Steve Simms's Blog, page 57

Rainbow Revelations

A rainbow reveals the hidden beauty of light. Open your heart to God’s light. Let Him drive out all of your darkness and fill you with His beauty.

God put the rainbow in the sky. It’s His sign, not ours. God’s rainbow is about His mercy. When you’re caught in a storm of guilt, look for His forgiveness, not His applause.

The rainbow is God’s call to:

Turn away from our rebellion;Be reconciled to Him; andLet Him rule and reign in our daily life.

The rainbow represents eternal beauty, not the short-term pleasure of our favorite sins. It’s God’s offer of forgiveness. lt isn’t His approval of our sin.

The rainbow represents God’s promise and offer of mercy to all people. It’s not just for a particular group of people. That mercy was made available by Christ’s death on the Cross and is now available to whosoever will receive it. “All we like sheep have gone astray; We have turned, every one, to his own way; And the Lord has laid on Him the iniquity of us all.” –Isaiah 53:6

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Freelance Church Reformer

Daily writing promptWhat job would you do for free?View all responses

I was mislead
To think someone dead
And forever gone,
But then I learned that
He’s still going strong.
I met Jesus Christ
Outside of church walls.
Now every day He calls
For me to follow Him
And as I do
Adventure flows
And my heart grows
Beyond anything church
Ever told me about.

Now I’m a freelance church reformer. It’s a job I do for free. I believe that the traditional church format misrepresents the risen Jesus. So, I speak and write about the biblical alternative of Spirit-led gatherings (based on Romans 8:14 and 1 Corinthians 14:26). I also frequently gather with other believers for us all to listen to the risen Jesus and then for each person to say and do what He tells them to.

Traditional church presents Jesus as dull and boring. The truth is that He is constantly restoring and thrilling the hearts and lives of those who daily hang out with Him.

Church acts like Jesus is dead and long gone. The truth is that He is present today and still going strong.

Church talks about a Jesus that is tied to religion. The truth is that it was religious people who pressured Rome to kill Him.

Church makes people dependent on a professional clergyman. The truth is that Jesus wants His followers to listen to and depend on Him. He says: “My sheep hear my voice.

Church causes people to think that Jesus has an on and off switch and is confined to a Sunday religious program. After we sit through the routine between the “Call to Worship” and the “Benediction,” we think that He is done with us for the week. The truth is that following the living Jesus is a totally committed lifestyle of continual surrender to His presence and His will, not a religious “service” that we sit through once a week.

I’m not criticizing people for going to church. That’s fine. I’m encouraging people to go beyond church and to begin to enjoy the glorious experience of a moment-by-moment relationship of continually interacting with and obeying the risen Jesus.

When problems come
And our hope dries out
Our roots are forced to
Grow deeper and stronger
To reach the water
That flows from Jesus,
Christ in you, the hope
That releases glory,
And roots and grounds us
In the depths of His love.

Often a breakthrough
Requires we go through
Things that break us down
So we’re desperate enough
To let God get through
The wall of our church pride.

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Community Requires Openhearted Communication

Daily writing promptHow would you improve your community?View all responses

Genuine community requires honest caring and openhearted communication. It can’t be built on trivial talk that hides what’s really going on inside people’s heart.

Without heart-felt community people tend to shut down tender, caring communication. Instead, they mainly talk about superficial subjects in superficial ways. Then they feel isolated and alone.

The first step to improve any community is to cultivate an ongoing atmosphere where people feel safe to open their heart and courageously reveal both their concerns and struggles and their celebrations. Unfortunately, honest, heart-sharing community is difficult to find outside of formal support groups and compassionate counseling sessions.

People can’t be compelled to open their heart up to other people. Trying to force people to share what’s on their heart doesn’t work. But seeing other people open up and feeling the love that fills a room when they do, gives people the courage to do the same.

If you want to be connected heart-to-heart to others, don’t wait for someone else to move beyond trivial talk. Boldly be the first and you will notice that your vulnerability opens the door for other people to be vulnerable as well.

Christianity is supposed to be about heart-connection with the risen Jesus and with other people. Unfortunately, over the centuries it morphed into a formalized religious program presented on Sunday mornings. However, when you read the Bible, you see a different story. The writers open their heart to you and honestly reveal their failures, their struggles, and their victories. Another step toward genuine community is to begin to daily read the New Testament (the last third of the Bible) with an open, humble heart and then do what it says.

