Bittersweet Farm

Bittersweet Farm

Deep Trouble in the Heart of Our Nation

Filed Under: Current Thoughts

2013-11-29 14.55.48On my way to my favorite coffee shop this morning I turned on the heat and the radio in my Jeep. It’s been cold and they say the Thanksgiving weekend may bring some snow. Snow for Thanksgiving. We will be praying our travelers in. Tomorrow Holly flies to Washington State for Thanksgiving with Jesse. Others are hurrying home. She can’t wait to leave Granville Cottage for Thanksgiving and fly to the West Coast.

People come and go from the coffee shop this morning in hats, and furry collars, cheeks red with cold. I’m warming myself with breakfast oats, steaming coffee and the London Philharmonic Christmas music. The sky is lightening and the traffic is picking up. I’m thinking about a funeral later today, folk in the hospital, some administrative responsibilities and preparations for the Thanksgiving Eve service and study for Sunday’s launch of my Christmas Series and Christmas communion. If you live close I hope you will attend our Christmas services in person. It you don’t you can catch the sermon podcast.

Deep Trouble in the Soul of our Nation
by Ken Pierpont

Last week I heard a fellow talking about a business idea—a restaurant concept. The restaurant would serve only Thanksgiving leftovers. Cold turkey, cold mashed potatoes and gravy, cold stuffing. Each patron would have his own recliner, a little microwave to warm his food, and a TV to watch football. They would hire a family to sit over in the corner and argue politics. The restaurant chain would be called “Thanks Again.”

Every year about the time the trees are bare and the wind is cold Thanksgiving comes to Michigan again. Thanksgiving in America is blessed time of year. The holiday nicely shortens the third work-week of November. It’s a family time. It’s a mellow, simple holiday that comes and goes quietly and doesn’t require a second mortgage. Even if the Lions didn’t always play every year, Thanksgiving would still be a great idea. If you don’t love leftovers and football I’m glad to remind you that Thanksgiving is much deeper than that. It is a holiday that can reach down deep into your soul if you let it.

Thanksgiving is a Day when those who know and love God have a chance to stop and humbly and quietly acknowledge Him. It was originally conceived not as a slick on-ramp for the materialistic mayhem of holiday shopping, but a season of quiet national humility, when devout men and women acknowledge God and his goodness.

Today we are living in a nation, though that is willfully forgetting God. We are electing to office leaders who are writing laws that defy the laws of God. They are legalizing immorality and normalizing murder in our name. They are doing their best to write God out of American History. They ignore the Bible, distort its meaning, or selectively interpret it to justify their willful defiance of God.

Referring to the prohibition against immorality in Romans, our own President said that he prefers the Sermon on the Mount to what he called “An obscure passage in Romans.” That the leader of the free world has come to consider Romans an obscure passage is evidence of deep trouble in the soul of our nation.

All around us the enemies of God refuse to acknowledge Him. There are many who are not satisfied to see churches pushed to the inconsequential margins of culture. They will not be satisfied until they tax us or legislate us completely out of existence. Some of the most powerful leaders in America are working steadily toward that end. refuse to serve Him. They refuse to worship Him. They refuse to glorify Him. They refuse to even thank Him. What you see in America today is clearly described in Romans 1; “Though they knew God they neither glorified Him as God nor gave thanks to Him…” Refusal to thank God darkens your heart. “Their foolish hearts are darkened…”

That is why, now more than ever, we must keep Thanksgiving alive in our hearts and homes and churches. May it never be said of us, “…their hearts were darkened because they refused to thank God.”

Ken Pierpont
Granville Cottage
Riverview, Michigan
Nobember 30, 2013

Preparing My Heart for Advent

Filed Under: Christmas Stories, Current Thoughts, Past Ministry

Christmas-Hope-Isaiah-Main-GraphicI’m preparing my heart for advent preaching. I’ve often said that I am a student. I am a careful and diligent student, but I am not a scholar. I respect scholars and I depend on Spirit-gifted scholars, but I am not a scholar. I like to think of myself as a pastor-poet. David was a shepherd-poet. Jesus was a shepherd-storyteller-poet. I’m studying to prepare to present the stories of Jesus at Advent with the mind of a student and the heart of a poet.

If you are reading this and you have a moment pray for me. One of our men, Randy Brown, went to be with the Lord last week. His widow said she misses coming out into the family room in the morning and not finding him there on his knees praying. I know I was included in his prayers. I would be honored if you would include me in your prayers. If you ask, I will include you in my prayers.

In the Evangel pulpit this year I will be preaching glad tidings from Isaiah. Scholars say Isaiah is like the fifth gospel. It is the Romans of the Old Testament. Isaiah is filled with messianic passages that soar up to God. All my messages will be taken from Isaiah from Christmas Communion on December 1st to our Christmas Eve Candlelight Service. I’m praying for a warm heart and crafting the poetry of the messages now.

Maybe you can attend Evangel during Advent or Christmas and listen to some of the messages. If you live a long way away or attend another fellowship, maybe you could listen to the messages after I post them.

Thanks to Kyle Pierpont for the graphic

This Christmas We Will Adopt A Seven-Year-Old Again

Filed Under: Christmas Stories, Current Thoughts

TreeFarmI’m speaking tomorrow for a Christmas Banquet. it got me thinking and reading old Christmas essays. I stumbled across this paragraph:

“Through the long warm days of seven summers it has stood on that pleasant hillside. On the fresh rain of seven springs it thrived. Seven winters flocked its branches with snow. And the geese of seven gold and auburn autumns passed over it by moonlight.”

