Good works, faith-rest, and a rubber squeeze coin purse

Posted on December 5, 2022 by Steve Simms

Your heart is like a football-shaped rubber squeeze coin purse. If you won’t work to continually hold it open to God and to other people, it will suddenly snap shut.

Much that is called Christianity is merely human effort and programming. It requires nothing supernatural because it is set up, organized, and run by human ability and hard religious work. However, when you read the New Testament, you discover a faith-based Christianity that relied on actual demonstrations of the presence and power of the risen Jesus, not on the human striving.

When Jesus said to seek first the kingdom of God, He wasn’t referring to using religious effort to accomplish things for God. No amount of human good works can enable a person to come under and be a part of God’s government (kingdom). The Scriptures clearly state that people are saved by faith and not by the works of their human effort.

John the Baptist explained it like this: “Prepare the way of the Lord.” How is that done? By doing everything we can to hold our heart open to God and to other people and to continually make plenty of room for Christ in us to do His work (not ours) within us and through us.

No matter how hard you work and/or how religious you are, if you don’t intentionally hold your heart open you won’t be able to experience the kingdom of God. Therefore, instead of working to accomplish things for God, the key to New Testament Christianity is to begin to faith-rest from your own attempts to be religiously productive, to continually hold your heart open to God, and to empty it of everything that resists God’s will so that He can have full access to do His work in and through you.

In a culture dominated by human effort to meet their own desires, people who seek to let their heart be ruled by Christ will brightly shine. Jesus first!

“Try less. Trust more.” God recently spoke those words in my heart. Now I’m discovering that the only way I can truly trust God is to focus intently on keeping my heart open and on letting Him freely work in me unrestricted by my desires and effort.

Posted in faith in God, faith walk, faith without works, faith-based, football, heart care, heart connection, justification by faith, people of faith | Tagged , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Merry today! Don’t wait for Christmas Day to celebrate God’s amazing gifts to you!

Posted on December 4, 2022 by Steve Simms

The time between the first Advent (coming) of Jesus and His second coming is the Spirit-led era of “Christ in you, the hope of glory.”Advent, the annual remembrance and celebration of Jesus’ birth, should never be a substitute for daily experiencing His presence.

Christmas celebrations and Advent calendars can unintentionally crowd out the glorious mystery of the birth of Jesus–the God-man–“Christ in you, the hope of glory.”. For too many Christians Jesus remains the infant stranger in the manger instead of the infinite Lord on the throne of their heart.

Jesus was the world’s most amazing baby–God with us! Then He grew up, was crucified, raised from the dead, and is now ever-present. He’s not a baby anymore!

Christ’s birth isn’t an annual event. It happened just once and prepared the way for humans to have a personal, ongoing relationship with Jesus. Keep Christ in the Advent season. Instead of treating His birth like it’s in the future, surrender to His ever-present power and glory.

If you’re waiting for Jesus to come to you, He’s waiting for you to open your heart’s door and make room for Him. If the Advent season causes you to turn your eyes to Jesus, where have your eyes been focused during the off season?

Remember to celebrate your personal Advent. That’s the moment when Christ came to live in and make His home in you and be your hope of glory. The beautiful history of Jesus’ birth should never distract us from His desire to live in and lead us from within our heart today. There was no room for Jesus to be born in the Bethlehem inn. Is there enough room in your heart for Him to arrive and thrive there?

There’s no need to countdown to what already is. Christ is already here. He’s ever-present.

Jesus doesn’t need an Advent calendar. He, Himself, is the way, the truth, and the life! Merry today! Don’t wait for Christmas Day to celebrate God’s amazing gifts to you!

When Jesus
Lives within
Your heart
Celebrating
His presence
Needs never
To end.

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Is the human heart a cauldron of rebellion?

Posted on December 3, 2022 by Steve Simms

The human brain
Isn’t a train
To run on a track.
It’s a tool
To gain
Fresh insight.

Light reveals.
Darkness hides.
Moment by moment
We choose sides.

God’s call
Isn’t to fake
Being good.
It’s to let Him remake
Our rebellious heart.

Planet earth is a cauldron of rebellion. We humans have chosen to follow our desires instead of God’s. Let God clean the cauldron of your heart. “Blessed are the pure in heart for they will see God.”

The Lord God Omnipotent could nip your rebellion in the bud. Instead, He patiently and loving calls for you to freely surrender to His will.

If you try to faithfully obey your conscience, you come to realize that you can’t be truly good by your own effort. Something inside you needs to be changed.

It’s much easier to loudly redefine what we call right than it is to actually do what our conscience says is right. When an idea violates my conscience, no matter how much I love the person who proclaims it, I must kindly disagree.

Sin boils in the cauldron of human hearts, ready to rumble out at any moment. Conscience tries to restrain it but only Jesus can drain it.

The Bible’s full of life-giving words that bring fresh bread to my hungry heart. Light reveals hope. Darkness conceals it. If the fruit and the gifts of the Spirit aren’t actively noticeable in a church service, there might be a sermon but there’s no visible demonstration of the Spirit.

Jesus showed me
My sin’s reality
And caused me
To see
Life differently.

To rebel against
The absolute
Is not astute.
You can’t refute
And forever mute
Reality.

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Posted in heart is deceitful, human heart, pure in heart, rebellion, rebellion against God, secrets of your heart, sinful heart | Tagged , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Put Jesus in Christmas

Posted on December 3, 2022 by Steve Simms

If you want Christ in Christmas, then this holiday season substitute the name of Jesus for the word Christmas. Jesus, all I want for Christmas is a closer relationship with You.” (Think what impact there would be if between Thanksgiving and New Year’s Day we heard, read, and said the name of Jesus as much as we do the word Christmas.)

“It’s Jesus time,” instead of “It’s Christmas time.”

“Jesus gifts,” rather than “Christmas gifts.”

“Jesus carols,” instead of “Christmas carols.”

“Jesus season,” instead of “Christmas season.”

“Jesus bells,” instead of “Christmas bells.”

“Jesus giving,” rather than “Christmas giving.”

“Jesus holidays,” instead of “Christmas holidays.”

“Jesus lights,” rather than “Christmas lights.”

“Jesus shopping,” instead of “Christmas shopping.”

“Jesus tree,” rather than “Christmas tree.”

“Jesus cards,” instead of “Christmas cards.”

“Jesus day,” instead of “Christmas Day.”

“I’ll be home for Jesus,” rather than “I’ll be home for Christmas.”

“Happy Jesus’ Birthday,” instead of “Merry Christmas.”

The Bible says there is power in the name of Jesus, however, it never even mentions the word Christmas.

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Desperation can lead to freedom and joy

Posted on December 2, 2022 by Steve Simms

Your heart-cry doesn’t echo in a canyon of inner emptiness. It continually reverberates within you, ever calling you to wake up to deeper reality.

In the recovery community the desperation that leads to freedom and joy is called “hitting bottom.” If you’re desperate, that means you’re still alive. If you’re still alive, then there is still hope.

Desperation is a fork in the road. It offers two options, the hopeful and joyous pursuit of God or the despair of panicked hopelessness.

Desperation as a sign of hopelessness is devastating. Desperation as deep hunger to be closer to God is gloriously life-altering. Let the debris in your life make you desperate for God. The long-term guilt and pain produce by sin should make us so desperate for God’s peace that we avoid its short-term pleasure.

Finite faith (trust in the temporary) will always be disappointing because it can’t ignite an eternal perspective. The more desperate I get for hope, the more I pursue and surrender to Jesus.

To desire the life and light of God, we must be willing to continually behold and pursue His majestic holiness. To hunger and thirst for righteousness is called repentance. It’s an overwhelming desire and ongoing search for God’s deliverance, healing, and holiness. It’s a never-ending inner cry for God to bring justice through mercy, to fix us with His compassion, to free us from our heart’s corruption. It’s to throw overboard every thought, feeling, desire, activity, and possession that in anyway hinders our pursuit of the presence and power of the risen Jesus.

It’s hard to pursue something that you don’t believe is possible. If you’re not aggressively and passionately pursuing the kingdom of God and His righteousness as your first priority, perhaps you don’t really believe the promises of Scripture.

“Love never fails.” It even extends to enemies. Ex-love is a misnomer. Focus on and care about your neighbor the way you focus on and care about yourself.

To gain
From your pain
Let it make you
Ever desperate
For God.

God always hears
A human heart-cry
Even when people deny
That He exists.

Christians are called
To soar in God’s glory
Not to sink
In their worry.

If you continually flirt
With moral danger,
You’ll make yourself
A stranger
To God.

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Christianity goes beyond privacy

Posted on December 1, 2022 by Steve Simms

There’s nowhere to hide
When you reside
And continually abide
In Christ.
The rising tide
Of His presence
Reveals all secrets.

A heart exposed
To the light
Of Christ
Often complains
That His light
Is too bight
And thus retreats
Back into the night
To keep its secrets
Out of sight.

Awe causes the human heart to open like a flower–to abandon privacy for the radiant light of God’s Son. However, as humans, we try to hide our corruption behind what we call “the right of privacy.” That concept was conceived when the first humans tried to hide from God because they feared His light.

Privacy says “keep out”–community says “welcome in.” Clinging to the right of privacy often creates deep loneliness and the fear of being discovered.

When we hide something, we feel compelled to do whatever it takes to keep it hidden and cover up becomes more important than truth. Secret keeping is hard work. Surrendering all to God is power.

Now is the time for intimate holy-awe moments. Every instant is a precious divine gift. The ancient Greeks called it “kairos,” which means the “opportune time.” We need to look beyond “chronos” which is the mere passing of time–the calendar that hangs over our head and coerces us to conform to its chronological commands. Now is the prime time (the “kairos”) to cultivate our heart to be an environment full of aha and awe, overflowing with openness to present moment revelation and adoration–living a life that radiates with God’s Spirit.

Jesus came as Emmanuel–the God-man–so we can live beyond the control of time in a holy now of intimacy with Him that doesn’t fade or pass away. “Christ in you, the hope of glory.” Stringing together a day full of holy-awe moments will set you free from the prison of privacy.

Jesus puts out a welcome sign, not a private sign. When we leave our isolation, we can embrace true transformation. We can shift from being driven by desires to being compelled by compassion. We can set aside self-seeking and embrace service to others. When we truly surrender to God, we lose our privacy.

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Posted in awe inspiring, Christian community, community, honesty, intimacy, openness, Spirit of Truth, truth will set you free | Tagged , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

6 spokes on the wheel of repentance

Posted on November 30, 2022 by Steve Simms

How’s your repentance going? Thank God that He is always wanting to cleanse us and empower us to live a holy life.

Instead of rolling with repentance, Christians (and most people) try hard to avoid it. One reason is that repentance is falsely seen as a once and done thing. Many people think that if they ever repented once then that sets them up for life.

Another reason Christians have trouble repenting is that they have been taught that grace makes repentance unnecessary. They falsely believe that grace works like a medieval Catholic indulgence–that it justifies and excuses their sins in advance with no repentance needed.

Still another reason is pride. It’s very humbling to repent. No one enjoys saying “I’m wrong,” “I’m sorry,” or “Please forgive me.” It never easy to choose to go against our pride and to openly admit that we have sinned and/or are engaged in ongoing sin.

Nevertheless, Jesus first message was repentance. So what are the keys to a lifestyle of repentance?

  1. Surrender: As long as we are holding on to our own will and desires, we’ll be hindered from fully obeying Jesus when He leads us to do something that we don’t want to do. To disobey Jesus is a sin, so we will stay stuck in the sinful cycle of putting our will ahead of God’s will.
  2. Conviction: Until we are aware of our sins, we can’t repent from them. We need to stay attentive to the Holy Spirit working in and through our conscience and let him convict us of (show us) our sinful attitudes, words, behaviors, and failures to obey.
  3. Confession: Until we admit our sins to God, we’ll stay stuck in them. The Bible also says to confess your sins to one another. Once we are convicted of a sin it’s important to bring it into the light. As long you’re unwilling to admit a sin to God you haven’t repented of it.
  4. Contrition: For repentance to be real and effective, it must be from the heart. We must let ourselves be sincerely sorry for our sin and be grieved because of what we’ve said, done, thought, or neglected to do. We must truly want to be forgiven and to change.
  5. Change: True repentance involves taking decisive action to change a sinful thought, behavior, attitude, or unwillingness to obey. God’s forgiveness is free, but to stop a sin is a choice and a battle. It puts us in a humble position to receive God’s mercy and deliverance. “God resist the proud but gives grace to the humble.” Be humble and courageous enough to continually work on putting off your sins.
  6. Accountability: Change without accountability is usually temporary. It’s so easy to quit a sin only to return to it in weeks, days, hours, or even minutes. In order to keep on quitting we need to be absolutely honest with someone who can hold us accountable. The first Someone is God. Every time we’re tempted to fall back into a sin, we need to tell God and when we do fall you need to cry out for His forgiveness and help. It also greatly helps to have a person you trust who you can walk in the light with. When you’re tempted tell that person. When you fall confess to that person. That kind of accountability will help you access the power of supernatural repentance.
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Beyond human control to Spirit control

Posted on November 30, 2022 by Steve Simms

Jesus gave up positional authority and became a servant, yet He has more followers than anyone in history. He is at the top of the authority pyramid in the body of Christ. All the rest of us are servants on the bottom rung.

The body of Christ is supposed to be controlled by the risen Jesus not by human leadership structures. When staged, insincere, unheart-felt methods are used in church the power of God stays away. Christians are called to the openness of the Holy Spirit, not to the privacy of religion.

The key to unity among Christ-followers is letting the Spirit be in control. When the body of Christ is entangled with loyalty to various churches it becomes divided and contentious. When Christians from diverse backgrounds gather as Jesus’ Spirit-led town hall meeting unity emerges.

In the body of Christ every believer has a personal and unique relationship with the risen Jesus and needs to be empowered in that relationship, not controlled by human leadership. In the body of Christ, believers should submit to the Headship of Christ and to one another, not to one person positioned above the others in a religious chain of command.

When a church hinders people in their willingness to hear directly from and obey Jesus then something major is wrong. When maintaining church order is more important than obedience to Jesus things are way off track. When institutional authority replaces the leadership of God’s Spirit church begins to function like a business.

Program following Christians listen to Evan Roberts who helped ignite the Great Welsh Revival of 1904. “Why should I teach when the Spirit is teaching? . . . Why should I control the meetings? The meetings control themselves, or rather the Spirit that is in them controls them.”

The more we yield to and cooperate with the control of the Holy Spirit the more fully we experience all the fruit of the Spirit growing in our heart and in our lifestyle and gently changing us from glory to glory. A Spirit-controlled self is God’s free gift to all who will continually surrender their will to Him and allow His gentleness to dispel their rebellion.

Surely there should be more to church than being forever lectured! Let all Christ-followers boldly arise and speak up about Jesus!

Sermons on prayer don’t teach people to pray. Heart-felt demonstrations of prayer do. Sermons on love don’t teach people to love. Heart-felt demonstrations of love do.

The body of Christ
Isn't a place
To showcase
One man's gifting
But should make space
To freely embrace 
Spirit-led input
From all.

Religion that's routine
Focuses on things
That are seen
And can be
Humanly controlled
But Jesus calls us
To look to and
Be controlled by
His unseen
Presence.
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Posted in body of Christ, church, discipleship, ekklesia, how the body of Christ functions, Spirit prompting, Spirit-led, Spirit-led church | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Comfort zone or Christ-focused zone?

Posted on November 29, 2022 by Steve Simms

The more I concentrate on Jesus the more I sense His presence and feel His power. The more I focus on and surrender to God’s Spirit the fuller my faith grows and the greater my desire and ability to obey Him.

Inattention to Jesus quenches the Spirit. Concentrate your mind and heart on Jesus. If you let your heart be so attracted to Jesus that you can’t be distracted, you’ll be impacted by His presence every moment.

The Christ-focused zone is much more life enriching than the comfiest comfort zone. Still, it’s easy to ignore Christ’s call to come out of a comfort zone. I find that religious programs, sermons, and liturgy make it difficult to keep my attention on the living, present Jesus.

God is constantly communicating but we miss most of His messages because of our inattention. Being inattentive to the risen Jesus causes Christians to feel a need for religious programs. Try to avoid self-promoting, absent minded, heart-distracted, Christ-ignoring Christianity.

Inattention to
Christ in you
Leaves you struggling
About what to do.
Jesus is the answer.

Let us adore
The living Jesus
And no longer
Ignore
His presence.

When my heart’s ears
Hear the silent sound
Of the Spirit
My eyes moisten
With tears.

Focus me Jesus
So I can see
Beyond my will
And surrender to
Christ in me.

Frequently doing these things keeps my attention on Jesus:

  • Talking to Him,
  • Reading the Bible with an open heart.
  • Listening to His still, small voice within me.
  • Doing what He tells me to do.
  • Hanging out with people who are thrilled about Him.
  • Recognizing what He is doing in and around me.
  • Operating in the gifts of the Spirit.
  • Praying for other people.
  • Letting my pain keep me desperate for Him.
  • Praying in tongues.
  • Enthusiastically quoting Scriptures from memory.
  • Avoiding quenching the Spirit.
  • Praying “The Jesus Prayer.”
  • Asking Him to show me where I’m off track.
  • Confessing and repenting.
  • Pouring out my heart to Him in worship and adoration.
  • Telling people about Him.
  • Encouraging and helping people.
  • Writing about Him.
  • Praying over people.
  • Listening to heart-stirring worship music.
  • Reading heart-touching books about Him.
  • Gathering with believers to listen to and obey Him together.
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Religious privacy goes against biblical Christianity

Posted on November 28, 2022 by Steve Simms

Little Jack Horner
Went to church
And sat in the corner
He stayed on his bum
Till he felt numb
And said,
“What a good boy am I.”

Church is too often a form of gathered individualism. People assemble in one place but there’s little openness with each other. The right to privacy (isolation) is a lonely rite.

Religious privacy cares more about what people think than about truth. Jesus told His followers to “shout it from the housetops.” Surely we can learn to speak out and testify in worship gatherings.

Christianity is non-private. Let your heart be tender and open before the Lord and before people.

The Bible doesn’t teach religious privacy. Instead, it says: “Confess your sins to each other.” See James 5:16. Christians need to gather as an intimate community–as close family members, not as a passive audience.

Privacy is disconnection from others. It’s a cover-up word for seclusion and loneliness. When your heart is full of closed doors, there’s no room to let other people in. Dark hearts hide and therefore they remain in their darkness.

Religious privacy isn’t freedom. It’s being alone in your bondage. You need your privacy to stop blocking your heart so that you can open up to heart-felt intimacy and caring community. To experience the beautiful kingdom of Jesus-based intimacy we have to go beyond the roadblock of religious privacy.

The attitude of religious privacy has been the piracy that has stolen Jesus-based spiritual community from the body of Christ. If you think your faith is a private matter, you may have missed the heart of the matter–“carry each other’s burdens.”

Teach a Christian to enjoy sermon-hearing and he’ll become a church attendee. Teach him to hear Jesus and testify about Him and he’ll become a disciple. I love to let the living Jesus invade my privacy and fill me with His presence!

When Christians replace heart-to-heart-intimacy with religious privacy we quench the Holy Spirit. Without genuine Jesus-based spiritual community, a church service is “a form of godliness but denying the power thereof.”

You can’t experience Jesus-based intimacy with others if you’re holding on to religious privacy. All sermon and no testimonies makes church a killjoy. Let everyday people joyously declare how God has answered their prayers.

Jesus is the Light. Religious privacy blocks out the light. Humble openness lets it shine. “Walk in the light.” Here’s what the Bible says about privacy: “There is nothing concealed that will not be disclosed or hidden that will not be made known.”

Privacy tends to keep people apart. They chat together but withholding much that is significant they don’t really know each other.

When Christians congregate
But hesitate
To open up their hearts
To one another,
They’ve gathered physically
But their hearts
Are far apart.

Let your heart
Out of the religious shed
And be led
By God’s Spirit.

Instead of learning
To inwardly glide
And be carried along
By God’s Spirit,
We’ve learned to hide
Our heart from God
And from each other.

Christianity is about
Cooperation
With Jesus
Not about a narration
About Jesus.

Hearing sermon
After sermon
Will not make you
Firm in
The faith.
Determine
To hear and obey
The living Jesus
Every day!

If hearing someone recite
A sermon
Doesn’t ignite
Lifechanging insight
The preacher took the bite
Out of the Gospel.
When the early Christians preached
They would often incite
A riot.

If you believe
Be led
By the Spirit.

Often what we call
A coincidence
Is an incidence
Of God working.

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