It’s time for strong, bold talk about unkindness

Posted on August 1, 2021 by Steve Simms

Unkindness is weakness. It takes no strength to be cruel. To be unkind to people is to invite them to be unkind to you.

Unkind words publicly display a lack of the courage to care. Unkindness is egotistical and selfish. It’s often used as an attempt to hide personal weakness. If you want people to earn and/or deserve your kindness, then you’re not really being very kind.

If you can’t express your views without being unkind, your views are more emotional than rational. Unkindness reveals a lack of confidence in what you’re saying.

Unkindness snowballs. Try not to add to people’s pain. Dare to be unkindness-free. If you train yourself to ignore and forget unkind words, you’ll be much happier!

The English language has such a huge vocabulary that nothing needs to be expressed in unkind words. Profanity consists of unkind words.

My heroes excel at kindness and gracefully speaking the truth. I want to do that, too. The best cure for conflict is unkind words left unsaid. When you respond in kind to unkind words, you put the idea in people’s mind that those words might be true about you.

The Bible says, “Be kind to one another.” (Ephesians 4:32.) Unkindness is a sin! When Jesus said, “Love your enemies,” He meant, “Be kind to unkind people.” (The ability to be kind to unkind people is true maturity.)

Beam compassion. Radiate kindness. Shine goodwill.

If you let life
Make you unkind,
Your peace of mind
Will unwind.

Every unkind statement
That we make
Is a debasement
To our emotional
Environment.

Unkindness is
A trap.
When someone
Spews it out,
Don’t carry it around
And spread it about.

Every time you retaliate
You deviate
From kindness.

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Spiritual drought should not be what church is about

Posted on July 31, 2021 by Steve Simms

A living water drought
Will drown your heart
In doubt
Unless Jesus’ rivers
Are allowed to flow out.

When the songs are sung
And the sermon’s done,
How much do you
Flow with God’s Son?

Anything less than daily hearing and obeying the living Jesus falls short of biblical Christianity. A religion people control is not the faith presented in the Bible.

To pray for God’s will to be done and then to do what you want to do is to contradict your prayer. The kingdom of God begins to happen anyplace where people are surrendering to King Jesus’ direct control.

Christian leaders should prepare the way and create an environment where the living Jesus is free to take control. We have the freedom to disrupt God’s control–to reject His will by follow our feelings and desires instead.

It’s much easier to give a talk about Jesus than it is to surrender a church service to His control. If you (or some other person) is controlling a meeting, the living Jesus isn’t.

Grace doesn’t replace God’s commandments. It restores our relationship with Him so He can do His will by living in and overflowing thru us.

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Religion can be a spiritual vaccine

Posted on July 30, 2021 by Steve Simms

Religion can be a vaccine that tricks us into believing we already have all of Jesus we need and should resist His working in us. Try not to let religion vaccinate you and give you immunity to hearing the voice of God for yourself.

Church tries to change people from the outside, but the living Jesus and the Bible change people from the inside out. Church is seen as the delivery system of Christianity, but when I read the Bible it looks like the living Jesus delivers it. We need to be infected by Jesus. Perhaps church needs the attitude of John the Baptist: “He (Jesus) must increase but I must decrease.”

The more Christianity
Is systematized
And analyzed,
The more it is
Anesthetized.
It needs to be
Revitalized.

When the living Jesus
Is allowed to be
In control,
The kingdom of God
Shows up.

To pray
Is not just
What you say.
It’s how you hear
And obey
Jesus
Every day.

Multitudes of Christians have been trained to be more dependent on the organization called church than on the living Jesus. Christianity’s been systematized into the passive, weekly attendance of a highly organized “service,” but it’s much more than that. Christians are supposed to be led (shaped, directed, guided) by the Spirit, not by a religious system. Romans 8:14.

When Christianity is limited to commemorating what Jesus did in the past, it’s incomplete. He wants to demonstrate His presence now! Direct connection with Jesus is much more powerful than informative talks about Him.

You can’t (and don’t want to) “go to church” 24/7/365, but you can continually interact with the living Jesus. Try it! If Christians would focus on and listen to the living Jesus, as much as we do preachers, it would revolutionize our life. Jesus wants to speak directly to your heart and also thru the Bible. The Bible isn’t a complex system known as systematic theology. It is powerful words that set humble human hearts on fire!

If you’re having trouble getting your conscience to forgive your sins, the living Jesus can help. The living Jesus wants to train you to make your nervous system your friend instead of your enemy. The goal of church should be to inspire people to actively and passionately pursue their own relationship with the living Jesus.

To repent is to continually get closer to the living Jesus. It’s a lifestyle, not a once and done thing. Too many Christians live like they are indifferent to Jesus instead of being passionate about Him.

Breathe better. Wholesome laughter is great exercise for your respiratory system. “The joy of the Lord is our strength.”

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Devaluing people is contrary to America’s founding principles

Posted on July 29, 2021 by Steve Simms

If you find it hard to compassionately listen to certain people, that might be because you tend to devalue them. Perhaps, thinking that what people are feeling because of their color, is not worth hearing, is racism. When society devalues people based on color, those people are reminded of it every time they look at their profile picture.

