Archive | October 2025

The Seven Churches in Revelation (Part 4)

Oct29

By Eric Sponheim

THYATIRA

Rev 2:18-29

“And to the angel of the church in Thyatira write:  The Son of God, who has eyes like a flame of fire, and His feet are like burnished bronze, says this:  I know your deeds, and your love and faith and service and perseverance, and that your deeds of late are greater than at first.  But I have this against you, that you tolerate the woman Jezebel, who calls herself a prophetess, and she teaches and leads My bond-servants astray so that they commit acts of immorality and eat things sacrificed to idols.  I gave her time to repent, and she does not want to repent of her immorality.  Behold I will throw her on a bed of sickness, and those who commit adultery with her into great tribulation, unless they repent of her deeds.  And I will kill her children with pestilence, and all the churches will know that I am He who searches the minds and hearts; and I will give to each one of you according to your deeds.  But I say to you, the rest who are Thyatira, who do not hold this teaching, who have not known the deep things of Satan, as they call them – I place no other burden on you.  Nevertheless what you have, hold fast until I come.  He who overcomes, and he who keeps My deeds until the end, TO HIM I WILL GIVE AUTHORITY OVER THE NATIONS; AND HE SHALL RULE THEM WITH A ROD OF IRON, AS THE VESSELS OF THE POTTER ARE BROKEN TO PIECES, as I also have received authority from My Father; and I will give him the Morningstar.  He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.”

The church of Thyatira was growing in their walk with God.  It was a church that was seeking to live out the love of Christ among themselves, and in their community; and they were succeeding.  They weren’t giving in to complacency, or deciding it was “good enough” and they didn’t need to put in any more effort.  This was a church that was seeking to be “sold out” to God.  But in spite of all of that, they were careless, they were allowing false teaching into the church.  In their desire to love others they were tolerating this sin. 

In their “loving tolerance” they were allowing some in their church body to be led astray by a false teaching that said it was okay to be a Christian and still live a life of sin.  They were allowing the promotion of the idea that God loves you as you are and expects nothing of you.  It was okay to continue to live in your twisted self-destructive ways of living and thinking.  He loves you so much that He doesn’t care what you do. 

They were misguided in their understanding of loving one another, somehow confronting a lie was unloving.  While they would stand for the Truth in the face of opposition from the world, they wouldn’t stand up for the Truth when it was someone who claimed to be part of the church.  They would take the abuse, if needed, but they wouldn’t confront when necessary.  They took “they will know we are Christians by our love” where it wasn’t intended to go.

Some people think that the gospel needs to be made palatable for people to be willing to accept Jesus; the gospel needs to be easy, otherwise people won’t be interested.  They are only thinking about making converts, but converts to what?  To a deluded idea that they are going to heaven and they can continue to live in sin?  What’s sad is the people propagating this lie, possibly started out with good intentions, but they ended up leading people away from God.

The world likes to promote the idea that if we love people we will let them do whatever they want.  If we love them we will let them believe a lie, even if it hurts them.  They think that love is telling everyone they are okay just the way they are, or how they think they are.  They claim it is “hate” to tell someone what they are doing is wrong.  They hate God’s standards, thus what God calls sin they call good, and what God calls right, they call evil. 

There are portions of the church that have bought into this lie, that to love someone is to tell them it doesn’t matter how you live your life, God loves you, and He’s okay with you doing whatever you want.  There are segments of the church that want to be accepted by the world, so they have adjusted their message so that those of the world will embrace them.

We start our walk with God, but without realizing it, we can begin to stray from God’s instruction.  We are usually too confident in our own ability to not be “deceived,” we understand the “truth”, so we do not notice when we start to believe little bits of error, along with the truth.  Believing those little bits of error can start to lead us, and others, away from God.  The little bit of error is usually the denial of some aspect of who God is; attributing to God something that He isn’t or overemphasizing some aspect of God at the expense of His other attributes.  We can all have little bits of error in our understanding of God.  Are we willing to admit that we don’t have a complete understanding of God?  If we can admit that we don’t have a corner on the complete understanding of God, we are much less likely to go off track.

