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.
Today was a great day in the life and ministry of Northwood. The Lord had us take a look at a very sensetive subject and provided us with some great insight into what our response as a church and as Christians needs to be! We were taking a look at God’s command to not commit adultery! God’s commands are provided to give us boundaries, so that we will know what, where, when, how and why to live our lives. God’s command to not commit adultery is a command to practice faithfulness! God wants us to be faithful in all of our relationships!
We need to make sure that we are faithful to God by living a surrendered and yielded life to Him and His will. We need to make sure that we are faithful to our families by being committed to our spouse above all others and committed to loving our families with a love that is always looking out for the best according to God. We need to make sure that we are faithful to our friends by being an honest and available friend.
When I finished the second service today, I really felt that the messages that I delivered today, while they were not easy to deliver, they were prophetic, in that – we as a Church and as Christians had better get busy talking about the things that really matter. God deserves glory, the Chruch was created to grow and our lives are open books for blessing. We have a lot to get right and with God’s help we are going to get more and more of it right in the days ahead!
It is always amazing for me to watch how the Devil works, especially whenever there is an important message that the Spirit is trying to communicate with the church! Today, before I ever even stepped into the building, the Devil was at work – nothing big, major or splashy! I have noticed that the Devil likes to work behind the scenes whenever he can. I was getting ready to preach a message on ANGER and the Devil was doing everything that he could come up with to make me and others angry. I guess that he thought that if enough of us were angry, we would miss out on the message from the Spirit about anger and what we need to do with it!
The funny thing about anger is, it almost always takes you to a place of thought. I do not always think when I first get angry, but give me a little time and I will think and when I think, my mind and heart get just still enough to hear from the Spirit. What the Devil was intending to use to mess many of us up, actually back-fired and got many of us to thinking about our anger, where it comes from and what we are going to do about it! The Devil gave many of us an object lesson before we got the message, so that when we got the message, we really got the message!
What is the Spirit trying to teach you – you don’t have to let the Devil get in the way! Use the devils attacks as stepping stones to take you into the blessings and growth of God!
What an awesome day I had yesterday! My day got started with a meeting at Myrtle Beach First Baptist Church for some training for the days events! Our main task was to share the our testimony with as many bikers as possible. There was a group of about twelve of us and we headed out to give away $10 worth of free gas to any biker that would listen to a three minute testimony! We were swamped – for a couple of hours it was machine gun witnessing! At the end of the gas give a way there were at least twenty seven new Believers that had come to know Christ as their personal Lord and Savior! I pumped over five hundred dollars of gas and had the privilege of meeting people from Maryland, Quebec, New York, West Virginia, Virginia, North Carolina, and South Carolina just to name a few!
After we finished up that we ministry – we headed a little farther down south and hung out at a free BBQ give away – were bikers could get nourished physically with some free BBQ and nourished spiritually with the love of God that flows through Jesus! It was an amazing and very blessed day! I thank God for letting me have the experience and joy that came through it!
Michael Joe Harvell 