Steve Simms's Blog, page 119

God’s everywhere. (It’s silly to try to hide.)

I know that
God knows me
And focuses
On me with
Attentive awareness
There’s nothing
I can hide
From Him.
Even if I tried
Everything’s out
In the open.
He even knows
My secret pride.
Nothing can be denied.
He knows what I decide
Before I choose it.
He knows my every stride
Before I take it.
He knows when I’ve cried
Before a tear falls.
He knows where I reside
Even when I conceal it.
He knows when
I’m not on His side,
Yet He abides
Ever by my side.
Even when I refuse
To confide,
He knows the
Self-embraced lies
That I’ve hidden
Deep inside.
No matter how low
That I slide,
He knows
And cares
And calls me
To come to Him
As His bride.
O, how deep and wide
Is His love for me.

In the middle of all your distractions Jesus is continually trying to get your attention. What’s Jesus doing in you right now?

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All Saints Eve & Day are for celebrating Jesus-first people

It’s All Saints Eve–a day before All Saints Day, set aside to honor Jesus-first people. Don’t be distracted by devils.

“Hallow” is an old English word that means “to make holy or set aside for holy use.” Use today (and everyday) to glorify God! “Hallowed be Thy name.”

When I met my wife 33 years ago on All Saints Eve, little did I know that our life together would be surrounded by Jesus-first people. How blessed we are!

The purpose of All Saints Eve and Day is to celebrate the faith and inspiration of Jesus-first people. Show your appreciation to a Jesus-first person today.

I love to read the writings of Jesus-first people from the past and to spiritually interact with Jesus-first people alive today! Thank you to all the dear Jesus-first people who have encouraged me, loved me, discipled me, prayed for me, and poured out your heart to Jesus with me!

One Jesus-first person did a radical thing on All Saints Eve 505 years ago. He posted 95 criticisms of church and changed history. Now October 31 is also known as Reformation Day.

Happy All Saints (Jesus-first people) Eve and Day! Show some encouragement to the people you know who keep Jesus-first.

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Thinking about Jesus-first people

I love to spend time with people who keep Jesus first in their heart and lifestyle. Although they seem to be distracted from much of the details and desires of daily life, they have a burning focus on Jesus. They live with desire and determination to fulfil their destiny as faithful Christ-followers. They continually seek to hear and obey Jesus, even when it’s uncomfortable or costly.

Jesus-first people know how to interact with Jesus anytime and anyplace throughout the day. They love to talk about Him and when they do you can hear a thrill in their voice.

Jesus-first people are contagious. They don’t hold back their excitement about Jesus. Their love for Him stirs up my love for Him and together we soar in His presence.

Jesus-first people care. They freely forgive. They speak truth with love and humility. They even love their enemies and bless those who curse them.

Although I’ve been fortunate enough to meet and interact with hundreds of Jesus-first people and to have a great many as friends, they are quite rare. They’re sprinkled like salt all around the planet in every nation in the world, but because of their humility and tenderness of heart, they’re easy to overlook. They’re rarely in the most powerful or prominent places or positions. It helps to find them if you look among the lowly and the unassuming.

Thank you to all the Jesus-first people. Although you’re often misunderstood and rejected (even by churches) you keep the ever-living Jesus as your first priority.

Self-identifying’s not what it’s cracked up to be. I often meet Jesus-first people and quickly connect heart-to-heart with them around our common love for Christ, but I don’t know their human identity — their place of residence, their likes and dislikes, their job, their family stats, or their bio. I just sense the amazing kinship of recognizing and interacting with a brother or sister in Christ.

Your story is incomplete without Jesus. Too many Christians are being carried away by their desires instead of being carried along by God’s Spirit. Attending Christian meetings without living a Spirit-led lifestyle misses out on the power and reality of Christ in you. Christianity is about life, not about an organization. It’s about Jesus now, not about Jesus last Sunday or next Sunday.

