This is a weekend we will remember for a long, long time. Kyle came home and we all got up at five on Saturday and headed for our favorite coffee shop in Rockford. After the coffee and huge pecan rolls… (I was able to restrict myself to just a bite of Kyle’s) we spent the first spring-like day skiing at Cannonsburg near Grand Rapids.
[Read more…] about This Week (March 11-18, 2003)
Humblings
A wise man once said; “Look for new ways to humble yourself every day.” This is sound advice rooted in Scripture. There are promises attached to humility in the Scriptures. James and Peter both affirm that “God resists the proud but gives grace to the humble.” This is good news for a guy who has a tendency to leave his lapel mike on in the washroom. I have noticed that the Lord is faithful to arrange “humblings” for me regularly.
I preached at a Family Camp one weekend and people were generous with their praise. That Sunday returning to my own pulpit from an absence many of the parishioners told me how much they missed me. If a fella’ was a novice that kind of flattery could tempt him to pride. A veteran knows that God usually arranges a “humbling” to follow close on the heals of exaltation.
The humbling came and I didn’t have to wait long. It came that very day during the evening message. At the close of the morning message I has announced a topic that I was sure would interest people and a nice group of them did show up for the service. We had a good song service and meaningful music ministry. I stood to preach and the screen behind me that was used to display the song words was automatically raised.
A few minutes into my message I noticed there was activity on the video monitor. Sometimes the computer operator will close down the programs and the system and they will forget to cut off the image to the monitor and you can see that on the monitor. The monitor is actually a huge TV mounted in a cabinet in the front row where only those on the platform can see it.
The computer image was being fed to the monitor and the sound-man was unaware that I could see what he was doing. Unusual movement and color caught my eye as I was preaching. I was well into my message pouring my heart out about a subject of great importance and interest, at least to me. There on the screen the evidence was boldly displayed that the sound man had moved over to the computer and was looking at various programs. What distracted me was that in the middle of my message he began to play a computer version of pinball. He eventually lost interest in pinball and began to fiddle with other programs as the message progressed. Through the entire length of my message he never looked up or realized that I was aware of his digital doodling.
I repressed laughter and wondered how many of the people present that night were miles of years away in the secret places of their minds. If their thoughts were displayed on a monitor it would probably be humbling beyond my ability to endure.
Kenneth L. Pierpont
The Riverfront Character Inn
Flint, Michigan
March 11, 2003
Hope America
Hope had a story she wanted to tell this evening. We were all embroiled in conversation so we didn’t listen to her. Finally in exasperation she stalked across the room, climbed up on a stool, took the phone, called the main switchboard and had them call mom who was working in the kitchen. When she got her on the phone she launched into her story with full animation. She waved her hands and rolled her eyes chattered into the phone.
Later, Kyle called from Oak Brook. Hope answered the phone and immediately began a re-telling of her tale. She is a night owl. Late in the evening she chatters and sings and turns the couch into a trampoline.
Right now she is rolling a twelve-inch TV across the floor like a snowball. If I had good sense I would spend more time watching her and less time on things that won’t matter next week, let alone next year. She will never be three again.
Family Ties
I always admire a man who knows how to choose and tie a good tie. To me a good-looking knot is an aesthetic treat. I always think more of a man who is careful to put a crisp dimple in his neckwear. It makes me feel confident that he has other things in order in his life as well.
[Read more…] about Family Ties
No Big Thing
God delights in using things others think are insignificant. The stories of the Bible emphasize this over and over again. He used a ruddy shepherd boy to slay a blasphemous giant with a few stones and a crude sling. He used a donkey to speak a word of rebuke to a wayward prophet. He chartered a big fish to deliver a reluctant missionary to his appropriate mission-field. He called a teenaged mother to nurture the Messiah. I think he is still doing this. Maybe the first qualification to be used of God is a continual conscious awareness of our personal inadequacy. David must have had a sense of this standing out under the stars one night. He said; “When I consider the heavens the work of thy fingers, the moon and stars which thou hast ordained, what is man that thou art mindful of him…” We are small in the scope of God’s creation, but a small thing can be mighty in the hands of God.
[Read more…] about No Big Thing
On the Doorstep of the Church
I like to write happy stories about good things but life isn’t always happy. God is always on the throne but the sun is not always shining here in this broken world. This is my Father’s world but if you look close you see that it has some very ugly sin-scars. I was reminded of this a while back.
It was Thanksgiving Day and were we were in South Haven, Michigan. We played football for a couple hours before our family Thanksgiving feast. We were at my brother-in-law Jim and my sister Melony’s house. Thanksgiving Day football is a long-standing family tradition. Jim and I have sons bigger and stronger and faster than we have ever been who were not even born when we started this tradition. We can both still recount details of games we played on Thanksgiving Day when we were their age.
Jim and Melony live in a nice big parsonage on the church property with a huge field perfect for football. It was a wonderful day to be outdoors, mild and sunny. It may have been our best game ever. The lead toggled back and forth and everyone got involved in a big play or two from the smallest child to Dad (Grandpa), who was sixty-seven years old at the time.
We played all day until finally, mercifully, the ladies called us in for the feast. We all laughed and walked from the field. Out of the corner of my eye I noticed some flowers growing behind a shed used to store lawn equipment. How they got there is a tragic, painful story. My sense of well-being was tempered at the thought of it.
The flowers growing there were a memorial for a fifteen year old boy from Chicago. He and a friend stole a car and led the police on a chase that ended on the property of the church. As the police closed in the boy turned his gun on himself. His blood actually stained the ground within a few feet of the church. A few days after his tragic death his grandmother came and planted flowers on the spot where his spirit departed this earth.
I’ve grown up in churches and I have seen people who would never think of smoking or drinking bicker for hours and months and feud for years over who gets to hold the keys. I’ve seen churches split over who gets to stand up front and say how important it is to be holy and humble. When I think about those flowers growing there it makes me angry.
People who were created by God are dying on the very doorstep of the church. It is inexcusable for those of us who have taken the name of the Lord Jesus Christ upon ourselves to wallow in pettiness and selfishness while lost people drown in their sin in our sight. How can we waste our lives straining for newer and better toys while the flames of hell lick at the feet of people who live on our block. Why do we have no sense of urgency when children who bear His very image are suffering in the shadow of the steeple. How can we keep an endless schedule of games, gluttony and frivolous religious entertainment while families fracture and fail within the sound of our singing.
When I think of those flowers growing there, that weeping grandmother, and the blood of that boy I know I must approach my work with gravity and urgency. I must stop playing. I must not allow petty bickering and personal power-grabbing to keep me from the work of rescuing souls.
May God help us to work tirelessly together to rescue precious souls from hell while we still can. May God help us remember every morning when we plan our work that we will give an account to God some day for every idle word. God help us every time I look at our watch to remember that we don’t have a minute to spare. Eternity is forever but we have only a few short hours before sunset to work.
Kenneth L. Pierpont
ken@kenpierpont.com
February 10, 2003
The Riverfront Character Inn
Flint, Michigan
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