Steve Simms's Blog, page 258
February 18, 2019
American history has been so sanitized that most people think about it in a “blahzay” (blasé) way, unshocked by its horrors. (For fresh insights search: Off the RACE Track book.)
Racism is the idea that certain physical characteristics set people off from other people creating a hierarchy of human value.
February 15, 2019
Profanity is not a love language
Love language seems to be in decline. For example: Even medical care has evolved from the hands-on healing of wounds and diseases to paying a person to tell you what drugs to take.
When it comes to love language, let’s be multilingual. Here are some ways we can make the world a better place by learning to speak people’s love language:
Profanity is no one’s love language. Neither are insults, name calling, or bullying. Tormenting thoughts, lying feelings, and ungodly desires should be fought, not fondled.
Skin color (like eye color) is a physical characteristic, not a hierarchal classification. No one is inferior to me; neither am I inferior to anyone. Racial supremacy is a myth. Learn to look at people as a blessing rather than as a threat.
American history has been so sanitized that most people think about it in a “blahzay” (blasé) way, unshocked by its horrors. Check out: Off the RACE Track–From Color Blind to Color Kind.
Liberty and racial supremacy are contradictions. One eliminates the other. Racial supremacy is a destructive myth, but radical, self-sacrificing love reveals the truth that most people are hurting worse than you think they are and really need to hear their love language. The racial walls built in America from 1619 till the 1960s are not easily torn down. (But there is hope!)
Life reveals almost unlimited form and design. Accidental design is an oxymoron.
The most dangerous place for human life is between conception and birth. Prenatal care or prenatal cruelty — which is the moral choice? When ignored injustice is exposed, sensitive hearts fill with love, compassion, and desire for healing.
For some people, the spiritual tide has gone out and they have blocked God’s living water from flowing into their heart. Try not to do that!.
Religion tries to fit God into a pattern. True Christianity interacts with God’s living presence. Why settle for religion?
February 14, 2019
Pastor control can be a problem
If the people in a congregation are as important as the pastor, why aren’t they allowed to say anything? Any organization that only allows one person to address its meetings, may have a control problem.
Why is grace amazing? Because it transforms people, setting them free to hear and obey the risen Jesus! God’s too amazing to limit Him to a Sunday morning program!
How can Christians speak toward overcoming inequality in society when we maintain clergy/laity inequality in church? Hierarchy hinders equality.
For some Christians, the tide has gone out and they have blocked the living water from flowing in their heart. Try not to do that!.
Spirit-led people don’t need job titles. They do what they do because they are prompted by Christ living within them. Sermons about getting involved in church are contradicted by a religious structure that only allows the preacher to speak.
Perhaps “church-going” should mean Christians leaving the church building to love and serve others, not going to it to sit and listen.
Most people are hurting worse than you think they are and really need your kindness.
Anyone in a congregation can have a word from the Lord. Dare we let them speak it? Perhaps every Sunday could be “Jesus Appreciation Day” when people are free to openly express how much they love Him.
More than silentology
Without Christ, life is like a long desert journey — always longing for the next oasis and frequently disappointed by mirages.
Feelings are fickle guides jerking us around and leaving us with no foundation. Instead, I trust the risen Jesus and the written Word.
We are all capable of corruption. That’s why we need to closely follow the risen Christ. What you do reveals what you believe much more than what you say does.
A crisis is a call from God: “I have a better way whenever you’re willing to try it.” If you’re not in a crisis, ignoring the living Jesus Christ can help you create one.
The risen Christ doesn’t need podiums, platforms, and showmanship. He is looking for humble people who will follow and obey Him.
Modern Christians have been taught how to be a passive, Sunday audience, but not how to be daily, radical disciples.
We expect babies to eventually learn to feed themselves. Why shouldn’t we expect Christians to as well? Christians are able to hear directly from God a lot better than pastors realize. On Sunday mornings pastors try to hold an audience, instead of releasing the congregation to hear Jesus & do what He says.
When people are required to listen but not say anything in church, does that make it a “church of silentology?” The Sunday Christian audience hears the word but isn’t allowed to do it. Let’s let all the members of a congregation meet as players in God’s theater, rather than as mere audience members.
When Christians gather as equals to minister to one another and worship God, we’re all on stage before the Lord. To gather as Jesus’ audience, watching and waiting to see what Jesus will do, is a profound way for Christians to meet.
