Steve Simms's Blog, page 254

Drano, Liquid Plummer, & clogged up church

Christian leaders should be like plumbers, unclogging people’s drains so they can freely flow with the gifts of the Spirit. Jesus said that His “Liquid Plummer” (“rivers of living water”) will flow from His followers’ hearts. Take the top off and let it flow!

When church is clogged and little flows, let Jesus pour out His Drano. (He will open things up!) I don’t like to meet as an audience member for a religious lecture, but as part of the interactive, Spirit-led body of Christ.

A sermon that allows no opportunity in the meeting for people to spend time doing what they just heard, creates hearers not doers. Hearing a sermon without taking corresponding action is a spiritual distraction.

When the voices of God’s people are silenced in church, only one person’s perspective is heard. Nonetheless, members of Christ’s body are typically gagged and bound by tradition, protocol, and hierarchy — kept silent and inactive. It’s easy to listen regularly to sermons but ignore the voice of the resurrected Jesus.

The One Minute Easter Service

Short on time? Celebrate Easter with a quick, one minute service.

Easter Requiem For Church As Usual

Members of Christ’s body meet,
Gagged and bound (hand and heart),
By tradition, protocol, and hierarchy.
They’re not allowed to be doers,
But are lined up in rows as hearers only,
Gathered to be restrained,
Not permitted to freely speak or act
Or openly obey their Head,
The resurrected Jesus.
Then they’re dismissed to go
And forget the words they heard.

To help church come alive, go to this link and check out my book, Beyond Church–An Invitation To Experience The Lost Word Of The Bible–Ekklesia.

Palm Sunday as it really happened (not as it’s talked about in church)

Palm Sunday wasn’t a lecture by a religious professional but rather spontaneous declarations of praise by everyday people. It was everyday people celebrating the presence of the living Jesus, not a religious talk about Jesus in the past.

Palm Sunday is about ordinary people shouting, “Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord!” Don’t settle for a lecture. If there’s ever a Sunday when church should break out of the 1-man lecture format and everyone celebrate Jesus, it’s Palm Sunday!

Crowds of people were spontaneously celebrating Jesus in the open air on Palm Sunday, instead of being in church (or synagogue). Perhaps, on present day Palm Sunday, we should allow the living Jesus to make a triumphal entry into church while ordinary people to celebrate Him! After all, it wasn’t a church service but, ordinary people spontaneously responding to Jesus’ presence.

Palm trees lift the human spirit. It was so appropriate to use them to worship the living Jesus! Palm Sunday proclaims the supremacy of Jesus Christ and the equality of all humanity! Let’s live out Palm Sunday everyday!

Some Simmering Simmsisms

When wrong is called right and right is called wrong, moral confusion soon comes along. Don’t let your life be directed by happenstance, but by a holy stance!

Much of what we experience and how we feel today will be the consequences of our past thoughts, words, and behaviors. If you don’t like how you feel change the thoughts, words, and images you are filling yourself with. To feel good fill up with good!

Some people think gratitude is a mere platitude. In reality, it’s a life-changing attitude.

Since our ways and God’s ways contradict (Isaiah 55:8), how can we follow our plans and programs and be Spirit-led at the same time? God is always looking for full-time Christ-followers — 24/7/365! Following Jesus — letting Him correct you & lead you, even in ways you don’t want to go — is an incredible adventure!

Politics can change laws and attempt to enforce them, but can’t change hearts and minds. That takes Christ’s presence and power.

If race is based on skin appearance, shouldn’t tattooed be a race? It’s hard to mistreat people when you know their heart. Open hearts produce kindness and compassion.

Equal rights must include the right of conscience. No one should be required to approve of behaviors they believe morally wrong.

To disagree with other people is your right. To mistreat others is to broadcast your own insecurities. There is no justifiable reason to mistreat people. Jesus said to even “love your enemies.”

Inspiration will change a nation. So will degradation. All change isn’t equal.

