Time to get back to work.

Tonight Stacey and I are going to hang with the Active student ministry at Church. We have volunteered to help with the new junior high student ministry. I am really excited to do this because I love being able to support kids in their walk with the Lord. We have taken some time off and are ready to head back to being active in weekly ministry again. I am also excited to head out with the guys from church this coming Monday. I think we will be ice fishing, and I love just hanging out in the outdoors with my friends. There is nothing better the a manly outdoor trip! Especially here in the great state of Montana!

New Blog

I have created a new blog to showcase some of my graphic work I have done for different people. I recently created a CD cover for my brother and his girlfriends new CD. I wanted to thank Kevin Guido for showing me an awesome site that provides any kind of Photoshop template you could imagine! So thanks Guido you saved me a ton of time looking for a decent template for the CD cover. You can see my new blog @ www.harveydesigns.blogspot.com

Skate night with the kids.

Tonight we took the kids to skate night. They love skating and learning about Jesus. It was strange being there and not bringing the word and I miss doing that a lot. It was fun to see Trevor pull of an Ollie 180 for the first time. Ashley was dropping in like a little pro. Jacob isn't much of a vert skater. He likes the old school street skating tricks. His new favorite is called the coffin. It is quite funny to see him do but he thinks it is way cool. The Coffin is when you are skating normally and sink down into a laying on your back position while in motion.

While I was there I was blessed to talk to a young teenager who was questioning Christianity. I love to answer questions that non-believers have and also listening to what they believe. I think too often we don't let them voice their opinions by not letting them speak. I believe that if you are respectful by letting them get a word in, then they will have more respect for what you have to say. The more respect they have for what you have to say. The more they will give thought to it. A positive communication is one that always bears fruit. A negative one will just build barriers. I hope to talk with him again soon.

I have to share this with you all!

In my daily routine as a receiving clerk at Rosauers. I get the privilege to talk to many people. Many of them are vendors or sales reps bringing in or ordering product. I love my job because I can be social and meet many different people. There is one sales rep that sings in a high pitched voice while ordering his product. When I first heard him sing a couple of years ago. I instantly thought to myself......"what is that!" Every time he is in he sings loudly for all to hear. It is rather humorous and I've always said that I should catch him on video someday.



Well that day is today........for your pure listening enjoyment! I present Mike from Coca-Cola in his very first music video!

My Little Brother Update

Above is a video of one of the songs that Betty and my brother Josh played tonight. The night went well and the coffee shop was packed full of people. I just wanted to thank all of you that came out to listen and show support. This night is one I will never forget. It was really great to visit with you all. I hope you all enjoyed yourselves. I think I will be taking Josh to a Saturday night service because he is a night owl. We Harvey boys aren't very with it in the morning without a gallon of coffee pumping though our veins. I hope you all have a great week!

My Little Brother

This last Sunday at Church I was blessed to pray with a new believer who had accepted Christ as their savior. He was 13 and came forward with his older brother by his side. I could tell that his older brother was holding back tears. He must have prayed for this moment for a long time. This was very emotional not only for them but for me as well. I fought back tears as I prayed for this young boy. I was able to take part in the answering of many prayers and that also made it hard to hold back the tears.

I too am in a similar position. I am the older brother and my younger brother doesn't believe in the bible or what is written in it. So I related completely with these two brothers. One who newly accepted Christ and one who and shed many tears praying that this moment would come. I saw exactly what I have prayed for in my own life. That one day my brother would accept Christ as his savior once again.

As I wrapped up the prayer the older brother thanked me for praying for his younger brother. I replied that this was my favorite part of Church. Seeing new believers coming to Christ is what it was all about. I then told him that I have been blessed to see that you brought your little brother to Church and he accept the Lord into his life. I told him that all I need to do now is get my little brother to come to church to accept the Lord. That moment and moments like those have blessed me a lot lately. There is never such a sense of why we are here then moments like those.

The day after that happened. I get a phone call from my little brother. He states that he and his girlfriend will be playing music at Colter Coffee and if I invite some people to come out to listen. He will go to church with me! This is something my brother never would offer in a million years! I was floored by this proposition. However I took him up on it instantly! So I'd like to invite you all out to Colter Coffee on Main Street in Kalispell. They will be playing @ 7pm tomorrow (Monday). This is a big night for them as well. They will be interviewed by the Daily Inter lake so they are very excited to say the least.

