Steve Simms's Blog, page 161

Jesus is my personal trainer

Jesus is my personal trainer. Sometimes He increases the weight I work with in order to make me stronger.

Christians have been trained how to listen to a preacher, but not how to listen to the living Jesus. If we truly believe Jesus is alive, we should rally around Him–not around another person, place, or thing. Turning worship into a prearranged program has caused centuries of Christians to believe that they can’t hear what the Spirit is saying.

Preachers are just people. They’re no better at hearing from God than other Christ-followers are. Listen to His voice for yourself.

When sin, shame, and guilt build a wall that keeps us from the living Jesus and His forgiveness, we’re walloped with unnecessary pain.

You don’t need to go to church or anywhere else to interact with the risen Jesus. He’s present and available anytime and anyplace.

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The calling on Christians is not to make a country great, but to proclaim, demonstrate, and reveal the greatness of Jesus!

One is a much higher purpose than the other. One is eternal. The other is temporary.

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Say goodbye to darkness and hello to eunoia

I just learned a new word: eunoia. It means beautiful thinking. I want to fill my mind (and this blog post) with eunoia!

If your recipe for happiness isn’t making you happy, it’s time to get a new recipe. Happiness is achieved from within. It doesn’t just fall on you.

Self-censoring is a good thing. If you censor yourself by your conscience, you’ll avoid much guilt and pain. You’ll prepare the way for eunoia.

When life looks blurry and confused, refocusing can clear things up. If you’re unhappy with your life, reprioritize. When you change your priorities, you change your life. To live without healthy priorities, is to be aimless and confused.

Scrambled priorities produce a scrambled lifestyle. When your life feels out of focus, listening to your conscience can give you clear vision. All feelings aren’t valid. Some are outright lies.

Happiness isn’t a choice but deciding to continually fight internally, until you achieve inner peace and joy, is a choice. Happiness requires wisdom, because without wisdom we unintentionally unleash much unhappiness. We all have the responsibility to be our own mental and emotional caretaker.

Wisdom teaches us to stop thinking, saying, and doing the things that are making us unhappy. Self-focus creates much self-inflicted pain. Instead focus on wisdom. Say goodbye to darkness and hello to light.

Letting harmful thoughts take over your mind is like letting insects take over your house. Unhealthy thinking can clog up a healthy brain and block out the beautiful thinking of eunoia. Distressing, unwanted, and intrusive thoughts can be resisted, disagreed with, and commanded to leave.

True levity is such sweet silliness. Good natured levity relieves much stress and can lighten heavy loads.

I need to frequently and regularly read uplifting material that is full of eunoia. Without it, despair knocks on my door.

Some of the impulses within us come from our own desires, some from evil, and some from God. Recognize their source can help us embrace eunoia.

We don’t yet have someday
And yesterday’s gone away.
All we have is now, now, now, now, now . . .

Think beautifully today!

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Emotional attachment vs. heart-connection

Emotional attachment is common. Heart-connection is rare. It takes courage to go beyond emotional attachment and open up to genuine heart-connection. I’ve been tormented by emotional attachments, but heart-connection has only brought me healing.

Too much emotional attachment is a barrier to heart-connection. It causes us to fear that we might be rejected if we open up.

True love is heart-connection, not emotional dependency. Heart-connection demonstrates that we belong. Emotional attachment makes us feel needy and question if we belong.

Emotional attachment tends toward dependency and control. Heart-connection produces caring and trust. Emotional attachment hides behind illusions. Heart-connection thrives with kind honesty.

Emotional attachment looks to people for happiness. Heart-connection interacts with openness and compassion. Emotional attachment can be one-sided. Heart-connection is mutual.

Emotional attachment is often a heavy burden, but heart connection continually flows with endearment. The warmth of heart-connection with people is liberating but being controlled by emotional attachment is bondage.

Emotional attachment is a form of dependency that leads to much hurt. Heart-connection releases much healing. Emotional attachment clings and manipulates. Heart-connection produces caring and trust.

