Bittersweet Farm
A Classic Christmas re-post for you to enjoy from 2004
One Saturday afternoon years ago I was working in the parsonage yard. It was cold and blustery. The first snow of the season took me by surprise. I welcomed it. Christmas was approaching. I noticed an unusual amount of traffic on our county road. All of it was southbound. I stepped into the house to warm up and wrapped my hands around a hot cup of coffee.
[Read more…] about Christmas in the Country
Check out the Tebow Family Website
This has been my most popular blog post ever 🙂 Our family has great admiration for the Tebow family and how they have devoted their lives to the honor of the Lord Jesus Christ.
We used the same home-education program to train our families so we have followed Tim Tebow and his family with great interest. Since you surfed in I hope you will take a few minutes to check out some of my writing while you are here. There are over 1000 original stories on the site, all free for you to enjoy.
God Bless You…. and GO TIM TEBOW.
We ventured out yesterday to our tree farm. I have the ultimate Christmas-tree-getting vehicle—a Jeep Cherokee, fire-engine red. On days like this it seems like a bright, festive sleigh. We bundled up, plugged in some Christmas music and we were on our way. Hazard made the trip with us for the second year in a row. He was on his best behavior, except that in his excitement he threw up on the floor. On the farm are a couple large, athletic hounds. He wanted out be we feared for their safety.
The tree farm we like is in a pretty spot. The land rolls some there and the trees grow on a gentle slope nestled among ponds and woods. The ground had a dusting of snow and the trees were pretty with flocking of snow on them, too.
Wesley did the cutting, noting that our tree was about seven years old. We were living in Flint when it was planted. It’s a beautiful Frasier Fir.
It was special this year. Hannah had her Dale and there are few things as beautiful as a romance at Christmas time. We lunched at the Grand Traverse Pie Company for the second year in a row. We may have a tradition growing here. It was a delightful day.
In the afternoon I left the house to come to the church to prepare a message for the Mid-Week Service. Chuk and Wes were setting up the tree in the corner of the family room. The fire was crackling and the room was filled with the fragrance of the tree. I looked forward to enjoying it late in the evening when I would get home from my meetings.
This morning I rose early. The tree was glowing beautifully in the corner. Wes and Chuk were camping out to be near it.
I don’t mind going to great Christmas efforts. I believe it will contribute to my children having a great love for the things of
Christ.
Ken Pierpont
Granville Cottage
Riverview, Michigan
December 9, 2011
This was the sign we made for the Pine Street Parsonage in Fremont, Michigan. I believe the graphic was made by my brother, Kevin, for our original web-site. Larry Barber created the sign for us. I still have it in my study where it reminds me to pray for the good folk at First Baptist Church in Fremont and remember the kindness of the people, the good had of God and the memories of Fremont we will always treasure. Hope America was born in Fremont at the Gerber Hospital.
While I was pastoring in Fremont I wrote the people a little column one November. It is interesting now to read. Thought I would share it with you.
In this little column we hope to keep you informed about what’s happening around the Pine Street Parsonage. We also always want to include some encouraging words here, too. Next month in our Christmas letter we’ll let you know what the family is up to.
Things are quiet around the parsonage these days. We’re enjoying the mellow transition from autumn to winter. We snatch an occasional evening with a fire on the hearth, soup on the stove, quiet music on the radio, and good conversation or reading, with Anne (the parsonage kitty) dozing at our feet.
It’s Thanksgiving time, a good time to realize how little it takes to be truly happy. It’s a time to foster simplicity and contentment. I like this definition of contentment: “Realizing God has already given us everything we need for our present happiness.” You don’t have to acquire more to have everything you want, you can simply choose to want less. Ben Franklin said: “Contentment makes poor men rich; discontent makes rich men poor.”
Most of us have more than we realize. Have you ever noticed how difficult it is to get through the house or garage without tripping over material blessings. Our most pressing need is for storage. In many parts of the world parents worry about where to get food for their children. We try out new diet plans. Christmas time is coming. Have you ever noticed how hard it is to find gifts for people who already have everything they need?
