Steve Simms's Blog, page 239
October 28, 2019
Abort unkindness!
Abort all unkindness, unforgiveness, cruelty, hatred, bitterness, and disrespect for life. Don’t let it live in your heart. Human life is an incredible gift. To fail to respect and appreciate it in all its stages and diversity is tragic.
Falling into name calling is mauling our hearts. Don’t put up with put downs. Interrupt them with kindness. “Bless those who curse you.”
Insults inspire retaliatory results. “What goes round comes round.”
If you’re put off by put downs, put up polite, positive posts on your social media pages. Jesus said, “Bless those who curse you.”
If anybody should be peaceful and nonviolent, it should be Christians! Christians are called to be voices of compassion, grace, mercy, healing, reconciliation, and truth spoken with heart-felt love.
October 27, 2019
2 Christmas gift ideas for thinkers
Two Christmas gift ideas for thinkers: 1) Off the RACE Track @ https://www.amazon.com/Off-RACE-Track-Color-Blind-Color-Kind-ebook/dp/B07HYHHK19/ref=tmm_kin_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=&sr= and 2) The Joy Of Early Christianity @ https://www.amazon.com/Joy-Early-Christianity-Steve-Simms-ebook/dp/B07X6434JN/ref=sr_1_1?crid=VNNG5Q1IGV5K&keywords=the+joy+of+early+christianity&qid=1572193224&s=digital-text&sprefix=the+joy+of+early+c%2Cdigital-text%2C183&sr=1-1
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October 25, 2019
Righteous anger isn’t easy
Anger is deceptive. When we think that our anger is righteous, we tend to see ourselves as superior to those who oppose us.
It’s easy to consider your own anger to be righteous. It’s not so easy to feel that way about the anger of the people who disagree with you.
Christians are called to win people’s hearts with love, not to impose our will on them through manipulation, coercion, or force. If we’re not “speaking the truth in love” as the Bible says, our anger probably isn’t righteous.
Any anger you have that doesn’t “love your enemies” violates the command of Jesus. Therefore it isn’t righteous anger either.
You can’t have righteous anger without awareness of your own sin. “Bless those who curse you.” Since anger is deceptive, irrational, self-focused, and consuming, it’s difficult to consistently stay with righteous anger.
Self-examination helps. Perhaps we need to have righteous anger toward our own unwillingness to forgive others and to love our enemies.
Anger can easily get us out of line with our conscience. It’s stressful to be unaligned with your conscience.
Stirred-up anger is dangerous and can easily get out of control. For example, the 4,200+ race-based lynchings during America’s Jim Crow period, were driven by anger that those involved would have probably considered “righteous anger.” Incivility can lead to horrible behaviors.
It’s time for understanding, compassion, and kindness. Search for my book: Off the RACE Track–From Color-Blind to Color-Kind.
Body or bureaucracy?
The body of Christ isn’t called to be the bureaucracy of Christ. Jesus wants to be the Head of His body.
A body functions as individual members directly listen to and individually obey the head. A bureaucracy functions as a hierarchy.
Jesus said to make disciples. Church tends to make an audience.
The early Christians encouraged one another in Christ-led, support groups called ekklesia. Learn more about how to function as part of Christ’s body: Search for: The Joy Of Early Christianity book.
October 24, 2019
Perfect people in church
People say, “Don’t expect to find perfect people in church,” but, we should be able to find holy, Christ-like people there. If church doesn’t produce holy, Christ-like people, perhaps there’s something off with the programming or methodology.
The Bible calls Christ-followers to “be holy,” not just to pretend to be. Grace isn’t an excuse for sin, it’s victory over sin. To hide from the light is to collide in the darkness. The mission of Christ-followers is to shine with His Light everywhere they go.
Church programs are made by people like me, but only Jesus can set us captives free. Churches bring in a lot of guest speakers, as if there is no one in their congregation who has anything important to share.
Jesus speaks today, but if we don’t believe that He does, we won’t listen and probably won’t hear Him. Jesus rose, not so people can sit passively in church rows, but so His followers can rise up and arouse others to boldly obey Him. Without a mission life meanders meaninglessly.
To ignore the risen Jesus is to quench the Holy Spirit. Try not to do that. Jesus said, “I am the way,” so why do we make following a program the way to worship? Jesus is the only Head in His body.
Jesus is the best conductor, choreographer, director, and leader in the world. Perhaps we should let Him run church services.
When church teaches biblical content without training people in the daily application of that content, it does them a disservice. Monologues make audience members, but dialogues develop disciples.
Content or connection? Casual Christianity lectures about religious content. Early Christianity facilitated connection with Jesus.
Perhaps we shouldn’t exalt preachers. Deuteronomy 13:3 says: “It is the Lord your God you must follow and Him you must revere.”