Emotional attachment is based on deception. Heart-connection is built on openness. It reveals our human kinship. Emotional attachment is often painful, but heart-connection is soothing.

We can be emotionally attached to things, but we can only have heart-connection with people, pets, and God. Let go of damaging emotional attachments. Embrace refreshing heart-connection.

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Quick thoughts about God

If you surrender your heart to God and let go of trying to figure Him out, He’ll be able to get a better hold on you.

Because Jesus is eternal, He’s never outdated. Because Jesus is alive and present, we can continually experience His indwelling within us. The living Jesus offers us deep rest–inner rivers of living water to cleans and refresh us with inner peace.

The phrase, “Jesus is Lord,” means He is in charge. We say it, but seldom allow Him to be. If our Christianity doesn’t give us the inner power to begin to live a godly lifestyle, we’ve accepted a counterfeit version

A gathering/community of Christ-followers belongs to Jesus, not to any other person. It’s His, not mine. When Christians meet, we should let Jesus prompt various people to speak in the gathering, but we rarely do.

When Christians keep their focus on a pastor, they begin to ignore the reality and presence of the living Jesus. True Christianity requires that we prioritize Jesus, keeping our focus on Him and refusing to be distracted by alluring deceptions.

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3 quick thoughts about God

If you surrender your heart to God and let go of trying to figure Him out, He’ll be able to get a better hold on you.

Because Jesus is eternal, He’s never outdated.

A gathering/community of Christ-followers belongs to Jesus, not to any other person. It’s His, not mine.

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Observation — a key to happiness

You can spot
A lot
That’s got
You stopped,
If you observe
Your thought patterns.

Our emotions often distort our perception. Truth stands on the solid foundation of reality, not on flimsy feelings. Believing that perception is reality makes truth a casualty.

If there’s no reality, there’s nothing to perception and our sense of perception is a mirage. Accurate perception involves the willingness to be aware of reality.

You’re an observer who can notice and perceive what’s happening in your external and internal environment. To neglect inner observation invites dysfunction. Notice how your thoughts, feelings, and desires are getting you off track.

Without courageously honest self-observation we all tend to stay stuck in the maze of our own opinions, feelings, and desires. The ability of self-observation atrophies when neglected. Then we can no longer clearly recognize what’s causing our pain, so we blindly blame.

The unobserved mind wanders into distraction, confusion, and affliction. Keep watch on your thinking. It’s been my observation that sometimes my observations are wrong.

Without courageous self-denial, our observations are stained by our opinions, feelings, and desires. Evaluation without observation is mostly inaccurate. When we perceive inaccurately, we self-deceive.

Deception is a figment of your imagination that’s detached from reality. Some people try to see things as they are, but many refuse to. As humans, it’s easy to prefer inaccurate perception instead of accurate perception.

Perceptions aren’t perfect. Opinions aren’t omnipotent. Feelings aren’t foolproof. Thoughts aren’t always true. Instant perception that avoids the process of investigation and discernment is often deceptive.

As humans we accept too much brainwashing and avoid too much heart cleansing. You can tell people to look, but that won’t make them see. People who believe that reality is irrelevant will continually crash in life.

Trying to get people to see what they don’t want to see is frustrating. Lying isn’t a failure of perception. It’s people refusing to acknowledge what they see. Denial attempts to alter the truth about a situation by pretending that it doesn’t exist. To say: “There’s no truth,” is the biggest lie, because all lies deny some truth, but that lie denies all truth.

Observe the outcome of your thoughts and actions. If you’re pleased with what they’re producing, keep them going. If not, stop them. When observation is replaced by distraction, life goes off course and we need discernment to get back on track.

As humans our observations can be accurate or inaccurate. Therefore, we need discernment, wisdom, and accountability to truth. To observe without discernment and watch without wisdom is to be brainwashed.

Perception matters. Changing people’s perception of what makes a life fully human, changes what people believe about which lives matter.

Your past is in your memory. Your future is in your making.

