Some Things May Change

Vol 3 No 25 THEO'S DEVOS

Proverbs 21:2 People may think they are doing what is right, but the LORD examines the heart.
1 Samuel 16:7 But the LORD said to Samuel, “Do not consider his appearance or his height, for I have rejected him. The LORD does not look at the things man looks at. Man looks at the outward appearance, but the LORD looks at the heart.

We have noted, over the last couple weeks, that some things must never change and some things must change. We have come to this week to note that some things may change. This is where some of the trouble occurs in our lives and in the church. They say that variety is the spice of life. I believe that and I also believe that if nothing changes in our lives we can become bored and restless. I used to think that change for the sake of change was not good. I no longer hold that position. I honestly believe that change is not only important, but essential. If nothing has changed for a while it is a good idea to look for something to do differently if only to keep your life from getting monotonous.
A very helpful activity was introduced to me many years ago and it has proven to be very beneficial. On each of my birthdays, I have searched for some activity that I had never done before and dedicated the next year to it. I have learned to play several musical instruments, taken up ballooning among many others which enhanced both my life and my ministry. Did you ever notice that the Bible doesn't specify what every Christian should do? God has given us all a gift but He has never said exactly how we were to use it. Over a lifetime there could be many applications of the spiritual gifts God gave you and, if you use them for His glory, they are all profitable. If you want to be a missionary, for instance, it doesn't matter where you go as long as you exercise your gifts when you get there.. Some may have solid reasons for doing what they are doing and others are doing what they love doing but each will be in the center of God's will if you are applying biblical principals to those activities.
What are you doing these days? Is it fulfilling? Is it accomplishing God's will for your life? Unless you can answer 'yes' you probably ought to be thinking about a change in your life.
Following God is to 'be' not simply to 'do.' We are human beings, not human doings. If you are sincerely following the will of God in your life in terms of what you are on the inside, you can do whatever you want on the outside and it will glorify God. In His sovereignty, God will use your efforts to accomplish His will and goals and you will have had a part in that.
God looks on the heart while man looks on the outside.

Theo



Dear Small Group Leader (or soon to be Facilitator)

Please allow everyone in your group to answer the Quick Question. It will get things started on the right foot, encouraging quieter ones to open up. Please do not require everyone to answer every question. They may not be ready to share yet. Also please allow at least 5-10 minutes at the end of your study so as many as would like to can respond to the REFLECTION question. This may be the most important time in your small group study. Thank You


SMALL GROUP BIBLE STUDY


Please Read: 1 Samuel 16:1-13

QUICK QUESTION: Was there ever a time when you were singled out for some honor no matter how small? How did you feel?

1.When God looked for Samuel, what was he (Sam) doing?

2.Why did Samuel think that Eliab might be the chosen one?

3.What was God's response?

4.What does God concern Himself with?

5.Why did Samuel go over each son?

6.When considering leadership, what should we look for in those leaders?


REFLECTION: Is there someone in you life about whom you have been influenced by their outer appearance and should you re-evaluate how you feel about them now?

Some Things Must Change

Vol 3 No 24 THEO'S DEVOS

Luke 2:52 And Jesus increased in wisdom and stature, and in favor with God and man.

While it is true that some things must never change it is also true that some things must change. Someone has said that God loves you just the way you are, but loves you too much to let you stay that way. Who among us would say that we have no area for improvement? In our lives, work, church, et al. Even Jesus, we are told, grew and, as hard as it is to imagine, He changed as He grew. All living things change. It can be said that just about all dead things change as well due to deterioration so we know that virtually all things change.

So what has changed in you over the past year? Are you more loving? More intelligent? I remember going to an ordination council where the son of a very famous church leader was seeking approval for ordination. The person who was recommending him began by telling us that it had been several years since this man had attended a seminary so we should not expect him to be as sharp as most candidates. I thought to myself, what a cop out. Ate we to think that after we graduate from school we begin getting dumber? Well I suppose some do but if you are seeking ordination, it would seem that you would be staying on top of your game and not ignoring those things that you have learned. Now maybe an exception could have been made concerning Greek or Hebrew considering that he may not have stayed up on those subjects but they are rare;u, if ever, covered in the councils I have sat on. So it would appear that we can't stop change, we can only decide what kind of change will there be,

One huge problem in the church is that many are trying to minister to people in ways that are very outdated. As our culture changes, we must decide what we can do to minister to it without violating Biblical principles. To say that changing the way we do things to reach the world is capitulating with it is to miss the point. When God wanted to reach His creation and save it, He became a man. I doubt that there has ever been a change as dramatic as that. He did it without sin. He loved the sinner enough to become like him without sinning which He hates. When they put Jesus on the cross we are told that He became sin for us. He took on the sin of the world and paid for it with His sacrifice so that we, sinners, would not have to.