I am very proud of my brother and how he is doing. I love him very much even if we don't see eye to eye on certain things. We are brothers and will always be. I remember smothering him with hugs and kisses when he was a baby. I still feel that love towards him as an adult. However smothering him with hugs and kisses has turned into hanging out and giving crap to each other. Besides it would be very strange for me to smother him with hugs and kisses now. A manly hug does the trick. I will be holding him up to his end of the deal. I am going to drag him to Church and then maybe go out for breakfast afterwards.

For My Dad

Some of my earliest memories are of listening to my dad sing and play guitar. I used to try to strum his guitar and make music when I was little. In my mind it sounded awesome but really it must have sounded like random noise. After my mom passed away I inherited her guitar and began playing a little. I still do from time to time but really haven't put much more time into it. I guess I have music in my blood on both sides of the family. As a kid my Grandparents would have huge Jam sessions in their living room. My kids also love music and I caught this picture of my son strumming guitar on our front porch. It reminded me of when I was a kid strumming on my dads guitar. Jacob sat out there for over an hour strumming enjoying the nice Montana summer weather. So dad here is a picture that made me think of you, love ya dad!

Not feeling too hot!

Well I have decided to force myself to go to work. I can't really afford to miss any work. So I am pushing through one more day to get to my 3 day weekend. I plan on sleeping quite a bit to get rested up. I am also going to skim through the bible to find our family bible study. I am not sure what book we are going to hit yet. I can't wait to start because I love hearing what the kids have to ask or say about what they are learning. So pray for me today as I am at work because I'd much rather be in bed.

Whats New

We haven't been up to much lately. Montana winters can be long especially when you aren't into winter activities. The Flu season has been a rough one on all of us. It seems we get a strain and fight it off. Then instantly there is a new variation we have to endure again. We have been spending most of our time playing video games and enjoying Netflix new instant stream via Xbox Live. We can browse movies and watch them instantly on our T.V. It is really cool to have that option! They have everything from Movies to Full T.V. show seasons.

Some are also in HD so that is really nice! Who needs an outrageous cable bill when you pay 7.99 a month to stream it instantly to your computer or Xbox. I am sold on Netflix. Other then being couch potatoes we are enjoying our Church that just celebrated it's two year birthday. I started going a year ago where there were roughly around 275 members. One year later we have around 1000 members and growing. We have gone from one service on Sunday and another on Wednesday. To two services on Sunday, one on Wednesday, and one on Saturday. It is crazy to see how fast this Church has grown.

I have been looking for new ways in serving the Lord but have not found that area in where I can serve. I feel like I am wasting time just watching movies and playing video games. I need to put more time into home study with the family. I am going to start doing that weekly to keep us all in the Word of God. I hope you all are having a great winter! I myself am ready for Summer and hiking,camping, and swimming!!!! Later folks I am going to see if the wife needs any help.

Israel voted in the wrong.

This shows me how corrupt the U.N. is. They have voted that Israel is in the wrong by attacking missiles sites in the Gaza strip that are run by Hamas. Let us step back and take a look at what really is going on. Hamas has been sending suicide bombers into Israel to blow up cafes grocery stores, and public buses. Yet the U.N. does nothing and says nothing about how they are violating human rights. It's OK to blow up families eating out for lunch in a restaurant according to the U.N. I guess.

You can read the story here...

U.N. Votes against Israel

However when Israel says enough to the murdering of their civilians by suicide and missile attacks. The U.N. steps up and states Israel is violating human rights by sending troops in to put an end to Hamas and their attacks on Israel. God forbid they take out the missile facilities and a movement that kills innocent people. An unfair use of military power is what they were claiming Israel was using to protect their citizens from attack. I've never heard such unbelievable corruption ever! So you wonder what the U.N. is thinking? They were put in place to prevent such things as suicide bombings of innocent civilians. We see now that the U.N. is in effective when it comes to standing up for human rights.

The coolest thing EVER!

Our Church has began supporting a very cool ministry called Faith Comes From Hearing. This ministry has recorded audio bibles in many different languages. They have also have come up with very innovative ways of getting that audio bible played in places where electricity is not available. One of them is called the proclaimer and it is something out of a Sci-Fi movie. It is not only battery powered but it is also solar powered. If you can't find enough sun to power it, you can hand crank it. This little black box will play the new testament in many languages to people who have never heard it before. You could take it spelunking and still hear the word of God by using the hand crank. What an amazing tool to have! Here is a link so you can see what it looks like....

http://www.faithcomesbyhearing.com/proclaimer

You can also learn more about this ministry here.....

http://www.faithcomesbyhearing.com/

I am really thrilled with this innovative way of spreading the word and can't wait to hear how this ministry changes lives!

