Following the living, here-and-now Jesus (not an absentee Jesus)

Posted on October 22, 2020 by Steve Simms

Christians ask, “Where do you go to church?” I prefer, “How do you follow the living Jesus?”

Too many churches and Christians act like they have an absentee Jesus. (Sometimes they even seem to use the Bible as a note from Jesus’ Father, to justify their belief that Jesus is an absentee from their everyday life.) However, if Christians would exchange their absentee Jesus for the here-and-now Jesus, spiritual awakening would flood them.

Religion makes Jesus an absentee Savior. To the early Christ-followers, He was their present Lord and Master. Religious institutions seem to need an absentee Jesus. The living, present Jesus would present too much of a threat to their programs.

A dead-and-gone, absentee Jesus would need religious organizations to carry on for Him, but the risen, present Jesus doesn’t. I don’t think that the living, present-day Jesus likes for His personal leadership to be replaced by religious hierarchies. Listen to & obey Him.

The living Jesus, alone, is the Head of the body of Christ, even if other claims of headship try to usurp His authority! When Christians continually hear and obey the voice of the risen Jesus, they come into supernatural love and agreement. (I’ve experienced that many times!)

The living, here-and-now Jesus will compassionately interact with you, if you will stop keeping Him away. Focus on religious institutions and leaders can keep you from a direct relationship with the risen Jesus. I don’t believe Jesus intended for His followers to be an institutionalized religion, but rather to all hear and obey His voice.

When we all live like Heaven, what a day of rejoicing that will be. Let’s do it now and not wait until we die!

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Can good people be found? Not according to biblical Christianity.

Posted on October 21, 2020 by Steve Simms

If you believe that you’re a good person, perhaps you haven’t examined your own heart (and listened to your conscience) very closely. Every person is capable of doing wrong (and even terrible) things. So where are the good people?

It’s easy to think you’re a good person, until you make an all out effort to be a good person. Then your point of view changes. I can do good some of the time, but I’ve never been able to be good 100% of the time, no matter how hard I try.

A good person wouldn’t do bad things. However, the Bible says that “all have sinned.” Good people can be trusted to do what they say, 100% of the time. Can you? I can’t.

People like to proclaim, “I’m a good person,” but a good person doesn’t think, say, or do wrong. A truly good person is consistently good all the time. Are you? Try to be good for an entire day (with no bad thoughts, words, or actions). Can you?

If you hide some truth so that others will think you’re a good person, are you a good person? Good people don’t need laws to make them behave.

Merit or mercy? Good people have so much merit, they don’t need mercy. Lord Jesus Christ, have mercy on me a sinner!

If you’re a good person, it should be easy for you to consistently “be good.” Is it? (It’s not for me.) If you think you’ve found a good person, don’t watch him too closely because if you do, you will eventually see him say or do something bad.

Occasionally doing a good thing doesn’t make you a good person, if you’re not consistently good, inside and out. (I’m not.)

It’s easy for a good person to consistently think good thoughts. It’s extremely difficult for me to do that.

Medicating or denying guilt is not very effective. Repentance and Christ’s forgiveness removes it!

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Happiness doesn’t rhyme with anamosity (but a lot of things do)

Posted on October 20, 2020 by Steve Simms

When the velocity of animosity exceeds the speeds of kindness, of understanding, and of truth, we’re all in trouble. Animosity reduces luminosity, until the light in our heart grows dim and in our darkness we think we’re right.

Where there’s much anamosity, there’s little jocosity (joyful humor). Continual anamosity leads to callosity of the heart.

The reciprocity of animosity benefits neither side. When pomposity feels threatened, it lashes out in animosity.

The voluminosity of anamosity today can be overwhelming. Too much animosity is being mixed with religiosity.

Strenuosity (intense energy) isn’t enough to overcome animosity. It requires forgiving the people you have taken offense at.

If you create animosity in people, you shouldn’t be surprised when they attack you. Unchecked animosity in human hearts eventually leads to atrocity. The verbosity of animosity is making a mess of American politics. Unrestrained animosity, whether from the right or the left, leads to a government monstrosity overflowing with ferocity.

Nursing animosity isn’t heroic behavior. If you won’t make your point without animosity and attack, you have little chance of convincing people who disagree with you.

