Steve Simms's Blog, page 122
October 8, 2022
Can a worship gathering be “a stench to God?”
I read this last night: “I hate, I despise your religious festivals; your assemblies are a stench to Me.” (Amos 5:21.) It made me realize that God doesn’t like every Christian gathering. I felt prompted to post it, and to also quote what Jesus said about that subject, but I thought it might be too controversial, so I didn’t.
Then this morning, I randomly opened my Bible and my eyes immediately saw the words from Jesus that I thought about last night: “A time is coming and now has come when the true worshippers will worship the Father in the Spirit and in truth, for they are the kind of worshippers the Father seeks. God is spirit and His worshippers must worship in the Spirit and in truth.” (John 4:23:24.)
When we gather for worship is it “in the Spirit and in truth,” or is it as an assembly that is “a stench” to God?”
Religious curriculum can make you numb, but Christ will give you life!
When life wearies
And overwhelms me,
A sermon series
Full of theories
Isn’t enough
To feed my soul
And make me whole.
The risen Jesus is!
Awareness
Of swirling awe
Opens the way
To Experience
The incomprehensible God.
You don’t develop a relationship with Jesus by learning information about Him, but by surrendering your heart to Him. When Christianity was turned into a course — a curriculum to be taught by a Sunday classroom-style lecture — it went off course.
“Knowledge puffs up.” When we’re confident that we can explain God, we become proud like the Pharisees. To simplify and systematize God into theology that can be understood by the mind is to step away from His inexpressible glory.
Because God is incomprehensible doesn’t mean that He isn’t real. I would doubt the existence of a God I could understand and explain. God is incomprehensible, but not unexperienceable.
Christianity is Good News — proclamations to experience, not explanations to study. The living Jesus is ever-present to set you free. “Lean not on your own understanding.” To say that everything happened merely by time and chance is to grasp for an excuse to avoid the logical need for a Creator.
We can sense things that we don’t understand (such as love). Don’t reject the awareness of God because you can’t explain Him. God is incomprehensible. If you think you can explain Him, you’re unaware of His glorious majesty. The living Jesus can be pondered and experienced, but He can’t be figured out.
God’s not a subject to “study” as the word is frequently understood in the King James Bible in 2 Timothy 2:15. He’s incomprehensible! In old King James English, “study” didn’t mean to memorize information. It meant to focus on, to think about, to ponder, or to observe as in, “Let me study the plans.”
Christianity isn’t a curriculum, a course, or a classroom lecture to target the mind. It’s a calling to open up your inner most being to the risen Jesus and to “correctly handle” the revelations that God gives to you, “the word of truth.” Christ-followers are called to focus on the risen Jesus and do what He says — to be “led by the Spirit,” not by our own understanding.
“Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a worker who does not need to be ashamed and who correctly handles the word of truth.” –2 Timothy 2:15 in the NIV Bible.
Love the Lord with all your mind. Go beyond critical thinking and ponder the presence of Jesus until He wondrously blows your mind. To love someone with all your mind doesn’t mean that you continually analyze and learn facts about them. It means you keep them affectionally in your thoughts. Love God that way!
“Me time” isn’t your answer. Time with the living Jesus is.
Jesus is knocking
On your heart
Seeking you.
Let your pride
Step aside
And give Him
Full access.
Beyond my mind,
Beyond my heart,
Jesus flows
From within me
Like an electric current,
From sensation
To demonstration,
From faint awareness
To gushing joy.
October 7, 2022
Being real matters! (Being fake {like a tin man} won’t make it.)
People weren’t made
To be like a tin guy.
You know why?
We have hearts to feel
And tears to cry.
Be real!
When we’re hollow like a tin man, we feel empty. Be real!
Jesus denounced role players and called them hypocrites. His Beatitudes are the “be-real-itudes.” They’re about being broken enough (“poor in spirit”) to experience radical inner transformation, not about posturing to impress people thru outward role-formation.
The Christian life is about letting God, your gardener, grow and prune you into what you were made to be — a Spirit-led and Christ-empowered model of the image of God, reflecting His will on earth as it is in Heaven. It’s about letting Christ’s redemption and restoration replace all the rebellion in your heart, mind, and lifestyle and return you to the “original glory” of being made in God’s image.
Christianity is about going beyond a pittance of repentance to full, unconditional, and continual surrender of your will to the ever-living Jesus. It’s about raising your focus far beyond merely going to church to the ongoing moment-by-moment surrender of your all to the awareness and reality of “Christ in you, the hope of glory.”
