Steve Simms's Blog, page 246
July 26, 2019
Jesus ain’t no metaphor
Christ is not a metaphor to illustrate spiritual truth. He’s the door to reality. Enter in!
Jesus isn’t just an example of how to live, or a sample of what Heaven’s like. He’s more than ample to live in and through you now! Wow!
Jesus is your inner teacher. Are you accepting His insights and completing His assignments every day? Reaching for God through reasoning results in self-righteousness.
Responding to God with humble repentance releases revelation. Perhaps Christianity that doesn’t produce a supernatural lifestyle of Christ-likeness is a misnomer. Full-heart surrender to Jesus will bring you so much closer to God than all the sermons you can ever hear.
Testimonies about Jesus have much more power than testimonies about political investigations. Tell what He’s done in your life!
When Christ is outside of you, He’s a theory. When you let Him freely live inside you, He’s a generator, electrifying your life!
Identity? When you personally encounter the risen Jesus, the question, “Who am I?” becomes meaningless.
It’s easy to think you are a good person until you actually try to be good 100% of the time. Then the not-so-good rises up. All people are a mixture of good and bad, including, your heroes, your enemies, and you.
Why would you want to love your enemies? You wouldn’t! That’s why it takes so much courage and strength to obey Jesus and do it.
Your mind can be a torrent of torment or a source of serenity. Program it well.
July 24, 2019
Kindness vs. approval
I won’t approve of behaviors I believe are wrong, but I will strive to be kind to everyone. To publicly approve of behaviors that you sincerely believe are morally wrong is to be hypocritical.
Kindness isn’t approval of people’s beliefs or behaviors. It’s respect for their humanity. If we won’t see and respect the image of God in people who disagree with us and/or disapprove of our behavior, we won’t treat them very well.
When people open their hearts to one another and experience the common ground of their shared humanity, kindness becomes automatic. Their focus on disagreement fade away. Time spent finding common ground and working together toward worthy goals is more productive than time spent disagreeing.
The Bible says that love is kind. It never says that love is approving. The less we focus on the risen Jesus, the less power we have to show heart-felt love to those who disagree with us.
Kindness is part of the fruit of the Holy Spirit. Therefore unkindness isn’t.
Jesus is the “author and finisher of our faith.” Try not to let your desire to be approving, take the keypad out of His hands. God’s love inspires people to love and obey God, not to do our own thing. Christ-followers:
Don’t let contemporary culture coerce your conscience into compromising your commitment to obey Christ. When Christ-followers listen to and obey the risen Jesus, with no regard for self-interest, protocol, or tradition, God’s reality becomes clear. When you learn how to be “carried along by the Holy Spirit,” you will never be the same. (2 Peter 1:21 NIV)
July 22, 2019
If Christianity was about political power, Jesus would have made Rome great again.
If Christianity was about political power, Jesus would have made Rome great again.
Some people try to tell the hole truth, but it always looks like a doughnut. If you’re too uptight to be polite, you’re too uptight.
Ticks can spread lyme disease. Politics can spread I’m-right-let’s-fight disease.
America’s greatness lies in its political diversity, not in one-party rule. If humble enough to listen with our heart, we can learn more from people who are different from us than those like us.
Anybody can insult people they disagree with, but it takes great courage to show them love and kindness instead.
Anger darkens the heart. Love lightens its load.
Get a head start. Let Jesus set up Heaven in your heart while you live.
Sermons are like: Tell me and I forget. Tell me and I forget. Tell me and I forget . . . Church over-emphasizes sermon-hearing but seems to ignore “Christ in you, the hope of glory.”
Sermons can help you imagine what Christ is like, but a relationship with Him lets you continually experience His reality. I can do so much more than “only imagine.” I can experience Christ’s presence and life-changing power through out the day!
All being “fed” the Bible and no learning to freely flow with the Holy Spirit can make Christianity a mere mental experience. Don’t “go back” to Christ in the past and make Him an intellectual topic or just hope to wait and see Him in Heaven. Experience Jesus now!
Christ-followers, like fire hydrants, don’t need lectures. They need to be opened up and allowed to freely flow with living water. An open, freely flowing fire hydrant is very seldom seen. They are usually shut down. Perhaps it’s the same for Christians.
Jesus told His disciples, “I am with you always,” not, “You will hear sermons about Me always.” Being “fed” by a sermon is like being “fed” by a lecture about food. We have to go beyond hearing to partaking & experiencing.
Too many Christians, like a car with no engine, have to be towed in their faith by a pastor or priest. However, Jesus is so much more exciting than any sermon about Him can ever be!
Humans aren’t built for guilt. It makes the heart wilt. The way out of your guilt is Christ’s forgiveness. Excusing your wrong behaviors won’t relieve your guilt, but receiving Jesus’ forgiveness & living in His power will.
Human effort toward self-improvement is like using hand tools. Christ in you is like using power tools.
Get a head start. Let Jesus set up Heaven in your heart while you live. Jesus is my innergizer!
Go back to your conscience . . .
Maybe we should all “go back” to our conscience, our compassion, and our civility. Before you pounce on someone’s post and denounce them as a foe, try an ounce of kindness. Social media is often like keyboard kickboxing without rules or referee.
If politics is about imposing your party’s will on others, rather than working together to govern, it leads to authoritarianism or chaos.
If you are unkind to people you shouldn’t be surprised that they are unkind back to you. Break the cycle of unkindness. Be kind to those who disagree with you.
