Steve Simms's Blog, page 35

The Freedom of Speech

America has a problem that an election won’t fix. One group insults and demonizes those who disagree with them. The other group calls the people who disagree with them “haters.” We need to respect people’s right to disagree with us and to stop trying to intimidate and coerce each other into silence. To say you believe in freedom of speech and then insult people or call them haters for disagreeing with you is inconsistent.

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My Favorite Form of Exercise is Beyond Physical

My favorite form of exercise is beyond physical. It is the exercise of my heart where I continually train my heart to surrender to the presence and reality of the living Jesus as I seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness.

Christians have access to a supernatural altar, the altar of an altered and surrendered heart. Two men walking along the road to Emmaus had more than a physical altar. They had the presence of Jesus, Himself, walking along and talking with them, but they didn’t recognize Him. Yet as He spoke their hearts burned within them. When they remembered Him (recognized His presence with them) in the breaking of the bread, He suddenly vanished from their physical view.

Once those two men knew that Jesus was with them, they no longer needed to depend on their physical senses to be aware of Him. His invisible presence was so strong to them that they began to praise God and boldly and openly profess His name. They rushed back to Jerusalem to celebrate Christ’s presence and reality with the other disciples.

The book of Hebrews says that “We have an altar from which those who minister at the tabernacle have no right to eat.” We who have surrendered our life and our will to follow and obey the risen Jesus have so much more than a physical altar. We have the altar of the heart, the inner altar of a heart that is ever being altered (sanctified) by the ongoing presence of Jesus — “Christ in you, the hope of glory.”

(I’m not aware of any Scripture that indicates that Jesus or the early Christ-followers worshipped at a physical altar. I’ve searched numerous Bible resources and can’t find anyplace that they did that.)

Because Jesus now lives within each one of His followers, Hebrews goes on to say: “Through Jesus, therefore, let us continually offer to God a sacrifice of praise—the fruit of lips that openly profess His name.” I love that word “continually.” Christ doesn’t come and go. His presence isn’t tied to physical objects, to physical places, or to our feelings. He comes to stay with us continually and He calls each one of us to abide in Him continually. “And lo, I am with you always.” Lord Jesus, help me stay continually aware of Your presence in and through my life!

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Moon Idioms Remind Me of a Priceless Gift

Daily writing promptHow much would you pay to go to the moon?View all responses

A great price was paid to give me (and all humans) the moon. All we need to do is to rely on that incredible payment.

I love Jesus to the moon and back. He has paid the price for me to have a relationship with Him that is over the moon! I’m moonstruck by His love for me and all humanity.

Too many Christians only get visibly excited about the risen Jesus once in a blue moon. Many moons ago the living Jesus changed my life and I’ve been thrilled by His presence and reality ever since. I know He hung the moon, so I love to hang out with Him day and night.

Jesus continually encourages me to shoot for the moon and not to settle for passive, causal, lukewarm Christianity. My life used to be like the dark side of the moon, but now it is like the full moon — basking in and reflecting the glorious light of the risen Son of God.

The Blood Moon reminds me of the blood of Jesus that washes away my sin, guilt, and shame and sets me free from bondage. The Harvest Moon reminds me of the fruit of the Spirit that the risen Jesus produces in my heart and in my life.

Don’t just passively ask for the moon. Actively reach for the moon. Continually focus your attention on the living Jesus and do what He prompts you to.

If you would like to be inspired by the glory of God, watch the movie “Brother Sun, Sister Moon.” Search for it on YouTube.

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Clergy Dependency

Instead of being coached to directly hear from God many Christians have been trained to rely on second-hand spirituality. They have been taught to depend on religious resources like sermons, pastors, and daily devotional books rather than on the direct leading and inner teaching of the Holy Spirit. They have been taught to believe that they can’t understand the Bible by reading it for themselves.

Religious professionalism and pastor dependency have caused too many Christians to believe that they aren’t able or qualified to personally hear from God. Jesus taught the opposite. He said: “The Advocate, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name, will teach you all things and will remind you of everything I have said to you.”

Shift your dependency. Begin to rely on Christ in you, not on religious resources.

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Being A Witness

Witnesses are people who testify about what they have seen and heard. They help other people discover the truth about various situations.

