Free Gas For Your Think Tank (A blog to jog your mind and unclog your heart . . .)

Theology matters but the living present Jesus matters most!

Posted on May 17, 2023 by Steve Simms

Reality is
We don’t have a clue
Until we look at life
From God’s point of view
And let Him be the glue
That holds us together.

“Knowledge puffs up.” Studying theology without actively embracing the presence and humility of the living Jesus can easily cause pride to override our heart. Theology too often misses the experience of the glorious mystery of the present-day reality of “Christ in you, the hope of glory.

Theology that doesn’t open and overwhelm the heart with the presence and reality of the living Jesus is intellectualism disguised as faith. No matter how much you study electricity, until you turn on the light and experience its power, your knowledge is mere theory. The same is true for theology.

How much more! It’s easy to view Jesus as merely in the past (but we humans desperately need the living and present Jesus now). We need to focus on and surrender the control of both our individual lives and of our lives together (when we gather as the body of Christ) to the actual presence of the risen Jesus and let Him be our present and living Head and Lord. The book of Romans calls this being “led by the Spirit.” (See verse 8:14.) How much more there is to Christianity than just remembering and learning about Jesus in the past!

Modern Christianity too often focuses on theology while ignoring actually opening the heart to the living Jesus and to one another. Theology is like train tracks. It’s vitally important and without it Christianity can easily go off track. However, the best tracks in the world without a train to run on them are worthless. Without taking the time to train people to actually open up to the risen Jesus and to each other, theology is empty tracks. The Bible says that people who are Spirit-led (not theologically ahead) are the children of God.

If you focus on continually studying and learning the details of a friend’s life but don’t open your heart to personally interact with him, you will have a very shallow relationship. Jesus is my Friend and Lord! I don’t just want to study Him. I want to follow Him with my heart wide open to His presence and love! A mind full of theology, without a heart openly overflowing with the reality of the living and present Jesus, tends to produce a present-day Pharisee.

The more you know yourself the more you know that you need to say no to yourself. It takes courage to open your heart in a closed-hearted culture. Be courageous! When one person has the courage to open up his heart to be radically and continually led and changed by the living present Jesus, it creates a powerful chain reaction that influences many other people to do the same. Will you be that person?

It takes much more courage . . .

To fully surrender your life to the living Jesus than to study theology.
To open your heart than to keep it closed.
To do what’s right than to do what’s wrong.
To be kind than to be rude.
To control your thoughts than to let them control you.
To admit you’re wrong than to justify yourself.
To forgive than to hate.
To resist temptation than to give in to it.
To be honest than to lie.
To humble yourself than to exalt yourself.
To obey your conscience than to ignore it.
To discipline yourself than to let yourself run wild.
To argue with yourself than to argue with other people.
To fight your unruly feelings and desires than to fight people.
To obey the living Jesus throughout the day than to go to church.

Posted in academics, Christian conferences, religious academics, study of God, theology | Tagged purpose of theology, seminary education, studying theology, theological study, theology definition, theology quotes, why theology? | 1 Comment

The ignored heart disease

Posted on May 16, 2023 by Steve Simms

There’s a terminal heart illness that medical science ignores. “The wages of sin is death.” The sickness of sin hardens the human heart and separates it from hope.

Guilt is a major symptom of the sickness of sin. If you’ve ever felt guilty, you test positive for sin, even if you and others believe you’re a good person.

Although sin includes harmful, selfish, and unethical behavior, its roots are deep within the human heart. Behavior modification without a renewed heart offers no lasting hope for healing from the sickness of sin.

There’s only one proven source for human heart transformation — ‘Christ in you, the hope of glory.” Millions of people from various cultures and time periods around the world have testified to and demonstrated by their changed lives the power of the living Jesus to give human beings a new heart and break their inner bondage to the sickness of sin.

God demonstrates His love today in and through human hearts that open up to and fully surrender to the presence and Lordship of the resurrected Jesus Christ. Meeting people like that went far beyond mere words and clearly demonstrated God’s love to me. I’ve never been the same. I interact heart-to-heart with and read books by people like that every chance I get.

