Bittersweet Farm

A few weeks ago Bill Gothard’s assistant asked me to write a commentary on a passage of Scripture for young people who had attended a Journey to the Heart. I thought some of you might benefit from reading it so I am sharing it here.

You can listen to it or read it. Let me know what you think.

For they indeed for a few days chastened us as seemed best to them, but He for our profit, that we may be partakers of His holiness. Hebrews 12:10

I will never in all my life forget the hunger for God and desire for holiness among the young men gathered at Duck Pointe on the early Journeys to the Heart.

As we stood praying together on one beautiful winter afternoon one of the men said, “Look!”

A fox ran from the north end of the lake along the ice to the bay on the south east side. We watched in wonder at the beauty of God’s creation and continued in unbroken prayer that God would form in each of us the beauty of His holiness. That week we knelt and we prayed for hours the God would draw us into deeper fellowship with Himself and form us into his likeness—conform us into the image of His Son.

This is the promise of this passage. As you are memorizing and meditating on this passage allow your heart to quietly ponder how absolutely staggering this promise is. This is a promise from God that you can experience in our own life a measure of the holiness of God.

Stop and meditate on the absolute “otherness” the holiness of God.
Think of His absolute uniqueness.
Think of the beauty of His moral perfection.
Think of His unflinching justice
Think of His undying mercy
Think of His perfect love

He is working in every believer. He is working in you continually to produce His holiness in you. That is a wonderful promise to consider. What qualities of His holiness do you need?

God disciplines you like a good father so that you can partake in his holiness. He wants you to be holy. He works in you to make you holy. Most of us only live with our earthly fathers for a relatively “few days” but God will be actively working for all eternity to produce His holiness in us.

As I write this meditation, I have experienced the sweetness of the memory of Sunday night preaching to the young people from Headquarters and those who had just returned from the Journey. I remember the sound of young voices singing across the water. I remember the cold winter walks around Wolf Lake. I remember eagles circling over Wolfe Lake. I remember hiking Bond Falls and praying along Lake Superior. I remember the morning my daughters came at sunrise to tell me that Heidi was saved late in the night after a season of prayer and confession with her sisters.

I remember the early-morning Bible reading two hours before the first word was spoken, and I long again for a deeper work of holiness in me.

Remember your time on the Journey today and stir up again a great longing for the holiness of God.

Under the Mercy,
Ken Pierpont