Steve Simms's Blog, page 150

Mental mandates are a bigger threat than mask mandates

Freedom from the pain
Of our mental mandates
Often requires us
To rewire our brain.

Life is a flow
Of moments.
You can’t stop
Their flow,
Even if you refuse
To let go.

I’ve seen
Love negate
The mandate
Of hate
And change the state
Of a human heart.

When you
Step aside from self
You’re free
To see your life
Differently.

Mental mandates are thoughts that try to tell and compel you to feel and do wrongful things. Inner mandates (compulsions, bad habits, and addictions) are actively trying to destroy your freedom. Resist and overcome them! If we Americans had put as much energy into overcoming tormenting mental mandates as we have fighting masks, we’d be saints.

Inner mandates muddle the mind and compel it to blindly follow feelings and desires. They try to steal your free will and make you a slave to their compulsion. People who neglect to decode daily life and discern what really matters, quickly surrender to the mandates of the mind and emotions.

As human beings, some lies infest all of our minds and continually try to mandate that we believe and follow their falsehood. When people allow their desires to make them feel like a powerless pawn, they soon surrender any attempts at self-control.

Overcoming compulsive mental mandates is a great achievement and a most worthy goal. Mental mandates and inner compulsions can only be overcome by mental and spiritual weapons. Physical effort can’t prevail against them.

People who angrily resist external mandates, often weakly submit to internal ones. When they say they can’t overcome a thought, a habit, or an attitude, they’re surrendering to a controlling, internal mandate.

Unmask the mental mandates that are trying to make you do wrong. Openly confess any sin that you’re feeling compelled to do.

Break your date with compulsive mental mandates. Refuse to go out with them. Have the insight to do right. The use of artificial stimulates frequently leads to subservience to mental and emotional mandates that take control of your life.

The more self-centered we are the less we’re aware of other people’s pain and struggles. Then compassion illudes us.

Most people know how to let the mind wander. Few know how to let it wonder free from mental mandates.

Self-disclosureAnd full exposureTo someone you trustCan heal your inner painAnd ease the strainOn your brain.The truthWill set you free!When people startTo listen to and speakThe language of the heart,They become awareOf the many commonalitiesThat we all share.Then they begin to liberateThemselves fromThe mandate of hate.The inner channelsWhere rivers of living waterWill flow from within usCan be cleared or cloggedBy our thoughts, feelings and behaviors.To prepare our heartFor the way of the Lord,We must clear our inner channelsAnd let His SpiritFreely flow from within us.

Church or ekklesia–do words really matter?

The words we choose matter because they put pictures into people’s minds. Every time I hear and or read the word church, I see a business-like organization and/or a programmed religious meeting centered around a one-man sermon and/or a building for Christian worship. But that’s not what the New Testament writers were picturing when they used the Greek word ekklesia.

Many people understand this difference, but we have trouble communicating it. We try to modify the modern meaning of the word church by adding other words to it, such as: “the church Jesus is building” or “primitive church” or “early church.” However, when I hear those phrases, I still picture an organization, a building, and/or a programmed and sermon-based meeting.

To help people understand what the New Testament writers meant by the Greek word ekklesia, we need to go beyond the word church. The things that the word church bring to people’s minds block them from the meaning of ekklesia. We don’t need to reform church. We need to make church ekklesia again!

Maybe the 5 Ms of church history will help. This is the change from ekklesia to church that happens in every move of God. 1) Man–a person encounters the living Jesus and is set on fire for God. 2) Men–other people catch the passion and zeal as they also encounter the risen Jesus. 3) Movement–there is a spontaneous, Spirit-led spread of encounters with the resurrected Jesus as more and more people are transformed by His presence and reality.

The first 3 Ms look nothing like what the word church brings to people’s minds today. There is no religious building, no religious organization, and no human-controlled and programmed meeting that puts one man on a platform and makes everybody else the audience. (See 1 Corinthians 14:26.) The first 3 Ms describe ekklesia.

