Lotsa pruning means lotsa fruit

Posted on July 7, 2021 by Steve Simms

It hurts
To be pruned,
Cut back
And fine tuned,
But it makes room
For great fruit.

Pruned trees look bad,
But not for long.
They come back
With a life-flowing song.

If we won’t let God
Prune our pride,
We’ll decide
To refuse Him
As our guide.

To prepare the way
Of the Lord,
We must allow Him
To cut away
Anything in us
That's in His way.

When God is pruning
Your life,
It goes better
If you stop assuming
You can tell Him
How to do it.

When you let God prune,
You might not sing
A happy tune,
But you'll soon
Experience new life.

When pruned
Of pride,
You’re free
To let God
Be your inside
Guide.

Lotsa pruning
Means lotsa fruit
Is on its way.

Pruning shifts our confidence away from self so we can trust more in God and experience more of His fruit and less of our own effort. When you’re resisting God’s pruning in your life, you’re quenching the Holy Spirit.

All growth isn’t good. Pruning cuts back harmful growth to make room for fruitful growth to prosper. It’s easier to be the pruner than the prunee–to try to prune other people instead of letting God prune you.

God wants to prune and cut back your human nature to make room for His presence inside you so He can grow His fruit in your life. Without God’s pruning, you won’t be spiritually blooming. When you feel like God has pruned you to your limit and you’re a shrub of nubs, you’re primed for some vibrant spiritual growth.

Surrendering to God’s pruning is a necessary process for spiritual growth. Without it, Bible knowledge is unfruitful. When you yield to God’s pruning, you’ll experience much fruit of the Spirit. When you don’t, you won’t.

God’s pruning in your life is purposeful. He’s the Master Gardner. Trust Him while He’s working on you. By faith you can watch God prune your life with hope and not despair.

The reason for God’s pruning in your life is to improve the quality of spiritual fruit, not to cause you strife. It’s hard to find the fruit of the Spirit in an unpruned Christian. When the body of Christ is unpruned, there’s a fruit of the Spirit famine.

“Winsome” means “cheerful.”
Even when you lose,
You can still choose
To be winsome.

You win some
And you lose some,
But either way
Keep a winsome smile
All the while.

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Wholesome silliness is a joyful taste of time (not a waste)

Posted on July 6, 2021 by Steve Simms

Find inspiration.
Give inspiration.
Live inspiration.

Wholesome silliness is a joyful taste of time. It’s not a waste of time. Wholesome silliness is meaningful because it opens the heart to spontaneity, creativity, and unseen truth.

Wholesome silliness lubricates life so that we’re not overwhelmed by the seriousness of it all. When silliness, spontaneity, and kindness are brought together, joy happens.

When the freedom to be spontaneously silly is underused people are seldom overjoyed. Don’t miss out on the silly side of life. Wholesome laughter is a is a joy enhancer.

To feel better about life, playfully enjoy some good, clean silliness every day. If you sprinkle your life with kind, playful silliness, you’ll be happier.

Joyful silliness isn’t an abnormal reaction to life. I believe it’s a gift from God. The meaning that you ascribe to something will determine how it makes you feel. Some thoughts you originate. Some thoughts you encounter in your mind. It’s important to know which is which.

Sober silliness
Isn’t an oxymoron.
It’s good, clean fun
That too many people miss.

Making a silly face
Until it makes you smile
Can make any place
Feel better awhile.

Here’s some bonus thoughts that are serious, but perhaps better understood with a little bit of silliness:

Profanity stifles creativity by keeping a person stuck on overusing a few worn out words.

Life is full of design, therefore full of purpose. (Design by definition is purposeful.)

If words have meaning and purpose, surely the people who express those words do too.

Harmful obsessions matter. If you don’t resist them and overcome them, they’ll eventually fully possess and distress you.

The accumulation of money is a deceptive net that has nothing to do with a person’s worth.

Who wrote the code for your DNA? If it was random, why can’t computers randomly code themselves?

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I grew up being taught BRT (Benevolent Race Theory) not Critical Race Theory

Posted on July 5, 2021 by Steve Simms

I grew up in Arkansas. There an elementary school taught me what I now call BRT (Benevolent Race Theory): that slavery was kind, paternal, and civilizing for slaves. It was a distorted view of race that took me years to free myself from. (Benevolent Race Theory proponents usually say that they like Black people and mean them no harm.)

Here are some of the misguided ideas that I was taught by school and society when I was growing up in the South. Those ideas tried to justify slavery and racial abuse and have been taught in America since the beginning. BRT teaches that:

  • Slaveholders rarely used intimidation, force, or brutality to control their slaves.
  • Forced, Jim Crow segregation was good for both White people and Black people.
  • Legally segregated schools were “separate but equal.”
  • Black people didn’t mind the back of the bus because they got to sit together.
  • The fact that there were a few Black slaveholders means slavery wasn’t wrong.
  • We shouldn’t criticize slaveholders because they were living by the values of their time.
  • Slaves were too financially valuable for their traffickers to mistreat them.
  • Most slaveowners were good to their slaves and had good intentions towards them.
  • Black people would be better off to forget their history and the evil done to their forefathers.
  • Black people should be quiet and appreciate that they’re living in America.
  • Slaves and hired Black domestic workers were usually treated with kindness.
  • If a White person has a Black friend, he’s definitely not a racist. 
  • There’s a “Curse of Ham,” that means Black people need to serve White people if they want to be in God’s order.
  • Slavery elevated and civilized Black people instead of degrading and abusing them.
  • Runaway slaves were wrong for making it harder on the slaves left behind.
  • White supremacy was overall good for America and didn’t really cause much harm.

As an adult I began to read about race in America and I discovered that these ideas are falsehoods. They are myths that need to be renounced and replaced with the fuller story of American history.

To discover and accept the unpleasant facts of history, we need to set aside emotional attachment and explore it with an open mind. I wrote a book to help do that, called: Off the RACE Track From Color-Blind to Color-Kind.

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Patriotic fables shout “Don’t turn the tables!”

Posted on July 5, 2021 by Steve Simms

Here’s a mystery of history: To the American revolutionary, a tax on tea was “tyranny,” but the cruelty of slavery wasn’t.

Patriotic fables
Don’t want anyone
To turn the tables
So facts can be found.

A slave
Who said,
“Don’t tread
On me,”
Could be
Tortured till dead.

If you would like a read that will move the tables to make room for more people check out my book, Off the RACE Track–From Color-Blind to Color-Kind.

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To let go of regret, reset.

Posted on July 4, 2021 by Steve Simms

Regrets are in the past; choices are in the present. Although you can’t undo your regrets, you are free to reset and to make fresh choices today.

Self-focus leads to a lifestyle of ongoing “relationshipwreck” — broken hearts, shattered friendships, and ruined romances. It takes courage to honestly confess your wrong behavior. It takes even more courage to stop it.

I gave up my independence when I surrendered my life to the living Jesus and gained freedom from guilt, regret, and inner torment. Without God’s forgiveness, I’d be full of guilt and regret.

When you forget
To regret
Disappointment
Loses its effect.

TRUE FREEDOM
It's easy to fret
Over guilt and regret
And let it steal
Your happiness.
Instead, open your heart
And humbly reveal
The wrongs you've done,
So you can begin to heal.

BROKEN DREAMS
What might have been
Might not have been
As wonderful
As you imagine it

FREEDOM DAY
Regret is a distraction
Tormenting you
About inaction
Or wrong action,
But active interaction
With Jesus
Brings healing.

TRUE FREEDOM
It's easy to fret
Over guilt and regret
And let it steal
Your happiness.
Instead, open your heart
And humbly reveal
The wrongs you've done,
So you can begin to heal.

Let disappointed regret
Lead you to humility
And guilty regret
Lead you to repentance.

Jesus can reset
Your life
And erase your debt
To regret.

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Is this racism?

Posted on July 3, 2021 by Steve Simms

Racism? A few days ago I was having a conversation with a white woman. When several young black guys walked by, she said, “They make me uncomfortable.” I asked, “Who? “She said, “They might grab my purse.” I said, “Anybody could do that.”

Racism is often so simple that we think it doesn’t exist. When black lives really matter, we will want to know more about the way black people were treated in our history.

Human trafficking (slavery) was, is, and always will be a terrible evil. Reading the fuller story of history shows me that people who actively engaged in human trafficking don’t deserve to be honored with statues.

If you only want to know the parts of history that make you feel good about your country, you’ll miss many facts. For example: “All men are created equal,” has too often been a “Declaration” ignored. We have a Creator and we are all peers.

Too many lies about race have passed into history and are accepted today as truth. History can’t be changed, but hidden, ignored, and/or twisted history can be honestly revealed. I’ve been trying to find the truth about race.

If you’re not racist
There’s no need
To say so.
It will show
Wherever you go (or refuse to go).

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Orchards don’t just happen

Posted on July 2, 2021 by Steve Simms

Orchards and vineyards don’t just happen. They must be planted, tended, pruned, and cultivated. The fruit of the Holy Spirit must be cultivated. It doesn’t just grow wild in an untended heart. The fruit of the Spirit is the character of God and needs to be intentionally cultivated by how we tend to our heart and mind.

God wants your heart to be a fruitful orchard, not a field overrun by weeds. Let the living Jesus be an orchard in your heart, not just a teaching in your mind. If your roots aren’t deep into the risen Jesus, neither will your fruit be.

When Christians neglect to daily focus on the risen Jesus, we become like an abandoned orchard. We are called to be the branches in God’s orchard that bear good fruit from the vine of the living Jesus. See John 14.

An unguarded mind will be harassed by unwelcome thoughts; an unguarded heart, hassled by unwelcome emotions. There are some things that you can’t control, but your mind isn’t one of them. It’s ironic that many people who lack self-control spend a lot of their time trying to control other people.