Decisions based on self-focused feelings and desires are often deceptive. Jesus-first people base their decisions on Jesus.

Anywhere and everywhere: Because Jesus is everywhere, people can encounter Him anywhere. Because He is invisible, He can be encountered without being recognized. When I first encountered Him, I didn’t know who He was, but I was acutely aware of His presence and love. As I began to follow Him, He began to reveal Himself to me as the Jesus of the Bible, the Christ, the Son of the living God — God who became a man and shed His blood on the Cross to pay for my sin and to be the Door to restore me to Himself and give me eternal life. He rose from the dead to ever live and reign as the King of Kings and Lord of Lords. Jesus first!

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God is non-fiction — worship Him & see

Worship isn’t
The posture we take
Or the noise we make
It’s when we forsake
Our focus on self
And allow God to rake
Our heart with His presence
And make us wide awake
To His reality.

Anyplace
You open your heart
In honest and humble
Adoration of God
Becomes a place
Of worship.

When you’re
Continually aware
Of the presence of Jesus
Honest heart-felt worship
Happens anywhere
And everywhere!
Hallelujah!

The most important true or false question is whether I am a “true worshipper” like Jesus talked about or a false worshipper. To honor God with your words (or church attendance) while having your heart closed to Him falls far short of true worship.

Worship is organized and in proper order when it’s led by God’s Spirit, not when it’s directed or controlled by a human leader. When people encounter Spirit-led worship and a group of people all prophesying, the Bible says: “The secrets of their heart are laid bare. So they will fall down and worship God, exclaiming, ‘God is really among you!'” Have you encountered that kind of worship “in Spirit and in truth”?

We should worship God to please Him, not to please ourselves. To worship anything or anyone other than God is idolatry. The Bible says that to worship God “acceptably” requires that we be thankful and worship “with reverence and awe.” (Hebrews 12:28.) True worship comes by embracing our status as sinners who desperately need God’s mercy and grace, not by denying it.

Open-hearted worship and passionate prayer are not superstitions. They are direct links to the only real Superpower. True worship opens the heart to experience God’s love. God is non-fiction!

The more we realize how sinful we are, the more we are overwhelmed and undone by the awareness of God’s love for us. Worship is a heart enraptured in the awareness of the presence and love of the living God.

To disobey Jesus’ command to worship “in spirit and in truth” (with a sincere and honest heart) is to commit the sin of hypocrisy. Worship is to sincerely pour out your heart in grateful praise and adoration to the living God. “O come let us adore Him!”

Everybody worships something. Observing their lifestyle will tell you what it is. The more you worship and adore God with an open and sincere heart, the greater your freedom from the dominion of self.

If you don’t like ongoing, passionate worship, you probably won’t like Heaven. I believe that a heart abandoned to worship is closer to God than a mind listening to a theological lecture. It’s time for non-fiction (true) worship!

God is looking for simple loving interaction with people, not for religious rituals or passive obligatory church attendance. Sermons rarely fill a human heart with an overwhelming desire to daily follow and obey the risen Jesus. Often what we call church is a crowd of bored people who would secretly rather be doing something else. Christian leaders who promote their own name or organization more than the name of Jesus, will likely mislead you.

Christianity isn’t
A Sunday morning
Turnstile.
It’s an everyday
Lifestyle.

No theological book
Can match the power
Of one clear look
At the alive Jesus.

God has a remedy
For human misery,
Yet too often I don’t see
That the remedy
Is letting Christ
Freely live in me.

Distractions are subtractions that take away your sense of purpose.

If you never click the delete icon in your mind, you’ll live distracted all the time. Distraction isn’t a disorder. It’s the lack of rigorous self-control. Look not at what isn’t good to see. Click not where going isn’t good for you.

Distractions are like the sea. They keep seeding their waves and clamoring for your attention. They are an attack on your sovereignty over your own mind. Distractions are subtractions because they take away your sense of purpose.

