Michael Harrison's e-devotion

Ephesians 6:10 NLT A final word: Be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power.   2 Corinthians 12:9 NLT Each time he said, "My grace is all you need. My power works best in weakness." So now I am glad to boast about my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ can work through me.   There are some people that we think are strong.   They are like a rock and so solid.   Yet if you peal back the layers of their confidence or persona, you will find some kind of fear and struggle.   Is that true of you?   I've learned through the years how to put on a good or strong face.   One of the things that is important to our church and to me is to be real.   As we are transparent with people we will connect more and be able to help others even more.   Think about this a little deeper.   When we are fake, we will crumble.   When are real, we will get stronger.   That is what God says in the verses above.   Lean on God.   Let Him be your strength

“The spiritual life does not remove us from the world but leads us deeper into it”  ―  Henri J.M. Nouwen Do you ever get consumed by the hurting people around you?  There are days that zoom along and nothing seems to phase me.  I'm on top of the world, so to speak, as tasks get marked off the list, meetings go super smooth and the sun seems like it is shining on us brighter than ever.  Then there are other days when nothing goes right.  Things fall apart.  Hurtful talks might even happen.  Everything seems to be spiraling in a not so good direction.  I am sure you have had both days. I was hit with a conversation last night of a friend who had a major health concern, and today they learned that they have cancer.  This week I have had some people walk in my office and tell me that their relationships are decaying.  A marriage is torn apart after more than 20 years together.  A couple that is engaged to be marriage is hit hard with problems of addiction and mental strain

Psalm 66:16 NLT Come and listen, all you who fear God, and I will tell you what he did for me. In Henry Blackaby's book Experiencing God  he talked about all the ways we hear from God.  We hear through the Bible, through prayer, through worship, through several different ways including through the people around us.  God does speak through people. I love to hear what God is doing in people's lives.  Everything from someone sitting in my office with me to a person talking with me on the phone, I've heard so many awesome things.  Even yesterday on a sidewalk of our community I had a conversation with a man where God spoke. Some of these conversations are planned.  Some are not.  Some conversations I just know that I will hear something about or from God or maybe be encouraged in my walk with God.  Yet there are times that out of no where I hear something that God uses in incredible ways.  Those are the times that I am overwhelmed by how great G

1 Corinthians 12:14 NLT Yes, the body has many different parts, not just one part. None of us are alike.  We look different, act different and even smell different.  We have different talents, different gifts from God and very different things that drive us.  God loves variety, and He created us so different.   A few years ago I sat across the table from some people who were talking about our church, The Church Fellowship, that just begun.  Our music is different.  The way the church is run is different from most churches.  The way that people join the church is different from lots of churches.  Before the end of the conversation and through the next few months the continued conversation was evident that our differences made those people not want to associate with our church. I just heard a story about a man who was sitting outside of a business and was in need.  He was evidently in need by the way he looked, but this precious lady looked past the way he was dress

Matthew 16:18 NLT ... upon this rock I will build mychurch, and all the powers of hell will not conquer it. Jesus started the church.  Way back in the Old Testament God told His people to gather, to worship, to repent and seek God together.  That continued in the New Testament.  And for the record, I love Jesus and I love His church. Jesus not only started the church, but Jesus died for the church.  Be careful what you are thinking right now because God didn't start a building project and didn't die for buildings.  The church is people, His people.  When Jesus talked to Peter and the other apostles about the church He founded, it was going to be built on what would out last everything else.  The church is built on Jesus. When anything else, anything other than Jesus, is the most important thing in church life, we have a problem.  That is when we begin to play church.  Are you playing church?  Stop playing church! Start living like the church.  Jesus

I have never wanted to be a lion tamer or a mountain climber, but I have wanted to drive really fast cars or go bobsledding.  You might think those things are stupid to do or that they take courage.  Both parts could be true.  Yet there are some things that take real courage.   Depending on your situation, courage can mean taking all different kinds of risk.  I recently heard and repeated that the biggest risk we can take is taking no risk at all.  Courage means that you do something that takes guts, something that isn't comfortable, and a dictionary said that courage is doing something that scares you. In today's devotion I am not asking you to jump in a pond with alligators or bungee jump off some huge bridge.  I want to challenge you and me to live by faith.  God is calling us to do things we've never done before so that we can get to places we've never been to before.  That takes faith and courage. This past Sunday we began a new series called C

