Steve Simms's Blog, page 229
March 11, 2020
Bullying & violence say, "I'm incapable!"
When someone uses bullying or violence to get what he wants, he tells the world that he’s incapable of getting it some other way. However, hurting someone in order to get what you want is cruelty. The desire to hurt others is evil.
It takes the heart, the conscience, to keep people away from doing violence. Mental arguments against it aren’t very convincing. As long as violence remains in human hearts, it will continue to manifest in violent actions.
It takes no thought to be violent, but restraint requires thoughtful self-control. Road rage demonstrates that humans have a strong tendency toward violence.
The alternative to what’s fake isn’t hateful mocking. It’s full disclosure, genuine humility, and speaking the truth in love.
It’s much better to see yourself as an adventurer who overcomes obstacles, than as a victim who is mistreated by others. People who see themselves as victims, aren’t very good at loving their enemies. People with great hope, are.
Life is more than economics, health, and self-protection. Uncertainty can awaken us to the reality of the risen Jesus. As your complacency is being disrupted, don’t miss this opportunity to get close to Him. When complacency collapses, it’s better to consistently call on Christ, than to worry and/or panic
Spiritual complacency is the opposite of biblical Christianity.
Christ is not a sermon, a concept, or a curriculum. He’s the living God who wants to daily live His life in and thru you. Spiritual complacency is sin. “Seek first the kingdom of God.” Christians are called to be passionate about the living Jesus, not to be complacent about Him. Spiritual complacency is the opposite of biblical Christianity.
When Christianity was turned into a religion of quiet complacency, it lost its early fire, passion, excitement, and enthusiasm. A lecture is a poor substitute for conscious contact with the living Jesus. Words about Him shouldn’t replace encounter with Him. When Christianity is presented as passive and impractical, people don’t get excited. When they encounter the living Jesus, they do!
If preaching doesn’t connect people with the risen Jesus and inspire them to follow Him, it has fallen far short of its purpose. To present Christianity as a powerless religious form, rather than demonstrating it as Christ’s transforming power, is misleading. When complacency is interrupted, you may notice that many things in your life are in the wrong place.
A lesson for churches: Food demonstrators let people experience samples, they don’t just lecture people and send them away. To say you believe in Jesus, yet neglect to follow and obey Him daily, is like saying you believe in vitamins, but not taking them.
Nominal Christianity is when easy-believe-ism is substituted for total commitment to the living Jesus. It’s difficult for Christians to grow spiritually if they’re not released and encouraged to seek and follow Jesus, for themselves.
God’s love invites you to come close to the risen Jesus and humbly surrender your heart and your will to Him. When the uncertainty of life collapses your confidence in the things that you have trusted, call on Christ to live in and thru you.
The more darkness is accepted and embraced, the more vision diminishes. Early Christianity wasn’t used to support the world’s values and political systems, but to provide an alternative to them.
The body of Christ is called to be spiritually and morally aligned with the risen Jesus, while being ethnically and racially diverse. Ancient Israel had separate tribes, but the body of Christ is called to be one.
Preacher/teacher dependency can make Christians vulnerable to false teachers. Read the Bible and listen to God for yourself.
March 9, 2020
March 7, 2020
Their lives matter (no matter who they are) . . .
Look around you, near and far. Their lives matter (no matter who “they” are)!
American revolutionary question: If the tea tax on the Colonies was “tyranny,” what was skin-color-based slavery?
Here’s America’s great contradiction: The Founding Fathers were surrounded by and accepted slaveholding, a tyrannical abuse of power, yet they created “the separation of powers” to prevent tyranny in national government. Tyranny (not greatness) is built on bullying.
People who don’t see color, don’t notice when color-based disparities are present in a community. There is no hierarchy for human life. Value everyone with your heart, words, and actions. “Love your neighbor as yourself”
Their lives matter (no matter who “they” are). Enemy lives matter. The tiniest human lives matter. Your life matters. (Avoid self-destructive thoughts, feelings, words, and behaviors.)