In a few days we will gather around the big table and enjoy a Thanksgiving feast. We’ll turn our table into a place of worship. Our hearts will be filled with gratitude. We’ll join hands and bow our heads in deep humility and thankfulness. As we have so many times before, we will shed tears of joyful gratitude. We have seven precious children and another due in April. We have our needs met and many wants. We have a warm beautiful home in which to live and we are blessed with good health. We have fulfilling work that occupies our lives and we have many dear friends. Above all we have experienced the bountiful grace and daily mercy of God in our lives. Because of that we know that no matter what is taken from us, the foundational source of our gratitude is something we can never loose.
“For I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities nor powers, nor things present nor things to come, nor height nor depth, nor any other created thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.” (Romans 8:38-39 NKJV)
A blessed Thanksgiving to each of you from the Pine Street Parsonage.
Pastor Kenneth L. Pierpont and Family.
When I was a boy my mother played three Christmas albums over and over again. I loved them. I can still close my eyes and open my heart and hear them somewhere deep in my soul. I would cherish digital versions of them for my iPod.
When I was in high school in the late seventies platform shoes, aviator glasses, polyester-double-knit leisure suits and eight-track tapes were in fashion. Mercifully, the season passed. Eight track tapes were replaced by cassette tapes.
In about 1983 Smiley Brownfield sold me a nice, used Ford Fairmont. It was very clean. He made me a good deal on the car. I was a little doubtful about my purchase and when he called to tell me to pick up the car I tried backed out. He asked me what I wanted that the car didn’t have. I said; “I really wanted a cassette deck.”
He said; “Come and pick it up this afternoon and it will have a cassette player in it. I will include it in the purchase price.” That afternoon I picked up my car and listened to music on the way home. I have warm memories of cold days in our snug car listening to Christmas music on the way to our families to celebrate or looking at Christmas lights with the children.
When Lois and I began to grow a family of our own I wanted our home to be filled with beautiful Christmas music. My tradition was to start the Christmas music on the afternoon of Thanksgiving Day. In November of 1994 we were driving along Route 3 toward Mt. Vernon, Ohio and the little village of Bangs. We were listening to a cassette tape of Christmas music and I said; “From now on we will start listening to Christmas music every year on Thanksgiving Day in the afternoon. It was a beautiful sunny, especially beautiful Thanksgiving and the memory lodged in my mind. The children agreed.
For years I longed to own quality stereo receiver and a cassette tape deck so I could listen to my collection of music, especially at Christmastime. One year I was able to purchase the receiver. The next year I had saved the money to add the tape deck. Not just any deck would do. I needed a dual deck so I could make copies of my tapes. I purchased a deck that matched my receiver and went to work for hours making cassette tapes of my Christmas music that would play all day.
Back then it was a lot of work, but it was worth it. For twenty years, we didn’t have a television. In those years we had many hours of uninterrupted mayhem and occasions of blissful joy. I planned my ministry in a way that when the children were small I was home a lot to be with them and raise them. It was a conscious decision and I’ve never regretted it. Since we taught them at home we spent a lot of time together. We were especially close.
The nights leading up to Christmas we were home often. I wrote or read or read aloud to the children. The girls baked cookies. The boys made trouble and all the while the Christmas music played on my dual cassette deck. At night sometimes I would lie in the hallway and play carols on my harmonica until the children settled into sleep.
We went to a lot of trouble to see to it that the children would never doubt our love for them, our love for Christmas, and our deep, abiding love for the Lord Jesus Christ. Now they are marrying and moving away. I long for them to have the joy we had when they were small. I still pray for them that the music of Christ and of Christmas will never fade from their hearts no matter how dark or difficult things may get for them.
Ken Pierpont
Granville Cottage
Riverview, Michigan
December 5, 2011
On Thanksgiving Sunday at Evangel I used Jeremiah 29 to help the people see God’s way of beating the cancer of discontent. The message was very well-received and seemed to help many. I hope it is a blessing to you, too. It would be a great way to prepare your heart for Thanksgiving.
In the message I also outline the vision God has put in my heart for the future of Evangel.
Title: Beating the Cancer of Discontent
Text: Jeremiah 29:1-11; Psalm 137
Place: Evangel Baptist Church–Taylor, Michigan
Date: November 20, 2011 AM
Speaker: Ken Pierpont
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