Michael Harrison's e-devotion

  Romans 8:6  NASB For the mind set on the flesh is death, but the mind set on the Spirit is life and peace, The last eight months have been full of challenges.  Most would use world like chaos, stress, unrest, pain, confusion and lots more.  The pandemic we know as Covid-19 continues to be something that stumps us all. The choice is ours of what we allow it to be for us.  We can go with the chaos or choose peace. What we so with our minds or what we allow our minds to dwell either produce pain and chaos or life and peace.  I will choose life and peace.  There is a choice to be made, and that choice is yours and mine. Look at the key words of this verse.  Well, at least the key verbs if you change them around a bit.  I would say they are “set your mind”.  Set it to peace and life.  Set your mind away from death, destruction and stress.  If we are honest, we would say that we thought this stuff would be over by now, yet it conti...

  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....

Everyone deals with fear.  Fear of the virus.  Fear of the dark.  Fear of high places.  Fear of rejection.  There are all kinds of fear, yet there is something that replaces our fear if we will let it.  It is confidence.  It is faith in God. Romans 8:37-28  NLT No, despite all these things, overwhelming victory is ours through Christ, who loved us.  And I am convinced that nothing can ever separate us from God’s love… Whatever your perspective, God can change it.  He will also turn your fear into faith, your issues into confidence and your life into something that will go through tough or uncertain times.   Fear can be overcome.  As Paul wrote in the verses above, he was convinced that nothing could or would change God’s love or God’s presence in our lives.  That is big time confidence.  Why is that some people don’t believe God’s promises?  It could be because faith is something we can...

Isaiah 43:19  NASB “Behold, I will do something new, Now it will spring forth; Will you not be aware of it? I will even make a roadway in the wilderness,   Rivers   in the   desert. So, what’s next?  That is a hard question for all of us, but it is something most of us are asking.  Some states have opened, some in part and some in grand ways.  Keep checking.  Keep pushing. People are asking how the church will open and when will the church open?  My answer for you is simple… just pray.  My heart is heavy because I miss our church family.  I miss our gatherings and our worship and the testimonies.  The day we will gather again is coming. I’d like to share a post on Facebook by a local pastor and friend, Charles Whitfield.  He is the president of his denomination’s state convention and a great leader in the church and business world.  Here is what ...

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...

So many things stick out to me of truth that helps during time of crisis.  One of the things that can be difficult is taking what people say and comparing it to what God has given us in the Bible. I have lots of people that encourage me.  Their texts or emails or letters to me have been something that hang tight to.  You might even see a card or a letter near my desk.  They remind me that I am not alone. By the way, it is easy to feel like you are alone even when you are around other people.  The situation around us is one that causes higher stress and worry due to the uncertainty.  I have even watched the people who are often the most confident struggling in ways that are not normal.  That is why I am going to point you to God’s word.  The Bible and it’s plethora of verses can give us hope and help, strength and guidance, points to share and truth to hold on to.  Take some time to read ...

It was almost 13 years ago that the shootings took place at Virginia Tech that is about 60 miles from our home.  It was about 19 years ago that the September 11th tragedy took place.   For each of us there have been events in our lives that shaped our emotion and even our fear.  Maybe it was a space shuttle explosion or one of our presidents being shot.  There are many things that has shaped our lives, things on a global scale as well as things much closer to home. There will come a day when we look back on the pandemic known as COVID-19 and share the stories of what we experienced.  I wish we were already looking back, but I believe we have a lot more pain and reality ahead of us at this point.  But a day is coming when is will be over. While we are in the middle of the sickness and hearing all about it day in and day out we have to keep our faith.  We have to know truth.  That is why I choo...