Steve Simms's Blog, page 290

Keepsakes of the heart (inner connectedness)

Connection happens when people meet up with one another in a Christ-led environment.

To collaboratively hear & obey the Spirit with others, is an incredible experience!

If people are kept silent about their faith while attending church, they’ll have little confidence to speak about it elsewhere.

Don’t forget, misplace, or overlook the keepsakes God has deposited in your heart!

Let Jesus turn on delight in your heart!

Christricity is more powerful than electricity. Plug into Jesus’ current.

When people say, “No way,” Jesus says, “I am the Way!”

A joyous life-journey with Jesus starts with a single step.

Jesus’ living water won’t flow until the faucet is turned on.

Don’t be on the wrong side of His story! Follow & obey Jesus.

Once upon a time Christians met & let Jesus lead without a program. It was powerful!

Jesus is the Architect of community!

Ordinary people sharing stories of faith is built into the DNA of Christianity.

Let’s gather & let Jesus build us together as “living stones” in Spirit-led community.

Perhaps silent faith is an oxymoron: “Let the redeemed of the Lord say so.”

Faith gets people moving for Christ. When we believe something we act on it.

Content that can make a heart content

Human hearts are very relatable & connect in community when they are drawn out of hiding by authentic content.

To be content is to step beyond torment, anxiety, & turmoil & let peace settle in.

Quantity & contentment are unrelated.

It will do you no good to get more, if you don’t enjoy what you already have.

The more the “content of your character” (thanks to MLK,Jr.) contains godly attributes, the more content you’ll be.

To forget about yourself releases you to soar in the heights of joy and creativity.

Messed up words make messed up lives. It pays to watch your language.

Lies are self-made myths that keep you fogged with the content of deception.

When people share their stories they connect at a deep level.

The Bible offers content that can make your heart content. Soak up the inner peace!

If you could kick the person most responsible for your problems, you wouldn’t be able to sit down for a month. The Bible helps you change that fact!

The Bible’s words explode in my heart and cause me to marvel at Christ’s light!

I don’t worship the Bible, but reading the Bible causes my heart to worship Jesus!

Discontentment was not meant to be the human condition. Christ restores inner peace.

(Discover the lost word of the Bible at this link.)

Maybe church gets the altar call & the call to worship backwards!

Christianity’s greatest ministry resources are ordinary people, not just ordained ministers. All Christ followers are called to let God transform us from within & make us like Jesus. Christ came not just to get you into Heaven, but also to get Heaven into you. Therefore I believe that Christians should be called to take action, not at the end of church in a altar call; but at the beginning in the call to worship.

For centuries people have been asked to respond to God in an altar call; so why don’t we ask people to respond to God in a call to worship? Here are some ways that we can do that. Paul’s call to worship: “When you come together, each of you has a hymn, or a word of instruction, a revelation…” My favorite call to worship: “Everybody listen to Jesus & then say & do what He tells you to. Mary’s words are a good call to worship: “His mother said to the servants, ‘Do whatever He tells you.'” Here’s one more Bible call to worship: “Let the message of Christ dwell among you richly as you teach and admonish one another…” –Col. 3:16

Christianity is not just hope to merely cope with life; but “Christ in you the hope of glory”! People need personal & spiritual growth. Without inner growth we stagnate. If you don’t keep on growing, you’ll keep on towing your same ole baggage.

Let’s grow in love for one another. When you hide your heart; love departs. Minds debate. Hearts relate. To spend your life me-ing is to miss its meaning. Focus on God & others instead. Heart-felt, spontaneous prayer often moves into the gifts of the Spirit.

The Bible & spiritual experience are not either or. We need both. If you’re not experiencing Jesus when you’re reading the Bible, you’re not reading it with an open heart.

Reading the Bible with an open and hones heart stirs up passionate love for Jesus in me. (To be dishonest is to live in a world of self-made myths.) The Bible is amazing testimony to the reality, teaching, work, & divinity of Jesus. Read it & see! Christians promote books, products, music, movies, etc. I like to promote the Bible. Read it daily. It will show you Jesus!

When the Holy Spirit takes over ekklesia breaks out. (See Acts 2) Ekklesia is when Christians gather to watch the Holy Spirit work in and through one another. Let’s gather & let God unfold our hearts like flowers, in the Son’s radiant light!

