The Best Place to Do Theology January 9, 2006
Last night I checked the mail and it is official. All my requirements for my Master’s Degree from Moody Graduate School are now complete. I started six years ago almost to the day.
My Bank January 2, 2006
I used to own a bank, but I lost it. Actually, it was taken away from me. My Dad took it. My aunt gave it to me. It was a Christmas present. She made it herself. It was a green Cocker Spaniel bank. It was sort of a kosher-version of the classical piggy-bank. It was ceramic. It sat right on my dresser and I kept my allowance in it. Every week I put a couple nickels in it. I made a dime shoveling the drive. I got a little allowance almost every week. It had a hole in the bottom and my dad covered it with cardboard so the money wouldn’t fall out. Eventually it started getting heavy. I imagined all the things that I could do with all that money.
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My Little Brother December 28, 2005
I stumbled across this little piece on my hard-drive today looking for something else. It interested me. Maybe it will interest you, too. About a year ago I preached in the church where my little brother is the pastor. Here is how I introduced the message:
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New Year Idea December 25, 2005
I have a pastor friend who is hurting. After years of pastoring the same church he was betrayed by a near associate and the church he spent his entire ministry building split leaving him devastated. Within a few months he had a major physical set-back. I spoke with him on Christmas Eve. He is a wounded man.
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Brad’s Christmas Prayer
I have a tradition. I write a Christmas story for my family every year. I read it on Christmas Eve or on Christmas night. Tonight (Christmas 2005) after everything else was over we all sat down and I read the story for this year.
After the story we had pumpkin pie. It was a beautiful day. I have included the story here, Brad’s Christmas Prayer. I hope you like it. The next post is last year’s story, Highland Park
Brad’s Christmas Prayer
Brad is alone on Christmas Eve for the first time in years. He was on the road. In a few hours, depending on weather, he would be home but when he got there he would still be alone.
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Giving: A Rare and Wonderful Gift December 18, 2005
There is such joy in giving. I had just a taste of it when I was young.
When I was about fourteen years old I made fifteen dollars a week delivering the Dayton Journal Herald Monday through Saturday morning. In my neighborhood was a small store with bikes and toys and hardware called Western Auto. I was browsing in the store one day about a month before Christmas and my eyes fell on something I had always wanted myself when I was younger. It was an electric football game. This was long before realistic and reliable computer games were introduced. But the television commercials made those electric football sets look irresistible. They had little plastic men on tiny plastic feet the moved when the board vibrated.
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A Christmas Gift From Heaven
Tomorrow is Hannah’s birthday. Here is a poem I wrote when see was born:
Our snow-enshrouded home was nestled
neath God’s providential care
Anticipating the arrival
of a special package there.
Then as if dispatched from heaven
borne on angel-wings
A parcel came to rest among
our festive fashionings
What a priceless little bundle
of life and dreams and love
Came into our home last Christmas
like a present from above.
Yuletide night my eyes were misty
if I must tell the truth
For the Christmas gift from heaven
of our precious Hannah Ruth.
Kenneth L. Pierpont
December 1989
SNOWY DAY December 2, 2005
I worked security last night. I could tell on the monitors it was snowing through the night. When I finished my shift I went to sleep for a few hours. When I woke Lois was excited because the snow was falling. She announced that it was the perfect day to get our tree. I agreed.
LOIS’ PHOTOS: To see some of her photos of the day you can visit her site. This picture was taken on the little tree farm we have patronized for the last three Christmases. After we got our tree we drove to Frankenmuth. Now we have our new tree tucked in the corner of our cozy living room.
MERRY CHRISTMAS
On John Piper January 26, 2005
I am convinced that John Piper is a gift to the church for our day. Often when I observe the apostasy and coldness of the church, the compromise and worldliness… my heart aches, but when I read men like John Piper and see that there are many who long for their faithful treatment of the Word, my heart is alive with hope again. Thank God for Piper. I say read him and read those he reads and let God do a deeper work in your soul. Someday I will meet him and I will thank him for the blessing he has been to me.
Alive to Wonder December 22, 2004
Last Christmas Eve I was sitting in our cozy home when I felt a tug to go to a downtown church for the Christmas Eve service. I got my topcoat and keys and headed out. Kyle and Hannah went along. It was perfect. Snow was falling in the city.
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Ken's new book - Sunset On Summer, now available for order, $13.95 each.