Praying and Plowing

Filed Under: Current Thoughts, Past Ministry

Alex-Marton

Yesterday we interviewed a couple for membership. They are older folk. He (Alex) immigrated to the United States from Hungary in 1957. I asked him to tell us how he came to know the Lord. He said that he was raised in a Christian home. He knew the gospel and he knew what was right but he did not yield to Christ until he was older.

During his testimony he said; “My father was a farmer. He farmed with horses. When I was a boy I noticed that he would stop before he began to plow his field and remove his hat. He would bow his head in silent prayer, then he would put his hat on and begin to plow.”

Later, when Alex was fleeing from the Russians and trying to escape Hungary to come to America, he lay in a barn in the night and cried out to God for his help. It was then he began to yield his heart to the Lord. God allowed him to escape to America and he settled in the Delray community in Detroit. He was baptized there in the Hungarian Baptist Church and he and his wife Maggie raised a Christian family.

As I listened to his beautiful testimony I was glad that this elderly man with deep and sincere affections for Christ would find a spiritual home at Evangel and I prayed that my children, when they are years and miles removed from the home of their youth, would remember me removing my hat and bowing in reverent prayer before my day’s work.

AlexandMaggieMarton

How Would You Answer Ragna’s Question?

Filed Under: Circuit-Riding, Current Thoughts

2013-10-11 09.58.40

I used to work in the Nationwide Insurance Claims Center in Columbus, Ohio. One morning I got into work and logged onto my computer, began to ready myself for the day when Ragna came in and went to work in the cubicle beside me. She looked over at me and said thoughtfully, “Why are you so happy all the time?”

My initial response was, “Ragna, I have seven children. (eight now) The Bible says, “Children are a heritage from the Lord and the fruit of the womb is his reward, happy is the man who has a quiver full of them.’ I have seven children so that is one of the reasons I am so happy all the time.”

She thought for a minute but did not seem satisfied with my answer. “I don’t have any children, so how can I be happy?” Just then a phone call came in and we had to go to work, but at the first opportunity I put my phone on hold and took off my headset to answer Ragna’s question. She looked into my eyes for the answer.

“Ragna, you were created by God and you were made to worship Him and enjoy Him. In this life there are many things that will give you temporary and incomplete happiness. You can enjoy food, relationships, romance, experiences, adventures, honors, possessions and pleasures and all of them will bring some happiness. But inside you there is a deep spiritual hunger that no person, experience or possession can ever fully satisfy. Only God can do that.”

I went on to explain to gospel to my friend and she listened thoughtfully. My happiness had given me an opportunity to tell Ragna the gospel. My favorite tip for those that desire to give the gospel to their friends is, “Love them ’til they ask you why’ but this is another very powerful missionary technique: “Be happy ’til they ask you why.”

That’s something to think about the next time you are tempted to curse the traffic or complain about the boss at work. Be a happy Christian, a joyful believer. If you do maybe people will ask you the secret of your happiness and you can tell them all about Jesus.

A Powerful Verbal Blessing

One morning I was feeling the pressure of many responsibilities. I was a little overcome and overwhelmed. It brought fog into my heart and robbed me of my smile. People around me could tell it.

The next day I received a phone call from my boss, Mr. Gothard. He has literally “written the book” on how to bless. The book is a wonderful little volume called, “The Power of Spoken Blessins.” He had prepared a biblical blessing for me. He said; “Today I read the last words of David. Are you familiar with the last words of David?” I hesitated. He read the passage to me.

The God of Israel said, the Rock of Israel spoke to me, He that rules over men must be just, ruling in the fear of God. And he shall be as the light of the morning, when the sun rises, even a morning without clouds; as the tender grass springing out of the earth by clear shining after rain. (2 Samuel 23:2)

Then he said, “Ken, when I read that it reminded me of you. You rise early every day to write and try to be a blessing to people like the sun coming up every morning. That is how I see you. You are a blessing to everyone you meet.”

Of course when I got off the phone I marked the passage in my Bible and I have returned to it over and over again, especially when I am tempted to allow my responsibilities to rob me of my smile. I want to be like the sun rising on my world every day like the light of the morning when the sun rises on a cloudless morning and the rain is gone. I want to live up to my blessing. I want to have a disposition that makes people curious about Jesus. I want to be happy until they ask me why.

A Classic Re-post from 2004

Ken Pierpont
Riverfront Character Inn
Flint, Michigan
October 18, 2004

Getting Ready for Christmas

Filed Under: Christmas Stories, Current Thoughts, Faith and Family, Past Ministry, What I'm Reading

ChristmasBarn

I’ve been in pastoral ministry for 35 years. During that time I have aways preached Christmas messages during the whole month of December. Many of my friends in ministry have difficulty coming up with a unique Christmas message once or twice a year but have preached from five to nine Christmas messages every year for three and a half decades. I love Christmas preaching.

About this time of the year I start thinking about it and planning for it. When the children were small in early to mid-November I would go to the library and check out a big stack of Christmas books. I would drive to the city and spend time browsing through Christian bookstores getting ideas and illustrations and researching interesting, fresh approaches to the wonderful ancient Christmas story we all love so much. I would begin to play Christmas music quietly in my study while I planned so the story of Christmas would sink down into my soul. That was back in the cassette-tape era, when it was a little more work to keep a fresh archive of Christmas music. I spent hours creating mix-tapes of Christmas music so our lives would be flooded with beautiful Christ-honoring music.

Yesterday Holly (no she was not born at Christmas) was talking about Ann Voskamp’s new Christmas book; “The Greatest Gift.” I went on a hunt for the book and on my third bookstore I found it. I have started my Christmas preparations. Never before have I sensed such a great need for Christ among the people in our region. We must make Him known. I’m unapologeticlly starting early.

The photo is from Ann Voskamp’s wonderful site: A Holy Experience.

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