Bittersweet Farm

Bittersweet Farm

Watch Your Step (2 Peter 2:1-10) Audio

Filed Under: Sermons

Watch Your Step (Video)

Bethel Church | Jackson, Michigan

Ken Pierpont | Lead Pastor

March 13, 2022 AM

Ken Pierpont
Ken Pierpont - Sermons
Watch Your Step (2 Peter 2:1-10) Audio
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Sprayed With Cheap Perfume

Filed Under: Bittersweet Farm

I’m springin’ forward.
Are you springin’ forward?
All God’s chillin’ springin’ forward.
See you in the mornin’ Bethel family….

WARNING: STREAM OF CONSCIOUSNESS WRITING TO FOLLOW.

Years ago I was asked to speak in Illinois for a week at a gathering of churches. Dan and Wes went with me. We stayed in the basement a farmhouse owned by an elderly lady from the church. We enjoyed good eats and fellowship. It was spring.
At the time we lived in a huge hotel that housed our ministry at the time, so I was always eager to have the boys out with me for a week. I ran in the park every day and the boys rode their bikes.

I cherish the memory and miss these boys who have families of their own and churches of their own and live far away in New Mexico and Texas.

I think it will be spring there soon and Bluebonnet time in Texas. I don’t know when spring arrives the high desert of New Mexico but I’m sure the locals will welcome it like we do when it fully arrives here about halfway through the month of May.
Dan, the big boy is a sheriff’s deputy and has a fine Christian wife and three fine boys. Wes, the smaller one, is a plumber and has a fine Christian wife and two daughters. I have lots of plans for the future, but when I come across these old pictures it wrecks me.
One more memory for those who are still reading:

While we were staying in the basement of the old farm house we were getting ready for church one night and Wes started screaming bloody murder and calling his brother every possible name a pastor’s kid can get away with.

“What happened?” I asked

“He shot me with that…” Wes said, and he was red in the face angry.

Daniel was laughing and standing there with a decanter of wretched strong perfume that was probably bottled toward the end of World War I.

It sounds funny but I weep and laugh at the same time as I type these words in my quiet house I love where I can read and write and study without a whisper of interruption. The only sound is the quiet flutter of the keyboard as my fingers move over the keys and the sound of the winter wind in woods across the road.

I keep telling myself. The boys are doing now what I loved so much. They are raising their families. They won’t realize until they are my age how much they will miss it.

Lois will be home soon. A good man would make dinner, but I think I will lay out the ingredients for her to make a homemade pizza. We will watch a program and probably talk about the kids and grandkids… and set our clocks forward so we are not late for church…
All God’s chillin’ springin’ forward tonight.

Oh. And don’t feel bad for Wesley. He up-graded his wheels since this picture was taken… (The other picture is his current ride).

Bittersweet Farm
March 12, 2022

I See What You Did There

Filed Under: Current Thoughts

My dad is going to be 88 in May. He has a curious habit that surfaces twice a year. In the spring and in the fall he makes a special effort to be sure he tells all of us to remember to fall back or spring forward. He never, ever misses a single time-change.

In recent years we have tried to tell him that we are all continually tethered to our phones and they will not allow us to not spring forward or fall back. He does not listen but insists on telling us to be sure we are not late for church or too early…
As our nest started to empty out I think I began to understand the motive behind his persistent habit. Lois and I have four sons and four daughters. They used to sit all in one row every Sunday morning all spiffed up for church. Now they live all over the country. Most of them have children of their own.

All of them are Christians. All of them have churches. Two of them are pastors. Still when Saturday night and Sunday morning roll around I have a powerful longing to know that they are getting ready to gather with God’s people and give him thanks.
I want to know our grandchildren will know all the Jesus stories and all the Bible verses. I want to know they will have the Jesus songs in their hearts. I want to know that though we are far apart, one day maybe soon we will all be together in the presence of Jesus singing together at the foot of the Throne of the Slain Lamb.

I don’t want to be too direct, so I suppose when I’m an old man I will try to think of creative ways to say… “You guys are all planning to be on time for church tomorrow, right? Don’t forget to gather the family and gather with others and give Jesus what he deserves on the Lord’s Day tomorrow. Don’t be late. I love you.”

Oh, Mom and Dad. Thanks for the reminder to spring forward and fall back. I see what you did there.

Bittersweet Farm
March 2022

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