We need to overcome tolerance “in the name of love.”  Allowing sin to fester and be promoted is not showing love to anyone.  We need to understand that love and tolerance are not the same things.  Sometimes love has to take a hard stand.  No where in Scripture does it say that sin in the church is to be tolerated.  Tolerance is nothing more than silent approval of sinful behavior. 

Nutshell – We need to overcome tolerance “in the name of love.”  Allowing sin to fester and be promoted is not showing love to anyone.

Reporting The Truth

Oct24

What alternative career paths have you considered or are interested in?

I wanted to be a journalist when I was a teenager. I had ideas of going to journalism school and writing/reporting the news; informing people about the truth in situations and events. However, at the age of seventeen, I turned sour on the prospect of becoming a journalist. I saw how “journalists” would hound people for a headline, making whatever the story was (if there even was a story) about themselves, not about the people who were involved. I would see them “camp out” at people’s homes or places of work – just like the paparazzi has done with celebrities, but these “journalists” were treating everyday people this way. It’s not “ok” to hound anyone for a byline, a headline, or a picture. There was no decency, respect, or integrity towards a fellow human who may have been going through something extraordinary (good or bad). I didn’t want to be like that. As a teenager, I reasoned that I didn’t want to fall into the trap of being a “starving journalist” and do anything for a story.

Did I ever regret my decision at such a young age? Nope, not once. I still like to write (obviously 😏), but now, as a Christian, I write because it’s a calling from God. I think that I still have the same type of goal I did as a teenager – I want to inform people about the truth, and His name is Jesus Christ. (John 14:6)

The Seven Churches in Revelation (Part 3)

Oct24

By Eric Sponheim

PERGAMUM

Rev 2:12-17

“And to the angel of the church in Pergamum write:  The One who has the sharp two-edged sword says this:  I know where you dwell, where Satan’s throne is; and you hold fast My name, and did not deny My faith even in the days of Antipas, My witness, My faithful one, who was killed among you, where Satan dwells.  But I have a few things against you, because you have there some who hold the teaching of Balaam, who kept teaching Balak to put a stumbling block before the sons of Israel, to eat things sacrificed to idols and to commit acts of immorality.  So you also have some who in the same way hold the teaching of the Nicolaitans.  Therefore repent; or else I am coming to you quickly, and I will make war against them with the sword of My mouth.  He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.  To him who overcomes, to him I will give some of the hidden manna, and I will give him a white stone, and a new name written on the stone which no one knows but he who receives it.”

The church in Pergamum was willing to stand in the face of persecution from those who hated them, and Jesus.  They were in a place where it was challenging to be a Christian, but they didn’t shrink back or run in the face of opposition.  They were willing to risk their lives for the name of Jesus.  That is many, but not all, were willing to risk their lives for the name of Jesus.  For some had allowed sin to creep into their lives.  They had bought into a lie, because it sounded good.

The apostles, in Acts 15:19-20, said that Gentile believers should abstain from things contaminated by idols, sexual immorality, and from eating animals that had been strangled and from eating blood.  For some reason, some within the church decided to believe the lie saying it was “okay” to eat food sacrificed to idols and to be sexually immoral.  It would have made life easier, in a society where much of the food was sacrificed to idols and sexual immorality was the norm.       

Let’s be honest, we often do not like trials and persecution.  It is challenging and wearing.  We would like an easier path if at all possible.  The teachings of Balaam and Nicolas provided an easier path.  It was easier to fit in and be accepted by the community when you were doing what everyone else was doing. 

Some in Pergamum were succumbing to the pressure of the persecution and were looking for a way for it to end.  The problem with their solution was it made a mockery of God.  Somehow, they bought in to the lie that you could live a sinful life and still have a relationship with God.  Somehow the word “repent” had lost it’s meaning, it no longer meant “to turn from one’s sins.” 

The idea that “God loves me no matter what I do” had been twisted.  Love no longer meant love, love now meant that there would be no consequences for their actions.  Since God loves us, we can do whatever we want, it’s okay.  So, it’s okay to be like everyone else, all you have to do is say that you believe Jesus was your Savior.  Jesus is the “magic” word.  So, somewhere the idea that they were to be holy, like God; that they were to be set apart, disappeared. 

