It is my contention that the worst social evil ever to infest this planet is quietly becoming, at least to some degree, acceptable to the Bible-believing Christian community. We must oppose this.

This message is for “us.” And who is “us”? It is every child of God who is eager to find out truth from God’s Word the Bible and to live by that truth, come what may.

I believe every Christian should be completely opposed to any form of social drinking whatsoever. Even in the medical community one hears very little about the use of alcohol for medicinal purposes any more. But of course this message is not about any alcohol admini-stered under the care of a physician for his patient. I am talking about the bottle and we should just say “No!”
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A BRIEF HISTORY OF

JONESVILLE BAPTIST CHURCH

Rev. Kenneth F. Pierpont

A word of explanation and apology: This very imperfect attempt at capturing some of the background and highlights of the history of our dear church will leave some who venture to read it disappointed that certain persons and events were omitted. This was not a matter of design on my part but rather a combination of ignorance and need for brevity. Please take heed and indulge me with your forgiveness and understanding. Thank you.

September 2005

In the fall of the year in 1955, Rev. Orris Porter with Mr. Bruce Bennett and certain other believers came to town to “start a gospel testimony in Jonesville.” A building was bought at 201 Water Street. This brick structure was used as a parsonage as well as a meeting place. Souls were saved immediately. Later, a block building was erected in the rear of the parsonage to be used as a sanctuary.

In 1956 another building was purchased at 214 North Street and was used as a parsonage. These building were purchased by way of land contract and promissory notes and the group valiantly worked to pay them off.

Rev. Porter continued on with the work until June of 1958 at which time he resigned. A new pastor was called and on the first Sunday of July Rev. Kenyon Wirick took office. Later that fall the interior of the concrete building was redecorated. Up to this point the church was called “Grace Baptist Church.” On December 7, 1958 the congregation voted to change the name to “Jonesville Baptist Church.” Seventeen members were present for the vote.

A charter was formally organized and presented for the signatures of the membership. On September 21, 1958 a constitution was presented and adopted and the charter was closed. The following names are listed in the Church Minutes as signers of the charter: Lew Webster, Edith Small, Earl Mallery, Marie Mallery, Betty Gibbs, Stanley Gibbs, Bruce Bennett, Betty Bennett, Dorothy Price, Bert Porter, Mabel Bisel, Mrs. Bill Coburn and Mr. and Mrs. Russell Morrison, fifteen names in all.

Work progressed on the newer building which needed to be readied for use. On the first Sunday in July in 1960 the first services were held in this building. This was exactly two years into Pastor Wirick’s tenure.
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Psalm 69:1-3, NIV: SAVE ME, O God, for the waters have come up to my neck. I sink in the miry depths, where there is no foothold. I have come into the deep waters; the floods engulf me. I am worn out calling for help; my throat is parched. My eyes fail…”

This week was the week for “America’s Tsunami,” as I call the terrible Hurricane Katrina that ripped ashore off the Gulf Coast and destroyed what we know as civilization in New Orleans, Biloxi, Mississippi, parts of Alabama and, heartbreakingly, so many other American communities in the affected area.
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NOT LIKE THE CHAFF

God presents all of us in this world with a choice to believe Him, to accept Him and to obey Him in this life. When we act toward God, we win! God calls such people “… the righteous.” What a title–totally undeserved but God’s grace has been extended in behalf of God’s Son to us and now we are His children.
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When our armed forces were ordered to invade the nation of Iraq we were told it was for the purpose of ridding that country of its ”weapons of mass destruction.” Never mind that our weapons inspectors who had free reign at the time to search in the whole country, even being invited to search Saddam Hussein’s personal palaces, could not fmd even one such weapon! But, as Mr. Bush said, “It’s time for a regime change in Iraq.” He had made up his mind to overthrow the government of Iraq before the weapons inspectors had time to fmish their work. They were ordered out of the country! We went to war.

Question:

Are we involved in “a just war” in Iraq?

Consider this important fact, please. Never before in the history of our country have we ever attacked a sovereign nation for the purpose of overthrowing its government when we were unprovoked, never!

Is our nation, or any other nation entitled to simply drive its tanks into a country’s capital and declare its government overthrown? That’s what Saddam did in Kuwait! As a result, a coalition of nations- a major part of the free world, joined together to expel him and his military from this tiny but oil-rich nation. What entitled the USA to do what Saddam Hussein did? According to President Bush, he was exercising “a preemptive strike.” Unwittingly, by the use of that very term, our president admitted that we were going into Iraq unprovoked! Sad!

Throughout the history of the Christian church, most groups within Christendom have pretty well agreed that there is such a thing as “a just war.” When a strong man orders his troops into a peaceful nation, begins a reign of brutality there, threatens the very future of that nation, at that point, many Christian leaders would feel that there was
justification for war by that nation and even its allies, if the nation attacked so desires.

