Steve Simms's Blog, page 10

I’m Living History

Daily writing promptWho is your favorite historical figure?View all responses

I’m living history every day. It’s history that I love to repeat over and over again because it never gets boring. It’s repeatable because it’s the history of a dead man who came back to life and lives forevermore. It’s the history (and present-day reality) of “a dead man named Jesus who Paul claimed was alive.” (Acts 25:19) Paul said that “God raised Him (Jesus) from the dead, and for many days he was seen by those who had traveled with Him from Galilee to Jerusalem. (Acts 13:30-31)

The Bible book of Hebrews says that Jesus lives forever (Hebrews 7:25) and that He is “the same yesterday, today, and forever.” (Hebrews 13:8) For many years I’ve experienced those statements to be true. I’m continually living the history of Jesus that I read in the New Testament. I am daily experiencing Christ living and working in and around me (Colossians 1:27) the way that I read that He worked in the Bible.

Every day Jesus does amazing things in my life. He communicates with me. He shows me things. He guides me. He protects me. He comforts me. He encourages me. He empowers me. He corrects me. He provides for me. He does things for me and for other people that are logically impossible. He continually demonstrates to me that He is alive and actively working today like He did in the Bible. He keeps me living the history of what He did in the 1st century right here, right now, in the 21st century.

I love learning about the historical Jesus. I love even more following and interacting with the present-day Jesus. I love getting to know Him and learning to listen to and obey Him better and better.

Miracle Moments & Supernatural Situations

Daily writing promptWrite about your first crush.View all responses

A first crush can make a person seem like a miracle. And it’s true. Every single human being is a miracle.

Life is full of miracle moments and supernatural situations, but it is so easy to write them off as coincidences. Contemporary Westernized culture trains people to be highly skeptical of miracles and discourages people from talking about supernatural signs and wonders. Even churches discourage people from talking about present-day miracles.

I believe that most churches have numerous attendees who have experienced amazing miracles, but most of their members think miracles are rare because churches have rarely encouraged (or even allowed) the people who have experienced miracles to testify about them. I’ve experienced several incredible miracles myself and I know many other people who have, but it’s hard to find churches who want to hear about the miracles their members and other people have experienced.

Christians and all people need to talk about the miracles and supernatural situations they have experienced. Belief in miracles gives people hope and in today’s mental health crisis we need hope as much as ever in history.

What miracles have you seen or experienced? Share them in the comments and help give someone hope. A miracle can be a supernatural occurrence, a perfectly timed natural occurrence, a divine healing, a dream, a vision, a revelation, an insight, a conversion, or any type of God encounter.

My faith in Jesus doesn’t depend on human wisdom but on multitudes of actual demonstrations of the power of God. (1 Corinthians 2:4-5) Here are a few miracles I’ve experienced or seen.

I was running across a 4-lane street in Reno, Nevada when something abruptly and completely stopped me. A moment later a car zoomed by me just missing me. That miracle saved my life. As I heard people testifying about Jesus like He is real, alive, present, and working in today’s world, I was suddenly and powerfully changed from the inside out. I’ve had a passionate love for and desire to continually follow and obey Jesus ever since that moment 55 years ago. A woman I knew was rushed to the hospital internally bleeding to death from a ruptured ulcer. She had to have an emergency blood transfusion to save her life and was scheduled for emergency surgery. A few friends and I were allowed into ICU to see her. We prayed that God would heal her. Then I prayed that her surgery would go well. A friend said: “We just prayed for her healing. Shouldn’t she have another X-ray before surgery?” She agreed and asked for one. The X-ray came back and showed that the ulcer was gone. Her vital signs all returned to normal. The surgery was canceled, and she was released to go home healthy.When my daughter was about one year old, I took her car seat out of the back seat and remembered that I had left something in the front seat. So, I set her down on the asphalt just inside the backseat door. I stepped around the backseat door and opened the front door to get what I had left and then closed it. Then I saw the backseat door open, and I absentmindedly slammed it. It closed halfway and then abruptly stopped. Suddenly I remembered that my baby daughter was there, and I was terrified. I fearfully looked around the door and saw that the point at the bottom of the door was touching my daughter’s temple and she wasn’t making a sound. I eased the door away from her and she looked up at me. There was a tiny red prick on her temple where the corner of the door had pricked her skin. I kneeled down and examined her, and she appeared to be fine. She never had any negative effects from that incident and grew up healthy, intelligent, and vibrant. Every time I remember that supernatural moment, I thank God with all my heart.