The last thing that Jesus is recorded as saying to his disciples is “You shall be my witnesses.” He also told them, “Go and make disciples.” Those two statements describe the role, (the vocation and responsibility) of a Christ-follower on earth. Jesus wants His disciples to be “in the world but not of the world.”

Jesus said His followers are to be “the salt of the earth.” When salt is added to food it changes its flavor, but it doesn’t become the food. Salt is in the food but not of the food. In the same way Christians should influence the world, but not think, speak, and behave with the world’s attitude.

Christians should make disciples by being living examples of a Spirit-led lifestyle — directed from within by “Christ in you, the hope of glory.” They are called to be “the light of the world” by continually radiating the character, presence, and power of the risen Jesus. Every single Christian should be a godly content creator and holy influencer directing people to the glorious beauty of Christ — not a sponge that soaks up the hostile, vain, negative, dishonest, sexually obsessed, competitive, carnal, and cruel content of their culture.

When Christians think, talk, and act like the proud and self-focused society around them they lose their witness. Instead of shinning Christ’s light they merely reflect the culture around them. Rather than being a missionary to bring light to the world, they become the world’s mission field and absorb its darkness.

Instead of blessing those who curse them, too many Christians are the ones doing the cursing. Instead of loving their enemies, too many Christians are spewing angry accusations. Instead of considering others better than themselves, too many Christians think they are better than others. Instead of praying for people who despitefully use them, Christians are praying that God judge those people. Instead of making disciples of Christ, too many Christians are letting their mean attitude drive people away from Jesus.

To be a witness for Christ requires living beyond your own opinions, desires, and feelings. It requires laying down your pride and humbly speaking the truth in love. Until Christians are willing to daily obey the living Jesus as their Lord (absolute Ruler and Master) their witness will be about themselves and their desires, not about Christ.

I remember when Christians were much more focused on, excited about, and passionate about Jesus than about politics. I miss those days!

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Specializing in Simplicity

I don’t need a lot of spices, a lot of recipes, a lot of fancy equipment, or never-ending instructions. I love simplicity and spontaneity. I guess that’s why I’ve never been a fan of organized religion. I prefer to simply “taste and see that the Lord is good” moment by moment.

Spiritual awakening occurs when people go beyond highly structured nominal religion into the blazing faith of simple Christianity. A deep “hunger and thirst for righteousness” can’t be satisfied by merely listening to religious words. It longs for an ongoing heart-to-heart relationship with the risen Jesus.

Simple Christianity is about continually experiencing the presence and reality of the living Jesus. There’s nothing complicated about it. Simply stay focused on Jesus and do what He prompts you to.

Simple Christianity doesn’t require a building, sermon-hearing, a religious professional, a written creed, an institution, ritual, music, or money. It just requires a heart open to continually listen to and talk with Jesus and to do what He says. The Bible calls that being led by the Spirit. Simple Christianity requires only one thing, a personal relationship with the living Jesus as Lord (Master and Ruler).

Religious professionals can’t put the fire of God in your heart. Only the Holy Spirit can do that. “Be filled with the Spirit.”

“Peace that passes understanding” doesn’t come from nominal religion. It comes from “Christ in you, the hope of glory.”

Simply your faith. Make room for the risen Jesus to be your all in all. “Quench not the Spirit.” Let the Spirit’s inner rivers of living water continually flood you with “joy unspeakable and full of glory.”

The further Christianity gets away from the risen Jesus the more complicated it becomes. I love the simple definition that Paul gives in Romans 8:14: “For those who are led by the Spirit of God are the children of God.” When Christianity is controlled and defined by religious professionals, they make it difficult for people to be led by the Spirit.

When the living Jesus is your Lord (absolute Master and Ruler) Christianity is very simple–just listen to His Spirit and do what He tells you to. However, when Jesus is just one aspect of your faith, Christianity becomes complicated and loaded down with requirements, formalism, and traditions.

The only Christian faith that can survive extreme persecution is simple Christianity. That’s because it doesn’t require meetings controlled and run by a religious leader.

Throughout history Christians have been persecuted, put in prison, and forced to live stripped bare of the complexities of institutional Christianity. Some of the most powerful Christian writings throughout history (including several books of the Bible) have been written by believers who were forced by incarceration to live their faith without the formalities of organized religion. “O taste and see that the Lord is good.”

Religious organization obscures the glorious reality of simple Christianity. It causes people to believe that they have to depend on a religious professional and/or a religious organization to make them right with God, when all they need to do is to continually surrender their heart and life to the risen Jesus.