A strong desire, craving, or compulsion to do something, doesn’t make it morally right. Here’s a mind-bender: When we surrender to God as our defender, life will render peace and joy!

Birthed people should respect prebirthed people. To mistreat any human life is to disrespect it all.

For too many people their only exposure to the Word of God is through the filter of a preacher. Filtered water is good; a filtered Bible, not so good. Read it for yourself! Christians don’t need celebrity experts to explain the Bible and God’s Spirit. We need to listen directly to the Bible and the Spirit.

Church is too often like a theme park train. It goes in a circle and lets you off the same place you got on. When the members of the body of Christ are quenched & confined to sit passively for a program, the Spirit is quenched.

Rethinking freedom — what is it?

Freedom includes the right to disagree with people’s ideas, statements, choices, and lifestyles. However, it doesn’t give us a right to mistreat people.

When how things are described becomes more important than how things really are, deception sets in. None of us humans is 100% correct in all of our opinions and beliefs. Unless we find and admit our errors, we’re stuck in deception.

To make a mistake, admit it, and move on is freeing and healing. To define yourself by a mistake is devastating. Choose repentance, healing, and freedom. We can run and get free from compulsive desires or we can sit in them until they enslave us. Paul of Tarsus said we should “flee” them for freedom.

Defining reality by your following your feelings is denial. Aligning your feelings with reality is truth and freedom.

Being mad at people because they don’t agree with you is like being mad at the sun because it doesn’t rise on your schedule. It’s bondage to self-focus.

Many times the Bible says, “This is what the Lord says.” (NIV) Perhaps we should take it seriously! The God of love doesn’t approve of all of our behaviors. He calls us to realign some of them with His will.

Fruity rivers of living water (an inner smoothie)

The fruit of the Spirit (love, joy, etc.) can’t be taught by sermons, but will spontaneously flow from a heart aglow with Christ. Church can confine us with strings of outward obligation. Christ want to free us to flow with inner springs of living water. To follow Christ is to be directed and led by His inner promptings — not just to say that you agree with His teaching

To be compassionately listened to as you share what’s on your heart is healing. Open, Spirit-led sharing in church releases revival. When the gathered body of Christ does the preaching as individual members are prompted by the Spirit, Christ’s presence is manifested.

God wants to release an anointed flow inside of all Christ-followers (rivers of living water), but we’ve been trained to stop it. To replace Spirit-led spontaneity with religious formalism quenches the Holy Spirit and produces a form of godliness without power.

Christians say, “Jesus is risen,” but we often meet like He went back in the tomb and left us to follow a program and a preacher. Roman soldiers sealed Christ’s tomb trying to keep the dead Jesus in. Let’s not seal up church services to keep the risen Jesus out. We can go along with feelings, friends, media, opinions, tradition, and/or culture, or we can let Jesus lead us. Seldom both.

The ultimate death penalty?

Racism is wrong. So is prenatalism. Humanity shouldn’t be mistreated because of skin color or because of living in a womb.

Judge not? Perhaps the epitome of judging is to judge the most innocent form of human life unworthy of living.

Abortion is the ultimate death penalty. It takes 100% of life, not just part of it.

Prenatal execution is cruel and unusual punishment, ripping the condemned into tiny pieces. To kill a developing human being in the name of “reproductive rights” seems brutal and unloving.

The prenatal death penalty doesn’t deter crime. It is arbitrary and unfair. Its victims have done nothing wrong. Abortion treats a developing human life as an object to be disrespected and discarded.

The prenatal “crime” worthy of the death penalty is the “inconvenience” of her or his existence. Prenatal capital punishment guarantees that the innocent are put to death. The “right to abortion” puts the prenatal death penalty in the express lane — no cause or reason needed.

Birth is the magic moment when murder becomes illegal in the United States. However, before that the goal of scorched earth womb warfare is to allow no survivors. It’s almost 100% effective. It’s an oxymoron that seems obstructive to justice — to call the destructive killing of the unborn a “reproductive right.”

Can a sermon be a Sunday morning religious lullaby?

