Steve Simms's Blog, page 29
January 30, 2025
A Religious and Analytical Approach to Christianity
The study and research that Christ requires isn’t a religious and analytical approach to Christianity. He requires something much deeper than that.
“For Ezra had prepared his heart to seek the Law of the LORD, and to do it, and to teach statutes and ordinances in Israel.” The Law of the Lord can be studied and analyzed with the logical mind, but to be effectively sought and taught, it must be obeyed and caught by a hungry (Matthew 5:6) humble (James 4:6) heart.
The research that Christ requires is not human biblical dissection and analysis. It’s the daily revelation that comes from being obedient to and led by the Spirit. Jesus said: “If you love Me keep My commands and I will ask the Father, and He will give you another Advocate to help you and be with you forever — the Spirit of Truth.”
We need the Spirit’s help, guidance, and revelation today as much as the first Christians did. The Spirit works with, in, and through the Bible. What He reveals to us today won’t contradict what He revealed in Scripture.
Let God “research” you. Let your heart and your life be continually searched by the Bible and by God’s Spirit. If Jesus is your Lord that means that staying focused on Him, listening to Him, and obeying Him is your #1 priority. Jesus first!
The body of Christ has a perfect leader. His name is Jesus. If churches and individual Christians would continually focus on, listen to, and obey Him, we would see ongoing glorious demonstrations of the kingdom of God.
Life is a parade
That goes marching by.
People masquerade
And hide in alleyways
Where the tunnel vision
Of human study
No longer portrays
What’s fully going on.
To get clearer sight
Step out of the shade
And into the light.
Open up your heart
To the Holy Spirit
And to the word of God.
Stop your masquerade.
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January 29, 2025
I Make it a Sport to “Rememberize”
View all responsesI make it a sport to “rememberize.” A friend, JD Walt, likes to use the word his oldest son coined at about five years old. His son said, “I finally ‘rememberized’ it. JD says: “Memorization quick-loads our short-term memory. Rememberization is of another order. It slow-loads our long-term memory.
If you want to remember something, “rememberize” it, don’t just cram it in one side of your mind and out the other. Ponder it, savor it, let it deeply touch your heart. In my life I’ve made it my favorite sport to “rememberize” the Bible.
To hide the word of God
Deep inside your heart
So it can be your light
Requires more than memory
Or Scripture analysis.
It requires insight
That gives your heart delight.
When you read the Bible
With your heart wide open
You’ll have humble eyes
That will see God’s light
And absorb His insight
In a much deeper way
Than just to memorize.
What moves your heart
Merges into
Your memory
But what’s observed
Just by your mind,
Your memory
Often can’t find.
What the shepherds said
About the newborn Christ
Was so much more than words
Heard in Mary’s head.
She treasured what was said
And pondered it in her heart.
Be a full-Bible Christian!
Read the Bible,
Don’t just listen to
Sermons about it.
Ponder the Bible,
Don’t just read it.
Experience the Bible,
Don’t just ponder it.
Demonstrate the Bible
Through the way you live,
Don’t just experience it.
Overflow with the realities
Proclaimed and testified to
Throughout the Bible,
Don’t just demonstrate it.
And above all
Keep your heart
Wide open
To the Bible
And quench not
The Spirit.
Hearing the Bible
Without heart devotion
And holy emotion
Won’t make you a doer
Of God’s word.
January 28, 2025
The Greatest Win
Some people win
The lottery
But much money
And a long term
Spending spree
Is not able
To set them free.
True freedom comes
Another way.
Let Jesus saturate
Your mind and your heart.
And fill you with wonder.
As you ruminate
And constantly ponder
His glorious presence–
The Living Word of God!
Hear Jesus.
Know Jesus.
Love Jesus.
Serve Jesus.
To hear Jesus
Is inner peace
He makes the storms
Within you cease.
To know Jesus
Is true friendship,
The ultimate
Relationship.
To love Jesus
Is pure romance.
Open your heart
And take a chance.
To serve Jesus
Makes life worthwhile.
And meaningful
Mile after mile.
Devouring the Bible
With great delight
Clearly shows me
Christ’s brilliant light.
Go beyond the explanation
Of religious information.
Tell others how you
Experienced Christ
And thus illustrate
His reality.
Help others
To experience Christ
And thus demonstrate
His reality.
The most effective
Way to teach
Isn’t to preach
Or to lecture.
It’s to illustrate
And to demonstrate
The reality of
What you’re teaching.
January 27, 2025
Reading That Points Me to Peace
In the troubled and stressed-out culture where I live, I look for inner peace. I love to read books and articles that point me to God’s peace.
The peace of God can’t be taught. It’s beyond human understanding. Therefore, to truly experience God’s peace you must “lean not on your own understanding” and “in all your ways acknowledge Him.” (Proverbs 3:5) You can be able to quote every Bible verse about peace and know what dozens of preachers, theologians, and commentaries say about each verse, yet still not experience God’s peace.
