Steve Simms's Blog, page 202

Smiles to go before I sleep

I have smiles to go before I sleep.
And smiles to go before I sleep.

Negative emotions are often based on misperceptions. See better, feel better. Let the inner whisper of hopeful dreams grow into a loud cheer of encouragement.

Open hearts open hearts. Closed hearts cause hearts to run for cover. A handful of words that light the heart can ignite hope and delight.

Perception likes to tinker with reality and sometimes even dismiss it completely. Bias hardens the heart and entangles the mind, all the while telling us that we’re truth seekers.

Sometimes things don’t make sense to us because we’re using emotion instead of logic. Feelings often attack and hijack our thinking and then distract us from fact. Perception can be twisted and distorted, but reality always stays the same. Anger, hate, and panic aren’t helpful feelings.

When people disagree, they usually have much more in common than in dispute. Still, it’s easy to get lost in your own point of view and be alienated from aspects of truth. When anger is substituted for logic, understand, and kindness, hate begins to take over.

What you see (or perceive) is what you think is there, but it may be an illusion. It’s usually easier to believe whatever you like than to believe what’s right. Illusion-confusion & conspiracy-supremacy are major problems.

To coerce by force creates pain and oppression. To listen and understand brings healing. When people think things are worse than they really are, they blame, accuse, and panic.

Sync perception with the One who sees clearly

An emotionally involved eye sees events differently than a mere passerby. Much God-given insight passes thru our mind and intuition unnoticed. Truth is found beyond our identity, our opinions, our feelings, our race, our nation.

Nothing that humans say is completely true. We’re all deceived to some degree. Valuing your opinion more than facts is called deception. 

Pride quickly rejects uncomfortable truth. Humility fact checks it before deciding its veracity.

Lies are out of sync with reality. Liars need to return to the real world.

Dishonesty covers-up and spins facts to try to make lies sound like truth. To crowd source your thinking and loop with one political group, is a good way to be deceived. People with a weak argument resort to accusations, distortions, and insults.

My perception is so limited and fragile that I feel a continual need to rely on Jesus. Christ in me calls me to be honest, even when I don’t want to be.

The One I rally around is the living, resurrected Jesus Christ! He has no need for human political power. You can’t hear the living Jesus if you wont listen to His voice. The main reason people don’t hear Jesus speaking to them is that they don’t want to. There’s a good reason for that. If you listen to the living Jesus He may say things you don’t want (but need) to hear.

Christian lingo has little power if your lifestyle’s out of sync with the risen Jesus. The call of Christianity is to continually synchronize with the living Jesus. When Christ-followers are in step with Jesus, they’ll be in sync with each other.

Christianity without love is counterfeit. Christians are called to love people, not to insult, accuse, & abuse them. Christians behaving badly, misrepresent Christ and cause people to reject the faith.

Disobedience to God is self-deception, the belief that our way is better than His way. Rebellion against God leads to dangerous falls, but surrender to the living Jesus will lift you like an inner geyser.

If you admit the truth, your conscience tries to hold you to it. That’s why denial’s in style. What matters isn’t if people agree with you, but how closely your opinions align with reality.

How we perceive a situation and how it actually is, frequently don’t match. To relieve our pain we sometimes deceive ourselves about what we perceive.

Perception is just a mental picture we take of something. It’s not the actual thing. Imagination that isn’t based on honest observation can lead to false accusation. Our opinion is a little water in our hand, yet truth involves oceans.

The living Jesus is a showstopper!

An incredible experience makes you want to tell people about it. Jesus gives me joy and incredible experiences! If the living Jesus has done something in your life, “shout it from the housetops.” Christians will be tense if they only talk about Jesus in the past tense.

The living Jesus should be the primary focus of Christians and get more of their attention than anybody else. Too often Jesus is presented as a nice story or a moral lesson, instead of encountered as present Reality.

Jesus First! That’s how it works. If anybody or anything else is on the throne, true Christianity’s gone. It’s dangerous to allow the ministry of a preacher to distract you from the present day ministry of the living Jesus.

Revival is when Christians stop the religious show and begin to let the reality of the living Jesus show thru their daily lives. When the living Jesus enters a church service, He’s a showstopper!

To limit preaching to a minister in church (or on TV) is to twist the Bible. (Many religious TV shows and webpages mention the name of a preacher more than Jesus.) Christians are called to proclaim Jesus, not just to hear talks about Him. Gathering to hear a weekly talk is no substitute for scattering to walk in obedience to the living Jesus. There’s no need to replace the living Jesus with a sermon, a preacher, or a program.

The Bible says to preach the Good News of Jesus. All Christians need to preach and demonstrate the reality of the risen Jesus. If you have nothing to say about the living Jesus, perhaps you’ve not experienced Him. If you feel compelled to talk about something more than Jesus, maybe you love it more.

Too often we get off the subject. Use your words to point to the living Jesus, not to put people down. Biblically, preaching isn’t about putting people down, but proclaiming Good News! Without Jesus-encounters of the direct kind, church is just ceremonial.

