Steve Simms's Blog, page 309

The fruit of true Christianity

Jesus warned that there would be false prophets — counterfeit Christianity. So how can we tell the difference between true and false Christianity? Jesus put it this way:”Watch out for false prophets. They come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ferocious wolves. By their fruit you will recognize them. Do people pick grapes from thorn bushes, or figs from thistles? Likewise, every good tree bears good fruit, but a bad tree bears bad fruit.” –Matthew 7:15-17.

I believe that the fruit that Jesus is talking about is a person’s lifestyle, beliefs, and words. That fruit reveals whether a person is a Christ-follower or not.

Lifestyle: Does their lifestyle center around the living, resurrected Jesus? Does their life demonstrate the character, integrity, purity, love, and other qualities of Christ? Do they live like Jesus in their day-by-day life? Are they passionate about Him like the early Christ-followers were? If their lifestyle contradicts Christ, then they are not in line with Him.
Beliefs: Is their belief system, their worldview, consistent with Christ’s? Do their belief’s align with the words of Jesus and the rest of the New Testament — the foundational teachings of Christianity. If their beliefs disagree with Christ then they are not on the same page as Him.
Words: Is what they say consistent with both the love and the character of Christ and His teachings? If they say and teach things that differ with Christ, then they are not lined up with Him.

We not only need to recognize false prophets, we need to avoid their influence. Otherwise, we can be led away from true Christianity.  The Bible says: “Examine yourselves to see whether you are in the faith; test yourselves. Do you not realize that Christ Jesus is in you–unless, of course, you fail the test?” –2 Corinthians 13:5. We also need to examine the fruit in our own lives and see if we are “in the faith” or not? In an environment of false prophets, it is very easy to be misled and deceived. Does your life show forth the fruit of true Christianity?

Christianity is a day-to-day surrendering of your will to the living Savior; not a lifetime sequence of simply sitting through Sunday sermons. There’s no syllabus for salvation. Follow Jesus!

 

Jesus didn’t say to follow a preacher, a program, or a curriculum. He said: “Follow Me.”

Doing my daily Bible reading, I saw Paul describe a Christ-led support group in Romans 1:11-12. He wrote: “I long to see you so that I may impart to you some spiritual gift to make you strong—that is, that you and I may be mutually encouraged by each other’s faith.”

–2 observations–

1) Paul expressed a desire to “impart some spiritual gift” (not to present a systematic teaching); and

2) He desired to engage in mutual encouragement (community) not to be a 1-man authority. More @ this link.

The support group that sets you free!

A support group is an informal, interactive, participatory gathering of everyday people who openly and spontaneously share their concerns, issues, insights and experiences with one another so that they may encourage, comfort, and help each other to overcome problems, discouragements, frustrations, habits, addictions, etc. Support groups are often focused on a particular issue, such as alcoholism, drug addiction, depression, etc.

A Christ-led support group is focused on being directed and guided by the living, resurrected Jesus. People meet to listen to Jesus speak in their heart and then say or do what He tells them to. The original instructions for Christ-led support groups were written by Paul of Tarsus: “When you come together, each one of you has a psalm, has a teaching, has a revelation, has another language, has an interpretation. Let all things be done to build each other up.” –1 Corinthians 14:26 (WEB)

Some benefits of participating in a Christ-led support group include:

Overcoming loneliness, isolation, and self-judgment;
Experiencing  personal and spiritual growth;
Improving your ability to cope and your sense of adjustment;
Being able to safely talk openly and honestly about your life;
Reducing your worry, fear, anxiety, distress, or depression;
Obtaining victory over self-destructive habits;
Seeing God’s love working in and through ordinary people;
Helping others experience life-transformation;
Encountering Jesus as a present-day reality in your life.

Here’s a link to learn more about Christ-led support groups.

To experience a Christ-led support group in person, visit the one that meets at The Salvation Army, 225 Berry St., Nashville, TN 37207 on Sunday mornings at 10:45. Click here for a link to our Facebook page.

Mother Teresa did this:

Mother Teresa traced the tracks of Christ with her feet and while doing so she transformed her life and the life of countless others. Now the Catholic Church has officially called her a saint.

The truth is: All genuine Christ-followers are saints. Everyone who traces the tracks of Jesus with their feet and lives out Christ’s lifestyle is a saint. Saints are normal Christians. If anyone claims to follow Christ but isn’t saintly (Christ-like), then they are subnormal.

