Steve Simms's Blog, page 189
April 16, 2021
Chirp, tweet, & cheer up
Tweet, chirp,
And cheer up,
Like a bird
Singing on a branch.
Glad words can interrupt your misery and point you to victory. When you talk to yourself, it helps if you’re kind.
Life is full of overlooked beauty that is patiently waiting for you to notice it and to let it inspire you. Every time you start to feel discouraged, put it off until tomorrow.
A little cleaning and redecorating can make a home bright and refreshing. It can do the same for your mind.
There’s much that’s good in your life. It’s hard to be sad if you stay focused on the good.
There are solutions to your problems
And even if you can’t solve them,
Time will.
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April 14, 2021
What is your “Jesus awareness number”?
The more aware you become of the presence of Jesus, the more you will be impacted by His power. Christians too often go offline with Jesus and go through daily life with no “innernet” connection. Then they wonder why they don’t feel His presence.
By focusing your heart on the living Jesus, you can gaze at Him without physically seeing Him. (Although my eyes have never seen the living Jesus, I continually realize that He’s present and working inside me.) If you keep the living Jesus as the center of your inner life, your outward circumstances will have little impact on you.
Here’s a quick assessment. Check your awareness of the presence of Jesus: 1–You don’t sense His presence at all; to 10–You’re overwhelmed by His presence. Take a minute and ponder this. Then write down and look at your personal “awareness of Jesus assessment number?”
Here are a few ways (that have worked for me) that you can also use to raise your your number:
Humble yourself. “God resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble.”Continually talk to and talk to Jesus.Seek Jesus as the number one priority in your life.Repent every time you become aware of sin in your heart, mind, words, or actions.Read Scripture everyday with an open heart.Pay attention to and obey inner promptings from Jesus. Hang out with people who are aware of and excited about the living Jesus. (Pray together, open up to each other, hold each other accountable, minister to one another.)Pray in tongues through out the day. Tell people about things that Jesus has taught you and done in your life.When your attention wanders, bring it back to Jesus. Frequently repeat the Jesus prayer in your mind: “Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me.” Continually express love and adoration to Jesus. Put on worship music and passionately sing to Jesus, through the words of the songs. Express your own praise to Him.Find and read books that set your heart on fire with love for Jesus.
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“Awareness of Jesus assessment number”
The more aware you become of the presence of Jesus, the more you will be impacted by His power. Christians too often go offline with Jesus and go through daily life with no “innernet” connection. Then they wonder why they don’t feel His presence.
By focusing your heart on the living Jesus, you can gaze at Him without physically seeing Him. (Although my eyes have never seen the living Jesus, I continually realize that He’s present and working inside me.) If you keep the living Jesus as the center of your inner life, your outward circumstances will have little impact on you.
Here’s a quick assessment. Check your awareness of the presence of Jesus: 1–You don’t sense His presence at all; to 10–You’re overwhelmed by His presence. Take a minute and ponder this. Then write down and look at your personal “awareness of Jesus assessment number?”
Here are a few ways (that have worked for me) that you can also use to raise your your number:
Humble yourself. “God resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble.”Continually talk to and talk to Jesus.Seek Jesus as the number one priority in your life.Repent every time you become aware of sin in your heart, mind, words, or actions.Read Scripture everyday with an open heart.Pay attention to and obey inner promptings from Jesus. Hang out with people who are aware of and excited about the living Jesus. (Pray together, open up to each other, hold each other accountable, minister to one another.)Pray in tongues through out the day. Tell people about things that Jesus has taught you and done in your life.When your attention wanders, bring it back to Jesus. Frequently repeat the Jesus prayer in your mind: “Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me.” Continually express love and adoration to Jesus. Put on worship music and passionately sing to Jesus, through the words of the songs. Express your own praise to Him.Find and read books that set your heart on fire with love for Jesus.
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Fishing within for positive thoughts
We all have healthy, uplifting, and creative thoughts. However, if we don’t begin to explore and express them, we remain mostly unaware of them. Search for the good things in your mind.
Life fish in a river, hope-filled thoughts flow unnoticed, below the surface of your mind. Bad thoughts will jump out at you, but often you have to patiently fish for good thoughts. Bait your hook for hope!
Find ideas that stir your soul and fill you with hope. Keep them in your awareness and you’ll overflow with amazement and gratitude.
Look beyond problems and pain. Don’t let them drown out your awareness of the good things in your life.
As humans, we don’t have to obey our feelings or desires. We can choose to resist and overcome them.
Listening to your conscience is a courageous step toward self-awareness. It tells you healing truth, even when you don’t want to hear it.
Become more aware of love. “Love is love,” yet it’s not sex. Love is humility, honesty, self-control, purity, apology, sacrifice, (and even kindness toward your enemies).
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April 13, 2021
Jesus isn’t my copilot . . .
Lordship means that Jesus can’t be your copilot. It means to let go of the controls and let Jesus alone be your pilot. (Jesus, pilot me! I don’t know how to fly this thing called life!)
Whatever or whoever you obey is your Lord. Humans obey many different Lords, such as: feelings, desires, opinions, habits, money, pride, leaders, nations, hate, etc. Instead, you can let the living Jesus be Lord.
Many Christians claim Jesus as their Savior, but not as their Lord. They want to call the shots and go to Heaven on their own terms.
To make Jesus your Lord is to obey Him, rather than your own emotions, desires, or opinions. No one can run your life as effectively as your Creator. That’s why surrender to the living Lord Jesus brings indescribable joy.