I appeal to churches everywhere. Train, encourage, and allow people to share their miracles during worship services. Have one or two miracle testimonies every Sunday morning. (Pastors, shorten the sermon if necessary to make the time for the miracle testimonies. You’ll be glad you did!)

I’m Looking for Places That Are Out of This World

Daily writing promptWhat countries do you want to visit?View all responses

There are places that you can visit, live in, and even become a citizen of that are out of this world. Those places aren’t far away in distant countries. They are close at hand. They are places of walking in overwhelming direct personal awareness of the presence and love of the living God. Jesus said: “The kingdom of God is at hand.” Philippians 3:20 says: “Our citizenship is in heaven.” You don’t have to wait until you die to continually experience and live in the kingdom of God.

Bible study leads to Bible knowledge. Ongoing Bible absorption leads to a heart overflowing with love and Spirit-led discipleship. If you will read the Bible with an open humble heart in order to let God interrupt and disrupt your life, He will erupt within you with His power and presence and replace your corrupt heart with a new heart that continually hungers and thirst for Him and His righteousness. He will do great things within you, around you, and through you, if you will surrender to His will and be led by His Spirit throughout each day. Let God rescue you “from the dominion of darkness” and bring you into “the kingdom of the Son He loves.” (Colossians 1:13)

If your heart isn’t wide open to God you’re fighting against Him. You’re resisting the Holy Spirit. Before you can show that you care you have to care. Open your heart to the compassion and encouragement that comes from God. Go beyond the knowledge of Bible stories, Bible characters, and Bible ideas. Step into the place of direct personal ongoing encounter with the God of the Bible.

Faith-talk without faith-dependence is faithlessness.

Belief-profession
Is often empty.
Belief-reliance
Is bold defiance
Of all doubt and fear
And depending on
Jesus being near.

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My Brain is My Favorite Thing (I Work Hard to Keep it Free from Trash)

Daily writing promptWhat’s your favorite thing about yourself?View all responses

As you read my blog posts you are receiving thoughts into your brain. That’s how media works. Whatever you read, hear, or see is received into your brain and piles up in your memory. All of that accumulates in the memory storage compartments of your brain. From there it programs the subconscious thinking of your mind and little by little determines the condition of your mental health.

Consuming messed up media and it’s messed up programming messes up your mind. That’s why our contemporary culture, awash with negative, unhealthy, and destructive media content, struggles with so many mental health issues.

Think for a moment about your own media consumption. Ponder it for a bit. Do you really want your mental health to look like the things that you watch, read, and listen to? If your answer is no, you better begin to change your media consumption because it is creating the content of your cranium.

Don’t complain about the programming that you have allowed to control your brain or try to ignore it with alcohol, drugs, diversions, and distractions. Instead begin to wash the dark stain and mental strain from your brain. Reprogram your mind and train it to create the wealth of mental health. Discern and reject the stealth of mental and emotional trash that our culture is constantly trying to sneak into your brain.

Seek out positive media. Those parental ratings on movies and TV-shows aren’t meaningless letters and numbers. They are important warnings trying to alert you to the dangers of malicious media malware that will little by little drain the mental health from your brain. If you don’t want your state of mind to consistently look and feel like trash, refuse to watch, listen to, or read rubbish.

Look for and consume all the PH-4:8 content that you can find. “Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things.” (Philippians 4:8)

I Can Never Retreat or Retire

Daily writing promptHow do you want to retire?View all responses

I can never retreat or retire from a mission that never stops burning in my heart. I’ve experienced something so incredible that I’m constantly compelled to tell people about it and to try to help them experience it to. It is the risen Jesus actively working in and though me and in and through other people.

My employer tried to force me to change what I felt called by God to do and had been allowed and encouraged to do for 10 years. Refusing to retreat caused me to lose my employment, salary, and insurance before I was ready to step down. So now I proclaim, encourage, and advocate what I deeply believe but receive no pay. People think I am retired but I am more fired up about Jesus and His Spirit-led, sermon-free worship gatherings than I have ever been. Experiencing them is life-changing, but there is such stubborn resistance against them.

