Steve Simms's Blog, page 23
February 2, 2025
Cookin’ Up True Love
My favorite thing to cook up is true love. I delight to heat up and “stir up the gift of God which is in” me (2 Timothy 1:6) so that God’s kindness and compassion flow from deep within me to everyone I encounter (even to my enemies).
Here’s the recipe:
Fully surrender your heart and life (your plans and your future) to the risen Jesus. Let Him fill you with His presence so that His words continually burn in your heart to cook up His supernatural love within you. Always keep your trust in the Lord. Completely rely on Him. Even when people “do not speak peaceably” to you but instead “devise false accusations” against you, depend on the Lord, not on retaliation. (“God is love,” are you?)“Love your enemies,” “do good to those who hate you,” “bless those who curse you,” and “pray for those who despitefully use you.” Always be “speaking the truth in love.”“Let the Lord be exalted,” by the way you show respect and kindness to those you disagree with and even to those who mistreat you. Refuse to be defeated by your own self-righteousness, anger, unforgiveness, and bitterness.To disrespect the humanity of one person is to disrespect the humanity of us all. Love respectively speaks truth with kindness. Cook some up today!
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February 1, 2025
My Mind is my First Computer
My mind is my first computer. I was born with it. I work hard to keep all distractions and viruses completely away from it. I strive to continually surrender my mouse and keyboard to God so that He can program and reform my mind and heart according to His will.
Now is the time that Christ-followers open up and let the Holy Spirit come on us anew and afresh and warm our hearts to the point that we know that we know that we know that we are supernaturally empowered to be Christ’s witnesses in our churches — in our neighborhoods, our workplaces, and our social circles — and to the ends of the earth! Jesus, the Word become flesh, is calling us to let Him reform us by His Spirit. Let’s make plenty of room for open, Spirit-prompted testimonies when we gather in His name. (Revelation 12:11 & 1 Corinthians 14:26.)
If you aren’t serious about following Jesus, you won’t want to be led by the Holy Spirit. God is raising up reformers, people who are letting the Holy Spirit reform the way their life and their church services are conducted. Be one!
A Reformation Call Straight from the Bible
When an outward form
Of godliness
And religion
Without the Spirit-led
Power to transform
Human hearts and lives
Has become the norm
And people are lukewarm,
From such turn away.
It’s time for reform.
Let the risen Christ
Take the over the platform
And begin to warm
Hearts that are far from Him
So that His words
Burn within them
And reform
Them with the power
To boldly testify!
(2 Timothy 3:5, Romans 8:14,
Romans 12:2, Revelation 3:16,
Matthew 15:8, Luke 24:32, & Acts 1:8)
January 31, 2025
Effectively Overcoming Fear
One thing that people are scared to do is to open up a church service to rely on the actual presence living Jesus and to be directly led by His Spirit instead of by a program or a human leader. That fear keeps churches institutionalized, compromised, and fragmentized. Religious formalism prevents Christians from opening their heart to one another and encouraging each other. (There are more that 50 places in the New Testament where Christ-followers are told to minister to one another in various ways.)
The Bible blesses those who look intently into it with an open humble heart and continue to soak it in and implement it day and night by not forgetting what they’ve read but putting it into ongoing action. (James 1:25) To be blessed with “the freedom and glory of the children of God,” (Romans 8:21) do and obey the word throughout each day.
To overcome the fear of relying on the risen Jesus, begin to trust Him little by little. Instead of always trying to do everything by your own wisdom and power, surrender something to Him. Ask Jesus to show you what He wants you to do about it. Then wait until you get a response and do what He tells you to. The results will be amazing and step by step they will build your confidence in Christ and overcome your fear of relying on Him. (If you aren’t serious about following Jesus, you won’t want to be led by the Holy Spirit or the Bible.)
I was talking recently to a 93-year-old woman I know. She began to tell me that she was afraid of being forced out of her home of many years. Her landlord had told her that he was planning to put her home up for sale and that she might have to move. She was visibly worried and fearful. The Holy Spirit prompted me to ask her if I could pray for her. I did and she consented.
I put my hand on her shoulder and began to pray that God would remove her fear and worry, give her peace of mind, and also make a way that she can stay in her home. Two days later I saw her, and she was beaming. She said that her landlord had changed his mind. He told her that she could stay in her home for the rest of her life. That experience helped us both take a bold step toward overcoming our fear of daily relying on Jesus.
The body of Christ
Has been analyzed
And highly organized,
Institutionalized
And compartmentalized,
Deeply compromised
And so fragmentized,
That it’s unrecognized.
It desperately needs
To be energized
And mobilized
By the risen Jesus!
