Steve Simms's Blog, page 152

The Russians are helping me pull the trigger on antiwar thoughts

If you speak
Against war
While your
Nation's involved,
Your freedom of speech
Isn't appreciated.

The cruelty of
Russian soldiers
Invading Ukraine
Opens a window
To speak against war.

The pain
Of Ukraine
Is exposing
War’s cruel wounds
For the whole world
To see.

The screen shot
Of a Russian soldier
(Now shot dead)
Texting his Momma
Broke my heart.

Soldiers are
A nation’s citizens
Who are treated
Like they’re disposable,
War weapons.

Soldiers don’t decide
Whether they invade
Or defend
But blindly do
What they’re told.

When soldiers hear
Their conscience
Call for restraint,
They’re trained
To resist it.

A soldier’s life
Depends on
His taking the life
Of other soldiers.

When violence is common.
And war is praised,
It takes courage
Not to kill.

Life is better
When people embrace
With bare arms
Instead of bearing arms
To kill.

One person
Orders war,
But tens of thousands
Pull the triggers.

Soldiers are trained
To obey
Not to think,
To kill
Not to show compassion.

There’s one weapon
That’s not
Allowed in war:
Truth.

Soldiers compete
In making
Corpses.

War is soldiers
Sold out
To bringing death
To other soldiers.

War dives deep
Into the depths
Of horror
And dies the soul
With darkness.

Bombing civilians
Isn’t a fair fight.
It’s murder.

War is
Bad for
People.

War seems to be
Trenched
Into the human
Psyche.
O, that we
Could dig it out!

NLM
“No Lives Matter”
Howls the horrible
Hound of war.

Nations don’t wage war.
Soldiers do.

War is hell,
Demons
Directing people
To do the devil’s
Dirty work.

“Boots on the ground”
Is a macho sound
That leads
To guts spread around
On the very same ground.

A battleground
Is a place
Where human beings
Were ground into dust.

War teaches
That it’s shameful
To refuse
To kill an enemy.

Surviving soldiers say,
“Our country
Made us do it.”
The dead say
Nothing.

The great harvest
Of war
Isn’t peace.
It’s causalities.

ISAAn "International Soldiers' Association"Might help soldiers embrace as friendsInstead of killing each other.When soldiers
Put a commander's orders
Above their conscience,
The evil of war
Has no restraint.If soldiers had the courage
To listen to and obey
Their conscience,
War would run out of steam.
Instead, war runs over
Their conscience.As you can see,Russia's aggressive invasion
Has emboldened me
To pull the trigger
And shoot off a lot
Of antiwar thoughts.I read this amazing book a few months ago. Every Russian soldier should read it. I read this amazing book a few months ago. Every Russian soldier should read it.

Peace, peace. Who knows peace?

Until inner conflict is ended (not just masked or medicated) peace of mind remains a myth. Searching for his happy place can cause a person so much anxiety that he never finds his place of inner peace.

To begin to notice silence is the first step in getting to know peace of mind. When inner peace is disturbed, self-focus is usually the disturber. Peace stays calm in the roar of the storm.

Quiet contemplation can cultivate contentment and produce a harvest of inner peace. Peace ponders patiently and produces contentment. Anxiety is disturbing, impulsive, and reactive. Panic pushes inner peace aside.

Sitting in restful silence can still an inner storm. Chaos knows no peace. Almost nothing rhymes with it.

Sometimes it’s important to make your mind sit still while you listen to your conscience. The search for peace is an inner journey, not an outward achievement.

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True Christianity must start in the heart, not in the head

Few ChristiansEmbrace the artOf how to impartThe love of GodWith their heart,Preferring insteadTo try to explainWith their brain.

True Christianity must be imparted by the heart and demonstrated by caring action. It can’t be communicated by mere systematic analysis.

Sermons that try to logically explain Christianity have little impact on the heart or the behavior of the listeners. In the New Testament worshippers gathered around Jesus, not around a pastor.

Who’s on God’s side? “Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God.”

Christians don’t need physical weapons. A Christ-follower’s warfare isn’t physical combat: “Our struggle is not against flesh and blood.”

Prayer is a weapon to be used against the devil and his demonic forces. It’s not a tool to manipulate God. Full and unconditional surrender to the risen Jesus is the greatest victory any person can ever have. “Christ in you, the hope of glory.”