The Lordship of Jesus begins in your thoughts and desires. Unless you let Him rule those, your actions will be beyond His control.
Lordship begins when you allow the living Jesus to exchange your will for His. Jesus becomes your Lord when you let Him replace self as the decision maker in your life and rule over all your desires and feelings. Unless our will, emotions, and appetites are surrendered to the authority of the living Jesus, He isn’t our Lord.
Early Christians were persecuted because they said, “Jesus is Lord,” and refused to say “Caesar is Lord.”
There’s no question whether Jesus will show up in your life. The question is: Will you surrender to His Lordship when He does?
May Christ the Lord be adored, not just with words, but with obedience:
It's easier to pray To the Lord Than it is to obey And surrender to His will. But no matter what we say,He's not truly our Lord If we don't follow His way.
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April 12, 2021
Christianity is overanalyzed and under lived.
Very few people study the chemistry of their food. They just open up and enjoy it. “O taste and see that the Lord is good.” You can learn to recognize the presence of Jesus and realize His reality, not just occasionally, but continually.
Analysis dissects a bird. Joy savors its song. Christianity is overanalyzed and under lived. It needs more practical, how-to, interactive, hands-on training, that goes beyond just listening to sermons.
Church too often focuses on teaching about God, while neglecting to train people to daily live out what they learn. Discipleship is about daily living out Christianity, not about trying to understand it theologically.
To make Christianity analytical and political (mind and hierarchy focused) is to miss out on the spontaneity of the living Jesus. We have made a church service merely sitting thru analysis without implementation–a group of people hearing the word without doing it.
The Bible presents one of life’s most amazing opportunities–to build your life on the wisdom of Jesus and His early followers. I try not to analyze the Bible, but rather to read it daily with an open heart and let it analyze and change me.
Any Jesus that can be controlled by a church or by an individual is a counterfeit Jesus. When love for Jesus shifts from your heart to your mind, it slips from reality into memory.
Bad memories are like mud on your shoes. If you step out of the mud and start walking on dry ground, the mud eventually falls off.
Christianity,Live it up,
Breaking free
From the sin And analysis
That holds you down.
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April 11, 2021
Forgetting to remember the splendor
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Let the body of Christ demonstrate the living Jesus like a vacuum cleaner salesperson demonstrate a vacuum
A vacuum cleaner salesman can’t show you his demonstration if someone talks over him and you ignore him. Neither can Jesus. The body of Christ is supposed to demonstrate the living Jesus to the world!
It’s alive, not contrived! The body of Christ is organic, not organizational. The body of Christ is relationship, not ritual–family, not religious forms–people united heart to heart, not programs! As people let the living Jesus daily rule inside them, they discover that they have a powerful connection with each other.
The living Jesus is the only Head of the body of Christ. All people who belong to Him are members of His body. They belong to the kingdom of God and are called to be led by the Spirit, not by their own desire. Though they may differ in their maturity levels, all who have been adopted into the family of God have the same status.
Christians have looked too low for guidance. We have looked to churches and preachers, instead of to the living, resurrected Jesus. Words spoken head to head are frequently misunderstood, but those spoken heart to heart bring caring connection. Let Jesus speak to your heart!
There is only one group of Jesus-followers, the body of Christ, whose members are called out of all nations, to obey to Him. It’s an invisible, yet indivisible group. As church split into thousands of independent groups, it rejected “the ministry of reconciliation”–Jesus’ call to be peacemakers. (Unless the living Jesus is submitted to and obeyed as the literal Head of the body of Christ, Christians will remain divided.)
Too often Christians are required to be seen in church, but not allowed to be heard in church. Testimonies are seldom allowed.
Idols aren’t just stone. Religious organizations can also be idols when they distract our focus from the risen Jesus. However, when you’re aware of the presence of the living Jesus, prayer is as easy as breathing.
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Did Jesus say, “Don’t tread on Me?”
"Don't tread on Me!"
Instead He was led away,
To die on the cross
For you and for me.
Today hear Him say,
"Follow Me,"
And walk in His way.
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April 10, 2021
Bad behavior is a big stumbling block
We humans tend to only behave as well as we feel like we need to in order to avoid getting caught. Bad people get upset when good behavior is expected from them.
If you behave badly, yet claim to be a good person, perhaps you need a new self-assessment. An effective fight against wrongdoing begins within by resisting, exposing, and overcoming the evil inside us.
As humans we feel a moral need to attempt to justify our bad behavior, so we make excuses and/or blame other people. It’s much easier to call a bad behavior good, than it is to change it.
Almost all people believe that there are bad behaviors. However, we tend to think that they are done by other people and not by us. Bad role models never justify bad behavior.
Bad behavior causes guilt and eventually creates bad consequences. If we had the courage to recognize, admit, and stop our bad behaviors, we’d see great improvements in our life.
Behavior is the most accurate indicator of a person’s beliefs. Any cruel action is bad behavior. Any kind action is good behavior.
Bad thoughts welcome negative emotions and lead to bad behaviors. When we ignore our conscience, we gravitate into bad behavior.
Bad behavior comes naturally. Good behavior requires rules, laws, and even supernatural assistance. This can help motivate us toward good behavior: As human beings we need to overcome our blindness to many of the obvious reasons we have to be happy.
No individual or group has a monopoly on bad behavior. The Bible says, “All have sinned.”
We humans are mess makers. Often we need a savior from our own behavior. It’s hard to see the living Jesus thru institutional eyes. It’s impossible to comprehend God, but thru the living Jesus we can continually experience Him.
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