Steve Simms's Blog, page 205

When light shines, darkness disappears

Light isn’t a function of rationality. You don’t think up light. You behold it. 

Pride blocks inner light. It can’t see what things really look like.

We want to convince people we’re right, but what we all need is more light. At night, with little light, it makes no sense to fight about what you think you see.

Darkness can’t hide a light. In fact, it makes a light more noticeable. Light shines away darkness, making it disappear. Love shines away hate.

Everything’s unclear in a dimly lit room. Agreement requires more light, not more fight. You can’t force people to see. Seeing requires light, not might. Be a light! To turn off the light is to turn on the dark.

Sunrise

A single ray of light,
A tiny beam of bright,
Can end the darkness night.

Humans are designed to live in light and love. Our lives don’t work in darkness and hate. When we don’t see, then we need kindness and light, not anger and harshness.

We all have an inner dimmer. We can brighten the light of our conscience or dim it. The invisible light of inner inspiration is an amazing sight to see! The human conscience is inner light. When it goes out, darkness settles in.

Often people see things differently because their lighting is different. When people disagree, perhaps they both need to adjust their lighting. You’re arguments won’t make people see more than their lighting allows them to.

You can’t have great vision with inadequate lighting (with a dimmed conscience). Perhaps more people are afraid of light than are afraid of the dark.

To be right, you need light. If you want to control people, darkness works. Trying to control people is frustrating. Showing them love and kindness is liberating.

If you’re living in the shadows, you can’t reflect the light, no matter how you try. A crack in your argument means fresh light can come in (unless you patch it up).

The Pharisees thought they were morally right, but they fought Jesus and His light. Jesus proved that inspiration’s much more powerful than coercion. Inspire people, don’t argue with them.

Social media: People in a dark room arguing about what they think they see. Being content no matter what happens is easier than trying to make things go your way.

Too often church is just a gathering of observers, watching a man’s religious talk. If you don’t talk about your own experiences with Jesus, you rob people of light. When Christians gather around the risen Jesus (instead of a preacher or program) light shines and miracles happen.

Selfianity focuses on the wrong hero

Put self aside. Let the living Jesus be your ride and take you where He decides. Selfianity isn’t true Christianity.

There’s only room for one Savior in a Christian’s life–the risen Jesus. Follow Him. Dietrich Bonhoeffer put it this way: “Not hero worship, but intimacy with Christ.”

Christianity, if it is built only on abstract principles, has little impact on daily life. Jesus is my Hero. He changed my life and continues to daily change me from within.

The living Jesus is talking! I love listening to Him. It’s okay if you don’t hear what I say; it’s tragic if you don’t hear what Jesus says to you.

Our way and Christ’s way seldom match. We must choose one or the other. Walking with the living Jesus, you’ll notice that He continually cancels your plans.

Christians are called to love people, no matter how they make us feel. Live with such love that your life causes atheists to mistrust their disbelief in God

To be justified “by grace alone,” you can’t trust in your own effort–only in Jesus. Jesus carried your guilt so you don’t have to. His forgiveness is true freedom!

Things we dislike in other people are often operating stealth-like within us. Blaming others makes us unable to see the evil that’s within our own heart. Humbly receiving truth from God, will set you free from running from your conscience.

The Christian’s fight isn’t against people, but against invisible, evil influences. A Christian’s weapons aren’t physically or verbally coercive, but powerfully loving! (See Ephesians 6:12 and 2 Corinthians 10:4.)

Here’s one more, powerful Dietrich Bonhoeffer quote: “If my sinfulness appears to me in any way smaller or less detestable in comparison with the sins of others, I am still not recognizing my sinfulness at all.”

Empathy makes the world a better place

Find the good in people. There’s some in everybody. It’s inspiring to behold!

When you allow yourself heart-felt empathy for someone, you’ll see them differently. When you allow your pain to help you connect with another’s person’s pain, it brings healing to you both.

Keeping a tender heart takes much more courage than having a hard heart. The willingness to feel what others feel is called empathy. We need more of that.

It’s easy to hear what we want to hear; hard to hear what an opponent’s really saying. It’s easy to blame and accuse someone; hard to listen to and understand their pain. It’s easy to point out faults in other people; hard to admit your own faults.

A willingness to feel what others are feeling is the first step to understanding them Perhaps, if you don’t care enough to listen to and to try to understand, you don’t really love someone.

