Michael Harrison's e-devotion

Why I do what I do ... why I get off on serving ... it is all because of what Jesus has done for me.  And it is Easter.  I love this time of the year.  Today, I am humbled by what I am hearing from God.  This is why I serve:   Romans 3:25 (nlt) ---   We are made right with God when we believe that Jesus shed his blood . . . for us.   Romans 4:5 (nlt) --- People are declared righteous because of their faith, not because of their work.   This week our people are being asked to serve our community through SERVOLUTION which is simple activities, acts of kindness, pointing people to God.  This is the best way, as I am learning, to turn people toward God.  People are more impacted by our giving of ourselves without any thought of return.  I want to ask YOU to join in as well even if you are not close to us or to another church taking part in this event.  So on April 3-9 there will be activities to point people toward God and to who Jesus is and wants to be.  ...

I love Raceway Ministries as we get to serve at Martinsville Speedway .  But Raceway Ministries serve at every NASCAR cup series track and more.  This weekend it was an honor to serve in the guest services and ADA area.  Our team led worship services, gave out refreshments, shared information and more all sharing Jesus at the same time.  Pretty cool.  I was able to pray for both races which was a huge honor.  I'll share more later on that one.  Please pray for ministry this coming weekend at Texas Motor Speedway where TEXarm (Texas Alliance Raceway Ministries) is making an impact on race fans in Jesus' name. Also want to say a HUGE thank you to our team that stayed at The Community to make a worship experience possible.  Bob Ford, founding pastor of the House of Prayer, shared a powerful message from God.  Look for it on the website's podcast later this week.   The end of this week begins SERVOLUTION where we will be joined other churches in using simple acts of ki...

I just finished reading THIS post from Pete Wilson  and have so much going through my head right now.  Some of it has "joy" marked all over it while other parts are marred by "sadness" or "worry" or "fear".  Life is just like that.  And if we allow life to drag us around by the proverbial tail we will not see much joy or much victory or much to live for.  Do you agree?   It is time to let it fly.  Lets get honest.  Somethings in life just suck.  They aren't any fun, but we have to deal with them.  We have troubles and problems and none of us are perfect (including me).  So, what do we do?  Where do we go?  How do we deal?  And so on...   A couple weeks ago in a message that was part of the Warrior series at The Community I had to get honest, and the overflow was big and awesome.  Some of it was painful, yet I saw the outcome have huge growth for me and for others in our church family.  I love to see life change.   Bu...

*AIN'T He was just a little boy, On a week's first day. Wandering home from Bible school, And dawdling on the way. He scuffed his shoes into the grass; He even found a caterpillar. He found a fluffy milkweed pod, And blew out all the 'filler.' A bird's nest in a tree overhead, So wisely placed up so high. Was just another wonder, That caught his eager eye. A neighbor watched his zig zag course, And hailed him from the lawn; Asked him where he'd been that day And what was going on. 'I've been to Bible School ,' He said and turned a piece of sod. He picked up a wiggly worm replying, 'I've learned a lot about God.' 'M'm very fine way,' the neighbor said, 'for a boy to spend his time.' 'If you'll tell me where God is, I'll give you a brand new dime.' Quick as a flash the answer came! Nor were his accents faint. 'I'll give you a dollar, Mister, If you can tell me where God ain't.' (one of...

Philippians 3:14-17  (New Living Translation) ---  I press on to reach the end of the race and receive the heavenly prize for which God, through Christ Jesus, is calling us.  Let all who are spiritually mature agree on these things. If you disagree on some point, I believe God will make it plain to you.  But we must hold on to the progress we have already made. Dear brothers and sisters, pattern your lives after mine, and learn from those who follow our example.   Simple question: who are we acting like? I recently said in a message that one of the biggest things we hear as we grow up is this: you are just like your _________ (maybe Father or Mother, or the like).  But who do our actions reflect.   Today I spent a great deal of time asking God to refine my life so that others will see Him more and MORE.  Join me in that.   Paul said (in the verse above) some things we can learn from:   PRESS ON toward Jesus.   Seek be be MATURE in Jesus.   LISTEN UP to J...

Shouldn't this be a part of who we are and what we do already?  Another person asked, Isn't he famous already?  Answer to both is yes.  So check out the MAKING HIM FAMOUS website and make Him famous!

