Steve Simms's Blog, page 31
November 27, 2024
Dish Up Peace For The Holidays, Before It’s Too Late!
From their safety and comfort in the Kremlin and its bomb shelters, these guys have sent hundreds of thousands of young Russians to their death and caused the death of untold numbers of Ukrainians. That war is now threatening the death of multitudes of millions through nuclear annelation. Lord, have mercy on our planet. Lord, turn the hearts of leaders around the world (regardless of their political persuasion and national pride) to peace and compromise! More war isn’t the answer!
What to do About Invitations to Make Treaties with Evil
The human heart is continually being invited, enticed, and seduced to welcome, entertain, and make treaties with evil. In the midst of all of the corruption and temptation around and within us, Jesus calls us to purify our heart.
Purity is a heart that worships and relies on Emmanuel (God with us) alone — that acknowledges Him in all its ways as the one true Lord. Purity is contemplating the Lord’s glory and being transformed into his image with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit. (See 2 Cor. 3:18.)
The most effective way to fight evil is to start by purifying your own heart. Begin to single-mindedly obey James 4:8.
Purify yourself by obeying the truth (1 Peter 1:22) instead of following your own feelings, desires, and opinions. Jesus is the way, the truth, and the life. Incessantly surrender your will to Him as your living Lord and absolute Master.
Christ in you is the hope of glory. Love one another fervently with a pure heart. Blessed are the pure in heart. The pure in heart overflow with God’s love, even for their enemies.
Let us cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit. (See 2 Corinthians 7:1.) All who have hope in Christ purify themselves just as He is pure. (See 1 John 3:3.)
Confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed. (James 5:16.) If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. (1 John 1:9.) Humbly and ceaselessly allow Christ to filter your heart and remove its impurities and deceptions.
November 26, 2024
“Holiday” comes from the Old English word for “holy day”
View all responsesFor me every day is a holiday. The word holiday comes from the Old English word for holy day. For me, every day I am alive is a special holy day — a gift that God has dished up for me. Lord, how do You want me to worship You?
How awesome is the work that the Lord will do for us if we will humble ourselves and pray and seek His face and turn from our wicked ways. The Lord is looking for people to worship Him in spirit and in truth — who will honestly listen to the Spirit and obey His inner prompting instead of our own personal preferences and comfort zone.
I know of a young woman who recently had a radical encounter with Jesus. Now she gets up and runs around the room (during a worship service) when she feels moved by the Holy Spirit. Quite a few people are shocked and/or offended by her physical approach to worship, but she is courageous enough to do it anyway. I’ve not seen her do this, but I am sure I would be somewhat shocked as well (like Kind David’s wife was when he spontaneously danced before the Lord in public).
I want to be more like that young woman. I want to be freer to say and do whatever the Spirit leads me to, regardless of what people might think about me. Jesus may never call me to run around the room during a worship service, but if He does, I want to be willing to hear Him and be ready to roll. I don’t want to quench His Spirit even when Jesus prompts me to do something that will make me look strange or foolish to people.
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Extra! Extra! Read All About It! (What I Do with My Time)
I had an encounter with the risen Jesus that I have never gotten over. It continues till this day. That encounter instantly changed my heart from a hardened rocky space into a God place. Now the risen Jesus “walks with me and talks with me and tells me I am His own.” Christ continually invites me to “be still and know” that He is God — to “let God arise” within me so I can be single-mindedly led by His Spirit instead of by my own pride, feelings, desires, and opinions.
Suddenly I longed for and craved more than routine religion. I didn’t want to toast God with sanctimonious words but ghost His actual presence in order to boast in a self-focused approach to Him. Now I diligently listen to Jesus speaking inside my heart (no earbuds or headphones required).
I’ve learned that I don’t need to be in a crowd to enjoy His reality. Nothing is small where God is welcome to work. Every whisper from God to a single human heart is huge and is holy! I’ve discovered that it’s vital to my faith to notice and obey God’s simple promptings in my heart throughout each day.
Even the cruel cancel culture of the cross couldn’t cancel Christ. To this day He still calls: “Come unto Me.” I love to pay attention to His still small voice guiding me from within throughout each day. I am persistently thrilled to notice His inner nudging and be awakened, enlightened, and strengthened by what He has to say both through the Bible and directly to my heart.
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Beyond These 3 Pet Peeves — Religious Formalities, Performances, and Institutionalism
View all responsesI am a “non-liturgical reader.” I try to avoid reading the Bible (and other Christian writings) through liturgical eyes. I want to see beyond the ritual of routine religion and daily live out the reality that it tries to represent.
Ancient Orthodox monks wanted to do the same. They steadfastly repeated in their mind and heart an ancient prayer that dives deeply into the human soul and intimately identifies with our unceasing need for God’s mercy. It is similar to the prayer of David in Psalm 30:9: “Hear, Lord, and be merciful to me. Lord, be my help.” It’s called the Jesus Prayer: “Lord Jesus Christ, Son of the living God, have mercy on me a sinner.”
