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, Expectation, faith, Mystery, Life,, Uncategorized

The Mystery Of Life!

One of my favorite country songs has a line that says: “A woman is a mystery a man just can’t understand…” I think we can replace the word woman with life and we would be right on target. “Life is a mystery, we just can’t understand!” Here’s the real question we need to answer: Who said we were supposed to understand anyway? Maybe it is our trying to understand that causes most of our problems.

Life is a gift and a gift should be appreciated, enjoyed and most importantly lived. If you really want to live, then let life unfold without making any attempt to try and figure it out. There is another line in a song that says: “Let it be, let it be, let it be, let it be!” This is exactly what we need to learn to discipline ourselves to do, to just let it be…

This human life is a divine gift from our Heavenly Creator and Father. Everything is going to stretch out just the way it was designed to. We really don’t have to try so hard to make things work out. What we really need to do, is learn to simply ALLOW.

Not everything is hard work, struggle and toil. Not everything has to be understood and explained by us. It is okay to say: “That’s above my pay grade!” Life is life and life is unfolding just the way is was designed to, regardless of what we do or do not do.

Expectation is often times a very unrealistic enemy that causes us to miss the obvious, while we are distracted by what does not really matter. Live life long enough and I can promise you that your expectations are going to be shattered and when they are, it is a great opportunity to practice the art of allowing by letting go of the way you think it should be and embracing the way it is.

Here are a few ideas to help you practice the art of allowing:

Observe! Open your eyes and really allow yourself to see. See with your physical eyes, not just what you want to see, but the big picture. See with you mental eyes that there is so much more to this life than living and dying. See with your spiritual eyes the unseen wonders and miracles that most everyone tends to miss every moment of every day.

Don’t Judge! This is the hard part, because everything in this world is working to conform us to it’s own shape and anything different is to be thought of as unworthy. How many times have we missed the blessing, because we were distracted by judgement, when we were supposed to be enlightened by freedom?

Listen! There is so much to hear, if we can learn to really listen past the common noise that drowns out the still small voice of our Creator. Did you hear the breeze as it rustled the leaves in the tree? Did you hear the bird singing as it woke up with the sun? Did you hear the laughter and feel it touch you somewhere deep inside that you didn’t even know was there? Listen to hear these things and so much more. God is always speaking blessing, but we have to listen to receive.

Open Your Heart, Mind And Life! To really live life, we are living from three places: The physical, mental and spiritual. Open yourself to learning and growing in all of these areas to experience the totality of all that you have been created for. Life is not a mystery to be understood and explained. Life is a mystery to be experienced and enjoyed… 👣

Blogroll, mental challenge, personal growth, self improvement

Walking Through Life!

We have been blessed with a great freedom, the freedom of choice. We get to choose what kind of life we want to live. We can choose to walk by sight or we can choose to walk by faith.

When we walk by sight, we think we can see clearly, but we can only see what is can be seen and this is why we often find ourselves disappointed, discouraged and defeated. We make our evaluations of worthiness based on what our senses can see, hear, taste, smell and feel using our eyes, ears, tongue, nose and skin. This way of living makes our reality what it is and cause us to miss the miracle of what could be.

17 For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory; 18 While we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen: for the things which are seen are temporal; but the things which are not seen are eternal. -2 Corinthians 4:17-18

When we walk by faith, we can see the unseen and live in two worlds at the same time. We can live, learn and love in this physical world, which is temporary by while healing, growing and developing in the spiritual world, which is eternal.

The reality is that we all live in two worlds, but most folks are only awake and enlightened to one, but as a believer, we can connect with the miraculous and experience a whole new world that most can only dream or imagine.

It is primarily through our senses that we connect with the physical world and it is with our spirit that we connect with the spiritual world that exists in and around us. You have a choice today: You can live by faith or by sight. I suggest you give faith/belief/trust a try, because with faith you can see the unseen, understand the unexplainable, tap into incredible strength, experience the miraculous and live in the supernatural… 👣

affirmation, Blogroll, Creativity, faith, Growing, intentional, mindfulness, personal growth, positive, purpose, vision

The Action Of Affirmation!

Matthew 18:19 – “Again I say to you, if two of you agree on earth about anything they ask, it will be done for them by my Father in heaven.”

Affirmation is agreement. It might be agreement with yourself, someone else or even God. Affirmation is a another powerful gift we have been given that most of us fail to utilize. When we do utilize it, we tend to utilize it in the wrong way.

Here are three ideas to help us get affirmation right for ourselves and others…

Get Rid Of The Negative! The old saying is very true: “If you don’t have anything nice to say, then don’t say anything at all.” This is good advice and it’s true when you are talking to yourself or others. If it’s not good, positive, uplifting, encouraging, challenging, motivational or inspirational, then get it out of you head as fast as possible, because we don’t want that stuff taking root.

Grab Hold Of The Positive! The Scriptures are honestly one of the best places to start for affirmation. I love what Philippians 4:8 says: “Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable–if anything is excellent or praiseworthy–think about such things.” If it fits into the above categories, then grab hold of it and share it with everyone in every way that you can…

Go Be Affirming! This is one of those things we need to stop thinking about and we need to start doing. The sooner we get around to affirming ourselves and others, the sooner our world becomes a better and more blessed place…

It’s really a simple process and the secret is to just start! 🙏🏻