Pastor Odie Kennedy's Pearls

We're wrapping up January but it still feels like a new season.  I still have to remember to get the date right.  When I write 2018 instead of 2019, it reminds me that I can't bring the struggles of 2018 into my new year. To make a natural change is one thing, but what about the spiritual change?  Is your spirit man still in 2018? So many are proclaiming that 2019 is their new season.  New year, new me.  There's nothing wrong with making the proclamation as long as we are willing to move to the destination.    We serve a great God and nothing he does is small or ordinary.  When he brought the children of Israel out of Egypt, he sent plagues before their release.  Every plague was worse than the last, but Pharaoh was unmoved.  I wonder how many of the Israelites were also unmoved. When God is taking us to a new place, old things cannot go.  It takes a forceful determined effort on our part to go where God is calling us.  The children of Israel had to make up t

Fast. (verb) Abstain from all or some kinds of food or drink, especially as a religious observance. www.dictionary.com So many people begin the year with resolutions of losing weight, being more active, and starting new adventures.  The motivation is a longing to improve one's life.  Beneath this motivation is often feelings of disappointment and discontentment.  For some, these underlying reasons aren't shared for fear of being rejected, judged, or dismissed. My church begins every new year with consecration.  For three weeks, we go before God as one body, fasting and praying.  Our motivation is also to improve our lives.  We fast to bring us into the presence of God.  Truthfully, some will undertake periods of fasting when they feel disappointed or discontent in their spiritual lives.  With food readily available, naturally, fasting can be challenging.  I'd like to share five things that make fasting more achievable and most importantly, effective. Understan

2 Chronicles 5:11-14 11 And it came to pass, when the priests were come out of the holy place : (for all the priests that were present were sanctified, and did not then wait by course: 12 Also the Levites which were the singers, all of them of Asaph, of Heman, of Jeduthun, with their sons and their brethren, being arrayed in white linen, having cymbals and psalteries and harps, stood at the east end of the altar, and with them an hundred and twenty priests sounding with trumpets:) 13 It came even to pass, as the trumpeters and singers were as one, to make one sound to be heard in praising and thanking the LORD; and when they lifted up their voice with the trumpets and cymbals and instruments of musick, and praised the LORD, saying , For he is good; for his mercy endureth for ever: that then the house was filled with a cloud, even the house of the LORD; 14 So that the priests could not stand to minister by reason of the cloud: for the glory of the LORD had filled the hou