Devotionals from a Friend

Greg Satterfield is a strong believer and a close friend. He and his wonderful wife Annette moved from here in Indiana to Sarasota Florida. Greg has as strong of faith as any man I have ever known and he has been a blessing to me for as long as I have known him. I love and trust Greg Satterfield. He is also a successful businessman having spent the majority of his life in the automobile business owning working at and owning several dealerships selling and servicing cars and trucks. He has even helped a multitude of customers get the best vehicles at the best price through his buying service. PRO carsearch where he takes the mystery out of buying cars for his clients and shops for them and saves them time and money without the haggles or hassles. You can find out all about Greg and this service at his website at PROcarsearch.com I know how good Greg is at finding the best cars at the best prices for his clients as he has been buying cars for me and all my friends who needed a great deal for longer than I can remember! Since moving to Florida Greg has started buying and selling R.V.'s and Boats also. He has added this to serve more of his clients more. I would personally recommend Greg if you ever wanted the best quality at the best price in cars, trucks, boats and R.V.'s too. If you need to contact Greg, he can be reached at 317-888-9900. Kenton Yohey at CCC.

Jesus

We all have things to do in this life here on earth. The most productive, and powerful way to do what God designed us to do is through our good and great Shepherd, Jesus Christ. The disciples work hard to spread the truth about Jesus, Who He really is, and what He offers every person on the planet. He is the only way for us to access heaven, He is our only way to the Father, and for those who accept Him as their Lord and Savior, He offers them the gift of eternal life. the disciples saw Him lay down His life, and they saw Him bring it back up again. Because of this they committed their lives, and their efforts so that we might know Him, and His truth that sets us free. It’s our choice to believe and choose to follow Him. But He also promises to equip us with every good thing so that we may live life according to His will. He leads us through the valleys and to the mountain tops. He leads us through the shadows, and to the  bright sun. He leads us through the valley of death, and brings us to have life, and have it to the full, when we trust the good and great Shepherd as our Lord. Read the following verses and come to know the voice of the good and great Shepherd, Jesus Christ. Know that no matter where you go, He not only goes with you, but He also leads you. Trust and follow Him. “I am the good shepherd, and I know My own, and My own know Me, just as the Father knows Me and I know the Father; and I lay down My life for the sheep. And I have other sheep that are not of this fold; I must bring them also, and they will listen to My voice; and they will become one flock, with one shepherd. For this reason, the Father loves Me, because I lay down My life so that I may take it back. No one has taken it away from Me, but I lay it down on My own. I have authority to lay it down, and I have authority to take it back. This commandment I received from My Father.” John 10:14-18.“Now may the God of peace, who brought up from the dead the great Shepherd of the sheep through the blood of the eternal covenant, that is, Jesus our Lord, equip you in every good thing to do His will, working in us that which is pleasing in His sight, through Jesus Christ, to whom be the glory forever and ever. Amen.” Hebrews 13:20-21.

 Contentment

What makes you content? Contentment is not a word we talk about too much anymore. Contentment is not about settling, don’t get the two confused. True contentment comes when we recognize we are doing our best with what we have been giving in life to live with. From a Christian point of view, true contentment comes when we have and are currently using our gifts, and talents the Lord has given us to fulfill our purpose that He has designed for our lives. To find that contentment we must first surrender our desires for His desire, we must seek Him first and trust Him for everything else after we have made our commitment to Him. Let this really sink in; contentment comes after the commitment, and without commitment, we will never achieve true, and lasting contentment. Make the commitment to follow Jesus, surrender it all to Him, trust His words, and live out His words in your daily life. When we do we find that He provides us all we need, and life offers more peace, more satisfaction, and contentment settles across our lives. Let me share with you Psalms 46:10 from the NIV and the NASB. Listen to the words with your whole heart, soul and mind. "Be still and know that I am God.” “Stop striving and know that I am God.” Be still, stop striving, quiet yourself before the Lord and let Him show you what, and how to live your life, and commit to living your life in a way that is pleasing to Him. Read these following scriptures and know that God has uniquely designed each of us to have a full, and blessed life when we desire to find contentment in Him. “For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future. Then you will call on Me and come and pray to Me, and I will listen to you. You will seek Me and find Me when you seek Me with all your heart. You will find me,” declares the Lord.” Jeremiah 29:11-14. When we are born again, we are given a new spirit, we are a new creation, and we will never be content until we have spent time seeking the Lord with our whole heart, and following His plan, and His purpose for our lives. If you and I feel discontented, then we must allow the Holy Spirit to guide us, we must slow down, we need to cease striving, and we must be still and remember, that God is still God. He will move heaven and earth to show us His will for our lives if we will just slow down and listen to Him. Commitment to Him brings contentment to us. Trust God, and let God be God. Have a blessed week walking with Jesus.

