Steve Simms's Blog, page 121
October 16, 2022
The truth lies between grace and repentance
Lies deflect
The light of truth.
Have the courage
To honestly reflect
Reality.
Repentance is to
“Walk in the light”
And no longer disguise
Or hide your lies.
Liar, liar
Twists the truth
To hide the evil fire
Of corrupt desire.
Don’t leave your soul
Laying around
In the sin
Of lying.
The lies you tell
Have a stronger hold
On your life
Than the lies you’re told.
Even a small lie lies outside the realm of truth. Lies are misleading attempts to distort or cover up the truth. Distorting the truth is dishonesty — the sin of deception.
Lies are out of touch with the real world. Liars promote their Lalaland fantasies and deny reality.
Lying isn’t a trivial thing. It’s an attempt to blatantly and intentionally deceive and mislead people. Lies run from truth and hide like Adam and Eve in the garden.
The more lies that you allow to lie around in your heart and in your mind, the further you are from God. To repent is to walk in the light — to honestly testify against yourself.
Until we’re honest and let go of the darkness of deception we’ll never be aligned with God. “In Him there is no darkness at all.” The living Jesus is the door to grace! Lord, have mercy on me.
Dishonesty’s a major sin because unless you honestly admit your need for God’s grace (repent) you falsely believe you deserve it. Grace is unmerited favor. It’s God’s free gift to those who don’t deserve it. Believing that you deserve grace causes you to reject it.
Repentance (admitting the evil of your sin) doesn’t earn God’s grace. It makes you realize that you desperately need it.
Self-love says, “I’m amazing and worthy to be honored.” The reality within me says, “What amazing grace that God can love me!”
Self-love isn’t the way to joy or hope. Love for Jesus is. When we try to prove our worthiness, we go amiss and mislead ourselves into believing that we are something that we aren’t.
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October 15, 2022
If people would rely on Jesus as much as they do on alcohol . . .
Need hope?
Too much drinking
Will give you a hangover,
But full surrender
To the ever-living Jesus
Will give you a glorious
Inner makeover!
The best way
Out of a funk
Isn’t to get drunk.
It’s better to chunk
The alcohol
And let Jesus plunk
Your pain
Down the drain.
If you think
You need a drink
To help unwind
Your mind,
You should try
Soaking in
The presence
Of the risen Jesus!
If people at restaurants, sporting events, parties, and bars sought to be influenced by the risen Jesus as much as they do by alcohol what a wonderful world it would be. Alcohol is a poor substitute for the new wine of God’s Spirit overflowing from within. The Bible offers being filled with God’s Spirit as a glorious alternative to getting drunk. (Ephesians 5:18.)
The Jesus cycle spirals upwards “from glory to glory.” The drinking cycle can take you down the drain. Let Spirit-led prayer flow as freely and spontaneously as alcohol at a bar. “O taste and see that the Lord is good.” If you really want to relax and loosen up, open up and take in the presence of the living Jesus.
The best way to drown your sorrows is to let yourself be captivated by the living Jesus. I’m a Christaholic. I can’t get enough of the risen Jesus! My heart continually drinks the new wine of the Holy Spirit. Jesus keeps me so filled with joy that I have no desire for alcohol.
Under the influence of the living Jesus life is beautiful. I never want to be away from His influence.
There’s never a hangover from being intoxicated with Jesus. When you let Him lift your spirit there’s no need to come down.
You can’t permanently burry your anxiety in a bottle, but Jesus can carry your burdens and bless you with bountiful inner peace. The more you absorb the new wine of God’s Spirit, the more alcohol will seem like drinking the Kool-Aid.
When Christians gather to worship, we should drink in the actual presence of the Lord more than we trust a in program or a pastor. The Bible says that there should be no divisions among Christ-followers. Anything that divides the body of Christ isn’t biblical.
Addiction to alcohol
Is devastating.
Addiction to Jesus
Is liberating.
As alcohol fills your body
It drains your brain
Til you act insane.
Then it sets you up
For hangover pain.
October 14, 2022
A church on the corner doesn’t pray. People do!
True Christianity is more
Than religious information.
It’s glorious proclamation,
Powerful demonstration,
Life transformation,
And joyous celebration.
(For more delight, google: The Joy Of Early Christianity.)
God wants to build
With living stones
And construct more than
Church or chapel domes.
Christians are called
To gather
To worship and interact with
The living Jesus
Together.
The churches scattered about are religious buildings. Following Jesus involves so much more than a short weekly visit to one of them. A church on the corner doesn’t pray. People do!