Basically, you had a church with a split personality.  Some were choosing to be faithful to God, despite the cost.  But others were looking for the easy way, they still wanted to be a Christian, but they didn’t want the cost associated with being a believer.  This church was experiencing a separating of the sheep and the goats.  Jesus was providing a warning to those who were heading to the goat pen.  

Most people don’t care if you say you believe in Jesus as your Savior.  The problems arise when you begin to live your life with Jesus as your Lord.  This challenges and offends them, even if you say nothing to them.  They are insulted when you no longer live the way they do, suddenly you have become “too good” for them.   As a result, they will do what they can to get you to go back to your old way of living. 

Much of the world is on the highway to hell, and they really do not care.  They want to live their life on their terms and do not want to answer to anyone for it.  They have no problem making life as difficult as possible for those who are seeking to spend eternity in heaven. 

We need to overcome wrong thinking and behavior.  Don’t be swayed by what tickles the ear and makes life “easier.”  Even today we need to be careful to not look for the easy, comfortable, way.  If we choose to compromise and live by the standards of the world we will become a goat.

There is a lot of teaching in the church today that can tickle our ears.  There is a lot of Bible teaching out there teaching us how we can have a better life.  It sounds good, and it contains truth, but unfortunately it also contains a lie.  The biggest problem is it centers around you.  God is no longer the center of it all.  The first lie is that it makes you out to be more important than you are.  Secondly, it makes God out to be less than who He is. 

Many are willing to sacrifice their holiness for their comfortableness.  But God is much more concerned with our holiness than with our being comfortable.

Nutshell – We need to overcome wrong thinking and behavior.  Don’t be swayed by what tickles the ear and makes life “easier.”

The Seven Churches In Revelation (Part 2)

Oct22

By Eric Sponheim

SMYRNA

Rev 2: 8-11

“And to the angel of the church in Smyrna write:  The first and last, who was dead and has come to life, says this:  I know your tribulation and your poverty (but you are rich), and the blasphemy by those who say they are Jews and are not, but are a synagogue of Satan.  Do not fear what you are about to suffer.  Behold, the devil is about to cast some of you into prison, so that you will be tested, and you will have tribulation for ten days.  Be faithful until death, and I will give you the crown of life.  He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.  He who overcomes will not be hurt by the second death.”

The church in Smyrna had to deal with hardship and struggle every day.  They were despised and looked down upon.  If you valued your life on this earth, becoming a Christian in Smyrna would not be the way to go.  It was very difficult to be a Christian and live there.

Jesus acknowledges their suffering, but instead of telling them their breakthrough is coming, He tells them there is more suffering on the way.  Basically, He tells them that you have been suffering for me, and it will continue; in fact, it is going to get worse.

Who wants to hear this?  We often start to whine and complain when we have hardships.  We are always looking for our breakthrough, wondering when this life will get easier.  When we go through the hard times we have a choice; either draw close to God or turn away from Him.

What do we fear about going through testing and tribulation?  Is it fear of death or a fear of losing our possessions?  Is it the fear of not having any friends and being made fun of?  Is it the fear of losing your home and having no place to live, or maybe no food to eat?  Or is it the fear of having to put up with inconveniences and not being able to have the comfortable life one is used to?  Is it a fear of being tortured and being in pain?  Is it a fear of not having a retirement account and having to work in your later years?  Is it a fear of your family abandoning you? 

What happens if the trials never stop, like in Smyrna? 

The reality is that any of these things could happen.  We need to consider the costs and decide if the potential costs of following Jesus are worth it.  No one can make that choice for you, you must make that decision yourself. 

We also need to count the cost of allowing fear to dictate our decisions. When we allow fear to run our life, we are not honoring God.  When we change our mind out of fear, it does not honor Him.  When we allow fear to influence our decisions, we are not trusting God.  When we allow anything other than faith in God to influence our decisions, it does not honor Him.

One of the problems is that we tend to have a temporary perspective.  It’s all about this life.  We have trouble comprehending the reality of eternity.  We do not understand, and value, the rewards that come as a result of overcoming the trials that we have to endure.

We need to overcome fear associated with the testing and tribulation because of our faith.  Do not give up and give in at the end.  We need to decide what is more important to us, this temporary life, or eternity.  In John 12:25, Jesus says “He who loves this life will lose it, and he who hates his life in this world will keep it to eternal life.”  If we claim to be His, we need to be willing to endure inconvenience, challenge, trial, hardship, torture, and death for the sake of our eternal relationship with God.

