Steve Simms's Blog, page 111

“When are you?” Here’s my answer:

My when is now! I am now in the time that Jesus says, “has now come for true worshippers to worship the Father in Spirit and in truth.” (John 4:23.) I am not in departed memories or desired dreams. The only time I can be led by God’s Spirit is when I am now enthralled in the presence of the risen Jesus each present moment. The more I attune my now to the adoration of and surrender to God, the timeless One, the more my consciousness and free will are engulfed in the Spirit and in truth and I am truly now.

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Changing the churches is more powerful than changing the government

In 1519, Martin Luther proclaimed, “Change the church!” In 2023 it still needs changing! Many Christians want to change the government, but our responsibility is to change the churches so that they are led by God’s Spirit. Let’s wake up and recognize that church as we know it isn’t changing our self-focused culture but following it.

Although they’re thousands of different denominations of churches, they function basically the same. They sit people in rows and control them from the front. God doesn’t change, but Christians are supposed to change “from glory to glory.” Unfortunately, churches tend to dig in and persistently resist God’s call to change and to let people be led by the Spirit.

Churches and individual Christians are called to ongoing transformation–to grow in grace and glory, not to sit in place stuck in a dry sermon story. Churches should change by interactively training people to embrace humility, pray continually, draw near to God, and turn away from sin. See 2 Chronicles 7:14.

The great concern about the growing emptiness of churches isn’t just being empty of people but being empty of God’s Spirit. If churches would obey God’s Spirit and let Him change their actions and attitudes, He would bring spiritual awakening to their land.

We need God-The-Builder. Our efforts to build the kingdom of God are totally ineffective. See Psalm 127:1.

Church should be a gathering for genuine heart-connection and one-another-ministry, not just for brief pre- and post-program small talk. Pastors need to be careful that they don’t manipulate and control God’s people like Pharoah did. God said, “Let My people go.”

If you have a relationship with Jesus don’t hide it in church. Describe it to the world!

I was just challenged to choose a Bible text for 2023. Mine is: “For those who are led by the Spirit of God are the children of God.” Romans 8:14. It’s easy to assume that we are children of God, but the test is whether or not we are being actively led by God’s Spirit. Make church Spirit-led ekklesia again!

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Has modern Western Christianity failed?

Message for 2023: It’s time to openly admit and repent for the failure of Christianity in America and the West in the 21st century!

In 1904, Evan Roberts, a young Welshman, was greatly distressed by what he called “the failure of Christianity” in his country. He began to continually cry out for a spiritual awakening and soon church services in Wales were disrupted by thousands of people desperate to get right with God and to listen to and obey Him. In two years more than 100,000 people in Wales were transformed by the risen Jesus.

Christianity has lost its influence in the West. For decades now Western civilization has been called post-Christian. Now it’s looking to government and politics to fix things and thus self-admitting that Christianity hasn’t been able to fix them. How has Christianity failed to be a major influence in the Western world?

I believe that Western Christianity has failed by

Making church attendees rather than sold-out disciples.Presenting Jesus as a historical figure rather than as a present moment reality.Making Christians dependent on a pastor and his sermons rather than on the living Jesus.Focusing on proclaiming the Gospel to church members instead of to the unchurched.Following the culture instead of leading the culture to the risen Jesus.Neglecting to train church members to testify and openly describe their relationship with Jesus.Trying to explain Jesus instead of demonstrating His presence and reality.Ignoring the writings of the early Christians and of the ancient Jews who walked with God (as compiled in the Bible) and treating them as if they are irrelevant fables.Not training Christ-followers to continually pursue purity, holiness, and freedom from sins of thought, word, and deed.Embracing self-righteousness more than brokenness, humility, and repentance.Turning Christianity into human-led religious organizations instead of a Spirit-led movement. Compartmentalizing Christianity into a Sunday morning time slot and presenting it as having little to do with the rest of the week.Gathering to follow and be led by a religious program instead of by the living Jesus.Focusing on fund raising and buildings instead of on serving hurting people.Neglecting to train church members to get on fire and stay on fire with passionate love for and obedience to Jesus. Breaking the body of Christ into 40,000+ denominations and millions of independent churches.Promoting the names of churches and Christian leaders more than the name of Jesus.Trusting in politics more than in the living Jesus.Turning grace into an excuse for sin and rebellion against God’s commands.Looking at the Bible as something to analyze and understand with the mind instead of as a love-letter to touch the heart.Teaching people to follow their desires instead of the resurrected Jesus.