Pastors tend to treat congregations as customers rather than as equals and fellow ministers of the Gospel. Too many pastors make their congregation feel like the best thing they can do for Christ is go away and come back next Sunday. But I can’t find in the Bible the concept that one man is the leader, the teacher, or the commander of a church.
A pastor (and/or church hierarchy) is not your spiritual upline. Christ is!
Contemporary church needs an audience, but Christ is looking for active participants (disciples). Instead of “covering” Christians, pastors should be uncovering them so that their light can shine brighter than his.
Preachers tell what they’re going to say, say it, then tell what they said, but the congregation still forgets the sermon.
Valentine wasn’t a sweetie
Valentine wasn’t a sweetie! He was a courageous man who was murdered for refusing to deny his faith in the living Jesus.
Religious syrup is sticky and puts out God’s inner fire. However, daily reading the Bible with an open heart will stir up your love for God and make you courageous like St. Valentine.
True love cares enough to get to know people who are different than you and to show compassion for their struggles. When love is just a feeling, it waffles and needs syrup to sweeten it. When it’s an irrefutable commitment, love never fails. Love enough to give more than stuff.
A relationship that doesn’t result in open, honest, heart-to-heart intimacy, is falling far short of its potential. Sharing other people’s loving words on a card is nice, but expressing love with your own heart-felt words is the very best. Express your love today.
February 13, 2019
Jesus back then or Jesus now?
It’s not enough to hear talks about Jesus back then or Jesus someday. We need to experience the risen Jesus in the now! Perhaps church could roll away the cold stone of formal religion and let Jesus raise us up like He did Lazarus. (See John 11.)
A religious service is a poor substitute for the risen Savior. Church frustrates me because it’s like hearing a weekly talk about swimming but never being allowed in the pool. If we don’t know and interact with the now Jesus, can we really be a Christ-follower? Let the now Jesus wow you!
Perhaps the most effective way to present Christ is to create an environment where He’s free to manifest His power and presence.
The preaching of dry dogma leaves people parched, but interacting with the presence of the risen Jesus sets them free.
If Christians meet to experience Christ (not just to hear about Him) He shows up with power. It’s good to learn the history of Jesus, but it’s better to let His story permeate you with His very presence! It’s good to know what Jesus did in the past and is going to do in the future, but it’s bad to ignore what He’s doing right now.
The gifts of the Spirit are powerful demonstrations of what the living Jesus is doing right now. Church shouldn’t shut them down.
Using the weekly lecture format in church is like using it in dance class — ineffective. (2 Corinthians 14:26 offers an alternative.) According to Jesus’ words in the “Great Commission,” disciples aren’t preached into existence. They’re made!
To preach to people without actively walking them through the steps of applying the message, creates hearers not doers. Sermons heard, ignored, & forgotten (without any active application to real life) create hearts that are a little more hardened.
After the sermon’s been heard people are sent away without any hands-on training to help them daily do the Word. Is that absurd?
Teasing people with the Good News about the risen Jesus, but not training them how to daily experience Him, hardens their hearts.
Preach to those who haven’t heard the Word. Make disciples of those who’ve received it. All preaching and no action, interaction, or reaction can make church a disservice by making us stifle our Spirit-prompted thoughts and feelings.
Church is looking for programs. God is looking for people to freely obey His inner promptings.
The worst theology isn’t in the head. It’s living and acting like Jesus is dead. Accept no substitute for the presence of the risen Jesus living in and controlling your heart. (“Christ in you, the hope of glory.”)
Christianity was never intended to be “group think” but spiritual awakening & radical obedience to the living Jesus!
Too many Christians make going to church a substitute for daily following and obeying the living Jesus. Biblically no man can be the head of a church. Headship is Jesus’ job.
It’s called discipleship, not disciple-sit. All hands on deck. Every believer is called to follow and obey the living Jesus.
No amount of lectures about electricity will ever turn on the light. No amount of sermons will ever . . .
February 6, 2019
Finding hope in America’s racial problems
If you’re discouraged about the future, here’s hope for racial healing for America! https://engagingmissions.com/off-the-race-track-from-color-blind-to-color-kind-with-steve-simms-em250/\
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Through Christ, all walls of division have been torn down. Believers from every tribe and tongue are united by the blood of Jesus. A former Engaging Missions guest, Steve Simms, comes to talk about racial reconciliation. As ministers of reconciliation, we are called to bring healing where there has been injustice and brokenness.
