Michael Harrison's e-devotion

  The Bible overflows with the character of God, and as I have shared recently, these verses lead us to pray Scripture back to God.  We learn about God, how He works and even how He loves and cares for us, His children. Take a few minutes to read through some verses of the Bible and note the things you learn.  Mark what sticks out.  I am constantly amazed and grateful and encouraged by the greatness of our God. Psalm 3:3  NLT   But you, O Lord, are a shield around me; you are my glory, the one who holds my head high. Psalm 5:7  NLT  Because of your unfailing love, I can enter your house; I will worship at your Temple with deepest awe. Psalm 7:17  NLT   I will thank the Lord because he is just; I will sing praise to the name of the Lord Most High. Psalm 8:1  NLT   O Lord, our Lord, your majestic name fills the earth! Your glory is higher than the heavens. Philippians 1:29  NLT   For you have been given not only the pri...

  One of the most important things we can be is an influence.  Every one of us has influence but is that influence good or bad?   Think about it.  Read on.  These verses are eye opening.   2 Peter 1:5-9  NLT   In view of all this, make every effort to respond to God’s promises. Supplement your faith with a generous provision of moral excellence, and moral excellence with knowledge, 6 and knowledge with self-control, and self-control with patient endurance, and patient endurance with godliness, 7 and godliness with brotherly affection, and brotherly affection with love for everyone. 8 The more you grow like this, the more productive and useful you will be in your knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. 9 But those who fail to develop in this way are shortsighted or blind, forgetting that they have been cleansed from their old sins.   God’s promises help us respond differently.  His promises allow our lives to be influence...

  James 5:11  NLT   We give great honor to those who endure under suffering. For instance, you know about Job, a man of great endurance. You can see how the Lord was kind to him at the end, for the Lord is full of tenderness and mercy. Last week was very full with lots of outcomes that make me smile as well as make me know that the future of our ministry is going to be even stronger than the past 20 years.  It is an honor to be part of what God is doing and of a church where God is working. In the last few months I have been led to read through the book of Job.  It is a book of suffering with not many answers of why suffering happens.  More so we are given an example of how to maintain character in the middle of suffering, pain and tragedy.   But what has stuck out to me most is toward the end of the story.  Job was tested by Satan because God allowed that to happen.  Job was encouraged to quit.  Job was told by his wife to walk away fro...

  Our church is in a series called “silent killers”, and that series is discussing the things that we allow in to our lives that slowly kill us and remove things we desperately need. So many things that swirl in and out of our lives need to be dealt with.  Some need to stay.  These are the things that make us stronger and better.  Then there are the things that need to go.  They are toxic, robing us of our time, energy, resources and even of our joy. And this week we discussed the need for character in our lives.  Good character will keep us but bad character will corrupt us.  Great character builds us.  Lack of character corrodes us. I share some verses today and that will allow us to see how God builds our character and how we put it in to practice.  Take some time to examine your own character and how this is true about you. Colossians 3:2 NIV   Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things. What we look at, what we hang on to...

  In keeping with our last conversation of praying the Psalms, I share this… Psalms 8:1-2  NLT   O Lord, our Lord, your majestic name fills the earth!  Your glory is higher than the heavens. 2  You have taught children and infants to tell of your strength, silencing your enemies and all who oppose you. Do you ever get just a little choked up when you see God do something? Do you ever just think WOW when you see something God created? Tell Him.  Let God know what you think, how you feel, where your mind is, and that you are in awe of Him.  Those “awe moments” are the ones that print a memory in our minds and even on our hearts.  Cherish those moments almost like a picture taken that you keep going back to for years. God is able.  God is good.  God is creator and keeper of all.  God is love, and we expect Him to respond in love, to give because of His love and to care for those we care about because of His goodness. That is a lot abo...

We serve the God that we can expect great things from.  But do we expect great things from our God?  He will take our faith and move in ways out of the norm.  He forgives sinners like us, comforts each of us when we are down or lonely, heals us when we are sick and shows up with new mercies each day.  That is what we can expect and more. I challenge us to make sure that our lives speak up as the life of Jesus spoke.  Few things speak louder than true, godly love. 1 John 4:7-9  NLT   Dear friends, let us continue to love one another, for love comes from God. Anyone who loves is a child of God and knows God. 8 But anyone who does not love does not know God, for God is love. 9 God showed how much he loved us by sending his one and only Son into the world so that we might have eternal life through him.  We love because He loved us first.  He demonstrated that love in tangible ways and didn’t just tell us that we are loved.  That is...

There are some things that just don’t call for having a party.  Some do.  But not struggles.  Not stress and tribulation. God says different.  Or Paul does in his letter to the church at Rome.  One of the greatest books on the Bible as a theological text book.  We learn how to live by faith and live a transformed life. But back to the tribulation and throwing a party.  Just what did Paul say? Romans 5:3-5  NASB And not only this, but we also celebrate in our tribulations, knowing that tribulation brings about perseverance; 4 and perseverance, proven character; and proven character, hope; 5 and hope does not disappoint, because the love of God has been poured out within our hearts through the Holy Spirit who was given to us. The struggles we might qualify as tribulation have meaning in our lives.  God uses that and more to build character and to continue to reenforce true hope.  Hope in who we know loves us most.  That woul...

This past week has been tough for our family as we went through the death of Julie’s father, Ellis Howell, and his funeral.  It was good to be with family at such a difficult time. On a personal note I want to say thank you for your support and prayers.  We missed being with our church family on Sunday.  It was such a blessing to have our three children with us as we have not been together since July of 2020.  What a blessing to be with all our family. I had the honor to preaching at his home going service.  The entire family agreed that we wanted this to be a celebrate and not a sad time.  It was so good to hear and share stories about his life, and my father in law was one of a kind.  His humor was strong, yet what was so much stronger was his faith in God.   He was saved and secure in his faith.  He knew that heaven was his final destination for for decades he and his wife, Sandra, of 63 years lived out their walk with God for us to see....

The heroes we had as children were awesome.  Remember mighty mouse?  “Here I come to save the day”.  Or the one who wore a mask and cape proclaiming, “I’m batman”.  Or the one with the big letter on his chest, “faster than a speeding bullet, more powerful than a locomotive, able to leap tall buildings in a single bound”.  Mighty mouse, batman, superman.   These superheroes were smart, always witty, with great costumes and muscles and extra ability.  Heroes like that are pretty cool. Move to the next generation of super heroes and you will most likely find sports stars, singers, media personalities and actors.  They have high salaries, most likely low morals and more.  They are anything but heroic. Then we move to the more genuine or hero like.  These people do great things but might be somewhat common.  People like Nelson Mandela, Mother Teresa, or maybe a soldier or a doctor that did something extra. I assert that there are people,...