MLK acrostic

Posted on January 18, 2021 by Steve Simms

celebrate MLK

M — Movement toward justice,
L — Loving, nonviolent resistance,
K — Kinship of humanity.

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Free speech, used carelessly, can be very costly

Posted on January 17, 2021 by Steve Simms

The freedom of speech isn’t a victimless right. When abused it can do much harm.

If you can’t disagree with politeness, you have too much uptightness. Before you fight, try being polite. “Speaking the truth in love” is powerful.

Verbal bullies like to accuse people of violating their “freedom of speech.” The wise use freedom of speech to express their ideas; the unwise, to insult.

Having the freedom of speech doesn’t mean that people are required to listen to you or give you a platform. (Nowadays people who block people from their social media pages, are complaining that the owner of a platform is also blocking people.)

Using your freedom of speech to tell lies, ties you up in the bondage of deception. I don’t deny people “the freedom to lie,” but I do test what they say, before I believe them. It’s important to protect your eardrum from people who abuse their freedom of speech and not listen to them. To ridicule is to let being cruel overrule kindness.

Freedom of speech gives us the right to express our opinion, not the right to be rude. Freedom to express your views, doesn’t give you a right to verbally abuse people. Claiming “freedom of speech” is no excuse for cruel, verbal abuse. When freedom of speech is used to disrupt law and order, something will have to give.

People in bondage to anger and hostility, have lost the freedom to speak kindly. Rude people use their “freedom of speech” to try to silence their opponents. Being rude puts fire on a feud.

The freedom of speech, doesn’t protect you from the consequences of what you say. Rude, hostile speech boomerangs, just like spitting in the wind. Rude people
are inwardly unglued.

There are people who exude kindness and love to everyone. I hope you know one of them.

What you said
Will be left behind
When your dead.
Leave a loving legacy.

The most important battle is in your heart. If unhappiness is winning there, changing your circumstances won’t help you much.

The biblical choice isn’t either verbal bullying or political correctness. It’s “speaking the truth in love.”

If you want answers, listen to the living Jesus, not to human opinion and politics. I’m frequently overwhelmed with fascination and appreciation for the living Jesus. Most everyday the living Jesus does something in my life that fills me with awe. When the living Jesus is working inside of you, its supernaturally energizing.

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Tired of waiting?

Posted on January 16, 2021 by Steve Simms

Here’s some powerful encouragement for you.

When your wait seems long – Ernie Simms Coaching

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Stop the rumor mill (before they rumorize us all)

Posted on January 15, 2021 by Steve Simms

Stop the rumor mill before they rumorize us all! Some evil people are probably planning to steal your conspiracy theory and turn it into a video game.

Rumors on a rant wreck relationships! Spreading rumors is a form of emotional bullying. Re-rumoration is to take a rumor, repeat it, and spread it.

It’s easier to surf the rumor-net than it is to fact check. America needs a rumor-consumer index. Political rumors are not the most reliable source of truth.

The rumors you spread tell more about you, than they do about truth. To create a widely spreading rumor, ignore truth and tell people what they want to hear.

People who make room for rumors, crowd out truth. Too many rumor consumers create panic and cause shortages of wisdom and kindness.

The growing rumorization of politics is inciting anger, hate, and violence. Rumors travel faster than the swiftness of logic and the speed of kindness.

Beliefs based on rumors are often wrong. Rumors coat logical reasoning with thick, emotional paint, that stains your thinking.

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What’s to like in people you don’t like?

Posted on January 15, 2021 by Steve Simms

How you treat your fellow humans, reveals how you truly feel about yourself. You can find much good in your fellow humans, if you look for it.

There’s much hurt in the heart of humans. Your kindness can help them heal. Find something to like in the people you don’t like. It’s there, waiting for your discovery.

As humans, the details of our stories are different, but our inner struggles are mostly the same. Be loyal to the human race. Treat everyone with kindness and grace.

Continual arrogance and belligerence eventually leads to violence. To follow a course of coarse coercion is to abandon democracy.

We humans (8 billion of us) are earth riders, circling the sun till our time is done. Perhaps we could be kinder to each other.

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Without the presence of peace, perhaps a do-over is overdue

Posted on January 14, 2021 by Steve Simms

When a godly do-over is overdue, it’s time for repentance. If I refuse to see the evil in me, I can’t accurately see it in others. Matthew 7:5.

Anger is a sign of poor self-management — of self-control taken over by feelings. The better you manage your thoughts and behaviors, the less angry you are at others.

Unhappiness happens when we point to other people and blame them for our pain. Sometimes the people you think are in your way, were put there by God.

No matter how you feel, you can use words that heal. Belligerent people are advertising their immaturity. When love is real, it heals. Use some peace weapons: listening, kindness, understanding, mercy, compassion, humility.

Conflict tears a country up. The best patriots are peacemakers! When peacemakers are few, anger will stew. A nation can’t be great without following Jesus’ “greatest commandments” — love.

It takes strength to continually contend for peace. It’s easier to spout hostility.

True peace isn’t just absence of violence. It’s the absence of anger and bitterness.

Fact checking annoys people who have prematurely made up their mind. If you’ve ever believed a lie, you might be believing one or more lies now.

When our lives don’t demonstrate the fruit of the Spirit, we’re offline with God. Hey fellow humans: The living Jesus can give you supernatural peace and fill you with compassion for everybody. He said that His followers aren’t of this world. We’re called to focus on things eternal, not on a temporary human government.