Christian meetings that allow the spontaneity of the Holy Spirit are very rare. I’ve spent my entire adult life searching for them and or starting them. When I find one, I am filled with wonder and awe at the demonstrated presence and reality of the risen Jesus that I experience there. However, before long various people begin to rise up and work to stop the Holy Spirit’s spontaneity and replace it with human structure and control. I’ve seen that happen time after time. During the last six months I’ve seen a Spirit-led gathering that I was a part of brought under tight human control. It breaks my heart to see God’s Spirit quenched and corralled.

Those meetings don’t need to be large, but they can be. They can also be very small — just you and one other person listening to God the Holy Spirit together and then saying and doing whatever He tells you to. Learn more. Use the search bar at the top right of this page to search my blog for organic church, simple church, Berry Street, or sermon-free church. I have written two books that will guide you to experiencing the Holy Spirit’s spontaneity: Beyond Church and The Joy of Early Christianity.

God’s Spirit leads
Another way
He doesn’t say
Do what’s trending.
He is sending
You to go by
His narrow way.

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The Oldest Thing I Own Is My Self-Focused Human Nature

Daily writing promptWhat’s the oldest thing you own that you still use daily?View all responses

The oldest thing that I own and still use today is my self-focused human nature. The more I give in to it and obey its thoughts, feelings, and desires, the more messed up I become. The more I die to it and obey God as He speaks in my conscience, the better my mental health becomes and the more inner peace I have.

I fight to resist and avoid using my self-focused human nature, but I still slip into it from time to time. The Bible describes it this way: According to Psalm 14:3 and 53:3, every human has been corrupted to the point that even when we try there is none of us who does good — not even one. Romans 3:10 quotes those two Psalms and says: “There is no one righteous, not even one.” Romans 3:23 says, “All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.”

No wonder the world in in such a mess. No wonder it’s so easy to feel like I’m a mess. I’m in the same situation that Paul the Apostle was when he wrote: “What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body that is subject to death? Thanks be to God, who delivers me through Jesus Christ our Lord!” (Romans 7:24-25) Apart from the risen Jesus, I can do nothing good (John 15:5) but denying myself, (Luke 9:23) allowing Christ to live in me, (Colossians 1:27) and letting Him lead me by His Spirit (Romans 8:14) is my hope of glory. That’s what true Christianity is about.

Christianity’s about:

Supernatural healing, deliverance, and salvation, not about superficial religion. (2 Corinthians 5:17)Being humble, not being haughty. (James 4:6)Hungering and thirsting for righteousness, not about hungering and thirsting for entertainment. (Matthew 5:6)Self-denial, not about self-righteousness. (Luke 18:9-14)Being pure in heart, not about being conformed to contemporary culture. (Matthew 5:8) Being Spirit-led moment-by-moment, not about being spiritually dead. (Romans 8:14)Direct personal revelation from God, not about religious consumerism. (Matthew 16:17)Being compassionate not being cruel. (Matthew 25:34-46) Cruelty comes from captivity to fear.Peace that passes understanding, not about political pride. (Philippians 4:7)Seeking first the kingdom of God, not about self-seeking. (Matthew 6:33) To seek first the kingdom of God is to listen to and obey the risen King Jesus above every other authority and desire.The Creator of the Universe who became a man, was crucified, rose from the dead, and actively lives, speaks, and works in His followers today. It’s not about any other Jesus. (John 1:1-5 & 14) & (2 Corinthians 11:4)

Passive people
Sitting in rows
Hearing the things
A preacher says,
Which of you knows
Jesus who rose?

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This Present Moment

Daily writing promptDescribe one of your favorite moments.View all responses

Life comes moment-by-moment. Moments fly by. They can be remembered but they can’t be maintained or recovered once they’re gone. Instead, they pile up in the past. Most moments are completely forgotten, but a few are occasionally remembered.

I try to make every moment my favorite one. That keeps me busy because by the time I’m consciously aware of a moment it’s already gone.

I try to live in conscious awareness of each moment, not focused on the past or the future. The present moment is where I encounter and surrender to the living Jesus Christ. I learn about what Jesus did in the past and I hope and believe for what Jesus is going to do in the future, but I experience His presence in the present moment. (2 Corinthians 6:2)

Now, even as my fingers are dancing on a keyboard, I sense from deep within me the reality of the risen Jesus and the fruit (Galatians 5:22-23) that His Holy Spirit is momentarily producing in me little by little as life’s moments zoom by. The Bible calls that “Christ in you, the hope of glory.” (Colossians 1:27)

O what magic moments Jesus creates in and through me. When I allow myself to be aware of Christ’s reality in now moments, it always makes me want to humbly bow before Him with wide-eyed awe and to verbally release wow after wow!