About to explode!

I can hardly stand it any longer! Ever since I have stepped back from doing the skate ministry thing full time I have been going crazy. I have this constant feeling that I need to share the word with all who will listen! However I am not bringing the word weekly anymore but only when asked to fill in. I can barely stand the feeling of being completely useless when it comes to telling others about Christ in a constructive way. I can blog but I don't really think anyone wants to read my blog let alone read paragraph after paragraph.

Tonight at Church the message supercharged me and made it even worse. I am bound to silence when I have a ton to say and motivation to do so without hesitation. I think I may have to request to bring the word here soon at skate night. I am itching to share the word in another format then blogging. There is nothing like sharing hope with those who need it. You have to listen to the message on Revelation 5 @ http://www.freshlifechurch.com/! It may not be up yet but it is such an awesome message that you can't not give it a listen. It will be given live again Sunday 1/4/09 (Tomorrow)

9AM and then again 11AM Mountain Standard Time. You can watch it live below......(YOU HAVE TO!)



Seriously you have to hear this! If this is an old post you have to go to archived messages and listen to the Revelation 5 Podcast here....

www.freshlifechurch.com/site/teaching_archive.html

It is awesome!

God Answers All Prayers

This is the last message I gave at the skate ministry. It is a rough version of what I actually said at skate night. I do better speaking off the cuff in front of people then typing. I figured I'd post it for family out of state who have shown interest in the skate ministry.

How many of you have asked this question? Does God pay any attention to our prayers? If he does why does he answer some prayers but others he doesn’t? How many of you out there have prayed for something so hard but yet it seemed that God didn’t hear your prayers? I’ve been there praying for what seemed like hours with tears running down my cheeks. Calling out to God to hear my prayers but somehow I never received an answer. I know most of you have had that same experience and wonder why God hasn’t listened to your prayers.

To put rest to some of your doubts the answer is God pays attention to every prayer we pray. I never really understood why God seemed to answer some of my prayers but others he didn’t until my pastor put it this way. “God answers all prayers, however he doesn’t always say yes. He also says no in wisdom.” You see God isn’t a genie in a bottle. It’s not like you bow your head and fold your hands and all prayers you have are answered with a yes. God also says no in wisdom! So the next time it seems he doesn’t answer your prayers the way you think they should be answered remember that.

One person who knew this well was David. David was in hiding from King Saul for 10 years. He moved from cave to cave to avoid detection. In his rough times he wrote beautiful Psalms while he was in hiding. A Psalm is prayer in a song format. David wrote many of these and he knew God heard his prayers and answered all of them. Here is what David wrote about prayer.

Psalms 116:1-2
I love the Lord because he hears and answers my prayers. 2 Because he bends down and listens, I will pray as long as I have breath!

He knew how important it was to pray and that God would answer each of his prayers. Prayer was what David knew was essential to his life. You see God is not distant or far away when we pray. He bends down and listens to every cry. He is there for us just like he was there for David. With David writing that he’d pray as long as he has breath illustrates how important prayer truly is.

We all should pray often to God. Prayer is our communication with God. Without communication how are we supposed to maintain a relationship? All healthy relationships are built and strengthened with excellent communication. So you see it is very important that we don’t put prayer last on our to do list. We must pray often throughout our whole day. God is with us all of the time. Prayer is just a fancy word for talking with God. He is always with us so we should never ignore the availability we have to talk with him in all we do. I pray just like I was talking with a friend who never leaves our side. For instance I might be eating toast and praying to God, or doing a task at work while I pray to God.

So when you pray and it seems God is doing nothing. Remember always even though it is hard to do that we must be patient. God may be saying no to our prayer but he may be saying yes. We must remember that we are on Gods time and not our own. What we want now may be what God wants to give us later. God says yes in wisdom too! We just have to be patient and have faith that we are in Gods hands. This is what is said in Romans…..

Romans 12:12
12 Be glad for all God is planning for you. Be patient in trouble, and always be prayerful.
Have faith in God and that he will answer your prayers. This is what Matthew wrote about faith and prayer.

Matthew 21:22
22 If you believe, you will receive whatever you ask for in prayer.”

Now you might be saying to yourself that that bald guy Todd just contradicted what he said above. If God says no in wisdom how do we receive what we’ve asked for that God said no to? I am here to tell you I have not contradicted myself and I have a personal experience that will show you how this is possible.