What people are filled with flows out of them in how they talk about other people. Feelings don’t randomly occur. They’re constructed by your ongoing thoughts and behaviors. You feel the way you think and act. Too often our hostile emotions are freed to run full force, like an unmanned fire hose flipping forcefully in every direction.

Although you’re born with DNA in a life full of many uncontrollable circumstances, your thoughts and choices shape your character. People who flop around spewing their negative feelings at others, surrender their power to choose, to their whims.

To say that you want peace, while constructing hostility with your words, thoughts and actions, is a contradiction. De-escalate your anger and you’ll feel much better. Cruelty (in words or deeds) to any person, disrespects all human life. Unfortunately, cruelty is sometimes legalized and accepted as normal (slavery and abortion).

“They,” they say, as they make conspiracist accusations against them. But they confuse me. Who do they think “they” are?

Jesus said, “Love your enemies.” If I’m not doing that, I need to repent. The living Jesus wants to supernaturally change your perspective, clear up your understanding, and heal your heart.

At the most divisive time in American history (Civil War and race-based slavery) Lincoln spoke “with malice toward none.” Learn practical ways to overcome anamosity in my book: Off the RACE Track–From Color-Blind to Color-Kind. Thank you.

“With malice toward none, with charity for all . . .”

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The load not taken — “choicequences” & inner peace

Posted on October 20, 2020 by Steve Simms

The load not taken can’t weigh you down. Choices create consequences. We’re free to pick the ones we want. Our wishes are weak, but our choices create our future. I made up a new word–choi/ce/quen/ces–the consequences of your choices.

The choices you make, make and shape you. If you trace your pain backwards, you discover that it’s often tied to your own choices. Choice + choice + choice . . . = your state of mind.

You’re future will mostly look like the choices you make each year. You can deny reality or you can face it, but you can’t outrun it. If you fact check your feelings, you’ll find that many of them don’t align with reality.

Choices can cover you with scars or inspire you like stars. How ya doin’ thus far? If we don’t choose to control our thoughts, mental chaos becomes our norm. The less we choose to control our desires, the more we become their slave. You don’t choose many of the thoughts that cross your mind, but you can choose which ones that you allow to stay there.

It’s hard to make and stick with positive choices. It’s easy to flow with negativity. Every thought you allow in your mind, for better or worse, is a mental health choice. Thoughts that bully their way into your brain, aren’t your choice, unless you allow them to stay there unresisted.

Every thought that enters your mind presents you with a choice. Do you accept it or reject it? When haughtiness is chosen instead of humility, naughtiness soon follows. Choose to de-escalate your anger and you’ll feel much better.

You can’t avoid choices. Ignoring or delaying a decision, is itself a choice.

To justify wrong behavior is to choose guilt. Choose to confess and be forgiven instead. Destructive things you’ve chosen aren’t frozen in place. You can repent (re-choose). Confession, repentance, and being forgiven, are much better than feeling guilty. You often can’t undo your past mistakes, but you can always choose to move beyond them.

We can’t change what is true, but we can choose to believe lies. Facts that you choose not to face are behind you, so you can’t see them. (But they’re still there.) By refusing to live beyond your comfort zone, you choose to let life be defined by feelings. You can’t choose your feelings, but you can choose your thoughts and behaviors. (They will shape your feelings.)

A habit or addiction is a choice that was repeated until it became automatic. When bad choices become habitual, they’re made automatically. Bad choices that you allow to remain as habit, can crush you. The pain of wrong choices teach the wise not to repeat them.

Following the living Jesus isn’t “once and done.” It’s a continual choice. It’s not easy to obey Jesus. I persistently have to fight my own thoughts and feelings, so I can do what He tells me.

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Courtesy matters — try it and see!

Posted on October 19, 2020 by Steve Simms

No mater what
People say,
You can choose
To respond
In a courteous way.

The failure to be courteous and kind isn’t a minor failure.

Courtesy only costs a little kindness and humility, but it cultivates peace and community. Courtesy handles disagreement with respect, and avoids bullying or calling disagreement hate.

Too much power curtails curtesy and creates an authoritarian attitude. You can try to encourage people or control them, but you can’t do both at once.

Hostility is contagious. So is courtesy. Which are you spreading? Appearance, behavior, beliefs, or life-stage, never make a human life non-human. Show respect to the office every person holds — a human being made in God’s image.

