Casual talk, informational talk, or heart-talk?

Posted on March 13, 2020 by Steve Simms

It’s often better to find ways to work together than it is to argue with and insult others. People won’t open their heart to hear what you say, if your heart is closed and unwilling to compassionately hear what they say.

Casual talk and informational talk are fine, but to heal and grow people need something much rarer–compassionate, heart-to-heart talk. Communication that comes from the mind alone, lacks the power and passion to penetrate people’s heart.

Christ’s love isn’t about sitting thru lectures. It’s about caring interaction–heart-to-heart listening and compassionate sharing.

Church should be a safe place to open up and share your heart, not just a place to get more religious information. Well-intended lectures provide limited emotional support, but compassionate, heart-to-heart sharing releases encouragement and hope.

Jesus calls us to seek truth. How often is reality called “fake news”? Too many times to count. Just because you don’t like something, doesn’t make it fake. In a rock fight, regardless of who cast the first stone, there are none without sin.

Search the web for: The Joy Of Early Christianity.

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Bullying & violence say, “I’m incapable!”

Posted on March 11, 2020 by Steve Simms

When someone uses bullying or violence to get what he wants, he tells the world that he’s incapable of getting it some other way. However, hurting someone in order to get what you want is cruelty. The desire to hurt others is evil.

It takes the heart, the conscience, to keep people away from doing violence. Mental arguments against it aren’t very convincing. As long as violence remains in human hearts, it will continue to manifest in violent actions.

It takes no thought to be violent, but restraint requires thoughtful self-control. Road rage demonstrates that humans have a strong tendency toward violence.

The alternative to what’s fake isn’t hateful mocking. It’s full disclosure, genuine humility, and speaking the truth in love.

It’s much better to see yourself as an adventurer who overcomes obstacles, than as a victim who is mistreated by others. People who see themselves as victims, aren’t very good at loving their enemies. People with great hope, are.

Life is more than economics, health, and self-protection. Uncertainty can awaken us to the reality of the risen Jesus. As your complacency is being disrupted, don’t miss this opportunity to get close to Him. When complacency collapses, it’s better to consistently call on Christ, than to worry and/or panic

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Spiritual complacency is the opposite of biblical Christianity.

Posted on March 11, 2020 by Steve Simms

Christ is not a sermon, a concept, or a curriculum. He’s the living God who wants to daily live His life in and thru you. Spiritual complacency is sin. “Seek first the kingdom of God.” Christians are called to be passionate about the living Jesus, not to be complacent about Him. Spiritual complacency is the opposite of biblical Christianity.

When Christianity was turned into a religion of quiet complacency, it lost its early fire, passion, excitement, and enthusiasm. A lecture is a poor substitute for conscious contact with the living Jesus. Words about Him shouldn’t replace encounter with Him. When Christianity is presented as passive and impractical, people don’t get excited. When they encounter the living Jesus, they do!

If preaching doesn’t connect people with the risen Jesus and inspire them to follow Him, it has fallen far short of its purpose. To present Christianity as a powerless religious form, rather than demonstrating it as Christ’s transforming power, is misleading. When complacency is interrupted, you may notice that many things in your life are in the wrong place.

A lesson for churches: Food demonstrators let people experience samples, they don’t just lecture people and send them away. To say you believe in Jesus, yet neglect to follow and obey Him daily, is like saying you believe in vitamins, but not taking them.

Nominal Christianity is when easy-believe-ism is substituted for total commitment to the living Jesus. It’s difficult for Christians to grow spiritually if they’re not released and encouraged to seek and follow Jesus, for themselves.

God’s love invites you to come close to the risen Jesus and humbly surrender your heart and your will to Him. When the uncertainty of life collapses your confidence in the things that you have trusted, call on Christ to live in and thru you.

The more darkness is accepted and embraced, the more vision diminishes. Early Christianity wasn’t used to support the world’s values and political systems, but to provide an alternative to them.

The body of Christ is called to be spiritually and morally aligned with the risen Jesus, while being ethnically and racially diverse. Ancient Israel had separate tribes, but the body of Christ is called to be one.

Preacher/teacher dependency can make Christians vulnerable to false teachers. Read the Bible and listen to God for yourself.

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Being in the womb in America is far more life-threatening than the Corona virus.