Please don't be afraid of change even if you don't like it. Change is going to happen whether we like it or not so we need to orchestrate that change in such a way as to be more effective for the Lord, not less. Instead of getting worse at what we do, we must get better. As iron sharpens iron, we need to challenge each other to better ways of serving God. Especially in these difficult times when the government seems to be heading in who knows what direction, we need to keep our target sharply in focus and continue to work at improving the way we fire at it.

Theo

Dear Small Group Leader (or soon to be Facilitator)

Please allow everyone in your group to answer the Quick Question. It will get things started on the right foot, encouraging quieter ones to open up. Please do not require everyone to answer every question. They may not be ready to share yet. Also please allow at least 5-10 minutes at the end of your study so as many as would like to can respond to the REFLECTION question. This may be the most important time in your small group study. Thank You

SMALL GROUP BIBLE STUDY

Please Read: Luke 2:52 And Jesus increased in wisdom and stature, and in favor with God and man.

QUICK QUESTION: In what way have you grown in the last year? Was it good growth or bad?

1. What is the definition of wisdom?
   
   

2. What is the definition of stature in this verse?
   
   

3. How could Jesus, being God in flesh, change?
   
   

4. How could He have grown in favor with God?
   
   

5. How could He have grown in favor with man?
   
   

6. How could Jesus have grown in favor with man and end up crucified?

REFLECTION: What can you do this coming month to follow Jesus' example?

Some Things Must Never Change

Vol 3 No 23 THEO'S DEVOS

Jude 1:3 Beloved, while I was very diligent to write to you concerning our common salvation, I found it necessary to write to you exhorting you to contend earnestly for the faith which was once for all delivered to the saints.

Leadership can be a difficult thing. This is made more difficult due to the fact that everyone of us is a leader. You don't think so? Well every morning, when you start your day, you must take the lead. You must decide so many things as you proceed through the day that one thing is quite clear, if nothing else, you are leading your life. Even if you turn over the leadership to someone else, there are still many times when the decision as to what you should do falls into your hands. Our thought for today is that, no matter what form of leadership you have, some things must never change.

In the church this phrase has led to all kinds of trouble which we will look at over the next couple weeks. It feels good to think that things don't change. The problem is that our subject tells us that some things don't change, not all things. Jude makes it clear that the foundation of our faith is not something that has evolved through the years. The content of our faith was 'once for all' delivered and has not changed since the apostles spelled it out. There are many who would distort our faith but the clear teaching of scripture lays out the things we should believe. It allows for differences in many ways but the foundations are strong. Among them is that salvation comes through the shed blood of Jesus and does not include human merit as many believe in this world. That the Bible is the Word of God and that Jesus is coming again are two more verities that have not changed.

The problem is that there are not as many things that must not change as we think. However, it is necessary to search through our lives and make sure that, as we grow in the Lord, we are not allowing things to slip and our lives to turn back to the kind of life we led before becoming Christians. It is easy to do. Just don't give much thought to it and you will find yourself allowing for all kinds of things to crowd out your devotion to Jesus. Things like not reading your Bible or not praying as often as you can.

An interesting discussion at any point in leadership is to try and discover those things that must never change. You might be surprised, as you study scripture, how few those things are. In any event, I suggest that you take inventory of your life and mark out the things you think should never change. Be careful to not allow human tradition to dictate what those things are.

May God bless you as you take stock of that life you are living this week.

Theo

Dear Small Group Leader (or soon to be Facilitator)

Please allow everyone in your group to answer the Quick Question. It will get things started on the right foot, encouraging quieter ones to open up. Please do not require everyone to answer every question. They may not be ready to share yet. Also please allow at least 5-10 minutes at the end of your study so as many as would like to can respond to the REFLECTION question. This may be the most important time in your small group study. Thank You

SMALL GROUP BIBLE STUDY

Please Read: Jude 1-16

QUICK QUESTION: If you could live your life over again, what is one thing you would change?

1. How does Jude describe himself?
   
   

2. What does Jude mean by godless?
   
   

3. What relationship do godless people have with God's will?
   
   

4. What does Jude want his readers to remember about history?
   
   

5. To what does the writer liken godless people and why?
   
   

6. What can we learn from history?
   
   

7. What kind of things have happened in your life that have helped you get better at living it?

REFLECTION: What can you do to keep from repeating the mistakes of your own personal history?