Hearing a good talk about something exciting is nothing like personally experiencing it. Interacting with Jesus is thrilling and healing!
A plumber can service a church’s plumbing, but if Jesus’ living water isn’t freely flowing, it just a building repair. If a church can be demolished, it’s nothing but a building.
No matter how beautifully your church may be decorated, Jesus still wants to be the King who reigns on the throne in your heart. Church windows may be colorful, but if you don’t see the living Jesus through the windows of your soul, what does it matter?
When worship is focused on God’s Spirit people will find a place to meet, but when it’s focused on the place to meet, they may not find God’s Spirit. Jesus said that God wants worship to be “in Spirit and in truth,” not to be in any special building or location. True worship flows from the heart. It doesn’t depend on the availability of a church or any other house of worship.
A church on the corner is only a building but Jesus in your heart is joy unspeakable. Getting you into a church is not God’s primary objective. He wants to get and keep Christ alive in you.
True story: Three men were in an empty church. One said: “This is a marvelous edifice.” Another said: “It’s a glorious structure.” The third (me) said: “Not only that it’s a real nice building.”
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What can decode me and my identity?
As long as
Our thoughts
Are a mess
And our inner life
Is full of stress
We know far less
About our identity
Than we think we do.
When you think
Other people
Are very different than you,
It’s just not true.
We all have
The same identity–
Human.
Our pride
Tends to hide
The commonality
Of all humanity–
Our shared struggles,
Heartbreaks,
And insecurities.
Too many people are living with a fake ID, not in their pocket, but in their mind. You can never discover your true identity as long as you choose to live in darkness. When we don’t like something in our character, too often we hide it behind ego instead of turning away from it with humility.
Feelings and desires don’t define who we are. We are humans who have the power to embrace them or to resist them. Our feelings and thoughts are easily subject to deception; we often aren’t who we feel like and think that we are.
The truth about who you are isn’t what you call yourself. It’s revealed in how you choose to live your daily life. No matter what words you use to identify yourself, your true identity is much deeper than that. Self-labeling is usually more self-deceiving than it is self-identifying.
We can’t accurately self-identify because our subconscious mind represses much of who we are and our conscious mind often deceives us. Too often we try to find a self-identity that justifies our desires instead of telling the truth about who we really are.
The first step to finding our true identity is to identify the sin in our life that is hiding it. (That’s called repentance.) As long as there is darkness in your heart, your self-identity will be off base.
When we choose to define the most innocent form of human life as noting but disposable tissue, we destroy our identity. You were once a fetus who someone refused to kill.
What can decode me and my identity? Because we’re made in God’s image, connecting with Him is the key to finding our identity. I’m not what I think or what I feel. I am what “I AM” says I am.
Lost identity
Is a sign
Of self-deception.
It can’t be restored
By self-perception.
Only reception
Of God’s Light
Can reveal it.
To self-identify
is to misidentify
And to deny
Who you really are,
A being who is created
In the image of God.
The Bible is the Jesus-book.
Open up its cover
To take an honest look
And you’ll soon discover
His presence at work
In you.
(1 Thessalonians 1:13.)
October 12, 2022
Stay charged with the ever-living Jesus
I want to be
A fruit stand
Of God’s Spirit
Giving free samples
Of His produce
To all who pass by.
Before you express your feelings, align them with reality. “Is this feeling based on truth or is it just my emotional reaction?”
The closer I stay to the risen Jesus, the less my feelings dominate me and the more I freely soar on the wind of God’s Spirit. When we have no direct connection with and awareness of the ever-living Jesus we’re spiritually offline.
Jesus is a fully charged battery of hope and power. If Christ is in you, make sure you stay connected to His unlimited energy flow.
When people have Christ living inside of them, they have a deep, inner connection with each other, even if they don’t recognize it. When Christ in me connects with Christ in you we experience a beautiful sense of kinship.
Reading the Bible with an open, honest heart connects me to the living Jesus. I sense Him working strongly in me as I read. People who are surrendered to the presence and power of the risen Jesus experience a supernatural connection when they open their heart to each other.
The best protection
Against feelings of rejection
Is ongoing connection
With Jesus.
The friction
In your life,
Doesn’t need
To be restriction.
Let it be
The inner ignition
That sets you ablaze
With ever-growing hunger
For greater connection
With God.