Peace

In case you haven’t noticed, life does throw us curveballs every now and then. Jesus warned His disciples and all of us that while we are here on earth we will have troubles, but we are to ask for His help, and He will help us get through our troubles as well. Jesus is always with us. This week as we encounter difficulties, struggles and heartaches, recall these words and put them into practice. “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.” Philippians 4:13. “I have told you these things, so that in Me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.” John 16:33. Have a blessed day and always remember Who we are to be following, Jesus, Jesus, Jesus.

Trust and Obedience

Commit your works to the Lord, and your plans will be established.” Proverbs 16:3.

Businesspeople often quote this verse when it comes to how Christian business owners should run and operate their businesses. Nothing wrong with that, but yesterday as I thought through this verse, I became convinced that there’s a deeper meaning, a much deeper meaning that we all could learn from. Let’s start by backing up just one verse and then bringing it into the next. “All the ways of a person are clean in his own sight, But the Lord examines the motives. Commit your works to the Lord, and your plans will be established.” Proverbs 16:2-3. Notice the difference? Here it is: “But the Lord examines the motives.” God knows our hearts and He knows why we do what we do, don’t fool yourself, don’t try to fool others, God knows, and rest assured none of us will ever fool Him. God has placed us here on earth to serve Him and to do that well we need to serve other people. Jesus and His life give us a crystal-clear example of that. God Himself, walking in human flesh lived a life serving others more than allowing Himself to be served. He last act of serving others just before surrendering His life to the cross was that of washing the feet of His disciples. We must take time to learn from this. “For I gave you an example, so that you also would do just as I did for you. Truly, truly I say to you, a slave is not greater than his master, nor is one who is sent greater than the one who sent him. If you know these things, you are blessed if you do them.” John 13:15-17. Notice we aren’t blessed by what we know, we are blessed by what we know and do. Everything in life starts in our hearts and when we have dedicated our hearts to the Lord our lives change, and our motives should change as well. We should serve others first, we should be kind, considerate and loving to others on a daily basis. Jesus said this: “I am giving you a new commandment, that you love one another; just as I have loved you, that you also love one another. By this all people will know that you are My disciples: if you have love for one another. "John 13:34-35. If we who say we are Christians want to really change the culture around us, then we need to put these principles to practice every day. We need to commit all our works, everything we do to the Lord and serve as He wants us to serve. When we do, we will be blessed, and the blessings will be given to us by our Lord, and no one can bless us more than He can. “Work willingly at whatever you do, as though you were working for the Lord rather than for people. Remember that the Lord will give you an inheritance as your reward, and that the Master you are serving is Christ.” Colossians 3:23-24. I remember this song from years ago. These words mean much more to me now than ever before and we certainly live in a world that needs to see us live this out daily. Clearly Jesus is teaching us that we must focus more on what is most important and less in what will eventually rust or fade away. Who or what we trust will always shape our priorities. The whole Bible instructs us to trust God above all else and He will provide all we need. When we trust Him for everything, we need to have less stress, less anxiety, and we live happier, healthier and a much more blessed life. None of that has anything to do with our bank accounts, our 401k’s, or the value of our homes. Our real treasure that last forever is where our heart is and Jesus wants us to give Him our hearts and to trust Him daily for everything, period! Nothing on this earth will last forever, let that sink in, absolutely nothing on this earth will last forever, except one thing. Jesus does proclaim that only one thing will last forever and that is where we should daily have our focus. Quite simply we are to lay down our wants and desires at the feet of Jesus and then we are to follow Him, listen to His words, remember His words and then put them into practice. When we place everything into His hands, we will eventually see His hand in everything. Remember, Who or what we trust will always shape our priorities.