Michael Joe Harvell

Thankful For Grace - My Daughter & God's!

Are you a thankful person? I like to think that I am thankful, but I am not sure that my conversation and thoughts always prove that to be true.  In fact, if you and I pay attention during our prayers, we will notice that our prayers of thanksgiving quickly turn into prayers of request.

We know how to do it! We start out saying thank you to God and quickly move into the area of trying to move God to move on our behalf.  Between now and thanksgiving, I am going to be working on genuinely being more thankful and I want to invite you to join me.

Take some time this week to listen to your conversations and prayers. Ask yourself this question:  Am I really thankful?  If we are really thankful, then we and others will hear it, in and through our conversations.

I like to think that I am a pretty good guy. I am a Christian.  I love Jesus and I am thankful for the relationship that I have with Him.  He really has changed my life and I know that my eternity is safe in His hands.  I love God and I love people and I really do enjoy serving them both.  I am a faithful husband, a very involved dad and a committed friend.  I work pretty hard to be a good guy, but being a good guy is not enough!

I was a sinner, but God’s grace changed that! I still mess up!  I still miss the mark!  I still don’t measure up!  In fact, I don’t even come close.  I often fail to do the right thing and I don’t even realize that I am failing.  I sometimes do the wrong thing and hate to admit it.  I don’t mind admitting this – in fact it is very freeing when you realize it, admit and seek God’s forgiveness and restoration.  Because of God’s grace, I get to make the choice to do the right thing.  I want to make that choice more consistently and in more areas of my life.

I’ve got a lot of work to do. God is showing me areas of my life that I have neglected.  While I have paid attention to some areas and they are growing and beautiful, there are some areas that I just haven’t given the attention that they deserve.  God is opening my eyes to these areas and I am working to make them right for Him.

Let’s face it – not a one of us is perfect! What areas of your life do you need to pay some attention?  Trust me – they are there – realize it or not!  Ask God to reveal to you the things that are hard to see and you will find Him ready to grow you in ways that you had never even given a thought!

I Love The Cool Weather!

It was a rough, but good night! Last night I get up as I do on most Wednesday nights to receive prayer request and praise reports and we are having a very good time of praising God and sharing our concern for loved ones and friends.  We had a very good group of people who showed up last night and everyone seemed to be in a really good mood.  I noticed as I was sharing that everyone seemed to be paying extra special attention to me.  I did not think much of it, because I am the Pastor and I am standing in front of all of them.

Things were shaping up and looking good! After a nice time of sharing, I prayed a very beautiful and serious prayer.  I took time to acknowledge God’s holiness, thank Him for His faithfulness, ask for His forgiveness and plead for His interaction on behalf of all of the request that had been mentioned.  It was a very nice time of prayer!  As I finished praying and walked to the side for the music to begin, one of my members walked over to hand me a note.  I opened the note and it said “ZIPPER?”  As I made my way to the back sure enough – I was having a “wardrobe-malfunction!”  I immediately took care of the problem and after the singing stepped back up to deliver the Word.  I thought it best to say nothing of the zipper incident.  The Word was powerful and spoke to all of us and I think we left church challenged in more ways than one.

At Home! Later when I got home and was telling my wife about the incident, she quickly spoke up and said “oh yeah – I heard all about it from” and began to share a list of names.  She then reached over and turned down the waste of my khakis and said “and you are wearing your red underwear!”  I’ve thought a lot about this episode through the night and I only have one thing left to say:  ”I love Christmas!”

One Of The Men That I Am Thankful For!

What are you grateful for? You should be able to come up with a pretty long list of relationships, events, possessions and blessings.  The truth is that most of us that live in the United States have an abundance that usually far outweigh our memory.  I think that sometimes I allow all of my many blessings to get in the way of my being thankful.  I hate to admit it, but I have at times allowed my much to get in the way of my being thankful.  It was not on purpose.  It’s just that I have so much to be thankful for that I sometimes get to focused on the wrong stuff and forget where it all comes from.

I sometimes forget to be thankful! I want to be full of joy and I should be full of joy and thanksgiving.  God has been very good to me.  Even when I have a problem, I never have to face it by myself, because God is always right here with me.  When I really stop to take the time to think about being thankful, then God fills me with his joy.

Thank You God for the good and the bad! Thank you for being with me in all situations and circumstances!  I love You and I am so glad that you allow me to be Your child!  Thank you for reminding me to be thankful and help me this month to grow my “THANKS-GIVING!”

Gracie on Winter Life-Guard Duty!

You are special and you do matter! It does not really matter what anyone else thinks or what they have to say.  Life is tough and it seems to be getting tougher, but you are a special creation of God.  There is not another you anywhere.  Don’t let this world or the tough situations of life get you down.  Don’t allow anyone else to count you out!

Get up and get going! God has an amazing plan for your life and God will take the bad, frustrating and discouraging and use it for your good as you trust and love living in Him.

As you wander through this life, you will stumble across many treasures. Some will be found easily and some will require much effort.  Treasures are not placed along life’s path by accident.  Treasures are placed on you path on purpose and for a purpose by our Creator and they are intended for our blessing and growth.

I often wonder how many treasures I have missed out on, because I was not paying attention. I missed out because I was not paying attention, or maybe because the treasure did not look like what I think a treasure is supposed to look like.

When you come upon one of God’s treasures and you know it’s one of His treasures, from the very moment of its discovery, your life begins to change. You develop a different focus, dreams and goals.  Your whole approach to life changes and so does the way that you live!

Treasure is important because it always carries with it the capacity to change our lives. Matthew 13:44 says:  “The Kingdom Of Heaven is like a treasure hidden in a field.  When a man found it, he hid it again, and then in his joy went and sold all he had and bought that field.”