To devalue a color of people makes no sense. It’s like devaluing a cat because of it’s color.

Here’s an observation: Americans are good at emoting about race, but bad at thinking logically about it.

Devaluing any people denies the founding declarations of America, but even the Founding Fathers devalued groups of people. Devalue no one! It’s time to be true to America’s founding principles. All people are indeed created equal. We need to finally overcome the human tendency that wants a group of people to feel superior to.

The idea that color makes one person better than another is a terrible lie. Color is not and never has been a measure of human value. The color standard for determining people’s worth is cruel.

A thought track runs thru history, proclaiming that color sorts people by value. Until it’s openly admitted and boldly renounced as a lie, it will continue to influence our thinking and behavior today. The train of thought that says that color determines human worth is difficult to derail. Because centuries of momentum keep it rolling on, this train of thought isn’t easy to overcome.

From the early days of Colonial America, the color-based thought track was laid that believes that human value is determined by color. That idea to use color as a measure of human value unleashed floods of misinformation and conspiracy against Black people and people of color. Exempting Black people in the USA from citizenship and Constitutional protection was a terrible conspiracy against freedom.

The conspiracy to dehumanize and enslave Black people wasn’t a minor incident. It was a huge part of history that is glossed over.

Centuries of misinformation and conspiracy against Black people was made illegal after the Civil Rights Movement, but it lingers. Cruel things like “redlining” still stick around.

It’s not necessary to devalue a single person in order to feel good about yourself. To devalue anyone because of color is anti-Christian. Learn practical ways to appreciate people of all colors.

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Fresh perspectives on the five-fold ministry gifts (APEST)

Posted on July 28, 2021 by Steve Simms

The concept of the five-fold ministry is based on a Scripture in Ephesians chapter four, that says that Jesus gave to His assembly, apostles, prophets, evangelists, shepherds (pastors), and teachers. Traditionally those concepts have been seen as special gifts (or callings) that individual Christians have. Sometimes people even choose one to use as a personal title before their name.

I woke up this morning with a fresh perspective about the five-fold ministry flowing through my spirit. Too often Christians are fed with religious information, but starved of spiritual insight. However, true Christian ministry releases revelation (God-given insight); it doesn’t just dispense information. So how do each of the five-fold gifting release and develop God-given insight?

A) Apostles: The word literally means “sent one.” Apostles are Kingdom doers, errand runners sent to do what King Jesus says.

P) Prophets are Kingdom-insight seers and truth proclaimers. They receive and share fresh revelation from Jesus.

E) Evangelists are Kingdom recruiters who show people the Way, the living resurrected Jesus.

S) Shepherds (pastors) are Kingdom nurturers who help connect people heart to heart with Jesus and nurture that connection through listening and compassion. They help release revelation, healing, and forgiveness into people’s hearts.

T) Teachers are Kingdom disciplers. They do more than dispense information. They give people practical, hands-on training in how to hear, follow, and obey Jesus on a daily basis. They prepare people to be sent out as Kingdom doers.

Ephesians says that the purpose of these gifts is to equip all Christ-followers to do works of service (ministry) so that the body of Christ can be built up and brought to unity and maturity. I believe that churches have limited the Holy Spirit by teaching people that these gifts are only for a very few special individuals and by ignoring them (except for pastor). I believe that they are Jesus-led functions, not titles or privileged offices.

Since Jesus taught that His followers shouldn’t “Lord it over people,” I don’t believe these five gifts are a positional hierarchy, but equal gifts in a progressive circle. Personally, I find these giftings working in my daily life at different times and in different situations. Daily I seem to be led from gift to gift — from being a Kingdom doer, to being a Kingdom-insight seer/proclaimer, to being a Kingdom recruiter, to being a Kingdom nurturer, to being a Kingdom discipler.

As the early Christians drifted away from Spirit-led gatherings based on the Greek word “ekklesia,” they began to organize men-led churches and to see the five-fold gifts as individual men in administrative positions. However, the Bible says Christians are to be “led by the Spirit.” (Romans 8:14.) Let’s open up and be individually led by the Spirit to pursue all five gifts in each of our lives and to help other people pursue them as well.

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Learn to hear the here-Jesus

Posted on July 27, 2021 by Steve Simms

Learn to hear the here-Jesus. You don’t need to go anywhere to hear the here-Jesus.

Glory entered my heart,
Inexpressible splendor
And radiance.
Then I began to read
The writings of
The first Christ-followers
And realized that
The life transformation
That had happened to them
Had happened to me.
"Christ in you, the hope of glory."

As we learn to surrender
To Jesus' presence
And control,
His healing
Will flow.

Too often we meet together
To be taught
What we ought
To do,
Instead of to get caught
In the presence of Jesus.
Then we forget that
The here-Jesus
Needs no building
Or program
Or preacher
To speak to you.

It's time Christians sought
To experience Christ's presence 
And not just to be taught 
About Him.
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House church? Change in church location is insignificant without a change in control

Posted on July 26, 2021 by Steve Simms

Christian history shows that church has left the ekklesia (the Spirit-led gatherings of the early Christ-followers). Organization gradually overrode the Spirit.

