Steve Simms's Blog, page 182
June 5, 2021
When God gives you a nudge, don’t refuse to budge
To refuse to budge
When God gives a nudge
Is to quench the Spirit.
The Bible says not to do that.
To put your desires
Ahead of the Spirit’s leading
Is stomping
God’s prompting.
Inclination and impulse
Can be godly or ungodly.
It’s important to
Know the difference.
Christians are called to follow the risen Son of Man, not the plans of man. Spontaneously following the inner promtings of the living Jesus makes life a continuous adventure.
Christianity is allowing God’s unexpected to happen and experiencing Christ in fresh ways. It’s not arranging everything beforehand. If you frequently know what the preacher is going to say next, you need to graduate yourself and begin to apply what you know.
Jesus-prompted spontaneity releases encouragement, joy, and inspiration. To follow the inner promptings of the living Jesus is discipleship in action! Christ-followers follow Jesus even when He leads where they don’t want to go.
When Christianity is Spirit-led and spontaneous it flourishes. When it is legalistic and dutiful it dies out. Churches should be training Christians to uninhibitedly follow and obey the living Jesus. Christianity is supposed to be a movement led by the living Jesus, not a religious monument for a dead Jesus.
Christianity has been bridled to human plans, programs and opinions for far too long. We need the freedom to follow the living Jesus. When the promptings of the living Jesus are shut down in church, we’re left to rely on human leadership.
Following the impulses of your desires, emotions, and opinions, leads to a different outcome than following the promptings of Jesus.
Spontaneously expressing the inner promptings of the living Jesus, demonstrates His reality to those around you. Spontaneity seizes sudden opportunities to do good. Be spontaneous!
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June 4, 2021
Nature calls
Is it wise to celebrate ego & pride?
Love wins,
But ego,
Lust and insecurity
Seldom do.
Your ego
Doesn’t know
As much as
You think it does.
It’s ego
When you think you know
Better than your conscience.
You don’t know
What you don’t know
Until you let go
Of your ego
And embrace humility.
Pride makes marriage
A clash of egos.
Humility makes it work.
Guilt shouts
It out:
Following your conscience
Matters!
Ego and politics
Are a fiery mix.
Pride
Isn’t the way
To decide
Public policy.
Lies are deception.
Deception is bondage
Humility and honesty
Set you free.
A billionaire can’t buy:
A good marriage,
Forgiveness,
True friendship,
Inner peace.
History shows that pride’s a myth. After a few generations, nobody really cares that you even existed.
Ego tries to control what other people think about you. Humility tries to think the best about other people.
If you’re unwilling to welcome and host honesty in your heart, deception will hold you hostage to your desires. Pride puts feelings and desires first (while truth, common sense, wisdom, principles, ethics, and conscience are often left behind.)
Pride listens to ego. Humility to conscience and courage to obeys it. Ego mostly ignores it.
Love? A person’s not a trophy. Ego isn’t love. Love is putting another person ahead of your self-interest and desires.
The best way politicians can “fight” is to fight their own ego. They need to put the best interest of the entire country first instead of their pride.
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Think outside desire
Think outside desire.
Wander into nature
And ponder
Its wonder.
Like the plants
In a garden,
Desires in your heart
Can be cultivated
Or weeded out.
Desire can lead to achievement or to bondage. It all depends on how well you manage it.
Hold fast to the desire for truth. It will keep other desires from dragging you into deception.
Irresistible desire is a myth. People have demonstrated that any desire can be controlled and kept in check.
Desire isn’t one of the 5 senses. It doesn’t reveal reality. Desire needs to be made to align with reality, not vise versa. Cultivate within you the desire to be free from controlling desires that try to compel you to go against your conscience.
Desire is a terrible master that leads us into unproductive habits and bondage. Before you begin to follow a desire, decide if you want to be its servant.
Desire tries to require you to dance to its tune. However, the more you do, the more it will ensnare you in its barbed wire.
If you don’t make your desires follow logic and reason, your logic and reason will become enslaved to our desires. Desires are like dogs. If you don’t train them to be under your control, they’ll continually cause you problems.
