Michael Joe Harvell

I thought you might enjoy this video of Steve Harvey’s introduction of Jesus!

Two Special Northwood Ladies Serving Up Some Love!

I am up early and off to a good start for the week and I feel that I am getting myself back together, so that I might be able to pursue the things that God has called me to! (Hey, I am just a normal person with the same challenges and frustrations that everybody else has.  I’ve just made the decision that I am not going to pretend like everything is perfect, because all that does, is rob me of the opportunity to take steps toward the perfection that God has for me.)  My spiritual life is in line and learning.  My physical is getting adjusted and seems to be ready to take some steps forward.  My mental is excited about all that it has been able to take in and looking forward to even more in the days ahead.

A big part of my life right now is trying to incorporate the “Beatitudes” into my life. (See if you can spot them in the following paragraph!)  I know that if Jesus took the time to share these words, then they must be important and if I can live the in the truth of what Jesus speaks, then I know that it will bring freedom.  I realize and remind myself constantly that I am a sinner in need of God’s grace.  I know that I have messed up and still mess up a lot – even when I don’t want to.  (That is Poor In Spirit!)  I also know that God loves me and desires to forgive me and will forgive me, if I am truly sorry and seek and ask for His forgiveness!  (That is Mourning!)  (I also need to forgive myself!)

I want to live the life that Jesus provided the example for – a life of gentleness. A life that learned to take it easy and does not get messed up.  (That is Meekness!)

I am hungry and thirsty for the things of God, so I will keep on striving to obtain that which He has promised!  To God be the Glory!  He is at work and I can feel Him and I know that He is real!  (That is Hunger & Thirst for Righteousness!)

Hope Loves Some Chips!

God Is Good! I love blessing!  And as a pastor, one of the greatest blessings that I can receive is the blessing of hearing about how good the people who I get to pastor are doing spiritually.  Last week, I was excited to receive phone calls, emails and text about the people in my congregation and the good way in which they were making choices to live their lives “out loud” for God.  Keep up the good work!

We are spending some extended time in Matthew 5:12 and we have picked up two of the eight Beatitudes and are working on our third. We have discovered that we need to live with an attitude of humility which realizes that “we can’t, but God can.”  The fact is:  I am nothing without Jesus!  We have also learned that we need to live with an attitude of sorrow.  We have messed up this life that God has given us and when we come to the place where we will admit that, then God is able to bring forgiveness, restoration and blessing into our lives.

The third attitude that we need to get a grasp on is the attitude of meekness or gentleness.  It’s is not that we don’t have the power.  It’s just that we have learned in submission to God and His will to control that power, so that we do not abuse it.  Jesus was our “Master Example” – He had the power, but not once did he abuse or misuse the power that was his.  God can’t and God won’t give you control of anything – if you can’t control yourself!  Emotion is a good and powerful thing, but it should never be your master!

Proverbs 16:32 says:  ”He who is slow to anger is better than the mighty and he who rules his spirit than he who captures a city!” Tomorrow we will take a look at the steps that we need to take to grow gentleness in our lives.  Until then – “Take It Easy Baby!  Just be gentle!”

Freedom!

We want release, freedom and escape from the heaviness of life!  We don’t like for life to get heavy, but it does and the truth, like it or not, is:  We need for life to get heavy.  When life gets heavy, it forces me to look at things realistically.  I often think that the only way to happiness is for things to go my way and this is just not true.  Often, when things are not going my way, I stop and try to figure out why and in the process discover some ugly stuff that needs to be taken on and out of my life.  If the heaviness was not there, then I don’t know that I would ever take the time or make the effort to see the reality and deal with it.

We are all sinners! We do things that we should not do.  We do things that get in the way of our having a right relationship with our Creator and Sustainer. We fail to do things that we should do.  Our failure to do these things keep us from having the relationship of blessing that God desires for us to have with Him.  We know that we have a problem – the question is:  What are we going to do about it?

We Have Three Options! 1.  We can deny our condition and pretend that it does not exist.  2.  We can try and change our condition.  3.  We can admit, be sorry and experience freedom.  Let’s take a look at each of these.

We Can Deny Our Condition! Just pretend that you don’t have any sin or convince yourself that your sin does not really matter!  The problem with denial is that the problem just gets bigger and does greater destruction.  The problem of sin will never just go away.  You have to do your part and allow God to do His!