The risen Jesus wants to lead His followers beyond human values and racial perceptions, so that we are no longer captives to our culture’s view points. Seek to be led by the living Jesus, not by human values and points of view. If you base your beliefs and lifestyle on the risen Jesus, you will be at odds with much that your culture teaches.
Human governments rule by coercion and compulsion. The kingdom of God rules by voluntary submission to the Spirit’s inner conviction.
Real love doesn’t have to be earned or deserved or reciprocated. If love is dependent on approval or agreement, it’s a counterfeit and will fail to obey Jesus’ command: “Love your enemies.” For example, the sad-effects of violence are often far greater than any supposed benefits.
Heart-prayer disrupts Christian complacency
Is there a prayer brewing deep within your heart? Be careful. It will stir things up if you let it freely flow out.
When prayer is allowed to freely flow from the heart, as prompted by the Spirit, it’s one of the most amazing experiences on earth. However, analysis of God and His attributes, without awareness of and access to God’s actual presence, accomplishes little.
Many Christians are timid about experiencing Jesus as alive today, but He boldly rose from the dead, so we should boldly interact with the living Jesus. Christian spirituality isn’t about religious rules, rituals, or knowledge, but about following and obeying the living Jesus.
Many people think it’s foolish to be daily led by the Holy Spirit from within, but it’s an out-of-this-world lifestyle! Try it!
Christian complacency usually continues until it is disturbed and disrupted. If you have banished the personal God from your heart, life will be lonely–even in a crowd. Prayer that actually experiences God’s presence, is more than superficial or mechanical praying.
Jesus rose to reign — to be the King, the Lord, and the Master in human hearts. Let Him reign inside you. Religious hierarchy tends to dethrone the risen Jesus from His rightful place as the King & the Head of His body.
Good people have no need for God’s grace. The rest of us desperately need it. People have been taught to cover up and deny their pain with alcohol and other stimulants. (Denial seldom results in healing. Walking humbly and honestly in the light of truth, frequently does.) Perhaps it would be better to stop pain-producing behaviors and thoughts. Like the guidance system on a rocket, your thoughts direct your life. To improve your life, improve your thoughts. Align them with God’s will.
If many of its members are dormant and passive, the body of Christ can’t function properly. Let all Christ-followers obey the Holy Spirit who speaks within their heart..
February 29, 2020
Sin is contrary to the kingdom of God
The kingdom of God isn’t a meeting to attend. It’s a lifestyle of submission and obedience to the living Jesus, the King of Kings. If we won’t let the living Jesus be the actual, ruling King in a church service, how can we proclaim Him as King to the world?
God’s design is that we align with His moral line. To decline is to entwine with sin and to reject the kingdom of God. To pursue harmful thoughts, words, and behaviors, as if they were helpful, is to miss the kingdom of God. Sin that we continually welcome and choose to engage in, eventually begins to force itself on us against our will.
Many people want the pleasures of sin, without the consequences of sin, but life doesn’t work that way. It’s a package deal.
There’s a snag in the human spirit that separates us from God and His kingdom. It’s called sin. It’s much more effective to contend with sin and to let Jesus be your King and help you overcome it, than it is to pretend you’re better than you really are.
God’s kingdom is invisible. It’s citizens are called to be ruled by Christ in them replacing their own will and desires. To live in the kingdom of God is to continually align your thoughts, words, and behaviors with King Jesus and His will.
Church is a place Christians go for professional services. Ekklesia is a group of Christians who gather to actively serve others.
To drink Sprite is one thing; spite is another
Spite, the desire to hurt others, indicates the absence of love and compassion. Unforgiveness leads to spite and malice — the insanity of intentionally hurting others to make yourself feel better. Malice and mercy are opposites. Mercy requires much more courage than malice.
Malice is mistaken identity, believing that evil is in the people you don’t like (or disagree with), but not in yourself. Freedom of speech guarantees the right to openly disagree with people, but we don’t have a right to verbally abuse them.
If you don’t do what you know, merely knowing it won’t do you much good. If you won’t refuse to allow thoughts that you don’t like, to remain in your mind, then they will linger and torment you.
It takes courage to be fair & to recognize injustice.
