Steve Simms's Blog, page 187

What makes a great American?

If greatness in American historyWas measured by How well a person lived by"Liberty and justice for all," A lot of "great" Americans Would be demoted. Check out my Top 10 Greatest Americans by the standard of "liberty and justice for all." Photo by Pixabay on Pexels.com

Optimistic observations about observation

Inaccurate observation creates many physical, social, relational, mental, and emotional problems. Seeing things more clearly can help us avoid problems.

Observation is the courage to see what’s really there, not just what you want to see. Inaccurate observation leads to faulty reasoning. Our human tendency to prematurely evaluate hinders our ability to clearly observe the what’s going on. Before you begin to reason, make sure you have correct information.

Most of us have been taught how to memorize and repeat, more than how to observe and ponder. It’s easy to memorize other people’s thinking, but It takes hard work to make your own observations.

If you seldom observe and ponder, you’ll wander thru life with little wonder in your heart. Jokes aren’t the only thing that’s funny. Everyday life is full of healthy humor if you’ll stop evaluating everything and begin to enjoy life moment by moment.

You can’t improve yourself if you won’t accurately observe the details of how you think, emote, and act. Self-improvement involves thinking and living better than you have been.

There’s always something going on inside your mind and heart. Observe those inner actions. Decide which to embrace and which to erase. If you seldom clean out your heart and manage the workings of your mind, you might look good on the outside, but you’ll be a mess inside

Your attitude is determined by how you use your mind and by your inner responses to outer and inner stimuli By watching your thoughts, feelings, and desires, as an interested observer, you can learn to manage them for greater happiness. If you learn to monitor the self-talk in your mind, you can begin to select the helpful and reject the detrimental.

If you pray with an honest, humble heart, you will begin to observe positive changes occurring within you. You can get to know the living Jesus more by observation than by reasoning. Talk to Him and then notice what happens in your heart.

Testimony is powerful. It lets people see how you’ve changed, instead of you trying to persuade them to change.

You’re in God’s image.
He’s creative!
So are you.
Observe and innovate!
Why just rotate
Thru life?

Photo by Andrea Piacquadio on Pexels.com

What’s a wish worth?

You can wish
For a fish
But you’re more likely
To catch a fish
If you go
Fishing.

Photo by Taryn Elliott on Pexels.com

The Sunday morning church plot

Every Sunday
The plot’s the same.
We’ve made church so tame.

Church teaches Christians to listen to a preacher. Perhaps it would be more effective if it taught us to listen to our conscience. If a church isn’t empowering people to daily experience the presence of the living Jesus, it’s in decline.

Christianity isn’t about church growth. It’s about spiritual growth–people growing closer to and more obedient to the risen Jesus.

Christianity is about spiritual life. The more church tries to organize and control spiritual life, the more the Holy Spirit is quenched. Maybe church should proclaim the Gospel to people who haven’t believed, instead of claiming authority to control the spiritual life the ones who have.

Christians are capable of so much more than being a Sunday audience. Perhaps God is saying: “Let My people grow!”

Church is a distorted view of Christianity. The most accurate view comes thru reading the New Testament with an open heart (and without a commentary) and listening to God as you read.

The body of Christ needs no chain of command. Each member can be led directly by Jesus, the Head.

Church too often lets the program and the preacher distract people’s attention away from the presence of the living Jesus. But Christ is essential!

Step into the future of church. The living Jesus can restructure the Sunday morning church plot and fill it with power and life! Take a look at Beyond Church–An Invitation To Experience The Lost Word Of The Bible–Ekklesia.

Photo by Caroline Anderson on Pexels.com

How to gain from your pain

If you allow pain to close your heart, you’ll never get what you were supposed to gain from your pain. Even when you can’t change your circumstances, you can choose whether to let them irritate you or polish you.

Excuses will never help you heal. But admitting where you’re wrong and asking for forgiveness, will. All people are mixtures of good and bad (to varying degrees). That’s the nature of our human race.

Personal growth requires truth. Falsehood hinders it. Our feelings aren’t facts. In fact, our feelings often contradict the facts. When you detach yourself from your desires, feelings, and pride, you can see truth more clearly.

Your comfort zone and your growth zone seldom overlap. If you are willing to be uncomfortable enough to notice, you might find a great thought drifting thru your mind.

The most important thing to filter isn’t your air or your water. It’s your thoughts! Involuntary thoughts don’t take away your freedom of choice. You can choose to retain them or to resist them.

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History too often trivializes the terrible

History as it is written is usually cleaned up and sanitized. As it happened, it was a smorgasbord of good and bad, just like the present is. However, after a country’s historians finish with it, history is tidied up to make their country look good.

The uncomfortable parts of history have been reworked. The bad has been polished up, and the really bad has been taken off the buffet and removed from view. Then that hidden history becomes a mystery that isn’t taught in schools or popular books, but must be sought out and discovered by interested individuals who are courageous enough to face it.