Nutshell: We need to overcome fear associated with the testing and tribulation because of our faith.  Do not give up and give in at the end.

The Seven Churches in Revelation

Oct20

By Eric Sponheim

Note from Sharon: My husband, Eric, studied and wrote this paper while taking a theology class. I wanted to share this with you, because I believe there is a lot of good information that as Christians, we should pay attention to. I will be posting about each church every few days until we go through all seven churches. Thank you.

INTRODUCTION

Chapters two and three in Revelation consist of the letters written to the seven churches.  While each letter addresses the condition of a specific geographical church, the warnings, encouragement, and promise given is for all of the body of Christ; as each letter states that anyone who has an “ear to hear” should “listen to what the Spirit is saying to the churches.”  We are encouraged to listen to what is being said to ALL the churches, not just one; and not just the ones that sound good to us. 

At the end of each letter a promise is also given to those who overcome.  Each promise was different, but in each case the promise would only be given to those who overcame.  In these seven letters there are seven promises given to the church, but that also means there are seven things that we, the church, need to overcome.

What does it mean to overcome?  The Greek word (νικάω) used in all seven letters means to conquer.  It also means to triumph, subdue, overpower, or prevail.  No matter which word one chooses to use, it denotes a victory over something; but not without effort.  To overcome requires us to struggle with, to wrestle against, to fight against something.  Overcome is an action verb, it does not happen when one sits by idly, hoping it will happen; you have to put in the effort. 

To overcome something, we must first be in a battle, a challenge; or there will be nothing to overcome.  To repeat, overcoming is not passive, it is active.  We cannot overcome something by doing nothing, we have to be engaged in the struggle.   

A word of caution, we need to remember to seek the Lord as to how we should overcome each situation that arises.  There will be times that we need to stand, and wait, and let God fight for us.

EPHESUS

Rev 2:1-7

To the angel of the church in Ephesus write: The One who holds the seven stars in His right hand, the One who walks among the seven golden lampstands, says this:  I know your deeds and your toil and perseverance, and that you cannot tolerate evil men, and you put to the test those who call themselves apostles, and they are not, and you found them to be false, and you have perseverance and have endured for My name’s sake, and have not grown weary.  But this I have against you, that you have left your first love.  Therefore remember from where you have fallen, and repent and do the deeds you did at first; or else I am coming to you and will remove your lampstand out of its place – unless you repent.  Yet this you do have, that you hate the deeds of the Nicolaitans, which I also hate.  He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.  To him who overcomes, I will grant to eat of the tree of life which is in the Paradise of God.

The Ephesians were still doing good works, and they weren’t buying into the slick talking, self-promoting, want to be leaders who came along.  They were also willing to put up with the persecution that came with being a Christian.  However, their relationship with God was fading.  They were doing all the good deeds, but it had become “because that’s what we do.”  They were, in many ways, just going through the motions.  Their “faith” had started to shift to a faith in “right” thinking and doing the “right” things. 

Their relationship with God had grown stale, they had kind of “figured God out”.  They “understood” what He expected from them, so there really wasn’t a need to spend as much time with God.     

It doesn’t matter how well we start, if we don’t finish well it will not have mattered.  It doesn’t matter how good our relationship with God once was, what matters is where our relationship is now; and where will it be in the future.

Often when we begin our relationship with God we are full of zeal.  There is a fire in us.  We can’t get enough of His Word.  We want to learn all we can.  Often, though, over time, that zeal begins to fade.  The cares and distractions of life begin to take priority.  Our relationship with God begins to take a back seat to everyday life.

Other times, our zeal can slowly turn to legalism, or religious ritual.  We begin to think that we “know God” and we have Him figured out, we have come to understand the truth.  The focus of our zeal can become distorted.  Our zeal shifts to the truths about God, the “dos” and “don’ts” from our understanding of the Bible.  We can become more concerned with protecting our version of the truth, than knowing the author of the truth.  Our love for the truth, should never overtake for love for the one who created the Truth. 

