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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When Empty Living Is Not A Bad Thing!

When I am driving down the road and I hear that little bell go off to remind me that my gas tank is on empty, I know that I have to do something about it, and so I head to the gas station to put gas in, so that I can get rid of the “E”.   When I have not had a chance to eat, my stomach will begin to growl and remind me that it is empty, and I will look for something to eat, so that I might fill that void.

We have been taught that when something is empty, we need to fill it. We walk into a room that has nothing in it and almost immediately our mind goes to the place of filling it with this and that.  I think all of this focus on filling, causes us to miss the value of emptiness.  Lao Tzu in the Tao Te Ching gives us the idea that “The usefulness of what is, depends on what is not.”  In everything, there is an emptiness, a missing something, but that missing something is something, not nothing and this is the challenge of our thinking.

Our lives are full of work and living, but that is not what really makes our lives meaningful.  It is often the spaces of our life that we perceive as empty that actually give us meaning and purpose.  Since all of life around us seems to work by filling the empty void with whatever, we spend most of our energy trying to fill things back up and miss the joy of the emptiness.

We try to fill our lives up with work, activities, events, hobbies and almost anything we can think of and the result is still a gnawing emptiness, a void that we just can’t seem to fill, at least in a way that brings us satisfaction.  This hole, void, emptiness is not a bad thing. In fact it has a purpose and it’s purpose is to help us to discover who we are and what we are about.  It’s purpose it to teach us that rather than spending all of our effort and energy on trying, that we should invest ourselves instead on simply allowing.  When we learn to allow what will be to be, we begin to enjoy the flow of life.

When you allow yourself to breathe. The breath comes in and it goes out, quiet naturally, until you decide to start messing with it. This is the best way to live life.  Rather than trying to force and make things happen, just allow yourself in your living to breathe.

Most people cannot stand silence. Why? Because it is emptiness.  Emptiness that we feel needs to be filled.  As soon as we get in our cars, we power up the radio.  As soon as we walk in the door of our home, we turn on our televisions.  When we have a moment to sit and do nothing, we are on our smart phones trying to fill the void.  And the result of all of this, is that we miss the power and blessing that the emptiness is there to bring.

At some point today, take a few moments to practice silence.  I try to spend at least 10 minustes everyday in silent meditation.  I try during this time, to go into that empty space and enjoy what my Creator has given me.  I have discovered that it is from this place that some of my most amazing and beneficial thoughts begin, grow and flow.

It is in this place that I meet the essence of who I am and as I learn to allow that essence to flow, the real me begins to reveal itself to the rest of the world.  Philippians 2:5-9 teaches us that this is what Jesus did when it says: “Have this attitude in yourselves which was also in Christ Jesus, who, although He existed in the form of God, did not regard equality with God a thing to be grasped, 7 but emptied Himself, taking the form of a bond-servant, and being made in the likeness of men. 8 Being found in appearance as a man He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. 9 For this reason also, God highly exalted Him, and bestowed on Him the name which is above every name.”

Let go of everything – who you are, what you do, where you go, how you think, when you’ve got to be finished and learn to exist in the empty space of this moment.  Appreciate this moment and the space of what it is allowing you and let it to do what it desires. You will be glad you did, because you will live blessed.

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In Between Living!

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We are physical and spiritual, spiritual beings living in a human physique.  When you stop and think about it, this is the source of both blessing and challenge.  Blessing in that we are spiritual, made in the image of our Creator and eternal in nature.  Challenging in that we who are unlimited allow ourselves to be limited by our physical frames and it’s limitations that present themselves through agings aches and pains.

     A big part of our problem is we see our self as physical over the spiritual.  We separate the two, when they should remain as one.  Our origin cannot be split and while it is hard to understand, it is possible for us to be in this world, but not of it. 

     Every person that you see is a reflection of a little bit of you.  We tend to judge others and the reason is because we are seeing what is best about us or what is worst about us, when we are looking at someone else.  Rather than seeing others as different, we should start to view them as an extension of ourselves.  The sharing of this oneness allows us to see things that we ordinarily would not see and hear things that we would most likely miss.
 
     It has become a part of our instinct to judge others, often without even really thinking about it.  Everything in our society works to shape us into this kind of ego centered person.  When you are tempted to separate yourself, stop and put yourself in the other person’s shoes, walk a mile or two and try to see life from their perspective.  You will be amazed at how this will begin to change who you are, by allowing you to live in the midst the physical and the spiritual, instead of in one or the other.
 
     This is not easy, but will become more natural as you practice it.  And as you practice this discipline, you will discover that you are getting dialed into the things of the Spirit, which makes your physical life much more enjoyable.  This is just a small step in helping you to live the life that you were created for, so I hope you will take the time to give it a try and I hope that as you do – you will live blessed!
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The Renewed Mind!

Our minds are continually being bombarded with all kinds of different messages.  We can begin the day by putting the message in that we want to be there and thirty minutes later, we lose our precious message somewhere in the deluge of all the other stuff.  Often times this is the same ole tired stuff that we get day after day.  The stuff that discourages us with negativity that keeps us from moving forward in a positive and meaningful way.

This is why the Spirit wants to “renew our mind”.  Renewing the mind is an ongoing process, whereby the Spirit helps us to take on our normal way of thinking thoughts.  When our thoughts are allowed to flow freely, they have a tendency to flow in the direction of problems.  (Remember:  It’s the squeaky wheel that gets the grease!)  As we think about and often dwell on our problems, there always seems to be one that will take our focus captive.  Once our problem has our focus, it is hard to shake lose.

Our focus being held captive by our problems creates another set of problems, mainly that our energy is drained and we tend to get stuck in a rut of negative thinking.  The real problem is that our focus is on our problem, instead of on our Spirit, who came to set us free.

The “renewed mind” is focused on the here and now.  The “renewed mind” knows, appreciates and makes the choice to live in the now moment.  When We train our mind to seek the Spirit in every moment and situation, we begin to see how the world was put together and this clarity leads us to a place of solution, which opens up our lives to the miraculous.

Remember:  You have to choice which allows you to decide where you mind is going to go and what your mind is going to do.  Let the Spirit renew your mind and you will enjoy life, because you will have discovered how to live blessed!