Steve Simms's Blog, page 50

I Got Out of Bed with a Calling and Purpose

Daily writing promptWhat notable things happened today?View all responses

I am so fortunate. I get out of bed every morning with a calling and a purpose. I wake up with something burning in my heart and I feel called to share it. I post it on social media and on this blog. Here are some of the notable thoughts that I woke up with today.

Paul (the writer of much of the New Testament part of the Bible) “traveled from place to place throughout the region of Galatia and Phrygia, strengthening all the disciples.” (Acts 18:23.) He was a personal trainer. Paul coached Christian groups and individuals to help people get in spiritual shape. He trained them to be led by God’s Spirit.

Paul explained his calling to coach Christ-followers in Ephesians chapter four. “Christ Himself gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the pastors and teachers, to equip His people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ. Then we will no longer be infants, tossed back and forth by the waves, and blown here and there by every wind of teaching and by the cunning and craftiness of people in their deceitful scheming.”

In the 21st century God wants to once again give the body of Christ personal trainers, men and women who will “equip His people” so they can attain “to the whole measure of the fulness of Christ.” The body of Christ needs personal coaches who will train and disciple Christians to be continually and spontaneously led by the Spirit. Will you be one?

Every time a Christ-follower listens to and obeys the risen Jesus they take a giant step in faith. “Christ in you” really is “the hope of glory.”

Here are some notable ways spiritual personal trainers can disciple Christ-followers to be continually led by God’s Spirit in the 21st century:

Create an environment of heart-to-heart community.Frequently pray Spirit-led prayers with other people. Give people hands-on practice in listening to and obeying the risen Jesus. Coach people to share their salvation testimony with other believers and with nonbelievers. Set up training sessions where people can practice ministering to one another. Open up church services so people are free to listen to the living Jesus and to publicly share whatever He tells them during the service. Coach people how to cultivate the fruit of the Spirit in their heart and in their lifestyle. Train people to open their heart and follow the Holy Spirit in free-flowing praise and worship.Give people opportunities to operate in the gifts of the Spirit and help them be more effective as they do. Give people training in how to see God in the beauty that surrounds them and in the circumstances that occur in their daily lives. Train people to read the Bible while keeping their heart sensitive to the voice of God’s Spirit. Coach people to seek and maintain and ever-increasing hunger for the presence of the risen Jesus. [image error]Pexels.com" data-medium-file="https://hopethoughts.com/wp-content/u..." data-large-file="https://hopethoughts.com/wp-content/u..." src="https://hopethoughts.com/wp-content/u..." alt="" class="wp-image-40073" />Photo by Antoni Shkraba on Pexels.com

I’m Passionate About the Ancient Greek Concept of Ekklesia!!!

Daily writing promptWhat are you passionate about?View all responses

I am passionate about the ancient Greek concept of “ekklesia.” It’s an incredible people-connecting, community-building idea that has been lost for many centuries.

I feel called to be an Acts 18:13 person — to persuade people to worship God in ways contrary to institutional church tradition. That tradition says that people should gather as spectators for a prearranged program and hear the same man speak week after week. Where did that tradition originate?

In 1517 a priest named Martin Luther persuaded people to worship God contrary to Roman Catholic tradition. He shifted people’s attention away from religious rituals and on to the proclamation of the Bible — away from the bread and wine and on to the pulpit. Few people could read in those days, and they needed someone who could explain the Scriptures to them more than they needed solemn ceremonies.

Ever since then almost 100% of Protestant (and non-denominational churches) have had a one-man sermon as the center of their Sunday morning service. However, you may have noticed that things have changed. Today almost everybody can read. People also have access on their phone to more sermons than they can hear in a lifetime. So, there’s really no longer a need for a church service to be focused on a sermon.

What we need today in a world full of human isolation and loneliness is Christ-centered community. We need heart-to-heart, Spirit-led interaction. Paul, the first century Christ-follower who brought Christianity to much of the non-Jewish world, was accused of disrupting religious tradition in Acts 18:13: “‘This man,’ they charged, ‘is persuading the people to worship God in ways contrary to the law.”

Paul was turning people’s attention away from formalism and human control to the presence and active Headship (control) of the living, resurrected Jesus. He taught: “Those who are led by the Spirit of God are the children of God.” (Romans 8:14.) And: “When you come together, each of you has a hymn, or a word of instruction, a revelation, a tongue or an interpretation.” (1 Corinthians 14:26.) (Free open sharing by anyone present was the way the city council, called the “ekklesia,” met in ancient Greek cities. When Jesus said He would build His followers together, He is quoted as using the word “ekklesia.”) Christ-followers are called to be bonded heart to heart with the risen Jesus and with His followers, not to be bound to a religious institution.