Jesus gave the world a new normal. Now He calls all His followers to trace His tracks and to live like He lived. Mother Teresa did. Will you?

Here are a few of her quotes:

Spread love everywhere you go. Let no one ever come to you without leaving happier.







Be faithful in small things because it is in them that your strength lies.







Kind words can be short and easy to speak, but their echoes are truly endless.







I have found the paradox that if I love until it hurts, then there is no hurt, but only more love.







If you can’t feed a hundred people, then feed just one.







Joy is a net of love by which you can catch souls.

Christ-led support groups, an inner prompting & the Anabaptists

Unfortunately, many Christ-followers have never experienced Christ-led support groups like the ones Paul talks about in 1 Corinthians 14. These groups are so powerful that Paul says: “If everyone is prophesying, when an unbeliever or an uneducated person comes in he will be convicted and examined by everything that’s happening. His secret, inner heart will become known, and so he will bow down to the ground and worship God, declaring, ‘God is truly among you!’” (1 Corinthians 14:24-25, International Standard Version.)

While I was thinking about the concept of Christ-led support groups, I felt a prompting to go pick up a copy of The Revival Study Bible that someone had given me and flip through it. As I did, I saw the following description of how some of the early Anabaptists rejected traditional church in favor of 1 Corinthians 14 style support groups.

Anabaptists rejected hierarchical leadership structures, emphasising that ministry was the responsibility of the entire congregation. If Martin Luther restored the idea of the “priesthood of all believers,” the Anabaptists restored the idea of the “prophethood of all believers.”

This truth is clearly seen in a Swiss Anabaptist document dated 1532-1534 and entitled Answer of some Who Are Called (Ana) Baptists: Why They Do Not Attend Churches. The primary reason they had given for not attending state churches is that these churches did not allow congregational members to exercise spiritual gifts according to “the Christian Order as taught in the gospel or Word of God in 1 Corinthians 14.”

The author chides Luther and Ulrich Zwingli for transgressing their own “original teaching” and impeding the “rivers of living water” by not allowing the free exercise of spiritual gifts in their congregations. He wrote, “It is Paul’s intention that if one sitting by or listening receives a revelation or is moved to exercise his spiritual gift or to prophesy, then the first shall hold his peace; and Paul says that all may prophesy one after the other.”

This shows an obvious preference for a congregational charismatic order in church meetings. Because the Holy Spirit resides in every member who possesses one or more of His gifts for the edification of the whole body, every member should have an opportunity to exercise that gift or gifts to build up the congregation. Therefore, Christian gatherings that are always dominated by one person cannot be directed by the Spirit. The author wrote:

“When someone comes to church and constantly hears only one person speaking and all the listeners are silent, neither speaking nor prophesying, who can or will confess the same to be a spiritual congregation, or confess, according to 1 Corinthians 14, that God is dwelling and operating in them through His Holy Spirit with His gifts, impelling them one after the other in the above mentioned order of speaking or prophesying?”

–From The Revival Study Bible, page 1595, by Winkie Pratney — a youth evangelist, author, and researcher from Auckland, New Zealand. (I heard Winkie speak several times during the Jesus Movement.)

Learn more about Christ-led support groups @ this link and/or come and visit the Christ-led support group that meets at The Salvation Army in Nashville @ 225 Berry Street, 37207, on Sunday mornings @ 10:45.

“The Holy Spirit is the gift of the Risen Christ. His anointing, filling, empowering work is a baptism of love that gives power to make Jesus real to you and known to others.” -Winkie Pratney

Pain — Drain, Strain, or Gain?

Pain can be a drain — emptying you of good things.

Pain can be a strain — loading you with unbearable burdens.

Or pain can be a gain — warning you to turn away from your destructive choices and behaviors; waking you to  your need to humbly open up and ask for help; and prompting you to desperately seek and surrender to the presence of the living, resurrected Jesus Christ and His supernatural strength and powerful peace.

I woke up this morning with the preceding thoughts in my mind. I got on Facebook and the first thing I saw was this quote by Leonard Sweet: “When you hit rock bottom, life’s lowest point, the hard rocks can either crush and shatter you, or you can trust the Rock of Ages, life’s ‘Ground of Being,’ to save and shelter you and set your feet on Higher Ground.”

Perhaps God is trying to encourage you to move beyond pain’s drain and pain’s strain and into pain’s gain by going after God with all your heart. One thing that helps me do that is to find and participate in a Christ-led support group.

 

Shall we overcome?