The Gospel is not just the account of Christ’s life. It’s also the good news of the presence and power of the risen Jesus today.

An hour praying in tongues might spiritually empower you more effectively than an hour in church. “O taste and see . . .”

Here’s something
That’s little known:
To live surrendered
To the presence
Of the risen Jesus
Is to be in the zone
Of thrilling joy
And to never feel alone.

Personal awareness
Of the presence of Jesus
Is the cure
To the allure
Of sin.

Praying in tongues makes me deeply aware of the presence of the risen Jesus. Last weekend in a Christian gathering in a home I experienced something I’ve never seen done before. We took turns speaking in tongues and let the others interpret. It was amazingly powerful!

Posted in heart care, heart monitor, heart of worship, wages of sin | Tagged a new heart, heart disease, heart health, sinful heart, spiritual heart health, spiritual heart transplant | Leave a comment

Biblical Christianity isn’t a theater. It’s a gym.

Posted on May 15, 2023 by Steve Simms

I was lying in bed from four this morning with a powerful thought running through my mind over and over. I was frustrated because I just wanted to go back to sleep. Suddenly these words came strongly into my mind. “It’s not you! It’s not the devil! It’s Me! Get up!” I jumped up and looked at the clock. It was 4:44. So, I’ve been up and writing thoughts that keep coming to me ever since 4:44. (Unintentionally, I see triple numbers on the clock numerous times every day and God has shown me that that’s something He is using to encourage me.)

To assume that you’re in good standing with God while you’re mostly ignoring Him is a dangerous assumption! The most dangerous spiritual condition a person can be in is to think he is a Christian when he isn’t. If you’re satisfied with where you are in your relationship with Jesus, you’re nowhere near where you think you are.

If we won’t get out of the religious box and actively do God’s Word, we may find ourselves merely sitting by and being complacent. Faith in Jesus should never be cold and ceramic, but always on fire and dynamic! Biblical Christianity isn’t a theater. It’s a gym. Same ole same ole same ole is not the way to follow the risen Jesus!

God’s gift of grace doesn’t produce religious complacency. It imparts a passionate hunger to follow and obey the living Jesus. Hunger and thirst for righteousness is the sign that you’ve received God’s grace.

Christianity isn’t a religious rut. It’s a rigorous race empowered by God’s glorious grace. True grace doesn’t mean that you don’t need to seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness. It activates and empowers you to do so!

God’s grace keeps me from being complacent. He continually gives me more and more passion for Jesus.

Let Jesus be unlimited. Set aside anything within you that’s hindering His power and presence by surrendering to His moment-by-moment Lordship and control. Spiritual complacency is a symptom of religious pride.

Jesus never said, “Come and hear a weekly sermon about Me.” He said: “Follow Me.” Be a Christ-follower, not a religious spectator. The constant repetition of the same religious format every Sunday morning tends to lull Christians into spiritual complacency.

To follow the risen Jesus, you have to go beyond spectator Christianity! If you will go with the flow of God’s Spirit, you’ll be carried into wonder and awe! Prayer isn’t passivity; it’s spiritual warfare.

Since the Bible says, “God resists the proud,” perhaps pride should be avoided. When things don’t go your way, pride takes offense but gratitude searches for hidden blessings.

To settle into comfortable Christianity is to become spiritually complacent and proudly satisfied with religious mediocrity. When you feel like you have nothing to be proud about you are “poor in spirit.” Then Jesus says that you are blessed with access to God’s kingdom. (See Matthew 5:3.)

Jesus doesn’t call us to complacency. He calls us to actively place our trust completely in His presence. When the voice of self is louder than the voice of the living Jesus Christianity easily becomes a passive Sunday program.

Religious complacency
Is spiritual vagrancy.

Self is so loud
When I’m feeling proud
That I can’t hear
God’s humble whispers
Speaking in my heart.

A proud attitude
Is the opposite
Of gratitude.
Pride says,
“Look what I did!”
Gratitude says,
It was all God’s grace.

