Steve Simms's Blog, page 211
August 27, 2020
How you see is as important as what you see (myth-perception & bias)
Bias often prevents eye-opening by us. It’s easier to see what we want to see than what’s really there. Let’s not let deception stand up bias by us.
It’s almost impossible to change your attitude, until you change your perspective. There are many points of view, but it’s hard to truly see any but our own.
All the details of a situation matter, not just the ones that support our view point. Myth-perception is to exchange uncomfortable reality for comfy fiction.
Because we humans evaluate information differently, we interpret situations differently. However, unevaluated information can give us common ground. For example, unevaluated information simply states what happened. People can usually agree on that. But then people begin to insert evaluated information (why and how it happened) and that’s where disagreement sets it. Perhaps we all need to remove our evaluations and focus on what (instead of why and how).
You can disagree with someone and still understand their point of view. Make an effort and see!
For example, skin color, rightly considered, leads to love; wrongly considered, to conflict. When leftist and right wing ideas are causing confusion about race, it’s time for a broader approach. Search: Off the RACE Track book.
August 25, 2020
Avoid being an angry “allegator”
Someone who continually makes false allegations is an angry allegator, trying to destroy whoever gets in his way. Listening to unproven accusations can cause you to hurt, attack, or reject people who are innocent of the claims against them. If you listen to a bully long enough, you’ll eventually find yourself using your own bullying tactics.
People aren’t either good or bad. All have done wrong. People are either repentant or unrepentant. Since no one is innocent and we are all guilty of various wrongs, the concept of good guys vs. bad guys is fake news.
People who can’t win a debate by the strength of their ideas, begin to insult and accuse their opponent. Before you accuse others of wrong doing, it’s good to let your own guilt lead you to humility, mercy, and kindness towards others.
We, humans, tend to accuse other people of bad behavior, while overlooking or denying our own bad behavior. People who thrive on accusing and insulting others, are usually in worse shape than those they unmercifully attack.
People who are quick to start accusing others are even quicker to start excusing themselves. To accuse without proof and/or direct knowledge of a person’s guilt, is to attack a person’s reputation with your speculation.
Accusations prove nothing; observed behavior does. People who frequently accuse other people, tend to react with hostility when they are accused.
Accusation and blame are the opposites of mercy and grace. People who try to go up in life by putting other people down are directionally challenged. Some words are so rude, crude, or cruel that it’s better not to use them or consume them.
Without God’s revelations (including the conscience He has put in our heart) we humans can easily get stuck in illusions and lies.
Before you choose to accuse, remember that the Bible calls Satan the accuser. Christians aren’t supposed to destroy or triumph over our opponents. We are called to demonstrate Christ’s love to them.
Tradition tends to shrink wrap Christianity into a plastic blob. The living Jesus wants to unwrap it and fill it with His life.
Worship — the result of experiencing the living God
Facing the emptiness and desperation of life, often leads people to discover the reality of the awesome love and presence of God. True worship comes from experiencing the reality of God.
To worship is to pour your heart out in honest, humble, and passionate adoration of the living God. Worship, as described in the Bible, is a heart gripping, life transforming experience. It’s never boring.
Worship isn’t something passive, that a preacher can do for you. It’s active, passionate adoration of God that you, yourself do. Worship requires an enraptured heart that responds to the Holy Spirit, more than an intellectual mind that analyzes theology.
Worshipping God, is an activity. It’s something that we humans are called to actually do, not something we passively sit thru. Everywhere you go is a place of worship, if you maintain the awareness of God’s presence, everywhere you go.
Worship is heart-felt response to the living God, but how can we respond to Him if we are unaware of His presence? Without sensing God’s presence, it’s difficult to do more than merely go thru the motions of worship. When awe and adoration of God mix, worship comes pouring out of the heart.
Too often, religion stops the river of spontaneous worship and shows God the lakes and programs that we have created for Him. The ashes of tradition are a poor substitute for the living fire of God burning in your heart.
Humans are designed to be worshippers. If we don’t worship the living God, we’ll worship something or somebody else. However, to worship anything or anyone more than we do God, is called idolatry.
Observing the beauty and majesty of nature, releases a desire to worship (not nature, but its designer) in the human heart.
Jesus said that “true worshippers will worship the Father in the spirit (from the heart) and in truth (with total sincerity).” Christianity should be functional, not just ornamental. We should let it do what it does — connect people to the living Jesus.
When the fruit of the Spirit isn’t being clearly manifested, connection with the living Jesus is being shorted out. For more on worship, search for: Beyond Church Ekklesia.