Trade self-awareness for Christ-awareness and your happiness level will soar. When Christ-followers gather, they should create an atmosphere where the ever-living Jesus can demonstrate and display His power. When the guy sitting next to you in church is like a tin man, there’s no real fellowship, no matter how good the sermon may be.
Church seems to keep people from being honest and real. You see people yawning, dazed, aimlessly looking around, and even sleeping during the sermon, and then hear them tell the pastor, “Good sermon.” When there’s a greater focus on going to church than on “Christ in you,” church has become an idol.
A weekly meeting
Conducted in a particular
Religious format
Isn’t always the way
God wants to work
Among His people.
He longs
To connect them
Heart-to-heart
To Himself
And to each other.
A Sunday morning talk
Full of religious theory
That you’ve never experienced
In your own life
Will rarely touch your heart
And make you teary
Or fill you with joy
And make you cheery,
But if it goes too long
It might make you weary
Or even dreary.
October 6, 2022
Joy lies beyond self-awareness
God made the first human
From the dust of the ground.
When we feel ground
Into accepting our humility
By the grind of daily life,
We’re on good ground
To experience the blessings
Of being “poor in spirit.”
The light of Christ shinning in my heart is so gloriously beautiful, He holds my attention throughout the day. When I surrender to God as humbly as the dust that He made me from, the wind of His Spirit can blow my life to align with His will.
In this world full of amazing things to think about and to do, there’s no need to stay stuck on self-focus. The more I get away from self-awareness the happier I am. When I let Christ-awareness override self-awareness the joy of the Lord overflows from within me. Joy is more than a selfie!
Being a Christ-follower isn’t about getting what you want. It’s about laying down what you want so you can be closer to Jesus. It’s about continually aligning your thoughts, desires, feelings, and behaviors with the risen Jesus. It’s not about religious affiliation.
To be unaligned with God is to be out of sync with happiness. Perhaps the unfulfilled places in your heart need the ever-living Jesus.
The many daily choices
That you make
Steer your life
And determine
The direction you take.
October 5, 2022
The “Jesus-verse” is better than the metaverse!
People get excited about the virtual experiences of the metaverse. I prefer the transcending experiences of the “Jesus-verse.” Until you have interoperability with the living Jesus, life will feel incomplete. The experience of the “Jesus-verse” is immersive. It surrounds you both externally and internally.
The “Jesus-verse” is so much more than a few words from Scripture. It’s seeing reality from His perspective instead of your own. Beyond the universe and holding it together is the “Jesus-verse.”
The metaverse is pursuing a “continuity of existence” between the physical and virtual worlds. The “Jesus-verse” calls us to experience the continuity of existence between the physical world and the kingdom of God. Jesus wants to give you multi-sensory spiritual experiences and photorealistic inner visions to make you fully aware that you’re in His presence.
The “Jesus-verse” makes Bible events come alive and burn in your heart as if you were physically experiencing them. The Bible uses the terminology of the “Jesus-verse” to transport you beyond the universe into the presence of the risen Christ.
The prefix “meta” means “beyond.” If you want to go beyond the universe and to experience the metaverse, step into the “Jesus-verse.” The suffix “verse” means “the whole story.” Ultimate truth can only be grasped through the “Jesus-verse.”
Physics can never explain the whole story of creation. It takes metaphysics (going beyond physics and human understanding) to experience the reality of the “Jesus-verse.” The “Jesus-verse” empowers people to “look not at the things that are seen but at the things that are unseen.” Step into the “Jesus-verse.” View, experience, and interact with the invisible kingdom of God.
Live a live that’s continually logged into the “Jesus-verse.” Refuse to break connection with His presence. When you’re continually online with Jesus you’ll stay aligned with His will. Closing my eyes, raising my hands, and freely expressing heart-felt adoration to Christ logs me on to the “Jesus-verse.”
The heart-to-heart “Jesus-verse” community far surpasses any “community” that can ever be created in the metaverse. The “Jesus-verse” enables you to invest your time in “Christocurrency” — priceless experiences with the living Jesus and His sold-out followers. Humans can create a metaverse, but only God could’ve made the universe and revealed the supernatural insight of the “Jesus-verse.”
[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-33342" />Photo by Bradley Hook on Pexels.comBe a Christ-carrier and let Christ carry you
If “Christ in you”
Is true about you
That means you
Are a Christ-carrier
And you take
The ever-living Jesus
Wherever you go.”