Christ in you is supposed to be an ongoing reality. Christ-followers are called to be transformed into His image from glory to glory as we behold the Lamb of God, surrender our will to His presence, and make room for Jesus to live in and direct our life by His Spirit, moment by moment. Jesus living in you is more than any metaphor can explain. The Holy Spirit wants to teach us to be continually aware of His presence and to promptly obey His inner promptings.

The risen Jesus is still living! Make room for His presence wherever you are. Let Christ in you give you the courage to open your heart to people and let them see His presence and love flowing out of you throughout the day. Then you will improve your community wherever you go.

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Adapting to Change by Putting First Things First

Daily writing promptHow have you adapted to the changes brought on by the Covid-19 pandemic?View all responses

Put first things first. Desires can be changed. Desires are not a track that people are compelled to follow. It’s a fact that people can and do recover from captivity to various kinds of cravings.

Life goes much better when you determine and control your desires instead of letting them manipulate and define you. If you cling to your compulsions, they will cling to you, and you will believe the lie that says you can never be free from them.

The belief that desires can’t be changed causes people to surrender to and be motivated and controlled by their cravings rather than by their conscience and their rationality. It creates continual captivity to cravings.

Every time you give in to a manipulating compulsion, get up and increase your resistance! If you give controlling your desires a day off, they will quickly knock you off course and retake control of you. Never stop resisting and renouncing the cravings that are controlling you holding you captive.

You’re not your cravings. They have no right to define you. You are so much more than your compulsive desires! Live beyond them!

Celebrating cravings and compulsions keeps people forever in their captivity, however, the concept of recovery from cravings and compulsions gives people hope and leads the way to freedom.

The recovery movement that was popularized by a focus on recovery from a compulsion to drink and/or abuse drugs developed 12 steps that when diligently and persistently applied, effectively work to change human desires. It has proven that human desires and compulsions are not set in stone but can be changed.

True love intensely desires to hear God’s voice and to be led by His Spirit. “Follow the way of love and eagerly desire gifts of the Spirit, especially prophecy.” (1 Corinthians 14:1.)

People who daily read the Bible with an open, honest, and humble heart soon discover that it changes their desires and molds them from within. Try it for yourself. Read the New Testament for at least 5 minutes every day for 21 days (without missing a day) and you will be amazed at what happens inside of you.

The Bible says that humans have the ability to control our desires. We don’t have to be their slaves. “Put to death, therefore, whatever belongs to your earthly nature: sexual immorality, impurity, lust, evil desires and greed, which is idolatry.” (Colossians 3:5.)

Jesus said that you need to make your greatest desire be a deep hunger to be daily governed by God and His righteousness (His moral purity). (See Matthew 6:33.) People who create an ongoing hunger and thirst for righteousness within them will be blessed and filled with a sense of wellbeing. Make the kingdom of God and His righteous your first and overriding desire.

If you want better desires, you have the ability to reset them. Seek first the kingdom of God and healing change will come.

If your friends made a list of the people that they know who are desperately hungry and thirsty for more of Jesus, would you be on their list? Get addicted to the risen Jesus! He’s the only addiction that can truly set you free.

The most powerful source of recovery from controlling cravings and compulsions is the living, resurrected Jesus Christ. Make it your desire to pursue an ever-deepening relationship with Him with all your heart. I believe that there are more effective ways for Christians to gather around the risen Jesus than the traditional church model.

Let Christ “dwell in your heart” and experience “love that surpasses knowledge.” Daily live “through His Spirit in your inner being.” Be “rooted and established in love” and “have power together with all the Lord’s holy people.” (See Ephesians 3:14-21.)

Jesus is the only human being that will ever be one with God. The rest of will never be part of the godhead. We are called to surrender to our will to God and be forever connected with Him heart-to-heart. I feel that heart-connection every day.

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Morning Listening (Jesus: Dead or Alive?)

Daily writing promptWhat are your morning rituals? What does the first hour of your day look like?View all responses

When I wake up, I stay in bed and listen. Then one at a time, thoughts begin to develop in my mind. Eventually I have more thoughts than I can remember so I get up and post them on Facebook. Then I link them together as I post them on my blog.

I’m writing this on Easter Sunday 2024. The following is what I heard this morning:

Because Christ arose, you can be continually conscious of and connected heart-to-heart with the risen Jesus! Settle for nothing less.

Christianity arose because Jesus arose! It was based on Christ-followers having an intimate personal relationship of ongoing surrender to the risen Jesus and being continually led by His Spirit. It was never intended to be a religion or an institution.

