created the illusion that the moon was moving around the sky. At first we could see it just over the trees. Later it was nestled in a hollow. Still later it seemed to be higher in the wide open sky. The beauty and the effect of that moon rise have stayed with me for years.
I have to get out every once in a while and look on big water or gaze into the night sky. I have to watch a moon rise full on a summer evening or look on a mountain range. My soul craves the majesty of God. My heart longs for the mysteries of God. There are beautiful messages about the power of God and the mysteries of God in creation.
According to the Bible, God continually reveals himself in His creation shouting his glory for all to hear, but he has revealed with greater precision his majesty and his mysteries in his Word, the Bible. Truths of heaven and hell, redemption, justification, imputation, regeneration, propitiation, sanctification, glory, and many other doctrines are designed to capture our hearts and satisfy our longings for mystery by revealing God in a clearer way. It’s not unlike the stirring you feel when you see the moon through the winter forest or the stars in the dome of heaven. It is the same in kind but much greater in scale. The doctrines of the Bible are big, truths capable of inspiring wonder, awe, and worship. To consider them with a hungry believing heart is to find a great satisfaction in a deep place.
If you haven’t discovered this, there is a pleasure greater, sweeter, purer than you have ever imagined in the doctrines of God. I walked with Hope one moonlight night along the straits of Macinac hand in hand. I will never forget the rare pleasure of her fellowship in such a beautiful setting. Our Father delights in our company too, and we can delight in His.
Ken Pierpont
Granville Cottage
Riverview, Michigan
February 18, 2008
Philip Gulley: Good Writing about Bad Theology. February 14, 2008
Here are some thoughts I have written after reading “If Grace is True” and “If God is Love” by Philip Gulley and James Mulholland.
I think Phillip Gulley has a kind heart and a clouded mind. Philip Gulley is a nice guy with a great sense of humor who has written some wonderful books-but he stopped. He didn’t stop writing well and he didn’t stop getting books published. While the quality of his writing as continued, perhaps even improved, his theology has become corrupted in dangerous ways.
He has become of victim of his own affable spirit. Apparently he has been unable to reconcile in his mind and in his theological construct the clear statements of the Bible about eternal judgment. He still quotes the Bible and has a degree of reverence and respect for it but he has openly denied its factual reliability. He denies the reality of hell though he still cherishes hopes of heaven for all. He doubts the deity of Jesus and the effect of his death though he still has regard for the ethic that Jesus embodies to him.
This is a simple denial of sound, orthodox understanding of the Bible message. It is a departure or denial of historic Christianity. He has embraced universalism. His theology is expressed in a readable and anecdotal style but it is a serious and subtle attack on sound thinking about the message of salvation. If Philip Gulley is wrong, there is a great deal to be lost in embracing his views, as warm and compelling as they are. They are a restatement of some of the basic ideas of classical theological liberalism. This is interesting because classical liberalism is now a bit anachronistic as it has been displaced by post-modernism and syncretism and, they tell me that even as I am just beginning to get a grip on post-modernism it is going out of fashion.
Trusted people who know about these things are saying that on the buffet of ideas post-modernism is being whisked away and it is being replaced by other entrees for our metaphysical taste buds. Food poisoning is still deadly, even when it when it disguises itself with fancy intellectual-sounding names.
Ideas are even more deadly when they disguise themselves in the homespuns of warm middle-American virtue. That’s what Philip Gulley has done.
There are two big problems with Mr. Gulley’s lastest writings you can see one by looking back and the other by looking forward. If you look back you will see this is not the historic Christian faith. If you dare to look forward you will see that the fruit of this belief will not produce holy-living or genuine love Mr. Gulley wants to foster.
Denying depravity will not insulate us from its effects. Classical liberalism has lowered the standards of holiness and morality and ethics but it is powerless to produce the miracle of a new heart and a new life in people. And it is powerless to deliver people from judgment of which Jesus frequently warned people. How can we justify taking from the pages of the Bible only the things that warm our hearts and rejecting things that warn us of danger. How can we revere only a part of the Bible and reject another part? How can we be devout cynics?
Brothers February 13, 2008
Discernment February 12, 2008
Have you seen the Nooma videos? They are hip, but are they helpful? They are cool, but are they correct? They are trendy, but are they true?
Shepherds at heart are always on the alert for danger and there is nothing as dangerous as spiritual danger. The virgin birth matters. The authority of Scripture matters. A right understanding of the atonement matters. A clear undersatnding and presentation of the Gospel matters. Truth matters. Truth must trump style. For those of you who have an interest in truth and discernment here are some thoughtful reviews.
I thought this post on a Rob Bell event was noteworthy too.
If you like audio, here is an interesting interview by a couple discerning men. John MacArthur’s comments about his book Truth War is about a third of the way into the program.
When Bad News is Good News February 11, 2008
In 1978 I was twenty years old. Shortly after Thanksgiving that year I was travelling across Texas with a singing group from my college. One evening I was enjoying the hospitality of a church family, watching the movie, Orka, the Killer Whale, when I was overcome with pain in my abdomen. They took me to Spring Branch Memorial Hospital in Houston. The Hispanic doctor asked; “Have you had Mexican food this evening?
“Yes, quite a bit,” I said.
“Have you ever had Mexican food before?”
“No, this is the first time.”
“Well I’m afraid you’re a Gringo who just can’t handle his Mexican food.” He gave me a strong antacid and sent me home. I tried to sleep but things just got worse. Finally I could take the pain no more. I returned to the hospital.
After many painful hours of observation they finally decided that I had acute appendicitis and prepared me for surgery. Once they were sure it was appendicitis they gave me a shot of something very strong that seemed to make all my troubles go away immediately. In no time I was feeling fine and preparing to fly back to Springfield, Missouri—without my appendix—to be comforted by my then-girlfriend, Lois.
What if the doctor in Houston, when he discovered that I had appendicitis, had not wanted to frighten me with bad news? What if he just said gave me a shot for pain and sent me home? An inflamed appendix can burst and lead to a painful, poisonous death. A strong narcotic for pain would have masked the symptoms and cost me my life.
Sometimes the very best news you can give someone is bad news.
It’s popular to stage happy, positive, entertaining church services that make people feel good these days. I like to think of myself as a positive person. I like to see people happy too, but if something deadly is happening, it’s the truth that might save their life, even if the truth is bad news. Sometimes the best news is bad news.
Recently I have been studying the book of the Bible that explains the Gospel (the word Gospel means “good news”) in the clearest terms. It is the New Testament book of Romans. The first section of the Good News book of Romans is the bad news that all of humanity has a terminal illness called sin. It’s a little like the doctor telling you that you have a deadly disease. The rest of the book tells you how to be delivered from the deadly disease. Until the bad news really dawns on you the good news really doesn’t make sense.
Ken Pierpont
Granville Cottage
Riverview, Michigan
February 11, 2008
Ken's new book - Sunset On Summer, now available for order, $13.95 each.