Christianity isn’t a set of values to be forcefully imposed on people. It’s the risen Jesus living His life, in and thru His surrendered followers.

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Remedies for enemies

Posted on October 15, 2020 by Steve Simms 
The inner enemy 
Is very hard to see, 
Because I don't like to admit, 
That my enemy is often me.

The person most responsible my your problems, isn’t someone else. One of our greatest enemies is our own arrogance. However, if you look closely enough, you can find what you don’t like in others, right inside of you.

Friends don’t reject friends when they disagree. If you don’t let yourself get angry, it’s hard to see someone as your enemy.

When you treat someone as an enemy, it goes both ways. You make yourself his enemy. Anger might feed your ego, but it won’t convince someone that you’re right.

Where there are enemies, there is a famine of friendliness. People always feel like they’re better people than their enemies.

Unkind words are enemy-making, not peacemaking. If you get to know an enemy’s heart, you’ll find him to be a fellow human, like you. Kindness (the fruit of the Spirit) is a powerful spiritual weapon. Fight with it!

It’s easy to call someone an enemy, but it’s better to make them a friend. People who hate are missing out on a most amazing feeling–love for all people! If you treat others better than they treat you, amazing heart-changes will occur. If you’ve ever been forgiven, pass it on. We all need forgiveness!

Perhaps the worst enemy in any society is the lack of self-control. Hate is a choice. It’s a decision to fill your life with bitterness. A lack of love for people indicates a lack of love for God.

The more you trust in the living God, the less you feel threatened by human enemies. Christ’s love, when it’s working in you, is strong enough to love, not just your friends, but also your enemies.

When you’re being your own enemy, surrender to the living Jesus will heal the breach. Ignoring your conscience, welcomes guilt; repentance and forgiveness remove it.

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Blind spots dot the psyche (bet you’ve got some)

Posted on October 15, 2020 by Steve Simms

When I’m wrong and don’t know it, that’s a blind spot. All humans have them–even you. If you get mad because people disagree with you, your blind spots are showing.

When I don’t see something that I’m wrong about, that’s a blind spot. If I think I’m never wrong, that’s total blindness. People who don’t want to know where they’re wrong, are choosing proud blindness.

Without the desire to discover you’re blind spots, it’s easy to call wrong right. Other people’s blind spots are so obvious to me; mine, not so much.

Some people seem to be proud of their blind spots–glad about what they don’t see. In fact, pride produces blind spots. Honesty, and the living Jesus, remove them. Blind spots grow where self-reflection and humility are rare.

If you can’t find something to love in every person, you’re blind to the image of God. I often need to be brainwashed — mentally scrubbed by the living Jesus.

When you love Jesus, you want Him to show you where your life is off His track. We’re willing to pray this courageous prayer: “Jesus, I see where I believe other people are wrong. Now show me where I’m wrong.”

Jesus prayed that His followers be one. Christians have greatly resisted His prayer.

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Deception can be appealing

Posted on October 15, 2020 by Steve Simms

Deception is often appealing. That’s why it’s so easy to fall into it.

Your view on the truth isn’t the whole story. Neither is mine. Things often aren’t the way they seem. If we don’t look deeper we can be deceived. When “my truth” doesn’t match “the truth,” I’m deceived.

Truth is often camouflaged and not easily noticeable at first glance. It’s good to fact check.

If you’ve ever been wrong when you thought that you knew you were right, you’ve experienced the reality of self-deception. Being sincere and passionate about your views, doesn’t make them correct.

When we think we’re completely right and others are completely wrong, we’re deceived. Our emotions, fears, hopes, and dreams, can all manipulate us and make truth hard to find. Even the best facade doesn’t tell the whole story, but hides more than it reveals.

We often try to get people to believe what we want them to, rather than to seek truth. When I read the Bible, the Holy Spirit often shows me where my opinions are wrong.

It’s hard to feel secure in life when you’re hiding truth that you don’t want known. Inner security isn’t automatic. Some behaviors produce it; some destroy it. Honesty requires much more strength, courage, & heroism than lying.

The words, attitudes, and behaviors, flowing from within you, show who you are. We live in a time when people seem to be more shocked by honesty than by lies. When we intentionally lie, we know it, and we choose deception over reality.

