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.
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What’s Better Than Happiness?

Remember the television show Hee Haw with Buck Owens and Roy Clark? They used to have a bit on the show where four miserable looking fellows would sing a song called “Gloom, Despair And Agony On Me!” The first line went something like this:

“Gloom, despair, and agony on me
Deep, dark depression, excessive misery
If it weren’t for bad luck, I’d have no luck at all
Gloom, despair, and agony on me”

This is the world we live in for a lot of people today. Our lives have become filled with stress, anxiety and over thinking. We often find ourselves caught up in the overwhelming feelings of frustration, depression and discontentment. This mental fatigue leads to all sorts of physical problems such as stomach problems, high blood pressure, headaches and muscle problems. This is not the life we were created for. I promise you – you were created for so much more!

While there is not an easy fix and no cure all potion, there are things we can do to help facilitate peace in our lives, which contributes to the harmony that brings balance and allows us to live with intention, rather than by happen stance.

I hear people say all the time: “I just want to be happy!” Did you know there is something better than happiness and it’s what you were created for? You may not always be happy, because some things go your way and some things don’t. Life does not always flow in the direction you choose, and this has a tendency to impact if we are happy or not. And while you can’t always be happy, you can always have joy. Joy is what you were created for, it is your human experience birthrite. You were created in joy and for joy. When you realize this and believe this, it helps you to stay in step with your created purpose and automatically helps you to be in a better place to fulfill your dreams and experience your desires.

Joy tells me that even when things are not going the way I want them to, that there is still a purpose and if I will trust in that purpose and keep a right attitude, life will adjust and come around to where it needs to be. In the Old Testament book of Proverbs 17:22 says: “A joyful heart is good medicine, but a crushed spirit dries up the bones.

Joy says: “I am just happy to be alive with another day of opportunity to experience blessings.” Joy helps you to focus on what you do have, rather than what you don’t have. Joy helps you to understand that feelings are just that – feelings and you ultimately have the power to choose how you are going to feel.

Whenever you find yourself getting out of alignment, take a moment to step outside all of it and remind yourself: I am joy, I was created in joy and for joy. Joy is what I was born for, it belongs to me and I belong to it. Joy helps me see things more clearly, experience things more honestly and grow through things that would normally try to take me out.

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Change The Question!

Who am I? That’s a great question and just as soon as I start to answer it, I change and become someone else. I mean think about it – for whatever lifetime you have lived in this human experience, you have lived in an ever changing, continually developing body.

I began this experience with the body of a chubby and if I do say so myself, adorable baby boy. A little later on, I occupied a thin as a rail, blonde hair, blue eyed, big smiling little boy. A little boy who possessed a unique ability to get into stuff a lot quicker than I could get out of it. I eventually developed into a teenager and had an appetite that could never seem to be satisfied, which contributed to a ever changing body. From there I became a young man that always seemed to be engaged it the battle of trying to take off a few pounds. Now a days I am what many would consider middle aged and my body, well, let’s just say it has decided that it will speak for itself.

We spend most of our lives associating who we are with how we look and the great tragedy here is that the old saying is true: “You can’t judge a book by it’s cover!” About the time, we start to get comfortable in one form of our body, another one comes along and takes it’s place and it seems the process begins all over again.

Who am I? Well before I can even try to answer that question, I have to realize and accept that I am not my body, because my body is continually, moment by moment, daily changing. Here’s the really interesting thing: We can let our body shape us or we can shape our body! And which way do you think this is supposed to work? The Bible puts it this way in Ephesians 2:10 ”For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.”

I am learning to just be me, whatever body I am occupying. I told a friend the other day “I am 51 years old, but I feel like I am 25 -30 years old. In my mind, I think like a 30 year old, not like a 50 year old. I remember when I used to think 50 was old, but not now.

So, if I am not my body, then who am I? The “I” that you are looking for is who you really are. It’s who you were created to be. It’s the you that you live with 24 hours a day, seven days a week. The “I” you are looking for is still becoming. Our problem is that we are looking for a completed product and we can’t find it, because we are still in process.

And so here is the good news today – if you can’t find yourself, it means that you are a work in progress. You are still becoming and so the question needs to change from “Who am I?” to “Who do I want to be?” The simple changing of the question is a game changer that sets your focus in the right direction and aligns your life for blessing.

And so I ask you: WHO DO YOU WANT TO BE? the choice truly is yours…

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Life Design!

This is the audio from the message I shared on ”Life Design”. We often develop plans of all shapes and sizes, but our plans don’t really mean much if they’re not attached to our created purpose. This message helps us understand how to tap into that purpose and experience the fulfillment we were created for…