Tag Archive | christianity

Disappointed in God?

Dec2

(Note: I will continue my current blog series “Our Cost of Saying “Yes” to God”, but today God put this blog on my heart.)

Can a Bible believing Christian, a son or daughter of the most-high God, be disappointed in God? Yes, I believe that can happen. As a matter of fact, I have gone through that myself. Sadly, I have also witnessed people close to me walk away from God because of the huge disappointment they have felt in Him. Even more sad than that, some of them do not even realize that they have walked away from God, they just kind of keep going through the motions of “being a Christian” but are no longer saved. Jesus is no longer in them; Holy Spirit is no longer working in them. They honestly do not even realize it. It is extremely heart breaking to me, especially since I had a front row seat to witness this. How should a Bible believing son or daughter of God respond when they do feel disappointed in God? Great question, right? I will try to answer from what I have learned as I ‘ve gone through feeling disappointed by God.

Firstly, God – Jehovah, Yahweh, the Ancient of Days, the Eternal One, El Shaddai, the Creator of all humans and the universe – God is perfect. (Psalms 18:30, Deuteronomy 32:4, 2 Samuel 22:31, Matthew 5:48) His ways are perfect. His will is perfect. His timing is perfect. So, why do we get disappointed in/with God? My nutshell answer: Our expectation in Him with His will, His ways, and His timing are not fulfilled how we think it should be. Smaller nutshell – God does not do what we want, when we want. (Isaiah 55:8) I will be honest with you, that was an extremely hard pill for me to swallow. That it was not God who had been disappointing, but it was my expectation of how He was going to work, when He was going to work, and what His will would be that led to the disappointment I was feeling. This was a huge, humbling, “ouch” moment for me. I would love to say that the very moment I realized that, that I immediately fell upon my face and repented and the glory of the Lord filled the room and – voila! – I was instantaneously, miraculously healed and NEVER felt disappointment again – EVER! However, that would be a lie. Like I said, this was a HUGE pill for me. So, why couldn’t I immediately be humbled and move on from this lesson? One word – pride. (Proverbs 16:18) I had pride that I was justified in feeling disappointed in God, with how He was working, or how He wasn’t working. Or with the timeframe of when things were happening or weren’t happening and I had other people who agreed with me. But, if I claim to be saved by and through the blood of Jesus Christ, if I claim to believe the Holy Scriptures, if I believe in Yahweh as the Creator, then why am I so easily swayed by having other people validate my disappointment with the One who is perfect? Pride.

I am going to give an example from my own life of how pride got a hold of me, and I was totally caught unaware. Probably close to 20 years ago, a sister of mine told me that she noticed that I had a lot of pride. My initial reaction? I thought to myself, “Pfff, she does not know what she’s talking about! I am not prideful. I just happen to be right most of the time.” NOT my best thinking, huh? Yep, I was full of pride and so prideful that even when it was called out to me, I did not believe it, I was offended, and I tried to shake it off. (By the way, if someone has called you out for being prideful and you are immediately offended, guess what? You have a pride issue.) While I did not like what my sister said at all, it kept bothering me that she had said that to me. So, I prayed on it. Of course, I completely expected the Lord to confirm my thoughts and to correct my sister…yea, that’s not what happened though. God started showing me where my speech was prideful. He showed me where my actions were being done from a place of pride. He showed me that my thinking was prideful. I was humbled and I repented. I had to work very hard to not give into the stronghold of pride. Sure, I slipped up every so often, but I kept repenting and working on not being prideful.

As I mentioned, offense is a sure sign that you are having a pride issue. Being disappointed in God can lead us to being offended by Him. I know that there are people who have been through unspeakable evil in their lives. People who have major trust issues with God. People who may think, “If God is so loving, so gracious, so perfect, then why did He allow _____ to happen to me? Where was He? Why didn’t He stop it and protect me?” All are valid questions. I, myself, have had these questions, too. I cannot really answer those questions, but whatever a person has been through, they are not alone, unfortunately others have been through extremely similar things – or even worse.