The Jesus Book
I was a church attending cultural Chirstian. One day it was revealed to me that what I thought was belief in Christ was nothing more than my passive acknowledgement of church doctrine. Suddenly I realized that I was a Christian in name only, so to be honest with myself, I rejected Christianity and asked whatever or whoever created the universe to show me the truth.
About two years later I heard two people tell how they had experienced the living Jesus Christ, and, in a moment, Jesus became real and present to me. I’ve never been the same. The risen Jesus working inside of me prompted me to read the Bible and the words jumped off the pages and thrilled my heart. Reading the written Word flooded my soul with the living Word and began to become flesh in me by transforming my thoughts, feelings, and desires and changing the way I live from the inside out. That process has never stopped! I still delight in the words of the Bible. Ever since I first began to read it, I’ve only missed a handful of days exploring it. The words echo in my mind and heart throughout the day.
Open your heart and surrender your life to the ever-living Jesus. Then He will lead you to His Book and make the words convict, delight, heal, and transform you from within. Regularly read the Jesus-book — red or black the words will impact you deeply!
October 11, 2022
I looked in the Book!
One day something happened
Deep inside of me
That made me see
Everything differently.
I didn’t understand
What was going on
So I picked up a Bible
And it was like a phone.
As I read
The words it said
Went beyond my head
And spoke thrillingly
To my heart
Planting seeds
Of hope
And meeting needs
I didn’t know I had.
I’ve found nothing
That compares
To the living words
That the Bible shares
And plants within me.
They empower me
Everyday
To taste and see
That the Lord is good!
If you daily read
With an open heart
The Bible will plant
Life-giving seed
In you, too!
October 10, 2022
Jesus steps have walked on water. They can keep me afloat!
Don’t mumble
Or grumble
When your
Self-steps stumble.
Trade them in
For Jesus-steps.
Christianity is about replacing self-steps with Jesus-steps — exchanging me-power for Jesus-power. (Jesus-steps are steps that are led and empowered by the living Jesus.) Self-steps based on our own desires, feelings, and opinions lead to bondage and deception. Jesus-steps lead to freedom in Christ. The more Jesus-steps I take, the more I find my heart dancing.
Discouraged people
Need to see you do
The Jesus-step.
So they can be amazed
At God’s choreography
In your life.
Jesus-steps have walked on water. They can aways keep me afloat! My steps toward Jesus are never as powerful as the steps I let Him take in and through me.
Jesus-steps
Follow His lead.
They don’t
Step on His feet.
Every Jesus-step you don’t take quenches His spirit in your life. When was your last Jesus-step? What is your next one? The first step from self-steps to Jesus-steps is repentance.
Jesus-steps
Don’t linger
And lounge
In comfort zones.
When you self-step into failure and pain, Jesus-steps are the way out. When you quick step in the wrong direction you get there much faster. Slow down then turn around. When the Bible says, “Walk in the Spirit,” it’s telling us to replace self-steps with Jesus-steps.
Self-steps roam
In a dome
Of deception.
Jesus-steps
Lead home.
Baby steps might not be your answer. The source of a step is much more important than the size. An occasional Jesus-step doesn’t make a Christ-follower. The first step in taking Jesus-steps is to surrender your will to His. Many Jesus-steps are easy, but our pride makes them seem difficult.
Too many Christians
Are hobbling
And wobbling
With baby steps
Instead of striding
And gliding
With Jesus-steps.
If it’s a Jesus-step take it. Avoid the self-step-strut. God has a next Jesus-step for you. Take it now! When you begin to consistently take Jesus-steps your life will turn around.
Self-steps climb
The mountain of pride
Jesus-steps glide
On the grace
Of humility.
A church that doesn’t train people to take Jesus-steps winds up with a room full of spectators. A Christ-follower is someone who has been trained to take ongoing Jesus-steps. Self-steps can take you to church, but only Jesus-steps can make you a disciple. Gathering as a Sunday morning audience isn’t an effective way to learn to take Jesus-steps.
The more Jesus-steps
That you take
The more sense
Your life will make.
Many people who go to church have never taken their first Jesus-step. If you’ve never taken Jesus-steps, you’ve never really walked! The smallest Jesus-step can do infinitely more than your greatest giant leap.
Jesus-steps go beyond
The tree of knowledge
To partake of
The tree of life.
Self-steps often lead to regret. Jesus-steps never do. Take the Jesus-step that you’ve been avoiding.
Decide
To let Christ
Be your inner guide
And make your every stride
A Jesus-step.
Jesus-steps are worth the walk! Pursue them. If you see a spring in my steps, it’s the ever-living Jesus abounding in my heart. When I take Jesus-steps and let Him lead me, my heart leaps with joy!