If you don’t desire truth more than your own feelings, wants, opinions, and thoughts, you’ll find falsehood. If you don’t cultivate within yourself a strong desire not to be deceived, you will be.
If our desires, feelings, thoughts, and opinions are controlling our life, the living Jesus isn’t. Make Jesus your Lord.
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June 3, 2021
America is ignoring important history
Just because some people don’t want to be reminded of something doesn’t mean that it’s not an important part of history. It’s time to bring ignored (and/or denied) history into the light.
Search: Off the RACE Track book.
Off the RACE Track: From Color-Blind to Color-Kind: Simms, Steve: 9781726663885: Amazon.com: Books
June 2, 2021
Pride & conscience often conflict
Conscience is
Life’s inner guide
That our pride
Too often sets aside.
Conscience guides those who follow it. Desire dictates those who don’t. Conscience and desire seldom lead in the same direction. Following self-focused desires may satisfy for awhile, but eventually leads to guilt, trouble, and trial.
People who disobey their conscience will disobey laws that get in their way, if they think they can get by with it. Society nowadays demands we silence our conscience (or at least keep quiet about it), even though crime comes from people ignoring their conscience. However, love doesn’t demand that you approve of people’s behavior when it goes against your conscience.
It takes tons of effort and energy to continually hide from your conscience. Conscience says, “Your desires and feelings are often deceptive.” Pride says, “If it feels good, want it and revel in it.” It’s hard to follow your conscience, especially in a culture that prides itself on following feelings and desires instead.
Self-seeking keeps you stuck in a very narrow perspective. A whole lot of truth lies beyond our self-interest. If we don’t humbly go beyond our own desires and feelings, we’ll overlook much truth.
A self-seeking, desire-driven lifestyle seldom brings satisfaction, but often brings guilt. A focus on compassion and service toward others frequently satisfies.
Jesus calls for repentance. But we can’t repent if we won’t honestly listen to and obey our conscience. The Bible calls us to obey our conscience, while speaking the truth in love to people who do things that violate our conscience.
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June 1, 2021
Church attendance is often a distraction from biblical Christianity
When Jesus is living, active, and speaking in your heart, a church service can be a distraction. Church attendance is like sitting on home plate. It’s time for believers to run the bases!
A church service is a distraction if: 1) It makes you feel like attending it is earning God’s favor; 2) It serves as a substitute for your continually seeking to get closer to God on your own; 3) If you don’t personally test what you heard at church with what the Bible says; 4) If you become dependent on a pastor instead of on the living Jesus.
If church never goes beyond the bounds of human control, it’s what the Bible calls “a form of godliness without the power.” Many Christians focus on things that are natural. We need to be continually hungry for a supernatural relationship with God.
The natural can be understood and explained in a sermon. The supernatural God can’t, but He can be experienced. If you take the supernatural out of Christianity, nothing will be left.
Life is the embodiment of the supernatural. It’s a miracle, not a mindless mishap. Church gatherings should be demonstrations of Jesus supernaturally functioning as the Head, the leader of the meeting.
One often overlooked, supernatural aspect of God (that doesn’t need church to function) is the human conscience. Far too many people are afraid of their conscience, but if you’ll listen to it, it’s your friend.
People (Christians or non-Christians) who are afraid to listen to and obey their conscience are dangerous to themselves and others. Freedom of conscience means that people are free to disapprove of what their conscience tells them is wrong behavior. If we focused on getting Christians to listen to & obey their conscience, instead of just sitting thru church, they’d be transformed.
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Insight to let go of your fright
Jesus is alive
Inside the heart
Of true Christ-followers,
But if we're unaware
And fail to see Him
Living in there,We're stuck in dark nightSpiritually blind,
Without inner sight,
And won't behold the Lamb
To see the glory of God
In the face of Jesus Christ.
Let go of your fright
And let God,
Who commanded the light
To shine out of darkness,
Shine in your heart. God can open your eyesAnd you can experienceThe joy of early Christianity.
Open our eyes, Lord!
May 31, 2021
A violence weary people
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