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.
What can I do? Four very simple words come together to form a very powerful question. A question that can change our life and enable our life to change the lives of others, if we will simply ask, answer and obey it!
The tragedy is that most of us live our entire lives in the other direction asking the question: What can you do for me? or some variation of it. The best life is not a life that is focused inward, but a life that is focused outward. A life that is lived on purpose for the glory of our Creator and the blessing of others. A life that is lived intentionally not for self, but for others is a life that is truly lived!
The funny thing about this kind of life and living, is that it generates fulfillment, happiness, purpose and all the other positive things we are often looking for in our lives. Stop today and take the time to ask yourself: What can I do? Now do it, you will be glad you did!
You Have To Go Through The Valley To Get To The Mountain Top!
The first part of this week was absolutely incredible. It seemed that every step I took was Divinely orchestrated! I seemed to be in the right place at the right time to be used by God to touch people’s lives and make just the righ difference. It was not just a handful of occurences, it was one after another for more than I could count! By the time I hit the bed on Wednesday night, I was thinking: “I believe we have turned a corner and are heading in another amazing direction.”
Then came Thursday morning and what looked like it was going to be good, took one wrong turn after another for more than I could count. By the afternoon, all I wanted to do was find an escape hatch, a Yoo-Hoo and a Slim Jim!
When I finally began to ride away from it all, I started to hear the voice of the Spirit! The Spirit was telling me – “This is the enemy!” “Pay attention to how he works and you will learn something!” “Fight the devil’s fire with God’s fire!”
The thing that makes the mountain tops of life so grand is the vallies you have to travel through to get there. You could not have the mountain top without the vallies! Mountain tops are great times of encouragement, growth, excitement and celebration, but for every mountain there are several vallies. Vallies are tough times of learning, challenge, struggle, building or re-building and preparation.
The enemy often appears in your life, right after the mountain top experience, when you find yourself heading off the mountian and into and through the valley! We need to realize this is how he works and we need to be prepared, so that he does not mess us up and cause us to miss what we need to make sure we get from our valley experience!
There will be ups and downs in life, but you are never alone. And in whatever situation you find yourself, you can rest assured that God is using that situation to grow you for His glory. So do not let it get you down, let it pick you up, because all it means is that God is not finished with you on this earth just yet!
I just finished writing what I thought was one of the best blog post that I have ever written, and then while trying to use the new format on WordPress, lost the blog and cannot find it anywhere. I am tempted to be frustrated, but it is too early in the morning and I have too many important things in front of me today to be taken off track, so here I am!
Here I am, writing about frustration, disappointment and challenge. We all face it, almost everyday of our lives, but we do have choices: We have the choice of action! Am I going to do something about it or let it do something about me? The easy thing would be to complain, but that would only waste time and energy and in the end, I still would not have my blog post back. The not so easy thing is to move on, do what I need to do and look for the victory that is somewhere in front of me for today!
I make the choice to look for the victory and I hope that my sharing this little story, will help you to make the choice to look for the victory God has for you as well! If I can pray for you, please let me know how? And until next time – Be Blessed Because You Are Blessed!
Michael Joe Harvell 