Unmasking prayer and church . . .

Posted on May 17, 2021 by Steve Simms

Prayer can get stuck
In rattling off words
Without feeling.
Instead, express your heart.

The USA has dropped the mask mandate. Now we need churches to drop their mask mandate and let people openly share from their heart. It’s time for Christians to be real before God and one another. When you learn to honestly express to God, the tenderness in your heart, you’ll be free to express it to people as well — with an unmaksed heart.

Americans will call, write, or petition their representative in Congress, but I find God to be much more reliable. When you think God isn’t hearing, He is. But you might not be.

Many Christians have been trained to hear sermons without commenting and to talk to God without listening to His inner voice. However, those who listen to and obey the living God are Spirit-led and live by love. The Bible calls them “the children of God.” Romans 8:14.

People who pray together (from their heart) experience an inner connection with God, together. To pray with your mouth open and your heart closed, falls far short of true prayer. Open the eyes and ears of your heart.

The 2 halves of prayer are: 1) expressing yourself to God; and 2) is listening within as God expresses Himself to you. Just because it’s free, doesn’t mean that communicating with God is less powerful than talking to a paid therapist or counselor. The Bible says that we should ask God for wisdom. Pray that He will teach you. Then listen to His inner voice in your conscience.

Knees bent in prayer don’t necessarily mean a heart bent toward God. True prayer is spiritual warfare. It’s intense, focused, compassionate, urgent, heart-felt, and life-changing. Say one for someone.

Formal prayer is constrained and regimented. Free-flowing prayer is spontaneous, heart-felt, and life-changing!

See how well God organized nature. Yet many Christians believe He can’t organize a church service without a pastor to lead it.

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God — first responder or last resort?

Posted on May 17, 2021 by Steve Simms

If you want God
To be your first responder,
Don’t make prayer
Your last resort.

When you say your prayers, open your heart and share your cares with God. As humans we have selective inner hearing. We can open or close the ears of our heart to God. Pray with the ears of your heart open and hear what God has to say.

God’s voice is often called conscience. Life goes better when you tune your heart to hear Him.

Heart-prayer is to hunger and thirst for a growing relationship with God. That’s how we can “pray without ceasing.” Make your prayers an expression of heart-felt gratitude, not just a religious platitude.

Christianity isn’t a once and done — an “I got saved,” checkbox. It’s lifelong surrender to and pursuit of the living Jesus.

Consistently pray for God to bless your enemies. They may never know it, but it will cause bitterness to drain from your heart.

Prayer walking is powerful. When I pray while walking around with my eyes open, I discover that “He walks with me and He talks with me.”

People who say they don’t believe in prayer will sometimes turn to it as a last resort. Without sincerity, prayer won’t bring serenity.

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Our thoughts & feelings produce many mirages

Posted on May 15, 2021 by Steve Simms

Life is full of mirages. The way things seem to your senses isn’t always the way they really are. Our consciousness contains both illusion and truth. It’s important to separate the two.

Be attentive to your inner self. You can greatly improve your life by observing your thoughts and feelings and working to improve them

The most ignored human right is the right to restrain and control your own impulses, desires, thoughts, and feelings. You have the ability to choose to either accept or resist any thought or feeling that comes to your awareness.

What you know about Jesus thru direct personal experience is infinitely more powerful than what you’ve learned by hearsay or sermons. Jesus gives us His path to follow everyday, not a classroom style lecture to attend once a week.

Inner Christianity isn’t based on outward form, but on obeying the living Jesus within. Going to church, without the inner life and inward illumination of Christ living in you, misses the point. You get to know the living Jesus by inviting & observing His activity within you.

Jesus wants to awaken and restore God’s image inside of you, thru new birth and the lifelong process of becoming Christ-like. To know the Bible by living it is far more important than to merely read or study it.

To repent is to align your heart and life with your conscience and the inner government of God. Thinking we’re Christian because it’s our intention to be, is deception if we choose to leave our behavior unaligned with Jesus.

Grace changes a person from the inside out and begins to transform his thoughts, feelings, and actions to conform to those of Jesus. Theology, if not confirmed by personal experience, has little impact on how people live.

Sincerely ask God to bring alive the reality of Jesus in your personal experience. Then fasten your spiritual seat belt. You can daily live in the kingdom of God, because King Jesus is present among us and wants to live inside of and direct you 24/7/365.