Christ-followers are not living to cope and just get by. We’re here to be more than conquerors by abiding in Christ and being steadfast in showing His love to everyone, even to our enemies.

Mental and emotional contaminants plague humanity. “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.”

Who wouldn’t want to lose all their guilt and shame? That’s what the living Jesus offers.

The first war that a human fought was to rebel against God’s authority. Ever since, war has been part of rebellious human nature.

Peace within human hearts leads to peace with other people and peace between nations. Inner peace comes from making peace with God. If we can trust God to keep us breathing, then we can trust Him with everything else.

Soldier lives matter.
Civilian lives matter.
Enemy lives matter.
Your life matters!

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Was Jesus crazy about war (or are we)?

Was Jesus crazy? He said people “must deny themselves and take up their cross,” not “defend themselves and take up their weapon.” Many people are willing to die trying to defend themselves. Few are willing to die in order to love their enemy.

Death is a land with no countries. Nationalism means nothing to the dead. Eternity flies no human flag, yet damaged national pride is quick to talk of war.

With no view of eternity, violent defense can be seen as necessary for survival. But Jesus’ resurrection says people survive death. The world needs to weaponize love–to assault people with kindness and compassion.

War is unbelief. If people truly believed that they would survive after being killed, they wouldn’t be so quick to try to kill for their survival.

The world’s arsenal of love languishes from neglect. Weapons can be used to kill people, but they can never kill the hate in someone’s heart. Only love can do that! War won’t work without people pulling triggers.

Massive, nonviolent uprisings are more effective at overcoming injustice than warfare is, but bombs appeal more to our pride. To celebrate war is to take pride in cruelty and brutality–to glory in death and destruction.

War is the enemy of mankind. To fight war with violence is to perpetuate it. I want to pen words to pin the sword to the ground. Sometimes I think that the most censored, resisted, and hated words in the world are those written against war.

War lies and lines
Its victims’ headstones
In rows to say:
“Here lies . . . “

War is based on brutal subjugation, not on compassionate communication. Hell’s war-darkness is no one’s friend. It screams with the shrieking sound of violence. War aligns the dominoes of death and makes them fall, one shoving another, on all in their path. War’s weapons make war, not peace.

We should war against hate, not against the people who choose to hate. The best weapon against hate is radical, courageous love. Physical weapons can kill an enemy’s body, but courageously wielding invisible weapons of the heart can destroy an enemy’s hatred.

In 1959, the United Nations statue, “Let Us Beat Swords Into Plowshares,” was given by the USSR. 63 years later, old Soviet tanks are invading Ukraine. War is an acid that hurts everyone it touches.

As a small boy, I used to cry and ask, “Why is there war?” As Russia invades Ukraine, I’m doing it again. Now, while the world is being actively threatened with nuclear war, it doesn’t make sense to hold on to bitterness against anyone.

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The nude human myth of “just war”

War is the nude cruelty. It struts itself in nationalism and parades itself as patriotism. Its soldiers have been brainwashed to create a bloodbath whenever they’re given orders to do so. War strips people of their humanity and uses them as disposable weapons of death and destruction.

A war won’t wage itself. It depends on people and human rage to stage and wage it. History shows that as retired, old warriors fade away and get to die in peace, young ones line up to keep the carnage going.

The idea of just war is a myth. War is never fair and therefore can never be just. War is prolific death. It’s never pro-life. Undress the phrase collateral damage and you will uncover the mangled bodies of dead civilians.

War is the naked emperor’s new clothes, yet people continually try to deny or justify its bare-bones brutality which is openly disrobed for all to see. In war, military benefits end up taking priority over justice, fairness, human rights, compassion, respect for life, and decency.

No country ever fights a war without calling on the myth of just cause to defend its acts of savagery. I can’t find a single country in history that has ever fought a war while openly admitting that its acts of war are unjust.

Peace speaks truth and boldly denies the lies of war! War allies with lies. Its goal is to subdue and destroy its enemies, not to behave ethically toward them. War replaces justice with retaliation and revenge.

War makes survival the great idol. It screams that staying alive is more important than character, compassion, ethics, or justice. Attempting to justify war is idol time that bows to the god of violence.

There’s no justice in war. Violence is the only authority. The human conscience is silenced. Rules of decency are thrown out. It’s unjust when people who make decisions to go to war stay in safety, while ordering other people into harm’s way.

Fearfully embracing self-protection causes people to behave unjustly towards people they view as a threat. Self-defense embraces war and violence. It doesn’t prevent it.

