We traveled light to Mexico. I packed a blue blazer and kaki slacks, some dress shirts and work clothes. I wore a wonderful used pair of loafers I discovered in “lost and found.” I kept them shined up. They looked great. When we returned from Mexico we were to report to Nashville and then go through Ft. Wayne, Indiana to perform a wedding before returning home. I didn’t have a suit for the wedding but I didn’t want to have to carry one all over Mexico. I hoped that a blazer would do.

The night of the rehearsal I regretted by decision and whished I had a suit to wear to preach the wedding. In the morning of the wedding I went for a cup of coffee. Next door to the hotel was a large Salvation Army Thrift Store. I had an idea. I slipped in quickly walked to a rack containing a few suits. I picked up a double breasted, gray, checked suit.

I went into the dressing room tried it on. It fit almost perfectly, a little snug at the waist but nothing a couple of months of running wouldn’t cure. I left it on, picked up a striped tie for fifty cents. Since I was already wearing a white dress shirt I put it on, walked out of the dressing room and up to the check out counter. I pulled the tags off the clothes, paid for them and walked out dressed for the wedding in a suit and tie—for a mere ten dollar bill. No one knew that I bought the whole outfit for about a third of the price of a good tie.

This morning, out on the back steps, I was reading my Bible and thinking about the freedom and simplicity of contentment. Someone once said; “Contentment is when I realize God has already given me everything I need for my present happiness.” I try to remind myself; “There are two ways to have everything you want, one is to acquire more, the other is to desire less.”

Keep your life free from love of money, and be content with what you have, for he has said, “I will never leave you nor forsake you.” (Heb 13:5 ESV)

Ken Pierpont
Granville Cottage
Riverview Michigan
March 20, 2010

The sun is shining on the Granville Cottage and the temperature is going to be over 50 degrees today! The snow is melting into little rivulets and running away. Holly has been driving around with her sunroof open. Hazard is straining at his lead. Saturday the boys rolled the basketball goal out into the drive. The neighborhood is coming out of hibernation. The church house was nearly full yesterday. (We still have a whole section of the balcony that I call left field bleachers to fill). We are Michigan people so we know we could still get slammed with winter weather, but for now we are blissful as the birds and singing the praises of spring. Sunday morning just before church Bessie Bass told me they had crocuses coming up through the snow in their backyard in Rockwood. She said it with a smile on her face and a gleam in her eye. Hope springs eternal in the human breast.

We have ordered 10,000 invitation cards. The people of Evangel will use them to invite friends to visit on Resurrection Sunday. We are praying that the balcony will be full and that it doesn’t snow. Hey Hazard wants out. I gotta’ run.

When I finished I prayed and stood at the head of the casket. All the guests all filed past. One of the last of the guests was a little girl with red hair—Rebbecca. She was almost too small to see over the lip of the casket. She stood in line weeping. When she reached the casket and looked in at her grandmother’s body for the last time her little heart just broke and the tears came in a stream.

I had never met her and did not know her name, but heart went out to her and I found myself praying, “Lord, would you let me be that little girl’s pastor?”

To my surprise and delight, the following Sunday nearly the whole extended family arrived at the little Grange Hall where our fledgling church met.

Little Rebbecca and her whole family were there. I visited their home. They began to attend regularly. I offered to help them understand the Bible and the Christian faith. They were eager to learn. We arranged to have regular Bible studies on Tuesday nights with more than a dozen of their family and friends.

During those Bible studies I explained the gospel over and over again. I answered questions about the Bible, the Christian life, the church, and baptism.

Within the next year the whole family came to faith in Christ for salvation. Mom first, then the children, and finally Mike Kirby, Rebbecca’s dad, gave his life the Christ.

One summer day I was driving home from the church and I noticed that someone was digging a big whole in Mark and Nina Boucher’s back yard. I guessed it was a large baptismal pool. I called Mark.

“Mark,” I said, “I noticed some digging in your back yard. It looks for all the world to me like you are digging a baptismal pool out there. Am I right?” Mark was one of our deacons, a devoted Christian leader, and a bold witness. He didn’t miss a beat, “Absolutely pastor, we would love to have a baptismal service in our new swimming pool.”