“If anyone wants to come after Me, he must deny himself, take up his cross, and follow Me. For whoever wants to save his life will lose it; but whoever loses his life for My sake will find it. For what good will it do a person if he gains the whole world, but forfeits his soul?” Matthew 16:24-26. “Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys, and where thieves do not break in or steal; for where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.” Matthew 6:19-21. “Heaven and earth will pass away, but My words will not pass away.”     Matthew 24:35. Jesus says it is written, “Man shall not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes out of the mouth of God.”  Matthew 4:4. Knowing God’s word is not enough alone; Jesus tells us this: “blessed are those who hear the word of God and follow it” Luke 11:28. Trust God and let God be God. Have a blessed day and a wonderful week and remember, follow Him, for He is all we need. The wisest man who ever lived, King Solomon instructed his son, and his words also instruct us as well. Solomon in his wisdom basically said, keep it simple, respect God, honor God and follow His principles, in the end God already knows everything and no matter how hard we try we can’t keep it from Him. Quit sneaking around, live life wide open, full transparency, when we do this our lives will be freer to enjoy, less headaches, heartaches and worries. Living for God and following His principles set us freer than we can imagine. Most of us grow up thinking God is all stuffy, a cosmic killjoy, mainly because organized “religion” has made it that way. When I came to true faith in Jesus Christ I started a whole new life, a life of freedom that I wish I would have started living years ago. I’ll leave you with these words today from the Message version of the Bible, some of my favorites that I often like to recall and remind myself of. Ecclesiastes 12:12-14 “Everything has now been heard. And here’s the final thing I want to say. Have respect for God and obey His commandments. This is what He expects of all human beings. God will judge everything people do. That includes everything they try to hide. He’ll judge everything, whether it’s good or evil.” Matthew 11:28-30. “Are you tired? Worn out? Burned out on religion? Come to me. Get away with me and you’ll recover your life. I’ll show you how to take a real rest. Walk with me and work with me—watch how I do it. Learn the unforced rhythms of grace. I won’t lay anything heavy or ill-fitting on you. Keep company with me and you’ll learn to live freely and lightly.” “When we keep company with Jesus life changes, and it always changes for the better. Have a blessed weekend and set sail with Him. In case you haven’t noticed, life does throw us curveballs every now and then. Jesus warned His disciples and all of us that while we are here on earth we will have troubles, but we are to ask for His help, and He will help us get through our troubles as well. Jesus is always with us. This week as we encounter difficulties, struggles and heartaches, recall these words and put them into practice “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.” Philippians 4:13. “I have told you these things, so that in Me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.” John 16:33. Have a blessed day and always remember Who we are to be following, Jesus, Jesus, Jesus. Remember, Who or what we trust will always shape our priorities. “If anyone wants to come after Me, he must deny himself, take up his cross, and follow Me. For whoever wants to save his life will lose it; but whoever loses his life for My sake will find it. For what good will it do a person if he gains the whole world, but forfeits his soul?” Matthew 16:24-26. “Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys, and where thieves do not break in or steal; for where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.” Matthew 6:19-21. “Heaven and earth will pass away, but My words will not pass away.” Matthew 24:35. Jesus says it is written, “Man shall not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes out of the mouth of God.” Matthew 4:4. Knowing God’s word is not enough alone; Jesus tells us this: “blessed are those who hear the word of God and follow it” Luke 11:28. Trust God and let God be God.

Who Are We Listening To?

