Welcome, friend—I’m glad you’ve pulled up a chair on the front porch of my little corner of the internet. My name is Michael Joe Harvell, and I live my life with one simple mission: to glorify God, encourage people, and leave this world a little better than I found it. I’m a husband, father, pastor, writer, Jeep enthusiast, and front-porch thinker who believes that life is best lived on purpose. I serve as pastor of Eureka Baptist Church in Anderson, South Carolina, where I get the joy of preaching, teaching, and walking with people through the ups and downs of everyday life. Over the years, I’ve discovered that faith isn’t just about Sunday mornings—it’s about living every single day in the presence and power of God. I’m also an author. My books—including The Grace Exchange: How Forgiven People Forgive People and The Word Works—grow out of the sermons, stories, and lessons I’ve learned on this journey. I write in a style that’s conversational, a little front-porch-rocking-chair, and full of stories, quotes, and Scripture that point us back to the goodness of God’s Word. When I’m not writing or preaching, you might find me sitting outside with my Bible and journal, cruising the backroads in my Jeep Gladiator, or sharing a meal and some laughs with the good folks God has put in my life. I love helping people find peace in their spirit, strength in their body, and encouragement in their soul. This blog is simply an extension of that mission. Here you’ll find devotions, encouragement, reflections, and practical insights for living a life of purpose, peace, and joy. So grab a cup of coffee, pull up a rocking chair, and stay awhile—I’d be honored to walk this road of faith with you.
We are all special! You are not more special than anyone else and no one else is more special than you. We are all one and a part of our Creator, which makes us special, powerful and in peace.
“Because of the Lord’s great love we are not consumed, for his compassions never fail. They are new every morning; great is your faithfulness.” -Lamentations 3:22-23
God is love and God loves you! There are times that you feel undeserving of God’s love. It is during these times that we have to work extra hard to accept God’s love. When we accept God’s love, it does a work in us and through us that word cannot describe or explain.
You know you are receiving God’s love when you are experiencing rest, refreshment, power and peace. These by products of love are gifts for us to share with one another and when we share, God’s gets glory.
Receiving and sharing creates a flow and flow is powerful to produce the results you were created for.
We all make mistakes and sin. Everyone knows the feeling and frustration of failure. But our missing the mark is not the end of us and it is not the end of our lives. The God who created us, loves us and understands us better than we understand ourselves. He has made a way where there wasn’t away. God made a way for us to receive forgiveness and restoration as we learn from our mistakes, sins and failures.
Don’t allow the giant of guilt to beat up on you. Admit your failure, learn from it and receive God’s gift of restoration. If God forgives you, then who do you think you are to not forgive yourself? Forgiveness is making the choice to focus on love and let go of the guilt. It is not always easy, but it is always possible and life changing when we get it right.
The big battle is with our ego, because the ego tells me that I am what I have, what I do or what I think others think of me, so the continual temptation is to look down on or belittle others, at least in our mind, so we can feel better about ourselves, but when we do this, we can’t help but to bring the same conviction into our own lives. This game of judgment backfires and catches us in it’s flames.
“Do not judge, or you too will be judged. For in the same way you judge others, you will be judged, and with the measure you use, it will be measured to you. “Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brother’s eye and pay no attention to the plank in your own eye?” -Matthew 7:1-3
Fight against the temptation to judge yourself or others. Stop finding fault and start looking for what you and others are doing right. Focus on the good and the good will grow. Don’t allow yourself to get caught up in self defeating trap of criticism and condemnation.
When I look for the light in others, I cannot help but to be reminded of the light in myself, which helps me to realize that it is through forgiveness that we receive peace and in peace we find true freedom…
If you want to get upset and mad at the world, you don’t have to look hard to find a reason. Motivation for madness is everywhere and easy to get a hold of. But life is so much better when we learn to choose happy over mad, sad or any of the other negative emotions that we might come up with.
‘Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things.” -Philippians 4:8
I can almost guarantee you that you will find more than enough reasons to get mad, upset, disgruntled, frustrated, disgusted and ticked. I am pretty sure that at some point in your day you will experience something that makes you angry and causes you to want to shift your focus off of the positive and onto looking for someone to accuse, blame and judge for why your life is not working the way you want to.
We have been given an incredible gift. The gift of choosing the world which we choose to live in. We can choose to live in a world of negativity and miss the incredible opportunities of blessing we were created for. Or we can live in the world of positivity and grab hold of and experience the fulfillment and blessing we were gifted for.
Do not waste this gift. Open it, enjoy it and share it. You will be glad you did…
Michael Joe Harvell 