The Following article is found at http://coffeyville.edu/athletics/soccer/index.htm and I'm proud of my niece.  Harrison signs with Missouri Valley College Hannah Harrison, a sophomore goalie from Tulsa, Oklahoma, signed a letter-of-intent to continue her playing career at Missouri Valley College.  Pictured with Hannah are her parents (seated) Susie and Steve.  Standing are Courey Feerer, Coffeyville Community College head soccer coach, Drew Hawkins, Missouri Valley College head soccer coach, and Eric Kerwood, Missouri Valley College assistant soccer coach.  In Harrison's two seasons, 2007 and 2008, at Coffeyville, the women's soccer team compiled an 18-17-2 overall record.  The Coffeyville women's soccer program went winless in the program's first two seasons in existence in 2005 and 2006.

Sometimes God shakes you and wakes you up.  These are some of those verses and this is one of those days.    We continue to ask God for wisdom to see Him and to follow Him.  Some of the roads we walk in life are well marked while others you have to choose carefully and even investigate.  It is along many of those roads that God refines us, defines us and uses us.  Have you been in a place where you encountered injustice or someone in trouble?  Think about it this way:   Proverbs 24:10-12  (The Message) ---  If you fall to pieces in a crisis, there wasn't much to you in the first place.  Rescue the perishing; don't hesitate to step in and help.  If you say, "Hey, that's none of my business," will that get you off the hook?  Someone is watching you closely, you know— Someone not impressed with weak excuses.   The crisis, the trouble filling situation, the opportunities ... all of those and our responses to them define who we are.  That is toug...

How many of us are sitting on the sidelines of life waiting for something to happen?  I think there are many people in that very place.  Waiting on God maybe.  Or how about waiting on a win from the lottery or for their luck to change.  Whatever it may be, God has some things that we ought to think about while we wait.   Philippians 3:13  (nlt) --- No, dear brothers and sisters, I have not achieved it, but I focus on this one thing: Forgetting the past and looking forward to what lies ahead,   I am not waiting, but there are times I have to wait on God.  This morning I had one of those moments as life was rushing by me.  I heard a song on the radio that caught my attention.  Sharing them with you today (my simple thought is below):   "While I'm Waiting" by John Waller   I'm waiting I'm waiting on You, Lord And I am hopeful I'm waiting on You, Lord Though it is painful But patiently, I will wait I will move ahead, bold and confident T...

Joe Sangl will be here at The Community Fellowship April 25-26 training us how to get out of debt and how to live in freedom.  Saturday is for training financial counselors and Sunday will be for learning how to get free while living on a real live budget.  But here is your chance to catch some of the crusade before it arrives in Collinsville.  Read the following blog post from Joe... JosephSangl.com Attend The Financial Learning Experience ON-LINE NewSpring Church is making the Financial Learning Experience available FREE for one night only TOMORROW (Tuesday, March 24 @ 6:30PM). It is going to be available at the Web Campus .  We are going to have members of my team in the chat room to answer questions throughout the event. If you are looking for help with your finances, the Financial Learning Experience is the place to start! The event will actually be the Financial Learning Experience DVD which was released this month.  This is a great opportun...

What are you passionate about?  That is not always an easy question to answer, yet as we get live our passions are easy to see by others.  Go ask someone: what am I passionate about?   Answer a couple of big questions that may help you put a finger on what you are passionate about:   1)  What do you love doing? Something you will do and leave others, people and stuff, behind to do.   2)  What pulls at your heart?  Stuff that you see around you that might be injustice or hurting others or something.   For me, the past few months have really defined what I am passionate about.  As that definition, as I put feet to what God puts in front of me there seems to always be success when I admit and live like life is all about God and nothing else.  Passion defines what we do.  It can be passion for the wrong things or for the right things.  Lets define my passion:   Matthew 22:37  (nlt) --- Jesus replied, "'You must love the Lord your God with all your heart...

1 John 2:16  (nas) --- For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh and the lust of the eyes and the boastful pride of life, is not from the Father, but is from the world.   The first step to dealing with an issue is understanding that you something is an issue.  Same is true with an addiction, a problem, a sickness and more.  We talked in depth this past weekend about what distracts us the most.  The verse above speaks about three issues, most likely the top three issues, that keep us from following Jesus and having victory in life.   First distraction is LUST OF THE FLESH which is Sexual lust.  We could beat around the bush, but the fact is that our day is full of sex from one end to the other.  People are not only bombarded with sex but struggling with temptations and this distractions.  Satan wants us to think we are alone on this issue, but that is a big lie.  Is it time to get honest, get help and get healed by Jesus.  We had some honest talk about t...