The living Jesus wants to direct your life from within you, not just thru outward rules and religion. God’s government isn’t rule keeping. It’s Spirit-empowered, right living, inner peace, and joy. It’s me, O Lord, standing in the need of prayer, discernment, truth, and humility.

Your national citizenship doesn’t last beyond the grave, but God’s kingdom’s eternal! For a Christ-follower Jesus is first. He’s the King of Kings and Lord of Lords!

We’ll understand history better when we handle the truth honestly, not selectively. Search for: Off the RACE Track–From Color-Blind to Color-Kind.

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The atmosphere of Heaven is needed today, not just in the future

Posted on October 12, 2020 by Steve Simms

Live like Heaven now. (Don’t just hope to go there someday.) The atmosphere of Heaven is needed today, not just in the future. Too many Christians nowadays are spreading the attitude of Hell instead of the atmosphere of Heaven.

People need to see Christians living a heavenly lifestyle now, not just having a ambition to go to Heaven later. When Jesus gets ahold of you, you love Him so much, you strive to obey Him daily. When the living Jesus gets ahold of you, the affairs of the world fade in comparison.

The risen Jesus gives His followers the power, desire, and courage to live like Heaven. When we all live like Heaven (here on earth), what a day of rejoicing that will be. When Christians begin to live like Heaven, the kingdom (government) of God will become very noticeable .

To many Christians see Heaven as a distant destination, instead of a daily lifestyle. If you have a ticket to Heaven, cash it in now, so your friends can see Heaven in you! The closer you live to the risen Jesus, the closer you live to Heaven.

An old Christian song says: “”Heaven came down and glory filled my soul.” That happens to me almost every day! It’s wonderful to experience Heaven daily, and not just hope for it in the future.

If you don’t want to live like Heaven now, why do you want to go there when you die? A lifestyle that contradicts Heaven would ruin it, if it entered there. Too many people want to slip into Heaven without letting Heaven get into them.

Here is a warning about Heaven. It is full of passionate, sold-out worship of the risen Jesus.

Jesus said, “The kingdom of God is at hand,” not in the future when you die. He sent His disciples “to proclaim the kingdom (government) of God.” The government (kingdom) of God is here now. Will you let the living Jesus govern (rule) you from within? When two people are both governed from within by the risen Jesus, they will be in harmony.

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Happiness lies beyond self-focus

Posted on October 11, 2020 by Steve Simms


If you’re discouraged, get out of your self-focus and do something to encourage others. Self-focused decisions often cause more problems than they solve.

When minor things get an emotional hold on you, life becomes consumed with triviality. Much, that clamors for your attention in life, is nothing but distractions that are trying to misdirect your life. Detach yourself from meaningless activities so you can be enthralled by purpose. Your heart will become focused on whatever you continually feed it.

Some attractions are distractions; some are infractions; and some are healing actions. It’s good to know the difference.

Self-detachment enables you to listen to others’ opinions without taking offense. The more you let go of self-deception, the better hold you get on reality. The more you detach from self-interest, the better you can understand other people.

Human nature, like gravity, tries to hold us down in self-focus. The risen Jesus wants to help us soar beyond it. Let Jesus release joy within you and you’ll have no need to hunt or hype up happiness. When I’m being myself, I mess things up. When I obey Christ in me, I experience glory.

The more I focus on the living Jesus, the happier I am. I’ve discovered that less self-focus and more Jesus focus makes life an amazing adventure!

When our focus is distracted from Jesus, Christianity is off track. Follow Him. When distractions disrupt Spirit-led actions, we quench the Holy Spirit. The focus of biblical Christianity is the living Jesus — not self, or anything else.

I’ve disappointed myself too much to have faith in myself. My faith is in the living Jesus. There’s a way to escape from the reality of guilt. The risen Jesus offers forgiveness.

Jesus can free you from the caverns of mistakes and disappointments you carry within. Dare to go beyond self-focus and be pure in heart like the living God wants you to be. Search for: The Joy Of Early Christianity book.

Jesus, help me stay focused on You today. Don’t let my mind and heart wander away.

Since kindness is a fruit of the Spirit, Christians should be unconditionally kind. The Bible calls Satan the accuser, but a lot of people who call themselves Christians seem to be doing his job today.

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