Steve Simms's Blog, page 148

Show me Jesus, don’t give me a show about Him!

A sermon,
Although you
May like to hear it,
Is no substitute
For walking
In the Spirit.

I balk
At hearing
Another talk
About Christianity.
I want to walk
In the Spirit.

Churches claim to be part of the body of Christ. If that’s so, they need to let the living Jesus take the literal role as the actual Head and leader of His body. On the organizational chart for the body of Christ every member is connected directly to the Head (not so for churches).

I want church to actually show me the presence of the risen Jesus. Instead, it just gives me a show about Him.

Programs and methods make Christians trust in programs and methods, instead of trusting in the living, resurrected Jesus. Rather than acting like “Christ in you” is “the hope of glory,” most Christians act like that’s just a theological myth.

Every time we program and run a Christian meeting, we’re proclaiming that we don’t believe that Jesus can lead it by Himself. A human-led meeting can’t teach people how to let Jesus lead a meeting. We learn that by actually letting Jesus lead us.

We don’t need experts in explaining Christianity. We need people who will actually listen to and humbly obey the risen Jesus. Theological explanations, without real life, heart-felt, Spirit-led demonstrations, accomplish little.

The function of New Testament “overseers” is to prevent God’s Spirit from being “quenched” in a meeting. However, if a meeting is programmed to quench (or ignore) the Spirit, overseers have no job. That’s why, in the traditional idea of church, the concept of overseers has been replaced by a one-man leader who controls and directs the meeting.

Preachers wear me out. They keep telling people what and how to do, over and over, and then send them home without letting them do it. When a preacher writes a sermon, he trusts his notes to help him deliver it. If he speaks from the heart, he has to trust in Jesus.

The Bible says to “wait on the Lord.” Instead, Christians are trained to passively sit and wait on a pastor to spoon feed them. If Jesus is actually living and working inside of you, focusing on and obeying Him is far more powerful than hearing a talk about Him.

Many Christians show more passion and enthusiasm for their favorite basketball team than they do for Jesus. What’s up with that?

How many
How-to talks
Does it take
Before Christians
Begin to
Meet to
Actually do
What they're
Being taught
How to do?
Whew!

Thinking about Judgment Day . . .

People don’t want
To think or say
Judgment Day,
But it’s on the way.

As humans we tend to compare ourselves to people who are doing or have done some of the worst things we can imagine. Thus, by that comparison, we can state and believe the common human claim: “I’m a good person.” However, according to the Bible, that line of reasoning is based on deception.

The Bible boldly states: “There is none righteous, no not one,” “There is none good but the Father,” and “All your righteousness is as filthy rags.” In the light of those verses, who is “a good person”? No one!

Deceiving myself into falsely believing that I’m a good person, is not the way to prepare for Judgment Day. Just the opposite. Believing that I’m a good person sets me up to ignore God’s mercy and instead to stand before Him in my own misguided sense of righteousness. That would be a disaster!

Instead, I need to confess my sin (unrighteousness) and receive God’s forgiveness that comes through His grace provided by the blood of Jesus. That’s the only plea that will satisfy God’s justice. In Christ, I’m a “new creature,” but in my flesh (my human nature and self-based desires) I’m the “wretched man” that Paul describes.

When Judgment Day comes for me, I need God’s mercy, not His justice. His justice would give me just what I deserve (what I’ve earned by my thoughts, words, and behaviors) and would separate me from God forever. However, His blood-bought mercy (O what a price!) will cover me with His righteousness and open the gates for an eternal relationship with Him. Even today in the comfort of my home, my plea before God is Jesus and His mercy, and not any right behavior of my own.

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What drives the church service you attend?

Church services can be driven by several things:

Tradition driven church follows customs and habits that have been passed down for generations.Program driven church follows a well-planned program.Content driven church is built around a teaching or sermon.Personality driven church follows a single leader who runs the service with his strong personality.Participatory driven church lets people share and interact as they wish.Spirit-driven church trains people to wait on the Holy Spirit and to speak only when He prompts them to.[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-30970" />Photo by sergio souza on Pexels.com

Is your allegiance with Jesus or with your desires?

