Steve Simms's Blog, page 3
October 11, 2025
Maturity (Step-by Step)
View all responsesI heard the word (and acrostic) PETS throughout the night last night. A powerful way to feel “like a grown up” is to put PETS into daily action.
PETS for spreading faith, hope, and love are:
P — Pray with people frequently — out loud, spontaneously, and from your heart. (Matthew 18:19-20)
E — Encourage all the people who you can whenever and wherever you can. (1 Thessalonians 5:11)
T — Testify often about what God has done and is doing in your life. (Revelation 12:11)
S — Sing a lot with people. Freely and joyously belt out God’s praises together. (Isaiah 52:9)
The more I follow those 4 PETS with other people the more I experience trust in Jesus, optimism, and deep affection for people. Gather frequently with two or more people and let the PETS fly. (Hebrews 10:25)
Let the words spoken by God through the writers of the Bible be spoken directly to your heart today. Applying PETS in your daily life will help you do that.
Christianity isn’t about hearing a religious speaker. It’s about being a constant God seeker. (Matthew 6:33 and 2 Chronicles 7:14) If your heart isn’t open to God, you will be blind to Him.
When life feels like
Futility
Open up to
Humility.
Acknowledge your
Fragility.
Set aside your
Ability.
Experience
Tranquility.
Get to know the
Utility
Of faith in God,
Develop Christ-centered
Perceptibility.
October 10, 2025
I’m Seeking to Give My All to None of These Nations
View all responsesPraise and adoration belong to God — not to any nation! A Christian’s calling is to continually follow and obey the risen Jesus, not to get wrapped up in and focused on politics, current events, or entertainment.
If you truly believe that Jesus is alive, present, and active in the world, live every moment of your life like He is! Some people say that Christianity is about going to church. Others say it’s about going to Heaven. The Bible says it’s about growing from glory to glory into the image of Christ. (2 Corinthians 3:18)
Give to God what is God’s. (Mark 12:17) Always give Him your all in all — your radical and total love and obedience. (Mark 8:34)
Anytime
And anyplace
Can be your place
Of worship.
Always seek
God’s face.
Never let
Anything
Take the place
Of God
In your heart!
(2 Chronicles 7:14)
October 9, 2025
I’m Attempting to Abide
View all responsesHey good looking (all nice and religious) what ya got cooking in your soul? Where is the fruit of the Spirit in your thoughts, feelings, desires, opinions, and actions. I don’t know about you, but I am constantly attempting to abide in the presence of the risen Jesus Christ. Are you abiding? Or are you being cut off?
Jesus appointed His disciples “to be with Him and that He might send them out to preach.” (Mark 3:14) Jesus is the vine and His followers are the branches. (John 15:5) A Christian’s first calling and primary purpose is to be with Jesus and to stay intimately connected heart-to-heart with Him.
To bear the fruit of the Holy Spirit (Galatians 5:22-23) we must remain yielded to the presence and power of the risen Jesus Christ. (John 15:4) When we stay always focused on what Christ is saying and doing inside of us (Colossians 1:27) we will be continually empowered to go be His witnesses (Acts 1:8) and to proclaim and demonstrate (1 Corinthians 2:4) His presence and good news wherever we are.
If Christians would focus on actually living the way the Bible teaches instead of mainly merely sitting to hear a religious talk once a week, many of our society’s problems would be solved. “Be doers of the word and not hearers only.” (James 1:22)
What are several things you have learned in church this year? If you can’t think of anything that’s proof that passive sermon hearing is a weak and very ineffective way of learning. Discipleship requires so much more.
When most people think about Christianity they think about church attendance. When I think about Christianity, I think about Jesus alive from the dead. I think about Him being powerfully present and active in people’s heart and lives day and night.
The Bible says, “Quench not the Spirit.” (1 Thessalonians 5:19) The Holy Spirit has been so quenched by religion and tradition that today we need to unquench the Spirit.
Let Christ reside
Deep down inside.
Refuse to hide
Anything from Him.
Jesus Christ arose
So why sit in rows
Of church pews or chairs?
We should never doze
In Jesus’ presence.
Let’s go where Christ goes.
Let Jesus enclose
You with His great love.
Let Jesus expose
And repair your heart.
Be someone who glows
With light from Jesus.