“Joy unspeakable and full of glory” doesn’t come from passive religion. It comes from continual surrender to the living Jesus.

Religious professionals can’t forgive your sins, heal your hurting heart, and set you free. You need the risen Jesus to do that for you.

Religious professionals can’t produce the fruit of the Spirit in your life. You have to let the Holy Spirit do that.

Tired of jumping through religious hoops? Connect heart to heart with Jesus and experience simple Christianity.

“Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind.” Don’t leave your faith in the hands of a religious professional.

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I was part of a historical movement

I was an active part of a historical movement that involved millions of people as it occurred in America and around the world. There was a recent movie about it. It was a movement of light.

Time Magazine called the movement “The Jesus Revolution.” Now the world needs another one. “The deliverance we need now is from religion and into reality.” –JD Walt in Seedbed Wake-Up Call.

When you feel darkness in your heart, a sermon about light won’t help you much. You need this! “For God, who said, ‘Let light shine out of darkness,’ made His light shine in our hearts to give us the light of the knowledge of God’s glory displayed in the face of Christ.” (2 Corinthians 4:6 NIV.)

Jesus called His followers “the light of the world.” When lights shine together their brightness intensifies. Christ-followers need to meet and train each other to shine together as they take turns testifying about Jesus and demonstrating His presence and spiritual gifts to one another.

Jesus said: “No one lights a lamp and hides it in a clay jar or puts it under a bed. Instead, they put it on a stand, so that those who come in can see the light.” Instead of Christians gathering and allowing the people present to all put their light on a stand, we have the tradition of meeting in a way that causes everyone in a congregation to shut down their light and to sit passively to watch a preacher give a talk about light.

Christians, if you don’t wake up to the never-ending presence of God’s light, you’re sleeping on the job. “Wake up, sleeper, rise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you.” (Ephesians 5:14 NIV.) Actively be God’s light day and night! Don’t just listen to a Sunday talk about it.

Darkness never shines. Light always does. Which are you?

Your body isn’t a religious institution. The body of Christ isn’t either. The body of Christ is all of the people worldwide who are connected heart-to-heart with the risen Jesus. A religious institution can’t carry and demonstrate the life, light, and love of Christ. It takes people to do that.

Christians who “walk in the light” have a deep spiritual connection with each other. Let’s stand up and begin to walk in the light by openly and honestly sharing our heart with one another. To walk in the light is much more powerful than to hear a talk about the light. Try it and see.

When light
Comes around
Darkness
Shuts down.
We need more
Than the sound
Of a sermon.
We need to see
And to be
God’s light.

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Taking a Risk to Encourage You

Daily writing promptWhat’s the biggest risk you’d like to take — but haven’t been able to? View all responses

Our world,
Full of confusion,
Trapped in delusion,
Needs an infusion
Of hope.

I’d like to risk sharing more hope, but not just speaking from myself or in my name. I’d like to more directly speak what God puts on my heart, not as something I am saying but as words from Him.

The Bible calls that prophesying. I hesitate to do that because I don’t want to be presumptuous. I don’t want to speak my words in God’s name. What if it’s just me and my opinion and I only think it is God. So, I’ve tended to just say and write what God puts on my heart and let the people who read it and/or hear it decide where the words I communicate come from.

If I would take the risk to write what I sense that God is saying to the people who read this, I’d write to you:

God says: “I know everything about you. You can’t hide anything from Me. Yet, nothing I know about you makes me love you less. I am always reaching out to you, speaking in your heart, asking you to come to Me and to let Me heal your hurt, set you free from your confusion and rebellion, and bring you to a beautiful, never-ending heart-to-heart relationship with Me.”

I’ve been on a long journey of risk by walking with and seeking to daily obey the risen Jesus while getting to know Him better and better along the way. The more I’ve stepped out in obeying and trusting Him, the more He has shown His power, mercy, love, and presence to me. Here’s how my journey with Jesus began.

As a child my family didn’t attend church. However, when I was about 11, we started to attend a Presbyterian Church, and they sang these words every Sunday: “As it was in the beginning, it is now and ever shall be, world without end. Amen.” Those words never made sense to me. I didn’t want the evil in the world to never end. I believed in God when we started attending that church, but God felt so far away from me there that I became an agnostic. Later as a freshman in college I encountered a group of people who talked and acted like Jesus is really alive and really at work among them. The risen Jesus who I saw living in and through them came into my heart and life and I’ve never again been the way I was in the beginning as a fallen human being without Christ and without hope. I’ve been a new creature in Christ ever since then!