January 30, 2025
A Religious and Analytical Approach to Christianity
The study and research that Christ requires isn’t a religious and analytical approach to Christianity. He requires something much deeper than that.
“For Ezra had prepared his heart to seek the Law of the LORD, and to do it, and to teach statutes and ordinances in Israel.” The Law of the Lord can be studied and analyzed with the logical mind, but to be effectively sought and taught, it must be obeyed and caught by a hungry (Matthew 5:6) humble (James 4:6) heart.
The research that Christ requires is not human biblical dissection and analysis. It’s the daily revelation that comes from being obedient to and led by the Spirit. Jesus said: “If you love Me keep My commands and I will ask the Father, and He will give you another Advocate to help you and be with you forever — the Spirit of Truth.”
We need the Spirit’s help, guidance, and revelation today as much as the first Christians did. The Spirit works with, in, and through the Bible. What He reveals to us today won’t contradict what He revealed in Scripture.
Let God “research” you. Let your heart and your life be continually searched by the Bible and by God’s Spirit. If Jesus is your Lord that means that staying focused on Him, listening to Him, and obeying Him is your #1 priority. Jesus first!
The body of Christ has a perfect leader. His name is Jesus. If churches and individual Christians would continually focus on, listen to, and obey Him, we would see ongoing glorious demonstrations of the kingdom of God.
Life is a parade
That goes marching by.
People masquerade
And hide in alleyways
Where the tunnel vision
Of human study
No longer portrays
What’s fully going on.
To get clearer sight
Step out of the shade
And into the light.
Open up your heart
To the Holy Spirit
And to the word of God.
Stop your masquerade.
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I Make it a Sport to “Rememberize”
View all responsesI make it a sport to “rememberize.” A friend, JD Walt, likes to use the word his oldest son coined at about five years old. His son said, “I finally ‘rememberized’ it. JD says: “Memorization quick-loads our short-term memory. Rememberization is of another order. It slow-loads our long-term memory.
If you want to remember something, “rememberize” it, don’t just cram it in one side of your mind and out the other. Ponder it, savor it, let it deeply touch your heart. In my life I’ve made it my favorite sport to “rememberize” the Bible.
To hide the word of God
Deep inside your heart
So it can be your light
Requires more than memory
Or Scripture analysis.
It requires insight
That gives your heart delight.
When you read the Bible
With your heart wide open
You’ll have humble eyes
That will see God’s light
And absorb His insight
In a much deeper way
Than just to memorize.
What moves your heart
Merges into
Your memory
But what’s observed
Just by your mind,
Your memory
Often can’t find.
What the shepherds said
About the newborn Christ
Was so much more than words
Heard in Mary’s head.
She treasured what was said
And pondered it in her heart.
Be a full-Bible Christian!
Read the Bible,
Don’t just listen to
Sermons about it.
Ponder the Bible,
Don’t just read it.
Experience the Bible,
Don’t just ponder it.
Demonstrate the Bible
Through the way you live,
Don’t just experience it.
Overflow with the realities
Proclaimed and testified to
Throughout the Bible,
Don’t just demonstrate it.
And above all
Keep your heart
Wide open
To the Bible
And quench not
The Spirit.
Hearing the Bible
Without heart devotion
And holy emotion
Won’t make you a doer
Of God’s word.
January 28, 2025
The Greatest Win
Some people win
The lottery
But much money
And a long term
Spending spree
Is not able
To set them free.
True freedom comes
Another way.
Let Jesus saturate
Your mind and your heart.
And fill you with wonder.
As you ruminate
And constantly ponder
His glorious presence–
The Living Word of God!
Hear Jesus.
Know Jesus.
Love Jesus.
Serve Jesus.
To hear Jesus
Is inner peace
He makes the storms
Within you cease.
To know Jesus
Is true friendship,
The ultimate
Relationship.
To love Jesus
Is pure romance.
Open your heart
And take a chance.
To serve Jesus
Makes life worthwhile.
And meaningful
Mile after mile.
Devouring the Bible
With great delight
Clearly shows me
Christ’s brilliant light.
Go beyond the explanation
Of religious information.
Tell others how you
Experienced Christ
And thus illustrate
His reality.
Help others
To experience Christ
And thus demonstrate
His reality.
The most effective
Way to teach
Isn’t to preach
Or to lecture.
It’s to illustrate
And to demonstrate
The reality of
What you’re teaching.
January 27, 2025
Reading That Points Me to Peace
In the troubled and stressed-out culture where I live, I look for inner peace. I love to read books and articles that point me to God’s peace.
The peace of God can’t be taught. It’s beyond human understanding. Therefore, to truly experience God’s peace you must “lean not on your own understanding” and “in all your ways acknowledge Him.” (Proverbs 3:5) You can be able to quote every Bible verse about peace and know what dozens of preachers, theologians, and commentaries say about each verse, yet still not experience God’s peace.