October 8, 2025
I’m Always Attempting Unquenching
View all responsesMy ongoing goal is unquenching. I don’t want to be shut down and held back by negative beliefs, attitudes, and actions. I want to unleash the best life has to offer to flow from within. I continually strive to unquench “the new wine” of God the Holy Spirit.
Explanations about God won’t unquench the Holy Spirit in your life. Continually experiencing God and surrendering to His will will. Not quenching the Holy Spirit requires effort, focus, and self-denial.
Boldly and radically set aside all the stuff, all the desires, and all the cares of this world (Mark 4:19) that quench God the Holy Spirit in your life. (1 Thessalonians 5:19) Then you will unquench rivers of living water to freely flow from within you (John 7:38-39) and empower you (Acts 1:8) to consistently and faithfully follow and obey the risen Jesus. (Mark 10:21)
To quench God the Holy Spirit or not to quench Him? That is life’s most important question. Quench your pride, self-will, and sin, not the Holy Spirit. (Mark 8:34) To quench temptation, have the faith to unquench God the Holy Spirit. (Ephesians 6:15)
It’s easy to quench God the Holy Spirit. All you need to do is to ignore Him. If you won’t consistently quench your thirsty desires for having your own way, you’ll continually quench the Holy Spirit. (Galatians 5:17) To unquench the Holy Spirit fully and freely forgive everyone. (Mark 11:25) To unquench the Holy Spirit humble yourself. (1 Peter 5:6)
Unquench the Holy Spirit by going beyond mentally analyzing and scrutinizing religion. Begin to literally taste and see that God is good. (Psalm 34:8) When the Holy Spirit is fully unquenched revival and spiritual awakening occur. (Psalm 85:6)
At the wedding celebration at Cana, Jesus supernaturally gave the guests wine that was better than their best wine. Jesus wants to supernaturally give you much better than your best. Let Him continually fill you and lead you with the new wine of His presence. He already knows what is in your heart. Don’t cling to your own will until He turns your tables over. (John 2)
It’s not a good thing
To sit on a bench
And silently quench
The Holy Spirit.
To quench
The Spirit
Is a sinch.
Simply
Ignore Him.
October 7, 2025
To Truly Believe and Rely on God
View all responses“I believe. Help my unbelief.” (Mark 9:24) Make room for Jesus to help you overcome your unbelief.
What is unbelief in God? It is trusting in, relying on, or depending on anything instead of God: Self-effort, human plans, politics, independence, church, money, pride, family, intellect, entertainment, a preacher, talent, skill, whatever. Anything that distracts or disrupts your heart-to-heart connection with the living Jesus is unbelief. Keep your faith on Christ alone. (Hebrews 12:2)
If you’re unaware of Jesus living and working in your life, you’re crowding Him out. (Mark 4:18) Make more room for Jesus to live and work in your life (Mark 1:2-3) by consistently denying yourself, taking up your cross, and obeying Him. (Mark 8:34) For many practical ways to do that, google, The Joy of Early Christianity.
The Christianity that matters is the Christianity that’s in your heart and in your actions. The rest is just fluff.
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Holy Spit — This is Unusual!
View all responsesJesus, my favorite artist, took a blind man by the hand and led him outside of his village. (Mark 8:23) Our pride has blinded us all to various degrees. We humans need to let Jesus lead us outside the village of our blinding habits, perspectives, traditions, attitudes, and zones of comfort.
Next Jesus did something very unusual and humbling for the man. Christ spit on the blind man’s eyes, touched him, and asked, “Do you see anything?” (Mark 8:24) With holy spit dripping from his eyes, the man said: “I see people; they look like trees walking around.”
Then Jesus touched the man again. Suddenly the formerly blind man could see everything clearly. Will you humble yourself and let Jesus lead you out of the cozy little village of your favorite habits, perspectives, traditions, attitudes, and zones of comfort? Will you let Christ spit in your eyes without complaining about the afront to your pride and ego?
Humility is extremely powerful. “God resists the proud but gives grace to the humble.” (James 4:6) “Humble yourselves, therefore, under God’s mighty hand, that he may lift you up in due time.” (1 Peter 5:6) We humans desperately need humility. It’s essential for genuine spirituality and clear vision.
Get low
And let God.
Learn to flow
Wherever
Jesus leads.
True humility
Allows you to see
From God’s perspective
Instead of your own.
