Steve Simms's Blog, page 74

I use screen time to show and tell not to passively consume and gel.

Daily writing promptHow do you manage screen time for yourself?View all responses

I’m not on screens to be influenced by our culture of confusion and chaos. My purpose is to share the joy and peace that overflow from within me.

My goal is to be a missionary of hope not a mission field subject to our society of self-inflicted misery. I want to be an influencer for good and to avoid being influenced by all the anger and accusation that is seething in our modern-day screens.

Because of that I am a content creator and rarely a content consumer. My computer and phone are platforms that I use to show and tell the amazing things that the risen Jesus has done and is daily doing in my heart and life.

Here’s an example. I wrote and posted this when I woke up this morning:

The risen Jesus wants to reset Christianity to His Spirit. When Christianity shifted from being Spirit-led to being controlled by a pulpit-head, its vibrant and life-consuming heart-connection with Christ as Head was curtailed by a religious system and structure that has been passed down through the centuries. It abandoned its “ear to hear what the Spirit is saying” and put its trust in tens of thousands of separate denominations and hundreds of thousands of independent churches scattered worldwide, each following its own leaders and traditions. Yet, in the midst of all this confusion and competition Christ is still speaking to and calling His sheep to follow and obey His Spirit instead of their favorite religious institution. He who has ears let him hear!

I also fill my screens with original positive statements and affirmations that give people hope. For a collection of 365 of my hope-filled sayings check out Elephants Inspiring the Room at this link.

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Life takes time

Daily writing promptDo you need time?View all responses

Life is a season. It’s a growth process. Growth requires time. Like all human beings and other living things, I need time to develop and mature.

However, time alone isn’t enough for me to fully grow into maturity. I also require the physical necessities of food, oxygen, exercise, and sleep, and the non-physical needs of encouragement, wisdom, intelligence, inner peace, discipline, love, righteousness, hope, relationships, and purpose.

Christianity, which was designed to be a daily guide to maturity, has abandoned its role and replaced it with one tightly controlled hour of spectator time on Sunday morning. This has robbed people of true growth by distracting them from the ultimate source of growth — the presence and workings of the living God.

Christianity’s not about being in attendance at religious services. It’s about being in Christ no matter where you are.

Pastors seem to be afraid to open the mic and trust the people they’ve preached to for years to share what Jesus puts on their heart. Since they don’t trust the congregation enough to open the mic and let people share what Jesus puts on their heart, they must not believe that their sermons have been very effective.

If churches would let the risen Jesus be the Builder, they wouldn’t be programmed, structured, and controlled by human leadership. Keeping Christians silent about Jesus quenches the Holy Spirit. Give people time to testify in church!

Now is the time for churches to recapture and implement the concept of ekklesia — the fully participatory town hall meeting in ancient Greek cities that Jesus said He will build. To get started search for: Beyond Church Ekklesia. People “plant churches” but Jesus said He will build His ekklesia.

It’s time to set the living Jesus free from the prison of church! “We mentioned that Jesus was imprisoned in the system of Roman Catholicism and that you couldn’t get to Him except through that system. In more subtle ways this system of intermediaries is found within Protestantism too . . . we stop at the church and give our loyalty and love to that and never get to the living Christ.” –E. Stanley Jones

Let’s set Jesus free to be the literal Head of His body. We desperately need to let the risen Jesus be the direct Leader of His people (and not just a figurehead) when we gather in His name!

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What can we count on in 3 years?

Daily writing promptWhat will your life be like in three years?View all responses

In our chaotic, crazy, and cruel world, what can we count on to give us hope that life will be bearable in three years (or thirty-three years)? We can’t count on politicians. They’re a moral mess. We can’t count on the economy. It’s definitely not a secure thing. We can’t count on other people. Two of my best friends just turned on me and shut me out of their life. We can’t count on preachers. Another famous one was just exposed as hypocritical. We can’t count on world peace. New wars are always breaking out.

In all of life’s ups and downs I’ve only found one source of stability and strength that gives me ongoing hope that no matter what happens I will be safe and secure in the future. My hope is in the living, resurrected Jesus Christ. I am continually strengthened by Christ who powerfully works in me. (Colossians 1:29.) Three years or thirty-three years, in the future I will be trusting in what Jesus is doing in me.