If you’ve experienced the presence and joy of the living Jesus, don’t keep it secret! The Good News of the living Jesus is infinitely too wonderful to be silent about.

A name on a tall building isn’t above every other name, but the name of Jesus is! Anything or anybody that Christians put above Jesus is a modern day idol.

Pastors want people to stay put and listen, but Jesus wandered as led by the Spirit and sent His followers out to preach. Jesus told His disciples, “Go into all the world and preach,” not, “Go to church.”

Separation between church and the living Jesus, causes us to rely on hierarchy and human performances. Christianity’s not about improving human nature, but about letting the risen Jesus daily live in and through you. There’s no copilot in Christianity. Jesus is the Pilot and His followers submit to Him.

Judea had systemic racism against the Samaritans, but Jesus broke the racial rules. The living Jesus isn’t tame. He can still turn over tables.

Try making the living Jesus the prime focus of your life. Learn to stream Him daily!

Fractions, factions, & half-truths

Half-truths chop reality into fractions and divide people into hostile factions. When people won’t humbly meet around truth, they arrogantly fight over error. Character will humbly embrace truth with grace, not replace it to save face.

What you think is happening isn’t necessarily what’s really happening. Facts face reality. Lies renounce it. Accusations without facts, ignore it. We can discover truth, report it, twist it, or deny it. But we can’t create truth.

Try to hear truth beyond what the herd has heard. Moove beyond group think. We’re surrounded by extraordinary things that we blindly consider common. Blessed are the meek. The meek bend to truth and don’t try to make truth bend to them.

Our perception isn’t precise, even when it pretends to be. We need God’s perspective. If you won’t think outside your comfort zone, you will be perpetually stuck there. Illusions of reality aren’t real, no matter how they make you feel.

If you’re trying to please people, you’re playing to an imaginary audience. They’re mostly ignoring you.

The Bible teaches that none of us know the whole truth. “We know in part.”

Truth seekers view reality
With honesty
And don’t just see
What they want to see.

If you don’t weed your mind
From time to time,
It will overgrow
With undergrowth.

The right (respite) to be kind

The first step to inner peace is to take a respite from your anxiety and anger. Then exercise your right to be kind.

It’s good to take a respite from our own opinions and attend to the voice of conscience. If we listen to it, it will help us be kinder.

To believe that society has no preconceived notions about people is unconscious bias. Unconscious bias is tricky. It secretly twists how we see things and distorts reality.

Take a respite
From words that rile.
Rest a bit
And smile awhile.

Selective seeing (choose well)

Selective seeing creates many conflicts. Searching together for truth heals divisions. Viewing life from many angles, expands your awareness of reality.

Seeing something that proves you wrong, hurts. Pride often selects not to see it.

Perspective changes perception. Love looks at people from the angle of compassion. There are many likeable things about everybody. It’s fun to find what’s likable. Everyday notice something beautiful about people. When you negatively label people you tell your heart how to feel about them. Be kind!

People who won’t respect every person as an equal, fellow human, are deceived. There’s unperceived beauty and goodness to to be appreciated in any person. Find it.

Our perception is subject to deception. No one has perfect reception of truth. Our opinions are like pages from a printer low on ink–distorted to various degrees. A weak conscience causes a life of shambles.

There’s more than one way to spin a chat. Beware of people who twist people’s words.

Society’s full of illusion confusion. Seek truth above opinions, desires, and feelings. If you let your moods manipulate your perception of life, you’ll be deceived. (It’s easier to believe lies that make us feel better instead of truth that hurts.) If you see people as monsters, you’re probably projecting your own sin nature onto them.

Reject the idea that your feelings have been hurt and your anger will vanish. Sometimes the most difficult place to find truth is in your own thinking and emotions

Political power (no matter who holds it) has the tendency to distort the truth.

In pursuit of the living Jesus . . .

To pursue Jesus, you have to look in your heart. That’s where He wants to meet you. Type the name J-E-S-U-S into the search engine of your heart and press enter.

Experiencing Jesus as present and living, is much more powerful than thinking of Him as distant and long ago. He gestures with the wind and communicates thru your conscience. Spiritual growth requires the willingness to see truth that changes your perspective.

The more I pursue the living Jesus, the more I want to know and obey Him better. I’ve discovered that if I let the living Jesus straighten out the question marks in my life, He will turn them into exclamation points!!! I love to let the presence of the living Jesus seep into the deepest parts of my heart and then steep my soul in Him.

The Bible teaches us to pursue obedience to Jesus as our first priority and to learn to flow daily in His will. See Matthew 6:33. When it’s in your heart is to pursue the living Jesus, Bible reading becomes a great pleasure.

If we say we are Christians, but act contrary to the fruit of the Spirit, our behavior isn’t coming from God. Fruit inspectors will not be easily deceived.

Guilt motivates us to hide the truth. God’s forgiveness empowers us to be honest!

3 places to meet the living Jesus
The living Jesus in church:
https://amzn.to/3mT3F22.
The living Jesus in racial healing:
https://amzn.to/37JRVIA.
The living Jesus in joy:
https://amzn.to/36O4WBS.

