Bittersweet Farm

Bittersweet Farm

Circuit-Riding

The Communion of the Saints

Filed Under: Circuit-Riding

Thinking about the Apostles Creed… and the beautiful line: “I believe in the communion of the saints…” I love that line and I believe that line. I’m convinced that even when it is the saints who hurt or misunderstand you the Spirit will use the saints to heal and help you… “I believe in the communion of the saints.”

Last summer I was only out of the pulpit one Sunday. I was driving through East Texas that morning about time for church and I wanted the Lord to see my heart of love for Him. I found a small Charismatic church along the way and pulled into the parking lot.

There I found a sweet group of faithful Jesus-followers gathered for worship as I have done every Sunday of my life. I joined my voice with theirs and gave thanks to my God. That was a sweet time…

I believe in the communion of the saints…

[I was baptized in this church when I was eight-years old on Christmas Day–Carter Road Baptist Church near Midland, Michigan]

The Time of Tiger Lilies

Filed Under: Bethel Church-Jackson, Bittersweet Farm, Circuit-Riding

Sunday evening I returned from camp. One of the Bethel faithful was on his death-bed so before I came home I drove to see him. He lives in the beautiful countryside northeast of the church. On the drive out to his house the road was lined with banks of Tiger Lilies blossoming, bending forward, waving in the breeze—bright orange in the golden hour as the sun angled down the sky. I took a picture that does not do it justice. (The other stunning close-up is a stock photo).

Last summer I lived in a suburb of a major city but I was blessed to travel to Kentucky Mountain Mission to speak. The drive from Michigan to Kentucky follows interstate highway, but an hour and a half from the camp I exit the interstate and travel through some of the quaint small towns and villages of the Bluegrass. Within an hour of the camp I am in the mountains of eastern Kentucky. I drive through the small city of Irvine, the county seat of Estil County which sits in a valley on the Kentucky River. I cross the bridge in George the Red Jeep and make my way along a road that follows Millers Creek and Big Sinking Creek through the valley all the way to camp.

This came to mind when I saw the explosion of Tiger Lilies, because last summer along the Big Sinking Creek thousands of Tiger Lilies brightened the way along the river. There in my Jeep, turning along the roadway following the water running over rocks I gave thanks to my God alound that He would send me on such a mission in such a beautiful place. I did not know that less than a year later I would leave and bland suburbs and live in such a place.

The Year Before

The year before I had spoken to the Kentucky Mountain Mission staff conference. They invited me to speak at camp. I returned in the summer and spoke to the teens. I was so warmly received by the young people. My friend Sam Judd was there and it was a reunion and time of rich fellowship with him. A number of the teens began to follow Christ the week I was there. There were two young ladies who trusted in Christ to be saved my first year who greeted me joyfully when I arrived for my second year of speaking. They reported a year of spiritual growth.

When I left the camp at the end of the week I followed the beautiful way along Big Sinking Creek, but the road over Miller Creek was closed. A detour routed me over a high mountain in the Daniel Boone National Forest. It was a beautiful detour and my heart was full and glad. I prayed grateful prayers driving my faithful red jeep over those mountains.

I had some business in Irvine and then I drove to Richmond to get gas. I always feel melancholy when I have to leave the mountains and join the great stream of traffic on the interstate flowing north. While I was thinking of the sweetness of a week of ministry I checked my phone and found this entry on Facebook posted by one of those girls named Brooklyn:

“So today is my spiritual birthday and I can’t explain how much has changed since then. Before I was saved it was so hard to joy and just be happy. But last year on this day ( which was a Thursday last year ) I was in chapel at Youth Haven Bible Camp listening to Ken Pierpont speak in chapel and it has truly changed my life. Ever since then I have been so happy and continuing to grow in my relationship with God. Being saved is the most important decision any person could make, it is truly life changing. Pastor Pierpont told this story about people who were just so low at life and was addicted to drugs and alcohol, and when they got saved their life got totally flipped around. Pastor Pierpont also made the reference that when you use a paddle boat it’s so hard to get it going and continue to make it move. But when you are a Christian it’s like using a sailboat, all you have to do is put up the sail and God will provide the wind.”

That is what came to my heart on Sunday evening when I saw banks of orange lilies in the ditches bending toward the road along the way. My heart was filled joy at the power of the Story of stories and the great privilege it is to tell it to young hearts.