Shall we overcome? Don’t succumb to discouragement, self-destruction, and depression. Overcome through the reality of Christ’s love.

“Deep in my heart, I do believe, we shall overcome someday!” The lost word of the Bible is a recovery word. It can help you overcome. Learn more about ekklesia here.

Big bucks for EpiPens

Like some TV preachers, the maker of life-saving EpiPens, Mylan, is bringing in big bucks.  Mylan has been strongly criticized for continually raising the price for a two-pack set of EpiPens.  It is now more than $600, which is 600 percent higher than the $100 that it cost in 2008.

Do they need to raise the cost to keep from going broke? Hardly! News reports have said that Mylan has already made more than a billion dollars off of EpiPens.

EpiPens are truly amazing and life-saving. Ever since I was stung by some yellow jackets about 3 years ago and had an allergic reaction, I have been carrying an EpiPen. I appreciate that it can save my life. However, is it right for a company to continue to escalate the price of something that many people depend on for their very life?

The living, resurrected Jesus Christ is like an EpiPen. Keeping Him always with you will save your life. And unlike EpiPens, His price doesn’t continually go up. You don’t have to fork over more and more money to TV preachers or religious organizations in order to carry Jesus always with you. His cost has already been paid.

Learn more about how to carry the living Jesus with you at this link.

Christ called audibles are transformational

An audible is when a quarterback in football calls out a change in the programmed play right before the ball is snapped. Perhaps churches should let the living, resurrected Jesus be our quarterback and call out audibles during worship meetings.

Letting Christ call audibles would transform church meetings. They would no longer be a predictable routine, following the exact same format week after week.

If a football team will allow its quarterback to change plays at the line of scrimmage, why won’t churches allow the living, resurrected Jesus to make last-second changes in the Sunday morning program? (I can’t think of any good reason not to allow Jesus to make audibles, can you?)

So how does the living Christ make audibles? He prompts someone present in the meeting to say or to do something that isn’t on the program. I believe this happens often, however, the traditional Sunday morning format that is controlled by one man in the front of the room, has trained Christ-followers to sit passively and to ignore the audibles (promptings) of the living, resurrected Jesus. The Bible calls this “quenching the Spirit” and commands us not to do it. (See 1 Thessalonians 5:19.)

Christ called audibles can chance church-as-usual into the dynamic New Testament concept of ekklesia. Perhaps we should begin to encourage Christ-followers to listen to and obey Christ’s audibles in church meetings. “”Do whatever He tells you.” –John 2:5

Salvation Army “War Cry” Review of “Beyond Church”

War Cry, the national magazine of The Salvation Army USA wrote:

Beyond Church Takes You Past Sunday Worship

Have you ever wanted something more in life? Something more than religion? More than ‘church as usual?”

In the Western world, traditional church is in decline, Salvationist author Envoy Steve Simms points out in his groundbreaking book, Beyond Church, Christians can now be divided into two groups of millions: “Dones” (those done with church) and “Nones” (those who have no church affiliation).

Perhpas it is time for more than church. The thesis for this book is found in the oft-forgotten biblical word, Ekklesia. Simms invites you to go “beyond church” and experience Ekklesia, defining it as “Heaven’s ‘City Council.'”

But Ekklesia is not just a theological concept, Simms says, it is also a practical and living reality. Modern English language Bibles quote Jesus as saying, “I will build My church.” But in earlier versions, Jesus says, “I will build My Ekklesia.”

Simms argues that for hundreds of years this biblical word-switch has affected how the body of Christ has come together for worship. So what does Ekklesia mean?

Ekklesia  was the name of the city council in ancient Greek city-states. It was a democratic, interactive, participatory body of equal citizens sharing their concerns and needs with one another.

With a foreword by Major Stephen Court (USA Western Territory), the book is a plea to move past politics and hot-button issues and to awaken to the vibrant life and possibilities of godly community.

Get a copy here.

How This Review Came About . . .

While the National Religious Broadcasters Association was meeting at Gaylord Opryland Resort and Convention Center in Nashville, Tennessee, it came to me one afternoon to take a few copies of Beyond Church to the NRB convention and pass them out.

I wasn’t a registered delegate and didn’t really want to go pass out books. However, I obeyed the prompting and went. As I was walking around Gaylord Opryland I saw a man in a Salvation Army uniform. I started talking with him and found out that he was an editor at War Cry. I gave him a book and he thanked me. I said: “If  you like it will you review it in Way Cry.”