Advent of the living Jesus? Christ’s advent in the world, only happened one time, about 2,000 years ago. However, His advent in many people’s heart hasn’t yet happened. When there’s a genuine Christ-advent in a person’s heart, that person’s life is changed from within & the fruit of the Spirit begins to regularly flow from that individual.

The pursuit of gladness–gratitude is the key

Humans aren’t meant to be like a stuck kaleidoscope–able to see only one view point. We need more love in the greatest race on earth — the human race!

Too often we expect in a moment, what requires a pursuit. Creating happiness internally is much less frustrating than pursuing it externally. The pursuit of gratitude is more fulfilling than the pursuit of happiness. It’s hard to find real happiness when you’re pursuing meaningless distractions. I find little happiness in the pursuit of pleasure; great gladness in the pursuit of purpose.

Many people confuse distraction with happiness. They’re not the same thing.

Gladness comes from gratitude, not from grabbing for it. Your state of mind is a reflection of how you have chosen to live and to think.

Intentionally or unintentionally, we humans often pursue self-destructive behaviors. If your pursuit is to protect your position, rather than to discover truth, you’ll be deceived.

With no purpose to pursue, you’ll feel bored and like there’s nothing satisfying to do. The pursuit of nothing, finds it. Ultimately, the greatest failure in life is to neglect the pursuit of God.

What you continually pursue will shape you into its image. Selfish pursuits lead to loneliness; selfless pursuits to joy. The pursuit of self-fulfillment is often unfulfilling; but helping others brings happiness.

You will find what you pursue. Pursue kindness, find kindness. Pursue hostility, find hostility. Pursue what matters most, not trivialities that fade away.

11 reasons why racial justice is a Christian issue, not a leftist one

These points show that racial justice is much more Christian than Marxist:

The only supremacy in biblical Christianity is Christ supremacy. In Christ, the wall between races has been torn down. “There is neither Jew nor Gentile.” Galatians 3:28. Jesus wants His followers to all be one, not divided by race. (John 17:21) Society being just and fair is a major theme through out the Bible. The Bible says that Christians come from “every kindred and every tribe.” Christians are supposed to be “speaking the truth in love,” including the truth about racial injustice in the past and present. The two great American racial justice movements (civil rights and abolition) were led by Christians. Jesus respected and honored Samaritans, going against the major racial hatred of the culture of His time. Also, the early Christians freely accepted Samaritans as equals, even though it went against their culture’s prejudice.“Do not mistreat or oppress a foreigner, for you were foreigners in Egypt.” Exodus 22:21 Christianity teaches that all people are made in God’s image. There are no racial exemptions to “love one another.” 1 John 3:15-16 says: “The one who hates a brother or sister is a murderer, and you know that no murderer has eternal life residing in him. This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us. And we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers and sisters.”

Learn more about the Christian foundations of antiracism by clicking this link.

How to survive temptation island

Temptation’s a salesman trying to convince you that evil will be good for you. It never tells you the whole truth, but always relies on lies and deception. Temptation is deceptive because it makes evil look attractive.

Most people don’t need to be led into temptation. We can find it on our own. Once you accept a particular wrong behavior as normal and acceptable, temptation has done its job. However, temptation is never satisfied. It always has other wrong things that it wants you to do.

Temptations are common. Everybody’s got them. You can’t keep them from approaching you, but you don’t have to let them stick around. Temptation is easier to avoid than to defeat.

Surrendering to temptation produces long-term sad-effects like, guilt, depression, and pain-filled circumstances. Temptation is a slick scoundrel, that wants to cheat you out of life’s best.

Many Christians have surrendered to the temptation to disobey Jesus’ command: “Love your enemies.” Every time temptation wins, God offers forgiveness and healing if we want it.

No one has immunity to temptation. Always stay 6 feet away from it! Those who overcome temptation know how strong it is. Those who give in, don’t. Temptations are deception clothed with desire.

Temptation and conscience are in combat. Who’s side are you on? If you silence your conscience, temptation will easily pull your strings. When you’re in deliberation with temptation, call on your conscience to help you. Beef up your conscience and it will guard you from much temptation.

The cheese may look really good, but temptation is a mouse trap ready to spring. To be good at giving in to temptation is to fill your life with pain. The more you allow a temptation to grow in your heart, the harder it is to resist.

Temptation can be overcome. Few people do every wrong thing that tempts them. Temptation points to pleasure, but hides the destruction contained in that pleasure.

If you let the desire to do wrong, pull you along, you’re controlled by temptation. To want to do wrong is temptation; to do wrong is evil. However, temptation doesn’t announce itself as evil. Instead it offers to give you what you want.

Temptation makes self-destructive behaviors desirable. Wisdom resists them! When we give in to temptation it’s easy to accuse & blame others for our failure.

If you seldom try to resist temptation you’ll be unaware of how strong it is. It’s easy to jump when desire calls, but it takes fortitude to fight temptation.

Refuse to follow anyone or anything that tries to lead you into temptation. To be led by temptation is to be a prisoner of desire. To resist it is freedom.

One of life’s strongest temptations is to believe that you’re a good person. See Romans 3:10.