August 23, 2020
Seeing skin color like we see eye color (a blue-eyed guy’s thoughts)
I grew up with blue-eyed people. There’s no eye-colorism, but history sure made a racist, big deal about skin color (and we’re not over it yet).
Who’d have thought that 50 shades of brown skin (dark brown to very light brown) would have been used to stir up human hatred? It’s time to see skin color the way we see eye color–as a physical characteristic that says nothing about who a person is.
Skin color doesn’t matter (although history sure made it a big deal). Eye color doesn’t matter (history got that one right). Humans have never used eye color as an excuse to abuse and/or traffic people. (It’s sad we can’t say the same about skin color.)
Police are never accused of shooting people because of eye color. No one needs to say, “Blue-eyed lives matter.”
When people talk about eye color they aren’t accused of eye-color-baiting, but they are often accused of race-baiting at the mention of skin color. If people can be accused of “playing the race card,” why can’t they be accused of playing “the eye color card”?
I’m blue-eyed, but I’m nice to brown-eyed people. I even have brown-eyed friends. I’m blue-eyed, but I don’t have a problem with brown-eyed people. Not everything is about eye-color.
If someone said to me, “Steve, you’re not like the other blue-eyed people,” I’d wonder what they meant by that. If someone told you, “I have blue-eyed friends,” you’d wonder what’s making them make a big deal about that.
America has never used redlining or legal segregation to divide people into blue-eyed a d brown-eyed neighborhoods. We don’t need blue-eyed churches and brown-eyed churches. Christians aren’t supposed to be separated because of color.
Green and hazel,
Brown and blue,
We don’t boo
People by eye hue.
Kindness grows respect
Love is about treating people with kindness and respect, regardless of how you feel about them. “Love your enemies.” I want to be an extremist at kindness — kind to one and all (even to the people who make it difficult to be kind to them).
Apology is powerful! I’ve found that apologizing, even when I feel I’m right, releases healing (and it hurts nothing but my pride). The more I bathe my mind in positive, uplifting thoughts, the better I feel and the kinder I am.
When all lives matter to all people, racism, suicide, abortion, and gun violence will all be gone. (We’ve still a long way to go.) If all lives matter, then all lives need to be respected and treated with kindness.
Kindness treats people well, even when they disagree with you. Kindness confounds unkind people. Go confound someone today. It’s unreasonable to expect people to be nicer to you than you are to yourself.
We can use words to try to get our way, or we can use words to actually communicate heart to heart. Speak kind words.
The best way to get respect is to give it — not demand it. When laws are enforced disrespectfully and/or unequally, it’s hard for people to respect those laws.
A fresh slant on Einstein’s famous formula: (E = mc² — Everyone equally matters, consistently and compassionately). Albert put it this way: “I speak to everyone in the same way, whether he is the garbage man or the president of the university.”
To live by
“This for that”
Falls far short of
Kindness for all.
Impoliteness — what’s it good for? Nonviolence matters.
Impoliteness — what’s it good for? Nonviolence matters. If you won’t “love your enemies,” you’ll probably provoke them into greater and greater hostility. However, if you feel justified in the use or threat of violence, you may silence your conscience when it tells you kindness is better.
Humans have been so influenced by violence that the idea of embracing nonviolence seems crazy (but it’s powerful). Kindness and joy have the power to deescalate violent situations
Nonviolence is a mighty weapon. It’s not a weakness, but a bold and courageous declaration of moral, emotional and spiritual strength.
Injustice is an ongoing state of conflict — of wrong overriding what’s right. It falls far short of genuine peace. To recognize injustice and refuse to cooperate with it, is a bold step toward justice. Nonviolent noncooperation is a great weapon against evil.
To confront violence with violence takes courage, but to confront violence with nonviolence requires even more courage. However, Christians who truly and completely trust their bodyguard, the living Jesus, wouldn’t feel the need to protect themselves.
Every country needs more monuments that celebrate nonviolence and more that honor peaceful heroes of equality. It’s easy to see injustice when it happens to you or to someone you love; difficult when it happens in neighborhoods you avoid.
Slavery was a state of perpetual cruelty maintained by the ongoing threat of violence that could be unleashed at any moment. The American Abolitionist movement boldly confronted it with nonviolent action. The dead can’t ask for justice, but those of us who are alive can at least acknowledge the injustice they suffered. All lives matter, including those lives that were enslaved and/or abused in history by racial injustice. Search for: Off the RACE Track book.
