Michael Harrison's e-devotion

  Christmas is 10 days away.  There is no reason to focus on things that keep us from celebrating the real meaning of this season.  But that would be easy. 2020 has been full of reasons to be depressed or stressed rather than focusing on how we are blessed.  There is a virus that keeps changing, or so it seems, with fear all around.  So much fear keeps hitting us that we aren’t willing to step up and live.  You are either bad because you do something or bad because you didn’t do it. Seems that there is no way to win.  That is when we have tried to out live the Coronavirus, but that didn’t work.  We have tried to make it a conspiracy or just pretend it isn’t a big deal.  So how do we deal with all the issues around us? Let me simply remind us that none of the stuff we are dealing with changed who our God is and what He can do.  Remember the question that I shared last week, “since when has impossible ever stopped you?”  God is still ...

  Ephesians 6:18 Pray in the Spirit at all times and on every occasion. Stay alert and be persistent in your prayers for all believers everywhere. I believe that is one of the things that God calls us to do.  It is not a monthly or occasional thing.  It is a daily and many times through the day thing.  Would you agree? I remember hearing story after story from people who encountered God in significant ways.  All shared how prayer was part of their days. This was true of Jesus who moved away throughout the day as the Bible reminds of so that He could spend time with the Father.  President Abraham Lincoln said that on days he had so much to do that he had to first spend time in prayer.  One of the first biographies I read was of George Muller.  He shared how when the children in his orphanage has great needs that he and his staff would go to God, and their prayers were often answers in miraculous ways. There are many more testimonies as those. ...

Exodus 15:2  NLT The Lord is my strength and my song; he has given me victory. This is my God, and I will praise him— my father’s God, and I will exalt him! The word negative is one I don’t like, although I can be negative.  But my desire is always to be positive and to bring that out in others. Yet yesterday I needed to hear the word negative.  I needed to hear it for about the last week.  It was yesterday morning that I got a call from our doctor’s office and was informed that my covid-19 test is negative showing I do not have the virus. That word, negative, was pretty good at that point.  It was also pretty important.  All around I am hearing other people who are getting a different answer.  Yes, some are negative but many are positive. What I can say is that this virus has got to go.  It has taken far too much of our time and effort.  It is time to allow this stuff to infect or impact our thinking and actions less....

We plan to return.  This Sunday is the plan.  The reason has nothing to do with politics or with making people happy.  The reason is because God has called us to be the church. The church is not where or how we meet.  The church is the people whom our God inhabits and loves and leads and uses to impact others.  We are the church when we leave the building and serve others.  We are the church when we are driving or sitting in nature or at home with the family.   Yet the thing we have not been able to do for the last two months has consumed our thinking and our desires.  It is time to return to an in-person service.  Please pray for us, The Community Fellowship, and for all churches seeking to make the hard decisions in front of us. Hebrews 10:25  NASB not forsaking our own assembling together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another; and all the more as you see the day drawing near. We have been meeting....

Hey friends.  Today’s devotion is a little different.  I am pushing a passage of John’s Gospel to you.  Read these verses, all from The Message translation of the Bible, that means much to me. Many are thinking about the transition from being closed and quarantined to open for business.  That means so many different things to us all.  There are so many questions that have to be answered.  What I have come to realize as I listen and read and seek God’s wisdom is that I realize how much I need, I mean we, need God. He has a plan.  So, let’s stay connected to God no matter what.  He is in control.  He will get us through all of this. Read these 16 verses and make sure to stay a little longer on the parts that grab your attention. John 15:1-16  MSG “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...

We have never been here before.  That is one reason that this situation is so hard.  Many have characterized it as worse than the tragedy of September 11, 2001.  No matter the case we have much ahead of us. It is my opinion that things will not be the same when this is over.  There will be a new normal.  In the struggles ahead we will experience things we have never experienced. We can make our plans.  We can strategize, but there is not telling what is ahead and how it will all play out. We will get there.  This will end. The most important thing is we do not give us.  This virus will not end the world.  It is not going to steal our faith. We will press on.  Paul said it best. Philippians 3:12-16  NASB Not that I have already   obtained   it   or have already   become perfect, but I press on   so that I may   lay hold...

Proverbs 16:9  NASB The   mind   of man   plans his way, But the   Lord  directs his steps. These are uncertain times we are living for many reasons including the COVID-19 virus that we are all having to deal with at this time.  One friend aptly said this is a time for common sense.  That is true.  Let your faith stay strong and be smart. Many things need to happen to keep us safe and strong no matter how things change, and things are changing almost by the day.  Appointments are being canceled.  People are being sent home from work either to work from home or being laid off.  Businesses are closing because people aren’t leaving their homes.  And there is so much more. Each of us must make some decisions that will us be prepared for the coming days and weeks.  Make your plans and follow the leading of the Lord. Pray.   Am I sounding like a br...

Hello friends.  You know that word friend has a lot of meaning packed in to it.  God called us His friends.  We are His children, the ones He sent His son for, and we are the ones He chooses to spend time caring for and loving on.  That is a big deal. During this uncertain time we need friends and we need to be a friend.  But how do we do that in ways that benefit everyone the best and practices caution.  Honestly, I am sharing today from a position that is not very comfortable.  I am guessing that most of you aren’t very comfortable with all that is going on either. Thus, here are some thoughts that I am dealing with at this time.  How am I going to be making decisions and interacting with others.  This is personal. Be Praying That is the start and the finish line.  Pray.  I want the Lord’s direction and protection for our family and the church I get to serv...