One day there arose from deep within me rivers of living water. They continually flow unless I stop them. I love to let the risen Jesus live in and freely flow within me by His Spirit. “‘Whoever believes in Me, as Scripture has said, rivers of living water will flow from within them.’ By this He meant the Spirit, whom those who believed in Him were later to receive. Up to that time the Spirit had not been given, since Jesus had not yet been glorified.” (John 7:38-39.)

Dead Jesus or risen Jesus? Which do you prefer? A dead Jesus is trapped in religion. The risen Jesus transcends religion and ever demonstrates His presence, power, and love to those who humbly receive Him and are willing to be led by His Spirit. (Romans 8:14.) A dead Jesus is boring. The risen Jesus is life transforming!

A dead Jesus is powerless. The risen Jesus does marvelous miracles. A dead Jesus is stuck in history. The living Jesus is writing His story every day in the lives of those who surrender to Him.

A dead Jesus is easy to ignore. The risen Jesus continually calls people to daily live in His presence. A dead Jesus doesn’t satisfy the human heart. The risen Jesus heals, comforts, protects, and empowers surrendered hearts.

A dead Jesus needs programmed church services. The risen Jesus wants to replace religious programs with His presence. Instead of hearing talks about the historical Jesus like He’s dead and can’t speak for Himself, Christians need to continually demonstrate the presence, power, compassion, and reality of the risen Jesus.

Celebrating a risen Jesus day once a year is not enough! Christians need to follow and obey the risen Jesus all day every day. “Christ arose!” by any other name is still as sweet. Happy Easter! Living a risen Jesus life is much more important than celebrating a risen Jesus day. He is risen every day all day long!

A dead Jesus needs pastors to lead and control church services. The risen Jesus (by His inner voice) can lead church services by Himself.

When Christ entered my heart
There arose such clatter,
Nothing else seemed to matter.
My doubts had to scatter.
I’ve never been gladder!
Now the risen Jesus
Is the subject matter
Of my daily life!

A dead Jesus
Seems far away.
The risen Jesus
Is the living way,
Who guides His followers
Throughout each day.

A dead Jesus
Is stuck in the prison
Of human history
But the Jesus
Who is risen
Is always close by.

And here are a few “left over” thoughts from yesterday:

Let God roll away the stone that keeps death in your heart so Jesus can fill you with His resurrection life. Jesus left His tomb empty so He can fill you with His presence. The rejection of the risen Jesus is often based on the fear of accountability. If you believe that Jesus is alive and present, don’t act like He’s dead and gone.

The resurrection of Jesus isn’t something to be remembered once a year. It’s something to experience every day. Show that Jesus is really risen. Let Him take control and be the literal Leader of your life.

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Consciousness Makes People Unique

Daily writing promptWhich aspects do you think makes a person unique?View all responses

Without CI (Conscious Intelligence) there would be no one to appreciate, ponder, or analyze nature and the Universe. Conscious Intelligence is the center of the Universe, because without consciousness the concept of “center” is meaningless.

You can choose to control your consciousness (CI). You can focus it on what’s beautiful, meaningful, and uplifting, or you can let it drift into purposeless, mindless, and destructive distractions.

The human capacity for consciousness, comprehension, cognition, and creativity is celebratory. We have the amazing ability to be aware of and astounded by the fact that we are awesomely assembled and wonderfully made. What a marvelous mystery we are! If you will begin to pay close attention to your consciousness, you will become amazed by the incredible mystery of you.

The human brain receives consciousness through wireless communication from beyond its physiology. It receives conscious awareness. It doesn’t produce it.

The belief that humans are only physical, nothing more than matter, is an illusion. Consciousness shouts out that people are more than biological machines, but materialists refuse to hear it.

The modern myth of materialism says that the most real thing about you, your consciousness, doesn’t really exist. It proclaims that consciousness is a mere mirage produced by electrons bouncing around in your brain. From a materialist point of view, “Know yourself,” is meaningless advice, because if your “self” is only the result of material processes then there’s no one there to know — only a machine.

Human consciousness is metaphysical. Every moment that we experience awareness is a mysterious and mystical moment. Consciousness can’t be explained by natural causes or by brain science. Cognition transcends materiality and physicality. The human mind is more than the brain. It’s supernatural.

Western culture is in crises because of a lack of moral consciousness. Since the all-powerful God already knows everything about you, it makes no sense for you to hide it from other people. You’ve already been found out. Your secrets are showing on the screens of heaven, yet God is offering you forgiveness and restoration. Access granted!

