I do have a wife. This is a picture of her and our youngest daughter.
Lois Gail
Filed Under: Current Thoughts, Fireside Academy, Virtues and Values
Daddy’s Little Angel
When Hannah was less than five years old she got a hold of one of my Bibles and made marks in it that looked like scribbling. I said, “Hannah, why did you scribble in my Bible?”
She said, “I didn’t scribble, I drew an angel, Daddy.”
I was not pleased at the time. But she did see me write in the Bible all the time. It was perfectly natural for her to write in it too. After looking at it I realized it was an angel, just a little one. That little angel has grown on me over time. An angel really is a good thing to draw in a Bible.
Years have swiftly passed and Hannah has grown into a young woman. This year Hannah graduated from the Stonebridge Academy (our home school). She is eighteen. She doesn’t make messes or scribble in expensive Bibles anymore. I would love to enjoy her little years over again, but life doesn’t work like that.
She likes to drive. She wants the keys. She is eager to make her way in the world and do exciting things. I don’t blame her. She is a beautiful girl inside and out with a very promising future.
She draws angels wherever she goes. She has made marks all over all of our lives. She has marked my life and my heart and those marks will never go away. I never want them to.
Whenever I have seen her little angel in that Bible I use it reminds me to thank God for her and ask the blessing of God on her wherever life takes her. He takes our scribbles and even our mistakes and makes masterpieces of them.
In his book, How To Be Born Again, Billy Graham wrote: “There is a well-known story of some men in Scotland who had spent the day fishing. That evening they were having tea in a little inn. One of the fishermen, in a characteristic gesture to describe the size of the fish that got away, slung out his hands just as the little waitress was getting ready to set the cup of tea at his place. The hand and the teacup collided, dashing the tea against the whitewashed walls. Immediately an ugly brown stain began to spread over the wall. The man who did it was very embarrassed and apologized profusely, but one of the other guests jumped up and said, ‘Never mind.’ Pulling a pen from his pocket, he began to sketch around the ugly brown stain. Soon there emerged a picture of a magnificent royal stag with his antlers spread. That artist was Sir Edwin Landseer, England’s foremost painter of animals.”
Ken Pierpont
In Ankeny, Iowa
June 26, 2008
Conference Dispatches
We are attending the annual conference of our fellowship of churches, the General Association of Regular Baptists on the campus of Faith Baptist Bible College in Ankeny, Iowa. Last night Dan and Wes were a part of the teen sessions.
John Greening and Ken Floyd immediately inquired about our girls Kentucky Tour when they saw us, even though they were busy with preparations for the conference. There was a warm spirit of fellowship on the campus of Faith Baptist Bible College last night.
I sat with pastor and Mrs. Pyne, and Joe and Nancy Miller. After a sweet time of worship in prayer and music, John Greening, the National Representative of the GARBC preached a powerful message on the cross from Hebrews 2:10-18. To me, this was the highlight of his message:
“We are floating facedown in the cesspool of our own sin. The life is gone from us. Jesus, in his humanity, wades into the cesspool of our depravity and sacrifices himself to rescue us. He pulls us to shore, puts his mouth on our lips and breathes his life into our dead spirit. Then he begins the process of washing us from our sin.” -John Greening
-Pastor Kenneth L. Pierpont
Attending the GARBC Annual Conference at Faith Baptist Bible College in Ankeny, Iowa
First things First
I love to gather people’s stories.
I was visiting one of our parishioners the other day. She told me about a time that she was having a kidney stone attack. She called her mother to take her to the emergency room. Her mother hurried over. They raced toward the hospital. Suddenly her mother slowed and said, “I need to get a cup of coffee.” She pulled into Duncan Donuts and ordered a cup of coffee then proceeded to the hospital so her daughter could seek treatment for her kidney stone attack.
She and her daughter were sitting in the room chuckling about the incident so the sting must have gone out of the wound by now and the daughter recovered. I knew two things. Like me, she was a coffee lover. Unlike me, she had never had a kidney stone attack.
If you are going through a painful experience right now take comfort in the fact that you are being equipped to comfort others in a very powerful way. When you have passed through your suffering you will be powerfully equipped to help others who are suffering in a deep way.
Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our tribulation, that we may be able to comfort those who are in any trouble, with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God. (2 Corinthians 1:3-4)
Ken Pierpont
Granville Cottage
Riverview, Michigan
June 19, 2008
She Testifies in Church
Our daughters Holly, Heidi, Hannah, and Hope are singing this month in the mountains of Eastern Kentucky. Last week one of the places they sang was Pigeon Roost Community House of Prayer. It was a tiny, neat church hidden in the hills of Kentucky, hill after green, forested hill from a town of any size. The girls have become such flatlanders living in Michigan that they usually arrive at their engagements green as the surrounding mountains.
They recovered enough to sing. When they sang, each of the girls testified. When they were done the pastor said he would like to hear their mother testify. Lois is reluctant to speak in public but when she does it is always sweet and meaningful. She stood to her feet and gave public thanks to the Lord Jesus for his goodness. When Lois was done the pastor said, “Well, now we’ve heard from each of the girls and the mother. Now I would like the grandmother to testify.”
Lois is reluctant to speak in public, but her mother never speaks in public – never. She is so quiet publically it is hard for her to order in a restaurant.
Lois and Holly both immediately started to intervene to save Grandma Allene from embarrassment, but before they could she stood up and delivered a flawless testimony of her dependence on Jesus and her gratitude to Him. She is almost seventy and it was the first time in her life that she ever gave a public testimony. On the way home she said, “These are my people down here in these hills. It’s not hard for me to talk to them.”
I’ve heard people in Kentucky, when they are referring to someone as a devout believer, say, “She’s a fine Christian, why she even testifies in Church.”
Ken Pierpont
Granville Cottage
Riverview, Michigan
June 9, 2008
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