Michael Joe Harvell

It has been great for me and my family to get away to visit with some other ministries and take some time to enjoy some vacation from our normal everyday duties!  I have honestly done much better at this vacation thing than I thought I would.  I have not worked on any sermon stuff - and that is saying a lot for me, because almost everything I see, read or think almost always leads to a sermon.  I have missed preaching just a little bit, but really the break has been good.  I have not taken a serious break from preaching since I first started pastoring in 1992.

While I have done good at not doing the sermon thing.  I have not been quiet so disciplined in the area of being a pastor.  In fact, I have thought a lot about Northwood and all of the people that make Northwood so special.  The truth is, we just can’t help it!  Northwood is more than a church to me and my family - Northwood is a family to my family and Northwood is home!  While I have enjoyed some time to enjoy and learn in different environments, I am thankful for a home to head home to and looking forward to the day that we get back there.  Until then, I hope everyone knows how much we love them and just in case they don’t, I know that I will be sure to tell them when I get home!

There used to be a commercial from a bank that had a song that said:  “I’m different and don’t care who knows it, something about me ain’t the same.  I’m different and that’s how it goes, ain’t going to play any black sheep games!  Being different is not a bad thing, it is actually a good thing!  The thing that makes you different, is the thing that makes you - you!  The thing that makes you - you, is the thing that gives you the ability to be powerful and make a difference in this world!

We need to stop trying to fit in with the world and start fitting into who God created us to be!  We need to figure out what gifts God has given us and build our lives by using our gifts for God’s glory!  What is it that God has given you that makes you uniquely you?  Figure that out and use it and you will be amazed at just how special your life really is!  What do you think really matters - what kind of sheep you are, or the fact that you are a sheep?

Mistakes do not have to be a bad thing, in fact mistakes can be a good thing, if we are willing to learn from them.  I do not like to make mistakes!  I grew up believing that “if you want something done right - do it yourself!”  This is a very flawed way of thinking!  The fact is:  No matter how good or gifted we are, we can’t expect that we will do everything perfectly every time!  In fact if you are a human being - living on the planet earth - you are going to make mistakes.  Not only do we need to learn to accept our own mistakes, we must also be willing to accept the mistakes of others.  The problem comes when we keep making the same mistakes over and over agian!  Remember:  If we were perfect people living in a perfect world, we would not need grace!

So, get out there and take some of the chances that God is leading your to take!  Put your heart on the line and live like you’ve never lived before.  Let God use you to do the incredible and impossible and when you miss the boat and make a mistake, realize that God’s grace always has another boat on the way!  When you are making mistakes, you know that you are taking chances!  When you are taking chances, you are inviting grace to take full effect in your life and in the lives of others!  Take a chance, make a mistake, learn from it and grow forward for God’s glory and everyone’s blessing!

Every morning I get up early and go for a walk on the beach.  For the past several mornings, I have had an elderly African American man that has walked by me and every morning as he makes his way up and down the beach he greets everyone that he passes with a hearty and healthy “GOOD MORNING & GOD BLESS YOU!”  After we exchanged encouragement to each other and praise to God this morning, the Holy Spirit spoke to me and said simply:  “Every moment of every day YOU decide to live POSITIVE or NEGATIVE!”  Every moment of every day, regardless of what is happening in my life, I get to make the choice of how I am going to respond!  I like to think that I am generally a pretty positive person, but I am many times swayed by the world that I live in and the sway often pulls me toward the negative!  I am going to do all that I can in the days a head, with the rest of my life to try and live POSITIVE!

I think the positive life comes when I truly trust in God with all of my heart and ignore my own understanding.  I need to acknowledge Him in all my ways and in everything that I do and know that He is making my paths straight!  (Proverbs 3:5-6)  I pray that God will help me to live this POSITIVE life, I ask that you would help to encourage me to live the POSITIVE life!  I believe that my POSITIVE life will make a difference for others!

This morning I was sitting outside at the pic-nic table having the first part of my Quiet Time!  I typically spend some time sitting down with my open Bible, an open journal and an open heart and mind!  I use this time to just listen and hear whatever it is that God wants to tell me!  This morning as I was having this time of listening for God’s voice through His Word - someone walked right up and started to ask me questions!  I was in a private place, trying to have a private time with God!  All signs should have alerted anyone that happened to pass by - that this guy must really be into the Bible and should not be disturbed!  But I was disturbed and I was disturbed that I was disturbed!  I think the thing that really got me was the fact that the person that did the disturbing should have known better.  They claim to be a Christian and they have heard me speak of the importance of a Quiet Time.  My Quiet Time is an appointment with God - I do not answer the door, the phone or nothing!  I work to give God my undivided, complete and total attention!

The thing that disturbed me at first was that I was interrupted!  The thing that really disturbed me, the more I that I thought about it was that the person that did the disturbing claims to be a Christian, yet had no idea of what I was doing or how important it was!  At the very least, they should have realized that I was studying my Bible and yet they felt that it was okay to come up and pursue a conversation!  (And the bad thing was - it was a conversation about nothing!)  The really disturbing part is this:  There are many people in our world today - in our churches today, that do not have any idea what it means to have a real, meaningful and growing relationship with Christ.  At best they think they have insurance to get out of Hell and into Heaven!  If Heaven and Hell is the best that we get out of our relationship with Christ, it is still more than enough to motivate us to pursue God!

Jesus died for me, what I could not do for myself, He did for me!  My life belongs to Him!  He and He alone is worthy of my praise and I want to meet Him at the beginning of every day, because I can think of no greater way to begin my day!  I love Jesus and I love you, let’s all get closer to Him in the moments and days ahead!