Church has trained people to listen to only one person and diminished people’s discernment. When Christians are trained to blindly follow a pastor, they will blindly follow a politician.

People were continually “amazed” by Jesus in the Bible. When were you last amazed by Him?

Eyes on the livig Jesus;
Behold the Lamb of God,
Is the King of Kings!

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Beyond the verbal mauling, Jesus is calling

Posted on January 12, 2021 by Steve Simms

I want to live in a country of great kindness, not a hate-filled one! Too many Americans are running with the bullies–trampling each other with arrogance. It doesn’t appear that America has increased in greatness lately.

We’re spiraling down. Today’s politics has turned friendly discussions into arrogant arguments into angry insults.

Name calling never creates greatness — it only stirs up hatred. Personal insults are not free speech. They are bullying. There’s no “right” to bully! Anybody can be belligerent, but it takes character to respectfully listen to dissent.

Make the choice
To ignore
Every hateful voice.

I see adults spewing insults,
Causing tumults,
Emboldening hate-cults,
And making life unnecessarily difficult.

Put-downs abound,
But I’ve found,
It’s sad to be around
Such an angry sound.

Name calling,
Verbal mauling,
America falling;
This is appalling,

Hatred is demonic.
It’s totally toxic!

To hate is to throw Christianity under the bus. Nominal Christianity seems to be morphing into abominable Christianity. Love matters.

Angry, belligerent “Christians,” don’t inspire people to love Jesus. “Christian” belligerence is based on bad theology and a cold heart.

Crowds can be wrong. In the Bible, false prophets frequently had the most followers. Being belligerent belittles the beauty of the image of God in all human beings.

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O, what a good boy am I (isn’t the real plum line)

Posted on January 11, 2021 by Steve Simms

“What a good boy am I.” –Little Jack Horner as he sat in the corner of self-righteousness, practicing situational ethics and setting his own plumb line.

Feeling pious, doesn’t make me right. The feeling of self-righteousness is deceptive and makes us think we are morally better than we are. Self-righteous anger is is pride gone wild. It’s believing that you’re morally better than you really are.

Self-righteousness takes pleasure and pride in insulting people. Self-glorification isn’t greatness; it’s self-righteousness.

Self-righteousness is probably the easiest sin to commit. It sneaks up on us disguised as moral courage. (Daily reading the Bible, with an open heart, will demolish self-righteousness.)

Taking speeding laws seriously, pulls down my self-righteousness. I’m seldom able to make myself fully obey them, no matter how hard I try to.

Self-righteousness rarely admits defeat or apologizes. It needs no evidence to accuse people. It just knows they’re wrong. Grudge holding is self-righteousness — thinking you’re morally superior to the person who hurt you.

Self-righteousness feels no need for God’s forgiveness. It condemns those who disagree with us and praises those who agree with us. Self-righteousness refuses to see where it is wrong.

Self-righteousness is contrary to biblical Christianity. A self-righteous Christian becomes a religious Pharisee, (an unplugged TV) disconnected from the living Jesus.

Sermon hearing without sermon doing, is the seedbed for self-righteousness. It’s easy to profess Christianity; hard to obey Jesus and to “bless those who curse you.”

Feelings of spiritual superiority or supremacy are false. The Bible says: “All have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God.” In the Bible, religious people were frustrated with Jesus, but broken people were attracted to Him.

One way self-righteousness manifests is as racism. It’s easy to self-righteously think, “I’m not racist.” It’s hard to admit, I’m not perfect in that regard.”

Beware of pious feelings, spiritual pride, and self-righteousness. Humble yourself like the epistle writer, Paul, did. He wrote: “O wretched man that I am.”

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Feelings, when blindly followed, are dangerous

Posted on January 10, 2021 by Steve Simms

Feelings are frequently false. When blindly followed, they can fake you out while filling you with arrogance. Our anger often confuses and deceives us, but kindness can guide us to truth.

Beware of people who deceive people with false prophesies and angry conspiracy conjectures. If you catch someone deceiving you once — discern. Don’t let him burn you again.

Jesus’ rebuke of Peter applies to many of His followers today: “You do not have in mind the concerns of God, but merely human concerns.” To declare something without conclusive proof is hearsay and puts human concerns ahead of God’s great concern for truth and honesty.

The sign of Christianity isn’t church attendance, political views, or prideful slogans. It’s love. “The kingdom of God is within you,” so “the keys of the kingdom” enable you to lockdown or to unlock God’s character inside your heart.

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Freedom of screech?

Posted on January 9, 2021 by Steve Simms

We have the freedom of speech, not the freedom of screech. Stop the angry words. Just because you’re being provoked to anger, you don’t have to give in to it.

Be insighted to compassion from within, not incited to hate from without. Insulting people isn’t the freedom of speech. It’s bondage to hatred. Try not to be someone who provokes and stokes anger.

The freedom of speech isn’t a license for unbridled unkindness. No one has the right to incite violence. Freedom of expression that intentionally provokes aggression, frequently leads to retaliation.

Anybody can incite anger. Be a hero who incites kindness and delight. Leaders who incite anger are dangerous to follow! To respond to provocation, like a puppet on a string, is to give up self-control. When you let people provoke you, they revoke your freedom of choice.

Disagreement doesn’t cause conflict. Unkindness does! A mouth full of insults, results in pain and anger whenever it speaks. It’s wearisome to continually hear insults, anger, unproven accusations, and deception. Christianity that incites unkindness is counterfeit.

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