Steve Simms's Blog, page 174

Jesus chose . . .

Jesus chose
Love, not force,
Humility, not pride,
Truth, not deception.

Jesus first:
Before self,
Before money,
Before a nation,
Before pleasure.
Matthew 6:33.

To approach Jesus as just a religious idea or concept is to miss out the glorious reality of “Christ in you.” Christianity was never intended to be about rules, but about the risen Jesus living in and thru His followers.

Ancient Pharisees misused the prophets. They honored them but ignored their message. Modern ones honor Jesus but ignore His message.

Grace is like when your favorite football team scores a game-winning touchdown. You didn’t earn it or make it happen, but it releases an inner flood of joy and enthusiasm that spontaneously overflows from within you and causes you to make celebratory actions with your body. Real grace produces works that overflow from within you.

The Bible says to live by the Spirit (God’s presence directing you from within), not by the flesh (your desires and feelings). Conscience is the mysterious something within us that tries to convince us to avoid wrongful desires and emotions.

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The body of Christ doesn’t fit well in church

Church too often divides, waters down, and tames the body of Christ. If Peter had been a typical pastor, he would have preached a sermon to the people in the boat instead of walking on the water with Jesus.

The theology of Jesus’ resurrection without continually experiencing His presence is incomplete. Trying to be a Christian without daily following the living Jesus is like trying to see with your eyes closed.

If you say Jesus is alive but ignore Him most of the time, why should anyone believe you? The disciples let Jesus sleep until a storm rocked their boat. Hear God’s wake up call.

If we say that Jesus is alive, but don’t surrender control to Him, we don’t really believe what we say. When the body of Christ started meeting as church, it became programmed, systematized, and passive. We need to let the body of Christ be actively and directly led by its living Head–the risen Jesus.

Christians are lectured but seldom trained, preached at but rarely coached, given weekly talks but not much hands-on experience. You don’t run your body with a program, a curriculum, or by letting a committee make decisions for it. Why would Jesus run His that way?

The body of Christ belongs to the risen Jesus, not to a denomination, a preacher, a location, or a congregation. Unfortunately it is segregated in too many ways to mention–broken into unconnected churches that disagree with each other.

You go to the gym to work out your body, not to have it preached at. Maybe Jesus wants to work out His body and not have it preached at. I believe that the living Jesus wants to work out & train His body, the way a coach works out and trains his team.

The two greatest hindrances to letting Jesus actively lead a church meeting are human control and unbelief. Some people are churched yet spiritually homeless. Others are unchurched yet abiding in Christ. Christianity is about where you are in a relationship with the living Jesus, not about if you go to church.

The Bible is like my refrigerator. When I open it up and look inside, I see light. It shows me Christians who lived out of the religious box and inspires me to follow suit.

What matters least about
Meetings of the body of Christ
Is "location, location, location."
What matter's most
Is that Jesus is allowed
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Is the refrigerator light shinning bright?

The human heart is like a refrigerator; when you open yours up, a light comes on.

The only time some people’s face lights up is when they open their refrigerator door.

Instead of opening up their heart in love, too many people just decorate the outside of the door.

People rarely put a lock on their fridge, but they frequently lock up their heart.

When you’re hungry you need to open up your refrigerator. When you’re lonely you need to open up your heart.

If you never remove the rotting stuff out of your refrigerator, it’s going to get really bad in there. The same with your heart.

It’s does little good to load your refrigerator door down with positive thoughts and pictures, if you load your heart down with negative ones.

Don’t forget about the good leftovers in your fridge or the good memories in your heart.

You can tell a lot about a person by what’s in their refrigerator, even more by what’s in their heart.

It’s good to have labels on the food in the fridge, but bad to have them on the people in your life.

An empty fridge looks lonely. An empty heart is lonely.

If you don’t want it on your refrigerator door, don’t put let it in your heart.

If you aren’t content having a tiny refrigerator, don’t be content having a tiny heart.

Meditation is like gazing in the refrigerator and pondering it’s contents. It just focuses on the heart instead of the fridge.

Many people leave their refrigerator door open more often than they do the door of their heart.

You’ve probably been asked, “What’s your favorite thing in your refrigerator?” but I want to ask you, “What’s your favorite thing in your heart?”

Listening for a humming sound in your fridge can be worrisome, but hearing your heart hum for joy, is wonderful!

A full heart is even better than a full refrigerator.

Is your refrigerator running or standing still?