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Unmasking history — 6 poems for the brave at heart

Posted on May 14, 2021 by Steve Simms 
UNMASKING HISTORY
Freedom of speech
Doesn't put a muzzle on history,
But lets it tell the whole story.
Masked history 
Has led to deception
By canceling the reception 
Of uncomfortable details 
And by claiming that racial cruelty
Was an exception
Rather than the norm.


FREEDOM RIDERS
Black & white heroes
Together boarded buses
To go to places
That said no 
To uniting the races.
They showed love
Even though
They were met with hate
And were resisted with violence.


LUNCH COUNTER SIT-INS
White only
Was too lonely,
Rejecting the rest
Of the human race,
So heroic blacks
And some of their supporters,
Sat down for lunch
And were quickly
Refused service, harassed,
Abused, insulted,
Burned with cigarettes 
And punched
By the other customers,
Yet they remained
Nonviolent & peaceful.


BLACK VOTER REGISTRATION
Poll tax, literacy requirements,
Jim Crow laws, & violence, 
Kept almost all blacks
Off the voter rolls
In the South
Until the 1960s
When men and women
Courageously went county to county,
Risking their lives by
Registering blacks to vote.
They were abused and beaten.
Some were murdered by hate groups.
More than a thousand of them
Were arrested by law enforcement 
For simply trying to register people to vote.


ANTI-LYNCHING MOVEMENT
Between the 1880s and the 1960s,
More than 4,200 Americans
Were lynched.
Some courageous blacks
And a few of their supporters
Spoke out against it,
Yet the horror & evil of lynching
Never sparked a national outrage.
From the 1930's 
Congress tried more than 200 times
To pass an anti-lynching law
But refused every time.
Finally in 2,000 
They made lynching
A federal crime.


CIVIL RIGHTS MOVEMENT
Millions of Americans
Were denied their
Constitutional rights
By illegal laws
And hate groups.
Many said enough
And began to march.
Community hate
Couldn't stop them.
Even law enforcement 
With billy clubs, 
Dogs and fire hoses,
Were no match 
For those nonviolent heroes.


For more unmaksed history, check out: Off the RACE Track--From Color-Blind to Color-Kind.
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Be a patriot of the kingdom of God. Jesus first!

Posted on May 13, 2021 by Steve Simms

Invisible kingdoms compete for your allegiance: A) The kingdom of self; 😎  B) The kingdom of darkness; and C) The kingdom of God. The kingdom of God manifests when people obey the living Jesus instead of their own feelings, dearies, or opinions.

The kingdom of God is what God wants — not what we want. Too many Christians want to create their own kingdom. They want to be independent of the kingdom of God.

Tune in to
Christ in you.
Jesus will tell you
What to do.

When and where do you manifest the kingdom of God? How much territory does God control inside your heart? To that degree, you’re in the kingdom of God.

“Seek first the kingdom of God.” Jesus taught the primacy of God’s invisible government over all other governments and authorities.

“The kingdom of God is at hand.” You can become a patriot of God’s government now, by continually listening to and obeying the living Jesus. The kingdom of God (bringing your heart into full surrender and obedience to the living Jesus) is a lifetime pursuit.

The kingdom of God is wherever God’s will is done while human will and temptations of evil are laid down. God’s kingdom isn’t established by human organizations, but by human surrender — individuals patriotically laying down their will for His.

Wrongful thoughts, words, and actions are treasonous. They involve active rebellion against the kingdom of God. The kingdom of God is a condition of the heart–vulnerability, humility, surrender, brokenness, and passion to obey the risen Jesus.

The kingdom of God isn’t an organization. It’s organic and grows like a seed in humble, surrendered, obedient human hearts. The kingdom of God isn’t found by earthly power or human systems, but by radical surrender to the risen Jesus.

The kingdom of God is the manifestation of God’s inner transformation. It liberates us from bondage to self. It’s the freedom to follow Jesus.

Christianity isn’t about the grace to understand God. It’s about the grace to obey God! Grace freely opens the door to the kingdom of God. Obedience enters it.

America teaches “the pursuit of happiness,.” Jesus taught “the pursuit of the kingdom of God and His right living.” -Matthew 6:33. Jesus proclaimed “the kingdom of God,” but today’s Christianity focuses on church. The government of God isn’t about sermons, churches, or religious events. It’s about daily listening to and obeying the risen Jesus

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A head full of theology can be spiritually dead

Posted on May 12, 2021 by Steve Simms

Christian spiritual formation
Requires inner transformation,
Not just biblical information.

Learning doctrine in our head, we can still be spiritually dead. We need to let God’s fire continually burn in our heart!

Christians can be taught by Jesus — instructed directly by the Good Shepherd whose sheep hear His voice. When you allow Jesus to lead you from the inside out, it’s glorious. (“Christ in you, the hope of glory.)