Because it’s supernatural, the peace of God can’t be experienced through reasoning, study, or analysis. The peace of God is “in Christ.” It can’t be taught but it can be caught and maintained by “Christ in you.” It’s part of the fruit of the Spirit that the risen Jesus produces when He is allowed to live in, rule, and reign as the Absolute Lord and Master of your heart and mind.
To experience the peace of God, talk to Jesus in every situation throughout each day and fully surrender your life and desires to Him. Express your cares and concerns to Him and continually thank Him for the gift of His glorious presence in you and with you. Let Christ continually guard and guide your heart and mind.
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The Tradition of Pondering
Let your heart be strangely warmed. The way to “taste and see that the Lord is good,” (Psalm 34:8) is to open your heart and begin to ponder His presence and reality. The entire Book of Psalms is about pondering God. Ponder and absorb His beauty.
When people are trained to regularly ponder, drink in, and absorb the presence of the living Jesus, the life transforming power of the Holy Spirit begins to flow from within them like rivers of living water. (John 7:37-39.) Pondering prayer focuses on the presence of God and pays close attention to His inner promptings.
Marvel at the marvel of God. Regularly focus on, consider, contemplate, and ponder how His creation produces awe, amazement, and astonishment. Then you will eventually develop an ongoing awareness of the breathtaking beauty of being alive. True Christian worship wows people with the presence of the risen Jesus Christ. The early Christ-followers were “filled with awe.” (Acts 2:43)
Theology approaches the Bible with mental analysis and treats it as mainly religious information. Inspiration ponders the Bible with the heart and soaks it in as the lifegiving word of God. (2 Timothy 3:16) Perpetually ponder “the mystery of godliness.” (1 Timothy 3:16)
“The kingdom of God is at hand.” (Matthew 3:2) If Christ-followers would meet to ponder the presence of the risen Jesus and then to obey His inner promptings the kingdom of God would show up in their midst. Without faith, people will neglect to ponder the presence of Jesus and will choose to ignore His inner promptings.
Don’t just take notes on a sermon. Take notes on and ponder your own thinking. Look closely and you might just find the voice of God speaking within you.
The Spirit-led ponderings of ordinary Christ-followers are powerful. Unfortunately, they have been trained to ignore their ponderings and revelations and instead to put their faith in the words of a preacher.
Christian, ponder! Refuse to settle into lukewarmness. Everyday hit the pause button and ponder the beauty of life for a while. Ponder how you can live better and get better results from your life. When I ponder the mystery of my consciousness of the world around me, I am captured by awe of my Creator.
Ponder to cultivate Christ’s inner peace:
1) Notice the thoughts that come to your mind,
2) Reject the harmful ones,
3) Ignore the mediocre ones,
4) Embrace the helpful ones, and
5) Treasure the inspiring ones.
When you’re thinking in a box you’ve clipped the wings that empower you ponder the things that cause your heart to soar. “Wait on the Lord” and “mount up with wings as eagles.” (Isaiah 40:31)
Pondering goes beyond what and examines why. To neglect to ponder is to abandon your God-given responsibility to make wise choices.
Don’t panic, ponder.
Trust in Jesus.
Let Him prompt you.
Train yourself to
Be a responder
To His Spirit.
Be faithful
To live under
His direct Headship.
Perhaps our purpose
As people
Is to ponder
And absorb
Life’s wonder.
Neglecting to ponder
The significance
And purpose
Off your existence
Makes it easy to squander
Your life.
Ponder the effect
Of your thoughts.
Notice what they
Do to you.
Then select
And collect
The ones that have
The best effect
On you
And reject
Deflect
And eject
The harmful ones.
Creativity
Identifies Ideas
And keeps insight
In sight.
The more you ponder,
The less you’ll wander
Aimlessly.
My ponder place
Is anyplace
And everyplace.
January 25, 2025
I Enjoy Reading Words That Uncover My Deception
View all responsesI once found a book that uncovers my deception when I read it with an open heart. Reading that book is like standing in the shower and letting very hot water run over your aching back. It hurts but if feels good. Despite the pain, reading that book (and also books by people who have allowed that book to burn in their heart) feels so good that I enjoy doing it in my leisure time.
That book is the Bible. I’ve read it over and over for far too many hours to count and it still brightly shines truth in my heart and “is profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness.” (2 Timothy 3:16)
Devouring the Bible will gradually and gently show you any deception in your heart. It’s the app that will direct you to the best life has to offer, if you’ll humbly read and obey it.
Treasure truth. Deposit it in your heart. Truth is the currency of mental wealth. Deception is disrespect for the truth. What you gain by deception will collapse your conscience and hold you in bondage to lies.