Christ-aware moments are the favorite moments of my life. I spend my days with my first priority being to experience all the Jesus-moments that I can throughout each day. (Matthew 6:33) How now is full of glory when Jesus is kept as my moment-by-moment focus!

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I Woke Up Singing a Duet

Daily writing promptWhat notable things happened today?View all responses

When I sing, I always want to duet with the risen Jesus. If you’re unwilling to duet with the new wine of Christ in you, you’re probably looking to other wines, drinks, or diversions to ease your pain.

I love to live my life as a duet with Jesus. To truly duet with Jesus is to always let Him lead.

Every single Christ-follower is called by God to be a mighty warrior. The battle is within us. (Ephesians 6:12-13) Fight your self-focused thoughts feelings and desires and let Jesus always lead you. Having done all stand your inner ground! (Galatians 5:1)

An invisible King rules and reigns within me. (Colossians 1:27) He’s the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords. (Revelation 19:16) Throughout the years I have been diligently training myself (1 Timothy 4:7) to surrender my will and my desires (Ephesians 4:22-23) to His absolute Lordship and authority (John 14:15) and to not quench His Spirit. (1 Thessalonians 5;19)

I deny myself (Matthew 16:24) and persistently fight within me (1 Timothy 6:12) to think, say, and do (Philippians 4:8) what the Holy Spirit tells me to (Romans 8:14) instead of what I want to. (Galatians 5:24) I strive to bring every thought captive to the obedience of Christ. (2 Corinthians 10:5) I seek (Matthew 6:33) to keep myself always focused on and aligned with (John 15:4) the presence of the risen Jesus (Acts 25:19) both within me (John 14:20) and around me. (Acts 17:28)

The living Jesus (Romans 6:9) is not only my Lord and King. (Philippians 2:9-11) He is also my Friend. (John 15:15) He has promised to always be with me. (Matthew 28:20)

My Passion Shows and Grows and Grows

Daily writing promptWhat are you passionate about?View all responses

The passion of my life is a discovery that I came across when I was in college. It wasn’t a discovery that I searched for or sought out. It just happened in a moment in the lobby of my dorm where some students were talking about their passionate love for Jesus. Suddenly (and somewhat mystically) the passionate adoration for Jesus that I saw in them was in me and I discovered that Jesus is a real (though invisible) person who I can know, experience, and interact with personally. He’s our Creator who was born in human flesh. A passionate love for the risen Jesus has been burning in my heart ever since then and He has felt more real to me than the physical word around me.

I discovered that faith (or belief) is so much more than merely mentally acknowledging the existence of God. (Mark 8:34) True faith (and belief) in God is to continually rely on and to daily depend on His moment-by-moment presence, protection, and provision. (Proverbs 3:5-6) An unbelieving heart turns away from ongoing reliance on the reality of the living God (Hebrews 3:12) and instead puts its trust in self-effort, in job security, in family, in education, in money, in a political leader, in patriotism, and in other idols. (1 Corinthians 10:14)

By trusting in God
I’ve found mental peace
And inner release
From anxiety.
Such tranquility!
I let it increase.
And grow within me.
It’s a river of
Hope that doesn’t cease.

To be an effective Christ-follower requires that we do much more than merely sit through a sermon each week. It requires persistent Spirit-led discipleship! I’d rather hear a preacher talk about his experiences with Jesus than about his opinions about Jesus. (Revelation 12:11)

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Overcoming My Discomfort Zone and Joyfully Learning a Second Language

Daily writing promptWhat is your favorite season of year? Why?View all responses

My favorite season of the year is any season but winter. Winter is one of my discomfort zones, but I don’t let it get me down. I believe that discomfort zones are meant to be overcome. After many years of being held captive by the discomfort zone of language learning, I’ve recently found great joy in learning Spanish, and I’ve gotten pretty good at communicating in it.

I don’t remember the French I took in high school, but I do know that it was my most uncomfortable course. I disliked everything about it — memorizing vocabulary, learning grammar rules, having a teacher who didn’t know it very well herself, and being forced to role play trivial conversations about finding the bathroom or going to the library. Years later my wife, daughter, and I hosted a French exchange student for a couple of weeks. About the only French word I could remember was avec (which means with), so I said it to her often because saying avec always made her laugh with (or at) me.