A few weeks later we had a happy time with the whole church gathered around that pool. My prayer for Rebecca and her family was answered. I became their pastor.

There are a lot of wonderful things to do in this world. There are so many beautiful places too see that none of us will ever have the time or money to see them all in this lifetime. Whole books are written about experiences to have and places to go before you die. 100 Places to Fly-fish Before You Die. 100 Places to Golf Before You Die. 1000 Places to See Before You Die. They are beautiful books.

Let me tell you where I want to go before I die. Let me tell you what I want to see. I want to go where people like Mike and Vicky Kirby are and I want to see them trust Christ and be baptized.

There is not adventure on earth so great. There is nothing more beautiful to see than that. Then we will have all eternity one day to explore the New Heaven and the New Earth together and we will never die.

When Martha’s brother died, Jesus comforted her with a promise and probed her heart with a question; “I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in Me, though he may die, he shall live. And whoever lives and believes in Me shall never die. Do you believe this?” (John 11:25-26)

Ken Pierpont
Granville Cottage
Riverview Michigan
March 8, 2010

I love coffee. I prefer gourmet coffee from a little family-owned roaster north of Grand Rapids, Michigan, but I don’t commonly have any on hand. Most mornings are not gormet mornings anyway, they are plain-vanilla, get-it-done days. They are MacDonald’s mornings. I usually drive through at the MacDonalds over on Sibley and Telegraph a few miles south of the church. I pick up a large, black, fresh coffee and a friendly word on the way to work.

I do it often enough that I am a familiar face to the workers there. I try to be warm and friendly to people who serve me. Making brief, drive-through conversation with the lady at the window one day, she asked me what kind of work I did. I told her that I pastored at the big brown brick church on the corner of Telegraph and Pennsylvania. I found out her name was Beth.

“You should come and hear me preach some day, Beth. You could meet my family.”

Whenever I returned I greeted her by name and every month or so I would renew my invitation for her to come to Evangel.

She said; “I might just do that some day.” A few weeks later she asked me what time the service started.

One Sunday morning I was standing in my usual place in the pew with the family. We were enjoying the worship songs when I saw movement to my right. I looked over and to my delight it was Beth. She didn’t see me. She slipped into a pew ahead of us and across the aisle to the right. I watched her–silently praying that the service would touch her heart.

I wondered if she felt welcome. She was alone. I wondered if the music would be meaningful to her. I hoped that she would stay long enough for people to be friendly to her.

During the singing I glanced over at her. Her face was turned up to the large screens overhead and tears were streaming down her face.

People are spiritual beings. Even people who don’t go to church much–even people who don’t talk about it all the time. Even the lady who sells you coffee at MacDonalds every morning. The idea is captured in an old song:

“Down in the human heart, crushed by the tempter, Feelings lie buried that grace can restore; Touched by a loving heart, wakened by kindness, Chords that were broken will vibrate once more.”

Beth attended Evangel for a few months. She brought her son with her some. Then she moved to Georgia. I miss her.

I believe her spirit was touched in a deep way while she was here. I believe God is still at work in her life. I believe God has many workers in Georgia and He knows where Beth is. I believe God was at work in here life before I met her. I Believe God is still at work in her life. And I believe there are Beth’s all around us if we will just take the time to notice.

They have feelings buried under the rubble of regret, guilt, and hurt but grace can restore them.

There must be Beth’s in each of our lives, don’t you think?

Ken Pierpont
Granville Cottage
Riverview, Michigan
March 1, 2010

“Family Man” from Trevor Little on Vimeo.

In the first year of our marriage Lois and I served a little country church and lived across the road in a tidy cape cod parsonage. It was their tradition to have a revival service every year. After the meetings one night Lois and I took the evangelist and his wife to a restaurant for dinner.

They were telling us about their children. One of their sons was a pastor. The evangelists wife said, “Our son has a nice church of about a hundred people with a new parsonage and a nice building and some well-to-do people. He has a comfortable salary. He really doesn’t have to worry about the church growing.”