Ken Pierpont
Bittersweet Farm
Summit Township, Michigan

Don’t Wrestle Idols Away From People

Filed Under: Circuit-Riding, Faith and Family


I’m at Camp Barakel preparing my heart to preach to young men in the woods tonight and thinking about the power of loving God to drive out of our lives illegitimate things and this thought occurred to me. Peter said that fleshly lust war against our souls. I’m at war. The young men I deeply love are at war… Fleshly lusts war against our souls. How can a man prevail against the things that war against his soul? How can I help the young men I love win the war against the things that would destroy them: Here was a thought that formed in my heart:

If you want to help someone don’t try to wrestle their idols out of their trembling hands or shame them… They will just pick up another darker idol and continue in bondage and emptiness… Show them Christ as infinitely more satisfying. Let them see how your own heart is satisfied in Him. Help them experience the love of God–fellowship with God.

Ephesians 3:14-21 “For this reason I bow my knees before the Father, from whom every family in heaven and on earth is named, that according to the riches of his glory he may grant you to be strengthened with power through his Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith—that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may have strength to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God. Now to him who is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think, according to the power at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, forever and ever. Amen.

“If you want to build a ship, don’t drum up people together to collect wood and don’t assign them tasks and work, but rather teach them to long for the endless immensity of the sea.” Antoine de Saint-Exupéry

So it is with men. We must help them see–we must show them how our souls are satisfied in the endless beauty and glory of Christ, then when they are Spirit-enlightened and the Morningstar rises in their hearts… they will willingly drop their idols and embrace Christ.

God, help me. Help me show the young men I love what that looks like.

Ken Pierpont
Camp Barakel
June 28, 2018

Grace Adventures Men’s Retreat

Filed Under: Circuit-Riding

Last weekend it was my privilidge to speak at a Men’s Retreat at Grace Adventures near Pentwater, Michigan on the west Michigan lakeshore. I drove up alone in Grenfell.

I spent the weekend in a nice A-frame cabin of my own. It was a great weekend. The chapel was full of enthusiastic men ready to sing and worship and eager to listen to the teaching of the Word. The food and fellowship were great, hearty breakfasts, full hot lunches, and steak for dinner on Saturday night.

My keynote talks were on Five Weapons to Use to Fight Sin. My workshop was on What Does it Mean to Be A Man. I sat in on a worship by Steve Prudhomme on storytelling which was sweet. He opened by quoting my book Sacred Stories and Strong Families.

The worship was led by Brian Campbell from Akron, Ohio. The retreat was organized by Rick Jansen

If you get a chance to attend a Grace Adventures experience you will be glad you did.

This is Brian Campbell

How to Marry Well

Filed Under: Circuit-Riding, Faith and Family

Sitting in the student center at grad school I was getting to know a new friend. We drank coffee and talked about our families. He slid a picture of his wife across the table. “She is lovely,” I said. He must have sensed that required an explanation.

“Here is how I see it,” he said. “I believe that everyone will have at least fifteen minutes of absolute brilliance in his life and fifteen minutes of absolute ignorance. When I met my wife it just happened that it was during my fifteen minutes of brilliance and her fifteen minutes of ignorance. My fifteen minutes of brilliance and her fifteen minutes of ignorance happened at the same time.”

You might me thinking, “I would like to marry over my head, too. How can I attract a good wife or a noble husband?

What to Look For

Most people base the selection of their mate on physical appearance or animal attraction. Beyond that I suppose there is a mystical attraction some call chemistry that drives our choice of a partner. But physical attributes are not something you need to spend time considering. Physical attractiveness should take care of itself. You will probably not be able to convince yourself to marry someone you don’t find physically appealing. But it is possible if not likely that if you marry based on physical appearance that you may overlook important qualities that are essential to a happy marriage and a healthy family.

The qualities that should occupy your mind when considering a life partner for yourself or for your children should be character qualities. These are the qualities that improve with age and make the plainest person magnetic over time. They contribute to a radiance that is not immediately evident to one whose values have been distorted by our shallow culture.

If you don’t get lucky like my grad-school friend, how are you going to secure the love of a fine person? Perhaps you should do what my college roommate did. I entered the room one evening to find him kneeling by his bed in fervent prayer. I could not help but overhear that he was praying earnestly for a wife and outlining very specifically the qualities he desired in one.

That’s not an altogether bad idea. I would suggest that the Bible contains a very helpful list of qualities desirable in a life-partner in 2 Peter 1. They are eight in number, faith, virtue, knowledge, self-control, perseverance, godliness, brotherly kindness and love. They could be listed in the form of questions:

1. Is he a follower of Jesus, genuinely converted? “faith”
2. Does he have godly character? “virtue”
3. Does he know his Bible? “knowledge”
4. Does he have control of his appetites? “self-control”
5. Has he developed any vocational skills? “perseverance”
6. Is there evidence of spiritual graces in his life? “godliness”
7. Does he have social skills “brotherly kindness”
8. His he selfless and kind. “love”

This is just one of a number of useful lists in Scripture to help you evaluate potential life-partners. Don’t expect to have a happy marriage if you base your choice on material possessions, personal magnetism, physical beauty or cultural status. Instead get in the habit of evaluating the character and virtue of people you know based on qualities of character.