Can the sinking ship of Western Christianity be rescued today? Yes! If you have a relationship with Jesus don’t hide it. Describe it! Stir it up! Listen to Him throughout the day and do what He says.

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Excuses have no good uses

Excuses are a popular type of denial. A happy life can’t be built on a foundation of excuses. Make hope, not excuses.

We think excuses protect our pride, but all they really do is hide our hope. An honest confession is much more powerful than the most creative excuse. Most excuses are abuses of truth. Excuses negate hope.

When you make excuses, you’re admitting that what you did or didn’t do was wrong and trying to avoid responsibility for it. Excuses demonstrate our refusal to admit and turn away from wrongful behavior.

Excuses are truces we make with discouragement and defeat. Effort used for making excuses would be better applied to accepting accountability. Excuses are deceptive because they make us believe that bad behavior isn’t so bad. They’re an attempt to make wrong behavior appear right.

Excuses devour your desire to be better and entrap you in complacency. Instead of making excuses say, “I’m sorry,” and make things right. It takes much less time to say, “I’m sorry,” than it does to make excuses. Blaming others for your mistakes and wrongdoing is a lame excuse.

Excuses are attempts to avoid the responsibility and/or minimize the blame for something. Excuses attempt to cover up wrongdoing. Repentance brings it to the light to receive forgiveness and a fresh start. Embracing excuses reduces your ability to accomplish positive results.

Instead of giving yourself excuses, have the courage to give yourself the truth. Excuses cancel goals. Making excuses produces passivity. Excuses have no good uses. You won’t admit your need for forgiveness until you lose your excuses. When you’re looking for an excuse, you’re moving away from God’s grace and forgiveness.

Making excuses is a powerful way to silence your conscience and to resist the thoughts that God puts within you. True Christianity is about being forgiven, healed, and empowered for holiness. It’s not about finding excuses to continue to sin.

Jesus is better than excuses! Excuses may hide your wrongdoing, but Jesus will forgive it and set you free. He wasn’t born to give us excuses for bad behavior, but to set us free from it. He didn’t come to excuse my sin but to pay the penalty for it on the Cross.

The only person who isn’t “only human” is the God-man — Jesus Christ! People who make lots of excuses falsely believe that their mistakes and wrongdoings are unforgiveable. Excuses prevent you from truly experiencing God wonderful forgiveness.

God always sees through your excuses. Refusing to use the word sin doesn’t excuse your sin. It’s just a futile attempt to hide your sin. It’s hard to overcome a sin if you refuse to acknowledge that it is a sin. Excuses are the traps that keep us stuck in sin.

Excuses make us believe the lie that we don’t have an ongoing need for God’s grace, mercy, forgiveness, deliverance, and healing. Pray the prayer of no excuses: “Lord Jesus Christ have mercy on me a sinner.” Delete all excuses from your mind and heart and humbly embrace Christ’s forgiveness.

New Year’s excuses are much easier to follow than New Year’s resolutions. It’s not enough just to do better. We need God to make us better from the inside out. Without New Year’s repentance and ongoing surrender to Lordship of the risen Jesus a New Year’s resolution will never be our solution.

When you excuse your sin, you excuse God’s grace and you’re left holding the bag. According to the Bible, the hope of glory isn’t you in church; it’s Christ in you.

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Jesus isn’t seasonal!