Your Spiritual GPS

Vol 3 No 22 THEO'S DEVOS

Psalm 48:14 For this God is our God for ever and ever;

he will be our guide even to the end

The US Census Bureau just told me that they want me to work for them in the next phase of the census. They said that I had done a good job and they want me to stay with them. Now in order to do that good job I had a very valuable helper. I have a GPS for my car. This device allows me to find any address anywhere and find the quickest route. By having this I am able to quickly find the addresses I have to map. I can get more done than someone just using a map. However, two days ago it developed a problem. I turned it on and it could not acquire the satellite. Without being able to contact the satellite circling the earth it is rendered useless. Everything else works fine and the thing does all kinds of extra stuff.

The problem is that I didn't buy the GPS to play music or look at pictures or convert currency. I bought it for one reason: to locate addresses. Since it cannot do that right now, it has to be sent back and replaced. I have no idea why it can't acquire a satellite. If you were to look at it, you would say that it looks OK. All the controls work but something inside does not function properly and it has been cut off from the source of its purpose.

Our verse today tells us that, spiritually we, as Christians have a built in GPS that leads us through life. God guides us and He is there for ever and ever. So, if that is true, and it is, why do we get off track and end up places that we know God does not want us to be. The answer is to know how this spiritual GPS works. What is it that connects us to the source of our guidance?

There are two parts to this answer. First is God's Word. Without access to His book we cut ourselves off from the map that we need to walk the path God desires for us. We need to read and study the map. My GPS does that first of all. It loads the right maps so it can find the locations that I ask it for. Without those maps I is useless. But my GPS does that, or at least it tells me that it loads them. So what else could be wrong? That is the second thing: prayer. Prayer, talking to God when He is not physically present, is the connection that plugs us into the source of our guidance. If we do not pray, we cut ourselves off from the pipeline that delivers the information to us. When we pray, God can bring the concepts of scripture, the truth that He wants us to know, so that it can lead and guide us into making the right decisions that will take us along the proper path in life.

Many Christians seem to think that everything will go right without having any contact with the Bible and without praying. This is a critical mistake. The only way that God can lead you if that is your plan, is to let you make mistake upon mistake and learn the hard way. But even if that is the path you take, you still cannot get going in the right direction without reading scripture and praying. The mistakes will just pile up and after years of living like that, you may find that there is no way to accomplish all that God had in store for you. It is very important that you begin to connect to your spiritual source as quickly as you can. Begin reading your Bible and praying to your Father so that your spiritual GPS will function properly. If you do, you will discover that life is not as difficult as it has seemed to be. This is not to promise that life will be smooth with no bumps but it is to say that it can be smoother than it has been.

May God bless you as you keep in touch with Him. I am praying for you.

Theo

Dear Small Group Leader (or soon to be Facilitator)

Please allow everyone in your group to answer the Quick Question. It will get things started on the right foot, encouraging quieter ones to open up. Please do not require everyone to answer every question. They may not be ready to share yet. Also please allow at least 5-10 minutes at the end of your study so as many as would like to can respond to the REFLECTION question. This may be the most important time in your small group study. Thank You

SMALL GROUP BIBLE STUDY

Please Read: Psalm 48

QUICK QUESTION: Do you have protection for your house and, if so, what kind? Does it make you feel safe?

1. What is this writer primarily trying to say?
   
   

2. What causes God's people to give thanks to God?
   
   

3. What is so important about the city of Zion?
   
   

4. How does the Paalm end?
   
   

5. What does this Psalm tell you about God's power?
   
   

6. Why does the phrase, “God has no grandchildren” ring true?

REFLECTION: For what would you like to praise God this week?

Rest for the Weary

Vol 3 No 21 THEO'S DEVOS

Psalm 23:2-3a He lets me rest in green meadows;

he leads me beside peaceful streams.

³ He renews my strength.

As I travel the back roads of Oregon I notice something very interesting. This state has plenty of water and grass, the two things most necessary for the raising of sheep. And that explains why there are so many sheep here. Flocks and flocks of sheep, along with so many other forms of animal. It makes my job almost fun Notice that in our verse for today we see God letting us rest in green meadows. In other words we have all that we need for our souls. So much so that we can rest without having to struggle for that nourishment. We also are led beside peaceful streams. I must say that I have seen more of them since coming to Oregon than I have seen in my whole life and I have traveled throughout Central and South America as well as most of Europe. That is not to say that those places do not have these things, it is just that Oregon seems to have more of them throughout the state. In thinking of these verses even today, Oregon gave me mental pictures of just what the psalmist was describing.