In a just war, a soldier would never be made to obey his orders if they violated his conscience. When innocent people are killed accidently or intentionally, a war is unjust. There is nothing just about the competitive killing of human beings.

When lies are told to hide the truth about a war, that war is unjust. When hatred is unfurled, and cruelty is released, and violence is glorified, war is unjust.

Fighting against God’s nation

Too many people are fighting against God’s nation! The only holy nation is the kingdom of God. Jesus said that it “comes without observation” and “is within you.” That invisible nation is manifested wherever the will of God is being done on earth.

God’s will isn’t always done. He doesn’t will evil. He doesn’t will rebellion against Himself. His will is that not any “should perish, but all come to repentance.” Although universal repentance is God’s will, the Bible shows us that many people will never repent and will be eternally separated from God. The kingdom of God requires that a human being allow the active, living presence of King Jesus to freely work, rule, and reign in and through a person’s individual life.

Human nature doesn’t want to be anyone’s “possession” (not even God’s) because “possession” means control and we humans don’t want to give up control. That’s why it takes great self-denial to surrender to the Lordship of the living Jesus. Many are called to “deny themselves” but few follow that call.

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Puttin’ war in perspective (prompted by Putin’s war)

Let your war cryBe weepingFor people being killed,Not a clamorTo kill more people.

Since I was a little boy
War has made me cry
And wonder why
We deny
Our shared humanity.

Bayonet is
Such a pretty word
But its definition
Stabs me in my soul.

If war
Doesn’t hurt
Your heart,
Your heart
Is hard.

War releases
Waves of shells
That breach
The peace
And beauty
Of nature.

Acts of war
Blow people
Into tiny pieces
That can be peaced
Back together.

Bombs bursting in air
Prove inhumanity’s
Still there
In human hearts.

Bombs don’t
Just fall.
People intentionally
Drop them.

Who will weep
For a country’s
Unknown Soldier
In his marble tomb?

Think about
The unknown horrors
Of the Unknown Soldier
And the great sorrows
Of his family.

War explodes
Peace
And fills the world
With loads
Of madness.

Who hears
The fears,
And tears
Of war
Coming from
The other side?

Even though
Aerial bombardment
Is completely unfair
To people
On the ground,
It’s not rare.

Carpet bombing
Insures cruelty and injustice
For all who dare to exist
In a certain place.

Break out
Of the mentality
That war
Breaks out.
It doesn’t.
People start wars.

Pondering war
In the still
Of the night
Is nothing like
Being there.

Rockets’ red glare
Keeps people from seeing
That war is unfair.

War doesn’t kill people. People kill people.

War’s tactics turn people into targets. They turn a battlefield into a mess of butchered bodies with boots on the ground.

When it comes to kindness, war is an empty tank. The cruelty of war ricochets through all human history. Post-traumatic stress disorder is the minimum wage of war.

If war isn’t terrorism, nothing is! Here’s a suggestion. Now that drones can kill, why don’t people stay home? Mines, missiles, and mortars make killing so impersonal.

If humans were basically good, we wouldn’t kill people because of their nationality. If you and your homeland are not being bombed right now, you’re fortunate.

For a man to order other people to kill and die for his opinions and/or beliefs has always seemed cowardly to me. War lays down spiritual weapons (mercy, truth, love, kindness, compassion, and forgiveness) and takes up weapons of mad destruction. Suicide bombers make people extra angry because they can’t retaliate against them.

I wrote these statements while a nuclear power is bombing people and threatening countries that may try to intervene with “consequences they have never seen.”

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A Holy Spirit glider

Too many Christians are “fans” without fire. They have little or no passion for Jesus. They’ve made nominal Christianity normal. Why?

A preacher can’t implant in qualities in other people that he doesn’t have in himself. That’s one reason sermons seldom impart godliness. When church pulpits are filled with people-pleasers instead of truth speakers genuine Christianity has faded away.

Self-appointed teachers lack a depth of personal experience of daily submitting to Jesus, so their teaching focuses on head knowledge. If a preacher’s lifestyle isn’t in line with his message, he’s teaching from a false sense of self-assurance.

A preacher trying to teach based only on what he’s studied has limited effectiveness since he’s not speaking from personal experience with Jesus. To try to teach religious head knowledge to inattentive church attendees falls far short of New Testament discipleship. When preachers preach borrowed (or stolen) sermons, they are misleading a congregation with second-hand material.

