Michael Harrison's e-devotion

We are blessed!!!  Have you noticed that?  2013 has brought lots of things and blessings into the life of The Community Fellowship.  It is time to be excited and gearing up for a greater future of impacting more lives for Jesus. This weekend we have a mission team working at our new campus on Saturday.  They are all the way from Greenville, South Carolina, and they will be helping prepare our office building for the needed renovations.  You are needed to help with this project!  Join several of your church family on Saturday beginning at 8am.  There is a lot to be done.  Bring your gloves, step ladders, trash bags and more.  There is also work to be done outside so you can bring your weed eaters and rakes if you would like. Your help is needed on Monday too.  Are you ready for this?  It's a big deal.  Our office building is getting WINDOWS!!!  From 9am until noon on Monday workers are needed to assist Kasim Adams to put in 25 plus windows.  You need a heart to help, toleran...

Romans 5:6-8  NLT When we were utterly helpless, Christ came at just the right time and died for us sinners. 7 Now, most people would not be willing to die for an upright person, though someone might perhaps be willing to die for a person who is especially good. 8 But God showed his great love for us by sending Christ to die for us while we were still sinners. That’s love.  That’s the God kind of love we talk about that is unconditional, agape love.  No one would hardly die for a good person let along a bad person.  But Jesus did.  He loves us in spit of ourselves and proves His love because he wants to.  God allowed His son to be crushed for you and for me.  I have heard a lot of things people have said about who JESUS IS.  But there is another level where we might say things seem illogical or unreasonable.  It is when we start to question because we think we understand God, but we don’t.  We’ve...

A friend sent me an interesting article that I would like to share with you, at least some of the big ideas.  It was written by Derek Prince who after preaching for years died a decade ago. The big idea of the article was about the value of humans.  He wrote that you and I have extreme value that was given to us by God.  This is a truth that I have shared, preached about and believed for years, yet it is also one of the most difficult things to buy into without a proper view of who God is and how much God loves us. God loves us and values us because He created us! Genesis 1:26   NASB Then God said, “Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness; and let them rule over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the sky and over the cattle and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.” God created us in His own image, and the awesome thing is that God cannot deny or will not deny Himself....

Years ago I read Bruce Wilkinson’s book Secrets of The Vine and was once again driving to study the truth of John 15.  It is in these verses that I began to understand the difference between discipline and pruning.  Discipline comes when you do something wrong and need to be corrected.  Pruning is the process of being prepared for growth. Both discipline and pruning are part of God’s work in our lives to make us more like His son.  Pruning doesn’t hurt as bad.  It is in the verses below that this process comes alive, and remember that the outcome is fruit for the glory of God and not for ours.  Read on: John 15  MSG 1-3  “I am the Real Vine and my Father is the Farmer.  He cuts off every branch of me that doesn’t bear grapes.  And every branch that is grape-bearing he prunes back so it will bear even more. You are already pruned back by the message I have spoken. 4  “Live in me.  Make your ho...

I get to work with some great people.  Our church has had people come and go through the years, but the ones who have stuck with us have made a great difference in the lives of many people.  Learning from the leaders I serve with is something that I cherish. Last evening our leadership team met and talked through our present state and the future.  Some of the take aways from our meeting are notes about great leaders and what those leaders do.  Each one of the points were gained from books by incredible people.  What I ask that I will and you will learn from others how to be great leaders. Great leaders put high value on people. Great leaders are great servants and humble. Great leaders humble themselves and ask forgiveness. Great leaders let others have the glory and they are good listeners. Great leaders exhibit grace. Grace leaders laugh at themselves. The conversation about leading people around us was so ...