In a spiritual sense this is what God offers us. A quiet nourishment for our inner person. Our souls can have the rest that it needs if we simply, by faith, appropriate it. The Bible promises us these things but we need to activate our faith if we want to benefit from them. They do not come naturally. The natural man is restless. He, or she, will always struggle with life. Life is hard. We know that. Life does not get easier as we mature. In fact life can get more and more difficult as we go along but the rest we need is always right there for us when we need it.

So how do we appropriate this rest? Is it though prayer? Do we simple ask God and He gives it? Is it something that we thinks about, meditate on, and it is available? Well prayer is a great help but it is not the final answer unless it must be because we do not have access to the tool we really need. The real answer is the Word of God. It is the Bible that gives us the rest we need. The living words therein, coupled with prayer to God our Father, is the solution to the rest problem. God can speak to your inner spirit though His word; He can touch you deep inside where no one else can reach. By believing the things that God tells us in His book, we can relax and know that He is in control no matter what our outer circumstances are and we can rest in Him.

We have direct access to the God of all creation through His word the Bible. His power resides there and can be poured into your soul by reading its words. When you open your Bible, you open the mouth of God. He will speak to you through its pages and He will give you the rest you desperately need by simply reading it. If you then go so far as to dig into it and study it, there is no telling what will happen. It has inspired many men and women to bring about great change in our world by studying the Bible. Just by reading Theo's 'Devos each week will bring thoughts to your mind that will aid in your spiritual growth and bring you closer to the rest He wants you to have.

I have seen hundreds of sheep over the last few weeks resting in the pastures of Oregon. I can only wish that more Christians would find that kind of rest for there own lives in the turbulent pastures where they live.

May God bless you this week.

Theo

Dear Small Group Leader (or soon to be Facilitator)

Please allow everyone in your group to answer the Quick Question. It will get things started on the right foot, encouraging quieter ones to open up. Please do not require everyone to answer every question. They may not be ready to share yet. Also please allow at least 5-10 minutes at the end of your study so as many as would like to can respond to the REFLECTION question. This may be the most important time in your small group study. Thank You

SMALL GROUP BIBLE STUDY

Please Read: Psalm 23

QUICK QUESTION: When is it most difficult for you to rest?

1. List the nouns used in this Psalm.
   
   

2. List the adjectives.
   
   

3. List the verbs.
   
   

4. Discuss the reason why those parts of speech are used. How do they impact the meaning of the Psalm?

REFLECTION: How can the group best pray for your peace and rest this week?

Sheep and the Shepherd

Vol 3 No 20 THEO'S DEVOS

John 10:11 I am the good shepherd: the good shepherd giveth his life for the sheep.

Rev 5:12 Saying with a loud voice, Worthy is the Lamb that was slain to receive power, and riches, and wisdom, and strength, and honor, and glory, and blessing.

I have been working for the US Census Bureau for the last couple of weeks and have been driving all over this section of Oregon. It is interesting work and I meet lots of interesting people. I also see lots of cool animal like turkeys, deer, buffalo, horses, llamas, alpacas, and sheep, thousands of sheep. They are so cute, especially the new born ones. I really like sheep and think of the scriptures that calls us sheep quite often. So I guess we can consider ourselves cute and stupid. Now I could go into proving that by giving an analysis of sheep but that has been done so many times I think I will pass.

What I am more interested in is Jesus. These are devotionals you know. One of the things that I find interesting about Jesus in His inscrutability. Our verses today says that He is the Shepherd and the Lamb. Now how does that work? How can Jesus be the shepherd and the sheep? Well it is just like Him isn;t it. I mean He is the Lion of Judah and the Lamb of God. He is the beginning and the end. He is all man and all God. He was before the beginning and is, already, at the end. How can that be? It can be because of two important facts. One, He is God. And, two, we are not. We are finite and He is infinite.

I mention that because I find it fascinating when I hear prople trying to figure out Jesus. They seem to only be able to grasp things about Him that they can understand. If we could it would mean only one thing. Our God is too small. If you ever get the chance, read the book, Your God Is Too Small by J B Phillips. I have read that little book three times and always am greatly blessed by it. It has helped me to understand that not grasping all there is about God and scripture is a good thing. I don't want a God who is so small that I can understand Him. There are doctrines that I believe but cannot fully understand. That is OK with me now. When I was younger it bothered me but as I matured I understood that I could trust God. I could trust Him with my life and my eternity.

When you get to the point where you do not have to have a complete explanation for everything about God, your life will relax a lot. You won't find yourself wrestling with the things taught in scripture and you will find yourself arguing less with other Christians about what you should or should not, believe. We must contend for the faith, I know, but we do not need to be contentious while doing it.