M #3 and M #4 describe the transition from ekklesia to church. M #4 is Method. As the movement grows, people start to be uncomfortable with the spontaneity and with the leading of the Holy Spirit and they begin to organize and structure things. They appoint managers instead of Spirit-led leaders. They focus on control instead of freedom–ritual and tradition instead of the contagion of the Spirit. They build buildings and begin to program their worship meetings and turn them over to the control of one man. After a few decades of building their own organizational structure (rather than letting Jesus build His ekklesia), the movement people who had personally and dynamically experienced the living Jesus begin to die. Their children take over the organization that is now called church. Many of the children don’t have the same experience with Jesus that their parents had.

In each succeeding generation, fewer and fewer people have the same Jesus experience and relationship that the people had in the movement stage, but the organization they set up keeps on going until it becomes M #5–Monument. And that’s church–a religious monument to the glory days of ekklesia.

I lived through the 5 Ms in the Jesus Movement. I saw individuals encounter the living Jesus and get on fire for God (M #1). I saw those individuals’ excitement about Jesus spread to their friends (M #2). I saw a movement spreading all over America and around the world (M#3).

Then I saw (M #4) dominating people began to organize things and set up structures. Churches began to pull people out of the spontaneity of the Jesus Movement and into their organizations. Jesus Freaks began to set up their own nondenominational religious organizations (and even a few cults).

Now, as I look back from 5 decades, I see religious organizations–(M #5) monuments to that mighty move of God. Those churches and denominations that came out of the Jesus Movement are nothing like the way it was when God initiated it. They are toned-down and formalized. They left ekklesia and embraced church. They make me sad. It’s time to begin the 5 Ms again!

I’m so blessed that Jesus is real in my life. He continually works within me and keeps me going every day.

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Hate wrongdoing but love the wrongdoer

(While I was writing this blog post, my mind was being besieged by thoughts telling me that I shouldn’t be writing about hating sin. A few minutes after posting it, I picked up a book that I was reading last night and turned to where I had stopped. The second paragraph started with: “Those pursuing the spiritual way should train themselves to hate all uncontrolled desires until this hatred becomes habitual.” What are the statistical odds of that happening?)

When you’ve
Been wronged
Dare to wish
The wrongdoer well,
Not Hell.

Love people
Even when they do wrong,
But don’t love the wrongs
That they do.

If you love the sinner
Without hating the sin,
You’ll eventually be tempted
To approve and/or join in.

If you can’t be a friend of sinners without applauding or approving of their sins, then you don’t understand true friendship! We live in a culture that wants to debate the sin, not the sinner–to deny or justify wrongdoing, not to hold people accountable for it.

To get free from wrongdoing we need to train ourselves to hate the wrongs that we do so much that we openly confess them as sin. No human being can honestly offer a universal “not guilty” plea. People who deny their wrongdoing are desperately trying to convince themselves that they have no need of forgiveness.

Our human nature would rather justify our wrong behavior than to turn away from it. We’re all guilty of numerous wrongs, but’s easier to find dirt on other people than it is to hide the dirt we’ve wallowed in. Instead of clearing their conscience by confession and repentance, many people try to cancel it.

Other people’s sins are easier to spot than our own. Few people would gouge out their eyes, but many gouge out their conscience. Focusing on improper provocation empowers improper behavior.

The worst place to tolerate sin is in your own thoughts and behaviors. Wrongdoing often presents itself as justifiable–even as exciting. When we ignore our conscience, we’re easily ensnared by wrong.

If you can’t find something to like about the people you disagree with, then you’re not very creative. Hate wrongdoing but love the wrongdoer. Many people believe that a parent has the right to get angry when a child intentionally disobeys but deny that right to God.

When feelings and desires override reason, logic goes out the door. If you don’t think you need forgiveness, you don’t know yourself very well.

Corruption
Hides in the heart.
It rarely
Announces its presence
With a loud eruption.

The source of sin
Is self-addiction
And the refusal
Of God’s intervention.

The power of grace
Is strong enough
Not just to forgive sin
But to erase
Every trace.

The Bible knows
And can expose
Our faults.
Reading it blows
Out attempt
To hide them.