Lois and I stopped forks in mid-air waiting for the man and his wife to tell us it was a joke. They were serious. It’s been almost thirty years later I still haven’t fully recovered from the shock of an evangelist and his wife telling me that it’s not important for a church to try to reach unbelievers in its community. I wonder how you can consider yourself an evangelist and not care about lost people all around you.

How can you call yourself a follower of Jesus and not care about people who are going to Hell? Jesus was moved with compassion for people.

But when [Jesus] saw the multitudes, He was moved with compassion for them, because they were weary and scattered, like sheep having no shepherd. Then He said to His disciples, “The harvest truly is plentiful, but the laborers are few. Therefore pray the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into His harvest.” (Matthew 9:36-40)

Believers with the heart of Jesus should carry a continual burden for those in their communities, families, and circles of friends who are without hope and without God in the world. We should always be plotting something creative to connect with them and connect them with God.

The Spirit of God is at work in the lives of people and we should always be trying to find them and do our part to invite them to Christ.

I read of a man who organized a kickball game in his neighborhood once a week just to connect with this neighbors so he could influence them for God. It worked. Dozens showed up week after week and he was eventually able to get all of them in range of a gospel presentation. What have you done lately? How did you come to know the Lord? Who was the first person in your family to come to Christ? Who told them? Do you have a burden for people who don’t know the Lord or are you more concerned for your own comfort and convenience.

Ken Pierpont
Granville Cottage
Riverview, Michigan
February 22, 2010

If you listen to this message carefully you will here the following things:

-How to be filled with the Holy Spirit
-How God Manifests His glory in our day
-Does the Bible teach that rock music is wrong?
-A story about how God taught me to evaluate my personal music listening habits.

When you get some time, give it a listen and let me know what you think…

I duck my head into the boys room most mornings before I get prepared for the day. Their sleeping room and my dressing room are on the same level. Wesley’s bed is often empty. He is not in his bed. He likes to sleep on the floor. He has a wonderful bed with a nice mattress and box springs. He has nice flannel sheets on his bed, but he prefers the floor.

Maybe you wonder why. It is because communion is sweeter than comfort. Relationships are more important than things.

Chuck went away for a year to influence young teens in Door County, Wisconsin. It was a good experience for him in many ways. He gathered a large group of young people—regularly eighty young people met weekly in the small church up on the rocky peninsula that juts out into Western Lake Michigan.

Chuk was befriending and influencing many young men but he couldn’t get his own brothers off his mind. He came home and now he sleeps in the next room. God gave Chuk another church. This one was remarkably close to home, just across a bridge to Grosse Ile in the Detroit River. He now gathers young people at Riverpoint Church on Grosse Ile and he lives at home and spends hours with his brothers.

Wes sleeps on Chuk’s floor. They like to be close. Wes would rather be near him at night than be comfortable.

This all came to my heart this week when I was doing some deep thinking and Scripture searching on the power of communion with Christ to deter sin in my life. It has been my own experience that there are difficult besetting sins that darken my spirit, but communion with Jesus—fellowship with Jesus is the most powerful way to drive them from my life.

Jesus promised that if we would walk away from sin we would enjoy special fellowship with Him. If we know the sweetness of fellowship with him we will not find sin attractive. To lure us away from the guilty pleasures of the world he offers us his presence. There is no greater joy than the joy of just being with Him.

2 Corinthians 6:14-19 Do not be unequally yoked with unbelievers. For what partnership has righteousness with lawlessness? Or what fellowship has light with darkness? What accord has Christ with Belial? Or what portion does a believer share with an unbeliever? What agreement has the temple of God with idols? For we are the temple of the living God; as God said, “I will make my dwelling among them and walk among them, and I will be their God, and they shall be my people. Therefore go out from their midst, and be separate from them, says the Lord, and touch no unclean thing; then I will welcome you, and I will be a father to you, and you shall be sons and daughters to me, says the Lord Almighty.” Since we have these promises, beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from every defilement of body and spirit, bringing holiness to completion in the fear of God.

Ken Pierpont
Granville Cottage
Riverview, Michigan
February 8, 2010