Timeless Jesus
Ever fresh
And refreshing,
No matter the year
Let Him give you
A heart that’s
Brand-new.

If you don’t remain
Christ-centered
And surrendered
To His daily reign
Hope begins to drain
And life becomes a pain.
It’s essential to
Establish and maintain
Intimacy with Jesus.

A weekly
Churchy nod
To Jesus
Isn’t a
Lightening rod
For protection
From the judgment
Of God.
That requires
Letting Christ
Live in you
And continually
Make you new.

The brand-new start
Of a new year
Will not impart
A fresh new heart.
Time doesn’t heal.
Jesus does.

Year after year, the living Jesus never goes out of season! If “Christ in you” is seasonal there’s a major leak somewhere in your heart.

Letting Christ live and work in you is like staying plugged into a live electrical outlet. It’s ever thrilling and empowering! Millions of people are experiencing ongoing intimacy with the living Jesus, but their voices are too often ignored or shut down.

Christianity is often short-circuited and cut off from ongoing intimacy with the risen Jesus. Jesus came to remain. “Lo, I am with you always.” The risen Jesus is now living in and clothed in the individual humanity of His born again followers.

A new year doesn’t mean it’s time to take down your attention from celebrating Christ’s coming. Celebrate Jesus all year long.

Relationships aren’t systematic. To have a relationship with the risen Jesus we must go beyond religious systems. Christianity is so much more than a group of people passively listening to a sermon once a week.

Grace doesn’t replace obedience. It empowers it. Grace is like a walk in baseball. It’s a free pass to first base, but you still need to run the bases to get home.

When Christianity is trapped in the confines of passive religion people don’t experience the liberty and glory of its power. We can’t follow Christ into Spirit-led community when we’re captured by cultural constraints.

Whatever you do,
Let Jesus make
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When Christianity isn’t Christ-centered it’s counterfeit

Church-centered Christianity is a first step. It’s a good starting point but it’s not something to passively settle into and be comfortable with for the rest of your life. It’s vital to move forward into Christ-centered Christianity. Church membership without discipleship and Spirit-led obedience to the risen Lord Jesus is deceptive.

Church-centered Christianity says it’s a “hospital for sinners” but far too often it’s a nursing home for sinners. Instead of healing broken people and sending them out restored it makes them passive life-long dependents on Sunday services.

Church-centered Christianity seldom follows people out of the church door. It divides believers into separate independent groups and keeps them apart.

The Bible says that Christians are “competent to instruct one another.” (Romans 15:14.) However, church-centered Christianity hires a professional pastor to do it.

Church-centered Christianity is tied to a special time and place. Christ-centered Christianity is 24/7/365. Church-centered Christianity is incomplete because it leaves out discipleship and moment-by-moment intimacy with and obedience to the risen Lord Jesus Christ.

The world has seen church-centered Christianity and isn’t impressed. Now let’s show them Christ-centered Christianity. Christ-centered Christianity is the ongoing, passionate pursuit of a closer relationship with the living Jesus. It recognizes Jesus as the living Lord of every moment in everyday life.

Christ-centered Christianity occurs when a human heart is captivated by and surrendered to the risen Jesus. It excites and empowers people to live a Christ-centered lifestyle and unites believers around the risen Jesus.

Christ-centered Christians promote the name of Jesus not the names of ministers or churches. They stay thrilled about Jesus.

Christ-centered Christianity declares and demonstrates dependency on the risen Jesus that delivers delight. Keeping Jesus at a distance is an attitude of defiance. The best way to grow in the faith isn’t thru religious routines and rituals but thru daily dependency on the risen Jesus.

Be a Christ-centered Christian! Whenever anything contrary to Christ comes to mind cast it out. Christ-centered Christians are distracted from self-focus. When Christianity isn’t Christ-centered it’s counterfeit.