The most effective Christian teachers teach from their personal experiences with the risen Jesus, not from their head knowledge. Discipleship must be heart-felt! A Christ-follower is a Spirit-glider, being continually carried & lifted up on the wind of the Holy Spirit.

Every wrongful thought allowed to remain in the mind is a secret idol. Some people let their mind be full of idols. When we sin, guilt deprives our conscience of intimate relationship with God.

A Spirit-glider
Doesn’t require
A weekly sermon
Provider.

To “abide
In Jesus”
Is to ride
With God’s Spirit
And to glide
With His gladness.

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Christians are called to be networkers for Jesus

All Christ-followers are called to be networkers–to help people connect personally with the living, resurrected Jesus and to have an intimate, direct relationship with Him that doesn’t depend on a special, religious man to lead them. This biblical concept is what the Protestants called “the priesthood of the believer.”

However, instead of demonstrating the priesthood of all believers, the Protestants set up a hierarchy similar to the Catholic and Orthodox churches. Martin Luther even called this special group of Christians “priests,” although most other Protestant groups called them by other names: “pastors,” “ministers,” “preachers,” etc. Thus, they separated the people of God into two distinct groups (or classes) of Christians–clergy and laity.

The biblical concept of the priesthood of the believer is powerful. It’s such an exciting thing to fellowship and interact with all Christins as equals, with no hierarchy–following the living Jesus instead of men, organizations, and religious programs. Everybody should try it. It’s truly awesome. “Christ in you, the hope of glory.” “As many as are led by the Spirit (the living Jesus), these are the children of God.”

I once went through the New Testament and read every verse that contained the word “called.” I couldn’t find one mention of the very popular Christian phrase, “called to preach.” However, I did find the words, ‘called to be saints.” I concluded that all Christians are called to fully follow and obey the living Jesus. There are no part-time Christians in the Bible. It’s a full-time calling to all.

Now what about preaching? The New Testament does ask this question: “How can anyone preach unless they be sent?” Once we’re called to follow Jesus, we are “sent” (not called) to preach and testify about Him. Let’s do what Jesus said and all “go” preach. The Great Commission must stop being hindered by the clergy/laity misunderstanding!

I recently saw these words, “the concretized, mystical union between Jesus Christ and His people.” Unless we have that union with the living, present-day Jesus, we’re merely blowing spiritual smoke.

A google search indicates that there are more than 40,000 Christian denominations in the world. What an unimaginable amount of divisiveness that directly contradicts Jesus’ prayer that all His followers be one!

If Christians would center on and get fixated on the risen Jesus, we’d long for and seek out personal, open-hearted connection with every other person that we meet with that fixation. We might get so carried away that we begin to pray, worship, share scriptures, and give testimonies house to house and wherever we encounter such people. We might grow to such spiritual maturity that we no longer need to be lectured by a man every week, but instead begin to rejoice in God’s teaching that flows directly from Jesus through our heart.

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The answer, my friend, isn’t blowin’ people up in the wind

Insecure people feel threatened. People who feel threatened often turn to insults and violence. It’s hard to “love your enemies” while you’re killing them. Bob Dylan wrote: “How many ears must one man have before he can hear people cry?” War tramples the New Testament command to “consider others better than yourself.”

Some people see
Competitive killing
As thrilling.
To me,
Even the thought
Is chilling.

Earth scorched
By war
Leaves behind
The charred bodies
Of innocent people
Torched.

Violence
Will lead
To a need
For an ambulance.
This isn’t good for
Health care costs.

Could nonviolence turn back an invader? When people are blown up by bombs, the news only captures the aftereffects. However, if thousands of people kept stepping in front of tanks one after the other, if the tanks continually ran over them the world would be enraged. Few tank drives could look innocent people in the eye one after another and continually run them over, however, bombing innocent people (who are hiding in buildings) from 40,000 feet is so much easier.

If everybody in a country said, “We ain’t doin’ what you say,” even if they didn’t fire a shot, no invader could conquer them. Countries organize people and train them to resist violence violently and then measure their success by the dead body count , however, organized, persistent nonviolence has seldom (if ever) been seriously tried as the primary defense against an invader’s military violence.

Countries don’t have eternal souls. People do!

Violence won’t stop Russia’s invasion, but organized, persistent, nonviolent noncooperation tore down the Iron Curtain. It can keep it from reestablishing itself in Ukraine.

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