Once you truly accept, receive, and live in God’s offer of forgiveness and intimate relationship with Him through the Cross of Christ, you can begin to be incredibly honest. You become free to share your heart with other people. You’re ready to openly and humbly admit your sins, shortcomings, and insecurities. You’re willing to give people full access to what’s really going on inside of you. You are set free from the burden of secrecy, suspicion, and self-consciousness.

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My Name Doesn’t Matter

Daily writing promptIf you could have something named after you, what would it be?View all responses

My name doesn’t matter. There’s another name I want honored.

Jesus Junction:
Will you do
What Jesus
Wants you to,
Or will you
Do what you
Want to do?

Jesus didn’t rise from the dead
To make you comfortable.
He rose from the dead
So he can get in your head!
Listen to the risen One!

Discomfort destroys complacency and awakens Christians to Christ’s presence and reality. Mountain climbers aren’t comfortable. Comfortable Christians don’t climb spiritual mountains.

Comfortable Christianity is a Spirit-quenching trap. Disciples are ready to be uncomfortable for Jesus. They won’t stay trapped in comfortable Christianity. You can’t be God’s pioneer if you cling to your comfort zone.

If you want to be comfortable, don’t listen to and obey Jesus. If you want to be full of inner peace and joy, do! When the going gets uncomfortable, the comfortable stop going forward and settle into passive religious routine.

Jesus paid the price to Cross out our sin so that we can cross the vast expanse between us and God and live every day in intimate heart-to-heart connection with Him as we let the Spirit lead us moment-by-moment and freely flow from within us as rivers of love, joy, peace and the rest of the fruit of the Spirit.

“May the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all.”

Love Meetings Make Me Laugh With Joy

Daily writing promptWhat makes you laugh?View all responses

Love meetings make me laugh with beautiful joy that freely flows from my heart. Loving laughter is a wonderful thing. It connects people heart-to-heart and helps them to be open and honest with each other.

To open your heart to God is to open your heart to love and joy. Where there’s little visible love, God is being resisted. Where there’s lots of love and joy, God is being welcomed.

Love isn’t sentimentalism. It’s not a program. God is love! He cares enough to call all people to freely come to Him and to live moment-by-moment aware of and surrendered to His presence. People who continually respond to that invitation radiate love throughout the day.

When people who do that assemble themselves together, heart-changing love, compassion, and forgiveness fill the room. They visibly spread from person to person as released by God’s Spirit. Christ is living in and manifesting His love and healing presence through all those who embrace and obey His inner promptings.

When the members of the body of Christ begin to listen to and individual act in response to the voice of “Christ in you, the hope of glory,” the Gospel story is clearly demonstrated in their midst as a sense of awe fills the room. I’ve seen that happen many times. The first time I experienced it, it completely changed my life and ever since then I have continually hungered and thirsted for that kind of literal manifestation of God’s love. “O taste and see that God is good!”

Attraction to religious distraction often traps Christians in spiritual inaction and blinds us to the moral crises within and around us. The purpose of church shouldn’t be to get people to learn or to repeat what a pastor says, but to train them to directly hear God. It should be a loving, interactive support group humbly helping people discover and obey the voice of God in their conscience (They say that church is family, but how many families line the members up in rows to hear a weekly lecture?)

The biggest and most ignored crises facing humanity and our planet is the moral crises that has produced a lack of self-sacrificing love. The neglect and avoidance of self-denying love has been driven by the modern movement to ignore, deny, reject, and refute the voice of conscience. Following the human conscience leads to living by God’s moral standards and to speaking the truth with love and genuine respect for others.

If you aren’t listening to and obeying your conscience, the law of God written on your heart, you’re in a moral crisis that is pulling you away from genuine love, whether you know it or not. The best investment you can make for your happiness and peace of mind is to listen to and obey your conscience.

When people don’t have the freedom to speak against the things their conscience says are morally wrong, they aren’t free. They’re trapped in an unloving moral crisis. No person, group, organization, or government has the right to try to make you say, do, or support anything you believe is morally wrong.

Be conscious
Of your conscience.
To decide
To set aside
Your conscience
Is to ride
Life’s riptide
Without God
As your guide.
That kind of pride
Is dangerous.

There’s a popular pill that people are using to kill their unborn child–a kill pill. My conscience tells me that taking the life of a developing human being is morally wrong. My conscience tells me that all types of cruelty and unkindness are wrong whether through words or actions.

To treat the action
Of procreation
And heart-connection
As recreation
And nothing more
Is morally wrong.

