Steve Simms's Blog, page 219
June 14, 2020
All views in this blog are mine . . .
All views expressed in this blog are mine. If they don’t match your views, that’s okay. I could be wrong.
Pride can easily make me blind to injustice. It can cause me to believe that people must have done something to deserve mistreatment.
Never let your opinion or your pride override your conscience. If you push thru your political views and let your heart fill up with disdain for those who differ, you won’t enjoy the “victory.”
Sometimes when I believe I’m seeing clearly, I’m overlooking some important stuff. I need Jesus to improve my vision.
What’s up, Jesus? May we, who say we’re Christians, see things from Your perspective instead of our own.
If we were paid by the hour to procrastinate, do you think we would put it off till later? Wait a while to answer this.
The purpose of Christian preaching isn’t just to inform people about God. It’s also to connect them with the living Jesus so they will obey Him.
Designer skin — a birth right
You’re wearing designer skin. (You’re looking good, because God, Himself, designed the skin you’re in!)
For society to devalue people because of their skin, brands them with something they can’t hide and that sticks with them for life. When skin becomes a “race card,” we have no choice but to carry it all over our body.
If eye color doesn’t categorize people and make them different, then skin color doesn’t either. Let’s be consistent!
I like to think outside my skin color. Human gray matter is much better at discovering truth than human skin color is.
It’s impossible for you to be guilty of things that happened before you were born. Thus we can talk about history without guilt. If we’re unwilling to talk about injustice in history, we won’t be very open to recognizing and talking about present day injustice.
Contradiction? The ultimate insult to the American flag is to take up arms against it. Many who did that are honored as great men. In the sequel to centuries of inequality, Americans will finally celebrate the truth that we are all equal!
To believe that blacks are less moral, less intelligent, less ambitious, or less resourceful than whites is racism.
Not one African, nor even one of their descendants, deserved to be trafficked and enslaved. It was a horrific crime against humanity. Slaveholders didn’t need a vaccine microchip implant. They conspired to control people by dehumanizing their skin color.
The Declaration of Independence didn’t see color. It said, “All men are created equal,” while it was blind to the trafficking of black people. A country where the pledge to the flag says “liberty and justice for all” should welcome efforts to bring injustice to light.
Some times the status quo needs to go
Church tends to use Scripture to support the status quo. The risen Jesus makes Scriptures come alive to challenge our complacency. Talk to the living Jesus. Then listen. He wants to have a conversation with you.
Biblical Christianity is about Christ supremacy–laying down our desires, feelings, & opinions, to follow and obey the living Jesus.
If we’re unwilling to let the living Jesus override our desires and opinions and replace them with His, we’re carnal, not Spirit-led. The risen Jesus has shown me that any evil I see in humanity is also to some degree, lurking in me. Romans 7:18.
The foundation of biblically Christianity is spiritual revelation that comes thru inner interaction with the risen Jesus. It isn’t just a “decision for Christ.”
The risen Jesus and sin can’t live peaceably within you. One or the other gets the upper hand. Saying we love God, if we hate others, makes us a liar. Saying we have no sin, does too. 1 John 4:20 and 1 John 1:8.
Follow the stimulus of the Holy Spirit. Let God’s fire burn within you and direct you daily.
Suggestions for humans
Fellow humans: Let’s treat each other with high regard. After all, everyone of us is a miracle. People who insult people disrespect the human race.
The human race has no subsets. We’re all the same breed. You’re not “different”! When you get to know people, heart to heart, you make the amazing discovery that we’re all pretty much alike.
Dare to be great. Don’t hate or berate people. However, to think you have no bias is a bias, because no human is completely objective and fair in his opinions.
Skin color is merely decorative. To think that it adds or detracts value from any human being is nuts! Let’s simplify things: If you act differently towards people of different skin colors, that’s racism.
No matter the color
Of your face,
We’re all equal members
Of the human race.
Nobody’s any better
Than you or me.
We’re all the same stock,
Can’t you see?