Learn to manage and control your attention instead of constantly letting it be snatched away. Dispute with distractions. Refute them. Mute them. Scoot them aside. Refuse to toot their horn. Don’t let distractions loot you.

When attention is hijacked by distractions, self-control goes out the door. The more I miss out on distractions, the more I can enjoy what matters most to me. Your mind will stay distracted until you give it something to passionately focus on. Without commitment to a compelling purpose, distraction will fill your life.

Too many people let distractions decide their destiny. When you give your attention to distractions, you give away your self-control. If you don’t have the freedom to control your attention and to choose your focus, you’re not free at all. Strong distracting desires, instead of identifying people, keep humans from knowing who they really are.

Self-focus
Causes me
Not to clearly see
How God
Wants me to be.
It distracts me
From selfless
Acts of love
And the one thing
That matters most,
Christ-focus.
When I’m complaining,
Worried and upset
I fail to see that
I’m not maintaining
My attention on Jesus.

When you let
A distraction
Gain traction
In your mind,
It will run
All over you.

Jesus is the way.
To stay
Distracted from the way
Is to be lost.

A diversion
Is a fancy version
Of a distraction.

Distracted Christians focus on many things but overlook the one thing that is necessary, keeping their mind and heart set on Jesus. Distractions quench the Holy Spirit. Stay focused on Jesus. In order to “seek first the kingdom of God,” we must leave distractions behind.

The key to overcoming spiritual attention deficit disorder is to perpetually reset your attention on Jesus. When the risen Jesus becomes the consuming, ongoing attraction in your life, distraction is no longer an issue.

Christ in you wants to mold you, moment-by-moment, into His likeness. He’s not wanting you to settle into a routine religious mold. Passionless Christianity has lost sight of the incomprehensible depth of our sin and our desperate need for a Savior.

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Christianity is about individuals, not clones in religious institutions

Until we gather with and spiritually connect with Christ-transformed individuals, there will be little unity among Christians. When Christ-transformed individuals recognize each other there’s an instant sense of kinship and community. I sold black history books during college summers and every day I had empowering encounters with Christ-transformed individuals.

Christ-transformed individuals break the religious mold and embrace their calling to be unique and diverse members of Christ’s body. Don’t be a religious clone. Be a Christ-transformed individual connecting heart-to-heart with others who want to freely follow Jesus. Perhaps it’s time to de-clone church attendees.

Spirit-led heart-change happens to individuals, not to religious institutions. Christian meetings should train people to be Spirit-led. They should never take the place of God’s Spirit. Before Christianity can be a group thing, it must begin with Christ-transformed individuals.

A group religious meeting that keeps Christ-transformed individuals in a passive and silent role may be doing more harm than good. Churches need to encourage Christ-transformed individuals to speak up about Jesus, not keep them quiet.

Disciple making is about training, empowering, and releasing Christ-transformed individuals to daily follow and obey the risen Jesus. A religious hierarchy tends to silence Christ-transformed individuals and force them to conform to group protocol.

Christian community begins with Christ-transformed individuals, not with organized meetings for religious “services.” When “going to church” replaced personal connection among Christ-transformed individuals, institutionalism replaced the body of Christ. Revival happens when Christ-transformed individuals begin to recognize and humbly open their heart to each other.

Christ-transformed individuals have a supernatural, inner connection with each other that can override their differences. The body of Christ consists of Christ-transformed individuals. It’s not a religious hierarchy or a human-led institution. When Christ-transformed individuals gather and connect with humble, open hearts, God’s glory fills the atmosphere.

Christ-transformed individuals need more than religious lecture. They need hands-on training and personal experience in obeying God’s Spirit. When Christ-transformed individuals are trained to perpetually depend on sermons, they tend to drift away from being Spirit-led.

Christ-transformed individuals do life with the living Jesus. They’re quick to apologize and make things right when they slip up and do something wrong.

Biblical Christianity is a Spirit-led lifestyle not a pastor-led Sunday program. Christ-transformed individuals are led by the Holy Spirit, not by their own desires, emotions, and opinions.

