Tag Archive | church

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.”

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

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.

Early Years

Sep15



As I’ve stated before, I was raised in the church. What does
that mean? For me, it meant that I attended Sunday school and the church
service every Sunday morning. It meant that we said prayer together as a family
before eating supper. It meant that my mom went to a women’s Bible study, my
dad went to a men’s Bible study, and when I got older, I started attending
youth group once a week. There were times that my parents would do daily
devotionals, but this was not a constant in our lives. In these few sentences,
I have basically summed up what I mean by being “raised in the church”. Now I
will go a step further, which some may not want to hear or to acknowledge.
Being a female and being raised in the church meant that I learned early on
that there were certain expectations put upon me, as well as certain
limitations put upon me because I was a female.


I was raised in a very traditional Methodist church. All of
the church leaders were men – or at least all of the ones that I recall as
church leaders. (Women usually taught the children, but not always.) Women were
expected to take care of the children, they were expected to do the cleaning, to
be presentable (preferably in a dress if it was Sunday), to remain quiet,
mild-mannered at all times – essentially, I had to “know my place” as a female.
A lot of what I learned was really “head knowledge”, not actually having a
relationship with Jesus. I didn’t really “look” at myself as a child of God’s,
because that is not how it was presented to me. It was mostly about my gender
and the expectations that “the church” had on me, which thereby meant God had
those same expectations of me as well.

I saw a lot of hypocrisy in the church at a young age. I
didn’t understand a lot of it, and as a child, it came across as, “Do as I say,
not as I do”. When I started to attend youth group, that’s when my eyes were
opened even more. One evening at youth group, I had gone into the women’s
bathroom and while I was in there, some of the other girls came in and were having
a conversation. I couldn’t believe what I was hearing. For a moment, it seemed
like I was in the girl’s bathroom at the public school I attended! They were swearing,
talking about having sex, getting drunk. I was absolutely shocked! I guess I
was very naïve to think that if you were at church then that meant that you
were saved and you didn’t do those type of things or talked the way they were
talking. I went to a youth group leader and explained to her what just happened,
expressing my concern about what was being talked about. She reprimanded me for
judging them! I was quite confused by her reaction. I had no bad intentions on
my part to get any of them in trouble, I thought they needed prayer and help –
guidance. Another time at youth group, one of the leaders gave us an assignment
for the following week. He said if your house was on fire and you could only grab
one thing from your house before evacuating, what would it be and to bring it
to youth group next week. When the following week happened, we all sat in
chairs in a circle. One by one our leader asked each one of us to show what we
would grab and explain why we would grab that item over anything else. I don’t
recall much of what the other teens had brought, I do remember one brought a tv
remote, saying that he would grab the tv if there was a fire, but for this
assignment, he just brought the tv remote. When it was my turn to speak, I
showed my Bible and said that I would grab it because it has helped me through
a lot of rough times in my life. I was sincere in what I said, I was not trying
to “show anyone up” or have the “right answer”, yet I was met with snickering,
eye rolling, whispers from people that weren’t really that quiet (of course, I
don’t think that they were meant to be quiet). The leader “praised” me – ish,
which didn’t help the situation at all. I meant exactly what I had said about
the Bible, I knew that all of the other things could get replaced if there was
a fire. Of course, I wasn’t thinking about the fact that I could get a new
Bible if that one was destroyed. I was sad that I was the only one who brought
a Bible, but I never looked at myself as better than, I pretty much always
looked at myself as less than.


Another time, I was struggling with the question, “Was God
real or not?” One day I went to the reverend’s office to ask him. I figured he
would have the right answer, right? I sat down in a chair in front of his desk,
he was standing between me and his desk. I asked him, “How do I know that God
is real?” He leaned back on his desk, so that he was partially sitting on the
edge, he reached over on his desk and grabbed his Bible with one hand. With his
other hand, he pointed at the Bible and tapped the cover of it and said, “Because
of this…because of this, we know He’s real.” I waited after he said this,
waiting for more, waiting for some sort of epiphany, I don’t know, I was
waiting for just more of an answer to my question, but there wasn’t any more.
He had a smile on his face and that was it – conversation over. I didn’t have
any more questions and he certainly wasn’t going to elaborate on the question
that weighed so heavy in my spirit, so I thanked him (because that was the
polite thing to do) and got up and left his office. My question continued to
linger within me and when I would say my nightly prayers, they would go
something like this, “God, I’m sorry but right now I can’t pray to you, because
I don’t know if you’re real or not. If you are, then I’ll be back praying more
often. Amen”. I’d like to say that after praying that prayer once that the
light bulb went off for me, but nope. Many nights later of saying this prayer,
I realized that if God wasn’t real, then why did I keep feeling this need, this
longing inside of me to keep praying to Him? It was at this revelation that I
came to the conclusion that God is definitely real and I’ve never questioned
that again. Perhaps that isn’t very theological, but I was about 12 years old
at the time and that satisfied my question, much more than the reverends Bible
tapping statement did.


Being in the environment of the church weighed on me a lot. At
about 14 years old I left the Methodist church. Unfortunately, I slowly left
God too. I didn’t stop believing in Him, but I was most definitely not serving Him.
At 21 years of age, I started getting back into religion. I word it that way,
because “religion” was all I knew – “relationship” with the one true God, that
was not something I learned about yet. From age 21-36 I was in religion, out in
the world, then back in religion – I was a hot mess spiritually, or at least I
felt that way. Then one day in the autumn of 2008, I said a prayer to God that
I would later realize was a prayer of submission onto Him. I had been doing the
“religious roller coaster” and was going nowhere fast. I had been reminded of my
early years with God before I got turned off by people in the church. I felt
like God brought to mind all the times I spent with Him reading the Bible,
reminding me of every Christmas as a child I would take a moment and go into my
bedroom, sit on my bed, and sing “Happy Birthday” to Jesus. (A memory that
still brings tears to my eyes.) In that autumn of ’08, I opened my mouth and
just started telling God that I wanted to have what I had with Him back then. I
wanted Him to be real to me like He was back then. I didn’t realize it at the
time but I turned to the Heavenly Father, with childlike faith, and I have
never been the same! However, that is not to imply that I am still the same
right now as I was in ’08, no, I keep learning and growing. I feel like I am
not the same person I was just a few weeks ago, and it’s not me, seriously! It
is God, it is Him in me, it is the love of Jesus Christ, it is the workings of the
Holy Spirit in me that keeps molding and shaping me into the new creation. (2
Corinthians 5:17)

This is just a part of my story, but it’s a very important
part. None of what I’m writing is to bash a religious denomination or any one
person or group of people. I honestly don’t even recall the names of most of
the church leaders who were “over me” during my young years in the church. This
is just my story about what happened in my life and how it has impacted me. While
my testimony of growing up in the church doesn’t include much of what some
people have gone through as is evidenced by many “church leaders” moral
failures over many decades, I do want to try to encourage anyone who can relate
to my story or who can relate to others story’s that have been circulating
lately on the internet and in the news, your story isn’t over.
Whatever you have been through, it is just a part of your story, but it’s not
the whole story. Don’t let moral failures of any church leader or leaders speak
louder to you than the words of the Great Shepherd who willingly laid down His
life for you. Yes, for you.


Psalms 139:13-14 “For You formed my inward parts; you wove
me in my mother’s womb. I will give thanks to You, for I am fearfully and
wonderfully made…” (NASB)


Galatians 5:1 “It was for freedom that Christ set us free:
therefore keep standing firm and do not be subject again to a yoke of slavery.”
(NASB)


John 8:36 “So if the Son makes you free, you will be free
indeed.” (NASB)