When deception is defended as “free expression” instead of pointed out as a lie, a culture loses both truth and trust and crumbles into chaos. If you repeat unsubstantiated statements, there’s a good chance that you’re spreading lies. Accusations without accuracy and proof are frequently the free expression of falsehood. Speak from solid evidence not from mere allegations. Spreading other people’s lies (even if you believe them to be true) is dishonesty.
Deception is more popular than truth. Truth telling requires the hard work of honesty, courage, and humility, but deceiving people is quick and easy.
Deception distorts the difference between fact and fake. If people have deceived you, it’s because you have trusted them when they didn’t deserve your trust.
Unchecked feelings, desires, and opinions lead people and nations into great deception. When truth is twisted into ropes of deception and tangled up in passionately believed lies a society ignores and defies compassion, honesty, logic, conscience, and common sense.
To distort the truth or to outright lie to try to get what you want is to abandon reality and to undermine your conscience. It is to put your trust in deception and deceivers. Where there’s deception there’s a denial of reality. It’s a sin to twist, spin, and distort the truth. The book tells me: “Do not lie to one another.”
“Tricks and treachery are the practice of fools that don’t have brains enough to be honest.” –Benjamin Franklin (A Founding Father of the USA)
To build on a foundation of deception is to build on something that won’t last. The Founding Fathers of the USA created “checks and balances” between the three parts of government so that deception could be exposed and minimized. To ignore, resist, or attempt to override those “check and balances” is to wade into shark infested waters. No individual or political party is 100% free from deception. We all need “checks and balances.”
The reception
Of deception
Distorts your
Perception
Of reality.
To deceive
Is to cause
People
To believe
Lies.
To betray
The truth
Is to embrace
Moral decay.
Deceivers
Who are
Overachievers
Can lead multitudes
Astray.
January 24, 2025
The Attraction of Ahas
View all responsesNothing can be closer to me than the attraction of insights and “ahas” because they occur within me–inside of my heart and mind. So many of them come to me that it’s hard to visit with all of them. Occasionally I let some slip away or overlook them. Nonetheless, I continually hunger and thirst for more of God’s glorious revelations to my heart.
Christians like to misquote half of a biblical statement. “Eye hasn’t seen and ear hasn’t heard what God has prepared for those who love Him.” However, they almost always leave off the ending: “But God has revealed it to us.” Christianity is all about divine revelation that comes directly from the living God to your heart.
Behold the Lamb of God! Hear His voice! Physical eyes and ears can’t see or hear Him. Instead, look and listen to the invisible One (Hebrews 11:27), “Christ in you, the hope of glory.” Surrender your heart to God the Father’s supernatural revelation so that He can begin to change you deep within (from glory to glory) into His very own image.
Take the veil of darkness off of your face. Humbly and continually ask God to shine and to brighten His light of revelation inside your heart (2 Corinthians 4:6).
Religion is based on scripted sights and sounds, but a relationship with Christ (Colossians 1:27) relies on direct heart-to-heart revelation from God the Father (Matthew 16:17) and the ongoing leading of the Holy Spirit (Romans 8:14). It’s true that things that God has prepared for the people who love Him can’t be seen by the human eye, heard by the natural ear, or conceived by logical thinking, but God reveals them to humble, spiritually hungry people through the supernatural presence of His Spirit. (1 Corinthians 2:9-10) Refuse to settle for less.
Fight (1 Timothy 6:12) the pride (James 4:6) of your fallen human nature. Cast it down (2 Corinthians 10:5) and throw it aside. Humble yourself (1 Peter 5:6) so that you can prepare the way of the Lord Jesus Christ (Luke 3:4-6) in your heart and make room for God the Holy Spirit to freely flow out of your innermost being with the glorious rivers (John 7:38) of God the Father’s supernatural revelation.
(When churches focus on what the human eye can see, what the physical ear can hear, and what the logical mind can conceive, instead of on proclaiming the invisible Lordship of the risen Jesus and demonstrating the presence, reality and revelation of the kingdom of God, we’re living in a dark age. When the words on our lips aren’t in sync with our heart, that’s hypocrisy. See Matthew 15:8.)
Sincerely say these words from your heart to the risen Jesus Christ:
“Lord Jesus, I sincerely invite You to come and live in me and to take full control of my life. I will notice what You say to me in and through my conscience. I will listen for Your voice in my heart. I will obey Your inner nudgings and promptings. Anytime I ignore You or stray from You, please remind me and draw me back. Thank You for coming into my heart, showing me that You are real, and empowering me to daily follow and obey You.”
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My Definition of Fun
5 things I do for fun:
Smile: I don’t wait until I’m having fun to smile. Smiling itself is fun. Consume hope: I search for and devour positive, hope-filled media.Absorb nature: I stroll and ponder its beauty, inspiration, and glory. Be kind: I interact heart-to-heart with people as I show them kindness.Surrender to God’s grace: I walk and talk with the risen Jesus through the grace that he purchased for me by His blood.Grace gives
All the glory,
All the credit,
All the merit,
For ever and ever
To Jesus!