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Created equal or created in God’s image?

The American Declaration of Independence says that “all men are created equal.” The Bible, however, never says that people are created equal. Instead, it says that the human race was created “in the image of God.”

It’s human nature to embrace pride and a sense of superiority over some people, but Jesus calls us to go against human nature and to cultivate and demonstrate humility in our relationships with all who bear God’s image. We’re told not to “lord it over” people, but rather to “consider others better than yourself.”

Equality tries to find a middle ground, but free will makes equality impossible. If you give 10 people a thousand dollars, they will get unequal results from your gift. The only way to keep them equal is to force them all to do the same thing with their gift. Communism demonstrated to the world that equality doesn’t happen without people being forced into it, and even then, the people who are in control forcibly amass wealth and power that the so-called equal people aren’t allowed.

Democracy says that the majority rules, thus making people in the minority unequal to people in the majority and subject to their insults and abuse. The religious organizations known as church have neglected to train Christians to embrace and live out humility, honesty, and justice. Thus, it has opened the door for social engineers to try to fix the wrongs that churches have ignored and even supported (such as: greed, hardheartedness, racism, bullying, ignoring the poor, self-righteousness, etc.).

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The greatest labor shortage is a lack of peacemakers

Rather than
Choosing between
Fight or flight,
Peacemakers search
For fresh insight.

Peacemakers wake people up to harmony. Troublemakers leave a wake of misery behind them. Peace begins when people refuse to cooperate with evil.

When troublemakers abound, peace makers are desperately needed. It takes more courage to be a peacemaker than a troublemaker. Be courageous! Peacemakers are calming and disarming.

Peacemakers compassionately listen to people without interrupting or insulting them. A peacemaker’s goal is to connect heart-to-heart with people in a way that awakens their conscience and compassion. To connect heart-to-heart with people, you need to have a heart-to-hear-them.

Peacemakers don’t compromise with evil, but overcome it with compassion, kindness, honesty, humility, and noncooperation. Peace makers don’t always succeed, but then again, neither do troublemakers.

There’s so much conflict in the world, that true peacemakers never get bored and never run out of something to do. The greatest labor shortage is a lack of peacemakers.

A peacemaker thinks thoughts that create inner peace and speaks words that cause peace in those who hear them. Peacemakers aren’t passive. They courageously create ways to cutdown conflict without copying or mirroring it.

A hardhearted world is an evil and chaotic world. Soldiers who attack civilians when ordered to do so are cowards.

Christians are supposed to be peacemakers. Insults, hostility, violence, war: Christians should be deterrents to all those things, not participants in them.

Too many Christians are focused on self-service instead of on serving the risen Jesus. The more people are led by their feelings, opinions, pride, and desires, the less they are led by Jesus (no matter how religious they are).

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Have I been persecuted as a Christian?

Someone asked me if I’ve ever been persecuted as a Christian. Here’s my answer:

When I think about persecution, nothing personal pops into my mind. The blessedness of being persecuted for right behavior or being falsely insulted for Jesus’ sake, for the most part, seems to have illuded me. I have been insulted by Christian friends for writing a book about racism and for another book I wrote about an alternative to traditional church. I have lost 4 different jobs in ministry because I wouldn’t compromise my belief in or passion for Jesus, but when I think about how Christ-followers are treated in China and Iran and other places in the world, that hardly seems like persecution.

Whether we’re persecuted or not, Christians are called to do what God requires, not to follow our own desires. We’re called to be peacemakers. However, being a peacemaker doesn’t mean becoming a moral compromiser who violates his conscience in order to avoid conflict. The threat of persecution should never be allowed to silence Christ-followers.

As long as violence
Is allowed to silence
People of peace,
War will never cease.

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Don’t carry bitterness in your heart. Work to e-lemon-ate it!

People who embrace bitterness give up the ability to find joy in life. If you let anger get the better of you, being bitter won’t be far behind. Let hurt make you better, not bitter!

Bitterness is a heart-plant that begins as a tiny seed but can grow into a hedge of bondage. The sooner it’s uprooted, the better! When you feel hurt or betrayed, quickly move beyond it before bitterness blasts its way into your heart.