The biggest risk is not taking the risk to surrender to and rely on the living God to lead and direct your life. Boldly risk opening your heart to the living Jesus now.

Before Christianity was tens of thousands of independent religious organizations doing their own thing, it was people connected heart-to-heart to Jesus and to one another. Experience pre-institutional Christianity by talking and walking with Jesus without going through a religious organization.

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Beyond Pride to Gratitude

The longer I live the more I realize that I have nothing to be proud about. My life overflows with blessings not accomplishments. Every good thing that I have done and every accomplishment that I have experienced has been because of the goodness of God.

Like Paul in the Bible, I can say. “For I know that good itself does not dwell in me, that is, in my sinful nature.” (Romans 7:18 NIV.) Jesus described my situation when He said: ” If you remain in Me and I in you, you will bear much fruit; apart from Me you can do nothing.” (John 15:5 NIV.)

I am so thankful that Christ lives in me and is working in me to lead me by His Spirit away from my pride so I can embrace His offer: “Come to Me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.” (Matthew 11:28 NIV.)

Gifts of Grace

Jesus offers spiritual life
Beyond routine religion.
Religious rules
Are useless tools
For calming the whirlpools
Of anxiety
In human hearts.
But the gifts of the Spirit
Are supernatural power tools
That demonstrate the presence
Of the risen Jesus.
“Therefore, my brothers and sisters,
Be eager to prophesy,
And do not forbid
Speaking in tongues.”
1 Corinthians 14:39 NIV

Go beyond
The religious loop.
Gather with
Other believers
In a Spirit-led
Support group.

Christians, it’s time to take the spotlight off the same speaker week after week and focus it instead on the risen Jesus! It’s time to set aside pride and embrace humility.

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I’ve Been Working on Courageous Obedience

Throughout the centuries the institutional model of Christianity has tended to imply that people can collect enough religious sentiment and Bible information on Sunday morning to carry them through the week. However, the Bible says that God’s “mercies begin afresh each morning.” (Lamentations 3:23 NIV.) The mysterious manna in the wilderness that the Israelites called “What is it?” demonstrates that Christ-followers need to be trained to receive fresh activation from the Holy Spirit every morning and to let the Spirit lead and sustain them throughout each day.

Making disciples is much more than preaching to people once a week. It involves training them to be Holy Spirit activated and directed every day and night. That training focuses on helping people to recognize and listen to the Spirit and then to say and do as He individually directs them from within their heart.

Jesus told His disciples: “The Advocate, the Holy Spirit whom the Father will send in My name, will teach you all things and will remind you of everything I have said to you.” (John 14:26 NIV.) To be Christ’s disciples Christians need to be taught and reminded by the Spirit, day and night.

But “What is it?” What is the teaching and reminding of the Spirit? Many Christians don’t know what it is. The teaching and reminding of the Holy Spirit is God’s still small inner voice. Jesus, the God-man, said, “My sheep hear My voice.” The Spirit of Christ speaks within His followers in various ways: with their conscience, with thoughts, with images, with impressions, with ideas, with insights, with Bible verses, and more.

Christ’s sheep recognize His inner voice and refuse to follow the deceptive voice of strangers (the devil and his associates) or trust in their own voice. When something comes to your mind or heart and you want to do it, it’s most likely the voice of your own desires. If you don’t want to do what an inner voice says that voice isn’t from you. (It’s either from God or from the devil.)

If an inner voice violates Scripture and is in any way morally wrong, it’s not God’s voice. (It’s either from you or the devil.) If it’s tempting or coercive, it’s from the devil.

When an inner voice aligns with goodness and the other aspects of the fruit of the Spirit it is from God. A voice from God will not contradict Scripture or biblical morality.

Learn to recognize the still small voice of God’s Spirit. He’s speaking within you throughout each day. Be still and notice His voice. Train yourself to obey Him promptly whether you feel like it or not.

Begin to demonstrate courageous Spirit-led obedience in front of other people. Teach and train them to be Spirit-activated and Spirit-directed disciples. “For those who are led by the Spirit of God are the children of God.” (Romans 8:14 NIV.)