Steve Simms's Blog, page 213
August 8, 2020
Those other pesky masks
When your public image doesn’t match who you are on the inside, it’s just a mask. Too many people want to protect their image by wearing various masks, but they leave their heart open to self-destructive and evil influences.
Hiding sin in your heart is like hiding a pebble in your shoe. Ouch! If you want to be mad about masks, get mad at the masks that you are wearing to hide what’s going on inside your heart.
In reality, masks are pointless. Regardless of how other people see you, you are whatever you really are on the inside. That’s what matters, not how well you hide behind your masks.
Church too often tries to get us to wear masks over our heart and just think about Jesus and/or merely believe that He lived. Instead church could train us to daily encounter and obey Jesus and be real with Him and with others. In Christianity, what you believe is important, but who you follow is more important. Do you openly follow and obey the living Jesus? Or do you just hide behind masks?
The right to bear kindness in your arms & words
You have the right to be kind. Anything you say can be said in a nice way. You have the right to speak with kindness.
Hey, America! Let’s rise up and claim our right to bear kindness in our arms and in our words! We can call it the kindness amendment. Amend you life to be consistently kind to everybody, whether you like or agree with them, or not.
Be the kindness you want to see in the world. Kindness is a melody. It’s a great way to get people to harmonize. Kindness connects people.
Do you need help understanding some of the feelings being voiced today? The popular myth says that if racial injustice (past or present) is hidden, it’s healed. The pain of people of color loudly defies that myth. Listen.
Color-kindness listens. Color-blindness refuses to hear and understand. Perhaps it’s time to unmask American history and boldly examine the full story. My book, Off the RACE Track–From Color-Blind to Color-Kind can help you do that.
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August 7, 2020
Christians stay focused!
Anyone who is bored with Christianity is out of touch with the living, resurrected Jesus. When the living Jesus is bubbling up from within you, you will have joy, even if churches and bars are closed.
Christians, stay focused! Helping people respond positively to the risen Jesus is much more important than criticizing their politics.
Many Christians allow their attention to be distracted from the risen Jesus. I prefer to stay captivated by His glorious presence. I love to discover fresh, creative, and biblical approaches to a growing relationship with the living, resurrected Jesus Christ.
A daily relationship with the living Jesus is incredibly amazing. When the living Jesus takes over your life from the inside out, you’re too full of love to want to argue with people! When you daily experience Jesus you continually want to tell His story.
Everything on earth changes except the living Jesus. He’s the Rock — “the same yesterday, today, and forever.” If you daily follow the risen Jesus you’ll find yourself in amazing places, joyfully experiencing incredible situations.
Too many churches try to explain Jesus to the same people every week, instead of training them to maintain a daily relationship with Him. Rather than coaching people to daily follow the living Jesus and make disciples as they do, church makes them hear a weekly talk.
With bars and churches restricted in how they meet, try finding fulfillment biblically: “Christ in you, the hope of glory.” Church too often tries to distract people from the world, instead of demonstrating the presence of the risen Jesus.
One by one — the 9 spiritual gifts of 1 Corinthians 12
The gifts of the Spirit are nine supernatural operations of the Holy Spirit that work in and thru Christ-followers. They are listed in 1 Corinthians chapter twelve.
When we open our heart and life to the gifts of the Holy Spirit, Christianity comes alive in whole new ways! If we ignore, reject, or quench God’s spiritual gifts, then we deprive both ourselves and others of their benefits. Here’s a sentence about each of the gifts:
A “word of wisdom” is some supernatural direction or leading from the living God. A “word of knowledge” is some specific information that comes directly from the living God. The spiritual gift of “faith” is supernatural belief that is able to fully trust God for a particular concern or situation. “Gifts of healing” are miraculous recoveries from sickness or injury, directly produced by the living God. “The working of miracles” is supernatural answers to prayer that defy logic and produce awe in those who hear about them. “Prophecy” is direct communication from the living God, that a person shares with other people.“Discerning of spirits” is to recognize the differences between your own spirit, God’s Spirit, and demon spirits. “Speaking in tongues” is the supernatural ability to pray with words that you don’t understand, but freely flow from within you. The “interpretation of tongues” is the supernatural revelation of the meaning of what is said when a person speaks in tongues.
If you focus on loving, encouraging, and serving others in the name of Jesus, spiritual gifts will manifest in and thru your life. The Holy Spirit releases His gifts thru receptive believers, moment by moment. They’re not “once and done” things.
The gifts of the Spirit aren’t operated by the mind. They flow from deep within the heart. Pride hinders spiritual gifts, humility releases them. (“God resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble.”)
For more about the gifts of the Spirit, search for: The Joy Of Early Christianity book. Thank you.
August 5, 2020
The answer’s not in politics, but in another kind of kingdom
There’s no adequate political answer for our current situation. We need the answer that transforms the heart — the living Jesus. When “we” means all humanity, many of our problems will fade away.