We Can Try And Change Our Condition!  Sometimes we will come to the place of realization that says yes “I am a sinner!” and then we decide that “we” ourselves are going to do something about it.  The problem is this:  We are not strong enough, smart enough or disciplined enough to deal with sin on our own.  It is going to take a power greater than our own.  The good news is that God never intended for you to do it by yourself!

We Can Admit, Be Sorry And Set Free! The first step to getting free is admission.  If you want to deal with a problem, you have to admit that you have a problem!  Admit to God, yourself and others that you are a sinner and that you can do nothing to save yourself!  The next step is to be sorry for your sin.  Sorrow is not really all that hard after admission.  To really be sorry for our sin, we need to see our sinfulness next to God’s Holiness.  Our happiness does not come through our sorrow, but through God’s response to our sorrow!  God wants to and will set you free!  Don’t waste God’s grace – open your heart and life and enjoy every bit of it!

Sisters!

I’m Sorry! I am not telling you that I’m sorry.  I am telling you that I’m sorry!  In others words I am not apologizing to you for something.  I am just telling you that when I look at God and then look at myself – I am sorry!  I am nothing without Him and I cannot do anything that amounts to anything without Him.  I need His forgiveness, grace, mercy, restoration and redemption.

We now have the first two “Beatitudes” in our arsenal! We learned last week that we are to be “poor in spirit”, which means that we are to live in and with the humble realization of our sinfulness and our inability to do anything about our sinfulness in and of ourselves.  When I live with this attitude, I can’t help but to look up to God.  God is my strength and source and I am nothing without Him!  I like to think of this character trait as HUMILITY!

This week we are working to incorporate the second attitude, which  is “Blessed are they that mourn, for they shall be comforted!” What does it mean to mourn?  The word mourn used in this passage is the strongest of nine Greek words that are used in our New Testament.  The word used here for mourning implies a deep inner agony.  It also is a present participle and so it indicates that this is a continuous action.  When we get humble and begin to truly see ourselves as we are, then we can’t help, but to look up to God.  When we see God in His holiness and perfection, then we can’t help but to see that we are sinners in need of a Savior.  This is a moment by moment, day by day occurence.  I like to think of this character trait as sorrow.  When I see God in His holiness and me in my sinfulness, then I can’t help but to be sorry and seek forgiveness and restoration.

A few reminders for the week! Read Matthew 5:1-12 everyday and try to memorize it!  Try to live these verses – let them challenge and change the way that you live your life.  Try to get each new attitude as soon as you begin to understand it – don’t wait!  God has some great things that He wants to accomplish in and through you – enjoy the journey!

Wow – What a day! I love Sundays!  For a pastor – Sunday is game day!  Today was a tough day, because I had a tough message to share.  My spirit loves the “heavy” message, but my flesh is always a little scared that people will not get it or take it the wrong way.  Being the pastor of a church is a whole lot harder than it looks!  I love being a pastor and I am thankful to God for His calling upon my life and thankful for a church that helps me to do all that God has called me to do!

We are reading, studying and doing our best to apply the truths of the Beatitudes found in Matthew 5:1-12. Make sure that you read them, try to memorize them and especially work to live them out in your daily living.  I will spend some time this week talking about “Blessed are they that mourn, for they shall be comforted!” Join me each day back on this page and feel free to share what God is teaching you about how to put the attitude into practice!

Growth Takes Time!

We have been talking all week about being “poor in spirit!” To be poor in spirit is to be humble!  It’s not just saying that I am humble, it is real and actual humility.  Humility which understands and believes that there are some things that I can’t do and I need help and that help can only come from my Creator and Sustainer God!

Humility is the work of God! A true servant of Jesus will possess a deep and abiding dependence on and in the Lord!  It is easy to say that we have a relationship with Jesus, but the truth is:  If we have a relationship with Jesus, we will not have to say anything, because the relationship will prove itself in and through the way that we live out our lives.  One of the biggest reasons that I have a relationship with Jesus is because I cannot do life by myself!

We can fake dependence in front of the world, but we need to always remember that God knows our heart and that is where real dependence begins and ends! Real dependence begins and ends in our heart.  We need to realize that we have no spiritual merit!  We are helpless worthless and sinful!  We need to admit that we can earn no spiritual reward!  It is God Who is mighty, worthy and glorified!  We need to lose our pride!  We are poor and He is rich!  We cannot find any assurance in self!  We are doomed and He is redemptive!  We stand empty handed before God!  We are dead and He is alive!