Many years ago, I read a book by R.T. Kendall entitled “Totally Forgiving God: When It Seems He Has Betrayed You”. This book is not implying that God did wrong and needs your forgiveness as one would forgive another person. God has no sin; He does no wrong. (Psalms 5:4) Another person is imperfect, they make mistakes, their actions or words are not always good or righteous. Yet, the sentiment is still the same, choosing to forgive, whether the person (or God) asks for it or not, whether the person (or God) acknowledges any wrongdoing or not. Forgiveness is a choice, just like holding a grudge is a choice, being offended is a choice, bitterness is a choice, pride is a choice, and UN-forgiveness is a choice.

Forgiving God and repenting for your expectations that you put upon Him is the first step in breaking this stronghold of disappointment in God that you have.

Having gone through all of this myself, does not mean that I have never felt disappointment in God again. But I have been able to learn and continue to grow in God, even when my expectations have not been met. Where I am in my walk with God is not where I was those almost 20 years ago when I was called out for being prideful. Where I am today is not where I was even last week! Oh sure, I have my moments, I am an imperfect person after all, but I truly want to do the will of the Father and continue to learn and grow in Him.

Life can be great and wonderful, but it can also be disappointing and not what we hoped it would be – both can be true. The real test comes when things do not go as you had planned, or things did not happen in the timeframe that you wanted, are you going to be disappointed? And, if you are disappointed (which, hey, it happens), how are you going to handle that disappointment – whether it is disappointment in another person or God?

Some words from the Bible to leave you with today. Love and prayers, Sharon

Psalms 34:15-19 “The eyes of the Lord are toward the righteous and His ears are open to their cry. The face of the Lord is against evildoers, to cut off the memory of them from the earth. The righteous cry, and the Lord hears and delivers them out of all their troubles. The Lord is near to the brokenhearted and saves those who are crushed in spirit. Many are the afflictions of the righteous, but the Lord delivers him out of them all.” (NASB)

Isaiah 41:10 “Do not fear, for I am with you; do not anxiously look about you, for I am your God. I will strengthen you, surely I will help you, surely I will uphold you with My righteous right hand.” (NASB)

Psalms 42:11 “Why are you in despair, O my soul? And why have you become disturbed within me? Hope in God, for I shall yet praise Him, the help of my countenance and my God.” (NASB)

Proverbs 3:5-6 “Trust in the Lord with all your heart and do not lean upon your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge Him, and He will make your paths straight.” (NASB)

Jeremiah 29:11 “For I know the plans that I have for you’, declares the Lord, ‘plans for welfare and not for calamity to give you a future and a hope.” (NASB)

Our Cost of Saying “Yes” To God (Part 2)

Nov28

Tomorrow evening it will be 14 years exactly since Eric, my husband, and I said “Yes” to God. Saying yes to His will, His way, His timing in our lives – in ALL areas of our lives. I do believe that we were saved before we said yes, but I think God was calling us into a deeper understanding and deeper relationship with Him. It can only be God’s timing that this blog series is coming out now. I can’t say that I was planning on writing about this, but God had a different plan.

Not long after we said yes to God, our friends – the ones who had spent Thanksgiving weekend with us 14 years ago (see blog post Our Cost of Saying “Yes” To God) – had been renting a place that their landlady sold and they had to move. After Eric and I prayed much about this, we felt we were to invite them to stay with us until they could find a place to live. They agreed, moved in, and that was the beginning of the end of our friendship. As I look back now, I would describe them as “Sunday morning Christians”. They went to church on Sundays and spoke great “Christianese” (Christian lingo to fake it), but unfortunately God wasn’t that real to them. Our eyes had been opened, and we couldn’t close them – no matter how much I had wanted to. They moved out of our house 6 weeks later, and our friendship ended. We just weren’t on the same path. (2 Cor. 6:14, 17) They did not see a need to change, which was fine, that was their choice. However, we also had a choice and there were certain things that Eric and I would not tolerate in our home. (Psalm 101:7)

In autumn of 2012, we felt God calling us to move to Battle Creek, Michigan. My husband is a very gifted contractor. Seriously, I’m not just being biased, he once had a building inspector tell him that the deck he built was “exquisite”. Eric had a thriving business in Fairview, Montana, when we moved in November of 2012. He closed the business to answer God’s call. (Philippians 3:7) We bought a HUGE fixer upper in Battle Creek. We thought the plan would be for Eric to fix it up and we would be there at least the next 20 years or until Jesus came back – which ever happened first. (We were wrong, but there may be more on that in future blogs.)

