Pastor Odie Kennedy's Pearls

Mothers Day this year was one of the best that I have had.  As the day approached, I began to study 1 Kings 16-28. I learned some things that have helped me to keep going.  Let me share them with you. There were two women in a household.  One of the women's baby died when she rolled over on it.  She decided to switch her dead baby with the living baby of the other woman. When that woman awoke, she was cuddling a dead baby.  She began to panic but then really looked at the baby. She discovered that he was not the son she gave birth to. Knowing what the other woman had done, she went to the king.   I had to stop here.  Not anyone can go before the king.  You can't just walk into the royal court.  This woman had a need and she wasn't afraid to break all the rules.  She had to see King Solomon.  She knew he was the only one that could fix her situation. After hearing the plea of this mother, Solomon called for the sword.  Lo...

When the believers of God gather together, there's a unity that ignites our praise and elevates our worship. However, it is fundamental that we bring into that atmosphere a ready and cultivated God experience.  We cannot wait until we get to church to start giving God what we owe him.  Worship isn't a slow song on Sunday morning. Worship is a Lifestyle!  When you assemble in the house of the Lord, and see empty seats around you, it should make you concerned for your neighbors.  The word of God is not just for your four and no more!  We often say there's a hurting world out there, but there's also hurting people in the church.  Have you reached out to them? When the seats are empty, somebody isn't witnessing. Did you know that even the people of God go through? Yes, they know God. They love him, and they may still need encouragement.  We have a responsibility and an obligation to our sisters and brothers.  Our lives are so busy, but we must ...

What can wash away my sin? Nothing but the blood of Jesus. What can make me whole again? Nothing but the blood of Jesus. O precious is the flow that makes me white as snow; no other fount I know; nothing but the blood of Jesus. Baptist Preacher Robert Lowry co-penned this hymn with William Doane.  Nothing But The Blood was a poignant invitation to salvation. Lowry composed, edited, or added music to over 200 hymns.   Though his gifts were well received, Lowry's primary passion was preaching the message of Jesus Christ. He understood that his music only had power when its birth began at the cross. In the beginning, Adam lived a life we would now covet.  His time was spent in the lush garden fashioned with all that he would ever need.  He experienced the truest definition of "quality time" with a father.  Adam was even given companionship.  What closer mate could you have than one formed from your own rib? Though God gave specific instructio...

 People don't care about how much you know until they know how much you care- Theodore Roosevelt There's a group of people who are waiting for the church to step up.  They aren't the traditional pew sitters.  They are the disenfranchised.  Those who have been caught in the revolving doors of the criminal justice system. No longer can we just celebrate God in our four walls. The essence of our relationship with God is solidified in how we connect with that individual that does not know God.  If we were to talk to the local newspaper today, we should be saying more than we have a beautiful edifice, good music, and lots of dancing.  We should be able to confidently say that we are reaching the lost. When we are mission-oriented to extend the Gospel, we can salvage a whole generation! Their problems may be plentiful, but we have The Solution.  The church has the answer and it's our responsibility to connect them with what they are looking...

Near The Cross Jesus, keep me near the cross, There a precious fountain Free to all, a healing stream Flows from Calv’ry’s mountain. Refrain: In the cross, in the cross, Be my glory ever; Till my raptured soul shall find Rest beyond the river. Near the cross, a trembling soul, Love and Mercy found me; There the bright and morning star Sheds its beams around me. Written by Fanny Crosby 1869 Fanny Crosby was an amazing hymnist who penned more than 8,000 hymns over her lifetime. Some of her most notable hymns sung today are Blessed Assurance and To God Be The Glory. Though she was blind from infancy, spiritually she was a visionary.  She wrote hymns that drew attention to the suffering of her Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. Near the Cross was not just a song, but a prayer that every believer would do well to emulate.  Our journey through the Holy Week was full of traumatic events: the betrayal by Judas with a kiss, the abandonment of the disciples, the beating of Je...

T he life of a believer is one sweetened with the love of God and peppered with troubles.  It's our nature to have questions when we are going through difficulties in our lives.  "Where did this come from?' we ask.  God created this world simply by speaking into the atmosphere.  If we are created in His image, and we are, then it stands to reason that we too have that authority.  The bible admonishes us that death and life are in the power of the tongue (Proverbs 18:21).  We have more control than we are often aware of, and because of that, we are hazardous with our words.  We speak in lieu of praying.  We speak instead of listening.  We even talk when God is talking.  We call into our lives gloom and doom with just our choice of words.  By the same token, we have the ability to counteract the attacks of the enemy with our words.  When we are speaking the word of God, the devil must obey! We cannot allow this to make us fe...