What Do You Do When You Find Them?

Now, let’s just suppose you do that. Suppose you do discover someone who is not only reasonably attractive but in possession or in progress toward mastery of most of the aforementioned qualities. How are you going to get a person this fine to pay any attention to you, let alone meet you at the marriage altar and vow life-long fidelity to you? How will you even get their attention? How will you secure their affection? At the risk of being unnecessarily blunt, how are YOU going to get a person like THAT to give YOU the time of day let alone the rest of their life?

After the initial shock you have to admit that is a fair question. I think I have a sound answer. It came to me years ago. I was seventeen years old and the question at the time was very pertinent to my situation and very personal. How am I going to find a good wife? This is not a new question. The question is posed in the ancient wisdom literature of the bible like this: “Who can find a virtuous woman for her price is far above rubies.”

Sage Advice

One spring night I drove my powder-blue VW Beetle to Immanuel Baptist Church in Arcanum, Ohio. They had announced special meetings with a visiting preacher. I wish I could remember his name but I cannot. I do remember very clearly two things he said. I wrote them down in the front of my Bible. One of them was the answer to our question; “How can I get a good wife or husband?” Here is what he said, “If you will concentrate on being the person God wants you to be, He will bring you who he wants you to have.”

So if you are in the market for a life-partner you might want to be very careful to take the right approach. You might want to be careful to ask the right question. The question is not, “Does the candidate for marriage have these qualities?” but rather, “Do I have these qualities?” If you will concentrate your efforts on the progressive development of Christ-like character, you will be the kind of person that will attract others of similar character. Like attracts like. If you want to attract a person of character, you must become a person of character.

That is the specific counsel of Scripture, that our adornment and focus should be on the hidden person of the heart and the ornament of a meek and quiet spirit, which are very valuable in the sight of God. If your heart longs for the fellowship of a mate, concentrate on fellowship with Jesus. If you want a person with fine moral qualities concentrate on acquiring the same moral qualities you admire and desire. If you want to spend the rest of your life with a person of character, become a person of character.

As a seventeen-year-old young man the advice of the old preacher seemed sound to me and I still believe it:

If you will concentrate on being the person God wants you to be,
He will bring you who He wants you to have.

The New Journey Begins

Filed Under: Bittersweet Farm, Circuit-Riding

Red Jeep Journal
April 3, 2017

George is getting ready to go on the road—George is the name of my Red Jeep, but that is a story for another day. He got an oil-change and we checked his fluids and aired his tires. I even spent some time in prayer over him, asking God to extend his life and bless the miles he will carry me to bless people. While I pray these days two things in particular preoccupy my mind. Where will I speak—and who will be on the team?

Where Will I Speak?

I will drive to the mountains of eastern Kentucky next week to begin. I’ll tell you all about it in the Red Jeep Journal. God has allowed me to set up meetings in both peninsulas of Michigan, Ohio, Indiana, Tennessee, Kentucky, and Ontario, Canada! So the meetings are coming. I will be busy—very busy. For that I am thankful to the Lord. (I am looking for retreat dates in mid-September and October). Then there is the other question:

Will You Join the Team?

We are working now to quickly line up a team of people who believe in what we are doing and want to be a part of it. Some have already joined. I cannot tell you how grateful to God I am for them… believing in what we are doing, praying, showing interest, and sharing a monthly gift of some amount. We would appreciate it if you would consider doing that.

The Word Does What No Man Can Do

A few years ago Lois and I were asked to speak at a Couple’s Banquet. It was a really simple affair but a sweet time. We had dinner and I spoke. I opened my heart honestly and did my best as always. I didn’t feel it was particularly polished or outstanding, but I opened my heart honestly and did my best. A few moths later I found out that God used that talk to bring a marriage revival to a couple who were there that night. I didn’t know. That is the way God works. He uses His word to do what only he can do.

To share a monthly gift send me an e-mail and I will explain how to do that; or use the donate button on my web site. Thanks so much for helping. I will keep sending the Red Jeep Journals so you all can enjoy being a part of what is happening. Thanks for praying for us as we start this new journey.

Ken Pierpont
Granville Cottage
Riverview, Michigan

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