Hearts are red. When we connect heart to heart, we embrace each other as equals.
For the first time in history there’s a worldwide conversation about justice and equality for black people. God’s up to something! Try not to resist or fight against what He’s doing.
Look thru history and honor those who stood for equality. Search for: Off the RACE Track book.
June 10, 2020
God’s not color-blind (no one is > or <)
God created skin-color, so you know He’s not color-blind. Of course, God sees our skin-color, but He doesn’t evaluate us by it. The color says nothing about the condition of a car or a house or a cat. The same goes for people!
I don’t believe that there are skin color based differences between people. Any characteristic you can find in white people you can also find in black people. Do you believe there are differences between blue-eyed-people and brown-eyed people?
The myth that darker skin color makes people different from lighter skinned people, needs to be publicly renounced. I see much greater differences between people of different personality types, than between people of different skin color.
It’s time to welcome people of color outside the lines of stereotypes, labels, customs, suspicions, and traditions. Until whites = blacks, and blacks = whites (no > or
There’s no reason for skin-color to categorize humanity. We see eye-color but don’t break people into categories because of it.
Free association test: White person: _______. Black person: _______. Any difference reveals a lot about YOU.
If we adhere to the first words of the Constitution, “We the people of the United States,” there’s no room for “us” and “them.” I love connecting with people as equals. Even when I pastored a church, I never wanted to be called Rev. or Pastor–just Steve.
Your value is based on being a human being–not on skin color, career, mistakes, status, reputation, resume, or even behavior. If I know you or if I don’t know you, your life matters to me.
[image error]
Skin is a protective covering, not a marketing label
Skin is a protective covering, not a marketing label. It’s not supposed to define who we are. Dividing people into skin-color-based categories and putting them in tiers, has enabled much hate and caused many tears.
Categorizing and looking down on people because of the pigmentation of their epidermis, has never made sense to me. Categories divide. Race is one of the most divisive and hate-producing categories ever used by human beings.
All skin color is equal. Anything that overshadows that equality is sin. Every form I have to fill out asks my “race,” but none of them give me the option of “human.” Isn’t that “race-baiting?”
My race is human;
Yours is too.
We can’t change that,
No matter what we do.
Race is fiction. It’s a mythical idea, created in the 1500s, to devalue Africans and sanction their enslavement by Europeans. (Instead of dividing humanity into color-based categories in the 1500s, they could have made the categories height-based: 6-footers, 5-footers, & 4-footers.)
If we would leave “race” and pictures of ourselves off of online job applications, employers couldn’t discriminate by “race” before they meet an applicant.
Pride promotes misunderstanding and conflict. Humility embraces compassion and equality. Kindness confuses angry people and makes them question their hostility. The answer’s been blowing in the wind far too long. Let’s put down our pride and pick up boundless kindness and compassion.
When looters interrupt peaceful protests, it seems unfair for “fake news media” to call the whole thing a “riot.” In a Christ-filled heart there is no room for malice.
[image error]
June 8, 2020
“America first” or “All countries matter”?
Someone posted on social media: “My wife is beautiful.” Should I comment on his post, “All wives are beautiful”? When Trump says, “America first,” the “All lives matter” people, don’t say, “All countries matter.”
When Jesus talked about leaving the 99 for the 1, His disciples didn’t say, “All the 99 lives matter.” Logically there should be no debate about ending racism. Instead, many people let their emotions override the logic of equality.”
Although I say, “All lives matter,” or “Black lives matter,” if I don’t act in love, I am nothing. Whatever out opinion. we need to speak and act in love. Give a hoot, don’t loot.
If someone feels like he has been treated like his life doesn’t matter, I’ll tell him, “YOUR life DOES matter!” not, “All lives matter.” Skin shade doesn’t matter, but allowing people to be devalued for their skin shade matters in a harmful way.
Black lives deserve widespread respect and honor, every bit as much as white lives do. Why are there protests in America and around the world in 2020? Because all lives haven’t mattered equally. It’s time that they do!