To dive into doubt when God can’t be figured out is to miss out on what life’s about. Nudists like to live au naturale; Christ-followers prefer au supernaturale.

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Pentecost defined

Pentecost — to be so overcome with the Spirit that people think you are drunk. (“These people are not drunk, as you suppose.” Acts 2:15) Without spiritual fire burning in people’s hearts, Pentecost is just a religious word.

Peter used the Bible to explain the joyous freedom of Pentecost. Let’s be biblical. “This is what was spoken by the prophet Joel: ‘In the last days, God says, I will pour out my Spirit on all people.'” –Acts 2:16. (The freedom of the Spirit does not give us a license to contradict the Bible.)

Pentecost set “sons & daughters” free to prophesy. It released visions & dreams!

Pentecost was when God first disrupted a Christian meeting. May He disrupt many church services again and again until we surrender control to Him.

Religious decorum was lost

When on the day of Pentecost.

Human control was tossed!

Pentecost was a God-surprise. Every Christian meeting needs the unexpected! Pentecost wasn’t just once & done. We need Spirit demonstrations every time we meet! Paul of Tarsus put it this way in 1 Corinthians 2:4 — “My message and my preaching were not with wise and persuasive words, but with a demonstration of the Spirit’s power.”

The first Pentecost was unprogrammed & full of God-surprises. Let’s let God do Acts chapter 2.

A Pentecost Sunday program is an oxymoron. Pentecost was unprogrammed. Pentecost, not a seeker-friendly meeting, produced 3,000 new Christ-followers.

If there is no room for an unplanned God-surprise; church may be too controlled. Risk a few unprogrammed minutes in a church service, trust God, & see what He does. A Bible-style Pentecost will quickly defrost your religion.

God once spoke through a donkey. That means He can speak through anybody. Let Him speak through you!

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Does your preacher dare to share the message of Pentecost? “Save yourselves from this corrupt generation.” Acts 2:40

Don’t just commemorate Pentecost. Experience it with us every Sunday morning @ 10:45 @ The Salvation Army Berry Street — 225 Berry St., Nashville, Tennessee 37207. Here’s a book about how we meet.

False prophets & fake news confuse

We need clear reception of God’s perception so we can be an exception to deception. Reading the Bible with an open heart filters out the impurities in your thoughts. The Bible keeps our faith anchored to the objectivity of the truth about Jesus. Don’t be deceived by false ideas about Jesus. Check the Bible before you bite their bait.

False prophets & fake news confuse. The Bible will infuse you with God’s light. Daily reading the Bible with an open heart will fill & thrill you with Jesus. The Bible is soul-stirring, renewing, & mystical; not dry, analytical, & scholastic. Hang out with true prophets & apostles by reading the Bible daily.

If you’re unhappy & your life’s messed up; reading & obeying the Bible will lead you to freedom! The Bible tells us about the Way. The risen Jesus is the Way. When we follow our way, we lose sight of the Way (the risen Jesus)! Jesus didn’t say, “I am a way, some truth, & one source of life.”

The risen Jesus uses the Bible to show who He is. Luke 24:27 reads: “And beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, he explained to them what was said in all the Scriptures concerning himself.”

As you journey toward the end of your life, travel wisely. Let God’s inner river-geysers lift up your heart with dancing fountains of joyous love. When you let your life be a Spirit-guided tour, it’s amazing! Your conscience isn’t a guilt-machine. It’s a guide to joy. Follow it.

Listening together to God’s Spirit, we meet to be led by our living Head; Jesus. In ekklesia, each person’s testifying, sharing, & praying, flow together as a whole.

Let’s meet to be listeners,

Not listening to just one man;

But sisters & brothers together

Listening to God’s Spirit

Speaking in our hearts

And then sharing what we hear

With one another.

Know Jesus,

Grow in Jesus,

Flow with Jesus,

Glow with Jesus.

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Blind man seeing!

Bible reading — blind man seeing.

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Take time to align

Unless we align with God, we’ll be forever off course. Francis Grimke (an early American Civil Rights leader in 1919) put it like this: “The great spiritual need of man is to get rid of sin, to get out from under its guilt and power and into fellowship with God.” To refuse to surrender to God’s authority is to put yourself at odds with Him.