Battle Creek proved to be a wilderness experience for us. (Note: Battle Creek, Michigan is a wonderful place, with wonderful people, however, it was a very hard time for us there. We have nothing against Battle Creek or the people, in fact, we do still have loved ones there.) It was hard for Eric to find work, no matter how much promotion, networking, marketing, or advertising we did. He was out of work more often than having work. This wilderness experience took us through some hard valleys. Without realizing it, Eric had come to think of his identity – or at least parts of his identity – as being a contractor, having a thriving business, having customers backed up for months who gladly waited for him to be available to do their work, having our bills always paid on time and in full, having money in the bank, and having an awesome credit score. I believe that many professing Christians would say that Eric was blessed and successful. I think it can be easy to get comfortable with these types of “blessings”, perhaps even rely on these “blessings” as identity markers and I believe that is what happened to Eric over time. (I wrote about some of my personal experience of going through the wilderness in Battle Creek in my blog Let Your Light Shine.)

Eric went through a very hard valley in Battle Creek. God started stripping away little by little everything that Eric had built up to be his identity. So, when everything that Eric built up about himself was gone, you know what Eric was? He was simply God’s son. (John 1:12) His business/vocation, bank accounts, schedule, and credit score had absolutely nothing to do with his identity in God. (Philippians 3:7-10) He was God’s son – period. And that was enough. Eric’s hard valley was equally hard on our marriage and our family. We were both active in the church that we were members of, yet we didn’t find much solace there (mostly from leadership) for everything that we were going through. We were accused of having hidden sin in our lives and that was the reason God wasn’t blessing us. We were encouraged to volunteer at church and ministries and to continue to pay tithing. We were told to take ANY job we could get, no matter what the pay, because God would provide. Some of the people in our “church family” would hire Eric but barely pay him above minimum wage for the work he did. (Note: There were a few others in our church family who were more generous with Eric’s pay and craftsmanship.) It was a long, hard valley and a lot of people (like some in our church family or our extended family) didn’t seem to understand what we were going through, yet many had one answer or another as to why we were in this situation. It wasn’t until the autumn of 2016 when Eric went to seminary and was assigned a book to read that helped him to understand what we were going through. It’s called “Emotionally Healthy Spirituality” by Peter Scazzero. In the book Eric learned about “the Wall – Stages of Faith” and a work of St. John of the Cross entitled “Dark Night of the Soul”. I’m going to give an incredibly small nutshell of “the Wall”, but I would encourage you to read the book for yourselves. The Wall is where many Christians stop in their walk with God. Things get too hard, God seems silent, seemingly nobody understands what’s going on with them – pretty much everything we went through in our wilderness experience. Once Eric read this book and shared it with me, we realized, “Yes, this is what we’re going through!”. It was nice to at least know what was going on, but that information didn’t change our circumstances – at least not in the physical and not right away. We grew in that moment and in those moments to come spiritually, mentally, and emotionally. (Colossians 2:6-7) We weren’t going crazy, we weren’t hiding sin in our lives, we weren’t lazy, or too proud to work for peanuts – no, we were in a wilderness, a valley with God. However, we weren’t alone, God was with us! In the wilderness there were many times that it seemed like God was silent, but He was still there. (Psalm 23:4) Through this experience we learned more about the depths of God’s character than we had previously known. He became real to us in ways that we wouldn’t have known, had we not gone through the wilderness. (James 1:2-4, 12) We grew closer to God and have continued to do so, but the trials haven’t ended in our lives. God is still refining us; He cares very much about our character development. A good parent cares about the character of their child, right? So, wouldn’t the perfect Parent – God – care even more about the character development of His children? Of course He does! (Romans 5:3-5)

This is one area of our lives that was dramatically changed because of saying “Yes” to God. It doesn’t mean He will necessarily work this way in everyone, but this is our story, our testimony. I want to end with a passage of Scripture that I referenced in this blog.