What we listen to and what we say often directs our walk-in life. The old saying is very true, garbage in, garbage out. This is one reason I decided a few years ago to limit what and how much I watch TV. For example, the news almost never gets turned on at our house, matter of fact, I don’t remember the last time it was on. The TV never was turned one for one minute yesterday, funny thing is, I  don’t even miss it. I believe that much of the modern culture we see lived out in our lives today can be directly related to what we are watching on our screens, which is not just TV’s, but computers, tablets and our hand-held devices. Garbage in, garbage out! I try to make sure that the first thing I read every morning is something out of the Bible. Today’s verse was this: “The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit, be with you all.” 2 Corinthians 13:14. For sure I’m not going to find that on very many TV channels. Likewise, the radio and what we choose to listen to can affect our lives as well. There are good choices to listen to and then there are many bad choices to listen to as well. Philippians 4:8 addresses this subject well. Follow these words, put them into practice, and watch how your life will change. God wants us to have a positive outlook on life and He wants us to share His positivity and not the worlds negativity. Here is Philippians 4:8 rendered from the Message version. “Summing it all up, friends, I’d say you’ll do best by filling your minds and meditating on things true, noble, reputable, authentic, compelling, gracious—the best, not the worst; the beautiful, not the ugly; things to praise, not things to curse. Put into practice what you learned from me, what you heard, saw, and realized. Do that, and God, who makes everything work together, he will work you into his most excellent harmonies.” “You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hidden; nor do people light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on the lampstand, it gives light to all who are in the house. Your light must shine before people in such a way that they may see your good works and glorify your Father who is in heaven.” Matthew 5:14-16. Keep oil in your lamp, keep it lit and let it shine!

Words

What we say and how we say it often dictates how well we build relationships with other people and how well our life goes. Words are critical and so is our delivery and tone of voice. The same words can be delivered with two different tones of voice and be received in different ways. As for myself, this is something I must be careful with all the time, many of us do. It is very important to remember every day that the people around us need encouragement. People need to be built up, not torn down, and the words we choose, and our delivery of  these words are key to how we build our relationships in life. Colossians 4:6. “Your speech must always be with grace, as though seasoned with salt, so that you will know how you should respond to each person.” NASB. “Be gracious in your speech. The goal is to bring out the best in others in a conversation, not put them down, not cut them out.” Message version. Ephesians 4:29. “Let no unwholesome   word come out of your mouth, but if there is any good word for edification according to the need of the moment, say that, so that it will give grace to those who hear.” NASB. “When you talk, do not say harmful things, but say what people need—words that will help others become stronger. Then what you say will do good to those who listen to you.” NCV. Proverbs 18:21. “Death and life are in the power of the tongue, and those who love it will eat its fruit.” NASB. “Words kill, words give life; they’re either poison or fruit—you choose.” MSG

Running to Win

Lack of faith, unbelief and doubt are no doubt the sins that so easily entangle us that so often keep us from the perfect plan that God has so masterfully designed for each of us. The word tells us that we are to endure our race here on earth with great faith and that we are to keep our eyes and our focus on Jesus  who is the perfecter of our faith. God has a plan and a purpose for all of us. Believe that to be true, stay focused on Jesus with enduring faith, stop doubting and believe because Jesus is all we need. The word tells us we can do all things through Him. “Therefore, since we also have such a great cloud of witnesses surrounding us, let’s rid ourselves of every obstacle and the sin which so easily entangles us, and let’s run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking only at Jesus, the originator and perfecter of the faith, who for the joy set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. For consider Him who has endured such hostility by sinners against Himself, so that you will not grow weary and lose heart.” Hebrews 12:1-3. Anytime scripture starts off with the word, “therefore,” we need to go back and see what was just taught. Hebrews 11 starts off like this: “Now faith is the certainty of things hoped for, proof of things not seen. For by it the people of old gained approval.” Hebrew 11:1-2. Hebrews 11 talks about faith, and the strong descendants of our faith who overcame so much to accomplish wonderful things through the power of God of which they had strong faith in. It would do us all good to read chapter 11 thoroughly so that we can grasp the amazing truths of Chapter 12. “For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord,  “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future. Then you will call on me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you. You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart. You will find me,” declares the Lord.” Jeremiah 29:11-14. Lord, help me and help all of us who believe in your name to keep our eyes focused on you. Remind us that Peter walked on the water when he kept his eyes on you, he only sank when he looked at the seas around him. In the same way, every day reminds us, helps us to keep our eyes on you and not our circumstances. Help us grow our faith daily, help us conquer our unbelief, help us not doubt but believe, because with you all things are possible. Thank you for your glorious and never-ending words of truth and encouragement. Help us live out your words and your principles in our lives so that we can accomplish all that you have planned for us. Lord, I’m seeking you with all my heart and I trust that I will find you at the end of everything I do. Thank you, Lord, for never giving up on us and thank you for your faithfulness to see us through, in Jesus name, amen and amen.