Self-steps,
Though full of pride,
Slip and slide
And often collide
With reality.
Grace freely empowers human beings to take Jesus-steps, but freewill often rejects them. People who take Jesus-steps frequently find themselves at His feet pouring out gratitude and adoration.
Grace isn’t
An elevator to Heaven.
It’s the free gift
Of supernatural power
To take the Jesus-steps
That will get you there.
Self-steps grow weary, but Jesus-steps stay ever strong. I choose the goal for my self-steps, but God determines the goal for Jesus-steps.
It’s hard to
Move your feet
And take Jesus-steps
If your religion
Is nothing more
Than Sunday sitting
In a cold church seat.
Every step you take is either a self-step or a Jesus-step. Even the smallest Jesus-step will bring you closer to Him. The journey to eternal life follows the narrow way of Jesus-steps. Every step taken in Heaven is a Jesus-step, but earth suffers from a famine of Jesus-steps
Self-steps often mold
Us into familiar patterns
That make us cold
And continually hold
Us in the same old
Habits that keep us
From being bold
Inner-freedom fighters.
Stack up the Jesus-steps and you will step over the stack of life’s obstacles. If people can’t see you boldly taking Jesus-steps, you won’t be able to convince them to take them.
When you ask,
“What’s the matter
With my life,”
You’ve lost sight
Of the fact
That Jesus-steps
Matter.
A great “service” a church service could offer would be to consistently demonstrate people Jesus-stepping with Christ’s infectious love and contagious joy. When Christians meet, they aren’t called to follow procedures or programs. They’re called to take Jesus-steps. When you experience a gathering of Jesus-stepping Christ-followers who are connected heart-to-heart with Jesus and with each other it’s life-changing.
Self-steps
Lead to missteps
But Jesus-steps
Lead to life.
Snake! Watch your step!
Snaky thinking says:
“If it looks tasty, try it,”
And asks us the question,
“Did God really say not to eat it?”
But choice without conscience
(God’s truth in our heart),
And self-steps without obedience
(Based solely on own
Desires, feelings, and knowledge)
Open our free will
To the deceptive appeal
Of the evil influence
Of the slivering snake
That prowls around
In the garden of our mind
To paint ball God’s inner image
With the despairing colors
Of death and distortion
That separate us
From the Source real life.
October 9, 2022
Answer God’s questions. Why question them?
Does God ask questions? Yes. Too often we dodge His questions instead of answering them. Before God answers your questions, He may be waiting on you to answer His.
When God asked, “Adam, where are you?” He wasn’t trying to locate Adam. He was trying to help Adam realize that he was separated from God. Where are you?
Once God questioned me like He did Adam. I was a high school student sitting bored in church when this came to my mind: If you were born a Hindu what would you be today?” Intrigued by the question I pondered it and suddenly realized that I would be a Hindu. Another question quickly followed: “Why do you think you’re a Christian?” Like Adam I realized that I was separated from God. I falsely thought I believed but it was only because of the influence of the religion of my birth.
I accepted my unbelief and rejected Jesus, Christianity, and the Bible, but I realized that my belief in some sort of Creator, an intelligence or a force, was still in tack. I would have believed that regardless of my birthplace. After two years as thoughtful agnostic, I encountered a group of passionate Christ-followers thrilled about the living Jesus. I saw Him in them and have never been the same. I love God’s questions! Do you?
Here are some other questions that God asks people in the Bible. Just maybe He’s asking them to you.
“What is this you have done?” –Genesis 3:13.“Where have you come from and where are you going?” –Genesis 16:6-10.“What is that in your hand?” –Exodus 4:1-5. “What are you doing here?” –1 Kings 19:1-10.“Where were you when I laid the earth’s foundations?” Job 38:1-4.“Whom shall I send?” Isaiah 6:1-8.“Do you have a reason to be angry?” Jonah 4:1-4.“Can these bones live?” Ezekiel 37:1-4.
“Examine yourself to see
Whether you are in the faith.”
Are you spiritually alive?
Were you born again
So that new life could begin?
Are you daily trusting God
To keep you from sin?
Do you strive
To seek Jesus first?
Does your heart thrive
In the ongoing presence of
The ever-living Jesus?
When you take the time
To honestly answer
God’s questionnaire,
You’ll begin to breathe
His spiritual air.
Be Spirit-led,
Make Christ your Head.
Listen to Jesus
And do what He said.
Then you won’t be
Spiritually dead.
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