Steve shares about his new book called Off the RACE Track, which helps believers know how to be color kind. He also tells stories about how he came to care about this issue. He provides lessons from his time pastoring a multiracial church.
Here’s the podcast timeline: Listen at this link.
00:24 – Episode summary01:31 – Longing to see reconciliation03:10 – What does it mean to be color kind?05:19 – Taking the first step06:43 – Finding ways to understand others08:10 – Approaching a different culture11:07 – Beginning to interact on a personal level13:45 – How did you pursue knowledge on the issues?16:04 – Grasping the history of racial division18:01 – What can we do to repair the problems?19:16 – For the pastors seeking a Revelation congregation21:50 – The many meanings of diversity23:35 – Representing every tribe and tongue26:10 – Pastoring a diverse church28:50 – Where to start31:46 – One person can change the world
February 4, 2019
Mistakes are for overcoming, not for shutting a lid on your life.
Perhaps rather than “making it to the top,” success is walking side by side in love and compassion. In a game someone has to lose, but no one loses in life unless they give up and stop trying.
How the plays are called in your life is much more important than the play-calling in the Super Bowl. Make God your play-caller!
Conforming to our desires is not transformation, but slavery — but real transformation comes through Christ. By continually conforming to guilt-producing desires, we become enslaved to outward habit and inner torment.
Some things are just too coincidental to be a coincidence. When that happens look for the hand of God. God never changes, but through Christ, He offers us grace to change and the supernatural power to live according to His will.
A Gospel that has the power to set people free & transform lives, feels no need to excuse or justify sin. Christ offers radical change — freedom from the torment and control of self-destructive desires! Christianity’s about lifestyle change — no longer living by desires, but living by the power of the Holy Spirit.
Mistakes are for overcoming. They’re not intended to shut a lid on your life.
When it comes to the Holy Spirit, always choose ALLOW
Jesus is here now (live and in person) but often church acts like He’s long gone. If you’re a Christian, don’t act like Jesus is dead. Instead let His presence continually transform and inspire you. Sometimes it feels like church takes the risen Jesus and entombs Him in protocol, formalism, and lecture. The Holy Spirit doesn’t need to be controlled or monitored in a church service by a pastor.
Sermonize me and I forget. Involve me in actively hearing and obeying the risen Jesus and I’m transformed. However, church services seem to see ordinary Christians as incapable, spiritual infants who only sit and listen to a professional preacher.
If protocol, programs, and pastors require Christians to quench the Spirit, a monotone monotony sets in. However, when the risen Jesus comes in, boredom goes out. Many people hear a weekly sermon talk, however, few let the risen Jesus direct their daily walk.
A sermon informs the mind. The living Jesus transforms the heart. Interactive participation turns information into application. Christians need to meet to listen to one another and actually do the Word together.
Church tends to lecture people about Jesus like He is dead, instead of celebrating, demonstrating, and obeying His living presence. A Christian who just attends church once a week, but doesn’t stay close to the risen Jesus, will be spiritually weak.
TED allows lots of people to give a talk. A church usually only lets one.
A meeting of the body of Christ is full of spiritual gifts and much wisdom. It seems such a waste to only let one person speak. When it comes to the Holy Spirit, always choose ALLOW.
People joke about boring sermons. I take them seriously. I believe that God wants more sharing in church than one-man sermons.
Christianity isn’t an enterprise — its an inner prize — the pearl of great price! Many people minister in their own name by putting it on “their ministry,” but shouldn’t ministry be done “in the name of Jesus”?
Christians can gather as an audience. (Church may be the only educational institution in the world that requires a lifetime of hearing weekly lectures.) They can also meet as a body of believers to minister to one another as led by the Spirit. In a “doer” church service, people are free to actually do the New Testament “one anothers,” not just be hearers only.
To make sermon-hearing the focus of Christian worship is to miss the point of the resurrection of Jesus! Church services make people “hearers only’ but the Bible says, “Let the redeemed of the Lord say so.” I want to find a doer church service where everyday people are allowed to listen to the resurrected Jesus and then do what He tells them to!
