Bittersweet Farm
I’d love to share my Mother’s Day message with you. It’s not even 30 minutes long, but it has the power to inspire you for years. The story that is the text of this message puzzled me for years, since I first read it as a boy… In the story Jesus seems to repeatedly insult a desperate woman… why? Watch and see.
Women of Relentless Faith
Matthew 15:21ff
Bethel Church Jackson, Michigan
May 11, 2018 AM
Pastor Ken Pierpont
I’d love to share my Mother’s Day message with you. It’s not even 30 minutes long, but it has the power to inspire you for years. The story that is the text of this message puzzled me for years, since I first read it as a boy… In the story Jesus seems to repeatedly insult a desperate woman… why? Watch and see.
Women of Relentless Faith
Matthew 15:21ff
Bethel Church Jackson, Michigan
May 11, 2018 AM
Pastor Ken Pierpont
I once was asked to speak at a conference to tell stories and give testimony of God’s provision in our lives. I spoke for an hour telling of God’s great faithfulness.
A few weeks later I spoke for the same organization on the subject again in another state telling another hour of different examples and testimonies of His faithfulness to provide for us.
This was a few years ago. I could easily talk today for hours giving testimony of God’s provision in the last year alone as we suffered a great injustice as a family and again experienced the provision of God at a level never before seen.
Today our daughter Hope graduates from Bible School in Oregon. During a time of hardship and great injustice God has provided all she needed.
We will be telling the stories of God’s faithfulness soon and repeating them all our lives.
Ken Pierpont
Gearheart, Oregon
May 4, 2018
A Painful Tension
Lately there has been a stirring in the media about pastors who encourage abused women to stay in an abusive relationship. This is an issue that is very important to me. I am a pastor. I love pastors and I love the church. My grandfather was a pastor. My father is a pastor. Two of my my brothers are pastors. My sister is married to a pastor. Two of my sons are pastors. I deeply love pastors and I deeply love the church and I am devoted to it.
I also am a husband, a son, a brother, an uncle, a grandfather and a father to four daughters. I cherish the women in my life and I am devoted to them. I want to live with them in an honorable way and listen to their hearts and protect them.
When the church I love hurts the women I love, this creates a powerful tension. When the women Jesus loves are hurt by the church Jesus loves–Like Jesus’ brother said; “These things ought not so to be…”
I have not said much about it, but this morning as I was thinking on this sad tension I decided to speak up. Please pray for me that God will give me wisdom as I write about this issue and as I advocate for those who have been abused in their home and in their churches.
Pray that what I write will be good for women and for the men who abuse them. May God protect the women and set the men free to live honorable and gentle lives.
Pray that what I write will be good for the church.
Pastors and church leaders: Wake up!
If you refuse to listen to abused women and believe them, you are guilty of participating in their abuse.
If you refuse to listen to abused women and believe them, where will your daughters turn for biblical wisdom and godly support if they are ever in need?
If you refuse to listen to abused women and believe them, how will you justify that to Jesus, who honored women?
Followers of Jesus honor women, listen to women, believe women, and protect women.
Are you really following Jesus if you refuse to listen to abused women and believe them?
Are you really a faithful under-shepherd (pastor) if you don’t protect your sheep from abuse?
Are you really faithfully helping men if you cover their sin and fail to show them a way to freedom and gentleness?
If you are guilty of this, will you humble yourselves, repent and seek forgiveness from those you have hurt?
a warm spring morning on Bittersweet Farm. We put a couple bird feeders on the side porch to see if the birds would be willing to visit us there. They did. I have counted almost a dozen different kinds of birds in just the last few days. They will visit the feeder while you are sitting on the porch. I have longed all winter for days like this.
There are birdsongs out in the trees and in the woods south of the house in the tree-line west of the house I have never heard before. It’s going to be a wonderful spring on Bittersweet Farm.
This calls my soul naturally to praise and to thanksgiving for God’s good guidance and provision over the last challenging year. Once again, as I sit out on the porch, in the yellow sun shining out of the blue sky and hear the symphony of bird song, my soul is bursting with spontaneous praise and thanksgiving to God.
When morning guilds the skies
My heart awakening cries
May Jesus Christ be praised.
Fair are the meadows
Fairer still the woodlands
Robed in the blooming garb of spring
Jesus is fairer, Jesus is purer
Who makes the woeful heart to sing!
Crafting a Holy Life With Worship
Text: 2 Corinthians 3:18
Bethel Church-Jackson, Michigan
April 29, 2018 AM
Pastor Ken Pierpont
Recent Comments