Philippians 3:7-11 “But whatever things were gain to me, those things I have counted as loss for the sake of Christ. More than that, I count all things to be loss in view of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them but rubbish so that I may gain Christ, and may be found in Him, not having a righteousness of my own derived from the Law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which comes from God on the basis of faith, that I may know Him and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death; in order that I may attain to the resurrection from the dead.”

Our Cost of Saying “Yes” To God (Part 1)

Nov21

Note: As I sat down to write this blog earlier this week, I had many thoughts come to me about what our lives (mine and my husband Eric’s) have been like since we said “Yes” to God in all areas of our lives. We have lost family, friends, and income over the years. However, we have also gained much. We have grown in our marriage with God and in our own personal walks with God. Today, it occurred to me as I was writing this, that this will not be “A” blog, but a blog series. I have no idea how many blogs will be in the series, but let’s begin.

In November of 2011, Thanksgiving weekend, one night seemingly out of nowhere God said to me, “I want to take you higher. Are you willing to go?” When God asks a question, there’s weight to it. To be honest, I wasn’t sure exactly what He meant by “higher”, but after a moment of contemplation, I said, “Yes.” This happened in the evening one night, I believe it was Saturday, I was standing outside on our small porch in Fairview, Montana, while I was waving goodbye to friends who had spent Thanksgiving weekend with us. After the lights of their car faded from sight, I stayed outside in the cool weather wondering what God had meant and wondering why He even asked me. Did the Creator of the universe really need my permission before He wanted to do something in my life? I have no answer for this. After awhile, I went back inside and told my husband Eric what had just happened. When he heard, he too said “Yes” to God. NOTHING has been the same in our lives since then.

This is one of those moments where we are counseled in Scripture to count the cost of following Jesus. Did we count the cost? Honestly, I don’t think we did. Eric and I have often talked about what God asked us back in November of 2011, and we’ve challenged ourselves with the question, “If we knew that all of this would happen, would we still have said ‘Yes’ to God?” Our answer is typically something like, “I don’t know, I hope so, but I just don’t know.” There is a cost to saying “yes” to God.

By us putting God first (not ourselves, or each other; not our children; not parents, or any other human) we shortly realized that we were swimming against the mainstream Christianity that we had once been a part of. That was not our intention, as a matter of fact, I doubt either one of us even thought that that was what we were doing. We were focused on God and His calling, trying to be obedient to Him in all things. We didn’t mean to ruffle anyone’s feathers, or be offensive to anyone, or “unchristian” as some people have accused us of. We were simply trying to do the will of the Father as Jesus said to. (Matthew 7:21 and 12:50) Shouldn’t those who were coming against us – the ones who professed to be Christians – have been the ones who accepted us, stood by us, and encouraged us? Like the church of Acts in the Bible, “They were continually devoting themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer. Everyone kept feeling a sense of awe; and many wonders and signs were taking place through the apostles. And all those who had believed were together and had all things in common; and they began selling their property and possessions and were sharing them with all, as anyone might have need. Day by day continuing with one mind in the temple, and breaking bread from house to house, they were taking their meals together with gladness and sincerity of heart, praising God and having favor with all the people. And the Lord was adding to their number day by day those who were being saved.” (Acts 2:42-47 NASB)

Why was it so hard for people that we knew to accept that we were going to pray about a matter and then do as we felt led by God’s Spirit? Isn’t that what we are supposed to do if we are God’s people? Eric and I didn’t want to rely on human logic, or what our “feelings” were in a situation, or what we thought was right. We wanted to do His will, period.