It’s easy to spot unfairness when it’s against you (or people you care about) — harder when it’s against people you don’t like. Often it’s easier to see what your mind projects, instead of seeing what is really there. Then unawareness of injustice often leads to the assumption of fairness. Persistence and determination cause many problems if you’re headed in the wrong direction.
It’s difficult to decide who’s right, if we won’t openly and honestly examine both sides of an argument. However, it takes courage to search for truth that makes you uncomfortable and/or contradicts your point of view.
Just because the world isn’t fair, is no reason for you not to try to be fair. It’s amazing there is so much evil in the world, when almost everybody thinks they are a “good person.” The more you align with the kingdom of God, the less you will be at home with the governments of this world.
Fun without meaning and purpose is meaningless distraction. Let Jesus give you meaning. The living Jesus can’t be institutionalized. If Jesus isn’t allowed to be the literal Head of a gathering of His body, the Bible gives no other role for Him to fulfill. The belief in the risen Jesus shouldn’t be limited to 2,000 years ago. Christ-followers need the leadership of risen Jesus, just as much today.
February 28, 2020
Which list do cuss words match — the fruit of the Spirit or the works of the flesh? (Galatians 5:19-24.)
Here is Galatians: 5:19-24:
“The acts of the flesh are obvious: sexual immorality, impurity and debauchery; idolatry and witchcraft; hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions and envy; drunkenness, orgies, and the like. I warn you, as I did before, that those who live like this will not inherit the kingdom of God.”
“But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law. Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires.”
So which paragraph best defines profanity?
February 27, 2020
“Crytearia” for shedding tears
Tears are often a sign that people have the strength and the courage to open up their heart. A culture that refuses to welcome and appreciate tears, (or humiliates those who cry), makes it hard for people to open their heart. Tears have an amazing power to open people’s heart. That’s why people with closed hearts, don’t want to see anybody cry.
To fight to hold back your tears is to fight against your own healing and relief that will flow through them. Perhaps the world would be a better place if we lowered the “crytearia” for tears — if tears were appreciated and allowed to flow, instead of hidden in embarrassment. So many people have been trained that, “It’s bad to let anybody see you cry,” so they feel forced to cry in secret and thus they deprive others of the opportunity to comfort them and to “weep with those who weep.”
Perhaps when open tears are taboo, much inner healing is missed, and that pain finds other means of expression like anger. To refuse to cry is to desensitize yourself. To be “unable” or unwilling to cry is to miss out on a powerful means of inner healing.
Most of us are encouraged to dry our eyes too soon, way before the healing process is done. The belief that crying should be avoided, robs many people of healing for their heart and of compassion for the needs of others. Crying is a human right. Perhaps we shouldn’t try to stop people from doing it.
Crying is a shower for the heart, cleansing it from life’s debris. When tears begin to flow from your eyes, you’re not far from the presence of God. Pride opposes tears. Perhaps the fear of shedding tears also comes from insecurity.
Tears are both natural (that’s why we have tear ducts) and supernatural (that’s why we have a heart). It’s not good to hold them back. To tell someone, “Don’t cry,” is to ignore his need for tears, because his exposed heart is making you uncomfortable.
Are tears part of the “crytearia” for spiritual growth? “I served the Lord with great humility and with tears.” –Acts 20:19 (NIV) When tears are prompted by the Holy Spirit, to hold them back is to quench the Spirit and reject a gift from God. Instead of feeling awkward when we see someone crying, the Bible says that we should cry with them. “Weep with those who weep.” Perhaps church needs to train people how to cry along side of people who are crying.
When your mind can’t quantify what is happening to you, perhaps your eyes can liquefy it with tears and bring you peace. It’s one thing to study the causes of violence in our society. It’s another thing to cry about it. Perhaps we need both.
Tears don’t always come from sadness or lack of self-control. They’re often a sign of happiness and a courageously sensitive soul. Tears are multipurpose. They can flow from: joy, sadness, compassion, physical pain, remorse, love, grief, heartbreak, worship.
Verbal attacks often leave hidden (heart-broken) tear tracks. Be kind. What an odd time we live in. People brag about their sins, but are ashamed to let anyone see them cry.
