Steve Simms's Blog, page 259

Life is improvable — humorize

Life’s improvable! Make your day better by noticing the humor around you and playfully enjoying it. Improv today. Stress, sadness, discouragement — what we have here is a failure to appreciate the humor in everyday life. Humorize!

When I’m struggling in life, I try to see funny in my circumstances. By finding something to laugh about, I feel so much better! Since there is no need to make sense of humor, you can just relax and enjoy it. 

Whenever you find a little humor in difficult circumstances you will win some joy and relief. Find some and see for yourself. Humor is the least expensive medicine. It only costs you a moment to laugh. 

It just makes common sense that life is easier with a good sense of humor. We all have craziness in our life, but if we learn to regularly have a healthy laugh at it, it won’t stress us out so much. If you won’t laugh at yourself, you may need to find someone who will.

For Black History Month 2019, get “Off the RACE Track”

For Black History Month 2019 — Get Off the RACE Track @ https://amzn.to/2BeL0YE

We like to believe that we’re hungry for the truth, but we frequently don’t like how it tastes and refuse to consume it. If history saw the victims of American slavery as fully human then slaveholders would be seen as tyrants.

Off the RACE Track takes a much-needed, out-of-the-box approach to race in America. It explores skin color as an asset to be appreciated rather than as an attempt to excuse injustice. It focuses on color-appreciation rather than on color-accusation — color-joy, not color-judgment.

By presenting a creative overview of the history of African-Americans from the first slaves trafficked to Jamestown, Virginia in 1611 until the present day, Off the RACE Track exposes many details and events involving America’s history of racial injustice. However, it does so with compassion, honesty, and hope. It also gives many practical ways to cross the color-line with love, understanding, and healing.

Off the RACE Track also gives many examples of heroic Americans who through out our history courageously spoke up for equality and boldly worked against racism — including the “Top 10 Greatest Americans of All Time based on the concept of ‘liberty and justice for all.'” Hopefully, it can help us all to get off the track of America’s racial treadmill. 

The first African-American National Commander of The Salvation Army USA says this:  “The racial divide in America is real and it is deep. Steve Simms begins his exploration of the problem with three questions. He then takes the reader on his personal journey into lives and circumstances that too few would even dare imagine going. He is intentional about finding answers–no matter the risks. But he cannot question without engaging experiences that would otherwise be unknown and thus unappreciated. This is a rare account of a man who literally takes action on his belief in the worth of others. Interested in discovering what you can do to address the problem? Then you must read Steve’s story!”  –Commissioner Israel L. Gaither, Retired National Commander, The Salvation Army, USA

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Fast food Christianity or “new wine” tasting

Church should be a “new wine” tasting. “O taste and see that the Lord is good!” The Holy Spirit releases inner “rivers of living water,” “new wine,” & “fire” — God intoxication! When you’re inspired you feel prompted to proclaim “Wow!” and tell people about it, yet church says, “Be quiet & listen.”

The purpose of preaching is to introduce people to the risen Jesus, not to make them dependent on a weekly sermon. Christ told His followers: “Go into all the world and preach the Gospel.” Churches tell Christians: “Show up for Sunday service.” When dialogue died in Christian worship meetings, monologue took over. 

Here’s an alternative definition of “replacement theology” — let the preacher do it. When church replaced Christ-led spirituality with human mentality, it exchanged relationship for religion. The mentality of ignoring Christ-prompted spirituality has paralyzed the church. “Fast food” Christianity seems to have been substituted for deeply heart-felt faith and radical discipleship.

To make Christianity about hearing a weekly talk is like making Sunday dinner about watching a weekly cooking show. To make hearing a Sunday sermon the focus of Christianity is like making med school the focus of health care.

An architect who only listens to talks about architecture will never build anything. A Christian who only listens to talks will…

Don’t make people earn your kindness

Don’t make people win your kindness. Give them a bye. Be kind to everyone.

We humans are harder to work with than Alexa and other devices. We often just don’t do what we’re told. We like to believe that we’re hungry for the truth, but we frequently don’t like how it tastes and refuse to consume it.

If you feel the need to argue, argue with the anger, insecurity, disappointment, frustration, and sin that is within your own heart.
To argue with someone who refuses to even consider your point of view is a frustrating waste of time, going nowhere. If you argue with an insulter, he/she will insult you even more.

Don’t write people off because of what they look like. They’re far more complicated than that! It’s easy to be wrong about people, to misjudge them based on a physical characteristic or on something they say or do or believe. There’s something good about every person. Sometimes it is very hard to find, but search for it anyway. 