Motives are important. Meanness is motivated by fear, apathy by self-focus, kindness and compassion by conscience.
Conscience is our internal navigational app. To ignore it is to wander in confusion.
I appreciate people who speak out when they believe injustice is being done. It takes courage to speak up for others. Will you?
Getting the energy of God’s alternative perspectives
Christians are called to see culture, politics, race, and ethnicity through the mind and humility of Christ, not the opposite. When Christians are mean, it makes people think we don’t really mean what we say about love.
To be the best I can be, I need less of me and more of Jesus. He is an alternative energy source of the supernatural kind. Open your heart and life to the living Jesus and hold on! It’s best not to wait till you’re dead to meet the living Jesus.
The Holy Spirit disagrees with many of our desires and feelings and inwardly urges us to live contrary to them. You can’t live in and walk by the Holy Spirit if you insist on doing what you want to do.
To disobey God is to pretend that you know more than He does. Self-identity is based on self-focus. However, Christ said to “deny yourself, take up your cross, and follow Me.” I love staying on line with and staying connected to Jesus through out the day!
The Bible says “resist the devil,” but Christians too often resist the Holy Spirit. To be Spirit-led is to do what the Spirit says do, say what the Spirit says say, and go where the Spirit says go.
If Jesus is truly alive and present, Christ-followers should demonstrate His presence, power, and love — for all to see. Do you? “Love your enemies,” is a command for Christians, not a suggestion.
July 15, 2019
Jesus’ inner energy changes perspectives
Of inner energy
Entered me
When Jesus
Entered my heart.
Delight & felicity
Aren't found through folly
But forged by faith.
Jesus can make
Joy the norm
In your life.
Even in a storm.
How can church members be of one heart and one mind, if they only hear from one preacher and not from one another? We don’t need somebody to continually tell us about Jesus. Instead we need to continually experience Him for ourselves.
If we’re not growing closer to Jesus and becoming more like Him, then we aren’t following Jesus. I find amazing joy in reading the Bible and being in awe of the truths it shows me as it connects with my heart.
When people experience and testify about Jesus, they get far more excited about Him than if they just hear a talk about Jesus. Wealth, entertainment, sex, intoxication, power, fame — these aren’t the way to lasting joy and contentment. Jesus is the way.
July 14, 2019
Training to follow God’s navigational app
People train for sports and train for war, but where are those who train to hear and follow the risen Jesus? Jesus is the way. We need to train to follow Him like we follow a navigation app.
When we make Christianity academic and clerical, it becomes archaic, anemic, and less authentic. Biblical Christianity is a heart matter and a Spirit-led lifestyle, not a head trip.
To make disciples is to train people to passionately follow and obey the living Jesus. All hearing and no application (doing of the Word) makes a church service a spectator event instead of disciple making relationships.
Reading the Bible is powerful. Just be sure you go to God’s app store and download the applications. Be a doer of the Word, not just a reader or hearer.
If you receive a love letter, you probably don’t want an expert to lecture you about what it means. The Bible’s your love letter. Savor it in your heart! Apply it in your life. Follow it like an app.
The Bible says that Christians are called “to live in the grace of Christ.” Gal. 1:6 (Not just use grace as a ticket to Heaven.)
Be conscious of Jesus / have Jesus in your conscience!
You are doing
Life without a soul,
Let Jesus
Make you whole.
The goal of your conscience isn’t to make you feel guilty, but to heal your soul. When you color outside your conscience the lions of guilt roar in your soul. Even if you quiet them they still silently devour your inner peace. Cruelty doesn’t become acceptable because it’s done prenatally or to people you’ve been taught to look down on.
Christ-followers are called to be led by the Holy Spirit working in their conscience, not by their desires, feelings, opinions, fears, culture, or traditions. As long as Christians do our own thing instead of surrendering fully to Christ’s will, we will continue to be divisive and divided.
Those who passionately love and surrender to the risen Jesus connect heart-to-heart at a level that transcends race and politics.
Compromised Christianity is a composite of God’s truth mixed with society’s falsehoods and a self-focused lifestyle. Christ is like the sea. Do you hear about the sea, sit by the seaside, or swim in the sea?
Jesus leads a world-wide theocracy — the body of Christ
Too many sermons tell people what they want to hear, instead of telling them what they need to hear. As churches go further into entertainment and error, it’s vital for Christ-followers to surrender to the Spirit and stay in the Bible.
People learn better by effort than by words, by application than by lecture. Too often, church requires neither effort or application. Most churches seem to think that only one person in the congregation is smart or spiritual enough to speak on Sunday morning.
Religious hierarchy tends to restrict direct access to the risen Jesus by requiring people to follow a chain of command. Churches are religious organizations run by people. The body of Christ (ekklesia) is a spiritual organism, led directly by the living Jesus.
The body of Christ is a theocracy, with Jesus as the Head, living in and directing each of His followers. It’s not a hierarchy. Religious hierarchy breaks down when people learn to follow the direct leading of the Holy Spirit and the words of Scripture. God wants the supernatural gifts of the Spirit to flow thorough all Christ-followers so that we can minister to one another.
The brighter the Light of Christ is allowed to shine in a body of believers, the less they feel a need for hierarchy. If we can avoid the hierarchal aspects of church and its top down agenda, the Holy Spirit will have much more freedom.
Jesus warned of many false prophets. Stay close to the Holy Spirit and Scripture to avoid being influenced by them. The Bible talks about those who “have tasted the heavenly gift.” Have you?