You can’t see hope, but without it life’s just an empty routine. Let Jesus fill your heart with hope!

The Jesus Movement isn’t just an ancient memory from old Jesus Freaks. Jesus never stops moving. We too often just look the other way.

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How’s Your Heart? Day

Daily writing promptInvent a holiday! Explain how and why everyone should celebrate.View all responses

In our confused culture we ignore the harvest of our heart and falsely believe that our thoughts, feelings, and desires have little or nothing to do with the quality of our life. So, we let them run wild and uncontested. In fact, we frequently let the worst of them torment, control, and define our heart. By doing so we become their obedient slave.

We need a day to examine the harvest of our heart and to consider how we have been cultivating it. Let’s call it How’s Your Heart? Day. Is your heart healed, whole, and wholesome?

Are there ways we can cultivate our heart for a better harvest? Yes, indeed!

Good or bad, the seeds you sow and cultivate in your thoughts, feelings, and desires will grow and expand. Whether joy or sadness, whatever you continually contemplate will be cultivated and come to harvest in your consciousness. Happiness or bitterness? You can see in people’s faces what they’ve cultivated in their heart.

If you aren’t enjoying your harvest, change what you’ve been cultivating! Whatever you cultivate in your heart will be harvested in your life. There is a plentiful harvest of joy for human hearts, but few people will labor to cultivate godly thoughts, feelings, and desires. The beautiful fruit of God’s Spirit can’t flourish in a heart clogged with weeds and distractions.

Your conscience is God’s gift designed to cultivate your heart for a joyful harvest. Let it plow up the hard ground within you and prepare the way of the Lord. When you’re ignoring your conscience, you’re ignoring Jesus. Listen up!

Too many Christians
Are looking for
A house of God,
A physical place
When what we need
Is to let Jesus take control
Of our inner space
And completely replace
Our thoughts, feelings, and desires
With His.
We need the heart of God!
Have your way in me, Lord!

With all the bad news it’s hard to be happy. Yet, the first Christians although suffering much cruelty and persecution overflowed with joy. You can, too!

Cultivate your heart for joy! Search for: The Joy of Early Christianity. Celebrate How’s Your Heart Day today!

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If humans were good . . .

God gives his grace to bad people. The deception that we are good people blocks our reception of His grace.

Some people are ignoring the Bible (“There is none righteous, no not one,”) and boldly proclaiming that humans are good instead of bad. If we were good people:

* We would act better than we do.

* We would always be kind to people.

* We wouldn’t ever be selfish or mean.

* We would always love our enemies.

* We would never think, say, and do wrong things.

* What a beautiful world it would be.

* We wouldn’t need Christ’s salvation.

When Jesus was asked why He eats with tax collectors and sinners, He answered: “It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.” Believing that you are a good (righteous) person makes you believe that you deserve salvation when the truth is none of us do. It’s all God’s mercy!

Like the friend at midnight and the widow with the unjust judge (in the Gospel of Luke) we need to persistently pursue our relationship with God through prayer “without ceasing,” even when our feelings lie to us and tell us that we aren’t being (or haven’t been) heard. The One who cares enough to number the hairs on our head hasn’t forgotten us and will never ignore us. He lives within Christ-followers to lead us by His Spirit. He asks us to trust Him and live in the comfort and communications of His Spirit, even when we don’t get our way and don’t understand why. Communication with and connection with God don’t depend on our understanding Him but on our trusting Him.

Jesus made the way for close connection and clear communication with God. Open your heart to humbly receive.

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The web hub with the holy rub!

Daily writing promptWhat are your favorite websites?View all responses

My favorite website is Bible Hub @ https://biblehub.com/john/3-16.htm

Bible Hub shows dozens of Bible translations of any Bible verse all on one page. By making it easy to compare various translations it clarifies the meaning of each verse in ways that can deeply touch your heart. Try it and see by clicking on the link above.

My other favorite website is my Facebook page @ https://www.facebook.com/steve.simms2

To share Christ’s good news, it’s necessary to use words.

If you love Jesus, it’s necessary to use words and to tell people. Your silence keeps them in the dark about where you stand with Him!