Ancient monks resolutely repeated that prayer until it began to automatically run within them and to open their heart to incredible insights about Christ and to amazing direct encounters with Him. You can read their testimonies in “The Philokalia,” a 5-volume collection of their writings from the fourth century to the nineteenth century.
A Christian’s posture toward Jesus should be the posture of persistent personal pursuit. We need to courageously avoid the posture of perpetual personal passivity that hides behind religious formalities, performances, and institutionalism.
Unfortunately, Christians have divided into separate religious organizations and refuse to resolutely live like we are all part of the same worldwide body of Christ. When we are unwilling to humbly connect heart-to-heart with one another and “consider others better than yourselves,” we are ignoring Jesus’ desire that “they all may be one.” “Lord, have mercy on us.
November 23, 2024
My Favorite People Radiate God’s Glory
Do you want to experience the glory of God — to behold the glory of Another in humility and hiddenness? Moses did. He said to God, “Now show me Your glory.” Paul declared, “Christ in you, the hope of glory.”
The hope of a Christ-follower isn’t just to cope and get by day after day. It is the hope of glory! That glorious hope is the reality of the risen Jesus living inside of you. It is what “no eye has seen, what no ear has heard and what no human mind has conceived — the things God has prepared for those who love Him — these are the things God has revealed to us by His Spirit.”
If you want to receive rivers of living water that release within you direct ongoing revelation from the Holy Spirit, begin to read the Bible at least 10 minutes every day. Let it work in you and touch your heart. Consistently do what God’s Spirit shows you. Then you’ll begin to daily live in awareness and awe of His glorious presence. Paul said that he thanks God “because when you received the word of God, which you heard from us, you accepted it not as a human word, but as it actually is, the word of God, which is indeed at work in you who believe.”
Christians need to daily read and obey the Bible, not just be Sunday sermon hearers. If I could get Christians to just do one thing, it would be to read the Bible at least 10 minutes every single day with an open, humble heart and then do what it says.
Daily absorb the Bible with your heart. It’s not enough to just analyze it with your mind (or to listen to someone else analyze it for you).
The New Testament
Is testimony
From the earliest
Followers of Christ.
The Bible is meant
To show the lonely
The living Jesus
And His glory.
It’s God’s written Word,
Not just an ancient
Document.
Humbly reading
The Bible daily
Won’t let your heart
Stay stoney.
November 22, 2024
Am I One of God’s Favorite Creatures?
View all responsesIs God “well pleased” with me? I know that God isn’t perfectly satisfied with and delighted by everything I think, say, and do. However, I also know that He consistently loves me, even when I displease Him.
I believe that the belief that God is well pleased with me is dangerous. It can quickly lead me to the self-righteousness and pride of the Pharisee who believed that he was a good person and looked down on others as bad people.
A voice came from Heaven and said that God is well pleased with Jesus, but I don’t think God said that about anyone else in the Scriptures. To be well pleased with someone implies approval of their thoughts, feelings, desires, and behaviors. The prophet Isaiah said: “All we like sheep have gone astray, we have turned everyone to his own way, and God has laid on Him (Jesus) the iniquity of us all.” If God was well pleased with us, then Jesus wouldn’t have needed to sacrifice His life for us.
In some of my thoughts, feelings, desires, and behaviors I am living in ways that please God (and I should “do this more and more,” see 1 Thessalonians 4:1) but definitely not in all of them. I haven’t yet arrived at a heart, a mind, and a lifestyle that fully pleases God. I desperate need His mercy, forgiveness, conviction, and presence to continually show me where I am not pleasing Him and empower me to please Him “more and more.”
God loves all people and His heart breaks over our rebellion and disobedience to Him. He loves us and through the blood of Jesus He has made a “new and living way” through the veil that separates us from Him so that we can live in His presence throughout each day. However, when we avoid Him, ignore Him, shut down our awareness of His presence, or quench the Holy Spirit (even for an instant), He isn’t pleased.
Paul prayed for the Colossians (1:10) that they would “live a life worthy of the Lord and please Him in every way.” However, I don’t know of anyone (besides Jesus) who has ever pleased Him perfectly.
I thank God that I don’t have to please Him perfectly. I thank Him for continually showing me so gracefully and tenderly areas when I am not pleasing Him.
If you have the risen Jesus crowded out of your life, make some room so He can step in and display His glory within you and through you. Mobilizing the masses of Christians to flow with the gifts and fruit of the Spirit has been the missing ingredient in the body of Christ ever since the institutionalization and formalization of church. Get going!