Because it’s supernatural, the peace of God can’t be experienced through reasoning, study, or analysis. The peace of God is “in Christ.” It can’t be taught but it can be caught and maintained by “Christ in you.” It’s part of the fruit of the Spirit that the risen Jesus produces when He is allowed to live in, rule, and reign as the Absolute Lord and Master of your heart and mind.
To experience the peace of God, talk to Jesus in every situation throughout each day and fully surrender your life and desires to Him. Express your cares and concerns to Him and continually thank Him for the gift of His glorious presence in you and with you. Let Christ continually guard and guide your heart and mind.
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The Tradition of Pondering
Let your heart be strangely warmed. The way to “taste and see that the Lord is good,” (Psalm 34:8) is to open your heart and begin to ponder His presence and reality. The entire Book of Psalms is about pondering God. Ponder and absorb His beauty.
When people are trained to regularly ponder, drink in, and absorb the presence of the living Jesus, the life transforming power of the Holy Spirit begins to flow from within them like rivers of living water. (John 7:37-39.) Pondering prayer focuses on the presence of God and pays close attention to His inner promptings.
Marvel at the marvel of God. Regularly focus on, consider, contemplate, and ponder how His creation produces awe, amazement, and astonishment. Then you will eventually develop an ongoing awareness of the breathtaking beauty of being alive. True Christian worship wows people with the presence of the risen Jesus Christ. The early Christ-followers were “filled with awe.” (Acts 2:43)
Theology approaches the Bible with mental analysis and treats it as mainly religious information. Inspiration ponders the Bible with the heart and soaks it in as the lifegiving word of God. (2 Timothy 3:16) Perpetually ponder “the mystery of godliness.” (1 Timothy 3:16)
“The kingdom of God is at hand.” (Matthew 3:2) If Christ-followers would meet to ponder the presence of the risen Jesus and then to obey His inner promptings the kingdom of God would show up in their midst. Without faith, people will neglect to ponder the presence of Jesus and will choose to ignore His inner promptings.
Don’t just take notes on a sermon. Take notes on and ponder your own thinking. Look closely and you might just find the voice of God speaking within you.
The Spirit-led ponderings of ordinary Christ-followers are powerful. Unfortunately, they have been trained to ignore their ponderings and revelations and instead to put their faith in the words of a preacher.
Christian, ponder! Refuse to settle into lukewarmness. Everyday hit the pause button and ponder the beauty of life for a while. Ponder how you can live better and get better results from your life. When I ponder the mystery of my consciousness of the world around me, I am captured by awe of my Creator.
Ponder to cultivate Christ’s inner peace:
1) Notice the thoughts that come to your mind,
2) Reject the harmful ones,
3) Ignore the mediocre ones,
4) Embrace the helpful ones, and
5) Treasure the inspiring ones.
When you’re thinking in a box you’ve clipped the wings that empower you ponder the things that cause your heart to soar. “Wait on the Lord” and “mount up with wings as eagles.” (Isaiah 40:31)
Pondering goes beyond what and examines why. To neglect to ponder is to abandon your God-given responsibility to make wise choices.
Don’t panic, ponder.
Trust in Jesus.
Let Him prompt you.
Train yourself to
Be a responder
To His Spirit.
Be faithful
To live under
His direct Headship.
Perhaps our purpose
As people
Is to ponder
And absorb
Life’s wonder.
Neglecting to ponder
The significance
And purpose
Off your existence
Makes it easy to squander
Your life.
Ponder the effect
Of your thoughts.
Notice what they
Do to you.
Then select
And collect
The ones that have
The best effect
On you
And reject
Deflect
And eject
The harmful ones.
Creativity
Identifies Ideas
And keeps insight
In sight.
The more you ponder,
The less you’ll wander
Aimlessly.
My ponder place
Is anyplace
And everyplace.
January 25, 2025
I Enjoy Reading Words That Uncover My Deception
View all responsesI once found a book that uncovers my deception when I read it with an open heart. Reading that book is like standing in the shower and letting very hot water run over your aching back. It hurts but if feels good. Despite the pain, reading that book (and also books by people who have allowed that book to burn in their heart) feels so good that I enjoy doing it in my leisure time.
That book is the Bible. I’ve read it over and over for far too many hours to count and it still brightly shines truth in my heart and “is profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness.” (2 Timothy 3:16)
Devouring the Bible will gradually and gently show you any deception in your heart. It’s the app that will direct you to the best life has to offer, if you’ll humbly read and obey it.