I woke up this morning with this paragraph in my mind: My allegiance is to the living Jesus who captured my heart and filled me with love for Him and for all people. He now lives inside me to lead, guide, and empower me from within so that I can no longer obey my own desires, feelings, and opinions, but follow, obey, and adore Him instead.

People in Western society are openly proclaiming their commitment to the dominance of their human desires and declaring them to be proper and righteous. They’re telling us that our desires are our reality and our identity and that they should be obeyed without guilt or shame. Human feelings, opinions, and desires are being exalted above the obvious reality of common sense and physiology. People are being encouraged to follow their desires instead of reason and logic, and to even demand that other people call them by pronouns that they have chosen to match their desires. Western society is even beginning to label Bible verses like 1 Peter 4:1-3 as “hate speech.”

No matter what feelings, opinions, or desires you personally are obeying instead of obeying the risen Jesus, you’re “living in sin.” You may say that He is your Lord, but if you are not obeying Him from your heart in both words and actions, your claim to be a disciple is skewed. Jesus calls us to self-denial–to resist and to die to our desires and to follow His instead. Any desire that leads you to disobey the will of God and put your will above His is sin. Christians are called to ignore the world (Western society and all other human based cultures) and be led by the Spirit, not by our feelings, desires, or opinions.

It’s easy to point out other people’s rebellion against God, while ignoring our own rebellion. “If My people who are called by My name will . . . turn from their wicked ways . . .” Anything that we think, believe, say, or do that is disobedient to God’s will is a “wicked way” and “an evil human desire.” “Search my heart, O God . . .”

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Self-focus is the greatest enemy of happiness

When self-consciousness crowds out your joy, focusing on being kind and encouraging other people can restore it. When we’re free from self-consciousness childlike silliness and playfulness come easily. Stuffy seriousness is a sign of self-focus.

Self-consciousness is a cage that keeps people from connecting heart-to-heart with other people. If you let yourself get lost in an enjoyable task or a purpose, self-consciousness will vaporize in a peaceful sunrise.

The knack of self-delusion’s a basic human characteristic. It takes a courageous, honest, and humble search for truth to overcome it Our self-colored glasses distort our perceptions of reality. The source of much of the offense, anger, and divisiveness in the world is self-consciousness.

When we focus on competing with others, we’re easily captured by self-consciousness. When we focus on serving others, we’re free.

Self-focus causes human desires to often be distorted, deceptive, and detached from reality. Years of self-focus have caused many adults forget how to have spontaneous fun–to be lighthearted–to act silly and simply enjoy the moment.

Some people are so afraid of playfulness, they feel the only way they can experience is thru alcohol or drugs. I’m so grateful that the living Jesus freed me from bondage to self-consciousness and restored childlike innocence and playfulness to my life.

Playful, innocent funniness is refreshing and helps people lighten up and connect heart-to-heart. Kind and joyful silliness soothes the soul, even in the most serious situations. Lighten up and spread some joy today.

Self-focus is the greatest enemy of happiness. Much greatness is a mere illusion that a person presents to the world. True greatness is inner character, not outward characterization.

There are all sorts of ways to sort people into categories. Skin color is dumbest.

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I coined some awesome words about awe

Live in awe! Refuse to take the offramp of over analysis that causes people to exit from the daily wonder and glory of being alive.

Living in this amazing world, awe should be awedinary. We should be continually in a state of wonder and amazement!

Religious conjecture holds little interest for me. I prefer to “taste and see that the Lord is good.” If your heart’s not awedible, able to be often awed by the living God, there’s a good chance that you’re spiritually dead.

Awe can never be awe-bligatory. It flows spontaneously from a heart that stays open to wonder. Attempts to explain God with Xs and Os, often X-out awe and cause human hearts to be spiritually hard and coldly analytical.

Christianity has focused too much on theology (the study of God) while mostly ignoring training in theos-awe (the awe of God). You may think you understand God but if you’re unwilling to live under full submission to His presence, you’re deceiving yourself.

I think modern Christianity sneezed and said, Awe shoo! It seems to have chased away the glorious wonder that occurs when we experience Jesus. When awe exits a Christian’s heart, he leaves his first love for Jesus and becomes lukewarm.