To grow
With God
Let go
Of ego.
A Neighborhood of Caring Neighbors
View all responsesFar too often Christians who want to experience Christ beyond the control of Sunday morning church attendance are criticized and pressured to conform to the passivity and mediocracy of traditional church services. If they persist in their desire, they may even be rebuked by the pastor and told in subtle ways that they need to go through his authority and not directly to Jesus.
Prepackaged Sunday religion and Spirit-led Christianity are not the same thing. Here is a question for pastors. When you preach why not be directly led by the Spirit (Romans 8:14) living within you (Colossians 1:27) instead of by your sermon notes? (Mark 13:11)
It’s October — the month when criticism of church is praised. So here I go.
In October of 1517 a man publicly criticized 95 things about the church. He started a big fuss that has been going on until now. It is said that today there are more than 40,000 Christian denominations in the world not counting the millions of independent churches. The guy who started this mess, who diced up the church into self-sufficient fragments, is called a hero of the church. His name is Martin Luther.
The past 500+ years have shown that church doesn’t operate very effectively when it is run as a human institution and controlled by people. It trains its members to be passive and satisfied with mediocracy. Human run churches often hurt the people who want to experience more than a Sunday message.
Christ, Himself, wants to be the living Director and Head of His body. He doesn’t want people in churches to honor Him with lips while their heart is far from Him, and they ignore Him with their behavior.
The body of Christ is not and was never intended to be an organization. It is supposed to be a living organism under the direct control of the risen King Jesus. That only happens when individual Christ-followers are trained and allowed to listen to Jesus and do whatever He tells them to. Churches need to throw away their human programs and agendas and instead gather people to listen to and obey the risen Jesus.
“Be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves.” This is a very well-known and widely ignored Bible verse. For centuries churches have trained Christians to listen to the Bible preached and then to go their way and ignore what they have heard. They have taught people to disobey the Bible by not training them and giving them opportunities to actually do what was preached.
How can a church give people the opportunity and the courage to do the word? By making a sermon very short and practical, showing people how to do it, and then giving them time in the service to literally do what was taught. Here are some examples:
* Preach: “Confess your sins to each other.” (James 5:11) Then let people get on the mic and confess.
* Preach: If two are more people agree in prayer it shall be done for them. (Matthew 18:19) Then have people break into pairs and ask God for something together.
* Preach “Humble yourself.” (James 4:10) Then ask people to humble themselves during the following week and come back the next Sunday and share how they did it.
* Preach “Bless those who curse you.” (Luke 6:28) Then have people take turns standing up and speaking a blessing over someone who has cursed them.
* Preach “Give and it shall be given unto you.” (Luke 6:38) Then have people to personally give something to someone the next week.
* Preach “Praise the Lord.” Then have people take turns declaring the Lord’s praise.
* Preach “They overcame him (the devil) by the blood of the lamb and the word of their testimony,” and then have people take turns testifying about how they first encountered the risen Jesus and how He has changed and continues to change their life.
There are so many other biblical things that churches could train people and give them the opportunity to do. The important thing is to find a church somewhere that is willing to do that! Are you willing to be a doer of the word and not simply a hearer? Then do so!
October 5, 2025
Currently My Favorite Hobby is Language Learning
View all responsesMy favorite hobby is language acquisition without memorization. I have discovered that languages are most effectively acquired not by lecture style lessons or by memorizing vocabulary, verb conjugations, and grammar rules. They are acquired by great persistence and tremendous exposure. That’s how you and almost everyone else in the world learned a first language. That’s how you can become conversational in a second or third or whatever language.
For two years I memorized a lot of French in high school. I passed both courses but promptly forgot almost everything I had “learned.” Later I decided I wanted to learn Spanish. I tried to learn it three different times in my life. Once I focused on a college course. Another time I concentrated on an audio course that I purchased from the US State Department. The third time I focused on studying grammar books. In all three cases I eventually gave up on Spanish.
Three years ago, I felt prompted to try to learn Spanish once again. I didn’t want to repeat what hadn’t worked for me, so I started thinking about how I Iearned English. I realized that I never even tried to learn my native language. I simply absorbed it by tremendous and continuous exposure over a few years. That’s all — no courses, no grammar lessons, no memorization, no study, no lectures — “nada” — only constant exposure.