For a guidebook to creativity in Christianity, search for: The Joy Of Early Christianity book.
Disagree with kindness — be your brain’s bouncer
Even when people disagree with you, you can still celebrate that they were created in God’s image. To exchange compassion, collaboration, and cooperation for name calling, is to create unnecessary conflict and cast away common sense.
Concern and compassion are more persuasive than arguments and put downs. Try it and see. The quality of your conversation reveals the quality of your life.
Kind words confuse hostile people. (Try it & see.)
Be your brain’s bouncer. Begin to boot out beguiling and belligerent brainwaves. To be great, we need to step away from hate.
Our feelings and thoughts are frequently false. To identify yourself by your feelings and your own thinking is often misleading. It’s better to find and face the facts.
Leaders in a great nation don’t call people “deplorable” or “human scum,” like American leaders have done. We need leaders with the courage to be kind to those who disagree with them.
For a handbook on kindness, search for: Off the RACE Track–From Color-Blind to Color-Kind. Thank you.
October 20, 2019
A song says, “If drinkin’ don’t kill me . . .” (It’s better to be UGI.)
Drinkin’ can temporarily loosen you up and distract you from your problems, but, but it can’t give you a continually happy heart. Bud Light can’t compare to God’s Light!
Many people believe that alcohol frees them up to relax and have fun, but it fades in comparison to the glorious joy of the Lord! When society believes getting drunk is more fun and exciting than experiencing Christ, church has failed to demonstrate God’s joy.
I love living UGI (under God’s influence). There’s nothing else like it! The Holy Spirit is “new wine” and inner “rivers of living water,” not “religious services.”
Too many Christians want a weekly talking tour of God’s new wine winery, but don’t even want a single taste of His new wine. They want a sermon to tickle their mind, not Christ’s presence to intoxicate their heart.
If you’ve ever seen someone drunk on Jesus alone, you’ve seen the joy of the Lord. “These men are not drunk as you suppose.” Making room for Christ to live in you and intoxicate you, will change you from hardhearted to happy-hearted.
There are influences to do right (conscience, God) and influences to do wrong (temptation, selfish desire). What influences you? When people are under the influence of God, they live and act like Jesus.
Being in(toxic)ated with negativity quelches the quality of your life. People who have lost their hope are under the influence of lies.
We’re all under the influence of various things. Are your influences leading you to joy? Search: The Joy Of Early Christianity book.
It’s one thing to hear about Jesus. It’s far different to continually experience Him. Why settle for the first and miss out on the second?
Moments pile up, leaving mounds of memories in your mind that mold your mental health. Spiritual intoxication will make the most of your moments.
Dead or alive? A dead Jesus needs programming, but the living, resurrected Jesus needs no program to lead a worship gathering. If there’s anything in the world that doesn’t need to be programmed, it’s a group of people meeting with the risen Jesus. They should flow like a party under Christ’s influence.
If we really believe that Jesus is alive, why don’t Christians meet around Him, instead of meeting around a sermon about Him? Why don’t we get drunk on Him? When Christians meet to surrender to Jesus’ influence and freely enjoy His presence, the kingdom of God begins to manifest in their midst.
There are much more effective ways to get excitement than drinkin’.
Search: The Joy Of Early Christianity and get a happy heart.
[image error]Bud Light can’t compare with God’s Light!
Immature language (unadult language) & politics
Inflammatory, insulting and vulgar words aren’t “adult language.” “Mature language” is kind, caring, helpful, and respectfully honest.
Fighting insults with insults only increases hostility. Inflammatory rhetoric lacks wisdom.
Words matter. Yours can hurt, harm, and/or harass, while hyping hostility, or they can heal. Think before you talk, text, or tweet.
It’s one thing to rate someone’s performance. It’s another thing to berate them. American politics is way over the line. Dehumanizing political opponents isn’t a tactic that is conducive to democracy.
Here’s some adult language “repentance.” To repent is to recall your sins, to apologize from the heart, to make amends, and to get things right with God and others.
You can’t undo what you’ve done, but you can experience forgiveness. You can humbly apologize and do your best to make things right.
Until your heart changes, your behaviors will remain the same. If you humbly open your heart to Jesus, He will heal and make it new. There is a way to have an encouraging new day, a new beginning that doesn’t just repeat another yesterday. “I am the Way.” -Jesus
You don’t have to heal, overcome, and rebuild yourself with no guide and no instruction book. Follow the living Jesus and the Bible. Let Jesus, the Light of the World, flood your heart and make it shine! A heart reconstructed
by Jesus resurrects into the mature language of joy, peace, and love.
Christians used to sing: “My hope is built on nothing less than Jesus’ blood and righteousness.” Now they trust in and insult people about politics.
October 19, 2019
Breath-blessed
Gusting into your lungs
Time and time again,
Seldom even noticed
And never fully appreciated.