Anger butters you up for bitterness. If you rust in bitterness, it will corrode your heart and give you no rest. If you sit in the inner drizzle of bitterness, it will eventually become a torrential storm in your heart.

Bitterness is chronic heartburn. Forgiveness is the antiacid that gets rid of it. Bitterness presents itself as strength, but it’s really cowardly weakness.

Bitterness seems to demand apologies. Then it continually refuses to accept them once they are given. Bitterness is a peace-buster, leading to both inward anxiety and outward conflict.

When you feel downtrodden, don’t let bitterness dim your hope and dull your heart. Where bitterness is bountiful, happiness is nowhere to be found.

A bitter countenance is never a thing of beauty. It won’t make anyone look like a cutie. Every time you blame someone for your problems, you plant a seed of bitterness in your life.

Perhaps it’s better not to be bitter. Love letters can overcome bitterness. We need more people to write (and speak) with love, kindness, and compassion.

Don’t carry bitterness in your heart. Work to e-lemon-ate it!

Bitterness often
Causes more pain
Than who or what you blame
For making you bitter.

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Choose church or ekklesia (They’re not the same.)

When Christians lost the word ekklesia and replaced it with the word church, we lost much of what it means to be Christian. It’s vital that we rediscover that lost word:

How can Christians be Jesus’ ekklesia if we don’t know what it means? How can we let Jesus build us together as His called-out ones who assemble as Jesus’ city council to collectively hear His voice and then to say and or do what He tells us to, thus supernaturally demonstrating His presence and reality among us and to the world around us?

The word church has been confusing Christians for centuries. It causes people to think that Jesus is building a Christian worship building or a Christian worship service or a Christian denomination or nondenominational religious organization. The word church is actually a mistranslation of what the Greek NT quotes Jesus as saying, “I will build My ekklesia.” Ekklesia literally means called-out ones. It was also the proper name of the interactive, participatory city council in each Greek city state. It looked nothing like what we call church.)

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War welding politicians

Cowardly politicians who start wars keep themselves tucked safely away from the violence as their decisions unleash death. If the politicians who make the decision to start a war aren’t willing to personally fight in it, why should anyone else fight?

Tough talking politicians call themselves hawks. Then they, in their safe spaces, send others to kill and die in war, while denouncing the doves.

War’s a lame
Excuse to kill and maim
And avoid the shame
Of accepting any of the blame.

Casualty counts
Reveal all wars
To be massive massacres.

Christians tend to support their nation’s war. The head of the Russian Orthodox Church issued an official church statement in support of Putin’s invasion of Ukraine. If Christians, inspired by Jesus’ nonviolence and love for His enemies, won’t courageously refuse to engage in war, who will? Is war inevitable?

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The human conscience & American Christians

I believe that my conscience is more than “my internal guidance system.” I believe the human conscience is the inner light that Jesus gives to all human beings–the voice of God in our heart. As children conscience is strong, but as we get older and lose more and more innocence, it’s light grows dimmer and it’s sound duller. We learn to ignore it and eventually to harden it. It never completely goes away but can become extremely faint. Modern churches seldom teach their members about their conscience or train them to listen to it and follow it. Thus, churches are full of Christians who are thinking, doing, watching, reading, and saying all sorts of wrongful things, and they do so without conviction because they’ve been trained that grace excuses them from the need to hear and obey their conscience (and the Bible) and gives them permission to follow their own desires and opinions instead. This leads to crippling self-deception and lukewarmness.

Because of this, I believe that throughout our history, American Christians have overlooked, ignored, enabled, and/or cooperated with much divergence between American values and Christian convictions. That divergence has included: Excessive national pride, glorifying militarism, taking land from native Americans by force, breaking treaties with them, racial prejudice, widespread and legalized human trafficking, forcing segregation and second-class citizenship on millions of people because of their skin color, the government’s refusal to criminalize more than 4,000 race-based, public lynchings, denying people the right to fair and equal legal protection and/or trial because of their color, etc.

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