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This is American history, not CRT

Attempting to take a broad and honest look at history and its impact on the present, is research, not Critical Race Theory. American history is a peculiar mixture of idyllic freedom for some and unjust, lifelong bondage for others. Both storylines should be taught.

If a public health mask mandate is a threat to freedom, then slavery was an unimaginable holocaust. Here is America’s historical irony: Freedom loving men forcibly held innocent men, women, and children in a lifetime of cruel, unpaid labor.

We need truth and reconciliation: A factual telling of the cruelty committed in American history is therapeutic, not unpatriotic. All history matters, yet we honor some history while ignoring, hiding, or denying the parts of history that we don’t like.

Here’s an example of selective history: Americans want to remember Pearl Harbor and 911, but forget about slavery and lynching.

American history: Taxation without representation was declared “tyranny,” while the lifetime enslavement of innocent people was declared the “peculiar institution.” One Founding Father broke the mold (but today he is mostly forgotten). Founding Father, Robert Carter III, freed and paid his 442+ slaves so he could be true to his belief in freedom.

Slavery:
There’s no excuse
For millions of lifetimes
Of wage theft
And cruel abuse.

Time to un-institutionalize Jesus

When Jesus is un-institutionalized (freed from the confines of religious organizations), He begins to demonstrate His power and presence. To function as the body of Christ we need Jesus realized, not Jesus institutionalized.

The body of Christ isn’t an organization. It’s a movement that follows the living Jesus. It doesn’t institutionalize Jesus.

“Church” has far too often drifted away from being the body of Christ with Jesus as its Head and become a man-led institution. A religious institution is a poor substitute for Christ-revealed intuition as recorded in the Bible and spoken in your heart.

Institutionalized Christianity often lacks the vibrancy of spontaneously following and obeying the living, resurrected Jesus. For years I only saw the institutionalized Jesus. Then my eyes beheld the living Jesus and I’ve been enthralled by Him ever since.

In the body of Christ, each member is directly connected to the living Jesus, the Head. Spiritual paralysis results when members ignore Him. The body of Christ is a Jesus-led movement, not a weekly meeting for religious amusement.

How to un-stitutionalize Jesus: 1) Talk to Him like He’s real; 2) Ask Him to speak to you; 3) Listen to what He tells you; and 4) Do what He says. Immerse yourself in the Bible because the risen Jesus won’t contradict it, but will make it come alive to you.

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Following Jesus as His ekklesia

By doing what Jesus says, we learn what He means. Hearing sermons can never substitute for daily obedience. If we’re not actively teaching people about what we’re learning by following Jesus, we will stunt our spiritual growth.

When we gather as Jesus’ body, what happens in the meeting should be His choice, not our choice or a pastor’s choice. Jesus said, “Don’t look back,” but people tend to look back to study Him in the past, more than trying to find Him in the present.

Until Jesus becomes a daily, present reality to you, we’re not yet experiencing biblical Christianity. The living Jesus wants to give us power to resist and overcome our false feelings, tormenting thoughts, and defective desires.

When we see people’s heart, we love them more deeply. Ekklesia allows Christ-followers to see each other’s heart. Ekklesia values every member of the body of Christ and believes in their ability to hear and share what the Spirit is saying. It allows us to test out and develop our spiritual wings in the safe environment of the gathered body of Christ. Ekklesia trains Christ-followers to actively pursue the living Jesus, not to sit passively and let someone else do it.

Ekklesia is a way the early Christians connected with the living Jesus and with one another. When an English Bible says “church” it causes people to think of modern churches, not about the way Christians met in the Bible as ekklesia.

Jesus isn’t a story,
Bible study subject
Or sermon topic.
He’s alive and present!

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COMPASSION Acrostic (Can we be cruelty free?)

Concern for
Others,
Mercy,
Politeness
And
Sincere
Sympathy,
Interest,
Openness,
Niceness.

When there’s no room for compassion to control the heart, cruelty creeps in. Much human history is the story of cruelty.

Every murder falsely declares that human lives don’t matter. When prenatal lives don’t matter, we devalue all human life.

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Rediscovering Jesus’ Town Hall Meeting (ekklesia)

Greek cities in the ancient world were governed by open Town Hall Meetings, where any citizen could speak, which they called “The Ekklesia.” When Jesus chose a name for a gathering of His people, He called it My Ekklesia (Jesus’ Town Hall Meeting).

