All posts by mjharvell

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.
Blogroll, Enlightenment, Growing, Healing, purpose, Uncategorized

Choose The Voices You Listen To…

Do you hear voices? Of course you do, we all do. Some people learn to ignore the voices and some people can’t get the voices to shut up. You know what I’m talking about right? Those voices in your heard that tell you that you should or maybe you shouldn’t. Those voices that tell you that you are not good enough or maybe that you are too good. Those voices that remind you of your past mistakes, sins and failures.

I’ve come to relize that we have positive and negative voices inside of us, but most of us tend to turn up the volume on and listen to the negative over the positive. I’m not really sure why? Maybe it’s because we really are our own worst enemy, but we can turn that around and become our biggest cheerleader with a little bit of work and before long we can learn to listen to the positive voices over the negative and experience the life of blessing we were created for.

I have made more than my fair share of mistakes, committed more sins that I care to talk about and failed more times than I can count, but in almost all of those situations I have learned something about myself, so I do not see any of it as a waste. Instead, I choose to look at all of it as an education and with all my mistakes, sins and failures, I should be pretty close to a Doctor’s Degree!

“If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.” – 1 John 1:8

This learning from our mistakes, sins and failures is the first step in turining the volume down on the negative and up on the positive. I want to challenge you to think for a moment about where you have messed up, missed the mark and not measured up. Now – don’t get down on youself, instead ask yourself: “What can I learn from this mess?” Learn it and it will grow you. This is how we take lemons and make lemonade, because when we learn from our mistakes, sins and failures, it’s just like adding sugar. (SWEET!)

Learn the lesson life is trying to reach you as you grow to become all you were created for, because it’s what you were created for. This life is all about living and learning, so live, learn and grow on!

Uncategorized

The Magic Of Reading, Writing And Thinking…

I love writing and I almost always have something to say, but a lot of times I don’t write, because I don’t feel like I am qualified to say anything to anyone about anything. I think most writers deal with this challenge, but the best, write anyway, so I am going to try to stick to it, no matter what my thoughts are telling me.

And that brings me to the second challenge of writing for me. I have so many different thoughts and so many different things that I think about writing about. And so, I’ve decided that I will grab one of those thoughts, jump in, take it for a spin and hopefully enjoy the ride.

I think this may be where we tend to mess up a lot of different things in our lives. We live with this thought that everything we do must have a purpose. We live a “results based life”, which says that if our efforts, whatever they are do not produce results, then we must be a failure. And this is simply one of life’s biggest lies…

While we were at the beach my daughter read a book and she talked about what she was reading all day. The book really hit home for her. She said that if she was going to write a book, then it would have been that book. I remember reading once that the most meaningful books are the ones that we read that speak right to where our life happens to be in that moment. There have been things I read that meant nothing to me, but then when I was going through something and read it again, years later – BAM! It hit and hit hard just exactly where it needed to.

So, what am I saying? I’m saying: Take time to read, write, think and dream, because you never know when you are going to be touched by magic or when you might touch someone with a little magic of your own…

Blogroll, Enlightenment, Growing, Healing, journey, life, Uncategorized

Be Yourself And Be Happy!

I love to hike and one of the things that I have learned about hiking is that I have to hike at my own pace or I do not enjoy the experience. I like to hike with others, but I can try to keep up with them or slow down so they can keep up with me, because then I get frustrated and miss the joy of the moment. We hikers have a saying: “Hike Your Own Hike!” which means to hike the way you want to hike – fast or slow, hard or soft, at your pace that allows you to enjoy every moment of the adventure.

Life is a lot like hiking on a trail, but so many of us are missing the joy of life, because we are trying to hike someone else’s hike. We look at “so and so” and they seem to have it made and so we try to hike their hike by looking like them, acting like them, trying to have what they have and we end up totally frustrated and can’t figure out why, so we select another “so and so” and begin the process all over, only to expereince the same frustration and miss out on the joy we were created for and that was created for us.

“ The steps of a good man are ordered by the Lord: and he delighteth in his way. Though he fall, he shall not be utterly cast down: for the Lord upholdeth him with his hand.” -Psalms 37:23-24

We have to learn in this life to hike our own hike or live our own life. Stop trying to fit in and be happy just being yourself. I am going to let you in on a little secret: Not everyone in this life is going to like you. Not everyone is always going to agree with your choices. Not everyone is going to applaude your successes and understand your failures, but your life is not for everyone else, it is for you and the people that God brings across your path for you to bless and be blessed by, while you are on your journey. When you learn this, accept this and begin to live this, you will expereince the miracle of joy, happiness and fulfillment.

Look for your trail and then once you get on it, hike it the way you want to hike it and enjoy every step of the amazing journey that has been marked out for you…