Photo by Mike Gonzu00e1lez on Pexels.com

Posted in cheap grace, discipleship, grace, spiritual formation, spiritual growth | Tagged Christian gym, Christian maturity, discipleship definition, discipleship quotes, grace definition, grace quotes, religious rut, Spirit-led Christianity | Leave a comment

To purr with inner impurities is to cat nap in a cage.

Posted on May 14, 2023 by Steve Simms

All human societies are full of mental and emotional pollution. It requires wisdom is to be aware of it and to avoid it. To turn off your mental and emotional filter is to welcome pollution into your thoughts, feelings, and desires.

Physical impurities weaken metal and poison food. Mental and emotional impurities do the same things to you. Until you delete the impurities from your heart and mind, their malware will continually create disfunction within you.

Beware! Inner impurity presents itself as seductive and enticing so that we will let it control our life. Pride is self-pollution. It prevents us from seeing our inner impurities. To purr with inner impurities is to cat nap while caught in a kennel.

When impurities of the thought, emotion, and desire are embraced as normal, the idea of a pure heart seems like a mere myth. Much human pain has resulted from our individual choices to embrace our inner impurities instead of resisting them.

Inner impurities are the thieves of happiness and contentment. They cause much of our pain. Removing them releases joy. Just because many forms of mental and emotional pollution are popular doesn’t mean they are good for you. Inner impurity is more costly than we can imagine.

To become numb to inner impurities is to let them take over your life. Refuse to let someone’s trashy words make you their garbage can! The mental and emotional impurities that are most harmful to you are usually the ones that you are quickest to defend.

Demons dump impurities into human hearts and minds. People’s unfiltered words spread those inner pollutants far and wide. The human mind and heart are not designed to be a habitation for demons.

To believe
That inner pollution
Is a solution
To your problems
Is great deception.

Insecurity
Is a symptom
Of inner impurity.

The desire
To be made whole
Comes from being aware
Of the impurity of your soul.

Filter your mind
And your heart.
The more you strain
And remove the Impurities
That darken and stain
Your perception
The more you will see
And appreciate
The glorious beauty
Of being alive!
(Matthew 5:8.)

Self-identifying as a Christian doesn’t make you one. “Christ in you, the hope of glory” does! Regularly reading the Bible with an open heart will help you avoid inner impurity, but inner impurity will cause you to avoid the Bible. The closer we get to the living God the uglier our inner impurities look to us. Stand in the smile of God, not in the frown of mental and emotional impurity.

Posted in Blessed are the pure in spirit, holiness, pure in heart, purity | Tagged holy lifestyle, holy living, impurity definition, impurity quotes, purity definition, purity quotes | Leave a comment

Demonstrating Jesus is powerful!

Posted on May 13, 2023 by Steve Simms

If you’ll observe
Without analysis
You’ll see much
That your brain
Can’t explain.

Wonder dies when you over-analyze. Keep your heart open to awe and wonder! Inner healing is openhearted. Closed hearts rarely recover from their loss of peace.

Our collapsing culture needs actual demonstrations of the presence and power of the living Jesus, not dissertations about Him. Experiencing Jesus is much more powerful than analyzing Him!

Miracles happen when people read the Bible without a religious frame and listen with an open heart to the risen Jesus. A focus on religious analysis tends to harden the heart and cause spiritual paralysis.

There’s nothing wrong with sermons. (God can powerfully use them.) However, there is something wrong when people are taught to merely listen to a weekly sermon and aren’t given hands-on training in being led by the Spirit to practically apply the Word in day-to-day life.

Perhaps Christianity
Is more effectively taught
With heart-felt testimonies
And better caught
By Spirit-led demonstrations
Of Christ’s presence
Than explained
With analytic thought.
(Revelation 12:11.)

Posted in coaching, demonstration of the Spirit, God demonstrations, training | Tagged awe, Spirit-led meetings, Jesus in action, Show Jesus, wonder quotes | Leave a comment

Wretched me

Posted on May 12, 2023 by Steve Simms

“O wretched man that I am.”

I woke up with these thoughts and responses running through my mind this morning:

Thought: When I’m discouraged.