Our oldest daughter looked at me this morning and said "attah iysh".  My first thought was ... WOW, she heard my sermon Sunday, and then I stopped to think about what she meant and even what God was saying through this 11 year old.   We are finishing up our Warrior series this coming Sunday, but last Sunday we talked about the things that distract us from seeing and following God.  One of the stories in the message is this:   King David, the guy in the Bible who says "he was a man after God's own heart", had some issues.  When his armies were busy one time, he let his mind get away from him.  He stepped out on the balcony of the palace one day and saw this beautiful lady sunbathing (or something like that) on the roof of her house.  David told his servants to go get that lady for him.  Before you knew what happened they had sex, she was pregnant, and David had her husband killed.  This is a horrible situation.   But God sent his prophet,...

What a weekend! I am just now coming down from the high that began with 20 of our people traveling to Anderson, South Carolina to attend Unleash 09 at  NewSpring.   God has shown up and even shown off in some amazing ways.  Let me give you just a few of my take aways. It was incredible to be with 20 of our people at this conference and to gain loads of inspiration and encouragement from Perry Noble and his team.  Click HERE and HERE for my notes from the two main sessions and HERE for the big picture. And yes.  I allowed my sweet iPhone with a wrong address in the GPS to get lost in worst area of Anderson at midnight.  I own that.  Even the police told us that at that time of night we shouldn't be in that area.  It was confirmed by others that we were in the worst part of town. I attended breakout sessions at Unleash led by Perry Noble and Shane Duffy.  Great stuff I learned and seeking to apply.  Our folks learned about kids and youth ministry, volunteers and financial...

I caught this Sunday night and was taken by it.  You know the shows that often hold me are any Law & Order or Heroes.  But KINGS held me for two hours.  One of the things that hit me is the new twist on an old story.  This is the story of King David retold in our day.  Click here for a review of the series, and give it a chance this coming Sunday.  I will be.

Compliments of Will Rodes Click here to check out what our team and thousands of others were challenged by at Unleash 09

James 1:5 (nlt) ---  If you need wisdom . . . ask him, and he will gladly tell you. Proverbs 3:6 (nlt) --- Seek his will in all you do, and he will direct your paths.   What is God's plan?  I have to ask that question often.  When I quit asking, I have a problem.  A big problem.  In fact the last couple of weeks has been full of questions pointed in God's direction, and I have had to listen carefully.  The outcome has already been incredible.   If we want to know God's plan, there is only one place to go to understand what it is.  That is to God Himself.  Yet how many of us try to figure out what God wants all on our own?   Yesterday was a tremendous day at The Community as we talked about the things that distract us.  (We have one week left in the Warrior series.)  It has been good.  At the conclusion of the experience many of our guys made a commitment to set aside the distractions that so often catch us and keep us.  Distractions like lust,...

I'm a copying a blog here from Scott Williams who is one of Lifechurch.tv campus pastos.  This dude encourages me a great deal and will push you to do more in ministry for more people in creative and productive ways.  Check out his blog http://bigisthenewsmall.com   Read on for an insightful post.... 10 Things You Must Know About People By Scott Williams on People Life is about people, leadership is about people, parenting is about people, relationships are about people… people people people!   In order to be successful in this world we live in and especially as a leader you must truly understand and know people.  Not the H&R Block "I know people" but rather know what truly makes people tick.  Years ago a read this little Quote/Leadership book by John Maxwell entitled  "The Choice is Yours."  In that book there was one "Top 10 List" that really put into words what I'd always thought about people and highlighted the a...

I confess that I really like twitter.com .  Man, I have learned so much from the people I follow and even found some things that otherwise would not have ended up on my radar.  I clicked on a link from faithengineer this morning and was totally an honor to be included in the links Mike gave.  Mike Morris is the pastor of Cornerstone Community Church in Galax, Virginia and is one incredible dude.  Go to a look at and link to his blog .  Looking forward to partnering with Mike and learning much from him.  I thank God for the people he allows us to connect with.

One of our church leadership team passed this my way ... great truth.  Enjoy!   ----- Difference Between Rich/Poor People?   One day, the father of a very wealthy family took his son on a trip to the country with the express purpose of showing him how poor people live.  They spent a couple of days and nights on the farm of what would be considered a very poor family. On their return from their trip, the father asked his son, "How was the trip?"  "It was great, Dad."  "Did you see how poor people live?" the father asked.  "Oh yeah," said the son.  "So, tell me, what did you learn from the trip?" asked the father.  The son answered: "I saw that we have one dog and they had four.  We have a pool that reaches to the middle of our garden and they have a creek that has no end. We have imported lanterns in our garden and they have the stars at night. Our patio reaches to the front yard and they have the whole horizon. We have a smal...