We need to overcome a complacent love that has become too familiar and is taken for granted.  We need to make the effort to have a strong relationship with God.  The Christian life is not about “figuring God out,” and understanding “the rules”.  It is about developing a relationship with God; this takes time spent together.  In this life we will never arrive at fully knowing God, so there is no stopping point where we can say we have arrived at fully knowing God.  Just like in a marriage, there will always be more to learn about our spouse.  As we spend time with them we begun to understand what they like and don’t like, what things their heart is drawn to.  Without spending time with our spouse, we will not know what they are thinking, what is in their heart; what are their concerns of the day.  Without spending time with God, we will not be able to hear Him; our heart will not be in tune with His heart

Nutshell for the church of Ephesus:  We need to overcome a complacent love that has become too familiar and is taken for granted.  We need to make the effort to have a strong relationship with God.

The Rat Race

Oct16

According to my 2006 Merriam-Webster’s Dictionary and Thesaurus, “rat race” is defined as “strenuous, tiresome, and competitive activity or rush”. Well, now, does that sound like Black Friday shopping or what? I chuckle as I write that, but it’s true. Recently I found myself going through a rat race, though I had no idea I even entered this race. How is that possible? It all started in the middle of August this year when my book, Love Waits: Book One was republished. I started to promote it on social media and follow people in hopes of “getting the word out” about the book – perhaps someone would buy it, right? Since I self-published through Covenant Books, I didn’t have a marketing team assigned to promote the book, I also didn’t have ad campaigns – just me and social media. I had taken about 3+ years off of social media until 2024 – so basically, I had zero social media presence as well. In hindsight, I see now that I could have/should have been promoting the book from the moment I signed the contract – that idea just never even occurred to me, to be honest. Since it has been 10 years since I first published Love Waits, it was basically like starting all over again at ground zero with a brand-new book.

If you read my blog, Let Your Light Shine, then you know that the first time I was published, I did every single thing that the publishing company told me to do to become a “successful author”. Needless to say, no, I don’t believe that I was a successful author – at least not by the standards that most people would consider “success”. (i.e. books on bestselling lists, awards, thousands of 5-star reviews, and let’s not forget the handsome royalty checks, right?)

When I started promoting my book in August, at first things were good and I was getting a lot of traction with it, especially on Instagram. However, then things started to slow down and I couldn’t figure out why; I wasn’t doing anything differently, so what happened? Before I knew it, I was big time overthinking this “book promotion situation”, which led to stress and an old familiar, yet uncomfortable feeling inside of me that I hadn’t experienced in over 8 years. I paused everything and went to God in prayer. In Scripture, God is known in many different ways, such as gardener (Genesis 2:8), healer (Exodus 15:26), judge, lawgiver, king (all at Isaiah 33:22) – so, why not as marketing manager? Do I have a Scripture reference for that? No. Do I need one? No, at least I don’t think so. He is the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end, I think if He wants to, He can promote anything or anyone as He sees fit. So, I gave it all over to God and started posting as He directed.

By the world’s standards, I wasn’t succeeding, because I didn’t post enough posts, or the posts weren’t reaching enough people, or some other nonsense that was not part of the equation with God. Once I started to follow what I believe was God’s leading for posting on social media, I just felt His peace. Later though, when I let the “worries of the world” (Mark 4:18-19) distract me, God had to remind me that He wasn’t asking for me to meet a quota for likes, shares, or comments with every post. God reminded me that He didn’t ask me to sell “X” number of books – I didn’t have a quota to fill there either. He reminded me that I am called to be obedient to Him. I post what I feel He is directing me to post and I even try to write what I feel He is directing me to write (just like now and in my books). Obedience to the Heavenly Father, that IS success! I didn’t need to add to it, nor was I supposed to cherry pick and do only what I wanted to do, what I felt comfortable with doing, or what was easy or convenient to do. I was just called to do His will and I want to answer that call every, single time.

As I have been writing this blog, it occurred to me that I was fixated on the wrong race. The rat race is the wrong race, the race that God has set before me, that is the race I should be focused on. Today I leave you with Galatians 5:16-17, which says, “But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not carry out the desire of the flesh. For the flesh sets its desire against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh; for these are in opposition to one another, so that you may not do the things that you please.” (Bold print and italics are mine for emphasis.)