English lesson 101: The statement: “Black lives matter,” doesn’t mean that other lives don’t. American history 101: Black lives were enslaved, emancipated, forcibly excluded, and finally tolerated. Now they should be fully embraced. America’s Founding Fathers saw the logic of equality, but they let entitlement override logic and institutionalized human slavery.
Injustice in American history that we ignore or deny, has been holding us in bondage. Humbly facing truth will bring healing for all.
My group / your group — disdain isn’t sane . . .
True self-esteem never needs someone to look down on and never results in insults. It never needs to criticize other people in order to feel good about self.
My group, your group,
When we jump thru that hoop,
What we lose
Is hard to recoup.
Trying to ease your pain
By looking down on others,
With disdain,
Isn't sane.
Disdain for people
Makes the down-looker's face
Gruff
And his heart hard.
When disagreement
Turns into disdain,
It creates much
Anger and pain.
After centuries of disdain,
It's time for America
To open our heart and say,
"Black lives really do matter."
Christ-followers need to put obedience to the living Jesus and love for one another, above politics or race. God’s looking for humility and repentance, but too many of us are responding with anger and arrogance.
Many amazingly incredible people have opinions (and/or skin color) that differ from mine (and yours). Let’s love one another — even people we consider to be enemies.
June 5, 2020
America, it’s time to act like black lives matter
And other words
That berate
Won't make
America great.
When blacks feel like their lives don’t matter in America. Don’t argue with them. Compassionately ask why.
I’ve never heard an African American say: “Only black lives matter.” Have you? I would be offended by an “Only Black Lives Matter” sign, but I’ve never seen one of those.
If you really want to fight evil, don’t allow it in your mind or in your heart. Sometimes a speaker is introduced as “esteemed,” but in the real world, too many people are “disesteemed.”
Imagine what it would be like if people felt about certain flower colors, the way that some do about black skin color. Tomatoes were once considered poisonous, but we got over that false belief. It’s time to get over false beliefs about blacks!
Violence is the weapon of the hopeless. Those with hope brimming in their heart prefer to challenge injustice with love.
Christians need to speak with kindness and the love of Christ, not with insults and accusations. Jesus causes me to love everybody.
Violence is a pain & hate multiplier.
Hostility is the failure to show love. Violence is a pain and hate multiplier. Hostile words, if not toned down, eventually provoke hostile acts. If I speak the politics of Democrats or Republicans and do not have love, I am nothing.
If we refuse to see and renounce the evil in our own heart, pointing the evil out in others does little good. Berating and insulting people is an assault on the American values of equality, justice, and human rights. Verbal assault isn’t the way “to win friends and influence people.”
Planned, nonviolent resistance, ended the racist, Jim Crow laws in America. Violence isn’t effective at changing people’s hearts.
The situation today calls for loving action, not hateful reaction. Real love isn’t wimpy. It boldly confronts injustice with kindness. The living Jesus gives His true followers the strength to be kind to the rude.
In all the hostility of the present moment, it’s a great time to show Christ’s supernatural love and to: “Bless those who curse you.” Persistent kindness that refuses to retreat into rudeness, is powerful! The early Christians had no political agenda, but sought to connect all people with the risen Jesus.
We are seeing the results of centuries of horrific abuse and what feels like ongoing second class citizenship to African Americans. Slavery, Jim Crow laws, lynching, and subtle discrimination all said that black lives don’t matter, but Jesus says they do!
As a white, I’ve learned so much, I was unaware of, by asking black people to tell me what it’s like being black. Still learning! Black people’s right to feel safe isn’t about politics. It’s about freedom and equality.
Christ, living in me, gives me love for everybody, whether they agree with me (or look like me) or not. We need Christianity that shares God’s love, not the kind that insults people to try to win a political argument. So Christians: How about some “tidings of comfort and joy” and some love that “is not easily provoked”?
Search for: Off the RACE Track book.