Too many sermons are aweless words. When church becomes aweless, it soon becomes aimless.

If church doesn’t cause you to actively marvel at the majesty of God, it’s not doing its job. Without an ongoing sense of mysticism and awe, Christianity is easily overcome by both sin-icism and cynicism.

Christianity without ongoing awe, wonder, amazement, inspiration, and astonishment, has drifted from its source. Unless people are willing to have their spiritual cataracts removed, Christianity is little more than religious lectures.

The complexity of Christ and His work is beyond human comprehension and explanation. Although I can understand Him, He makes my heart soar with joy and fills me with an astounding awareness of His presence.

Olive oil is a symbol of the Holy Spirit. When you let the Spirit lead you throughout the day, you’ll awe-live.

Spiritually awed Christ-followers don’t need a religious ventilator to teach them about Jesus. They experience Him daily.

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Wacha streaming?

If you will persistTo strongly resistNegative thoughtsAnd assistPositive thoughts,You'll be happier.

The thoughts, feelings, and desires that you choose to let stream in your heart, will sweep you along to their final destination. I choose to stream peace, not hostility; joy, not misery; hope, not discouragement; love, not hate; trust, not worry; mercy, not bitterness.

Your mind and your heart are streaming devices. The thought and feeling channels you stream will grow ever stronger within you. The stream of desire and the stream of conscience flow in different directions–one toward guilt; the other toward inner peace.

The human heart has access to streaming services that offer both the demonic and the divine. We get to choose our channels. When God’s Spirit is streaming through human hearts, faces shine with a glorious radiance and eyes often flow with tender tears. I love streaming the living Jesus in my heart and binge-watching His presence in my life.

Jesus made a bridge that enables us to escape and cross over the stony stream of self-focus and plunge into the river of His Spirit. Let Jesus overflow your briny quagmire of thoughts, feelings, and desires, and free you to flow with Him.

Spiritually invigorated Christ-followers don’t need to rely on religious ventilators to teach them about baby-steps with Jesus. They experience Him daily and continually stream His presence.

Let yourself freely float with the inner flow of God’s Spirit. Then Jesus can lead you with the joy and wonder of His presence. When you need Jesus to lead your life, all you have to do is stream His presence–stream, stream, stream– and He’ll do the rest!

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The war alphabet

War awful-betizes everything it touches. This simple awful-bet can reduce the appetite for war. Let all politicians, soldiers, and ordinary citizens memorize it and wear it as a badge.

War is:

Atrocious

Brutal

Cruel

Demonic

Evil

Failure

Gory

Hell

Insanity

Killing

Lacerating

Merciless

Nauseating

Obscene

Pulverizing

Quagmire

Revolting

Slaughter

Terror

Unhinged

Vicious

Wicked

X-rated

Yucky

Zombie-making

War spells disaster. It unleashes demons that drive people to destroy each other with merciless brutality. By putting people under the spell of the war alphabet, war transforms humans into cruel zombies that blindly follow orders to kill.

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Reparations that crossed-out my guilt

Jesus made reparations
To atone
For the wrong
I’ve done
And to attune
My heart to God.
Now, filled with awe,
I walk along with Him
Enjoying His presence
As He directs, empowers,
And comforts me
Throughout the day.

Guilt-free living requires more than merely masking our sin.

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Desires aren’t prison bars

Desire
Is like
A fire.
You can
Enflame it.
Or you can
Tame it.

Having desires
In no way requires
That you obey them
And get stuck
In their briars.

Desires aren’t trustworthy. They can be true or deceptive, good or bad, right or wrong. They need discernment, not blind obedience.

Desires aren’t prison bars. They are enticements that can be accepted or rejected. When we’re led by our desires, we frequently walk into the trap of self-deception. If we were more conscious of our conscience and less focused on our desires, we could avoid a lot of evil.

If you’ve ever rejected a desire once, you can reject it twice. If twice, then there’s no limit on how often you can reject it. Every time we allow desires and feelings to direct us away from truth, we lay down our freedom and embrace bondage.

Earthworms were designed to be happy in an environment of dirt and darkness. People weren’t.

When kindness
Is embraced,
Hostility
Is displaced.

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