Today, many Christians want to get away from tightly organized, institutional church services and experience more freedom and spontaneity. This desire has helped create a movement toward “house church,” where people meet in private homes rather than in church buildings. However, here’s a fallacy in the “house church” movement: A change in location doesn’t automatically mean setting aside human control. Without a change from human control to Spirit control, the location of a gathering is insignificant.

When many Christians attempt house church, the focus is still on one person teaching or preaching. In other cases, they try to make the meeting more participatory by getting people to share, but they still have one person at the helm, controlling and/or facilitating the gathering. In both of these models a human being (instead of the Holy Spirit) is in direct control of the meeting.

Another problem with house church is that when the focus is on developing relationships between people, we can be distracted from focusing on the living Jesus and His direct leadership of gathering. However, because ekklesia focuses on Jesus and lets Him lead, the people have great relationships with each other.

I’ve attended numerous “house church” gatherings where either 1) people just hang around and fellowship with no real leadership, or 2) a leader controls the meeting. In the first one, there is plenty of freedom, but nothing to pull everyone together. In the second one, although a leader gets everyone’s attention, he or she assumes control of the meeting. Even when the leader tries to facilitate interaction and sharing (with the best of intentions), he is still in control and often directing who shares. This unintentionally limits (and/or shuts down) the Holy Spirit’s freedom to prompt who He wants to speak.

The #2 type meeting also puts people on the spot. It can require them to share when the Holy Spirit may not be telling them to. It can also prevent them from sharing when the Spirit is telling them to. Many house church meetings are a combination of the two.

I was once in a type #2 gathering where people were being called on about a specific topic, but people didn’t feel free to share prayers, spiritual gifts, or other things that Jesus might put on their heart. Afterwards a brother came up to me and shared a vision that he saw during the meeting. It was really powerful and would have taken the meeting to another level. But we missed out on that because of the unintended results of having a facilitator instead of letting the Spirit directly control the meeting by encouraging people to freely obey His promptings.

We need to train Christians to hear and obey the living Jesus when we gather in His name. We need to give them the confidence that Jesus is going to use them in the meeting and the freedom to openly obey His promptings.

A Christ-follower
Is some who
Learns to listen to
And then do
What Jesus says.

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Which lives matter?

Posted on July 26, 2021 by Steve Simms

Broken hearts matter. They’re the hearts that are the most open to surrendering to the living Jesus.

People who are sad matter. They’re the people who most need our compassion and comfort.

People who continually let themselves be influenced by goodness, matter. They will positively impact the world.

People, who persistently maintain a strong desire to do the right thing, matter. They will have the power to obey their conscience.

People, who frequently show mercy to others, matter. When they need forgiveness, people will have mercy on them.

People, who try to keep their heart pure, matter. They experience supernatural encounters with the living God.

People who bring peace matter. They will be seen as having a special relationship with God.

People, who are persecuted because of doing the right thing, matter. They’re like the the prophets in the Bible who were persecuted.

People, who courageously focus on truth and don’t compromise with deception, matter. They give light to the world.

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Which Americans have best lived up to the founding principles of American greatness?

Posted on July 24, 2021 by Steve Simms

Who should be honored as the greatest Americans? Those who most consistently lived by and applied the American ideals of “liberty and justice for all”!

The greatest Americans:

  • Boldly stood up for “liberty and justice for all,” not just for a particular group.
  • Believed that ALL people “are created equal” and have rights that must be respected and honored.
  • Insisted that The Bill of Rights applied to everybody equally, not just to people who looked like them.
  • Thought that the principles of freedom should be equally applied, not just given to certain people.
  • Tried to “establish justice” and “secure the blessings of liberty,” not just for themselves, but also for the oppressed.
  • Defended human rights when they saw people being deprived of “life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.”
  • Didn’t just talk about the ideals of freedom and democracy, but sought to equally apply them.
  • Continually resisted any attempts to keep certain people from accessing the principles of liberty.

Let’s recognize and honor the greatest Americans, those who most faithfully lived up to and defended everybody’s “inalienable rights.” Check the list of my Top Ten Greatest Americans of all time according to these principles.

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Daring to think about slavery

Posted on July 23, 2021 by Steve Simms

To act like the cruelty that a historical figured did doesn’t matter, is to say that the people he was cruel to didn’t matter. To boast in the good, but ignore (or hide) the bad behaviors of our forefathers is inconsistent. Truth matters.

Imagine the cruelty that it requires to keep people in life-long slavery. No slave would stick around unless cruelly confined.

Human trafficking is extreme cruelty, even when called “slavery.” “Kind slave master” and “kind human trafficker” are oxymorons.

Slavery was the denial of God-given free will. Those who forced it on people were guilty of great cruelty, but their guilt isn’t ours.

How bad was slavery? Worse than anyone who has never been a slave can possibly imagine.

If guilt can’t be inherited, then pride can’t either and we can take nothing good or bad from our forefathers. However, the least we should do is to be honest about their cruelty and never act like it didn’t matter.

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