Too often Christians only learn info about God rather than being directly led by His Spirit. To be “led by the Spirit,” you have to learn to listen to the Spirit, not just to preachers.

A self-justified heart frequently pats itself on the back. Then it allows pride to keep it away from intimacy with God.

Preachers disagree.
I need Jesus,
The living Word,
To teach me.

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I’m not my feelings or desires

Posted on May 12, 2021 by Steve Simms

Our thoughts, feelings, and desires are skewed to varying degrees. We need to adjust them to our conscience, not vise versa.

What feels good is often harmful. Desiring something doesn’t make it right. In the battle between conscience and desire, we too often let desire win.

My feelings and desires don’t define me. I prefer to define my feelings and desires and sort out the good ones from the bad ones.

I’m not my feelings,
Or my desires.
I’m who chooses
To accept
Or reject
Them.

Our desires
Need to
Follow behind
Our mind.
Logic is more accurate
Than feelings.

Peace of thought doesn’t just happen. It involves silencing the anxious and tormenting ones.

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Christ-centered exuberance is the biblical norm

Posted on May 11, 2021 by Steve Simms

Exuberance isn’t an extraordinary expression of Christianity. It’s the biblical norm for following Jesus.

Tidy Christianity tends to quench the Holy Spirit. Christianity in the Bible isn’t organized, formalized, or intellectualized.

You don’t work up genuine love for Jesus. When you’re aware of His presence, it spontaneously flows from within. Unfortunately, many people have allowed their inner acoustics to deteriorate until they have difficulty hearing the voice of God.

Don’t settle for less. When the living Jesus causes inner exuberance to erupt like a geyser from within you, you’ll know it! It will also be obvious to those who know you.

Happiness isn’t obsession with self. It’s freedom from self-focus. Like a rope, your emotions can either tie you up, or lift you up. It all depends on how you respond to them. People who aren’t ruled by their desires are inner heroes of freedom and self-control.

Joyless Christianity isn’t biblical. The living Jesus and my ego seldom go in the same direction. When I focus on the living Jesus, I overflow with enjoyment. The Bible calls that: “joy unspeakable and full of glory.” The risen Jesus continually fills me with spontaneous liveliness and joyful enthusiasm.

If you don’t have inner peace, you’re allowing something tormenting to trespass inside you where it doesn’t belong. When God’s light enters a human heart, the hardness of the heart begins to soften, unless the person turns away to darkness.

Without discernment, the willingness to recognize the difference between divine and demonic thoughts, life is a mess.

Photo by Monstera on Pexels.com — Jesus makes you want to dance for joy!
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When to hear a talk / when to take action

Posted on May 11, 2021 by Steve Simms

People stuck outside on a freezing night don’t listen to a talk about fire. They gather around and receive it’s warmth.

Thirsty people don’t listen to a talk about water. They drink it.

People whose gas gage is on empty don’t listen to a talk about fuel grades. They fill their tank.

When people are sweaty and dirty, they don’t listen to a talk about hygiene. They take a bath or a shower.

When people are sleepy, they don’t listen to a talk about sleeping techniques. They get some shut eye.

When people’s clothes are piled up and dirty, they don’t listen to a talk about washing machines. They do the laundry.

When people feel a great need for Jesus to help them, they don’t go hear a sermon. They cry out to Him with all their heart.

For many people, Christianity consists of 52 (or fewer) premixed religious talks per year. Too often those premixed talks (sermons) are substituted for Spirit-led action. For practical ways to draw near to the living Jesus, google: Beyond Church Ekklesia.

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Beyond life’s buzz

Posted on May 10, 2021 by Steve Simms

Too much buzz and life becomes a fuzz . . .

Like trying to see through a jar of honey.

Now is busy
With the buzz
Of activities and desires,
Thoughts and feelings.
Peace is beyond
The buzz.

Between the lines,
Beyond the words,
So much insight
Waits for us
To perceive it.

An open heart
Can perceive
Beyond the boundaries
Of mind
And senses.

I like the word beyond.
It means there’s more
Than I perceive or feel.
It gives hope.

Freedom is beyond
The bonds that bind you.
It’s not a compromise
With them.

If your mind
Isn’t blown by God,
You’re probably
Avoiding Him.

There is so much beyond
My comprehension, 
That is outside of
My tiny dot of perception.
I don't have enough information
To fully evaluate anything.

Atheism declares
That God can't exist,
But I don't think
That He pays
Much attention to it.
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