Steve Simms's Blog, page 253

What is/was “identity politics”?

“Identity politics” can be defined as putting a political focus on minority groups. That focus first began in America 400 years ago when Africans were brought to Jamestown, Virginia in 1619, identified as inferior, and then enslaved. Then European Americans began to pass more and more laws that focused more and more on oppressing blacks. Today the real “identity politics” is the focus on silence about the terrible injustice of America’s history of white supremacy..

“Identity politics” is even written in the American Constitution where “other persons” (meaning enslaved blacks) are labeled as inferior in “the 3/5 Clause.” Another example is the Supreme Court’s “separate but equal” ruling in 1896 which was violently enforced until the 1970s.

Labeling the call for full equality as “identity politics” ignores 350 years of blatant white supremacy in America. Meanwhile, celebrating our past culture that subjugated people through cruelty and brutality seems unkind, unjust, and unloving. Perhaps we should go beyond both those positions and work for true and full equality among all Americans.

For a nation to proclaim “We hold these truths to be self-evident: That all men are created equal; that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights;” while legally trafficking men, women, and children was an amazing contradiction. Worshipping God while disrespecting people is hypocrisy.

Many are afraid to read black history because it exposes America’s legacy of human trafficking, terrorism, and white supremacy. The traditional way of thinking about race hasn’t healed America’s wounds. Find a fresh way to think about race in my book: Off the RACE Track–From Color Blind to Color Kind @
https://amzn.to/2XRLmgE.

If churches will talk about the Protestant Reformation (500 years ago), why not talk about American slavery (154 years ago)? My book can help you “speak the truth in love.”

Pastor at the wheel or all auto parts working together?

Church? The pastor at the wheel or all the auto parts working together to follow the Spirit? When Christianity is dry and boring, that’s the brakes. Let’s take the brakes off of Jesus. We park our cars in the church parking lot and too often park our bodies and minds to passively sit in the church sanctuary.

When pastors use human control, they unintentionally shut down Jesus’ cruise control. It’s time to release the church’s parking brakes and train all Christ-followers to cruise with the risen Jesus. When church steps off the spiritual brakes, Christians will be in for the ride of their lives!

To brake the Holy Spirit is to break connection with the flowing of the power and presence of the living Jesus. When we brake the Holy Spirit, we break God’s heart. (Quench not the Spirit.) You will experience an amazing breakthrough in your life when you’re finally through braking the Holy Spirit.

A use-your-gifts-sermon that allows no time for hands-on training in using spiritual gifts, doesn’t help people use their gifts. Preaching “use your gifts” frustrates people if it doesn’t include a spiritual-gifts-gathering for practicing their gifts. Christianity needs Spiritual-Gifts-Gatherings (SGGs) when believers meet to use their gifts to mutually minister to one another.

An open mic in church seems like it would give the Holy Spirit much more freedom than the traditional one-man mic controller does. Just because sermons are traditional, doesn’t mean that they are God’s design for Christian worship. (See 1 Corinthians 14:26.) I don’t think God ever intended for a pastor to be His celebrity spokesperson to a local congregation. The Old Testament priestly hierarchy was replaced by the 50+ New Testament one another commands.

When we let the Holy Spirit brake us and break our rebellion against obeying God, joy will break out in our heart. Let go and let God turn on Jesus’ cruise control in your life. God’s power steering is reappearing. People are learning that a self-driven life is far less powerful than a Christ-driven life.

Perhaps a pastor should be a spiritual coach, serving people as they grow and not a one-person show. Let the Spirit be unrestrained, freely leading God’s people, flowing from each of them like rivers of living water.

Christian congregations are full of biblical insights, testimonies, and God’s wisdom. Why make God’s people an audience? When attending church distracts people from personally attending to the Holy Spirit’s direct leadership, it misfunctions.

Whoever sets the agenda is in charge. Should a person set the agenda for a church or should the risen Jesus? I love to see people spontaneously expressing their love for Jesus without following a script or church program.

For more: search for my book: Beyond Church: An Invitation To Experience The Lost Word of the Bible–Ekklesia.