If your logic is solid, you can be kind when you state your position to those who disagree with you. If you won’t be nice to people who disagree with you, your friends and family better watch out cause their time is coming. When you’re sharing the joy of wholesome, uplifting humor with someone, getting along is easy.

As the pinnacle of God’s creation, people need to be loved, respected, and encouraged to live in His presence. If you’re frustrated with human politics, seek the kingdom of God instead. It’s awesome! Jesus wants to lead us beyond human hierarchy and into His monarchy–the kingdom of God!

Telling the truth about lying

Truth is you might wanna watch our new Crazy Bible Stuff video about lying . . . (AND DON’T SAY YOU DID IF YOU DON’T LOL.)

Abortion, New York, & the Wall

Graphic pictures of the hidden brutality of abortion would make even a New Yorker squirmish. Perhaps prenatal killing is a tragedy to be avoided and not a “right” to be celebrated.

Some people want a wall to keep illegal aliens out of America. Others want abortion to keep their own children out. In America, killing soon-to-be-born family members is often called “family planning.”

Prenatal life in America is “at risk.” It’s dangerous to be alive and unborn in the USA. 

Historically Americans have been cruel to their own children. Many slaveholders enslaved theirs and abortion kills them. For centuries it was legal to abuse African-Americans. Now legal abuse has shifted to the unborn. (The US Supreme Court has supported both forms of human abuse.)

The victims of past American slavery and the victims of present-day abortion are dehumanized to justify their abuse. If history saw the victims of American slavery as fully human then slaveholders would be seen as tyrants, not as heroes.

To encourage and/or support the destruction of one form of human life is to devalue and disrespect all human life. Apologizing, grieving, and repenting for abortion seems much more appropriate than celebrating it.

Prenatal deaths should be mourned, not celebrated. When the right to avoid personal inconvenience is made greater than the right to life something is really wrong.

Thinking about America’s ongoing prenatal killings sometimes causes me to lose sleep. “Thumbs up, thumbs down,” to live or die–sounds more like the Roman Empire than “liberty & justice for all.”

What ever happened to the concept of “I respectfully disagree”?

Demanding that people agree with you is unreasonable and can only produce insincere compliance. Instead be kind to everyone. Anybody can insult, mock, and be unkind, but it takes amazing courage to cross color, ethnic, and political lines with ongoing love. 

Villainizing people who disagree with you is a sign of insecurity, plus it diminishes the chance of finding common ground. Why has public life in America become a “survival of the fittest” “dog eat dog” world? The news and social media are full of politicians and ordinary people who are acting like they think they are WWF wrestlers and the people who make the meanest insults are the winners. Can we Make America Kinder Again?

There are unlimited ways to be kind to people. Perhaps we all could find one today. Between the opposite extremes of fighting and faking agreement, there is “speaking the truth in love.” If we don’t love people enough to be kind to them, they won’t believe that we love them at all.

Insults hurt people. Compliments sooth their wounds. It’s much better to ease people’s pain than to cause it. Besides that, it’s so much more fun to encourage and appreciate people than it is to verbally attack them.

People are amazing carriers of the image of God. No matter what they look like or believe, they’re fun to get to know. Don’t box up your thinking and put it in storage. A boxed up mind’s a terrible mental waste.

Here’s a shocking fact: People who disagree can respect each other and find ways to work together. If people would begin to compliment the people they disagree with instead of insulting them, the world would be a better place. 

Mean words matter. Stop the public abuse of people you disagree with. Speak the truth with kindness and compassion.

Martin Luther King, Jr. trained people to demand justice without resorting to insults and disrespect. His way of love overcame much racial injustice.

Perhaps having a talk with Jesus might be more effective than just hearting a talk about Jesus. Shouldn’t people being passionately on fire for Jesus be the norm in Christian churches? Perhaps passion for Christ is more effectively caught by Christians ministering to one another than taught by a professional.

 Guilt is an internal warning system that shows you when your thoughts and/or behaviors are messed up. Whenever you feel guilty, don’t blame others. Instead look at your own life and stop doing what is causing your guilt. Don’t insult others because of your guilt.

The worst place to build a wall

The worst place to build a wall is in your heart. It’s easy to focus on arguing with people and miss seeing their creativity, their uniqueness, and their inner beauty. It’s okay to disagree with people but there is no reason to be unkind to them

The heavens declare the glory of God, but humans are actually made in His image. To neglect to see the image of God in the people you encounter is to confuse the extraordinary with the ordinary. 