This is when we started to realize that if we did something that was not in line with people’s perception of what was “right”, if their expectation of us was not met, then we were called “unchristian” or “unloving”; we were in error. We have even been accused that we “don’t serve the same God” as them. On that one, I may have to agree, though there would have been a time when I would have thought that we served the same God – Yahweh.

Over the coming weeks I will dive into more of what our life, our testimony has been even since that “meeting” with God in 2011. This is what saying “Yes” to God looked like for us.

The Seven Churches In Revelation (Part 7)

Nov11

By Eric Sponheim

LAODICEA
Rev 3:14-22
“To the angel of the church in Laodicea write:  The Amen, the faithful and true Witness, the Beginning of the creation of God, says this:  I know your deeds, that you are neither cold nor hot.  So because you are lukewarm, and neither hot nor cold, I will spit you out of My mouth, Because you say, “I am rich, and have become wealthy, and have need of nothing,” and you do not know that you are wretched and miserable and poor and blind and naked, I advise you to buy from Me gold refined by fire so that you may become rich, and white garments so that you may clothe yourself, and that the shame of your nakedness will not be revealed; and eye salve to anoint your eyes so that you may see.  Those whom I love, I reprove and discipline; therefore be zealous and repent.  Behold, I stand at the door and knock; if anyone hears My voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and will dine with him, and he with Me.  He who overcomes, I will grant to him to sit down with Me on My throne, as I also overcame and sat down with My Father on His throne.  He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.”

Laodicea, the church that was comfortably numb.  They were blessed materially, their needs were taken care of, and more.  They had everything they wanted, life was good.  They had no need to cry out to God and depend on Him, their physical needs were taken care of.  But spiritually they were empty and full of themselves.  They were distracted by all the good things of this life that they had; maintaining the good life, the comfortable life, was more important than a relationship with God.  Oh, they acknowledged God, and called Jesus their Savior, but they didn’t get beyond that.  They were blessed in this life, and going to heaven when they die, what more did they need?  You see, they couldn’t, or wouldn’t, grasp the understanding of Jesus as Lord. 
“Surrender” was a word this church didn’t understand.  The possibility that God may be asking them to give up their comfort was something to be scoffed at.  God wouldn’t expect them to give up what they had.  Besides isn’t the Christian life about living a moral life and being a good witness (example) to your neighbors?  How can one be a good witness to those around you if your life isn’t going well?
The thought of living a life surrendered to Christ was a nice concept, if it meant you didn’t lie, steal, cheat, or kill someone.  But if a life surrendered to Christ meant you may have to give up some, or all, of the comforts of life, and/or actually depend on God to provide what you needed; well that was crazy talk.  Any good responsible Christian takes care of themselves and doesn’t need anyone to help them. 
The church was useless to God because they were unwilling to surrender their lives to God.  They all wanted to go to heaven; but surrendering to Jesus as Lord was a bit of a stretch.  Their prayers were one of “bless me Lord.”  There was no, “Lord what would you have me to do?”  They were unwilling to let God work in their lives for His purposes.  Their view was that God was there for their purposes; not realizing they were created for God’s purposes. 
The blessings of God can be a blessing, or a curse.  It all depends on how we choose to use them.  When we are materially blessed, it makes many aspects of our lives easier.  If we choose to use the blessings for God’s purposes, holding on to them loosely, they are a blessing.  However, if we choose to starting focusing on ourselves, using the blessing only for our pleasure and comfort, then they can become a curse.  It becomes a curse because the material blessings get in our way of our relationship with God.  Things become more important than our relationship with God.  When we have a “good life” we begin to depend on God less and less, often without realizing it; we don’t need Him like we used to.    
When we are blessed, it’s easy to think that we have arrived; we have God’s stamp of approval on our lives.  If nothing else, it is another step in growing in our relationship with God.  It is like a test; will we use the blessings to glorify God?  Or will we use the blessings for ourselves, and do our best to hold on tightly to them?  Just because you have been blessed materially does not mean God has decided that you have “arrived.”
How easy it is to get comfortable in life when things are going well, when we have everything we need and even some of our wants.  When life gets comfortable we have a tendency to want to keep that comfort.  We don’t like things interfering with our comfort.  We can even start to ignore God, if He starts to potentially upset our comfort.  We get so comfortable with our comforts that the thought of having to give any of them up just isn’t appealing; our comforts have become the god we choose to serve.  We can still go to church, read our Bible, pray, tithe, help others, and many other “Christian” things; but we can still be unsurrendered to God because we are doing it on our terms.  We’ll continue to “serve and love” God, but don’t expect us to make sacrifices or give up the security that our comforts give us.     
We need to overcome the pride of thinking we can do it our way.  Just because you have been blessed by God, does not mean you are walking in obedience to God.  We need to be able to set aside our goals and agendas, in favor of God’s plans.  We need to be able to let go of our desire to be comfortable, and instead desire that His purposes be accomplished in our lives, whatever they may be.  We need to be able to see things from an eternal kingdom perspective, instead of this temporary earthly one.

