I snapped this of Josiah and me as we watched the rest of the family climb a monstrous dune at Sleeping Bear Dunes on Michigan’s west coast. I climbed the dune too and I have photos to prove it—and they will follow.

We got back from vacation last night and I’ve refrained from posting until now because, well, I’m on vacation. Camping was great, we saw many wonderful sites and we are all exhausted. It’s nice to be back home—we came back a day early just to rest a bit at home. Vacation photos will follow soon—whether you like it or not.

We got back in time to watch a few of the RNC speeches on CSPAN and if you missed Rudy Giuliani’s speech you can read the full text of it here, but I’ve quoted below what I think is one of his best statements.

We did the best we could to communicate a message of calm and hope, as we stood on the pavement seeing a massive cloud rushing through the cavernous streets of lower Manhattan.

Our people were so brave in their response.

At the time, we believed we would be attacked many more times that day and in the days that followed. Spontaneously, I grabbed the arm of then Police Commissioner Bernard Kerik and said to Bernie, “Thank God George Bush is our President.”

We’ll have photos next week of our vacation fun. We’ve been looking forward to this all summer and it looks like we’ll have temperatures above 60°F too. Posting will be light to none while we take a break and enjoy ourselves.

It looks like the efforts of thousands in Michigan to define marriage as between one man and one woman could be thwarted by two individuals. I think their argument is highly debatable. We must pray that the court will overturn their decision and get this on the ballot here in Michigan in November. I’ve excerpted the Detroit Free Press article below.

Dividing along party lines, the four-member Board of State Canvassers fell short of the three votes needed to approve the petition from the group Citizens for the Protection of Marriage.

The marriage group was denied a spot on the ballot despite collecting more than 460,000 signatures of registered voters, according to estimates by state elections officials. Only 318,000 signatures were needed.

Democratic Canvasser Doyle O’Connor said the board should not place an amendment before voters that would be “patently unlawful” and certain to be struck down by the courts if approved. O’Connor and the other Democrat on the panel, Chairwoman Dorothy Jones, voted no.

Representatives of the citizens group who attended the meeting said they expect to seek a court order to reverse the decision within days. The issue is of some urgency because proposal language has to be approved and available for local elections officials by early September to give them time to print ballots for overseas absentee voters.

…Eric Doster, an attorney for the petitioners, said O’Connor’s interpretation of the proposal was unnecessarily complicated. It is intended to clearly define marriage and preclude the creation of other forms of marriage, including civil unions, Doster said. But it would not affect contractual arrangements between employers and employees in the public or private sector, he said.

It’s a real privilege to live in the North Country. We enjoy beautiful scenery everywhere we look. There’s opportunity for outdoor activities like biking, hiking, swimming and more. We also have several beautiful state parks nearby and of course there’s Higgins Lake, which is a great place to swim and boat. We’ve been trying to enjoy the parks and the lake as much as possible during our second summer here in Northern Michigan.

—Read the Rest of the Entry…

Kevin A. Pierpont
Higgins Lake Baptist Church
8/22/04

D.L. Moody once said…

“I thought when I became a Christian I had nothing to do but just to lay my oars in the bottom of the boat and float along. But I soon found that I would have to go against the current.” ¹

—Read the Rest of the Entry…

Kevin A. Pierpont
Higgans Lake Baptist Church
8/15/04

When Queen Victoria was a child, she didn’t know she was in line for the throne of England. Her instructors, trying to prepare her for the future, were frustrated because they couldn’t motivate her. She just didn’t take her studies seriously. Finally, her teachers decided to tell her that one day she would become the queen of England.

Upon hearing this, Victoria quietly said, “Then I will be good.”

The realization that she had inherited this high calling gave her a sense of responsibility that profoundly affected her conduct from then on. i

As believers we also have a high calling and that high calling should affect the way we conduct ourselves. Paul challenged the Philippian believers to make sure their conduct was worthy of the gospel of Christ.

—Read the Rest of the Entry…

Mountain biking has been something I’ve enjoyed for years but we’ve never lived close enough to trails to be able to do much riding. We’re very fortunate now to live in the North Country and to have cross-country ski trails just a five-minute ride from the house. Don’t tell the skiers but those trails are great for mountain biking, at least during the two months there’s no snow here. Hey it’s August 11 and at 3 PM this afternoon it was 55 degrees Fahrenheit, so yes, it could snow any day now.

—Read the Rest of the Entry…

Are you registered to vote? Do you know how you will vote? Do you know what the candidates believe? If not, why not? You can go to ivotevalues.org and redeemthevote.com to begin preparing and informing yourself.

Kevin A. Pierpont
Higgins Lake Baptist Church
8/8/04

Have you ever been faced with a choice between two good things? It’s not easy to make a decision when faced with two good options. We see Paul in Philippians found himself in a situation where, if the choice were left to him, he’d have a difficult time deciding what to do.

—Read the Rest of the Entry…

Kevin A. Pierpont
Higgins Lake Baptist Church
8/1/04

Dwight Moody was traveling by boat on one of the Great Lakes when a really bad storm developed. The passengers cowered in fear starting an impromptu prayer meeting for deliverance, which Moody didn’t join. When asked why not he said, “I have a sister in Chicago and one in heaven and I don’t care which I see tonight.” (Patrick Doherty, sermoncentral.com)

How do you like that? What an attitude of contentment Moody had. I believe the reason Moody didn’t fear death was because he was prepared to die. He was prepared to die because he had trusted Christ as Savior and was living his life for Him.

—Read the Rest of the Entry…