If it be argued that such justification had already been supplied by the brutality Hussein had demonstrated against his own people the Kurds, this is contradicted by the fact that the Kurds are his own people. They are a part of his nation. What even evil men do in their own nations is not in and of itself proper justification to go to war with them as an outsider looking on.

Furthermore, it is interesting to note that at the very time we were fmalizing our plans to attack Iraq, North Korea solemnly announced that it had produced a nuclear weapon (a weapon of mass destruction.) What did the Bush administration do? We announced that this was a matter for North Korea’s neighbors to address
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A few years ago we were living in central Ohio and conducting a ministry there. The parsonage where we lived had a pond in the back yard. Actually the pond was more like a bog, where mosquitoes grew healthy and large. Near the pond, all round the back yard, the ground seemed only a few feet above some sort of subterranean water source that kept it rather moist the year round.
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Somehow I made it through my message Sunday morning, February 13th. I was desperately ill. Sinus infection coupled with either bronchitis or pneumonia had me in an awful state. We cancelled our evening small group study. This has been a punishing winter. I was unable to do more than rise from the bed for a few minutes at a time.
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I could not have known that July 4, 1955, would be one of the most important dates
in my life. It was a Monday. My Navy buddy, Leroy, and I had been invited to a Sunday
school picnic. The Community Baptist Church of Deerfield, Illinois, was meeting at a
community park for its annual picnic. “Just bring yourselves, there’ll be plenty of food,”
we were assured by the ladies of the church. That’s what we did.

I had found the little mission church on a Sunday night when, as an infant Christian, I knew I belonged in church. “We preach Christ, Crucified, Risen and Coming Again,” the advertising flyer of the church said. Someone had placed it on the bulletin board of the Navy Ship Service store. That little flyer led me to the church and acquaintance with its people, though I usually went into Chicago to church with another buddy on Sundays.

About eleven o’clock that holiday morning we found the park, left the car in the parking lot and began to mingle with the people. After an hour or two of playing softball with a few of the very young children there and a couple of dads, we were called to eat. Out of the corner of my eye I noticed a pretty brunette who was playing with her little brother and generally looking after him. She looked very young. Later in the afternoon the girl’s mother approached the pastor of the church and suggested that “these young people be introduced.” We were. The young lady was named “Jane Shipley.” She lived in the nearby city of Evanston.

One thing led to another and I found myself inviting Jane and “anyone who wanted to go” to the upcoming Youth For Christ meeting in Chicago the following Saturday. Jane and the other young people there accepted our invitation and Jane’s mother assured us they could go. Leroy and I were to drive, in my little black Chevrolet, to Evanston, pick up the young people, three girls, and proceed on to Chicago for the youth meeting. I was secretly interested in this pretty but very young girl but hardly dared admit it, even to myself. Nevertheless, we went. We all had a good time and that get-acquainted trip landed Leroy and me an invitation to return to Jane’s home the following day for Sunday school and church and the noon dinner.

TOO YOUNG?

Jane was just sixteen and later I endured some good-natured kidding from my Navy buddies who accused me of “robbing the cradle.” I brushed aside their remarks as mere envy. I was uneasy, though, for I was afraid her parents would call a halt to things if they suspected I was interested in a serious relationship. All the young people from time to time reminded each other that “Ken was twenty-one.” The way they referred to it made me think of my sophomore course in high school English. We had studied “The Ancient Mariner.”

What I didn’t know was that Jane had put her girl friends on notice that she was interested in me and that they were to “stay away!” At the speed with which our relationship would develop, it was probably providential that I didn’t know.

BACK TROUBLE

Not many days had passed when Jane began to develop serious back pain. At that point I learned that back trouble was not new to her. She wore a lift in one shoe to compensate for a spinal curvature. She had previously been under the care of an osteopathic physician. She returned to South Bend, Indiana, about one hundred miles away, for his further evaluation. She was ordered to check into the Osteopathic Hospital there for treatment. Jane’s parents had lived in the greater South Bend area before coming to Evanston, Illinois, so it was natural for them to quickly arrange the hospital stay for her. She was to be there about three days. She would be “in traction,” whatever that was. Alternately I felt sorry for her with her back trouble and for myself, knowing I would not see her for awhile. We had spent several Sundays together at her church and home. She played the piano and we sang hymns together. It was getting to be a habit I liked. I wondered if any feelings she might have for me would “cool” while she was away. What could I do about it?

In the meantime, I had my duties to perform at the Naval Air Station at nearby Glenview. I was what the Navy called a “yeoman.” A yeoman is assigned to do office work either ashore or on board ship. The sailors with hard physical work to do referred to we yeomen by a slur that must not be mentioned here. Usually this was done out of our hearing inasmuch as we had access to their personnel files which placed some of them at our mercy. The result was a standoff with we yeomen having the easier work and the others disguising their disdain for us as best they could.