Where do you and God meet?  For some people the answer to that question is NEVER.  For others the answer is RARELY.  I talk to lots of people each week and many of them come to the place where they have little or no self worth.  They are constantly beating themselves up.  Is that true about you? For most who deal with this it began not from themselves but from other people telling them they are worthless and will amount to nothing.  I talked at length today with Rachel Crawford from Acts 2 Ministries in Roanoke, Virginia.  They work with inner-city middle and high school students and do incredible things.  The stories she shared with me were so moving.  Those kids are in desperate situations where people don't believe in them.  Yet when someone who knows God and genuinely cares pours into one of these students, things change because God is able. You see, when people get a correct view of how God sees them THINGS CHANGE.  We need to see what God sees and hear what God

It was 13 years ago this morning that Julie and I made our way to the old hospital in Vidalia, Georgia for our scheduled cesarean section birth of our 2nd child.  Only a couple hours after arriving at the hospital Ruth Megan Harrison came into our world, and she was beautiful.  Yet she was a little different from her sister.  Ruth had lungs.  She could cry loud where her sister had a timid and quiet cry.  Julie's sister Mona said that Ruth's cry was the kind that could stick it's hand up your back and rip out your spine. Ruth was and is beautiful.  She has grown into a beautiful young lady with great character, so kind and talented.  This dad has enjoyed and been blessed by watching her and being part of her growing up. At our house a child's 13th birthday and 13th year are very important.  We as parents are making a large commitment to help her grow and get stronger as a Christian and a woman.  That will including reading some books and studying together.  It will also

Genesis 2:24-25 For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and they will become one flesh. The man and his wife were both naked , and they felt no shame .   The word shame here means to be ashamed and to feel completely worthless.   I've been there, and I bet you have as well.   But Adam and Eve had no sin at this point which meant they had no shame!   When we hold secrets and shame, those things SEPARATE our relationships and begin to pollute our lives.   Literally, Satan came in to Adam and Eve, and the story goes on…   Genesis 3:7-10 Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they realized they were naked; so they sewed fig leaves together and made coverings for themselves …and they hid from the LORD … But the LORD God called to the man, "Where are you?" He answered, "I heard you in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked; so I hid ."   Shame makes us want to hide.   Sin begins shame

Sunday was awesome as 23 people were baptized and almost 300 people came to celebrate all God has done the last 5 years as well as what God will do in the future.  But do you realize that when you walk toward God and when God begins to work in your life that our enemy is anger. When you walk toward God you need to be ready for the attack of our enemy.  Satan is not happy.  Baptizing that many people angered our enemy in ways we might not understand, and Satan gets mad.  So, the attack of the enemy has begun. He will attack in ways we see and in ways we don't see.  If Satan can't get us by sending missiles and attacks from the outside, he will work from the inside.  You and I have seen this in church life before and in families.  We have seen people, churches and families torn apart in horrible ways as they unravel from the inside out.  We need to be ready for the attack of the enemy.   There are some things each of us can do to be ready for this attack.

Lamentations 3:20-23 NASB Surely my soul remembers And is bowed down within me. This I recall to my mind, Therefore I have hope. The LORD'S lovingkindnesses indeed never cease, For His compassions never fail. They are new every morning; Great is Your faithfulness. Over the last 5 years we have seen God do some incredible things.  He has more than met the needs of The Community Fellowship as we've gone through lean times and overflowing times.  The best part has been the lives that have been changed. Yesterday during our 5th year celebration 23 people were baptized.  AWESOME doesn't even come close to saying enough about it.  It was big a process to get all of it together and to pull it off, yet what I was struck with in the face of every person was their story.  Everybody has a story, and like I've said before, God doesn't waste the experiences of our lives.  What a HUGE blessing it was to think through the history and what I know about each of

Proverbs 3:25 NASB Do not be afraid of sudden fear Nor of the onslaught of the wicked when it comes; Where were you when you first learned of the attacks of September 11, 2001?  I was sitting at my desk at the church I was pastor of in Bassett, Virginia when the phone rang.  On the other end was one of our men whose son was missing in the Pentagon near Washington, DC.  I was oblivious to what was going on.  Immediately I walked across the street to my house and began to watch the horror of the day unfold via the news on TV. The first tower had fallen by the time I turned on the TV, and the Pentagon had been hit.  The plane headed for the 2nd tower in NYC and the plane in Pennsylvania had not crashed yet.  It was a terrible day for the United States.  It was a terrible day for the world. It was also a turning point for us as individuals.  That night our church was full of people who came to pray for those touched by the horrible attacks.  The son who was mi