From Sharon – this blog concludes the 7 part series that my husband Eric wrote. Every time I read these, I just feel conviction – but in a good way, a humbling way. Eric will be the first to admit that writing is not his thing, but I believe that God really worked through him with this series. I hope you enjoyed them! If any of you want to reach out to him, you can find him on Facebook, just search Eric Sponheim. Thank you! 😊

The Seven Churches in Revelation (Part 6)

Nov5

By Eric Sponheim

PHILADELPHIA

Rev 3:7-13

“And to the angel of the church in Philadelphia write:  He who is holy, who is true, who has the key of David, who opens and no one will shut, and who shuts and no one opens, says this:  I know your deeds.  Behold, I have put before you an open door which no one can shut, because you have a little power, and have kept My word, and have not denied My name.  Behold, I will cause those of the synagogue of Satan, who say that they are Jews and are not, but lie – I will make them come and bow down at your feet and make them know that I have loved you.  Because you have kept the word of My perseverance, I also will keep you from the hour of testing which is about to come upon the whole world, to test those who dwell on the earth.  I am coming quickly; hold fast what you have, so that no one will take your crown.  He who overcomes, I will make him a pillar in the temple of My God, and he will not go out from it anymore; and I will write on him the name of My God, and the name of the city of My God, the new Jerusalem, which comes down out of heaven from My God, and My new name.  He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.”

The church in Philadelphia was weary and weak.  They had been through numerous spiritual battles, but they were continuing to seek God and be obedient to Him despite their weariness.  They were persevering in spite of the opposition, but many were just hanging on.  The opposition had been fierce and they didn’t have much left. 

Jesus was encouraging them to hold on, help was on the way.  As opposed to the church in Smyrna, their breakthrough was on its way.  Things were going to get better, but they needed to endure until it did.  To give in now would have made it all for naught. 

Hold fast to what you have.  Hold fast in the midst of the trials.  Just because life is hard and the trials seem to keep coming one after another, does not mean you have strayed from God.  Now there are troubles that come as a result of our poor choices, but that’s not what is being addressed here.  Have you been seeking God and doing your best to walk with Him?  Are you seeking to obey Him; but it seems like every time you do what He directs you to do, it results in more challenges and troubles?  Are you left scratching your head, wondering, “What did I do wrong?”  Nothing, God didn’t promise that the obedience would lead to immediate “good” results.  More than likely, you are on track, but the enemy wants to do everything he can to get you to give up and throw in the towel.   In John 16:33, Jesus said that we would have trials.  In John 15:20 Jesus said “A slave is not greater than his master.  If they persecuted Me, they will also persecute you.”  Take heart and know that the trials and challenges we face are part of our testing and refining process. 

It is easy to compare our lives with other professing Christians.  So many seem to have a nice comfortable life.  We ask, “Why is their life easy, while ours is so challenging?”  Well, there could be several possibilities.  Maybe they have been through the trials and persevered and come out the other side, where the challenges no longer phase them.  Maybe they never chose to dive into a deep relationship with God, they have chosen to keep their relationship with God on an “infant” level.  Many professing Christians have chosen to be unwilling to fully surrender to the Lord, they want the perks of being a Christian without the costs associated with it.  