During those days of my early acquaintance with Jane, I am afraid my office efficiency was not up to par. I found myself thinking of her a great deal of the time. Now that her back trouble was a major factor, I was all the more concerned. I mused from time to time, “How could one so pretty have a bad back?”

HOSPITAL CALL

The day came when Jane was to make the trip, with her mother, to South Bend for, her hospital treatment. Other members of her family lived in that northern Indiana area and would support her mother and other family members while she was there.

After a day or two of her treatment I inquired about coming to see her. Somehow I got a day off from my Navy duties and permission to be out of the area. Jane’s family seemed to have no objection to my coming to see her. I wasn’t sure I could find the place, but I certainly was bent on trying.

I arrived in South Bend, found a parking place near the hospital and hurried in to see Jane. It was a wonderful summer afternoon and I struggled to contain my joy at the prospect of seeing her. I wanted to run across the deeply shaded street and through the parking lot. At the same time, I dreaded seeing her “in traction.” What could it mean?

As I recall, her room was on the second floor of the small brick building. I surveyed my appearance quickly and stepped quietly into the room which, I think, was a rather large ward, but Jane was either the only person there or the only one I really saw. I slipped up to her bedside expecting to see her in great pain or in a very difficult circumstance of some kind. Instead, I was greeted by her bright eyes and wonderful smile. She left no doubt that I was welcome. As she lay in her bed in a white gown I saw that she was stretched full length and was under covers from the waist down except for her feet. There were devices of some sort attached to both her feet and metal weights hung over the side of the bed. “Oh,” I thought, “That’s what “˜traction’ is!” Before I could ask her if it hurt, she began talking to me in a very friendly and disarming manner, complete with a touch of embarrassment.

At this point I would like to say I handed her a gift or a bouquet of flowers but I am sure I didn’t. My Navy salary after taxes and small amount deducted for a savings bond was about $80 per month. I worked after office hours in Glenview at the Kroger store there to pay for my car and other personal expenses. Also, looking back on the event, I probably did not know enough about hospital protocol at the time to even be embarrassed that I could not bring a gift.

We talked for awhile as I nervously contemplated that a nurse would soon ask me to leave if it looked like I was going to overstay my welcome. All too quickly the time came when I knew my acceptability in the room was reaching an end. I said my goodbye as I reached to take Jane’s hand in mine. Her dancing eyes and warm smile reassured me that my trip was not a wasted one. I walked away and back to my car, my heart swimming with delight!
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“So if you are offering your gift at the altar and there remember that your brother has something against you, leave your gift there before the altar and go. First be reconciled to your brother, and then come and offer your gift.” (Matthew 5:23-24, ESV)

******

At the very beginning of my Christian experience, God sent a fellow sailor into my life to show me an awful wrong in my past. It is difficult to describe the transition from my lost condition as a young religious individual to that of a Christian believer. In fact, I know, of course, that “transition” is hardly the word. It is actually a passing “from death to life” (John 5:24). It is a new birth, a new creation, a new ownership. And there were wrongs in my life that very much needed to be righted.

The sailor I refer to was a young petty officer, several grades in rank above me in the Navy. One day I came into the barracks and glanced at his “rack” (bed) and saw a Bible lying there. My instant thought was, “Why would anyone bring a holy book into a godless place like this?” Within a few days I had met the young man and owner of the Bible. He was Ed Moore from Alabama and he was just finishing a four-year tour of duty in the Navy. I was just beginning my two-year tour.

Without actually confronting me with my need of Christ, Ed simply lived the Christian life before me, referring often to his Bible and questioning me about my background. I do not know, exactly, when I was saved but I am inclined to think that it was right about this time. As I learned the truth I believed it, hence, I am not sure at precisely what moment God saved me. In large part he was responsible for setting me on the path that won me to the Lord.

Before long our conversations turned to girls and some of our dating relationships. He fondly told me of a young Japanese girl he had met while overseas with whom he had fallen in love. After an extended period of dating Ed described as a wonderful relationship he had had with this young lady, they had agreed to bring this relationship to an end, mostly I think because of their racial differences. Ed was clearly moved to tell me about it though the events he described were a couple of years old.

One afternoon as we were standing around talking, just the two of us, I found myself volunteering information I had never told anyone. Probably as a response to Ed’s disclosure that he had had a serious dating relationship, I confessed that day that so had I. In fact, I went on to tell him, I was actually engaged to marry a young woman with whom I had gone to high school. Her name was “Sally.” As nearly as I can remember, the following was my confession; a confession I made to my friend more than fifty years ago.
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