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

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 …

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. …

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.
The service was everything you could expect of a Christmas Eve service. The people were friendly and warm. Everyone dressed for the season. The choir was delightful. The pastor was at his best. …

Ken Pierpont is a small-town pastor at heart, who loves people. He loves his wife, he loves his children, he loves God and he loves life. This love spills over into each of his stories. Everywhere he looks he sees extraordinary truths about God demonstrated in ordinary people and common places. He is the father of eight children and he has been a rural and small-town pastor for nearly twenty-five years starting the summer after his junior year in high school when he was only seventeen …

I’ve always enjoyed going to the in-laws for Christmas. Some years they seem tolerant of me, too. Mostly I think they just want me to get Lois and the kids and the presents there and then stay out of the way. I have really never been very good at keeping out of the way. I am an “in-the- way” kinda’ guy. Around the holidays I always resolve to try real hard though.

It’s Christmas again, the season of love and good will. It is the season of undying hope and Christian charity. It is the time of the year when kindness wells up within the most hardened souls. Christmas is the season when we look forward to the sound of carols, and sleigh bells, and most of all the musical laughter of little children.

Years ago in Ohio I gathered a few couples in the home of a friend once a week and taught them the basic message of the Bible. I explained the gospel and on the last of the six weeks I had our hosts, Dan and Barb Donegan, tell the story of how they came to know the Lord. Kyle watched the children in the basement each week. Driving home after the last week I was disappointed that no one had come to profess faith in Christ but …

The guys were going to Grand Rapids to a book store that smells of coffee. Then they were going to spend some time looking at guitars. I had other things to do but I really didn’t like the idea of the guys being gone all day without me. And I especially didn’t like the idea of missing out on a lazy Saturday browsing the bookstore that smells of fresh-brewed coffee. I invited myself to go along. They are always eager to have me along because …

A. W. Tozer once wrote: “What comes to your mind when you think about God is the most important thing about you. Worship is pure or base as the worshipper entertains high or low thoughts of God. The man who comes to a right belief about God is relieved of ten thousand temporal problems.” That’s the point of my essay today: