Cece Winans Helped Me To See . . .

Posted on March 30, 2026 by Steve Simms
Daily writing prompt
If you could have something named after you, what would it be?
View all responses

Cece Winans helped me to see why I don’t want anything focused on or named after me. Last night I went to one of her concerts. I was expecting a nice musical performance cloaked with some hype and religion. Instead, I encountered the risen Jesus working in and through her and the thousands of people gathered there.

There was no mention of politics. To see a lot of Christians gather together without using political terms and names was a great blessing to me.

Her music was so much more than mere words and instruments. She sang with such sincere, deep passionate love for Jesus that you could feel and see it coming from her. You could sense Christ’s presence in the auditorium.

The audience members weren’t spectators focused on and applauding Cece. Instead, they were awed by the awareness of Christ’s presence. They were gently expressing love and adoration to Him.

Cece even talked about the elephant in the room. She is black and grew up in a black church environment. The audience was almost all white. She said that when she first started singing with her light complected brothers and sisters in Christ, she wondered why they didn’t praise the Lord with the enthusiastic expressiveness that she was raised around.

She said that changed when she went to a football game and saw white people excitedly and passionately praising the players. Seeing that she realized that white people know how to praise the Lord. After telling that story Cece said to the crowd something like: “I know that you know how to praise the Lord. Let’s do it now.”

Suddenly, without any music, everybody was on their feet shouting, clapping, jumping, and giving their all to praise and exalt the risen Jesus. It was so much more than religion or church. It was people freely responding to the awesome awareness of the reality of the resurrected Jesus without religious inhibitions. I’m so glad that we can live Christianity as an ongoing experience of being continually changed within by the risen Jesus Christ and not just learn information about Him through teachings and studies.

Cece Winans
Helped me to see
Resurrection
Reality.

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The Best Medicine

Posted on March 29, 2026 by Steve Simms
Daily writing prompt
What makes you laugh?
View all responses

Keeping my heart uplifted, encouraged, and cheerful fills me with joyful laughter throughout each day. King Solomon said: “A cheerful heart is good medicine, but a crushed spirit dries up the bones.” (Proverbs 17:22) Letting the risen Jesus put His joy inside of me (John 15:11) keeps me smiling and laughing, even in painful circumstances. (Philippians 4:11) Here is the key: “The disciples went and did as Jesus had instructed them.” (Matthew 21:6) Will you?

Within you
There’s a fight
Out of sight.
Will you live
In darkness
Or in light?
Listen to
Your conscience.
Hear Christ speak
Deep inside.
Set aside
Your desires
And do what
He requires.
Go and do
What He tells
You to do.
Start today.
(Romans 8:14)

Tired of trying to deconstruct your religion? Let the risen Jesus construct a new heart within you. He’s ready whenever you are.

I have no king but the living, resurrected Jesus Christ. My goal is to let Him always reign in my heart, words, and actions. He causes me to live, to laugh, and to sing with joy.

Don’t merely attend a church on Palm Sunday (or once a week). Every day let the risen Jesus triumphally ride into your heart with peace, joy, and holy laughter.

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Now Is The Time To Be Healed (Tears Help)

Posted on March 28, 2026 by Steve Simms
Daily writing prompt
When you were five, what did you want to be when you grew up?
View all responses

Do you want
To get well?
Tender tears
Sent from God
Will heal you.

Tender tears
That flow from
A heart touched
By God’s love
Are healing.
When they come,
Treasure them.
Don’t stop them.

I saw tender tears two days in a row this week. I saw a young man who I didn’t know, and God put it on my heart to tell him that God cares about what he is going through. When I did his eyes filled with tears. He said that earlier that morning he was kneeling at his bed and crying as he asked God to help him with something that he and his wife are going through. I began to pray for him and his tender tears continued to flow. He stood up from his chair, hugged me, and thanked me.

The next day my wife and I were with a man we didn’t know who had contacted me on Facebook. He and his wife wanted to take us to dinner. During the meal he began to tell us about an amazing healing miracle he had seen God do. As he talked about how God used that to change his life, he teared up with tender tears.

I treasure the sight of those two men’s tender tears. I didn’t just see those tears with my physical eyes. They lit up my heart and showed me that even a few tender tears from a heart touched by God’s light, shine much brighter than mere words.

If you’re blessed
With tears that
Flow from God
Don’t just wipe
Them away.
Let them stay.
So people can
See God’s light
And hear what
Those tears say.

Replace religious routine with responsiveness to God’s Spirit. Don’t celebrate Easter weak. Celebrate it strong! Let the resurrected Jesus Christ touch your heart with tender tears! He died and rose again to live forever — 24/7/365 — not to put a “Holy Week” on the calendar once a year.

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Surrender Is Misunderstood

Posted on March 27, 2026 by Steve Simms
Daily writing prompt
What’s something most people don’t understand?
View all responses

Surrender all to the Change-Maker. Don’t resist your destiny.

If you are a true Christ-follower your destiny is to be conformed to the image of Jesus Christ. (Romans 8:29) For that to happen you have to deny yourself, take up your cross, (Mark 8:34) and allow God to day-by-day remove the things in your mind and heart that aren’t like Jesus.

Christ has called you and given you everything you need for a godly life. (2 Peter 1:3) He lives within you (Colossians 1:27) and invites you to participate in His divine nature, to grow farther and farther away from the world’s corruption and desires, (2 Peter 1:4) and be changed into Christ’s image from glory to glory. (2 Corinthians 3:18)

Increase your surrender to God throughout each day. Let Jesus take more and more control of your mind and your heart. Allow Him to override your troubled, confused, and self-focused thoughts, desires, and feelings so that He can exchange them with the healing and uplifting awareness of His presence, power, and love. (Romans 12:2)

This isn’t done in an instant. It’s a lifetime process of change that is called sanctification. Let “the God of peace, sanctify you through and through. May your whole spirit, soul and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.” (1 Thessalonians 5:23) Do you really want to change?

Here are some things that are often misunderstood:

Mere religious
Information
Dedication,
And oration,
Without internal
Transformation,
Is negation
Of “Christ in you.”

The one true church isn’t what people think. It’s not a particular religious institution. It is two or three (or more) people gathered in Jesus’ name to listen to and be prompted by the Spirit together. (Matthew 18:20)

There’s a better government than human governments. The kingdom of God is at hand. Let the risen Jesus be your King and lead and govern you from within.

There is nothing prolife about war. It’s all about aborting human beings.

To use Christianity to justify the cruelty of war is evil. Jesus is the Prince of Peace.

When deception displaces discussion discernment is essential. If Americans don’t find ways to negotiate and work together the USA will collapse. The radical left and the self-righteous right are leading us to disaster.

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Love Can Be Lost In Technology

Posted on March 26, 2026 by Steve Simms
Daily writing prompt
How has technology changed your job?
View all responses

The world needs compassionate, self-sacrificing love. That’s the thing that there is far too little of!

This Is Love

Crucified,
Self-denied
When He died
He was pierced
And blood flowed
From His side.
Carpenter,
Redeemer,
God with us,
Christ the King,
People sing
His praises.
Wonderful,
Counselor,
Prince of Peace
King of Kings,
Lord of Lords,
Mighty God,
Risen One,
God the Son!
Who do you
Say He is?
(Matthew 16:15)

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Say No to the Thieves of Innocence

Posted on March 25, 2026 by Steve Simms
Daily writing prompt
How often do you say “no” to things that would interfere with your goals?
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Go Beyond the Garden Fall to the Pardon

A glorious garden
Full of fruit-bearing trees
Reveals the way God sees.
The most famous orchard
In the world’s history
Was beautifully ordered,
Created and nurtured
As the home for humans.
The two central fruit trees
Were the tree of life and
That of information
About good and evil.
God told Adam and Eve
To enjoy it all
With just one exception
That twists true perception
With human opinion
Of what’s good and evil.
They chose to ignore God.
Human hearts did harden
In that lovely garden.
Now curiosity
About what is evil
Cuts us humans off from
The fruit of God’s Spirit.
And the tree of His life.
Now innocence is seen
As immaturity
Instead of as it is —
God’s gift of purity
Which comes through Jesus Christ,
“The way, the truth, the life.”
Taste and see His goodness.
Leave sin from the garden.
Take Christ’s holy pardon.
(John 14:6 & Psalm 34:8)

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Planting Good Seeds In Life

Posted on March 24, 2026 by Steve Simms
Daily writing prompt
What’s a secret skill or ability you have or wish you had?
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Whatcha plantin’ in your heart, mind, and lifestyle? I work hard to plant good seeds in mine and to keep the thorns and weeds far away.

When Christians plant the customs, patterns, and lifestyles of this world in their mind and heart, they begin to conform their lives to those influences. They quench God’s Spirit. (1 Thessalonians 5:19) They ignore the life-transforming and mind-renewing power (Romans 12:1-2) and presence of the risen Jesus Christ who wants to live in and work through them to constantly demonstrate the glory of God. (Colossians 1:27)

When Christians continually plant the Word of God in their heart and mind (Joshua 1:8) and let the living Jesus cause it to ever burn within them (Luke 24:32) they grow stronger and stronger in Christ. (2 Corinthians 5:17) Jesus is the living Word (John 1:1) Unceasingly welcome and cultivate His presence within you. (John 1:9-14)

Jesus prayed that the will of God “be done on earth as it is in Heaven.” (Matthew 6:10) This begins with you as an individual. Every time you do the will of God instead of your own will, the kingdom of God is close at hand. (Matthew 4:17) Then you can experience God’s supernatural lifestyle of true and unending worship.

True worship:

* Focuses on God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. It doesn’t focus on or get distracted by a mere human leader or program. (2 Corinthians 4:18)
* Isn’t something to only do on Sunday and then leave behind till next week. (1 Thessalonians 5:17)
* Is in spirit and in truth. (John 4:23-24)
* Is something you do from your heart 24/7/365. (Hebrews 13:15)
* Requires humility. (James 4:6)
* Is something that everybody is called to do. (Psalm 150:6)
* Doesn’t require a religious service. (Psalm 34:1)
* Is something that’s wonderful to do with other people. (Colossians 3:16)
* Is Spirit-led. (Romans 8:14)
* Flows from interacting with the risen Jesus. (John 20:27-28)
* Is one of the most glorious things a human being can do. (2 Corinthians 3:18)

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My Favorite Heart-Weather

Posted on March 23, 2026 by Steve Simms

My favorite weather of all isn’t the weather that happens outdoors around my house and in my city. It’s the mental and emotional weather that happens in my heart. I have no control at all of the outdoors weather. However, I can shape and control the weather that happens within me. The key to doing that is . . .

Spirit-led Christianity:

* Is so amazingly life-changing that it makes you refuse to settle for anything less.
* Causes people to be intensely aware of the ongoing presence and love of the risen Jesus. (Matthew 28:20)
* Overflows the human heart with unimaginable joy. (1 Peter 1:8)
* Produces inner peace that is beyond mental comprehension. (Philippians 4:7)
* Creates an amazing sense of community between you and other sold-out Christ-followers. (John 13:34-35)
* Is the anecdote for a toxic lifestyle. (2 Corinthians 5:17)
* Washes away guilt and shame. (1 John 1:9)
* Sets people free from harmful habits, controlling compulsions, and acidic addictions. (John 8:32)
* Heals the mind, (Romans 12:2) the spirit, the soul, and the body. (1 Thessalonians 5:23)
* Produces a bountiful harvest of the fruit of the Spirit inside of you. (Galatians 5:22-23)
* Releases the Holy Spirit to freely flow from your innermost being as rivers of living water. (John 7:37:39)
* Connects you heart-to-heart with the living Jesus. (John 15:15)
* Makes you love all people, even your enemies. (Matthew 5:44)
* Is the narrow path that only a few people follow. (Matthew 7:13-14)

Refuse to let troubling, tempting, and tormenting thoughts be the thorns and weeds that try to choke God’s seeds by creating bad weather inside of heart. Bad heart weather comes from spiritual attacks. When those bad inner-weather thoughts attack you, you’re not strange. They happen to those who seek the Lord. They happen to me a lot.

Resist the devil and he will flee from you. Constantly rebuke those thoughts. Reject them. Refute them.

Sometimes I feel like a goalie in ice hockey. It’s like dark pucks are being continually fired at me. But I knock all of them down. I refuse to let them have any room inside of my head. If one slips by me, I reach back into the goal and immediately kick it out, meanwhile still knocking down all the rest.

