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.
I must admit that I am not a very big fan of pain! In fact, I do pretty much all that I can to try and avoid pain at all costs! I have been thinking a lot lately about the pain that comes from the struggles of life. Some days, living is just plain hard work. And if you live you can count on the fact that there are going to be struggles in your life. While we don’t like the struggles, all of us have to admit that it is the struggles of life that help us to grow and develop.
We are going to be taking a good look at struggles this coming Sunday at Northwood. I hope that you will join me, as we find strength for our struggles! We will discover what God’s Word has to say about struggles and might even be surprised to find ourselves at the ends of our time of worship saying thank you to God for the struggles that we have faced and are facing!
I am looking forward to what God is going to teach us, the growth that we are going to experience and the victory we are going to achieve! Looking forward to struggling with the struggle on Sunday with you!
We had a great staff meeting yesterday! It began with the usual updating of calandars, discussion of upcoming events and general discussion. We then took a ten minute break to go out, fnd a comfortable place to read and spend that time reading an assigned passage. We then came back and shared what we had received from our reading. We had a great exchange that pretty much left all of us on the same page. Bottom Line: We need to get better at seeing things and people through God’s eyes! If you want to read and think about it – check out 1 Samuel 16:1-13 and then join us this coming Sunday evening at 6:00 PM as we walk through and think about some ways that this passage applies to our lives!
This morning I woke up and thought: “I need to go work out!”, but I talked myself out of it! I then went into the den and had my devotion time with the Lord and the Holy Spirit got all over me about the fact that I needed to go and work out. When I finished my devotion time – I went and worked out and guess what? I survived to talk about it, in fact – l loved it! I feel great!
While I was working out – I was talking with one of our church members and could not help but realize that for a lot of people have the same battle spiritually to have a daily time with God as the battle that I have physically to have a daily time with the treadmill! We know that we need to do it, we just can’t convince ourselves to get things going. We want to and then we don’t want to! We start thinking of all of the reasons why we can’t or why we shouldn’t. The result is rather than getting stronger – we get weaker and sicker and then some stress blows into our lives and we are really in trouble!
As I discovered this morning – if my spiritual is right then I am going to have to work to make my physical right too! I’ve got a feeling that you know what I am talking about. So get up and talk to God and listen to God! You know – The Creator of the Universe really has some intereting things to say! Get up and get busy physically by allowing God to get you in shape so that you can enjoy the things that He has created! It is a tough battle, but we can win it!
Michael Joe Harvell 