Socrates wasn't teasing.
Aristotle didn't toddle.
Plato wasn't playing.
Solomon wasn't out done.
Wisdom is never archaic.
Read theirs & be inspired!

When the revitalizing life of Christ is gushing through His followers, that’s true Christianity!

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Notice: There’s much you don’t notice

Amid sermons
And ceremonies,
God is often
Unoticed.

Just because
You’re unaware,
Doesn’t mean
God’s not there.

To notice Jesus
Throughout the day
Is to live
In a very special way.

If you don’t feel fortunate, it’s because you’re too distracted or too busy to notice the good things about your life. People who seldom try to be good, don’t notice the chains that hold them in evil thoughts, desires, and behaviors.

Once you truly notice the living, resurrected Jesus Christ, you don’t want to ever stop noticing Him everywhere you go. If you’re beholding something glorious, you don’t need someone to narrate. Go beyond sermon-hearing. Behold the living Jesus.

When Jesus is presented in uninteresting ways, the presentation is deceptive! One clear glimpse of Him consumes people for life.

God is like the air. Although He continually surrounds us, we seldom notice His presence. People don’t notice God’s presence, because they’re hiding from Him, not vice versa. The more you notice what’s lovely and beautiful, the more you will notice God.

If you’re mostly unaware of the real presence of the risen Jesus, the world and it’s disfunction will continually yank your chain. This world of spiritual blindness desperately needs more kindness.

Reading the Bible without experiencing the risen Jesus is like reading a notice but failing to notice that it applies to you. To be aware of Jesus’ presence is to be awash with awe. Notice Jesus.

Jesus wants to be the director of your daily life, not just one ornament on your Christian tree. If you avert your spiritual eyes away from Jesus, it’s no wonder you can’t see Him. The risen Jesus is waiting for you to notice Him.

If you go to church but don’t notice the presence of the living Jesus, you missed the point. Anytime we limit God to only being permitted to speak thru one person, we’ve stopped the Holy Spirit from speaking thru others.

Let the living Jesus fill up your spiritual senses. We can study the sky and hear frequent lectures about it, without being awed by its majesty. The same with God.

Let Jesus have the mic and speak through the sound system in your heart. Make the choice to amplify His inner voice.

The Bible says early Christians gathered with a sense of awe. If we gather to worship, without awe in our heart, we’re out of sync. When Christ-followers, meet and are free to share what they hear Jesus saying, even visiting unbelievers will notice His presence.

To stay connected heart-to-heart with the living Jesus is to be forever changed and continually excited about His reality. Every day, I love to celebrate Jesus being in the world–not just annually on Christmas Day. Having a seat in church is nothing like having the risen Jesus continually living and manifesting inside of you.

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Wisdom ain’t antiquated

Here’s the deal.
The pain you feel
Won’t fully heal
If you stay asleep
At the wheel.

Wisdom ain’t antiquated.
It sure beats
Trying to stay buzzed
And medicated.

Wisdom isn’t outdated. It improves lives today just like it always has.

The reason many thoughts, feelings, and desires cause us pain is that they’re misfits and don’t belong inside of us. I search for and read books of wisdom because I need them. Too much senselessness continually bombards me from within and without.

Our feelings, thoughts, and desires frequently distort and misrepresent truth. Sometimes they tell total lies.

A life ruled by feelings will be frequently distressed and obsessed. A life directed by wisdom will be blessed. Thoughts, desires, and behaviors that are producing irrational, emotional torment and distress are best avoided.

Doing what you want and what you feel isn’t the key to self-care. True self-care requires the discipline of recognizing, resisting, and rejecting self-destructive thoughts, feelings, and behaviors.

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What does “Merry Christmas” really mean?

Have a joyous day celebrating the birth of the resurrected, ever-present Jesus Christ! Stand in awe of how He gave His life for you and for the world. Surrender to Him and let Him be the Lord and Master of your daily life.

For this Christmas:
Focus on who Jesus is now,
Not on the short time He was a baby.

Happy Jesus’ birthday to you!