To give up self-justification and to humbly seek God’s mercy is to step into His Light. Forgiven & delivered sinners have more love than the self-righteous. Jesus put it this way: “Whoever has been forgiven little loves little.” –Luke 7:47 (If Christ has truly forgiven you, He has forgiven you of much; not of just a little.)

No one is innocent of rebellion against God. Only the guilty need God’s forgiveness. The innocent are fine without it. We all need His mercy not His justice. To believe yourself innocent before God is a great deception.

No one is innocent before God; but through Christ, God offers forgiveness. To plead “not guilty” is to miss out on God’s forgiveness, grace & mercy.

To expect your nation to punish wrongdoers, but God not to; is inconsistent. If nations can have a criminal justice system, why shouldn’t God have one? If a nation (or God) refuses to punish wrongdoers it leads to unloving anarchy.

The good news of Jesus is that wrongdoers like me can be transformed & set free! Here is true love: Jesus took your punishment for your wrongdoing so you can be set free. However, Christ’s mercy is optional. He doesn’t force anyone to accept it.

I feel their passion for God when I read the witness of the first Christians in the Bible. I believe the Bible because it works in my heart and in my life. The Bible explains me better than anything I’ve ever found.

The Bible is a live link that will connect you to God if you access it. Don’t believe what people say about Christianity without checking it out in the Bible. To put your opinion above the Bible leads to deception. In this world full of many religious views, the Bible can keep us from deception.[image error]

Reading the Bible feeds my soul! Have you fed your’s today? To define God by your feelings is to exchange God for an idol of your own creation.

God doesn’t accept our self-destructive behaviors, but empowers us to overcome them. Jesus doesn’t say, “Have it your way.” He says, “Follow Me!” & “I am the Way!” Jesus calls us to change. That’s what He meant by “repent.”

Christians who root for one another give pride the boot & grow in love and humility. We are called to collaborate with the Spirit & with one another; not to go it alone. When we get in sync with the Spirit & one another, Christ’s power flows.

Ekklesia meets to surrender to Christ’s authority and accept His mercy. Ekklesia is a Christian accountability group demonstrating God’s love and His agape community. It’s a spiritual exercise group where people workout together with Coach Jesus It is a gathering of Christians who inspire, challenge & support one another. In ekklesia there’s no big person & little person; but all Christ-followers are equal in Him!

Ekklesia literally means “called out ones” – called out of the world’s value system. Don’t be so earthly minded that you have no heavenly influence on those around you.

Ancient Athens, Greece had a town hall meeting known as ekklesia. Jesus used that word to identify His followers when they gather to be led by His presence. He said: “I will build my ekklesia.” Nashville is known as the “Athens of the South.” Our goal at The Salvation Army Berry Street is to spread the love of God in our city by proclaiming and demonstrating the caring, support-group-style environment of “ekklesia” in Nashville. Come experience it for yourself on Sundays at 10:45 am., 225 Berry Street, 37207.

Church without a live download of the the risen Jesus is like “Attachment Unavailable.”

What the world needs now is truth & love . . .

Truth without love is unkind. Love without truth is unreal.

Our growth, both as individuals and as an expression of Christ’s body depends on our being both truthful and loving at the same time. Paul of Tarsus wrote: “Speaking the truth in love, we will grow to become in every respect the mature body of Him who is the Head, that is, Christ.”

If we avoid the truth to try to not appear “unloving,” we spread deception. However, if we speak the truth without heart-felt love, God’s agape, we can unleash pain and create defensiveness in others. But if we blend love and truth together, hearts and lives are transformed.

That’s what William Booth and the early Salvation Army did. They wrapped the truth about Heaven, Hell, repentance, and salvation, in the love of soup, soap, support, and shelter.

Love is lived out through kindness; and kindness is the best communicator of truth. So if we wrap (speak) truth in love and kindness, it is much more easily received. Our hostile world needs fresh, creative displays of truth spoken with love. And God wants to use you to do just that. But how?

Simple. Before you speak a truth to someone that they may have trouble receiving, first show them that you genuinely care about them as a human being. Once they know you care they will be much more willing to receive what you have to say.

Then, before you go speak to them, here are a few ideas that may help you get ready:

1) First, think about how you might say it in a way they can best receive.

2) Ask yourself, “How would I feel if someone said that to me?”

3) Ask yourself, “If I needed to say that to the person I love the most in the world, how would I want to say it?”