A repentant heart follows conscience, not whims

People who follow and obey the living Jesus experience ongoing, personal and spiritual growth in Christ-likeness. Christianity that fails to produce Christ-like character and behavior in its adherents falls far short of biblical Christianity.

Where there is no Holy Spirit released heart flow, Christianity becomes more words. Trying to be a Christian without the Holy Spirit is like trying to wash your hands under a faucet with no water. (2 Timothy 3:5.) To experience the healing power of tenderness, let the Spirit’s compassion flow from deep within your heart.

Close your heart to wrongful thoughts, desires, and feelings, but open it to tenderness, compassion, and honesty. Guard your heart like a sentry, only accepting words and images that make you better not bitter. People who ignore their conscience are like a pilot who ignores ground control and cabin instruments.

Jesus said, “Repent.” He didn’t say, “Because of grace there’s no need to repent.” Jesus didn’t speak much against political leaders, but He spoke very strongly against religious leaders. (Today it’s backwards.) Focus on political opinions divides Christians; focus on faithfully loving and following the living, resurrected Jesus, unites them.

Love doesn’t demand approval or condemn disapproval. Love respects people’s freedom of conscience and their right to disagree.

The country gone to town as Nashville hosts the 2019 NFL Draft

More than 150,000 people packed lower Broadway in Nashville for the first round of the 2019 NFL Draft. Some of the country songs riding the charts at the time seem to define the Nashville Draft:

“Eyes On You” by Chase Rice, “On My Way To You” by Cody Johnson, “I Don’t Know About You” by Chris Lane, “Thought About You” by Tim McGraw, “Closer To You” by Carly Pearce “Love You Too Late” by Cole Swindle, “Keeping Score” by Dan + Shay featuring Kelly Clarkson, “Look What God Gave Her” by Thomas Rhett, (for the women owners)“Make It Sweet” by Old Dominion, “Talk You Out Of It” by Florida Georgia Line, ” and “Feels Like A Party” by LOCAS

The Nashville Draft also inspired me to write these thoughts:

What church can learn from the NFL Draft in Nashville: You can draw a crowd without letting one man hog the mic!

I love seeing so many players and their families praising God for their dreams coming true!

NFL teams draft for a sport; NFL fans for fantasy. But life’s most important picks are those that make a better you!

The draft grades for your choices in life will be clearly communicated in the consequences they create.

God makes everyone a first round pick, but many people refuse to hear His choice, go to the podium, and face the crowd in His name.

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Greatness? What is greatness?

To hate and berate is not the way to be great. True greatness flows from integrity, kindness, and compassion. It isn’t made out of power, coercion, or dominance.

Greatness is the ability to disagree with someone, but still love, inspire, and be kind to them. Greatness does not outrank other people. It out serves them.

Both greatness and corruption are in every human heart. Dare to find, expose, and cultivate people’s greatness. Greatness is a way of living that permeates every aspect of a person’s life; it’s not a mirage of marketing or popularity.

Make some greatness today. Serve somebody. Then do it again and again. “The greatest among you will be your servant.” If there’s no greatness in the way people treat other people, then titles, accomplishments, or admiration can’t make them great.

To be great is not to bask in the celebrity of a loyal fan base, but to live with love, honesty, and respect for others. To admire and promote yourself is pride. To live so as to inspire the admiration of people of integrity and goodwill is greatness!

Great power and great accomplishment without great character is great illusion.

Thoughts beyond the “laity” lie

It’s hard to understand other people’s perspective when we have callouses on our heart. Open, caring interaction and sharing in a gathering of Christ-followers is spiritually revolutionary, but formal religion avoids it.

Laity is a lie. There is no laity. Christians are a “royal priesthood” (all clergy).
Jesus said “shout it from the housetops.” Church says it’s better to “silently hear it while sitting through Sunday sermons.”

People’s character is as important as their beliefs. Integrity matters. It’s dangerous to support bad character. Your faith might be a mirage if you’re not growing closer and more obedient to the risen Jesus. If anything causes you to stumble in your relationship with Jesus quickly get away from it. (Matthew 18:6-9.)