Jesus on nonviolence:
Take a punch without retaliation. (“Turn the other cheek.”)Jesus on nonviolence: If somebody takes something from you, give them something extra.If someone imposes on you, do more than they expect (“the second mile”).Keep on forgiving a person over and over (70 X 7 times).Be kind to those who plot against you (“love your enemies”).Say good things about people who say bad things about you (“bless those who curse you”).Ask God to bless people who attack you (“pray for those who spitefully use you”).
Instead of insulting or attacking someone’s opinion, why not lovingly offer them a better alternative? It creates delight to be polite, but being rude causes people to feud. Manners make a difference, especially in a society that has publicly accepted rude and crude behavior and words.
Opinions shared with kindness and humility are much more likely to be received than those presented with pride and anger.
Revival happens when Christians turn away from following religious programs and begin to listen to and obey the living Jesus.
You many need to hold a forgivathon
Love without forgiveness, isn’t. One of life’s most important decisions is the choice between hate or forgiveness.
Hold your own forgivathon. Think of everyone who’s done you wrong and forgive them one-by-one, by asking God to bless each one.
It’s easy to forgive what you’ve forgotten. The important thing is to forgive what you remember. That’s true forgiveness.
We go to work when we don’t want to. We take medicine when we don’t want to. Why not forgive when we don’t want to? Forgive and be forgiven. That’s a powerful life lesson.
If you’re waiting for someone to ask you for your forgiveness, that may be a very long wait. Why delay? Forgive them today.
People who won’t forgive, give themselves gut-loads of pain, by refusing to give up the gripes and grievances that they’re carrying. If you focus on forgiving the people who have offended you, you won’t be stuck on trying to forgive yourself. Also, perhaps instead of forgiving yourself, you should humbly and sincerely ask the people you’ve hurt (and God) to forgive you.
Forgiveness isn’t the approval of wrong behavior that was done to you. It’s giving up your supposed right to be angry and/or resentful about it. People who have been truly cleansed by Christ’s forgiveness, are willing to fully forgive those who have done them wrong.
If you refuse admit what you’ve done wrong, you’ll be unaware of your need for forgiveness. (It’s not unloving to believe that some human behaviors are morally wrong.)
When people are rude, they’re publicly announcing that they are being controlled by unresolved issues bouncing around inside them. If you matter, everything you do matters. Nothing is meaningless. Your life is a serious endeavor, not to be trivialized.
The password to joy, peace, and forgiveness is Jesus. Search: The Joy Of Early Christianity book.
August 22, 2020
Top 20 positive influences in my life
August 19, 2020
The kingdom of God is about kindness
Anger and hate don’t make greatness. Kindness does. Christianity is supposed to be about kindness. Kindness is part of the fruit of the Holy Spirit.
Humanity matters in all of its shapes, stages, and colors. Jesus invites
whosoever will” to participate in the kingdom of God. The kingdom of God doesn’t hold elections. It freely invites us to surrender to and obey the living, resurrected Jesus.
The kingdom of God isn’t a metaphor. It’s a real, world-wide government that rules over all who obey the living Jesus. It manifests when Christians turn away from following religious programs & begin to listen to and obey the living Jesus.
Grace isn’t just a free ticket into Heaven when you die. It’s a free invitation to accept and obey Heaven’s government here and now.
The kingdom of God calls for truth. To hide (or ignore or minimize) the cruelty in history to protect the reputation of those who committed it, is wrong.
Differences in color don’t change the make and model of a car. The same with people. (Maker/God — model/human). People’s skin has no more to do with who they are than their toes do. When you listen to people share their heart-felt stories, you go beyond human categories.
People have the ability to connect heart-to-heart with others. If we would use that ability more, we’d have far less conflict.
As ambassadors for Christ, Jesus-followers are called to put their loyalty to the kingdom of God above earthly kingdoms. We are to operate with love, not force. If people won’t hear what we’re saying, we consistently show them determined kindness. They can’t not “hear” that. People can easily ignore your logic, but they won’t be able to ignore your persistent kindness.
Awareness of God’s glory makes all human kingdoms and governments seem like nothing in comparison. Behold the living, Lamb of God! If you surrender to the living Jesus, He will turn your valley of trouble into a door of hope.
August 18, 2020
The sudden surprise that changed my life
I was 19 when I walked into a dorm-based campus gathering that met to talk about & experience the living Jesus. As I heard someone share how he had met Jesus & been “saved,” something began to happen in my heart. Suddenly, Jesus stepped out of religion & history & became real & present to me.
I’ve never been the same since then & have been enjoying an amazing life following the risen Jesus. I hope you also have an incredible life of experiencing His love, power, & presence.
[image error]The cover of my book, The Joy Of Early Christianity, available on Amazon @ https://amzn.to/3kVR4KN