When we begin
To let the risen Jesus
Continually radiate
From deep with us
And to no longer accommodate
The world’s corruption,
We’ll experience
A glorious disruption,
An inner Holy Spirit eruption
That will demonstrate Heaven
Both within us and around us.
When you choose
A direction
And doors close
That’s not rejection.
It’s God’s protection.
Christ-followers are called to live life on earth according to God’s terms and plans, not according to our own. Jesus wants to personally train and empower us to live by His presence and ability, allowing Him to continuously and freely direct us from within, and not to live by our own self-effort.
Instead of trying to understand Him, God wants us to ever trust and rely on His nearness and reality — “Christ in you, the hope of glory.” When you fully and truly believe that you have God’s protection, you feel no need for self-protection.
Let the Bible filter your thoughts, feelings, desires, and culture. The reverse doesn’t work to produce inner peace very well.
October 4, 2022
Pascal wrote a book called “Pensées” (French for “thoughts”). Here are some of my “Pensées”
Several months ago, God spoke clearly in my heart words that I didn’t want to hear: “Try less; trust more.” I’ve always been a person of great effort and persistence, so it is difficult to lay my energy down and to obey what I’ve been told.
It’s an oxymoron. I find myself trying more to try less when in reality I’m called to die to myself instead of using my own abilities to strive for self-improvement. If I were truly humble, I wouldn’t stress out and mumble and think that my growth is all up to me. Instead, in simple humility, I’d let go, believe, trust, rely on, focus on, and surrender to God’s presence and power in my life.
God wants me to let Him grow the fruit of the Spirit in me, not a spirit of self-reliance. Instead, my impatience choaks out the patience (and other eight dimensions of the fruit of the Spirit) that He wants to grow and develop in me. Lord, help me be Your spiritual garden, not my self-improvement factory.
Here are some more Pensées that are coming to me as I write (in the order that they come):
It’s not easy
To receive
Truth that you
Don’t want
To believe.
Heart-felt gratitude grows with the awareness that you receive more than you give — that you’re given more than you earn.
Humans evaluate each other’s choices, opinions, and actions. Instead of demanding that people stop judging us, perhaps we should develop the inner security to lean from and grow thru their judgment.
The thoughts that you receive, welcome, and allow to remain in your mind will eventually grow into feelings and desires.
Grace is the gift to be able to receive what you haven’t earned as your heart overflows with humility and gratitude.
Every single breath is a gift to be grateful for.
Something that grows your inner strength is a much greater gift than something that merely gives you short-term pleasure.
If we take time to look
God is as obvious
An architect for a skyscraper
And an author for a book.
When we ask for what we want with no regard for what we really need, we’re asking for trouble.
When we decide
To let our pride
Be our inside guide
It won’t let us reside
In security and peace.
If I continually feel compelled to tell myself that I’m okay, then I’m not.
Thoughts you receive
Can quickly deceive
Verify their validity
Before you believe.
Grace is the undeserved and priceless gift of God’s great mercy and lavish forgiveness that overwhelms and forever changes a human heart.
Learn to receive
Wisdom from your wounds
And you’ll soon
Begin to sing
Happy tunes.
If you think that you’re worthy of God’s grace, you’ve received a counterfeit version of it.
[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-33323" />Photo by Alexandre Peregrino on Pexels.comOctober 3, 2022
Inner fruit can keep you smiling
Jesus, teach me
How to be a field
Where the fruit
Of the Spirit can flourish.
Abundant fruit
Of God’s Spirit
Can’t grow
Inside me
Until I allow
Jesus and His
Rivers of living water
To freely flow
And irrigate me
From within.
The fruit of God’s Spirit
Is a slow grow.
It doesn’t come from
What you know
About God
But from letting His presence
Continually cultivate and hoe
Your heart.
God designed your life to be a fruitful faith farm. Try not to turn it into an overrun weed field. Today, life weeds and forbidden fruit overflow with deceptive appeal, false advertising and misleading marketing. Those who consume them seldom love their after taste and outcomes.
Your life overflows with the fruit of your own doing. If you aren’t happy with it change what you’re doing.
I want to be a fruit basket of God’s Spirit. Then people can “taste and see that the Lord is good.”
Christianity is about “Christ in you.” To experience its fruit in your life it something Christ needs to continually be experienced in your daily life, not just lectured about on Sunday. “The hope of glory” isn’t you in church. It’s “Christ in you.” When God touches your heart, and His tears begin to flow don’t hold back His rivers of living water.
