What a Blind Man Saw

On the back end of a very busy April, I am on a spiritual high but physically I feel like I am about to die of exhaustion. The changing weather patterns, climates, etc have finally caught up with me but God is good and no matter how I feel, I feel better than I deserve to feel.

The Macedonia Church had a great time on Friday celebrating with the Second Baptist Church and their Pastor, Rev. Andre Wells for his 5th Pastoral Anniversary services. I had the honor of preaching and I must say I love Pastor Appreciation services. For one, my Pastor was always just ruthless at services like this, pro-preacher, pro-pastor, run everything in the house and for two, if a fellow preacher/pastor can't be supportive of another Pastor on his day, I don't think much of that preacher. I may never be able to do anything to help you but I promise I won't do anything to hurt you.

We talked on Exodus 17: 8-16, "THEN CAME AMALEK", God blessed us and I found out later that everything the Lord directed me to say was what the Pastor needed the church to hear so God be praised because I had my safe sermon in my pocket but God wouldn't let me preach it.

We as believers for our Leaders should:
Take Them Up vs. 9
Prop Them Up vs. 12
Hold Them Up vs. 12
Write It Up vs 14
Lift the Banner Up vs 15

Sunday Morning at Macedonia was a great time. We moved our service ahead an hour early because I was scheduled to preach the 11:00 hour worship service for the 11th Pastoral Appreciation service for Pastor Ricardo Taylor and the Mt. Carmel Church and I wanted the church to go with me so we preached on Mark 10: 46-52, "What A Blind Man Saw". The Lord blessed and I am grateful for the strength he gave me to preach as when I woke up I could tell I didn't have everything I wanted but I had everything I needed because I still had HIM. What a Blind Man saw is:
He Saw Past His Painful Obstacles. (Blind, Beggar, Black-listed)
He Saw Past His Personal Opposition. (Be Quiet)

He Saw His Present Opportunity. ( "I want to See")

At 11:00 we went to Mt Carmel and had a great time celebrating another Pastor's anniversary. To come together the way we did is admittedly unconventional but God worked it out for His Glory. Mt. Carmel looked me over for a minute but when God flipped the switch, we had a Great Time in the Lord. It was a blessing from God that my voice wasn't right because I would have put myself in the hospital over there if it had been. The Lord allowed us to pull a stick out of the bag from Mk 9: 14-24 and we preached, "It Is Possible". Nothing major but sometimes the simple stuff just kills me, three words in that text always do it for me, IT, IF and IS. We all have Its ( boys problem), We all deal with IFs (Dads Problem) but Jesus says Everything IS POSSIBLE (His solution for our Its and IFS). God blessed.

We had 4:00 Annual Usher Day at our church and I praise God for a wonderfully dedicated group of workers who are always on their post serving the Lord without much fan fare or hoopla but God is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him. I wanted them to know their Pastor loves them and honors them for their work to God and Macedonia. Pastor Lanell Williams from the Mt. Olive Church came over to preach this service for us and he preached out of I Corinthians 9: 24-27, "Don't Quit The Race". It was a good service for two reasons, God was pleased and it didn't take all day to have the service.

I am crawling under the bed and will check to see who my Niners drafted to go with the best wide receiver in this draft Michael Crabtree. Blessings on you,

Feel like crawling, but I am running in my Spirit,

Owens