I was feeling my way through the family room in the dark. It was pitch black as I walked through the room moving my arms in front of me in a crisscross pattern. I was trying to find the supporting pole in the middle of the room with my hands to avoid bumping into it. I had just turned out the lights and was headed to bed. After a few steps I stopped realizing I should have reached the pole by now. I waved my arms left and right and still didn’t find it. Then I felt into the darkness straight ahead. I found the pole. It was about an inch from my nose. Another step and I’d have found that pole the hard way.

It strikes me that the way I often try to live life is much like my trip through the darkness. I’m confident I can find my way without bumping into anything when I’m closer to peril than I think. But Psalm 32:8 reminds me of God’s care for me when I heed His instruction. “I will instruct you and teach you in the way you should go; I will counsel you with my eye upon you” (ESV). I often pray this passage with gratitude for the Lord’s guidance and instruction in my life. There’s no better way to face life than with God’s eye on me and His Word guiding me.

Kevin A. Pierpont
Higgins Lake Baptist Church
6/27/04

A reader shared the following, which was published in the “Lite Fare” section of the Christian Reader.

At our midweek prayer service, a member requested prayer for a neighbor woman who was having a difficult time and was feeling "just miserable."
Volunteering to take the request, a man fervently prayed, "O God, bless this miserable woman!" (Gladys Brown, Bucyrus, Ohio.  Christian Reader, "Lite Fare.")

Although this man’s words didn’t quite come out the way he intended, he was practicing the privilege of intercessory prayer. The kind of prayer we pray on behalf of someone else’s needs. If you are a follower of Christ you have the privilege of praying on behalf of others. I’m always encouraged by those who gather here on Wednesday evenings for our prayer service. It’s a great privilege and opportunity for us to meet together and participate in intercessory prayer. We are able to intercede in prayer for others as we lift their needs before our Heavenly Father. But the privilege of intercession is not only for each other’s needs but also for the needs of people who need Christ and interceding for the serious concerns that trouble the world we live in.

—Read the Rest of the Entry…

I like to sleep in. Some people really enjoy a walk on the beach, some a stroll through the neighborhood. My favorite form of relaxation is sleeping in. I enjoy sleeping in so much that an alarm clock by itself doesn’t motivate me to get out and stay out of bed in the morning. I have been known to hit the snooze button several times and not even remember it.

—Read the Rest of the Entry…

Kevin A. Pierpont
Higgins Lake Baptist Church
6/20/04

In a column written this week by Maggie Gallagher she states the following…

This Father's Day, some 24 million American children will sleep in fatherless homes. So this Sunday, if you were lucky enough to know the love of a father, thank him. Oh, and if your kids wake up Sunday morning in the home of a loving father, thank your husband. (Maggie Gallagher ©2004 Universal Press Syndicate)

We know that God designed the family and intended for children to be raised by a Dad and a Mom. Unfortunately, we live in a fallen world and there are many children who don’t have both parents in the home. The feminist movement and recently the push for same-sex marriage have undermined the importance of both a dad and mom in bringing up children.

—Read the Rest of the Entry…

Kevin A. Pierpont
Higgins Lake Baptist Church
6/13/04

D.L. Moody once said…

Happiness is caused by things that happen around me, and circumstances will mar it; but joy flows right on through trouble; joy flows on through the dark; joy flows in the night as well as in the day; joy flows all through persecution and opposition. It is an unceasing fountain bubbling up in the heart; a secret spring the world can't see and doesn't know anything about. The Lord gives his people perpetual joy when they walk in obedience to him.

D.L. Moody and Oswald Chambers were in agreement on this. Oswald Chambers said, “Happiness depends on what happens; joy does not.”

—Read the Rest of the Entry…

Kevin A. Pierpont
Higgins Lake Baptist Church
6/6/04

Billy Graham said in the book The Secret Of Happiness,

I once heard of a man who went to see a psychiatrist.  He told the doctor that he was lonely, despondent, and miserable.  He begged the doctor to help him.  The psychiatrist suggested that he needed to laugh so he instructed the patient to attend the circus and watch the clown who was famous for being able to make anyone laugh.  His patient looked him in the eyes and said, “But Doctor, you don’t understand!  You see I am that clown!”    (Billy Graham, The Secret Of Happiness, pp. 11-12)

We laugh, but we live in a society where many people are desperately consumed with looking for happiness.

—Read the Rest of the Entry…