Most of what you find in your personal “produce section” has been produced by your choices and behaviors. It’s the fruit of your actions and reactions. When you plant bad seeds in your life, you’ll grow a lot of bad fruit. However, today’s common nonsense says that you can plant seeds of self-destruction and never have to face their harvest.
Branches loaded with the fruit of God’s spirit bow low. They don’t rise up with pride. Apart from Jesus and His living water, we might grow lemons but we’re unable to produce the fruit of the Spirit.
The further you get from the tree of life, the less good fruit you will have in your heart. Awareness of God is the fruit of observation. Nature and your own inner being reveal His reality.
The fruit of the Christian life is that “Christ is formed in you.” God’s purpose for Christ-followers is that we “be conformed to the image of his Son.” True Christ-followers are the people continually “press toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.”
I’ve noticed that many people who vigorously resist the fruit of being influenced by God, eagerly embrace the fruit of the influence of other people’s destructive behaviors. The fruit having a religious expert lecture you about God is greatly inferior to the fruit of experience Him for yourself.
Self-love goes up and down but God’s love never fails. Which love will you trust? In this spiritually dry world, the fruit of God’s Spirit can be irrigated by reading the Bible with an open humble heart.
To successfully navigate
Your way thru life
And cultivate
Well being
You’ll need to subjugate
Some of your feelings
And desires.
Trees and bushes
Are known by
What they produce:
An apple orchard,
A grape vineyard
A peach plantation.
A blueberry patch,
A lemon grove,
A Mulberry tree,
A tumble weed,
A thornbush.
What kind are you?
The sun at night
Though out of sight
Still shines.
The same with
The Son of God.
October 2, 2022
From atheism to mysticism (attitudes toward God)
The art
Of walking with God
Requires an honest,
Surrendered,
And open heart.
Approaching God
With a big head
And small heart
Isn’t the way
To start
Seeking Him.
I’ve noticed that many people who resist being influenced by God, eagerly embrace the influence of people’s destructive attitudes and behaviors. Way is that?
Religion tends to formalize God and utilize Him to promote an organizational structure. I prefer to let Him revitalize me from the inside out. When you feel distant from God take that as constructive feedback telling you to come to Him with less pride and more humility.
The intricate complexities of nature make a Creator obvious. Nominal religion tries to placate God. Agnosticism ignores God. Atheism denies God. Mysticism seeks to have experiences with God. Pharisee-ism demands outward adherence to rules about God. Scholasticism tries to understand and explain God. But the Bible says, “Those who are led by the Spirit of God are the children of God.”
I like to enjoy God throughout the day–to continually stay aware of and surrender to His presence ever working inside of me. In a society that chooses to ignore God, I continually yearn to know Him better.
The only fully satisfying solution for the human need for companionship is ongoing heart-to-heart interaction with the living God. When God is avoided and kept at a distance the primary reason’s not unbelief but an unwillingness to be accountable. By presenting God as an impersonal force, pantheism tries to avoid being accountable to the living, personal, and interactive God.
Most human attitudes toward God reject His omnipresence and keep Him at a distance as “someone in the great somewhere.” Any desire that doesn’t lead to God is a distraction from following the living Jesus.
Too often sermons are quickly forgotten religious speeches that produce no fruit. However, Spirit-led Christ-followers radiate His presence and love wherever they go. As long as you’re on the planet, it’s never too late to approach God with a humble, open, and honest heart.
It doesn't requireWisdom or faithTo be inflamedBy the fireOf evil desire.That's why We need accountabilityTo our conscienceAnd to God.[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-33297" />Photo by Sadaham Yathra on Pexels.com
![[image error]Pexels.com](https://stevesimms.files.wordpress.com/2022/10/pexels-photo-4069667.jpeg){kind=link}
![[image error]Pexels.com](https://stevesimms.files.wordpress.com/2022/10/pexels-photo.jpg){kind=link}
![[image error]Pexels.com](https://stevesimms.files.wordpress.com/2022/10/pexels-photo-123318.jpeg){kind=link}
![[image error]Pexels.com](https://stevesimms.files.wordpress.com/2022/10/pexels-photo-13437340.jpeg){kind=link}
![[image error]Pexels.com](https://stevesimms.files.wordpress.com/2022/10/pexels-photo-6970700.jpeg){kind=link}
![[image error]Pexels.com](https://stevesimms.files.wordpress.com/2022/10/pexels-photo-994747.jpeg){kind=link}