I decided to try the same strategy with Spanish. I began to watch Spanish language videos on You Tube every day for one or more hours. I also started reading the New Testament in Spanish. At first, I understood almost nothing, but I stayed with it. It felt good to hear and to read Spanish without making any effort to learn anything. Free from feeling pressure to memorize, the words and sounds of Spanish became fun for me.
After nine months I went for two weeks to a Spanish immersion school in Costa Rica and stayed in the home of a local family that didn’t speak English. That almost got me off track. Although the teaching was done in Spanish there was more emphasis on learning grammar than on enjoying conversation. I began to feel pressure not to make mistakes so a couple of nights I laid in bed trying to force grammar and vocabulary to stay in my head. However, all that did was make me afraid to speak. Fortunately, I quickly got back on track.
About that time two Spanish speaking families moved in next door to me. They didn’t speak English, and they were very patient with my broken Spanish, so I’ve been able to practice with them a lot. I also started using Duolingo, but only for exposure to Spanish, not for language memorization. Later I began attending a Spanish conversation group once a week.
I now watch Spanish videos made for Spanish speakers about subjects such as history, travel, cultures, religion, geography, and even science. When I use Spanish subtitles, I understand almost everything — without them, maybe 50%. Yet I’m being patient and enjoying the journey. I am now conversational (yet with plenty of errors). When I come across a Spanish speaker I try to start a conversation. I’ve met many delightful people that way.
Along the way, I’ve had to resist and reject discouragement. My progress has been slow. In Spanish they say, “poco a poco,” (little by little). I’ve had to overcome letting the fear of making mistakes and of looking foolish stop me from speaking to people.
I just recently tried to ask someone to pass the napkins, but I used the wrong Spanish word. The word napkins is “servilletas” but instead I said “cervesas.” In Spanish I said: “Please pass the beers.” The people around the table laughed. Instead of feeling bad about my mistake, I laughed with them, and I kept speaking in Spanish with all my mistakes.
That’s how I learned my first language. I absorbed it by continuous exposure, and I began to speak it with multitudes of mistakes. That strategy also worked for you as a tiny child. It will work for you now if you will courageously and consistently do it.
If you’ve ever been around traditional church, you’ve probably noticed that they use a similarly ineffective strategy to traditional language learning. Week after week churches line people up and lecture them in religion for part of an hour.
People who want more than a mere lecture are put into Sunday school classes or small groups and given a less formal lecture there. Sometimes they are handed handouts to study and even asked to memorize a Bible verse.
Therefore, many people simply sit through church meetings in a daze (or even fall asleep). They don’t learn much at all. The people who do learn some Bible knowledge rarely enthusiastically and consistently apply it in their daily life. Their Bible knowledge is simply unused information.
Perhaps churches could learn something from the more effective language acquisition strategy. Maybe instead of presenting routine lectures churches could open the Sunday morning mic and allow the people present to actively strengthen and practice what they are learning by publicly sharing it and using it to encourage one another.
I have discovered that we humans learn so much more effectively when we speak and use what we are learning than when we just passively hear a lecture about it. If churches would engage people during Sunday services and free them up to give direct input, Christians would begin to come alive!
I’ve seen that happen many times. Person to person, in churches, and in my blog posts I’ve been advocating interactive church for more than 5 decades. Yet I’ve influenced very few people to embrace it as an ongoing part of their life. Still, I’m not discouraged. I’ll keep writing and speaking out “poco a poco” because I believe that the seeds I feel prompted to sow will bear their God-designed fruit.
If you would like to acquire a more powerful and intimate relationship with the risen Jesus Christ, google my book: Beyond Church: An Invitation to Experience the Lost Word of the Bible–Ekklesia.
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Freedom From Undue Dependance on Possessions
View all responsesPossessions can weigh us down and distract us from more important things in life like inner peace, family relationships, justice, concern for people in need, or faith. It’s wonderful to be free from undue dependance on possessions.
Jesus sent His disciples out with the freedom to be spontaneous, not to follow a plan or a program or a discipleship curriculum. That was even before God the Holy Spirit had been given. (John 7:39)
How spontaneous were Christ’s disciples when He sent them out two by two? He told them “To take nothing for their journey except a staff—no bread, no bag, no money in their belts.” (Mark 6:8)
When they went, they did these things: “They went out and preached that people should repent. They drove out many demons and anointed many sick people with oil and healed them.” (Mark 6:12-13) Why don’t Christians today follow their examples by going out and preaching repentance outside of a church building; by driving demons away from themselves and others; and by putting oil on sick people and at least praying a strong prayer of faith that God would heal them?