Go see some sheep sometime soon. You will find them very cute. They will look like you. Lol.

Theo

Dear Small Group Leader (or soon to be Facilitator)

Please allow everyone in your group to answer the Quick Question. It will get things started on the right foot, encouraging quieter ones to open up. Please do not require everyone to answer every question. They may not be ready to share yet. Also please allow at least 5-10 minutes at the end of your study so as many as would like to can respond to the REFLECTION question. This may be the most important time in your small group study. Thank You

SMALL GROUP BIBLE STUDY

Please Read: John 10:1-10

QUICK QUESTION: What is your impression of sheep? If you were God would you have used sheep as a description for humans? Why or why not?

1. If they could think, what would sheep think about their shepherd?
   
   

2. When Jesus spoke, how did He impress those He spoke to?
   
   

3. To what did Jesus liken Himself to?
   
   

4. Who would the sheep not listen to?
   
   

5. How did Jesus relate His coming to a thief?
   
   

6. How is Jesus like a shepherd?
   
   

REFLECTION: How could you become better at listening for Jesus' direction in your life?

The Essence of Love

Vol 3 No 19 THEO'S DEVOS

John 3:16-17

¹⁶“For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life. ¹⁷God did not send his Son into the world to condemn it, but to save it.

John 3:16 is arguably the most well known verse in all of the Bible. I have used it first because no matter how often I have read it, it never grows old. The thoughts behind this verse are priceless and timeless.

As I thought about this verse today I could not help but notice some interesting characteristics about the essence of love in them.

1. You are greatly loved. I know that the verse says that God so loved the world but that is a hard concept to grasp. Also, is an interesting verse in that you can read the entire Old Testament and not discover the fact that God loves the 'whole' world. The Old Testament lets us know that God loved His chosen people but there isn't a hint that He loved the whole world. Aside from the Jewish nation God had some nasty things to say about the gentiles. You read Matthew and we don't find that God loves the whole world. You can read Mark and Luke and hear nothing about God loving the whole world. The first two chapters of John do not mention it. It isn't until you come to John 3:16 that you discover that God, in fact, loves the world.
   That is well and good but the major thing to notice is that He loves you. You are a key part of this 'world' that He loves. He reaches out to you. He desires to keep you safe and no matter what happens He will always love you.

2. The essence of love is to give. 'He gave...' When you love someone, you want to give them something. Affection, attention, etc. And God didn't just give us a mere gift, He gave us the gift of His Son. There was no better gift that He could have given us because in that gift came eternal life and the ability to be with God forever. So giving is the essence of love as God sees it and that is a timeless truth we can hold onto.

3. Love never dies. When love is true it never dies. It is eternal. We often mistake 'like' with love. Like comes and goes. We, sometimes think we love someone or something but time reveals that we merely liked that person or thing and then our feelings change and we find other things to like. But love is not a feeling. It is a commitment. True love is not threatened by time and circumstance. I often wonder how many people have ever really experienced true love. How many people have established relationships with people that they liked a whole lot at some point but have to admit that the reality was not true love.
   God does not have that problem so frequent in human relationships. He loved us from eternity past and His love will extend into eternity future

You are greatly loved and that love will never die. It will grow throughout time and eternity. You are safe with Him and He will never let you down. We may fail Him but His great love will overcome our inadequacies and will draw us to Him. May God bless you today.

Friendship is like the breeze,
You can't hold it,
Smell it,
Taste it,
Or know when it's coming,
But you can always feel it,
And you'll always know it's there,
It may come and then go,
But you can know it'll always be back.

- Terri Fanning -

Theo

Dear Small Group Leader (or soon to be Facilitator)

Please allow everyone in your group to answer the Quick Question. It will get things started on the right foot, encouraging quieter ones to open up. Please do not require everyone to answer every question. They may not be ready to share yet. Also please allow at least 5-10 minutes at the end of your study so as many as would like to can respond to the REFLECTION question. This may be the most important time in your small group study. Thank You

SMALL GROUP BIBLE STUDY

Please Read:

QUICK QUESTION: If you could go back and start over, would you or wouldn't you and why?

1. What is required in order to be saved?
   
   

2. What is the result of the belief stated here?
   
   

3. What did God do to show the world His love?
   
   

4. Why did Jesus enter our world?
   
   

5. Exactly what does John say here that you must do to be saved? Search the book of John to see if there are any other requirements (no other book, just John).

REFLECTION: What can you and/or your group do this week to show your love and gratefulness to God?