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The grace-based Christ exchange

To grow to be like Emmanuel who is God incarnate, requires an ongoing exchange–the surrendering of our will for God’s will. We must step away from our desires, feelings, and opinions in order to prepare the way of the Lord and make room in our innermost being to freely receive and submit to His ever-streaming presence that will transform us into glorious partakers of His divine nature.

The routine of rationalized religion rarely results in radical heart change. It may occasionally raise an eyebrow but seldom rouses a spiritual sleeper. Instead of disturbing all Jerusalem like the newborn Jesus did it caters to and coddles human nature. Now is the time for Christ-followers to stir up the gift that is within us until it breaks out of us as gushing rivers heavenly radiance.

Christianity shouldn’t be like a tethered hot air balloon. It should be freely soaring with the wind of the Spirit. When I’m tethered to my own desires, I’m unable to be directly led by God’s Spirit.

When the human heart is like a capped oil well and God’s living water isn’t allowed to freely flow, religion is but an empty and powerless glove. Christianity isn’t a invitation to snuggle into comfortable religion. It’s a call to take an inner, life-lasting journey toward the kingdom of God.

A banana peel is a poor replacement for a banana. Religious routine is a poor substitute for heart intimacy with the risen Jesus.

“Jesus is Lord!” is the elephant in the room. It makes people uncomfortable to hear about the accountability He requires of them.

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God’s route is Spirit-led

Christianity’s about Jesus and being led by His Spirit. Anyone or anything that gets more of your attention than Jesus blocks the way. Every Christian needs to learn to be led by God’s Spirit.

There’s nothing routine about being Spirit-led! It’s vastly different than settling into routine religion. The Bible clearly demonstrates that God wants people to rely on His presence, power, and reality, not just on religious routine. If you’re not being led by the Spirit, you might be asleep to God. Routine religion can become bland but being led by God’s Spirit is never dull.

The idea that Christianity should look the same each week isn’t biblical! Christians are called to be changed from glory to glory. It’s difficult to be led by the Spirit when you’ve embraced the route of routine.

You can’t follow Jesus if you’re unwilling to be led by the inner urgings of His Spirit and by His promptings in your conscience. Unless Christians are trained to be Spirit-led we’ll stay stuck in things that are spiritually dead.

Christians are called to be led by God’s Spirit in all we think, say, and do. Learn to be inwardly directed by God’s Spirit concerning everything you read, watch, or listen to.

Prepare the way of the Lord. Make plenty of room for the living Jesus to daily direct your life. Cooperate with the Holy Spirit as He convicts you to redirect your life away from self-will to God’s will.

Let the Bible be your daily training manual. It’s full of real-life examples of people who learned to be led by God’s Spirit.

Too many Christians ignore the fire of God and settle for smoldering ashes. If you’ve ever felt God’s fire in your heart stoke it back to full and roaring flame. To drown out the flames of the Holy Spirit’s fire is to reject being led by the Spirit.

Only the living Jesus, ever-present in the Holy Spirit, can safely lead us beyond the deeds of darkness. Christ in you is indeed the hope of glory! How desperately we need to be trained to let God’s Spirit daily lead us with His inner promptings and conscience urgings! See Romans 8:14.

Rather than welcoming
Wrongful thoughts
Into their head,
Christians need
To instead
Be Spirit-led.

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The world’s worst power outage

The power outage the Bible warns us about is powerless Christianity: People “having a form of godliness but denying its power.” When love is organized, programmed, and put on a calendar it loses vitality. That’s what churches have done to Christianity.

When electricity touches a person there’s usually a noticeable reaction. The same thing happens when Jesus touches a human heart.

When a church meets
Without the touch
Of the living Jesus
It’s lasting impact
Won’t be much.

#Jesus
Is trending
In my heart
And in my mind
Every day.

Biblical Christianity
Is relational
And transformational,
Not organizational.
It’s built on genuine affection,
Heart-to-heart connection,
With the risen Jesus
And His disciples.

