Steve Simms's Blog, page 167

Church attendees shouting “Let’s go Brandon” breaks my heart

The phrase, “Let’s go Brandon,” came from a reporter misunderstanding a crowd shouting an X-rated insult of President Biden. It violates Christian love.

During a recent conference at John Hagee’s Cornerstone Church in San Antonio, attendees began to repeatedly shout it out in unison. For church attendees to shout “Let’s go Brandon,” is to throw out God’s love and embrace the spirit of antichrist.

John Hagee has liked to preach about the antichrist. Now his church is demonstrating the antichrist attitude. This illustrates how difficult it is for the one-man-sermon church model to produce humility and godly character.

Pharisees weren’t fair. They self-righteously believed they were correct so they abused people and had Jesus crucified. They still exist. Many pastors who dogmatically preached submission to their authority, now (ignoring Romans 13) preach rebellion against government.

For decades I’ve wanted to see church attendees shout out praise to Jesus together and compassionately minister to one another. Instead they’re choosing to shout a vulgar, hate phrase.

Christian politics is an oxymoron. History shows that politics has never been very Christ-like.

Satan offered Jesus all the kingdoms of world history. Jesus turned him down. Politics works though coercion; Jesus works through love.

Jesus said: “By their fruit you shall recognize them.” People who lack the fruit of the Spirit (Gal. 5:22) aren’t Christ-followers. Jesus said that He will separate the sheep (those who show His love) from the goats (those who hype Him like a show).

It’s easy to follow our human emotions, desires, and opinions. It’s costly to obey the living Jesus instead and love our enemies.

When a church emphasizes politics, it turns away from the invisible kingdom of God and embraces an earthly kingdom. Truth and feeling aren’t synonyms. Fact and opinion aren’t either.

Hate and love
Change people’s heart.
Hate hardens.
Love tenderizes.
How’s your heart?

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Religious rules or the living Jesus?

Visits to church
For a religious talk
Have little effect
On people’s daily walk.

To go to church and be unaware of the living Jesus is like going to a concert and being unaware of the music. When church took Jesus out of real life and compartmentalized Him to a Sunday service, it caused people to ignore His daily presence

To acknowledge Jesus an hour a week, but ignore Him the rest of the time, is hypocrisy. Religious rules won’t release your heart to overflow with joy, but the risen Jesus will!

To compartmentalize Jesus and separate Him from everyday life misses the point of the Incarnation: Emmanuel, “God with us.”

Religion and government didn’t like Jesus. They wanted Him dead but Jesus made ordinary people come alive with joy!

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We say life doesn’t matter if . . .

We say life doesn’t matter . . .

If we don’t wear a seat belt.When we neglect our health.If we step in front of a moving car in a parking lot, trusting the distracted stranger behind the wheel not to run over us.When we drive while distracted.When our culture produces murder belts and kill zones.If we like for our entertainment to emphasize violence. When we take unnecessary physical risks.If we attempt to justify suicide.When we call the civilians killed by our bombs collateral damage.If we drive drunk (or let someone else drive drunk).When we shoot to kill.If we drive recklessly.If we incite violence.When we ignore safety protocols. When we ignore people’s pain.If we engage in road rage.If we are careless with drugs and risk an overdose.When we hate a fellow human being.If we bully someone into assaulting us and then claim we killed him in self-defense.When we celebrate the victims of war instead of grieving for them.If we smoke.When people proven to be innocent are kept on death row.When the most innocent of all are killed in the womb. If we ignore a dangerous situation to try to take a selfie.When we see public health measures as a ridiculous nuisance.When we justify and/or ignore the cruelty in our nation’s history.[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-29228" />Photo by SHAHBAZ AKRAM on Pexels.com

Some dangers of church that I’ve observed

Caution! Church can (and sometimes does):

Turn Christianity into a mere Sunday morning routine. Bore people and literally put them to sleep in their seats.Quench the Holy Spirit.Become a dangerous lullaby that sweetly rocks Christians into deep spiritual sleep.Make people believe that they are right with God when they aren’t.Cause people to feel safe and secure and protected from God’s commands.Be an example of what Jesus called “the blind leading the blind.”Make people feel comfortable (instead of repentant) about their sins.Distract people from being aware of the awesome presence and power of the living Jesus.Make people believe that a preacher or pastor is closer to God than they are.Serve as a substitute for daily Bible reading and prayer.Make people feel like they’re doing God a favor by attending and sitting through a sermon.Try to coerce and control people.Manipulate people for money.Train people to act like the Bible Pharisees. Cool off and calm down fired-up Christ-followers.Hurt people deeply.Reject people.Make people believe that God is distant instead of present when we gather in His name.Cause people to believe that God’s house is a physical building instead of human hearts.Ignore the Bible’s 50+ “one another” commands.Send people home without the fire of God burning brilliantly in their heart.

People who follow and obey the risen Jesus are the body of Christ. No building or religious organization or Sunday meeting can take our place. When Jesus said, “Follow Me,” He didn’t mean for us to join a religious organization and be passive spectators.