I know - I have not posted in a while and some of you think I should post something every day!  I promise I am going to try and do better!  I have been working really hard for the past several weeks on getting Northwood’s new web site planned and organized and I am happy to report that we are now full swing in the process of building the site - it is going to be a super tool for reaching out to our community and world!

We left a little early for our trip, so Joy and I could visit with the Stewarts!  Erin is doing great - she was and is even more now one of God’s miracles!  Philip and Kay are great and I am so proud of the way that they are dealing with all of the challenges.  Joy and I got the chance to take them out for dinner and we spent a couple of hours just praising God and enjoying sweet fellowship!  I also want to say here - how proud I am of our Northwood Family for all of the love, support and prayers that they have shared with and for the Stewart family.

I have has some very special times with the Lord over the past several days!  I have had the opportunity to spend a little over an hour every day in prayer and then another hour or so, just listening through His Word!  It has been hard to not work on sermons or strategy, but I have pushed myself to stay focused on nothing but God and my relationship with Him!

The first big thing that God has made clear for me is:  It is not our job to grow the church, it is our job to grow ourselves and each other!  I have spent to much energy on trying to grow the church.  In the days ahead I hope to invest my life in growing myself and others!  I hope that you will join me, because I know that God has great things in store!

By the way - I survived my first Sunday not preaching!  I enjoyed the church that we visited and appreciated the message.  I did miss Northwood big time!  Gracie actually missed Northwood more than anyone - she spent the first twenty minutes of worship with one of the saddest faces I have ever seen!  Her thought:  “Any church that is not our church is just different!”  She’s got a very good point!

Pray for me and my family - that God will bless us with some sweet family time together!  That I will hear from God and acquire His wisdom and knowledge, and that someones life might be changed because of meeting me and my family!  I Love You!  God Bless & Press On!

Give more than you take!  We live in a world of takers!  Almost everyone is looking for something for nothing!  Now a days, the takers even act as if what they are be given is deserved or earned.  Rather than being grateful, we are often demanding!  Stop and think for a moment:  What if we all continued to be a world of takers?  What if everyone that is a giver started to be a taker?  It would not take long for this world to become a very bad place.

Real growth takes place in our lives when we give!  There is not anything wrong with receiving!  The problem comes when our focus becomes what we are receiving over what we are giving!  God gives to us, so that we can give t each other!  The very moment that we get more focused on what we are getting over what we are giving is the very moment that we begin to die!  We need to think about how can I help others, rather than always worrying about how can I get others to help me!  How can I help someone else deal with their frustrations?  How can i help someone else take advantage of the opportunities that God has put in front of them?  How can I help others accomplish their goals and achieve their dreams?

Stop thinking that the world owes you anything!  Be grateful for what God has given you and prove your gratefulness by always being willing to jump in and help in whatever way you might be needed or useful!  Zig Zigler says:  “You can get everything in life that you want if you will just help enough other people get what they want!”  Let’s start planting some seeds of success in others by helping them to live the blessed life and then let’s not be to surprised when we catch ourselves enjoying the blessed life!

We tend to be a people that can get stuck in our past!  We love to talk about what we have done and where we have been.  It is not bad to thnk about our past or talk about our past, especially if we are learning from it!  We can actually experience growth in our present by taking the time to think through and learn form our past!  Our past if full of experiences that can help us to think in new ways.  I am thankful for my past, for the things that I have experienced and for the things that it has taught me.  While, I am thankful, I am also careful not to get stuck there, because I know that God has some amazing experiences of growth for me in the future!

Abe Lincoln said:  “The best thing about the future is that it comes only one day at a time!”  With that thought in mind, I think I can handle, with God’s help - whatever is coming my way today!  To get the most out of our days, we need to have an agenda!  What do you want to accomplish today?  What does God want to accomplish through you?  You decide today - are you going to spend your life repairing or preparing?

Don’t live your life thinking:  ”I wish I would have, I know I could have, I think I should have!”  Life is so much more than “would, could, and should”!  We have all made mistakes - learn from your mistakes and move on.  Think, dream and work on your future!  Get excited about what God can and will do through you as you learn to live in obedience to Him!

Take a few moments sometime today to REFLECT and learn from your past!  REARRANGE your life so that it lines up with God’s plan and His Word!  RECHARGE and head full steam into the amazing future that God has for you!

We are Northwood!  We are not a club!  We are a church - God’s church!  We are a community of followers of Jesus Christ, committed to pursue and share “Right Direction” living!  “Right Direction” is given to us by God through His Word and helps us to live blessed, fulfilled and growing lives!

We Are The People Of Right Direction!  God has given each of us a personal mission of sharing how every person can have a real and meaningful relationship with Him and of helping people to grow in that relationship.  God has given us a corporate mission of joining together to and working to accomplish His Great Commission!  We have to get Right Direction and we have to share it!

We Are The Place Of RIght Direction!  We are the “You Are Here!” spot!  A spiritual reference point for upstate South Carolina.  We help people to know where they are and how to get to where they need to go!  God has an awesome plan for each of us, so let’s jump in and get some great things done for Him!

I am a Christian!  I am a follower of Christ!  I believe that Jesus Christ died for my sins and paid the price that I could not pay, so that I might have a forever and always relationship with God!  Colossians 3 says that I have been raised with Christ!  Because of all that Jesus has done for me - I am going to do my best to set my heart on things above, where Jesus is seated at the right hand of God.  Every time I set my heart on something here on earth, I end up getting frustrated and disappointed!  I am going to do my best to set my mind on things above and not on earthly things.  I can do this, because when I accepted Jesus, I died to my old self and old way of living and my life is not hidden in and with Christ!  When Jesus appears in glory - I will appear with Him!  So my life that I am living - I make the choice to live it in Christ - Who lives in me!