A heart as cold as ice, can’t disagree and be nice. Jesus serves healing heart-melts. Judging people by behavior, while ignoring their pain, produces inaccurate assessment.

It’s fine to have some mind-to-mind debate, but heart-to-heart connection ends hate. Thru war and violence, humans have explored our capacity to hate. Now let’s do love. True valor is compassion, not coercion!

It takes courage to feel and express empathy and compassion for others. Self-absorption is full of distortion.  Self-focus leads to disappointment; self-forgetfulness, to joy!

Inner nudgings: Temptation nudges us toward evil; the living Jesus, towards good. Instead of calling those who disagree with us “evil,” let’s remove evil from our own heart. Perhaps it’s time for tuition-free classes called: Empathy and Compassion 101.

Christianity without humility is only empty words. (James 4:6.) Jesus: Make my heart a symphony of empathy and a collage of compassion.

Heart-connection makes life better

Moments of heart-connection with another person are marvelous. We all need more! If we would touch hearts as often as we touch screens, what joy we’d know!

Disconnected hearts can be cold and cruel to each other. Connected hearts heal. Heart-connection produces trust. Disconnection causes fear.

The light of love connects hearts. When we close our inner eyes, we can’t see it.

Your inner struggles are common. You’re not the only one. We’re all in the same boat. Self-protection isn’t required for heart-connection. Humility is.

Openness with humility is the starting point for connecting with other people. Without openness and vulnerability, human connection remains superficial. Pretense prevents people from connecting heart-to-heart and causes divisiveness.

There are invisible human connections between all people. It’s fun to find them. If you try to understand people’s hurts, needs and insecurities, you’ll feel compassion. Compassion connects; hate separates.

Let your heart step sincerely into the shoes of someone you dislike. Discover empathy. Humans have more common ground than disagreement, but we’re often too blind to see it. Conversations, where people freely expose their heart, are healing and endearing.

Some people wear a countenance that says, “I’m not connecting!” They’re missing out. When people reject your effort to connect, don’t let it effect your kindness to them. Have a friendly conversation with someone you disagree with and discover who they are.

God made human hearts to connect with kindness, not to alienate through hate. A brief heart-connection with someone (even a political enemy) is rewarding.

Kind, friendly humor builds relationships. Mocking messes them up. Show interest while you listen to people and soon you’ll be inspired by their humanity.

Listening doesn’t happen if you refuse to hear what someone’s saying. If you only listen when you agree, you’ll think you’re always right.

I believe Christianity is humble heart-talk and a Spirit-led lifestyle. (Romans 8:14.) Early Christianity was full of heart connection between believers, not sermons. It all begins with direct and ongoing heart-connection with the living Jesus.

See more with clear vision

If your inner light is dimmed, you can’t see clearly, even on the brightest day. Search for light and truth, not self-protection.

If you won’t see the other person’s side, you miss out on some of the truth. It’s easy to be deceived. If you think you can’t be, you already are. When you lose the idea of pride, life will be a smoother ride.

It's easy to blame
And call someone a name
As if life's a game
And the goal's to maim.

Your perception of someone is never one hundred percent correct. Avoid both worshipping or hating people. Love finds the best in people, spotlights it, and draws it out of them. 

Words matter. They can shatter people or they can scatter kindness and hope. Be courageously kind without discrimination. Live, not to evaluate people, but to be kind to them.

The living Jesus gives internal nudges to move you beyond your grudges. When Jesus calls you to step away from your comfort zone, zone out and follow Him! I find the best self-care to be forgetting about me and focusing on the risen Jesus.

I love to be around people who sparkle with Jesus, like water sparkles in sunlight. You’re never off of God’s radar, even when you think you are. Keeping your heart shutdown is to risk being stuck the way you are.

Mental head-butting can be painful

Too much mental head-butting, leaves both “butt-ers” with headaches and heart-break. Unkind debate diminishes heart connection. Listening with compassion enhances it.

Humble transparency creates heart connection and heals broken relationships. Heart connection stifles suspicion and subdues anger.

Disagreement’s not the giant people make of it. Heart-connection makes it look small. Look beyond people’s opinions and unkindness, and love them anyway.

Those who reject heart connection (or limit it to people who agree with them) miss much! You can’t connect with people if you keep your heart hidden behind a wall.