4) Pray and ask God to give you compassion for the person and also the right words to say.

5) If it is really touchy it is better to write it down first, then read it and edit it.

6) Then go and humbly say (or write and send) what you need to say.

My dad used to keep a plaque in his office that read: “Be kind, for everyone you meet is fighting a tremendous battle.” To help someone ignore the truth about themselves is unkind. So is speaking the truth to them in a mean or harsh way. True kindness speaks the truth in love!

Immigration of the heart

Many people choose to live in the kingdom of darkness rather than immigrate to the kingdom of light. (To paraphrase Jesus’ first message: “Immigrate to the kingdom of light!”) I’m a spiritual immigrant who fled the world for a new way of life in God’s kingdom.

Don’t just be a tourist in the kingdom of God. Become a permanent resident & full citizen. There’s lots of love, community & celebration when immigrants to God’s kingdom meet together. (The New Testament calls that kind of meeting ekklesia.) God’s kingdom is the most beautiful “land”–full of the fruit of the Spirit! “The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.” Galatians 5:22 Come see!

Foreigners to God’s authority are invited to shift their allegiance to His kingdom. To follow Christ is to be assimilated into His heavenly culture and lifestyle. Refugees gain entrance to God’s kingdom, not based on documentation they achieve, but on grace and mercy. Once they enter God’s kingdom they are called to live by it’s standards, not by the world’s.

God calls people to immigrate from the world’s standards to God’s kingdom. He invites us all to immigrate away from self-focus, and to become loyal citizens of His kingdom — to change from self-authority to God’s authority! Jesus tore down the wall & invites whosoever will, to immigrate to God’s kingdom. Ephesians 2:13-14

The kingdom of God occurs when we cross the border from self-rule to Christ-control. Let King Jesus be the ruler of your heart — your inner Head of state. Does the kingdom of God have your heart & your greatest allegiance?

Christ-followers are called to follow Jesus, not to follow our own desires. We are called to cruise on Christ-control, not to be controlled by cravings. To surrender to & obey the risen Jesus is to enter the kingdom of God.

Read the Bible not just to learn, but also to experience Jesus like His disciples did! Read it to learn to how live in God’s kingdom by following and obeying Jesus daily.

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Ask not how a pastor can minister to you. Ask how you can minister to others!

Ask not how a pastor can minister to you. Ask how you can minister to others! People besides a preacher have something to say from God. Why not let them

speak up in church? When many people freely speak, we have to trust the Spirit to coordinate the meeting.

Too much structure stifles the spontaneity of Holy Spirit. Lets unstifle! Perhaps the wisdom of many voices prompted by the Spirit, is more powerful than one. Let God speak through all and the Spirit will fall on all! (1 Corinthians 14:24-25)

To mute the voice of Christ through ordinary people is to miss much of His message. Let’s unstifle the Holy Spirit; unmute those who love like Jesus; & change the world. When Christ-followers meet with open, humble hearts, as a community forum, Jesus moves among them. To meet & be led by the Spirit with a group who love Jesus and love you is amazing!

Release the mute button and let the sounds of the Spirit surge through your soul. Stir up the God-bit in you & let it grow until you’re filled over the brim with Him.

Conscious contact with Jesus should not be a one-time occurrence, but 24/7/365. You can ignore God; but He’s not ignoring you.

I’m coining two new words: 1) Mystigetics–direct encounters with God that prove His reality; and 2) Christiosity–a strong desire to know Jesus better; inquisitiveness about Christ.

Without self-imposed thought boundaries, happiness is impossible. A heart overgrown by uncontrolled cravings & compulsions needs weeding & landscaping. Landscaping your heart with beauty creates joy.

Let your mind be the Holy Spirit’s thought machine! Let Jesus get an unshakable grip on your heart and He’ll carry you through!

When prayer is rare, life’s hard to bear! God not only listens when you talk to Him. He also responds. High hopes are build on faith that God answers prayer. Indeed, hope soars when you believe that God answers prayer! It’s never too late to talk to God. To interact with God is to reach beyond the bonds of time & touch eternity.

You can’t lead anybody to someplace you’re not going yourself. Does Jesus weep when He sees His sheep unready to obey or even make a peep for Him? Perhaps it is time to say and do what Jesus tells us to!