Human approval isn’t an accurate measure of ethical behavior. Do what’s right, not what’s popular. True love doesn’t just passively approve of people’s and organizations’ behaviors. It challenges them to be better than they are.

When we rationalize and excuse mistreating human life in any stage or of any race, we embrace injustice. Prenatal capital punishment executes the innocent. Here’s a poem I wrote:

Prenatal care is unfair.
Some get care.
Others they tear
In pieces beyond repair.

Sermons or discipleship

Sermons without discipleship tell people about Jesus without training them to hear Him, follow Him, and daily obey Him. Continually preaching to the same people creates an audience mentality and trains Christians to be observers, not participants. That audience mentality makes it difficult for Christians to grow up into a mature relationship with the risen Jesus.

I believe that the purpose of preaching is to proclaim the Gospel and to prepare the way for people to receive the risen Jesus into their hearts and lives. Once people receive the living Jesus, they need to be discipled (trained) to personally hear and obey Him, to read the Bible with an open heart and let it transform their lives, to actively love and minister to one another, to operate in the gifts of the Spirit, to live a godly lifestyle that manifests the fruit of the Spirit, to serve and preach the Gospel to unbelievers, and to disciple other believers. Preaching begins the process of discipleship and spiritual growth, but it isn’t discipleship. Preaching proclaims Jesus, but discipleship trains people to pursue the risen Jesus with all their heart. The body of Christ is overrun with preaching, but has a desperate need for discipleship.

The measure of a Christian life is not Bible knowledge or frequency of sermon-hearing, but daily obedience to the risen Jesus. Discipleship needs a relational, interactive environment. It won’t happen in a lecture, spectator environment. 

Spiritual leadership isn’t rulership, but heart-to-heart fellowship, personal relationship, and interactive discipleship. True disciples are not held under religious or organizational control, but are freed up to follow Jesus wherever He may lead. Discipleship is a lifetime journey away from the kingdom of self and into the kingdom (rulership) of God. 

Christianity is about living a Christ-led lifestyle, not about sitting awhile in church. When a Christ-like lifestyle is continually produced in & manifested through a person’s life, that is discipleship.
True disciples dance only to Christ’s tune, not to the tune of the world around them. It’s easy to believe in Christ — not so easy to be His disciple. 

Here’s the Christian challenge: To move from being an audience of Sunday spectators to an army of radically sold-out disciples.

The most ignored leader

The most ignored (and rebelled against) leader is the Holy Spirit.
Christians are trained to be audience members instead of teammates — hearers rather than doers. If we would turn groups of religious onlookers into troops of Spirit-led warriors, we’d see a great Christian awakening.

The perfect leader for the body of Christ is the risen Jesus. Rather than following Jesus, church seems to teach people to sit on the  Sunday message. However, Christians are called to follow and obey the Holy Spirit, not to just sit in the “Everything’s OK Corral.” (Thinking back: My Boy Scout Troop didn’t just sit & listen to the Scout Master talk. We actively engaged in interactive activities.)

To follow Christ we must be willing to seek God’s truth and align with it, even when we’re uncomfortable doing so. If there’s something we don’t see, perhaps we’re unwilling to look at it. If you look where you want, you’ll see what you want to see. If you look where God tells you, you’ll see what He wants you to.

The Holy Spirit cannot be programmed, so why do we try? Why not just let Him take control? Spirit-led discipleship groups are extremely rare compared to preaching places. Fellowship isn’t one fellow running a Sunday religious ship, but a community of people led by the Spirit.

Government trusts ordinary people to decide jury trials but church doesn’t trust them to have anything to say on Sunday morning. If ordinary people are trusted to make decisions in a jury trial, why aren’t they trusted to freely speak out in church services? Perhaps church could unblock ordinary people and let them share on the Sunday morning timeline. #openmic

When people meet in Jesus’ name and open their hearts to one another, the risen Jesus begins to actively work in their presence. Sermons are promptly forgotten, but a direct touch from the living Jesus is remembered for a lifetime! Perhaps the point of preaching isn’t to create a permanent preaching place, but to prepare and propel people to hear and obey the living Jesus.

John the Baptist wanted to decrease so Christ could increase. Perhaps all church leaders are called to do that. People need to see Christians praising and exalting Jesus, instead of praising their favorite preacher.

Our experiences can tie us to unconscious bias, but letting the light of Christ continually shine in our heart will set us free.

The most accurate prediction for your future is what you think, say, do, listen to, & watch today. (Now that’s prophetic!)