We need to overcome the desire to give up because the battle has been hard.  We won’t have victory if we give up.  We need to remember that we have victory through Jesus.  As trying as the challenges and battles are that we face, and no matter how long they take, we need to continue in the fight until the victory comes.  One does not get the victory by dropping out of the fight.  As the saying goes, “It is always darkest before the dawn,” so it can be in our spiritual battles, too.  When things seem like they can’t get any harder, we need to continue to push through, as the victory is close at hand.  Do not quit, do not give up, no matter how difficult it is.   

Nutshell – We need to overcome the desire to give up because the battle has been hard.  We won’t have victory if we give up.

The Seven Churches In Revelation (Part 5)

Nov2

By Eric Sponheim

SARDIS

Rev 3:1-6

“To the angel of the church in Sardis write:  He who has the seven Sprits of God and the seven stars says this:  I know your deeds, that you have a name that you are alive, but you are dead.  Wake up, and strengthen the things that remain, which are about to die; for I have not found your deeds completed in the sight of My God.  So remember what you have received and heard; and keep it, and repent.  Therefore if you do not wake up, I will come like a thief, and you will not know at what hour I will come to you.  But you have a few people in Sardis who have not soiled their garments; and they will walk with Me in white, for they are worthy.  He who overcomes will thus be clothed in white garments; and I will not erase his name from the book of life, and I will confess his name before My Father and before His angels.  He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.”

The church in Sardis was living by the Spirit.  They were seeking to live out the teachings of Jesus and Paul.  They were making a difference in their city, and people noticed.  How they lived their lives and interacted with each other attracted people to them.  But along the line they became prideful of how they were living out the gospel; they had “arrived.”  This pride led to apathy in their relationships with God.  They continued to do what they had been doing, which was a lot of good things, but their relationship with God wasn’t there anymore.  They were resting on their laurels of the past.  They were just a shell of who they were.

From the outward appearance they still had it going on, they were still doing church; but most of them had no relationship with God.  Their activities were just spiritually empty exercises, done in their own strength and ability.  All they were really doing was just keeping up appearances.

What makes a church “alive”?  We usually associate a church “being alive” with a great worship experience, great outreach programs, or a place where people are excited to be a part of.  (These are just a few examples.)  But the reality is we can get this type of experience of “being alive” in the world too. For example, going to a concert can be like a great worship experience; there are a number of secular organizations reaching out in their communities to help people; thousands of people get excited to go to a sporting event.   Any church can act as if it is alive.

So, what makes a church “alive”?  If something is alive, it is growing.  There is life flowing through it.  For a church it needs to be connected to its life source, Jesus.  It needs to be growing in its relationship with God.  It is becoming more and more holy, obedient, and surrendered to the will of God.  It is setting aside its own ambitions and desire to look good in favor of doing what God wants it to do, even if it isn’t flashy, trendy, or an attention getter.  It is becoming more dependent on God and less dependent on its own abilities.

Anything that is alive can begin to die if it is cut off from its life source, separated from its roots.  When we get apathetic in our relationship with God, we begin to die spiritually.  We start to be disconnected from God because we no longer spend time being connected with Him.  The longer we remain apathetic, the more severed from the root we become.  If we are not careful we could become completely cut off from God. 

We need to overcome the apathy that comes from thinking we have “arrived.”  A great start does not guarantee a strong finish.  We cannot get overconfident about our relationship with God.  No matter where you are in your relationship with God, there is room for growth.  We will never learn everything there is to learn about God in this lifetime.  We will never get to know God as intimately as possible in this lifetime.  It is very dangerous to think we have arrived in our walk with God, and that there is no more that needs to be done. 

Nutshell – We need to overcome the apathy that comes from thinking we have “arrived.”  A great start does not guarantee a strong finish.

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.

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.