Steve Simms's Blog, page 153

2/22/22 thoughts

Thru out the day, for about 7 years, I’ve seen numbers repeated multiple times. (Today it’s 2/22/22.) They remind me God is working.

I’m continually inspired to write things that people don’t particularly want to hear.

The sound of someone praying with an honest, humble heart always touches my soul. I get to hear it often!

When I see, “In God we trust,” I think: “I can’t speak for everybody, but ‘In God I want to trust.'”

Too many Christian preachers are making it sound like God approves unconditionally of everybody’s behavior.

Hope’s in the hand of the holder. Who can better hold you together? You or Jesus?

It’s 2/22/22 day. God, please save Your planet and the people who inhabit it!

Without inner stillness, we overlook inspiring elephants in the room

Stillness let’s
Inner quiet
Comfort the soul.
Will you?

There’s much insight in inner stillness; little in ongoing anxiety. Silence is a sweet sound that can give solace to your soul.

Restlessness and stillness never nestle up together. It’s difficult not to always want something that we don’t yet have. It’s hard not to always try to make happiness happen.

Stillness isn’t passivity. It’s inner peacefulness. Inspiring sights around us; inspiring thoughts within us, but we overlook them like elephants in the room.

When we cultivate
Inner stillness,
We begin to notice
Elephants Inspiring The Room.

Put your pain on pause. Ponder in peacefulness.

Knowledge can’t change a heart. People with hard hearts often have smart minds.

If thoughts
Are nothing
But operations
Of the brain,
Why do we act
Like they’re real?

Masquerading
When hope
Is fading,
Doing your best at persuading
People that you’re okay,
Means you’re not.

Why do people reject Jesus?

Pride cause humans to ignore and/or reject the risen Jesus. We’d rather have a faraway Jesus in Heaven (or a sweet one stationed inside a church building) who doesn’t interfere with our self-will, instead of the present, living Lord who wants to rule us from within.

We want to be our own architect, our own contractor, our own life-designer and builder. We don’t want the inner interference of our conscience or of God’s still small voice. We want to be our own building, not a tiny part of the body of Christ–the spiritual (nonmaterial) house that Jesus is building.

Why have many Christians have abandoned the spiritual search? Because they falsely believe they already have all God has for them.

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Antiwar quotes from MLK during America’s Black History Month as White people threaten war on White people (Russia threatens Ukraine)

“We must find an alternative to war and bloodshed.”

“Instead of eliminating evil, violence multiplies it.”

“Be the peace you wish to see in the world.”

“I believe that unarmed truth and unconditional love will have the final word in reality. This is why right, temporarily defeated, is stronger than evil triumphant.”

“If you want to say that I was a drum major, say that I was a drum major for justice, say that I was a drum major for peace, I was a drum major for righteousness.”

“There is still a voice crying into the vista of time saying to every potential Peter put up your sword. And history is replete with the bleached bones of nations and communities that failed to follow this command (from Jesus Christ).”

“It is no longer a choice, my friends, between violence and nonviolence. It is either nonviolence or nonexistence.”

“It is not enough to say, ‘We must not wage war.’ It is necessary to love peace and sacrifice for it. We must concentrate not merely on the negative expulsion of war, but the positive affirmation of peace.”

“Violence is impractical because it is a descending spiral ending in destruction for all. It is immoral because it seeks to humiliate the opponent rather than to seek his understanding. It seeks to annihilate rather than convert. Violence is immoral because it thrives on hatred rather than love.”

“I suggested that the philosophy and strategy of non-violence become immediately a subject for study and serious experimentation in every field of human conflict, including relations between nations. This was not, I believe, an unrealistic suggestion. World peace through non-violent means is neither absurd nor unattainable. All other methods have failed. Thus we must begin anew. Non-violence is a good starting point.” 

“We must all learn to live together as brothers or we will all perish together as fools. We are tied together in the single garment of destiny, caught in an inescapable network of mutuality. And whatever affects one directly affects all indirectly.”

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War’s “rat-a-tat-tat”

All’s unfair in warfare.
Here’s the deal.
It all depends on people
Obeying orders to kill.

War is hatingAnd killing peopleBased on their nationality.It's compassionlessIrrationality.War is portrayedAs kill or be killed,But it's really moreTit for tat than that.Rat-a-tat-tat!It's kill AND be killed.War dead killed, too.War tramplesJesus' words:"Love your enemies."War isMASSIVE,Post-birthAbortion!Nonviolent resistance
Is no guarantee
You'll survive
A hostile conflict.
Neither is violence.To opt-outOn seeing truthIsn't a wise option.[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-30497" />Photo by Specna Arms on Pexels.com

Black History isn’t CRT. It’s R-U-Willing2C? Happy Black History Month 2022!

Racial healing must have truth as its foundation. The longer we ignore or deny the cruelty in our past, the more we delay healing.