Grace is released according to God’s power “that is at work within us.” (Ephesians 3:20) It is unmerited access to a personal relationship of ongoing alignment with God through the risen Jesus.
Grace isn’t a one-time transactional prayer that’s prayed to God so that we can be excused for our behaviors and protected from their consequences. It’s not a powerless “form of godliness.” (2 Timothy 3:5) It freely empowers us to live by God’s will instead of by our own will.
The grace of God
Doesn’t justify
Or defend our sin.
It changes us
From deep within!
Trying to justify and defend our sin “falls short of the grace of God.” (Hebrews 12:15) Anyone who thinks that he deserves God’s grace doesn’t understand it. The kingdom of God is no meritocracy. Only one human has ever deserved access to God the Father–that is Jesus the God-man.
To live in God’s grace, we have to let go of our self-righteous pride and deceptive belief that we deserve God’s favor, so that we can humbly admit the truth that we are completely undeserving of His grace. “God resists the proud but gives grace to the humble.” (James 4:6)
Grace and truth go together. “Grace and truth came through Jesus Christ.” (John 1:17) Let the grace and truth purchased by the blood of Jesus continually overflow from deep within you. (Colossians 1:6)
We humans need “the abundance of grace and the gift of righteousness” (not a little dab) so that we can reign in life (not just in Heaven) through radical surrender and total submission to the presence, authority, and will of Jesus Christ living in and through us. (Romans 5:17) “For if by the trespass of the one (Adam), death reigned through the one; so much more will those who receive the abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness reign in life through the one, Jesus Christ.”
Grace and sin don’t mix! “What shall we say, then? Shall we go on sinning so that grace may increase? By no means! We are those who have died to sin; how can we live in it any longer?” (Romans 6:1-2) Grace requires for a person “not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think.” (Romans 12:3)
Grace produces work! “But by the grace of God I am what I am. His grace which was bestowed on me was not futile, but I worked more than all of them; yet not I, but the grace of God which was with me.” (1 Corinthians 15:10)
Be aligned with Christ, not alienated from Him! “You are alienated from Christ, you who desire to be justified by the law. You have fallen away from grace.” (Galatians 5:4)
Grace is given by the working of God’s power. Let His power freely and continually work within you to keep you charged with His presence and make you into a servant. “I was made a servant, according to the gift of that grace of God which was given me according to the working of his power.” (Ephesians 3:7)
January 22, 2025
One Thing to Learn from the Master
View all responsesDare to have a long unscripted conversation with God. Let Him show you one thing that will make your life better. You’ll be glad you did!
God’s plans, not mine;
Let me align
With His will
And be a branch
On Christ’s vine
Overflowing
With new wine
So I can live
By His design,
Not mine,
And Christ in me
Can be my hope,
My powerline,
And my future.
Let Christ wake up
Your conscience
And empower
You to live up
To His plans.
True Christianity’s
About Christ on the scene
Leading with His presence,
Not religious routine,
A sage up on a stage,
Or a man on a screen.
It’s bad to be mean spirited. Be Christ-spirited instead. “Love your enemies, bless those who curse you.” Lord, help me jump wholeheartedly into your will! When deceiving and insulting become popular the foundations of society crumble. How we all need to be trained by God!
Christianity has pulled the wool over the eyes of God’s sheep and put them in tightly controlled sheep pens where they can’t see that they all carry the power and presence of the Lion of the tribe of Judah within them (“Christ in you, the hope of glory,”). They’re blinded to the fact that they are all called and all empowered to continually demonstrate and proclaim Christ’s presence and reality. Christian leaders, please let God’s sheep out their religious pens!
Who will let God’s sheep out? Who? Who?
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My New Name (Takes Me Off Script)
“To the one who overcomes, I will give the hidden manna. I will also give him a white stone inscribed with a new name. known only to the one who receives it.” (Revelation 2:17) “Those who are led by the Spirit of God are the children of God.” (Romans 8:14) Jesus calls to me in an inner place far beyond mere words and prompts me to follow the unscripted leading of His Spirit as a child of God.
“Wherever two or three (or more) gather” to “hear what the Spirit is saying,” and to all “be led by the Spirit,” Jesus begins to function as the living Head of His body. He prompts and nudges people by their intimate new name. To grow strong in the Lord regularly meet with some Jesus-lovers and follow the unscripted leading of the Spirit.
Experience Unscripted Christianity
Say what the Spirit is saying.
Do what the Spirit is doing.
Live out the living Word of God
As it comes from the mouth of God.
Let Christ engrave it on your heart
And display it in your actions
Making you a wellspring of
His living water.
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