The body of Christ needs to rediscover Jesus’ Town Hall Meeting. It’s a gathering where the living Jesus is free to demonstrate His reality through anyone present. God’s intent is that “now through the ekklesia (Jesus’ Town Hall Meeting) the manifold wisdom of God would be made known.” –Eph. 3:10.

Jesus wants His followers to be living stones that He can use to build His spiritual house–His Town Hall Meeting. –1 Peter 2:4-5. He is calling present day followers to be “built together to become a dwelling in which God lives by His Spirit.” –Eph. 2:22. Living stones need to be built together on the living Jesus, not on religious programs or organizations.

Christians need to depend on the only unshakable Rock–the living Jesus who is the Cornerstone which religious builders rejected. Jesus wants to demonstrate the kingdom of God by building His Town Hall meeting on that Rock through the supernatural revelation that He is the Messiah–the Christ, the Son of the Living God. –Mt. 16:16-20.

When we gather in Jesus’ Town Hall Meeting to wait for His direct revelation, He gives us the keys to demonstrate the kingdom of God–the government of the living Jesus. –Mt.16:19. Jesus’ Town Hall Meetings manifest the kingdom of God because, unlike the Greek ekklesia, they’re built on sharing Divine revelation, not on free speech.

The buildings where the Greek ekklesia met crumbled. However, Jesus assured His followers that the gates of Hell will not be able to overcome His ekklesia. It’s not a physical building made of stones, but an assembly of “living stones” brought together and led by the living Jesus, Himself.

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The invisible Jesus is the essential part of Christianity

WiFi is invisible but that doesn’t prevent me from connecting with it. Same with the invisible Jesus. You can’t see the invisible Jesus but you can feel His presence when you let Him live and work in your heart.

People aren’t satisfied to hear a weekly lecture about WiFi. They want to be personally connect to it. That’s the way I feel about Jesus.

Trying to be a Christian while ignoring the invisible Jesus is like trying to post on Facebook while offline. However, when Christians have an ongoing connection with the invisible Jesus, they’re continually spiritually fed by Christ living in them.

The physical Jesus entered God’s supernatural dimension. The invisible Jesus returned to earth with the Holy Spirit. The visible indications of Jesus’ invisible presence are the characteristics that the Bible calls the fruit of the Spirit (Gal. 5:22).

The invisible Jesus can’t be contained or monopolized by organizations called churches. Let Him live in and thru you. The invisible Jesus is the essential part of Christianity.

When Christ-followers gather and connect with the invisible Jesus, He moves them around with the gentle breeze of His inner wind. Like touching your phone, if you touch Jesus with your heart, it pulls up invisible connections and enables you to stream His flow.

To gather as Jesus’ Town Hall Meeting allows a group of people to consciously connect with and stream the invisible Jesus together. Spirituality mature believers (elders) serve as overseers (like officials in football) when Jesus’ Town Hall Meeting gathers. Watching the living Jesus invisibly lead His Town Hall Meeting is an incredible experience.

The kingdom of God enables conscious connection with the invisible Jesus and lets Him continually stream inside you. Those who are willing to hear, let them stream what the invisible Jesus is saying to His Town Hall Meeting. (Revelation 2:7.)

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Lies are a poor disguise for truth

Every lie you tell makes truth harder to find. Every twist on truth distorts it. Lies dis honesty. If we humans were as good as we try to make people think that we are, the world would be in much better shape.

Lying doesn’t sugar coat life. It vandalizes it. The truth is the most reliable story and I’m sticking to it.

The truth doesn’t need large numbers of supporters. It is what it is.

Honesty is simple. Lying is complicated. Simplify. Truth is more valuable than money, yet people continually toss truth aside.

Before you say something, give it the lie detector test. Run it by your conscience. To lie is to welcome ongoing fear–the fear that your lies will someday be exposed.

Anytime you open your mouth, or type on a keyboard, you have the opportunity to be honest. If you don’t want to feel guilty, tell the truth.

Beware. Words can express half truths, the whole truth, or no truth. Humans can hide the truth, but we can’t change it.

Second lies are easier to tell than the first. The world needs more peacemakers and fewer pain-makers.

Dishonest people attempt to deny reality. Honest people courageously face it. Truth will outlast lies and one day rise to the surface.

When you see facts
As threats
You’re in debt
To dishonesty.

To disguise
The truth
Is unwise
And full
Of lies.

If you embrace deceit
You don’t defeat
The truth,
But you do delete
Your self-esteem.

It’s easier to tell
A pack of lies
Than it is
To “single-ize”
One solitary lie.

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