These are a portion of my notes from UNLEASH at NewSpring Church in Anderson, SC where Perry Noble is pastor.     Unleashed 2009                                                   Main Session # 2     If you want a church to reach its maximum potential, the leader must be on fire.       Exodus 33   Staying in the Game ( 4 questions) 1.          Who is with Me? v. 12           You can't expect people to buy into you unless you buy into them. 2.        Am I pleasing you? (Ask God) v.13             We can't expect to be powerful publicly if you aren't yielded to him privately Do I depend on God or on people? Am I willing to live by faith? Am I prostitute or prophet of the church? (pastoring for pay or because I'm called) Do my people say that was a good service or does God say that is a great service? Do I understand that ministry is received and not achieved? Do I depend more on my abilities than the anointing of God? 2 Corinthians 4:...

These are a portion of my notes from UNLEASH at NewSpring Church in Anderson, SC where Perry Noble is pastor.     Unleashed 2009                                                                          Main Session #1 There's been a serious communication breakdown between Jesus and his church. Matthew 16:18 ... Church belongs to Jesus Breakdown—we're asking God to build our church not his church. It's HIS church Wrestle with 3 Questions for the Church from 2 Kings 7   1.        Are we willing to embrace change?   The church has to change so we can reach people—message doesn't change.   2 Kings 7:3-4   We are often 1 to 2 steps away from doubling in size if we will just make a few changes   When the church becomes as valuable to us as the stock market something will change.   If you're not comfortable with change you won't be comfortable with the voice of God.   We can call it in other churches (the change) but can we...

1 Chronicles 4:10  (nlt) --- (speaking of Jabez) He was the one who prayed to the God of Israel, "Oh, that you would bless me and expand my territory! Please be with me in all that I do, and keep me from all trouble and pain!" And God granted him his request. Have you ever noticed that when you start to seek God and dream that God fills your dreams and even adds to them in huge ways?  I have, and I can not wait to share some of those things with you in the coming weeks.  I have been in some sort of ministry for well over 20 years and one of the things that gets me excited is watching people with God given passion.  God brings people into the church who want to follow and serve and do what God calls them to do.   Let people dream, and God will fill those dreams as we seek Him.  But some people have a small view of God.  They say that God won't or can't use them.  Not true.  But many people are like that.   Ephesians 3:20  (nlt) --- Now all glory to...

Today's devotion is SHOUT OUT to a church we are headed to.  Some devotion thoughts are at the end of the devotion below.   Many of our leaders at The Community Fellowship are leaving this evening headed to Anderson, South Carolina.  That is a small town not much different than ours where God has done a tremendous work at NewSpring Church .  This will be the 3rd time I have been to their UNLEASH conference, and I am taking 20 people from our church with me.  I am excited.  Off the wall bouncing, can't sleep kind of excited!   By the way, you can watch the general sessions streaming live at http://www.newspring.cc/unleash  and you won't regret it.   One of the things that amazes me is the people that God has put together that encourage my socks off.  I wanted to spend just a little time pointed you to some of the guys from that church that I have learned loads from.  Plus if you have never heard their pastor speak, you ought to watch one of the sermons ...

Continuing our thoughts from yesterday about the Warrior series we are in at The Community, I want to share some big ideas with you.  There are a couple of things that will press you forward and help you and others heal from those wounds we have carried for a long time.   The first we talked about yesterday was forgiveness and the art of forgiveness.  The second has to do with accepting people.   Romans 15:7 (nlt) --- So accept each other just as Christ has accepted you; then God will be glorified.   Often accepting someone just the way they are and not for what they have done is not easy.  It might even be a step past forgiveness.  I have always found when you produce a genuine place of acceptance please will flock to that place and not leave.   In our families we have to seek acceptance and give it.  In our relationships it is vital to give and receive acceptance.  From God we have to know that He always accepts us.  Then we have to turn and give acceptanc...

Cindy Hall is one of our key leaders at The Community Fellowship.   She is a woman of great insight and often makes me stop and think.  She keeps me on my toes.  This morning Cindy sent me to this blog post that I was really moved by.  I think may be one of those type of people that often shows up at The Community and finds this place refreshing.  Maybe?  I have copied the post below or your can click here for the original:   Monday, March 09, 2009 Why Does Writing About Religion Always Make Me Feel Naked? A couple of months ago, I wrote a little about my religious beliefs on this blog and then I asked about yours. What followed was a really nice dialogue in the comments about religion or the lack thereof. Some of you are atheists, some are Christians, some are Jews, some are Wiccans, some are agnostic. All of you couldn't have been nicer or more open, and no one judged me or anyone else for what was revealed. I was absolutely floored by your collective awesomeness- Y...