You see back when the women found me irresistible and I had hair which was in seventh grade. I had this cute little blonde girlfriend named Stacy. One night I was praying for a long time to God. My main request of that prayer was that I marry Stacy and that we have three children together. I even got specific as to request two boys and one girl. Unfortunately when she dumped me the next day I realized a wasted hours praying to God that previous night. So I figured God didn’t hear my prayer. What actually happened is that God had just said no in wisdom.

But then again I had faith that he would answer my prayer, and he did! You see I am now married to a beautiful Red headed Stacey and I have three kids, two boys and one girl exactly as I had requested. So God not only said No in wisdom he said yes because of my faith that he would answer my prayer. He said no and yes in wisdom so I’d be with who I am with today, and I couldn’t be happier about that! So God does answer all prayers!

Matthew 18:1-8
1 One day Jesus told his disciples a story to illustrate their need for constant prayer and to show them that they must never give up. 2 “There was a judge in a certain city,” he said, “who was a godless man with great contempt for everyone. 3 A widow of that city came to him repeatedly, appealing for justice against someone who had harmed her. 4 The judge ignored her for a while, but eventually she wore him out. ‘I fear neither God nor man,’ he said to himself, 5 ‘but this woman is driving me crazy. I’m going to see that she gets justice, because she is wearing me out with her constant requests!’”6 Then the Lord said, “Learn a lesson from this evil judge. 7 Even he rendered a just decision in the end, so don’t you think God will surely give justice to his chosen people who plead with him day and night? Will he keep putting them off? 8 I tell you, he will grant justice to them quickly! But when I, the Son of Man, return, how many will I find who have faith?”

Most people who are in need that don’t rely on God usually give up too early. I’ve heard people say that God never heard my prayers so he isn’t real. What Jesus was illustrating in Matthew 18 is that we must constantly pray. If a judge who doesn’t care about a women or her welfare will grant a request. How much more will God who cares for all of us deeply answer our prayers? You see we tend to forget God cares for every detail in our lives. He is not distant and uncaring. Jesus knew that people wouldn’t be patient and would loose faith because the prayers they prayed were not answer instantly. His heart was heavy with sorrow because of this, because he knows when he returns many will have given up and lost faith. We must be patient with God because he is patient with us. His love is greater then any love you can imagine. Give him time and you will see this to be true.

We also must remember to thank God for all of our blessings. He blesses us greatly when we pray to him and you will know this instantly when it happens. We must always thank God for the blessings he has given us and others as well.

Matthew 6:5
5 “And now about prayer. When you pray, don’t be like the hypocrites who love to pray publicly on street corners and in the synagogues where everyone can see them.

There is a time and place for public prayer. In Church or during a ministry meeting, however we are not to pray for worldly acknowledgement. In other words we are not to pray for public recognition. That is not what prayer is intended for.

Lamentations 2:19
19 Rise during the night and cry out. Pour out your hearts like water to the Lord. Lift up your hands to him in prayer.

God wants our prayer lives to be intimate and un-hindered. He wants us to open up 100% to him with no inhabitations. In public we are not going to dig deep into are personal pain because it is private. However, when in private we have nothing holding us back, we can open up completely and rely on God to help us through our toughest times. God heals us from the inside out so this is important with our relationship with God. It is so important to find private time with God to pray and he can heal. This is so important that even the son of God did this. If the son of God did it, how important do you think it is for us to do this?

Hebrews 5:7-9
7 While Jesus was here on earth, he offered prayers and pleadings, with a loud cry and tears, to the one who could deliver him out of death. And God heard his prayers because of his reverence for God. 8 So even though Jesus was God’s Son, he learned obedience from the things he suffered. 9 In this way, God qualified him as a perfect High Priest, and he became the source of eternal salvation for all those who obey him.

God heard his prayer and delivered him out of death through resurrection. However he did die and it was for a reason. Jesus Christ was nailed on the cross to pay our debt. He bled for our sins and died so that we may be forgiven for our sins. You see all of our sins were laid on him so that we would be made righteous before God. It is written in Proverbs 15:29

Proverbs 15:29
29 The Lord is far from the wicked, but he hears the prayers of the righteous.

So the question I have for all of you is? Are you wicked or righteous? Most of us like to think we are good people. However without the blood of Christ that paid for our sins. We are all wicked and none are righteous. The only way to become righteous in the eyes of the Lord is to accept Jesus Christ as your savior. If you haven’t done this the offer stands open until his return or until you die. Our time is short and our life can be cut short in the blink of an eye. You have no time to waste, because you never know when your time is up. I encourage you to take the leap of faith that I have made. Accept Jesus Christ as your savior today. It will be the best choice you will have ever made.