Michael Harrison's e-devotion

Exodus 40:14-16   NLT This is a day to remember. Each year, from generation to generation, you must celebrate it as a special festival to the Lord. This is a law for all time.   For seven days the bread you eat must be made without yeast. On the first day of the festival, remove every trace of yeast from your homes. Anyone who eats bread made with yeast during the seven days of the festival will be cut off from the community of Israel.   On the first day of the festival and again on the seventh day, all the people must observe an official day for holy assembly. No work of any kind may be done on these days except in the preparation of food. We need to remember.   The passage above is about a celebration that God called His people to have each and every year.   There was that time when God actually sent judgment on a community where the oldest child of the family would die, but if a family did something extra, their child would live. This celeb...

Matthew 7:13-14   NLT You can enter God’s Kingdom only through the narrow gate. The highway to hell is broad, and its gate is wide for the many who choose that way.   But the gateway to life is very narrow and the road is difficult, and only a few ever find it. That’s not the way I do it. We’ve never done it that way before. When I am ready, I will change. There are so many excuses out there for doing anything other than what God says to us in the Bible.   If you haven’t noticed, it is easy to follow the people you have high regard for, but it is almost impossible to listen to and follow those you have little respect for. The Scripture above reminds us of what Proverbs said several times.   It is hard to hear. Proverbs 14:12   NASB There is a   way   which   seems   right   to a man, But its end is the   way   of death. We aren’t puppets who are mandated to do certain things.   We’ve bee...

Here are some thoughts that ought to get us stirring today… --- When someone’s words match their actions we call that “Integrity”. When words and actions don’t line up, we call that “Hypocrisy”. Perhaps what has hindered the Gospel most in the Western World has been this apparent disconnect between the teachings of Jesus and the lives of those who claim to follow after Him. --- Jesus took everything that was meant for me and for every person who ever lived and made them His own. The thoughts must roar through our minds like the deafening sound of a lion or rush through our hearts like the waters of a raging river. Why? Because we are worthy all because of Him. --- It is very hard for love not to become possessive because our hearts look for perfect love and no human being is capable of that. Only God can offer perfect love. Therefore, the art of loving includes the art of giving one another space. When we invade one another's space and do not allow the other to be h...

Philippians 2:14-18   NLT Do everything without complaining and arguing,   so that no one can criticize you. Live clean, innocent lives as children of God, shining like bright lights in a world full of crooked and perverse people.   Hold firmly to the word of life; then, on the day of Christ’s return, I will be proud that I did not run the race in vain and that my work was not useless.   But I will rejoice even if I lose my life, pouring it out like a liquid offering to God,   just like your faithful service is an offering to God. And I want all of you to share that joy.   Yes, you should rejoice, and I will share your joy. The proverbial list is a big deal for many people.   It is for me.   Yet it is lists like the one beginning the passage above that often trips me up because I thought for years that being a “good Christian” meant doing the right stuff. Just doing the right stuff doesn’t make us more or less a Christian.   I...

Some things we want are really bad?   Are the things you want the best things?   Are you pursuing God or one of millions of other things?   What we want says a lot about us. Philippians 4:11  NASB Not that I speak from want, for I have learned to be  content  in whatever circumstances I am. That is the verse the Apostle Paul shared with a group of people that he loved and was struggling.   Literally he said I have learned how to live with much, and he turned the other direction to say that he learned how to live with almost nothing. Even King David asked God to help him stay close by not giving him too much or too little.   It is easy to be unbalanced and to want things that keep us away from God.   Something we need to learn. Matthew 5:6   NASB Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied. What are you hungry for?   Not always easy to answer.   Yet the ...