When a society ignores (and or down plays) the parts of its history that it doesn’t like, people never learn the lessons that those parts have to teach them. For example, in American history, most of the painful details of the cruelty that was legalized and supported by the government are left out and the incidents that are mentioned are played down and presented as very minor parts of the story, not really worth much time and consideration.

Unfortunately denial only hides the pain of the past. It doesn’t heal it. It doesn’t allow the people of the present to freely learn the pain of the past and discover ways to move beyond it.

Personally, I don’t want to believe and build my view of the present on history that has been altered to make the past look better than it was. I’ve searched American history for years to find, learn about, and try to understand the fuller story that the faint of heart are often unwilling to face. If you want more than altered history, check out what I’ve discovered.

When you’re in your “uncomfort zone”

Your “uncomfort zone” can be a place of great growth, if you don’t let it make you frustrated and angry. Knowledge learned but not applied is information that cannot guide.

Some people let problems inspire them to grow. Others run form personal growth like it’s the problem.

When we make life about knowing, it’s all in the head. When we make it about growing, the heart is nourished and fed!

What you know
Is less important
Than what
You let grow
In your heart.

Artificial plants
Don’t grow.
Neither do
Artificial people.

Using your freedom,
To do wrong,
Isn't a human right.
It's an evil choice
That transforms
Freedom into guilt.

When you’re comfortable
Doing wrong,
You’re in a toxic
Comfort zone.

You need to see
Some inner light,
At least a bit
Of bright
And shinning hope.
Look!

Train the gray thing
You carry above your neck,
To live with joy
And not to wreck.

You can train
To learn to defeat
Demonic thoughts
That trample thru your brain.

No matter what people say about you, they can’t write your autobiography. That’s up to you.

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Do Christians need adult-size, baby walkers?

Baby walkers help Infants and toddlers Move themselves around Before they learn To walk on their own. They're not designed As a replacement For learning to walk And shouldn't be used By older children Or adults. Sometimes Christians need help Learning to walk In the Spirit. Teaching, sermons, Rituals, liturgy, Programmed meetings, Commentaries and studies, Can all be helpful, But participating in them Should never be the goal Of the Christian life. Those things are tools, Like a baby walker, To train Christ-followers To be lead by the Spirit, To listen to and obey The resurrected Jesus. "Therefore let us move beyond The elementary teachings About Christ And be taken forward to maturity." Become always aware
Of the living Jesus,
The way a driver
Doing other things
(Conversation, eating,
Listening to books or music)
Needs to stay
Continually aware
Of the road. This insight Can bring your Soul's night Bright, Invisible light. Baby Walker 004

What about those good memories!

When unpleasant memories try to enter your mind, don’t let them thru the door. Let bad memories be lessons learned, not patterns to repeat.

You can’t remember everything. Why not choose good things to remember and the bad things to forget?

You can attach your heart to what is positive and uplifting and detach it from what is negative and down drifting. Some memories will add joy to your day; others will steal your joy away. Choose joy today!

Memories can exalt you or make you distraught. Choose the ones that lift you up, not the ones that tear you down.

When you think about your past, all you find is memories. Enjoy the best ones. Keep the worst ones out of the present.

Uplifting thoughts sometimes flow thru your mind. Notice them. Let them encourage you. Good or bad, your choices for today work together to create your consequences in the future.

When you get To the last page Of your life's book, You'll be where you are Because of the paths That you took. Photo by Lisa on Pexels.com

The power of apology / the freedom of confession!

People like to brag and say, “I have no apologies to make to anyone,” (as if they had never done anything wrong to anybody). Pride refuses to apologize for wrongs it has done. Love is quick to. (The apology that pride tells you not to make, is often the most important one to make.)

A true apology humbly offers regret for wrongdoing, without making excuses, and then does what it can to make amends. A sincere apology requires courage; excuses don’t.

If you allow yourself to feel no sincere regret for what you’ve done, saying “I’m sorry,” is empty words.

Even when you’ve been offered no apologies, you can still choose to forgive and dump your heavy load of hurt. When you’re looking for an apology and don’t get it, forgive anyway. Don’t let the person who hurt you keep you full of resentment. Carrying unforgiveness often causes you more pain than what a person did when they hurt you.

Innocence is unattainable. The only way to be free from guilt is through apology and unearned forgiveness. To fail to confess is to acquiesce to guilt. You don’t need an attorney, a priest, or a church service to make a confession. You can come clean with God anytime and anywhere.

If we would sincerely apologize for where we’ve harmed people and give up wanting them to apologize to us, we’d be much happier. To make no apologies when you’ve done wrong to someone, is to choose to ignore the pain you’ve caused them.

Confession is like taking a shower (or flushing a toilet). It washes away the grime of guilt. Confession is courageous; honesty is heroic! Confession will set you free from the heavy load of lies and deception.

If you’re feeling guilty,
A sincere apology
Can set you free.

Without apology,
Guilt lingers
And pride prevails.

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