Christian doctrine says Jesus can run the universe; Christian practice says He’s not able to personally direct a church service. When we try to organize Jesus and make Him play by our rules and by our “order of worship,” we curtail His power.

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Do you have the courage to observe?

People who say, “I’m trying to find myself,” often do everything that they can to avoid self-observation. You can’t know yourself if you’re unwilling to honestly observe both your abilities and your faults. Life is full of obvious wake-up calls, but like shutting off an alarm, it’s easy to ignore them.

Observation is often exchanged for assumption. You can’t observe what you’re unwilling to notice. Blind indifference fails to observe much that is obvious.

Many people will ignore your observations, but that’s okay. Express them anyway.

When our observations are off base our analysis will be too. Unobserved details make your opinion inaccurate.

Beauty abounds, but unobserved beauty is always unappreciated. Creativity begins with observation. Freedom does too.

Two enlightening experiments:
1) Sit somewhere and observe your surroundings;
2) Sit with your eyes closed and observe your thoughts.

You don’t have to wander
To observe remarkable things
That are filled with amazement
And wonder.

Bias
Makes true observation
By us
Impossible,
Especially if we’re unaware
We’re bias.

Evaluation without extended observation is usually short sighted and inaccurate. Solid analysis requires honest surveillance. Emotional attachments cloud our observations of life and often lead us to inaccurate opinions.

Observe your thoughts, emotions and desires. Notice their impact. Embrace the helpful ones, resist the harmful ones. It’s easy to replace observation with recitation by stating what we feel instead of pursuing what’s real.

Uncomfortable truth is easily unnoticed and unobserved. For me, life goes better when I listen to my conscience for answers instead of trying to override it and create my own answers.

No matter how a church meets, if people don’t notice, observe, and interact with the living Jesus, it’s just running through religion. Run in the inner freedom that Jesus offers–freedom from bondage to our desires, thoughts, and emotions.

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Sky parade

I looked out and saw
A parade of clouds
Sailing by in the sky.
Dark and light
With color bright,
Creative shapes and sizes,
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Weak days

Everybody you meet is weak.
We all struggle with defeat.
In that you’re not unique.

Weakness is a guide
That can free us
From enslavement to ego
And the prison of pride.

The realization of our weakness frees us from pride and enables us to surrender to God’s strength. If people say you’re weak, have the strength to agree with them.

Life’s better when we’re no longer dominated by desires and entrapped by ego. To ignore your inner weakness isn’t a sign of strength. It’s a sign of denial. A sneer is a sign of fear.

When we refuse to admit our weakness, we’re not free. We’re in bondage to pride and deception. The more we admit our weakness, the softer our heart becomes and the more mercy and kindness we have for other people.

The greatest weakness is pride because by preventing us from admitting our other weaknesses, it keeps us forever stuck with them. Combat demonstrates that humans are weak, not strong–any of us are able to be snuffed out in a moment.

Humbly letting people see your inner weakness encourages them and opens their heart to compassion. Masking your weaknesses with excuses and explanations is prompted by fear.

Human nature is weak. If you’re a person, everybody knows that you have weaknesses, no matter how much you try to disguise them.

When weaknesses train us to feel remorse and to make amends, they lead us to healing, recovery, and inner freedom. Tears are liquid light that reveals a compassionate heart. They’re a sign of humility. Almost no one takes pride in their tears.

It requires strength and courage to humbly admit weakness. Acute awareness of our weakness makes us willing to be helped by God.

Reliance on God isn’t passive. It requires a rigorous, ongoing pursuit to subdue self and surrender in obedience to Him.

Spiritual vertigo
Will make you go
Stumbling about,
Living without
Long-term hope.

Ask God,
“Are You real?”
And let Him reveal
His presence.

To be Spirit-led
Is to do
What Christ in you
Tells you to.
Roman’s 8:14.

The ekklesia
At Laodicea
Became lukewarm
And turned into church.
Revelation 3:14.

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Christianity desperately needs to be revitalized

“The truth will set you free.” It’s time for Christians to gather and allow everyone present the freedom to obey the Spirit. When Christian worship is overmanaged and overcontrolled, there’s little or no room for the living Jesus to do anything.

Christians are trained to talk with God by giving Him a list of what we want, instead of having heart-felt conversation with Him. We need to discover the presence and the reality of the living Jesus, not just to learn information about Him. “O taste and see.”

True Christianity is based on Jesus’ manifestation, not on religious manipulation. You don’t make disciples by manipulating people with religion. You make passive, obligated church attendees.

Christians have the living Jesus to teach us the Bible. We need to be trained to listen to Him, not to a Bible-answer-man. Jesus said to make disciples, but it’s much easer to make sermon-hearers.

A biblical pastor guides people to discover and obey the risen Jesus. He doesn’t attach people to Himself or to a religious organization. Too few Christians have been taught how to learn directly from the risen Jesus.

True Christian leadership is through godly influence, not through titles or positional authority. Christian leaders are recognized by their fruit–the demonstration of their surrender to Jesus by their lifestyle and character.