Humility is underrated. Maybe we should celebrate it with a humility month by putting other people ahead of self.

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Is Jesus happy with church as usual?

Posted on July 2, 2021 by Steve Simms

Surrender control
And roll
With Jesus’ flow.

If people gathered to honor you, but ignored your presence among them, you wouldn’t like it. Jesus probably doesn’t either.

Without ongoing, personal interaction with the living Jesus, Christianity is just one more religion. When Christians allowed talks about Jesus to replace interacting with His presence, we traded His power for a form of godliness.

It seems so simple. If Jesus is really alive (like Christians say) we should let Him actively lead and direct us when we meet. Instead we say, “Jesus is the Head of the church,” but then make a preacher or program the real head.

Christians seem eager to rally around a preacher, a doctrine, a church building, or even a politician, but slow to rally around Jesus. In fact, they often bring active and harsh resistance against a gathering of Christians that seeks to follow Jesus instead of a program.

It’s rare to find a group of Christians that gathers, listens to Jesus together, and then lets people say and do what He tells them to. Why should religious programs have a monopoly on Christian meetings?

When I read the Bible with an open heart, it’s not just words, but inner revelation and revolutionary life! It’s amazing how reading that ancient book inebriates my heart, as though it is full of new wine.

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More than self-driving cars, the world needs Christ-driven people.

Posted on June 30, 2021 by Steve Simms

More than self-driving cars, the world needs Christ-driven people.

If you give up control
And freely roll
With the living Jesus,
You’ll be made whole.

Set your life
On Christ-control
And let the living Jesus
Drive you to His goal.

Pain becomes gain
When it motivates you
To connect
Heart to heart
With God.

The Serenity Prayer is famous. Here’s my Wisdom Prayer: Lord, grant me the wisdom to accept thoughts from You, the courage to reject thoughts that aren’t from You, and the serenity to know the difference.

Monitor the thought traffic in your mind. Unfriend and block the thoughts that try to take you in harmful directions. If you won’t control your thoughts, feelings, and desires, any appearance that you’re in control is only an illusion.

Any thought you have about forgiving people is from God. Forgiveness breaks the pain chain and sets you free from the tormenting desire to get even. It also breaks your emotional attachment to the people who’ve caused you pain.

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Religious structures and Jesus didn’t (don’t) get along

Posted on June 29, 2021 by Steve Simms

To experience being unstructured and spontaneous, many people depend on alcohol. The new wine of the Holy Spirit works for me!

The flow of the Holy Spirit and religious structure are often at odds. Too often, in Christianity, structure is allowed to dominate. Unfortuately for church, the more organized a meeting is, the less spontaneous heart-connection will happen.

Religious structure separates people. It doesn’t unite them the way that Jesus prayed in John 17.

In the Bible, the Old Testament shows that religious structure couldn’t change hearts. The New Testament is the testimony of hearts changed by Jesus.

It’s hard to continually experience the living Jesus if we won’t step beyond religious structures into the freedom of the Spirit. Church is often like a structured tour of a famous city. It rushes you by the sights, but doesn’t let you fully experience them.

Biblical Christianity thrives when people freely follow the Holy Spirit, but drowns when highly structured. It’s about empowering individuals from within, not about building hierarchal, organizational structures.

Traditional Christianity, unlike early Christianity, takes a very structured and controlled approach to God. Structured, routine, and typical church, that follows the same pattern every week, seldom helps me connect with the living Jesus.

Perhaps church services are so highly organized because Christians (and their pastors) fear unstructured time with God. Too much structure and organization turns Christianity into a dam that shuts down the free flow of the Holy Spirit.

Humans don’t like to be unstructured and spontaneous. We even organize our play and then call it sports or games. One of the main reasons that Christians quench the Holy Spirit is because we fear unstructured time.

When we’re unwilling to be unstructured and spontaneous, the Holy Spirit doesn’t feel welcome. Jesus wants us to relate to Him like children precisely because they’re unstructured and spontaneous.

Jesus was born in a highly structured Roman/religious world. His spontaneity wasn’t well received (nor is it today). The Pharisees, of that time, wanted Jesus crucified because they saw Him as a threat to their religious traditions and structures.

Some Christians are cessationists and believe that God no longer does miracles. I’m a continuationist and experience miracles daily. If the gifts of the Spirit aren’t operating in you, it’s not because they ceased to operate, but because you’ve quenched the Spirit.

Every time you ignore an inner prompting from God (regardless of the reason), you “quench” the Holy Spirit. If you’re a Christian, the Bible warns you not to “quench” (hinder or hold back) the Holy Spirit.

People need freedom! To act like human beings are only physical beings is like saying that a book is only paper and ink.

Christian dogma barks,
Howls and growls.
Christian love
Changes hearts.

To follow Jesus
It requires
We set aside
Our own desires.

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