The Christian message of Easter means that Jesus is here now (wherever you’re reading this) at this very moment. (He’s speaking in your conscience.) Listen and let Him lead you out of your moral crises and empower you to follow Him with love and joy. Where do you interact with and surrender to the risen Jesus?

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When I was 5, I wanted to be a peacemaker!

Daily writing promptWhen you were five, what did you want to be when you grew up? View all responses

When I was five years old, I wanted to be a peacemaker. I used to ask my mother and father, “Why is there war?” Asking that question would break my heart and make me cry.

As a little boy, I wanted to put an end to war. I still do. I wanted people to be kind to each other. I still do.

The wars around the world break my heart. The verbal hostility in my own country does too. But what can anyone do about it?

Start small. True relationships are heart-connections. When hearts harden relationships break. A tender, Spirit-led heart can often soften a hardened heart. When a broken relationship comes to your mind approach the person with love, humbly seeking reconciliation.

Show that you care about and value the person, even if you feel like they don’t care about and value you. If you’ve done anything that brought them offence, communicate sincere apology and remorse, verbally and physically demonstrate sorrow and repentance, and directly ask for their forgiveness.

Let go of both shame and blame so God can mend your heart and the other person’s. You can’t always completely restore a relationship, but you can soften your heart so that you can more freely open up to and surrender to the reconciling presence of the risen Jesus.

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Individualism is misunderstood.

Daily writing promptWhat’s something most people don’t understand?View all responses

True individualism isn’t pride and self-focus. It’s inner hunger and thirst for meaning, purpose, and a fulfilling life. “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness.” Progress is whatever brings you closer to deep meaning and a worthy purpose for your life.

Unity is individualistic. The more people are individually connected to the risen Jesus, the more they’re connected to each other. As individuals are led by the Spirit the government of God is revealed. “The kingdom of God is within you.” The Sunday morning silence of God’s individual sheep, who aren’t allowed to make an unprogrammed peep, has gagged and divided Christianity.

History shows that Christianity grows when persecuted. Perhaps the real threat to living and thriving faith is programmed religion, not persecution. When Christians are trained to be silent in church, they are being trained to also be silent about Jesus in their daily lives.

The body of Christ is built on ongoing heart-connections between individual Christians, not on programmed religious services. Each individual member of the body of Christ has a God-given voice that needs to be heard. “Let the redeemed of the Lord say so.”

The kingdom of God grows as individuals listen to and obey the risen Jesus. It’s not mass produced by a religious institution. The center of Christianity is the risen Jesus, not a building, or a preacher, or a Sunday service. God created you as an individual so you can have an individual relationship with Him. Institutional Christianity isn’t enough!

True Christianity isn’t institutional. It’s individuals staying connected heart-to-heart with the risen Jesus and with each other. Let God deinstitutionalize and individualize your faith. Fully surrender your heart to the risen Jesus! Christianity that isn’t built on the rock of the individual revelation of Jesus is a house built on sand. Do you hear Him?

Institutionalized Christianity presents passive, mass-market (one size fits all) religious services. Jesus calls individuals! Follow Him! Without individual revelation of the risen Jesus, institutional Christianity is just a formalized religion.

For Christians to be built together in unity, it requires individual brokenness. “Blessed are the poor in spirit for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.” “O wretched man that I am.” Get in touch with your own brokenness and humbly open yourself up to other people. Then together you will begin to regularly experience the kingdom of God.

True Christian unity comes from individual heart-connection to the risen Jesus, not from group management or human organization. Living stones can’t be built together unless they individually surrender their will and their desires to the risen Jesus.

Christians aren’t called to be church clones. They’re called to be individually Christ-controlled. Follow Christ! Be Spirit-led with Jesus as your Head! Daily live the Bible that you’ve read. You can be continually fed by God’s new wine, the Spirit’s rivers of living water, and Jesus the living bread.

The first Christians didn’t meet around a service, a program, or a building. They met and connected heart-to-heart around the risen Jesus. Let Jesus permanently incarnate in your heart and embed His presence within you. Keep your heart wide open to Jesus. Let Him be your Head and your Master. Be Spirit-led, not spiritually dead! “Wake up sleeper, rise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you.” (Ephesians 5:14.)

Let your disappointment be Christ’s call to a life-long, moment-by-moment appointment with Him. Where do you connect heart-to-heart with members of the body of Christ? Let Jesus lead you to those places.

Let Jesus ever flow
From deep inside of you
So you can truly grow
In Spirit and in truth.

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