Humility is not an act!  Humility is an attitude! We get to make a choice to live with or without this attitude.  We get to make a choice to live in our own power or in the supernatural power of God.

Come back tomorrow and we will take a look at some steps that we can take to make this attitude our own!

You Still Have Time!

It is harder to be “poor in spirit” than we think! When Jesus told us in Matthew 5:3 that “Blessed are the poor in spirit for they shall inherit the Kingdom of Heaven.” We thought:  ”I can do that!”  The truth is – it is not near as easy as we might think, because just when you think you have a grasp on humility, your grasp messes you up!

We have a problem! We are strong willed, proud and full of attitude.  We like to think that we can will our way through any situation or circumstance.  The problem with willing our way through, is that we are depending on our own strength.  Our pride gets in the way every time that we make a little progress, because we believe that we deserve a pat on the back.  And if we do deserve a pat on the back, then it is once again, because we accomplished something in and of ourselves.  We are full of attitude, because we look around this world and see a lot of people getting it wrong and we know that at least we are getting some of it right, but if we are getting life right, then it is not us, it is Him in and through us.

We become self righteous and confident in and of ourselves and this is the big challenge. We must get self out of the way – if we are to experience the supernatural hand of God upon our lives.  We convince ourselves that we are happy and that we feel good about the life that we are living, but deep down – we know that something is missing.  That something that is missing is dependence upon and faith in God our Creator and Sustainer!

Realize and really believe that you are nothing without Him and everything and more than you can dream or imagine with Him!

Oh No! Now What?

We have began our journey through the Beatitudes found in Matthew 5:1-12. In verse three we read the first and foundational attitude:  ”Blessed are the poor in Spirit for they shall inherit the Kingdom of Heaven.” We know that “Blessed” = Happy!  So what does it mean to be “poor in spirit?”

To be poor in spirit is to shrink, cower and cringe as a totally destitute beggar, who is completely dependent upon others, because he/she has no ability to support themselves. The best way to picture “poor in spirit” is to see a beggar with one hand reaching out in desperate need and one hand covering up in embarrassed shame!  When Jesus says “Blessed are the poor in spirit – He is talking about spiritual poverty.  We need to realize, believe and live like we are nothing without Jesus, because the truth is:  We are nothing without Jesus!

To be “poor in spirit” is to be humble. It is a humble realization that we are helpless to do anything to really help ourselves and so we do the only thing that we can do and that is – we put our whole trust in God.  I am spiritually bankrupt!  I deserve nothing!  I have only one option – To turn and trust God and His grace and mercy!

We need to see ourselves as we really are! We are lost, hopeless and helpless without Jesus.  It does not matter what level of education you have obtained, how much money you have saved up, what status you live at and in, what accomplishments that you can brag on or what religion you claim to believe and to belong!  We all need to recognize our spiritual destitution and realize our complete dependance upon Jesus Christ as our Savior.  We cannot save ourselves, but we can be saved!

Pa's Place!

How are you doing? Really – how are you doing?  How are you physically, mentally, emotionally, financially and spiritually?  It is amazing to think that with a few small changes in our lives – God can and will do big things in and through our lives.  The area that we really need to be concerned with is the spiritual!

Life can and should be different! And it will be different, if we will take the time to grow our spiritual lives.  In Matthew 5:1-12 we discover eight attitudes that Jesus teaches that will change our lives.  These “Beatitudes” bring the blessing of happiness and the promise of reward.  As we read and attempt to live with these attitudes in our daily living – our goal is to actually experience life change!

To experience life change – we must listen, obey and grow! You can’t grow if you don’t obey and you can’t obey if you don’t listen.  So it starts with Listening – what is the Holy Spirit saying to you?  Now the question is:  What are you going to do about it?  Do what the Holy Spirit says and you are on your way to living in obedience and the natural by product is growth.

Take some time to read through Matthew 5:1-12 and focus in on verse three today! “Blessed are the poor in spirit for they will inherit the Kingdom of Heaven!”  We have something to learn and Jesus has something to teach!  What does He want to teach you about being poor in spirit???