The risen Jesus should be the Lord of a Christian but sinful habits give ungodly desires lordship over a person. Ungodly desires and Jesus can’t both be Lord of your life at the same time. When Christians believe they are 100% free from sin, they often “cast the first stone.” Because Christ-transformed individuals have a strong definition of sin (missing the mark of God’s perfect moral standards in actions, omissions, thoughts, or heart) they show much mercy and kindness toward others.

Christ-transformed individuals
Are often in disguise.
You can't always recognize
Them with your natural eyes
But when you mention Jesus
You see His glory rise
And shine thru their eyes.I love to let
God’s grace
Displace
My distractions
With His Spirit
And put His glory
In their place.
That happens the most
When I have
Nothing to base
My hope on
But Jesus.The witness
Of God's Spirit,
Can you hear it.
Silently sounding
And abounding
Within you?[image error]Pexels.com" data-medium-file="https://stevesimms.files.wordpress.co..." data-large-file="https://stevesimms.files.wordpress.co..." src="https://stevesimms.files.wordpress.co..." alt="" class="wp-image-33618" />Photo by cottonbro on Pexels.com

Words in my heart are my wake-up call

I wake up in the morning and Jesus puts words in my heart. I respond by passively pondering and the words come together as individual phrases (and sometimes as poems). These are the words that manifested in my heart this morning when I first woke up: (The process sometimes continues throughout the day.)

“To abide in Christ is to stay ever focused on Him.”

“True Christ-followers keep their focus and awareness stayed on Jesus, not on self.”

“In order to abide
In Christ
Let your heart reside
Ever in awe of
His presence inside.
Continually confide
In Jesus as your guide
And never hide
Or set Him aside.
Always ride
His Spirit-flowing tide
Far and wide.”

Here are the words that danced together in my heart yesterday:

“Attune your heart
To Christ’s tune
Let Him consume
Your time and attention.”

“Many people spend life
Attuned to their desires
And never discovers
That joy requires
We delight in
What inspires
Hope and kindness”.

“If you’re not aware of Jesus actively working inside of you, He may not be in there.

“When Christ-followers gather and intentionally attune to Jesus, they discover that they’re in tune with one another.”

“The ‘go to church’ Bible verse? Some people think Hebrews 10:25 requires church attendance. I think it means to spiritually interact with other Christians and actively help each other follow and obey the living Jesus.”

“When I read the New Testament, I don’t see a ‘thing’ — an organization or religious institution. Instead, I see the members body of Christ fulfilling the 50+ NT ‘one another’ commands. The body of Christ in the New Testament is organic and Spirit-led. There is oversight in the meetings by the ‘overseers’ but not human control and programming. We can assemble ourselves together without ‘a form of godliness’ that too often ‘denies the power thereof.'”

“10 sins American culture embraces and even celebrates:

Self-focusUnrestrained sexual desireAbortionDivorceDrunkennessDishonestyLust for wealthVerbal attacksGlorifying violenceRebellion against authority”

“Surrounding yourself, family, and neighbors with decorations of darkness, death, and evil is probably detrimental to your mental health. Fully embrace and live in God’s Light!”

When life looks backwards, let the ever-living Jesus turn you around.

A ground-breaking wake-up thought this morning

As soon as I woke up this morning, I wrote this on a slip of paper: (“If Christ is in you, He’s not just there passively. He’s there actively working in you.”) That was ground-breaking in my consciousness. Now, after reading today’s edition of the blog, Wake-Up Call, I know one of the things that Jesus is doing in me. He’s attentively scratching the ground that He has planted inside my heart searching for signs of growth — the germination of HIs working to cultivate His life in me.

Paul of Tarsus wrote: “Christ in you, the hope of glory.” Then he said: “Christ so powerfully works in me.” How does Jesus want to work inside of you? He wants to powerfully lead you, convict you, comfort you, heal you, teach you, strengthen you, protect you, train you, disciple you, release His glory in you, and much more — moment by moment.