The cure for spiritual smothering
Is humble Spirit-led one-anothering:
“Love one another,”
“Teach one another,”
“Comfort one another,”
“Build one another up,”
“Pray for one another,”
“Exhort one another,”
“Encourage one another,”
“Look to the interests of one another,”
“Submit to one another,”
“Serve one another,”
“Bear one another’s burdens,”
“Care for one another,”
“Confess your faults to one another,”
“Forgive one another,”
“Be kind to one another,”
November 21, 2024
Beach or Mountains? I’m Thrilled Wherever I Pitch My Tent
View all responsesIn my heart I’ve pitched a tent “outside the camp” of the crowd of confusing and troubling thoughts that constantly try to harass me. There I “inquire of the Lord” and carefully notice the thoughts of conviction, wisdom, and peace that He deposits in my mind and heart.
As I am yielded and still, the cloud of His glorious presence fills my soul. I hear His “still, small voice” speaking to me “friend to friend.” Worship and adoration, like rivers of living water, flow out of my innermost being. There’s a “tent of meeting” with God inside of every human being inviting us to humbly open up and continually surrender our heart to His presence and reality.
When people personally and consistently experience God’s presence, power, and sacrificial love, they will persistently pursue more information about Him. However, when they are only given information about God, they will have little or no desire to actively, personally, and passionately pursue His presence, power, and sacrificial love.
The Bible can guide you to your inner tent of meeting. It is a collection of life-changing testimonies that are designed to touch and heal the human heart. It’s not a textbook of religious data to research and dissect with human analysis. When I read the Bible with an open heart, its convincing testimonies of the presence and reality of the living God thrill my soul and invite me to continually encounter Him.
Your mind can absorb and file data about Jesus, but only your heart can truly know Him. No amount of info about Jesus can impact your life like an intense inner relationship with Him can. Fully open up and surrender your heart to Christ and to His community of Spirit-led people. Let Him call you friend 24/7/365.
Begin to experience “encounter Christianity” — continuous close encounters with the risen Jesus. Then you’ll soon discover that inner demonstrations of God’s presence and sacrificial love are much more powerful than just hearing religious information about Him.
To let your heart
Live in and walk
Through the Bible.
All the day long
Far surpasses
Simply hearing
A weekly talk.
(See Exodus 33:7-11.)
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Feasting on the Presence of “The Top Three!”
View all responsesMy wife and I feast on the presence and reality of “The Top Three”– God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit–the Three in One! “O taste and see that the Lord is good.” God has “given to us exceedingly great and precious promises, that through these you may be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust.” “For My flesh is food indeed, and My blood is drink indeed.” (Bible quotes are from the New King James Version.)
Jesus said: “I am the bread of life.” Routine church services are quickly forgotten but getting out of religious ruts and feasting on the presence of the living God, make lasting memories.
People need demonstrations of God’s presence, power, and sacrificial love more than they need religious information about Him. When people personally and consistently experience God’s presence, power, and sacrificial love, they will persistently pursue more information about Him. However, when they are only given information about God, they will have little or no desire to actively, personally, and passionately pursue His presence, power, and sacrificial love.
Jesus leaves
The ninety-nine
For the one
Who’s gone astray.
Who’s there
Pursuing you?
It’s Jesus.
He’s everywhere.
No matter
Who you are
Or where you run
You can find
Jesus, God’s Son.
To repent
Is to stop
Trying to avoid
His presence
And reality.
Engaging in behaviors that produce guilt is not the way to find freedom from guilt. Human anger is not the fruit of the Spirit. It has another source. Learn to continually feast on “The Top Three.”
November 19, 2024
I’m a Disciple of This Historical Figure
The process of shifting from self-focus to Christ-focus–from a self-centered life to a Christ-centered life is called discipleship. Discipleship is to come out of hiding and to learn to fully open your heart and life to the presence, power, and direct authority of the living Jesus. Discipleship looks “not at the things that are seen but at the things that are unseen.” It beholds and obeys Jesus, the Lamb of God.
Just before Jesus ascended, He told us to “Go and make disciples . . .” To make disciples is to train people to continually hear and obey the risen Jesus instead of their own feelings, desires, and opinions. A disciple is someone who continually surrenders the control of their life to the direct Headship and Lordship of the Jesus. Discipleless Christianity is unbiblical.
I don’t think that lining people up in rows and lecturing them is the best way to make disciples. The Bible gives a better alternative in 1 Corinthians 14:26.
I’m a content creator crying out in the wilderness of social media: “Make room for the risen Jesus to be the absolute Lord and Master of your daily life. Move beyond complacent and comfortable religion into a dynamic, obedient, never-ending, lively heart-to-heart relationship with Christ. Learn to decrease so that Jesus can increase in you and the devil and His temptations to sin will flee from you.” See James 4:6-8.
Discipleship isn’t a weekly Bible lecture. It’s an everyday lifestyle of listening to and obeying the risen Jesus. It isn’t boring. It’s joy-restoring!
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