One of the greatest treasures that God has given us is the treasure of a Kingdom Relationship. God does not give us this relationship because we deserve it.  God gives us this relationship out of GRACE, in MERCY and through FORGIVENESS!  Because God gives it, the Kingdom Relationship should change our lives.  It should change who we are, how we live, what we do, where we go and the why of everything.

Don’t waste your Kingdom Relationship! Do whatever it takes to protect it, grow it and share it!  Remember:  Your relationship with God is a treasure and a treasure should bring blessing!

At The Beach For A Little Winter Swim!

When I was younger, I used to play a little football and every now and then someone would come out of nowhere and knock me flat on my behind. I would lay there for a moment or two and try to figure out if I was still alive.  The coach would come over and say:  ”He is alright – just got the wind knocked out of him!”

I don’t play football anymore, but there are still plenty of days where someone or something comes out of nowhere and knocks me flat on my behind. I lay there for a moment and realize that I just got the wind knocked out of me.  In football or in life, when you get the wind knocked out of you, you can’t stay down.  You have to get back up and get back into the game.

All of us have problems! In fact, I don’t know of anyone that does not have any problems.  When you get the wind knocked out of you, you have to get back up!  In every problem there is an opportunity!  Find, seize and grow from your opportunities.  Get up!  There is somewhere for you to go and there is something for you to do!  Whatever problem you are facing right now – remember it is really an opportunity for God to help you to get to somewhere that you could never get on your own!

Ever have one of those days? You know the kind of day where everything goes in an opposite direction than what you had planned.  Today has been one of those days.  I did not get to this blog page until the afternoon, but I still wanted to share a little something.  I hope you enjoy and I hope you will find something useful!

Yesterday was a blast and I am not as young as I used to be! We had a great day at both campuses yesterday.  Our services were very worshipful and it really seemed to me that God was trying to communicate some life-challenging and life-changing TRUTH.  I know that God is really working on me right now and I hope that this is true for many of us, because if it is, then it means that God is about to “SOMETHING!”

My sister is going to have a baby! We had her first shower yesterday.  It was a very good shower.  In fact, I am not really sure that she needs another shower, but I guess she gets one anyway.  I figured out why they call them “Showers”, because she really cleaned up!  (HaHa!)  Krystal will always be my little sister, even though she is beginning to look and act a lot more like our Mom – Martha Jo!  I love you Sis and I am so excited for you and Bill.  It was great getting to see and visit with so many people who have had an impact on my life.  I enjoyed the “hometown” fellowship!

There is still a little bit of day left, so I am going to get off of here and see if I can get a few more things accomplished. Thanks to all of you for reading and I appreciate your sharing your encouragement with comments and emails.  Praying that this will be a blessed week for all of us!

Gray Turning To Blue!

This has been a crazy week! It is really hard to believe that it is only Wednesday.  If I had to use one word to describe this week, I would use the word “interruptions!” Everything that I have planned to do, has been interrupted by something else that was more important that needed to be done.  Most people who know me, know that I am a person that is usually operating off of a “to-do” list, but there are times when you have to ignore your to-do” list and go with the flow and this has been one of those weeks.

Here are just a few observations about interruptions: Interruptions are almost never wanted, but many times end up being just what we needed.  I have not got a lot of the things done that I had planned to get done this week, but I have accomplished a great deal.

Most interruptions will grow us – if we allow them to do their job! Interruptions are going to come and so we must be prepared to make a decision to ignore or give attention to the interruption.  Learning to make the right choice is vital to our being and doing what God has called us to be and do.  There will be times that the interruption needs to be ignored and you need to stay focused on the task at hand, while there will be other times where you need to step away from the task at hand and give your full attention to the interruption.

Our relationship with God is vital! To help you make the right decision, it is important that you are in a connected, growing and surrendered relationship with God.  This is the one thing that you don’t want to get interrupted.  Make sure that you take and make time to connect with and grow in God.  The ability to make the right decision about what to do about an interruption – flows out of a real and right relationship with your Creator, Who has always had your best interest at heart!

Enjoy, learn and grow from the interruptions that come your way – you will be glad that you did!

Bet You Can't Guess Who I Am?

It is almost Halloween and most folks are already thinking about costumes. I have mine – it is a simple mask.  I tried it on one night and Joy and the girls laughed and laughed, so I bought it.  It is fun to put on a mask at Halloween and pretend to be someone or something that we are really not.

Most of us have a very serious problem of wearing a mask or masks even when it is not Halloween. We wear a mask and pretend to be something that we are not.  Many of us have been wearing a mask for so long, that we even fool ourselves!  We need to get real if we are going to get free!

I want a pure heart! I really do want my heart to be pure, because Jesus promises that those with a pure heart will see God.  I want to see God.  I need to see God.  I sometimes convince myself that my heart is pure because I do the right things.  But a pure heart requires more than just doing the right things.  A pure heart requires doing the right things for the right reasons.

A pure heart is a heart that is clean, uncontaminated and without corruption. If my heart is going to be pure, then I have got to take off my mask and/or masks of pretend and let Jesus deal with the real me.  My heart is not always clean and it cannot become clean, if I am unwilling to admit that it is unclean.  As I live in this world it is very easy for me to allow my heart to become contaminated with the stuff of the world.  Pretending that there is no contamination in my heart does not make it true.  Living with the contamination leads to corruption and before long my heart is in a desperate  and very serious place.

My heart is me, it is who I am! It represents the inner me, the me that I have to allow others to see.  When I get the inside of me right – the outside will follow!   This is where most of us mess this up, because we start on the outside.  It is the inside that matters!  God looks at the heart!

Take a good, honest look at your heart! What kind of work do you need to do?  What kind of work do you need to allow God to do?  Take off the mask or masks, get honest, be real and experience the freedom that only Jesus can bring.