Part of the reason is that we ignore the fact that all Christians have a calling and a purpose for existing. We do that by separating believers into two nonbiblical categories — clergy and laity — ordained and un-ordained. If you examine the word “called” in the New Testament you will see that it applies to all Christ-followers, not to people who hold a special religious office.
The Bible says that preachers are “sent” but not that they are “called.” If you are born again, you are called. Listen intently and persistently to God the Holy Spirit and let Him tell you what you are called to do. Then obey Him and get going without getting caught up in “ever learning but never able to come to a knowledge of the truth.” (2 Timothy 3:7)
God’s inner rivers of living water need an outlet. Let them freely flow from within you. (John 7:38) Jesus sent His disciples out with the freedom to be spontaneous, not to follow a plan or a program or a discipleship curriculum. That was even before God the Holy Spirit had been given. (John 7:39)
How spontaneous were Christ’s disciples when He sent them out two by two? He told them “To take nothing for their journey except a staff—no bread, no bag, no money in their belts.” (Mark 6:8)
When they went, they did these things: “They went out and preached that people should repent. They drove out many demons and anointed many sick people with oil and healed them.” (Mark 6:12-13) Why don’t Christians today follow their examples by going out and preaching repentance outside of a church building; by driving demons away from themselves and others; and by putting oil on sick people and at least praying a strong prayer of faith that God would heal them?
Part of the reason is that we ignore the fact that all Christians have a calling and a purpose for existing. We do that by separating believers into two nonbiblical categories — clergy and laity — ordained and un-ordained. If you examine the word “called” in the New Testament you will see that it applies to all Christ-followers, not to people who hold a special religious office.
The Bible says that preachers are “sent” but not that they are “called.” If you are born again, you are called. Listen intently and persistently to God the Holy Spirit and let Him tell you what you are called to do. Then obey Him and get going without getting caught up in “ever learning but never able to come to a knowledge of the truth.” (2 Timothy 3:7)
God’s inner rivers of living water need an outlet. Let them freely flow from within you. (John 7:38) If you’re not flowing with the Spirit, you’re quenching the Spirit. Too much focus on accumulating and owing stuff can quickly cause people to quench God’s Spirit. When Christ-followers gather to be led by the Spirit such amazing things happen that stuff loses much of its importance.
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Different Words Can Help Us See Things More Accurately
View all responsesThe thoughts and words
That you think and say
Will either lift your up
Or they will weigh
You down.
In the NIV version of the English Bible the translators quote Jesus as saying: “Don’t be afraid. Just believe.” (Mark 5:36) We’ve all have had a lot of people tell us to not be afraid and to exhort us to believe. But how do we do it?
It helps me if I say the same thing in different words. I prefer to say: “Ignore fear. Rely on Jesus.”
“Don’t be afraid,” tells me that I have to shut down or turn off fear. That’s very hard to do. For me it’s much easier to ignore fear’s tormenting noise — to act like it doesn’t exist — than it is to completely eliminate all my fear. Boldly quoting peace and hope filled Scriptures — in my mind and/or with my voice — helps me refuse to think about fear.
“Just believe,” tells me that belief is simple and I should be able to easily do it. However, in real life I’ve never found that to be the case. Belief for me is complicated and difficult. It’s much more than just making a verbal or written “confession of faith.” It easy to say I believe yet often it’s far more difficult than I can express with words to truly, totally, and sincerely believe.
“Just believe,” tells me that belief is an easy action. It’s something that I should just do and get it over with. But belief isn’t a one-step deal. It’s a lifetime process. Belief isn’t just the verbal acknowledgement of some claims or principles. Genuine faith is to rely and depend on those claims or principles, moment by moment, in your daily life.
You can simplify your life and amplify your faith right now. Ignore fear by constantly thinking about and celebrating how God is working all things together for your good. (Romans 8:28) Rely on the living Jesus by laying aside your own self-focused efforts. Begin to listen to and be directly and literally led from within, throughout each day, by the person of God the Holy Spirit (Romans 8:14) — “Christ in you, the hope of glory.” (Colossians 1:27)
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