Nowadays gatherings of the body of Christ in the Western world seem to be like savorless salt — bland and ineffective at radically changing people’s life by intimately connecting them with an ongoing, fully surrendered relationship with the risen Jesus, the way the first century Christians did. It’s time to let Jesus be the active, direct Head of His body again. If churches truly want to help people heal, they need to let the risen Jesus take the wheel. We need to make church “ekklesia” again! (I’ve written a book that can help: Google: Beyond Church Ekklesia.)

There’s no clergy/laity system in the New Testament. It’s time for the body of Christ to become a Spirit-led community instead of trying to be a religious hierarchy. You’re free to go beyond Christian institutionalism and to begin to continually follow the supernatural presence of “Christ in you, the hope of glory”!

Surely some sexual activities are morally wrong.

I believe in right and wrong. I believe that many things are black and white and that shades of gray are often temptations that distort the way and lead many people astray. I believe that the only way to get rid of guilt is to admit wrongdoing and not try to explain it away by saying that morality is nonbinary. Freedom from guilt comes from confession and forgiveness not from denial.

Perhaps it is good to think rationally about sexual activity instead of merely defining it by feelings and desires. When people say, “Love is love,” it seems like they are referring to sexuality and saying that all sex is equal. But that isn’t true. The primary purpose of sex is to keep the human race in existence. There is only one kind of sex that can do that–sex between a man and a woman.

To declare that your desires are definitive determinants is to say that you are nothing but a biological robot. You are so much more than that! (Are the modern “anything goes” views on sexuality working?)

To deny the binary is to cut anchor from self-evident reality and drift into confusion and chaos. It is to banish clarity and embrace confusion.

My pride is nothing to celebrate. It wants to imprison me in self-focus and throw away the key, but humility can set me free! To repent is to shift from relying on human pride and to begin to fully rely on the risen Jesus.

To repent is to do more than to apologize and say you’re sorry. It is to sincerely and humbly ask for forgiveness and to do everything you can to make things right with the person you have wronged and with God. It is to change your thinking and behavior so that you don’t repeat the same offense again.

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When you have a reason to live, joy is always in season!

Daily writing promptWhat is your favorite season of year? Why?View all responses

Seasons of heart-felt joy are my favorite times of the year. When you have a compelling and loving reason to live, “joy unspeakable and full of glory” is always in season. Jesus is my reason to live. The more I trust Him the longer my seasons of joy last.

To trust Jesus means to stop relying on your own ability and effort and to begin to depend on His presence, His leading, and His action in your day-to-day life. It means to listen to and obey the ongoing promptings of the Holy Spirit within you. To trust in Jesus means to rely on Christ living in you to be your hope and to continually produce the fruit of His Spirit in and through your life. It means to not be afraid to speak the truth in love–to not be silent about the glory and reality of risen Jesus no matter the consequences. It means to lay down your defenses, to be courageously vulnerable, and to humbly open your heart to the people God puts in your path.

Jesus doesn’t want to be institutionalized. He wants to be engraved on your heart.

Consciousness is the center of the Universe because without consciousness there would no awareness of its existence. Keep your consciousness focused on the presence and reality of the risen Jesus!

Trust in God! When your power gives out, let Jesus be your inner life flow and fill you with His joy! Jesus is the reason for my eternal season of joy!

There’s no clergy/laity system in the New Testament. It’s time for the body of Christ to become a Spirit-led community instead of trying to be a religious hierarchy. You’re free to go beyond religious institutionalism and to begin to continually follow the supernatural presence of “Christ in you, the hope of glory”!

I’ve devoured church history for 5 decades. I love reading it and learning from it. It has brought me to the conclusion that the body of Christ was never intended to be a human led institution, but a Spirit-led assembly of Christ-followers who listen to and obey the living, resurrected Jesus.

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I Can’t Live Without the Luxury of Inner Peace

Daily writing promptWhat’s the one luxury you can’t live without?View all responses

The luxury of inner peace
Will make your anxiety cease.
It’s an extravagant gift
That will give you
A life changing lift.
Don’t let fear
And worry sift
Joy from your life.
Ask Jesus
The Prince of Peace
For His gift
Of inner peace.

Shake off sad endings
And move on
Following God’s Spirit
To new beginnings.

In the Bible (Acts 18:1-6), Paul reasoned with people and tried to persuade them to change their world view. He testified to the reality, presence, and authority of Jesus Christ, the Messiah, the Creator who became a man. But when people began to abuse him, Paul shook off his clothes in protest and moved on to find people who were willing to listen with an open heart.