A great nation doesn’t hide the misdeeds of its past. Truthfulness about history matters to it. A great nation honors those who suffered from its misdeeds as much as it does those who committed them.

Here’s a curious observation: I wrote a book about race and some of my white friends have strongly criticized it without even reading it.

Wanna C more? https://amzn.to/3HXIINP

I was prompted to think about promptings

I was reading through Proverbs when a prompting to instead read Galatians chapter five came to my mind. I acted on the prompting. As I read the chapter, the words on the page prompted these thoughts in my heart. True love must be Spirit-prompted.

Who is prompting you most of the time, yourself and your desires, or God’s Spirit? Spirit-promptings are contrary to your desires. You can’t be self-prompted and Spirit-prompted at the same moment.

To wait by the Spirit, focus your attention on God and trust His love to bring you “a hope of righteousness” by inwardly prompting you to take a Spirit-led action. Since faith works through love, the more love we allow in our heart the more faith grows in us and empowers us to wait for and expect a Spirit-prompting–a hope of righteousness. A truly righteous act must be Spirit-prompted, not self-prompted.

A hope of righteousness can’t come from me because Isaiah says that all of my righteousness is “as filthy rags.” It can’t come from other people because Romans says, “There is none righteous, no not one.” Therefore, a hope of righteousness can only come from God working in me and prompting me by His Spirit.

To walk in the Spirit, begin to take Spirit-prompted steps. You can’t be led by the Spirit if you are unwilling to obey His inner promptings. To live in the Spirit, embrace a lifestyle of Spirit-prompted steps.

People who are continually prompted by their own will and desires refuse to submit to the kingdom of God (which is their obedience to the Spirit’s promptings within them). People who belong to Christ give up their own will and desires so that they can follow and obey the promptings of the living Jesus Christ working inside their heart.

Modern Christians have embraced the joy of sects and divided the body of Christ into more than 40,000 denominations (according to a Google search). We have separated from each other because we enjoy organizing Christianity the way that we like it and want it to be. It’s so much easier to follow our self-promptings instead of laying down our own desires and organizations and following the promptings of the Spirit, Thus, we have refused the Spirit’s promptings for unity.

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Nations love warfare folly. Now Russia’s threatening it.

Currently Russia is bringing to light the human tendency to embrace warfare folly–the madness of militarism.

Almost 200,000 young people are camping near Ukraine, ready to kill innocent people and be killed, if told to do so.

People dressed to kill can look very distinguished. However, horror is horrible, no matter how well dressed it is.

Lord, please give the Christians and people of character in the Russian military the courage not to attack a neighboring country and Putin the courage not to order such carnage and slaughter! In Jesus’ name, amen!

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The cross on the wall or the Cross that knocks down walls

Institutional Christianity hangs a Cross on the wall. Experiential Christianity obeys the call of Christ hanging on the Cross. Christians don’t need to see a cross on a wall. We need to personally experience the Cross of Christ ruling our heart and knocking down the wall between us and God.

To withhold your heart from God and other people produces an interior loneliness, even when you’re in a crowd. Here’s some good news! Jesus took our rebellion against God, to the Cross, so that we can be set free and think and do what’s right. (1 Peter 2:24)

Trying to understand the Cross with logic makes it ineffective in your life. Letting it grip your heart will set you free! It means little for thoughts about Jesus to cross your mind, but if you let His Cross change your heart, you’ll never be the same.

I don’t understand how, but this happened to me (and to millions of others). The blood of Jesus cleansed our conscience and stopped our guilt. Jesus took our rebellion against God, to the Cross, so that we can be healed and set free. (1 Peter 2:24)

To reconcile is to restore a relationship. Joyous reconciliation with God is found in the agony of the Cross of Jesus. (Eph. 2:16) Religious rules are a form of bondage, but embracing the Cross frees the heart to follow and obey the living, resurrected Jesus.

Your reasons for guilt have been nailed to the Cross. The only way to fully overcome guilt is to ask for and receive God’s forgiveness and His power to consistently do what’s right.

Beware of preachers who seldom mention Jesus, His cross, His resurrection, and His call to repentance. Every attempt to detour around the Cross of Jesus is a denial of Christianity.

Christ-followers see God’s power and love in Jesus’ death on the Cross. Other people only see foolishness and sentimentalism. (1 Cor. 1:18)

Do you belong to Christ? The Bible says that those who do have crucified their selfish cravings and desires. (Gal. 5:24)

Spirit-taught words aren’t heard by the physical ear. They’re heard by a humble heart. (1 Corinthians 2:13 and Rev. 2:11)

A room with a view of elephants

Every room
Comes with a view
Of unseen elephants
And overlooked
Obviousness.

See much hope that’s hiding in plain sight. Search for: “Elephants Inspiring The Room.”