If Jesus has done anything in you or for you, tell it! Don’t let the devil gag and silence you. Speak up!

If you’re depending on a preacher to tell people about Jesus, you’re letting the devil gag your voice! I’ve noticed that a lot of Christians talk about a pastor, or a famous preacher far more than they talk about Jesus. I wonder why.

If Christians in America would focus on the risen Jesus with as much passion as they focus on a politician what miracles we’d see!

If Christians were trained to talk
And humbly share
Their heart-felt
Feelings about Jesus
Instead of merely
Listening to a talk
About Jesus
A lot more people
Would walk the walk!

This world that’s awash
In tons of trash talk
Desperately needs to hear
Inspiring Christ-talk:
Spirit-prompted words
That overflow from the heart
Of humble Jesus-lovers!

If Jesus made
Your heart well
You have a tale
You need to tell.
Don’t hide it
Behind a veil.

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Continually living the time of my life

Daily writing promptIs there an age or year of your life you would re-live?View all responses

There’s a moment in my life when everything mysteriously shifted. In one solitary instant I was changed inside and out.

That marvelous moment was the time of my life and I’ve been living in the reality of that single moment ever since. It has never faded from my heart and my mind. It’s as though I’m reliving it day and night.

In an instant, totally by surprise, I was dazzled by the risen Jesus. I was suddenly transferred from agnostic confusion, insecurity, and unbelief to complete certainty about the love, presence, peace, and power of Jesus.

Ever since that moment, I’ve been battling for the kingdom of God! With all my heart I want to overcome all the resistance within me and to fully surrender to Jesus. That has been a joyous lifetime pursuit that began in an instant of direct encounter with the living Jesus and continues to this present moment in His presence.

Open your heart to a marvelous moment with Jesus. True prayer, seeking first the kingdom of God, is to humble ourselves. It is to deeply and viscerally hunger and thirst for God’s righteousness as we wholeheartedly and continually pursue His will and surrender our own will to Him.

Never settle for anything less than having Jesus as the King and Absolute Ruler (Lord) of every part of your life! Make listening to and obeying Him your first priority.

Stepping beyond casual religion and into obeying the risen Jesus

Routine religion gently rocks the spiritual cradle, but radical obedience to the risen Jesus will turn the world upside down! In spiritual warfare we must first win within before we win without. We must overcome our inner enemies, by casting down imaginations and bringing our every thought captive to the obedience of Christ. Soldiers that harbor disobedient thoughts, feelings, and desires are never very effective. God’s goal for you is that you do not allow even one thought that is disobedient to Christ to be in your mind. (1 Corinthians 10:5.)

Fight the faith fight. Constantly and aggressively resist every bit of demonic activity that the devil stirs up within you. Surrender no space in your mind, heart, and life to the devil and his demons — not one compulsive thought, not one foul word, not one wrongful desire, not one tormenting feeling, not one ungodly movie or show or song or book or game or party.

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Everybody needs to know how to viscerally experience life.

Daily writing promptWhat’s something you believe everyone should know.View all responses

Everybody needs to know how to viscerally experience the glorious wonders of being alive. A visceral approach to life is based on deep, sensitive, compassionate, heart-felt appreciation and gratitude.

Perhaps these thoughts can help viscerally open your heart: Keep shrinking hopelessness until you viscerally come to hope! Showing appreciation and gratitude are life-transforming ways to use your time.

I don’t need to travel.
The world’s most amazing sights
Come directly to me for free:
Sun rises and sun sets,
Trees dancing in the breeze,
Incredible cloud formations,
Squirrels doing acrobatic feats,
The bright colors of Fall,
Dazzling stars overhead,
The shape changing moon,
Lightening shows and thunderstorms,
The people I love,
Birds that sing and soar,
Children playing,
All kinds of glorious flowers,
Butterflies and clear skies,
People doing acts of kindness,
A snow-covered landscape,
The new life of Spring,
People from around the world,
And so much more!
Gloria a Dios!

To follow Jesus viscerally,
Not just with outward words
But internally
With all your heart,
Is to scripturally
Align with God
And the leading of His Spirit.
To viscerally
Experience Christ
Allow yourself to be
Deeply and continually aware
Of His presence and power.

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