Don’t be deterred from humbly loving and obeying the living Jesus with passion and persistence. Sure, some people will respond to your enthusiasm with abuse. (Remember that Jesus said, “Blessed are you when people insult you, persecute you and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of Me.”) “Bless those who curse you,” and move on. Keep talking to Jesus and talking about Him and the Holy Spirit will lead you to other people who will open their heart as you reason and share your testimony with them. Then you and they will see live demonstrations of the risen Jesus working in and through you and right in front of your eyes.

Repentance is a key to opening your heart to God’s gift of inner peace. To repent is to do more than to apologize and say you’re sorry. It is to sincerely and humbly ask for forgiveness and to do everything you can to make things right with the person you have wronged and with God. It is to change your thinking and behavior so that you don’t repeat the same offense again. To repent is to shift from relying on human pride and to begin to fully rely on the risen Jesus.

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Finding Purpose Beyond Rationalistic Materialism

Daily writing promptIf humans had taglines, what would yours be?View all responses

When people abandon the idea that there is more than matter and energy behind the physics, chemistry, and biology of the universe, they lose their way. It’s hard to have good mental health when people see no meaning to their existence. Rational materialism is irrational. It teaches that nothing produced everything.

Seeing life from a purely naturalistic perspective produces purposelessness — a life with no reason for existence. A materialistic world view offers nothing to overcome the deep sense of meaninglessness that many people feel. Rationalistic Western civilization uses entertainment, drugs, and alcohol as the opium of the people to distract them from the hopelessness they face under the materialistic world view.

Hopelessness happens when we fail to let the glorious grandeur, wonder, and design of the material universe keep our heart overflowing with awe and appreciation, for the one who created it. Materialism offers people no inner peace. Only something non-material can do that.

I’m always inspired and hopeful and filled with a great sense of purpose and meaning. Christ in me truly is the hope of glory! Because of an acute awareness of the presence, power, and love of the living Jesus, I have incredible meaning and purpose in my life.

The mystery of life’s meaning and purpose is revealed trough the risen Jesus. Behold the Lamb of God!

Jesus is my lifejacket.
When I fall off the boat
He keeps me afloat.

Surrender, Humility, and Trust

Daily writing promptWhat are the most important things needed to live a good life?View all responses

Once I heard a preacher say, “I want to hide behind the Cross so that people see Jesus, not me.” John the Baptist put it this way, “He must increase, but I must decrease.” The old hymn, Rock of Ages, says, “Let me hide myself in Thee (Jesus).”

As a new Christ-follower during the Jesus Revolution a burning love for the risen Jesus was birthed within me and He became as real to me as my physical environment. More than anything I wanted to help others to experience the living Jesus in the same way. When I would pray for God to use me to make people aware of His glorious presence and reality on earth, a frightening prayer would come flowing out of me, “Lord, do whatever you need to do to me to be able to do what you want to do through me.”

After praying those words, I would be in shocked and stunned silence, in unbelief that I prayed such a thing. Then these words would silently sound within me, “Do you want to take that prayer back?” I would be very tempted to modify what I had prayed, but after an inward struggle I would say, “No, Lord. Have your way with me.”

Like all humans, I’ve had difficult times. Mine have been primarily emotional. Delay, disappointment, and rejection have crushed and tormented my heart too many times to count, as I’ve seen my hopes and dreams demolished (sometimes right when it looked like they were about to manifest). Against my will, I’ve been thrust into hiding. It recently happened again, and I have nowhere to turn but to the living, resurrected Jesus.

My inner devastation constantly drives me to Christ in me. He gives me hope that He is preparing me so that His light can shine so brightly in me that people will be able to behold the Lamb of God with such clarity that they are miraculously set free to continually adore, follow, and obey Jesus for the rest of their life.

“No turning back. No turning back.” I once wrote this poem:

Watching your “old man” die,
Makes you want to cry.
Seeing all your hopes and dreams
Take their wings and fly.
I know that “old man.”
His name is “myself,”
But I can’t help him now
He belongs to someone else.
Jesus, I gave myself to you
Go ahead and do
Whatever you want to
To me.

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My Friend Who Often Corrects Me

Daily writing promptWho do you spend the most time with?View all responses

I have a friend who corrects me almost every day. When I’m going astray, He calls me back. When I’m being unkind, He reminds me to show love. When I’m rising up with pride, he calls me aside and reminds me how frail, fallen, and fickle I am. When I’m broken hearted, he picks me up, brushes me off, and leads me forward with hope.