When hearts connect, anger disappears and disagreeing minds don’t dominate discussion. When you ask God to bless people you dislike, dislike diminishes.

Christ’s current flowing from within, is the greatest empowerment. Plug into Jesus! Christ-followers have a supernatural, inner heart-connection. Maintain it!

For Christians to be in one accord, requires heart connection, not head agreement. Lack of heart-connection with Jesus and with one another, leaves Christians divided. Heart-felt praying with people creates awesome inner connections.

Jesus doesn’t want your mental agreement. He wants your heart and your obedience!

Heart connection obscures opinions and creates caring community. 

Self-focused Christianity is powerless Intentional focus on Jesus is life-changing. True Christianity’s not just about your reconciliation with God, but also with people.

An inflow of Bible teaching without an outflow of the life of Christ is incomplete. Without continual outflows of the fruit of the Spirit, faith is just an outward form. The life of Christ flowing out from within you — that’s biblical Christianity.

When you follow the living Jesus, you learn how to be disagreed with. He disagrees with me quite often. You can’t be ruled by the living Jesus and by self-will at the same time. It’s a choice. The greatest threat to our happiness is the anger, fear, guilt, and rebellion within us

The philosophy,
"Agree with me,
Or you're my enemy,"
Isn't Christianity.

Communicate to reconcile, not to fight awhile

Hostility severs affection. Try not to let that happen. Communicate to reconcile, not to fight awhile. I find it better to ponder people’s thoughts rather than to fight with them.

Undiscovered alternatives for healing and reconciliation await those who will listen. It’s better to untangle conflict than to cut off relationships. 

Aggression turns opponents into enemies. Love turns enemies into friends! Some things are good for both sides in a disagreement; kindness, respect, listening, understanding. Tenderness, generosity, openness, compassion, humility; we could use more of that.

God gave Christians “the ministry of reconciliation,” not of divisiveness and hostility. Kindness, listening, and empathy are mediators that can heal the wounds of conflict. Let your conscience be a mediator and show you how to handle disagreement with kindness.

Humans are equals. It’s ungodly to treat anyone as less than your equal. All humans need healing. Attacking their pain is no gain for you.

Statements that offend you often contain truth. Wisdom tries to find it. Our own misunderstanding stands in our way much more than our opponents do.

Learn to mediate with kindness, not to hate with blindness. The time to show love isn’t just when it’s easy, but when it’s hard. 

We’re smart enough to understand other people’s point of view. Now let’s be kind enough to listen. Between hard right and hard left, there are many mutually beneficial alternatives.

If people Christ is working in, gather in humility, they recognize spiritual kinship. Conflict focuses on contention; Christ focuses us on conciliation and community. If you don’t see the image of God in people you disagree with, look closer!

Lack of heart-connection with Jesus and with one another, leaves Christians divided. For Christians to be in one accord, comes from heart connection, not head agreement.

Voter anger suppression

The love of three fellows
(Gandhi's, King's, & Mandela's)
Overcame much hate.
They were truly great.
(Blessed are the peacemakers.)

Voters, it’s time for anger suppression. “Love one another.” Anger at how other people are voting is unpatriotic, and disrespectful of democracy. Democracy uses voting, not violence and anger, to determine and establish government.

One thing that makes America great has been the nonviolent transition of government. Please don’t make a mockery of democracy by insulting those who vote differently than you do.

Voting’s the exercise of nonviolence to determine government. Let’s keep it that way!

Think outside the ballot box. How you live matters more than how you vote. Presidential elections are easily exaggerated. No matter who wins, America chooses again in four years. One good thing about an election is that it’s finally over!

Attacking the integrity of America’s elections (with no proof) is unpatriotic. (Although, Thucydides said: “In a democracy, someone who fails to get elected to office can always console himself with the thought that there was something not quite fair about it.”)

“Let us not seek to satisfy our thirst for freedom by drinking from the cup of bitterness and hatred.” ―Martin Luther King Jr.

Christianity beyond religious tradition is something else!

Let your spiritual condition grow beyond religious tradition. Religious tradition presents a short-sighted rendition of Jesus. Read the Gospels!

O, for the burning faith of the founders of Christian tradition, not just their memory. I love reading testimonies by historic Christians who followed Jesus, not tradition. Jesus wants to transform your spiritual condition, not pacify you with religious tradition.