In spite of my language learning discomfort zone, once after a trip to Columbia, South America I returned home with a desire to learn Spanish. I was living in a very small town and the only Spanish course I could find was offered by a little Bible college, so I enrolled for a semester. The teacher knew Spanish about as well as my French teacher had known French, so I didn’t learn much. Both courses taught me the same thing — the lie that says I’m no good at language learning.

However, I didn’t give up. I ordered a set of expensive Spanish tapes from the US State Department that they use to train their diplomats. I listened to those tapes over and over learning almost nothing. They confirmed the lie that language learning’s not for me.

A few years later I decided to try Spanish again. I bought several fill-in-the-blanks grammar workbooks. I saturated those blank spaces with Spanish words. After several months I thought I was on my way to fluency. I flew alone to Mexico City to see how much I had learned. When I got into a taxi at the airport I opened my mouth, but the driver had no idea what I was saying and everything I heard him say was completely unintelligible to me. He finally dropped me off downtown and I was fortunate to find my hotel because I couldn’t communicate with anyone to get their help. It was a long week in Mexico City. I came home convinced that Spanish isn’t for me.

Later my daughter started taking Spanish in high school. It was her favorite class, and she was becoming really good at it. I thought, “Why not me?” and decided to try a different strategy. My favorite piece of literature is the Gospel of John. I’ve probably read it a hundred times or more, so I know it well. I started to read part of it in Spanish everyday thinking that would be my key to Spanish mastery. It was the same story. I became discouraged and quit after a couple of months.

My last attempt was 2 1/2 years ago. I felt prompted to learn Spanish the way I had learned English as an infant and small child. All I did was listen for a couple of years and then eventually interact with people using infantile Tarzan grammar and pronunciation. Then eventually without effort I became a fluent English speaker. But how could I repeat that process as an older adult? I knew I had to finally overcome my fear and discomfort zone of feeling foolish and childish when trying to learn Spanish.

I had great encouragement from my wife, so I went to YouTube and searched for the simplest videos in Spanish that I could find. I intentionally avoided videos about memorizing grammar or vocabulary. I wanted to hear people speaking the simplest, slowest Spanish I could locate. I decided that I didn’t want to learn Spanish, I wanted to absorb it the way I had effortlessly absorbed English many years before.

So, I listened without putting any pressure on myself to learn. I noticed that little-by-little (poco a poco) I could understand a few words. That encouraged me and made me want to listen even more. Before long I was watching Spanish YouTube videos for one to three hours daily and actually enjoying it. I discovered that I could understand them better if I attached Spanish subtitles to them. I also began to read the New Testament for 10 minutes or more every day in Spanish and this time I stuck with it. (Currently I am about to finish my fifth time through it.)

Here’s a cool serendipity experience (serendipia in Spanish). After 9 months of watching Spanish videos, two Mexican families (4 adults and 5 children) moved in next door to my wife and me. One of them spoke very little English, the rest none. What a golden opportunity to practice Spanish with some lovely people. My wife even started to pick up some.

About a month later I searched online and found a Spanish immersion school in Costa Rica. My wife encouraged me to attend for two weeks and stay with a local family who didn’t speak English. Before I flew down, the director of the school wanted to interview me on Zoom in Spanish to determine which class to put me in. After our discussion he told me that I knew a lot more Spanish that I thought I did, and he put me in one of their advanced classes. I was shocked because I didn’t feel like I knew very much.

While in Costa Rica I was able to understand my teachers who only spoke in Spanish (but did speak slowly and enunciate very clearly). Although I was making many mistakes, I was able to communicate clearly with my hosts and with Uber drivers. I was amazed to find that with all my mistakes I could communicate as effectively as some of my classmates who had college degrees in Spanish.

I returned home with a great desire to become fluent in Spanish. I added Duolingo to my daily routine and continued watching videos, reading the Bible in Spanish, and talking with my neighbors. A year ago, I started meeting with a Spanish conversation group once a week. It has now been 2 1/2 years since I started overcoming my discomfort zone and I have realized that being uncomfortable and humbly making a lot of errors is a key to mastering a language. I have a long way to go, but me esta encantando el viaje. When I think back on my years from birth to English fluency, it feels like my Spanish is right on schedule.

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