The more Christianity
Is organized
The more
It’s trivialized
Until dead.
But the more
It’s Spirit-led
The closer it is
To the risen Jesus
It’s living Head.

Christianity is much more
Than sitting in a church
And hearing a pastor
Present religious research
From his perch
In a pulpit.
It’s spiritual jolts
That cause
The heart to lurch
Forward toward
The living Jesus.

Revival (spiritual awakening) restores the faded heart-connection (the lost first love) between Jesus and His lukewarm followers. It transforms Christianity from an organizational duty to a burning passion of the heart!

If you are a Christ-follower, toss off all spiritual slumber. Rouse yourself. “Fan into flame the gift of God that is in you.” Today is the day to wake up and begin to live your life as directly and powerfully led by God’s Spirit!

If you don’t let God the Builder continually build your faith, it will gradually fade from fire into formalism. Church is too often like a spiritual retirement home where people passively settle in to be entertained by talks about the past.

The choice for a church service isn’t preacher control or chaos. It’s preacher control or Christ’s control.

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Jesus is the reason I have hope in every season!

The church calendar tries to fit Jesus into seasonal categories, but the Bible says that Jesus is “the same yesterday, today, and forever.” Never make Jesus seasonal!

Jesus is the reason I stay excited about being alive! He’s the reason I’m forgiven. Jesus is the reason I “go tell it on the mountain.” He’s why I can’t be silent and passive–why I write, blog, post, and tweet all year long. He’s the reason I have hope in every season!

Jesus is the reason I write and say things to challenge people to directly connect their heart to Him and to obey His inner promptings. He’s the reason I want churches to be more than passive formalism and to let people personally obey His Spirit when they meet. Bodies in a church service do not equal hearts in love with and obedient to the risen Jesus.

The good news is that God is with us and ready to continually live inside us and empower us with His presence! Take Him up on His offer. Jesus is the God-man–the Creator of the Universe who became and a human being. He wants to be your everyday personal friend, not just a religious recipe to hopefully get you into Heaven someday.

Christians aren’t called to put our faith in church attendance, but to daily rely on the presence and power of the risen Jesus. Christ’s body has been falsely taught that it’s more important to hear a sermon than it is to obey Jesus’ inner promptings.

Church is too often a dry well offering people weekly talks about water but not training them to drink deeply from God’s Spirit. It too often ignores the living, present, and active Jesus and settles for a formalized, passive, and controlled Jesus. Jesus goes to those who are ignoring Him and knocks on their door. That may be the cause of the discomfort you feel in your heart.

When Peter saw Jesus transfigured with glory, he immediately wanted to build chapels. When spiritual awakening happens, people want to quickly organize it and fit it into churches and thus quench it. It’s time to set aside gimmie gimmicky religion and go all out for the risen Jesus!

Jesus is the reason I want to connect heart-to-heart with people and to “encourage one another” when I gather with other believers. When Christians gather it’s a great opportunity to encourage each other by allowing each person to openly express their faith.

Jesus is inside me continually crying out for expression. Church services expect me to sit quietly and quench His Spirit. Instead of breaking down the gates of Hell, church seems to shackle people to passive religious formalism.

Jesus wasn’t born so pastors can line people up in rows and lecture basically the same people each week until they die or leave. A pastor should be like a coach. Occasionally he lectures his players, but mostly he has them practice and then makes them active participants in the game.

It’s time for relationship not religion. The living Jesus can’t be controlled by religion whether by the ancient Pharisees or by the modern church. Instead of paying somebody to study the Bible and give us a weekly report, perhaps it would be better to read it for ourselves.

Never let Jesus be seasonal! Christmas hype and “Silent Night, Holy Night” are not the same thing! “Could we be perpetuating an image of Jesus that fits our pious expectations but does not match the person portrayed so vividly in the Gospels?” –Phillips Brooks

Instead of
Setting hearts on fire
Church seems
To merely require
Sunday attendance.

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