A thought is like a bird. You can’t stop it from flying toward your mind, but you can knock it down and if it slips by you, you can kick it out. You don’t have to let it build a nest in your mind. Also, it is wise to get help from people who you trust.

You must be an important person if you are being so vigorously attacked. “Having done all stand!” Ask the risen Jesus to empower you and strengthen you in all your mental, emotional, and spiritual battles. “Greater is He that is in you than he that is in the world!”

Dear Jesus: Stand with, strengthen, and empower those who the devil is attacking as they battle the fiery dart thoughts that the enemy throws at them. Give them everything they need to resist those thoughts, rebuke them, refute them, and reject them. Make them strong and mighty in You so that they can not only overcome those thoughts but also help other people to overcome their attacks. In the midst of their daily battles, give them Your supernatural strength and a never-ending awareness of Your presence working in and through them. Give them Your peace that passes understanding. In Your Holy and Wonderful Name so be it! Amen.

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Life’s Been Teaching Me A Lot!

Posted on March 22, 2026 by Steve Simms
Daily writing prompt
Who was your most influential teacher? Why?
View all responses

Guess what’s about to happen? It’s almost my birthday.

What do I want for my 75th birthday (March 24th)? I would love to have your help spreading an idea that has been burning in my heart since I was a freshman in college: “Spirit-led Christianity is amazing!” Here are a few ways you can do that:

1) Copy and paste one of these sentences on your FB page and/or in other social media:
* Google: Free Gas for Your Think Tank blog.
* Run a search for: Beyond Church Ekklesia book.
* Look up on the internet: The Joy of Early Christianity book.
* Search for: Elephants INspiring the Room book.

2) Ask ChatGPT or another AI to describe the blog or one of the books for you.

3) If you have read one of the books, go to Amazon and write a positive review. Also post it on your FB page.

4) Order one (or more copies) for yourself and/or a friend.

5) Like and share this post.

Any one of those actions would be a really nice birthday gift for me. Thank you so much for noticing, reading, and interacting with my blog.

Sincerely,
Steve

#birthday #birthdays

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I’m Looking For More Trust-Training

Posted on March 21, 2026 by Steve Simms
Daily writing prompt
What do you wish you could do more every day?
View all responses

Have you been trained to trust? You can allow today’s troubles, trials, and temptations to be trust-training. Let them teach you to daily depend and rely on the risen Jesus Christ and to help other people to do so. Christ-groups will help you do that. Finding people who you can truly trust is a wonderful thing.

Christ-followers need to “spur one another on to love and good deeds.” We are called to frequently gather in Christ-groups so that we can support and encourage one another. It’s not good to get in the habit of neglecting coming together as Christ-led groups. (Hebrews 10:24-25)

The most effective Christ-groups are interactive gatherings. When Christians assemble together in Jesus’ name, we can help each other to be aware of His presence in our midst. (Matthew 20:18) Together we can learn to be sensitive to and led by His Spirit. (Romans 8:14)

When the early Christ-followers came together each person present was free to share something. (1 Corinthians 14:26) However, over time Christ-groups became more structured and formalized. They gradually shifted from the direct leading and teaching of God the Holy Spirit (John 14:26) demonstrating His presence through His spiritual gifts working in and through ordinary people, (1 Corinthians 12:4-11) to the preaching and control of a one-man pastor.

Are you “forsaking the assembly”? Are you in the habit of neglecting to encourage and spur on other brothers and sisters in Christ in Spirit-led Christ-groups? You don’t need a mega-group. Two or three people is sufficient. (Matthew 18:20)

To truly grow in Christ, requires more than a programmed religious service that year after year lacks the power to fully heal you, to set you free, and to radically transform you from within. (2 Timothy 3:5) Frequently interact informally and spontaneously with other believers to rejoice together, to talk to Jesus together, (1 Thessalonians 5:16-18) to listen to Jesus together (John 10:27) and to follow and obey Him together. (Mark 8:34)

“Let us consider how to spur one another on to love and good deeds. Let us not neglect meeting together, as some have made a habit, but let us encourage one another.” (Hebrews 10:24-25)

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