Biblical Christianity has it’s own government. It is the invisible government of the living Jesus, known as the kingdom of God.
Pressuring people to go along with you may be political, but it’s not “making a deal.” Negotiation depends on respect, kindness, persuasion, and compromise, not on force.
Politics stirs things up. Why? Because peaceful words are rarely spoken by people who have no peace in their heart. To think that people who disagree with you are less intelligent or less sincere than you, is a great deception.
In a democracy, political power should be used to unify the nation. Instead, it’s frequently used to divide it.
Politics often stands firm when its feet are in the wrong place. That’s not an answer to life. Instead, we need to let the living Jesus realign our steps.
If we’d all be more concerned about making our personal wrongs right instead of trusting in our political views, we’d not have to be so concerned about our personal rights being wronged. When too many people believe they have to do wrong to protect their rights, violence is common place.
Political promises and slogans are no better than the honesty and integrity of the person on the ballot. No matter how famous or smart, that person is a mere human being. It takes humble politicians to put the interest of the people above their own interest, but humble politicians seldom get elected.
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August 3, 2020
True hope doesn’t come from political ideologies
True hope doesn’t come from political ideologies or human governments. “Christ in you, the hope of glory.”
Jesus announced the kingdom of God to establish His government within human hearts. The kingdom of God consists of all people who follow and obey the living Jesus. The kingdom of God is active on earth because the living Jesus is present to personally lead and direct those who are willing to obey Him. The kingdom of God is anywhere Jesus is acknowledged and obeyed as King.
God’s kingdom is Christ’s authority being exercised in your life. To enter the kingdom of God, you surrender your will to His. When the living Jesus isn’t obeyed as the King & Lord, the kingdom of God is undermined. To intentionally disobey Jesus is to deny that He is the Lord & King in your life.
The good news of the kingdom of God is that God’s just and compassionate government has been established and we’re invited to align with it. Governments can compel compliance, but only one government can fill hearts with love–the kingdom of God–Christ in you.
The kingdom of God isn’t a metaphor. It’s the reality of God’s inner government that begins to manifest as we surrender to the living Jesus. To live in the kingdom of God is to live in surrender and obedience to the living, resurrected Jesus Christ. If people are being led by the living Jesus, you will consistently see His character in their behavior; if not, you won’t.
Seeing the risen Jesus clearly living in and thru someone reveals the kingdom of God. It is far more powerful than any sermon I’ve ever heard.
When church only lectures, it doesn’t facilitate the kingdom of God. It doesn’t train people to obey the risen Jesus in day-to-day life.
Our comfort zone can blind us to God’s call to humility. It can hinder us from fully experiencing God’s kingdom. In the 1st century, the Pharisees tried to institutionalize and control Jesus. Today, church does.
Search for: Beyond Church Ekklesia.
Race is made up — it’s fictional
Skin color’s real, race is made up. Although our skin color varies, our race is human. None of us should ever be marginalized because of skin color!
Diversity of color isn’t a threat to flowers. It’s beautification. People could learn from flowers. To look down on any human skin color is to insult the marvelous work of the Creator.
The term “color-blind” isn’t an expression of equality. It’s a way of excusing blindness to inequality.
Personality is much more definitive than color. If we classify people as either introverts or extroverts, we get all colors of people.
Racism is to mistreat or ignore people because of their skin color. The more racism is renounced and the more its history is exposed, the more it loses it’s power. (Search: Off the RACE Track book.)
When you see the risen Jesus clearly living in someone, human differences fade into insignificance. Then skin color has no meaning.
August 2, 2020
Self-control — the fruit of the Spirit
If you aren’t controlling your desires, thoughts, and feelings, then you’re not in control of your life. They are.
If we would spend more time and effort controlling self and less trying to control other people, life would be much happier. People who won’t restrain their tormenting impulses and thoughts, will be harassed and controlled by them. If we won’t put the brakes on our own thoughts, feelings, and desires, we end up surrendering to torment, guilt, and self-destruction.
Self-control does what is right, even when it doesn’t feel like it. Without self-control, we humans are a like a horseback rider without reins.
Self-control is not easily provoked. However, when the temper is lost, self-control is thrown out the door.
Self-control restrains wrongful and harmful thoughts, desires, and feelings. When self-control is set aside, life becomes chaotic and destructive. We need to resist, expose, and overcome the evil in our own heart, not just ignore it or deny it.
Self-control is obedience to Jesus’ command to, “Deny yourself.” It’s a characteristic of someone who is being led by the Spirit.
You can’t follow Jesus, if you won’t use self-control, restrain yourself, and refuse to follow your own feelings, thoughts, and desires. Anyone who tells you not to control your own impulses, thoughts, and desires, is contradicting Christianity.
July 31, 2020
How salvation testimonies can help heal racial division between churches
Church and race haven’t mixed very kindly and inclusively in America. Learn how salvation testimonies can help change that.
