When worldly ingredients are added to God's recipe for life, the result is spiritual starvation and a famine in the land. This is because people are unable to make the connection between their social and economic struggles and their spiritual departure from God. Dr. Tony Evans explains that the prophets were tasked with explaining the spiritual reasons behind the people's problems, but they were unable to do so because the people were not willing to listen. He uses the story of Elijah's stew to illustrate the dangers of mixing God's truth with poisonous ideas and the importance of taking God's Word seriously. [... more]

Jesus identifies the church in Thyatira as having grown spiritually, but also having been marred by moral compromise, specifically idolatry and immorality, which is compared to a poisonous weed. He encourages the faithful to hold on to what they have and not be swayed by the devil's temptations, and promises authority over the nations to those who overcome. [... more]