I want to spend all my time with Him and that’s easy to do because He is both invisible and omnipresent. No matter where I go, there He is, waiting for me to interact heart-to-heart with Him. If you’ve read any of my blog posts, you know His name. It’s Jesus. He also has a title, Christ, which means Messiah, the Anointed One, our Creator who became a man to redeem us from our rebellion and adopt us into His eternal family.

This is what my friend is doing in me: I love to continually experience the demonstrative presence of Christ and His redemptive process working in and through me. He causes me to see life differently and many people think I’m a fool. But that’s okay because the fruit that Jesus produces within me fills me with His healing balm and restores my soul.

Christ working in me is beyond anything I could ask or imagine. He bypasses my mind and my desires. He continually takes hold of my heart and tenderly twits and reshapes it to His will, breaking the thought patterns that have held me in bondage. It’s a life-long process. He never stops boldly and lovingly showing me where I’m off His track. He re-tunes me to set aside my cherished discordance so that I can better sing His song in harmony with His living reality and with His will.

Jesus passes beyond my mind and my analysis so that I can directly experience His still small voice speaking within me and connecting me heart-to-heart with Him. As my chains shatter and fall off in Christ’s presence, I often weep the sweet tears of being stunned by His supernatural compassion.

When I ride
The inner tide
Of my pride
I collide
With reality.
But when I let
The risen Jesus
Speak inside
And be my
Inner guide,
He leads me to
His humility.

I was strongly rejected yesterday by someone I love dearly, and God has been showing me it will work for my good and for their good. I was just sharing that concept with my wife. Then I came to FB to post this revelation that came to me: “To abandon pride is the key to peace,” and the first thing that I saw was this prophetic post by a Facebook friend I don’t know in person, “The rejection was for your redirection.”

When people manipulate you into silence by making you fear giving your honest opinion, true communication ends because you no longer have the courage to humbly and lovingly speak what you really believe. When people are secure in who they are, they don’t try to silence or intimate (or block) people who disagree with them.

To give someone who loves you the ultimatum, “Either agree with my behavior or get out of my life,” is cruel. However, when the body of Christ gathers regularly to connect heart-to-heart with Jesus and with one another amazing love and power is released through the presence of Christ flowing through all (not just one) of His assembled followers.

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Church Isn’t A Bad Thing, It’s Just Not Enough

In this picture:

1) There are no spectators.

2) Everyone feels free to speak out in the meeting.

3) Their focus is on the living Jesus.

I think Leonardo got it right in his famous painting. I wish churches would follow that format.

I’ve never said that church is a bad thing. I continually say that church is far from enough. Being a Christian involves so much more than hearing a Sunday sermon, no matter how good the sermon might b

The chopped up intuitional church that is divided into hundreds of thousands of separate denominations and independent churches that disagree with each other while claiming that their doctrine is right, even if it disagrees with the Bible. Since Jesus prayed that His body be one, surely that means that churches are at least somewhat messed up.

God has used the intuitional church throughout history. The devil also has used it through complacency, compromise, religious hatred, false doctrine, and religious violence. It’s the wheat and the tares. I don’t want to eliminate it. I want to help reform it. I’ve been in instutional churches until I was forced out 7 years ago. The 10 years before my wife and I planted and oversaw a church, that met like an AA meeting, in a major denomination. The support and love from that denomination was incredible until one man with a strong religious demon got the power to shut it down. As I write this, I am ministering in that denomination last night and tonight. Many of its leaders are hungry for reformation.

Church bags Jesus
In the bags
Of ceremony
And history,
But Jesus lives
To set you free.
Don't settle for
Religiosity.

Love Means Not Demanding Approval

We need kind respectful discussions on sexuality, politics, and religion that don’t try to shame other people and shut them up for disagreeing. Everybody will never see those three things the same way. And that’s okay. Let’s respect each other anyway and not feel threatened by those who disagree with our point of view.

I’m weary of being told that I don’t accept and respect people because I disagree with their lifestyle. Acceptance and respect have nothing to do with approval. To call someone “phobic” because they won’t applaud a certain lifestyle is a form of manipulation.

You have the right to your lifestyle, and I have the right to disapprove of it (and vice versa). Let’s honor those rights. To demand that other people approve of your lifestyle is a sign of insecurity.

Guilt doesn’t come from other people. It comes from violating your own conscious. Let’s lighten up and respect people’s right to disapprove of our thoughts, words, and deeds.

Disagreement
Isn't judgement.

My different
Point of view
Doesn't mean
That I hate you.

The birds and the bees
Don't do as they please
And float with the breeze
Of confused identities.
Instead, they do
According to
The true design
Of their bodies.

Reality is binary.
Opposites abound.
They are all around.
Even AI is binary.
Reality says
Make believe genders
Can't make babies.
Only male
And female
Can do that.