To gag Christians and require their silence in church is to train them to be silent about their faith when church is over. Jesus warned His disciples to “be on your guard against” the teaching of religious leaders. (Matthew 16:11-12.)
Jesus said: “If your brother or sister sins, go and point out their fault (according to the process in Matthew 18:15-17).”

People’s character is as important as their beliefs. Integrity matters. It’s dangerous to support bad character.

Alive or Dead? Christ’s presence or religious programs?

Alive or dead? If Jesus is really alive, let’s gather in His presence and let Him take control! Experiencing consciousness you don’t need proof YOU’RE CONSCIOUS and experiencing Jesus, you don’t need proof HE’S ALIVE. It’s time for church to go beyond sermonized “proof texts” to letting people actually experience Jesus!

When church entombs Jesus in a Sunday program, it looks like Christians aren’t convinced He’s alive. The risen Jesus doesn’t belong in a programmed religious tomb. It’s time for church to let Him come out and show Himself!
The religious Pharisees and Sadducees wanted the living Jesus silenced and entombed. Let’s not follow their example.

When the risen Jesus was with His first disciples, they didn’t follow a church program. Why should we? To follow a church program when Jesus is with us seems like a denial of His presence and resurrection!

The risen Jesus will disrupt our church programs, if we let Him out of our formalized and traditional religious tombs. The first Easter freaked everybody out! That’s what the risen Jesus will do again if we go beyond the religiously sealed tomb of programmed church meetings. The first Easter was freak-out day. Modern Easter is dress-up and look cool day.

Before Pilate people yelled, “Crucify Him!” Today church seems satisfied to “Religify Him.” Perhaps we should “Stand by Him!” It’s a major spiritual distraction to substitute services & programs for the supernatural presence of the living Jesus.

Here’s a church program for a risen and present Jesus: 1) Gather; 2) Everyone listen to Jesus; 3) Everyone say and do what He tells them.

For me, the traditional church format seems to contradict Jesus’ resurrection by not trusting Him to personally lead it. If we can believe Jesus rose from the dead, why can’t we believe He can lead a church service without a human program and emcee?

Church pays one man to say that Jesus rose, instead of letting the people who’ve experienced Him share what He’s done in their lives. Supernatural encounters with Jesus are far more common than most people realize because church seldom lets people share them.

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Being polite is easy, inexpensive, and makes people feel good. Try it today. Thank you.

Bold ideas can be communicated in a polite way. Here are two samples.

“Sitting under the ministry” of a man (or woman) when you could be ministering yourself seems to be misplaced priority.

Church tells people that attending to receive ministry is more important than learning to do ministry.

Keep your heart “Open For (Spiritual) Business”

When you open up your heart, love rushes in open flushes out anger, bitterness, guilt and the hurtful things that enslave you. Open-hearted love doesn’t mean unconditional approval. An open heart can deeply care about people while strongly disagreeing with them.

Your heart is a terrible thing to shut down. (Be courageous and keep it open.)
It’s hard to be happy when your heart is closed down.

Faithful Christ-followers connect heart-to-heart, even with Christ-followers from people-groups they’ve been taught to reject. Open hearts connect. Closed hearts collide and shut out caring, empathy, and compassion.

To try to be a Christian with your heart closed to certain people-groups is like trying to see with your eyes closed. To put walls in your heart is to build a foundation for loneliness.

To open your heart to beautiful healing try this: Sincerely confess your own wrongdoing and forgive those who have wronged you.

Some people have a huge sign, hanging on their body language, reading: “MY HEART IS CLOSED!”

Without inner light, a darkened heart creates discouragement and depression. Jesus said that God is unseen yet “sees what is done in secret.” Open your heart to the One who knows all your secrets. Church should facilitate people connecting heart-to-heart with Christ and with one another.

Entertainment isn’t innocent; it shapes us. It can uplift or it can corrupt. It can open or shut your heart. Don’t let it fill your thoughts and heart with evil!

The use of coercion and/or meanness toward others reveals a lack of faith in Christ, which involves “speaking the truth in love.” Jesus and His dynamic presence in us unites all who continually follow and obey Him, overriding the barriers between us.

If you consume media full of depressing food for your mind and heart (negativity, disrespect, violence, vulgarity) you will be opening yourself up to depression.

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