When one person can control a church, people have no protection against bad leadership. Mutual accountability is safer. Christians need to be coached to follow the risen Jesus, not manipulated to follow a human leader.

Instead of depending on the living Jesus and the Bible for guidance, Christians have been trained to depend on a one-man pastor. When one person is responsible for explaining Scripture, he replaces Scripture’s authority with His own. We learn to follow Jesus through action, not just through instruction.

Christians need to put a spotlight on the living Jesus, not on church or preachers or politics or patriotism or pride or prophets. There seem to be bored Christians and Christians stirred up about politics, but where are those who are passionately excited about Jesus?

Discipleship isn’t manipulation or control. Disciples freely obey Jesus because He has become amazingly real to them.

Disciples are made by introducing people to the risen Jesus and the Bible, and by helping them to listen to and obey Him daily. If you aren’t following the living Jesus instead of your own desires, feelings, and opinions, you can’t help others follow Him.

Until we have the faith to daily do what Jesus commands, we’re only pretending to believe. It requires no faith or obedience to hear a sermon or listen to Christian radio, but discipleship requires both faith and obedience.

“Self-ized” Christianity that blends your feelings, opinions, and desires with the Gospel falls far short of the real thing. Too many Christians are incarcerated in religious pride, spiritual passivity, and church programs.

It’s time for faith and grace! Faith is believing in Jesus enough to obey Him. Grace is the supernatural power to do so.

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I get juiced by daily Bible boost

I love to be
Like a kite
In the wind,
Lifted by the Spirit
To soar like an eagle.

The Bible isn’t a course of study.
It’s light to unmuddy your heart
And get you on God’s course.

The Bible,
Read with the head
Feels dead,
But read with the heart
Gives you a new start.

When you need
A fresh point of view,
Read the Bible
And let it work in you.

To study the Bible as curriculum can make your heart numb. When it is read with devotion it will heal your emotions. It’s easy to quote the Bible, but it takes courage to emote the Bible–to open up and let it burn in your heart.

Christians are too often Bible “peekers” instead of Bible seekers. If you want to experience what the first Christians experienced, you need to regularly read and follow what they wrote. 

When I let my soul soak in the Bible, the words go beyond my brain and heal my pain. When I humbly ponder the words of the Bible, the power of the Lord begins to radiate within me.

When the Bible is presented as academic, it makes people spiritually anemic; but as God’s light, it releases supernatural delight. Christians who don’t regularly read the Bible with a humble, open heart are like farmers who don’t plant any seeds.

When read from the heart, the Bible becomes the map that leads to spiritual discovery and life recovery. Even when I don’t understand the Bible, its words stand under me and lift me up! I don’t analyze the Bible. It analyzes me & causes me to fix my eyes on Jesus.

The Bible isn’t a boring book of ancient history. It’s a living guidebook for experiencing Jesus and His story in your daily life.

Academic study of the Bible is formally called “biblical criticism.” Perhaps it would be better if we let the Bible criticize us. It’s a treadmill trying to prove the Bible wrong; but you’ll discover that God’s real, when you let the Bible prove you wrong.

Christianity is about discipleship, not scholarship–about obeying the living Jesus. It’s not about trying to figure Him out.

When you have a strong desire, the Bible teaches that life doesn’t require that you do it. Free will can mean freedom or bondage, depending on how you use it.

Much good has been left unsaid. I love to discover some of it and say it.

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Jesus or Barabbas? True prophets or false prophets?

If you let yourself
Get whooped up
By a false prophet,
You’ll soon be duped up.

False prophets aren’t rare. Jesus said that there are many of them. If a “prophet” tells you what you want to hear, he’s probably a false prophet.

It’s easy to get caught up with a false prophet if you don’t humbly check what he does and says, by the Holy Spirit and the Bible. Assuming that something is true because you like how it sounds is a common way to be mislead.

Crowds follow false prophets much more than true ones. The people wanted Barabbas, not Jesus. People enthusiastically praise false prophets when they should appraise them and check for where they twist the Bible.

False prophets focus on titles and religion. True prophets focus on the living, resurrected Jesus Christ.

A false prophet assures you that you’re aligned with God. A true prophet helps you overcome the things that have you unaligned.

False prophets are like counterfeit money. It’s easy to get excited about them unless we notice the discrepancies in them.

False prophets are popular. True prophets are persecuted.

False prophets hide many things from people. True prophets let people see who they really are.

False prophets like to vent. True prophets call people to repent.

False prophets want fame and applause. True prophets realize that popularity is deceptive.

Pride is a sign of a false prophet. True prophets are humble.

False prophets love to be praised. True prophets know that being praised by people frequently distorts the truth.

False prophets want power over people. True prophets want people to follow the living God instead of them.

False prophets are looking for rewards. True prophets look for truth.

False prophets twist the Bible. True prophets let the Bible twist them.

If you’re tired of being duped and/or seeing people duped by false prophets, take up the “sword of the Spirit” and read the Bible with an open heart, like your life depends on it. It does.

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