Church is like a religious lullaby, too often putting Christians to sleep. Attending church requires nothing but passivity. That doesn’t sound like a great plan for Christian spiritual growth.

Church services say to people; “We don’t need your input, just be a passive spectator and let the preacher do the rest.” Long or short, sermons often make people feel like they don’t really belong in church, because their insights and gifts are deemed to be totally unnecessary to the message and/or the meeting.

Three questions to shake up a church out of a rut: 1) In this age of lateral learning (learning from your peers), how long will church make people sit passively and silently listen? 2) If Christ has given spiritual gifts to all His people, why does church limit them to listening to a preacher every week? 3) Is it possible that the traditional one-man lecture church format has held Christians back from becoming all God wants us to be?

Just because a preacher has thousands of followers, it doesn’t mean that he is leading them in the right direction. Even if he only has a hand-full of followers, he may be holding them back from what God wants them to be.

Can love & ethics go together?

Having strong moral character used to be appreciated and called integrity. Now it’s often condemned and called intolerance and judgment. Ethics is about doing the right thing, not about doing whatever you want to and then calling it the right thing.

Everybody draws a line (or builds a wall) somewhere. Nobody accepts and approves every idea or behavior. Discernment is important. People without moral character will do whatever they want if they think they can avoid negative consequences.

You don’t need a textbook to understand ethics. Although frequently ignored, ethics are written on the human heart — conscience. When feelings overpower ethics, morality, and conscience, then society is in trouble.

Violating your conscience is not a human right. That’s a human wrong! (The freedom to obey your conscience is a human right.) Few people claim to be unethical or immoral. Most of us claim that whatever we do is either right or justifiable. (Is it really?)

People who want your approval often say, “Don’t judge me,” forgetting that “judging” is to either approve or disapprove. To judge is “to form an opinion about someone or something.” The only way not to judge is to keep your mind totally blank.

When wrong is called right, then ethics, morality, character, integrity, honesty, and honor are all standing on their head. Strong moral character is doing the right thing even when society is approving, applauding, and advocating wrong behavior.

If you demand that people never criticize you, you’ll miss some very helpful feedback that could improve your life. People have the right to like or dislike your behavior, but nobody has the right to be mean to you.

Life will be so much more enjoyable if you find reasons to like people instead of finding reasons to dislike them. Everyone has been hurt by people and blessed by people. Often it’s the same people. Focus on the best, not the worst.

See people you don’t like as an exciting challenge — a challenge to discover and bring out their hidden, likeable characteristics. To be afraid and/or unwilling to connect with people heart-to-heart, is too miss out on an amazing aspect of life. All people are a mixture of positive and negative motive and character. “Good people” and “bad people” are a myth

Too often we freely give people suspicion and rejection, but we make them earn our kindness. Shouldn’t it be the opposite? In this time of incivility, anger, and hostility, we need to listen to one another with God’s compassion. We can be kind without betraying our ethics.

When I’m not being intentionally kind, I can easily be unintentionally unkind. Kindness is so much better, it’s worth focusing on. “Hurt people, hurt people.” Hurting people need compassion, not rejection or retaliation. Stop the hurt-cycle with kindness. When kindness is killed, character is stolen, and conscience is numbed, evil begins to pull society’s strings.

Every human was made in God’s image (even if they don’t act like it). To disrespect people is to disrespect God. People look and act in many different ways, but, if you take the time, you can find something to like in every one of them.

God loves us just the way we are. His love calls us to align our will, behavior, and opinions to His. God’s love is so strong that it breaks His heart when the people He loves refuse to follow and obey Him.

It’s not unloving to believe that there are right and wrong desires. It’s unloving to teach people that all their desires are good. Love is not unconditional acceptance of and/or approval of people’s behavior. That’s craziness, not love. Christ didn’t come to offer His approval of the world’s lifestyles, but His alternative to them. To accept, approve of, applaud, and/or advocate wrong doing is wrong.

Words and images impact your feelings. To feel good, avoid the ones that are evil, angry and/or depressing.