Christian tradition, without God’s inner fire burning in human hearts, lacks power. Religious tradition’s often a roadblock to knowing the living Jesus, not a shortcut. It can be a fireplace with no Holy Spirit fire. Antiquated Christianity rumbles on, but the living Jesus invites you to soar!

Lifeless Christian tradition offers only legalistic answers to human problems. Tradition presents Christianity as something for spectators, not for agitators. Like a lazy river, tradition lulls Christians into sleep and a false sense of security. Tradition is a mixed bag, but the living Jesus can ignite the parts that honor Him.

Tradition looks back 2,000 years to Jesus. Mysticism hears and experiences Him now! Tradition doesn’t allow the living Jesus to change its forms and formats. Faith does! Personal relationship with Jesus outshines tradition like the sun outshines a candle!

The Pharisees saw the living Jesus as a threat to their religious tradition, so they turned to a politician (Pontious Pilate) for help. History shows that Christianity has often been intoxicated with the desire for political power.

Tradition is a form historical faith. We need the living Jesus not a hand-me-down. Religious tradition rests in the past, but Jesus calls forward to spiritual maturity.

God’s present day intervention (the kingdom of God)

If we don’t pay attention, we fail to notice many God interventions. Watch for them. The Good News of the kingdom of God, is that Jesus is personally available to intervene in your life and to forgive, heal, and set you free.

When life’s out of control, there’s healing in surrender to the rule of King Jesus! The rule of King Jesus begins inside you, when you align your will to His will. Let King Jesus invade your mind & heart & set up His kingdom there!

God’s interventions in the human heart are often ignored, denied, or resisted. To disobey the voice of Christ in you, is to rebel against the kingdom of God. There’s only room for one King in the kingdom of God (one Head of state). If we’re not being ruled by God’s kingdom, then we’re in the kingdom of darkness.

The kingdom of God isn’t a physical territory. It’s anywhere God is allowed to rule. When Jesus is allowed to fully rule in a person’s life, that’s the kingdom of God. The kingdom of God begins with the overthrow of self-rule and pride. Without repentance (personal surrender and realigning) Christ can’t rule in your life. To be in the kingdom of God is to continually manifest the fruit of the Spirit.

If you won’t let Jesus daily rule as King inside you, you’re avoiding His kingdom. When Jesus is ruling in people, their lifestyle demonstrates His presence and His will. Christ-followers are called to be ruled by the living Jesus, not by our human nature. To say, “Your kingdom come,” and then refuse to daily obey King Jesus, is hypocrisy.

Some people spend their life trying to avoid Divine intervention. I need it! (If you don’t want Divine intervention in your life, don’t read the Bible regularly!)

Jesus intervenes without force. He invites us to follow Him, but doesn’t demand it. If you have never allowed the living Jesus to intervene in your life, religious information about Him doesn’t do much good.

It’s grace that Jesus invites you to enter the direct rule of His kingdom. Being in the kingdom of God involves surrender to the rule of King Jesus! Leave the anarchy of self-focus and surrender your will to His rule.

Let “Christ in you” go beyond theology into obedience to His daily, inner, lifestyle intervention. That’s the kingdom of God! Invite the living Jesus to actively intervene in your life, then stand back! Prayer asks God to intervene. Obedience accepts His intervention in His way.

If your love for the living Jesus has diminished, you’ve quenched the Holy Spirit and resisted His interventions. Jesus doesn’t want your vote. He wants your daily obedience to His will. True greatness comes the rule of the living God, not from human governments. The kingdom of God has much more to do with your conscience than your politics. Jesus’ platform is the kingdom of God first!

The most important government on earth is the Kingdom of God. Let Jesus rule in you! Human nations and governments can easily become idols and distract your heart from Jesus. Citizens of the kingdom of God owe their full loyalty to the living Jesus. Country, party, race, or disagreement shouldn’t divide citizens of God’s kingdom.

Humans are full of inner, Divine interventions, calling us to good, that we too often ignore. Sometimes outward events are neither circumstances or consequences, but Christ interventions.

If we allowed the risen Jesus to intervene, He would disrupt our church services. The Pharisees didn’t want an interventionist Jesus. Sometimes Christians don’t either. But life’s not a waiting room for Heaven. It’s a battlefield for learning to obey Jesus.

Inner intervention:
In my soul night,
I received invisible sight.
The glorious Light
Of the living Jesus
Was suddenly revealed.