Treasure truth. Deposit it in your heart. Truth is the currency of mental wealth. Deception is disrespect for the truth. What you gain by deception will collapse your conscience and hold you in bondage to lies.
When deception is defended as “free expression” instead of pointed out as a lie, a culture loses both truth and trust and crumbles into chaos. If you repeat unsubstantiated statements, there’s a good chance that you’re spreading lies. Accusations without accuracy and proof are frequently the free expression of falsehood. Speak from solid evidence not from mere allegations. Spreading other people’s lies (even if you believe them to be true) is dishonesty.
Deception is more popular than truth. Truth telling requires the hard work of honesty, courage, and humility, but deceiving people is quick and easy.
Deception distorts the difference between fact and fake. If people have deceived you, it’s because you have trusted them when they didn’t deserve your trust.
Unchecked feelings, desires, and opinions lead people and nations into great deception. When truth is twisted into ropes of deception and tangled up in passionately believed lies a society ignores and defies compassion, honesty, logic, conscience, and common sense.
To distort the truth or to outright lie to try to get what you want is to abandon reality and to undermine your conscience. It is to put your trust in deception and deceivers. Where there’s deception there’s a denial of reality. It’s a sin to twist, spin, and distort the truth. The book tells me: “Do not lie to one another.”
“Tricks and treachery are the practice of fools that don’t have brains enough to be honest.” –Benjamin Franklin (A Founding Father of the USA)
To build on a foundation of deception is to build on something that won’t last. The Founding Fathers of the USA created “checks and balances” between the three parts of government so that deception could be exposed and minimized. To ignore, resist, or attempt to override those “check and balances” is to wade into shark infested waters. No individual or political party is 100% free from deception. We all need “checks and balances.”
The reception
Of deception
Distorts your
Perception
Of reality.
To deceive
Is to cause
People
To believe
Lies.
To betray
The truth
Is to embrace
Moral decay.
Deceivers
Who are
Overachievers
Can lead multitudes
Astray.
January 24, 2025
The Attraction of Ahas
View all responsesNothing can be closer to me than the attraction of insights and “ahas” because they occur within me–inside of my heart and mind. So many of them come to me that it’s hard to visit with all of them. Occasionally I let some slip away or overlook them. Nonetheless, I continually hunger and thirst for more of God’s glorious revelations to my heart.
Christians like to misquote half of a biblical statement. “Eye hasn’t seen and ear hasn’t heard what God has prepared for those who love Him.” However, they almost always leave off the ending: “But God has revealed it to us.” Christianity is all about divine revelation that comes directly from the living God to your heart.
Behold the Lamb of God! Hear His voice! Physical eyes and ears can’t see or hear Him. Instead, look and listen to the invisible One (Hebrews 11:27), “Christ in you, the hope of glory.” Surrender your heart to God the Father’s supernatural revelation so that He can begin to change you deep within (from glory to glory) into His very own image.
Take the veil of darkness off of your face. Humbly and continually ask God to shine and to brighten His light of revelation inside your heart (2 Corinthians 4:6).
Religion is based on scripted sights and sounds, but a relationship with Christ (Colossians 1:27) relies on direct heart-to-heart revelation from God the Father (Matthew 16:17) and the ongoing leading of the Holy Spirit (Romans 8:14). It’s true that things that God has prepared for the people who love Him can’t be seen by the human eye, heard by the natural ear, or conceived by logical thinking, but God reveals them to humble, spiritually hungry people through the supernatural presence of His Spirit. (1 Corinthians 2:9-10) Refuse to settle for less.
Fight (1 Timothy 6:12) the pride (James 4:6) of your fallen human nature. Cast it down (2 Corinthians 10:5) and throw it aside. Humble yourself (1 Peter 5:6) so that you can prepare the way of the Lord Jesus Christ (Luke 3:4-6) in your heart and make room for God the Holy Spirit to freely flow out of your innermost being with the glorious rivers (John 7:38) of God the Father’s supernatural revelation.
(When churches focus on what the human eye can see, what the physical ear can hear, and what the logical mind can conceive, instead of on proclaiming the invisible Lordship of the risen Jesus and demonstrating the presence, reality and revelation of the kingdom of God, we’re living in a dark age. When the words on our lips aren’t in sync with our heart, that’s hypocrisy. See Matthew 15:8.)
Sincerely say these words from your heart to the risen Jesus Christ:
“Lord Jesus, I sincerely invite You to come and live in me and to take full control of my life. I will notice what You say to me in and through my conscience. I will listen for Your voice in my heart. I will obey Your inner nudgings and promptings. Anytime I ignore You or stray from You, please remind me and draw me back. Thank You for coming into my heart, showing me that You are real, and empowering me to daily follow and obey You.”
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