Contend with your will that is intent on resisting and/or manipulating Jesus’ working in you. Fight to surrender to and fully cooperate with the way Jesus is attentively cultivating the field of your heart. Deny yourself and your own self-dependency. You don’t have the ability or the power to grow the spiritual seeds that Jesus is nurturing withing you. Make yourself step aside and let the ever-living Jesus freely break up your fallow ground. Rely on His ability and desire to cultivate you from within and carry you from glory to glory, not on your self-effort.

Christians meeting with heart-felt awareness of Jesus

Acute awareness of the risen Jesus requires much more than hearing a talk about Him. It requires direct, personal, ongoing, and interactive encounter with Him. It requires a knowing beyond head knowledge that ignites the heart with awe-filled aha and hallelujah.

Christ-followers can gather with other believers in heart-felt, attentive awareness of the presence of the risen Jesus. Then, instead of relying on a program, ministrant, agenda, or curriculum, they can experience the simplicity and faith of children relying on their father to pick them up and carry them. That sets the stage for the divine intervention and holy awe that was manifest when the disciples gathered in the Book of Acts.

People who hunger and thirst for a deeper relationship with Jesus can go beyond gathering in “a form of godliness” that essentially ignores the active and ongoing presence, power, and Headship of the ever-present Jesus. They can have everyone present listen to (attune to) the risen Jesus and then say and/or do whatever He tells them to. The resulting demonstrations of Jesus’ reality will be awe-inspiring and life changing.

Then, having encountered and experienced (seen and heard) the living Jesus actively working in and through the ordinary believers gathered in His name, people will have an awareness of Jesus that will remain with them as they are supernaturally empowered to live in, but not of, the world. Try it for yourself. Gather with one or two or more people. Tune into Jesus. Then let each person say and/or do what He prompts them to.

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Is a Christian still a sinner?

It’s easy to see sins in other people; it’s much harder to see them in yourself. It’s easy to “plead the 5th” and hide your sins, but until you confess them and receive forgiveness, they’ll cause you much misery.

To believe that you have no sin is deception. (See 1 John 1:8.) To continually ask God to reveal any sin in you is wisdom. (See Psalm 139:24.) If you think that there is no sin in your life, what do you call those bad things that you’re trying to hide from other people?

Some Christians claim that they’re not a sinner, but you’re still a sinner if you’re:

Self-focused,Misrepresenting the truth,Manipulating people,Ignoring your conscience,Lusting or coveting,Cheating,Watching or reading sinful entertainment.Blaming people for your bad behavior,Putting anyone or anything first before Jesus,Neglecting to “consider others better than yourself,”Taking anything that doesn’t belong to you,Not loving your neighbors (and your enemies)Surrendering to wrongful peer pressure,Praising or applauding wrongful behavior.Resisting God’s command to “humble yourself,”Jealous,Seldom showing mercy,Wanting bad things to happen to someone,Ignoring those in need,Refusing to forgive anyone,Not blessing those who curse you,Being hard-hearted,Helping trash the planet with disposable plastic,Following your desires instead of God’s will,In any way quenching the Holy Spirit,Claiming you’re not a sinner.

Lord, have mercy on me a sinner. Help me keep repenting and realigning with You as long as I live.

Blaming other people for your sins is cowardly. It takes courage to take responsibility for your wrongful thoughts and behaviors.

To repent is to testify against yourself. It is to openly admit your wrongdoing, to stop it, and to do your best to make amends.

Repentance isn’t just confessing sins that are in your past. It’s the ongoing process of acknowledging & turning away from present moment sins.

Too many people
Read the Bible
With weeds,
Religious distractions.
Instead read it
With deeds,
Of repentance.
Then its seeds
Will flourish in you.

Jesus is the Way
To experience healing
And forgiveness.
He’s the Door
Who has opened up
To whosoever
Will enter into
And live in
Humble surrender to
The presence of God.