Posted on March 9, 2020 by Steve Simms

Perspective!

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Their lives matter (no matter who they are) . . .

Posted on March 7, 2020 by Steve Simms

Look around you, near and far. Their lives matter (no matter who “they” are)!

American revolutionary question: If the tea tax on the Colonies was “tyranny,” what was skin-color-based slavery?

Here’s America’s great contradiction: The Founding Fathers were surrounded by and accepted slaveholding, a tyrannical abuse of power, yet they created “the separation of powers” to prevent tyranny in national government. Tyranny (not greatness) is built on bullying.

People who don’t see color, don’t notice when color-based disparities are present in a community. There is no hierarchy for human life. Value everyone with your heart, words, and actions. “Love your neighbor as yourself”

Their lives matter (no matter who “they” are). Enemy lives matter. The tiniest human lives matter. Your life matters. (Avoid self-destructive thoughts, feelings, words, and behaviors.)

The risen Jesus wants to lead His followers beyond human values and racial perceptions, so that we are no longer captives to our culture’s view points. Seek to be led by the living Jesus, not by human values and points of view. If you base your beliefs and lifestyle on the risen Jesus, you will be at odds with much that your culture teaches.

Human governments rule by coercion and compulsion. The kingdom of God rules by voluntary submission to the Spirit’s inner conviction.

Real love doesn’t have to be earned or deserved or reciprocated. If love is dependent on approval or agreement, it’s a counterfeit and will fail to obey Jesus’ command: “Love your enemies.” For example, the sad-effects of violence are often far greater than any supposed benefits.

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Heart-prayer disrupts Christian complacency

Posted on March 7, 2020 by Steve Simms

Is there a prayer brewing deep within your heart? Be careful. It will stir things up if you let it freely flow out.

When prayer is allowed to freely flow from the heart, as prompted by the Spirit, it’s one of the most amazing experiences on earth. However, analysis of God and His attributes, without awareness of and access to God’s actual presence, accomplishes little.

Many Christians are timid about experiencing Jesus as alive today, but He boldly rose from the dead, so we should boldly interact with the living Jesus. Christian spirituality isn’t about religious rules, rituals, or knowledge, but about following and obeying the living Jesus.

Many people think it’s foolish to be daily led by the Holy Spirit from within, but it’s an out-of-this-world lifestyle! Try it!

Christian complacency usually continues until it is disturbed and disrupted. If you have banished the personal God from your heart, life will be lonely–even in a crowd. Prayer that actually experiences God’s presence, is more than superficial or mechanical praying.

Jesus rose to reign — to be the King, the Lord, and the Master in human hearts. Let Him reign inside you. Religious hierarchy tends to dethrone the risen Jesus from His rightful place as the King & the Head of His body.

Good people have no need for God’s grace. The rest of us desperately need it. People have been taught to cover up and deny their pain with alcohol and other stimulants. (Denial seldom results in healing. Walking humbly and honestly in the light of truth, frequently does.) Perhaps it would be better to stop pain-producing behaviors and thoughts. Like the guidance system on a rocket, your thoughts direct your life. To improve your life, improve your thoughts. Align them with God’s will.

If many of its members are dormant and passive, the body of Christ can’t function properly. Let all Christ-followers obey the Holy Spirit who speaks within their heart..

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Sin is contrary to the kingdom of God

Posted on March 1, 2020 by Steve Simms

The kingdom of God isn’t a meeting to attend. It’s a lifestyle of submission and obedience to the living Jesus, the King of Kings. If we won’t let the living Jesus be the actual, ruling King in a church service, how can we proclaim Him as King to the world?

God’s design is that we align with His moral line. To decline is to entwine with sin and to reject the kingdom of God. To pursue harmful thoughts, words, and behaviors, as if they were helpful, is to miss the kingdom of God. Sin that we continually welcome and choose to engage in, eventually begins to force itself on us against our will.

Many people want the pleasures of sin, without the consequences of sin, but life doesn’t work that way. It’s a package deal.

There’s a snag in the human spirit that separates us from God and His kingdom. It’s called sin. It’s much more effective to contend with sin and to let Jesus be your King and help you overcome it, than it is to pretend you’re better than you really are.

God’s kingdom is invisible. It’s citizens are called to be ruled by Christ in them replacing their own will and desires. To live in the kingdom of God is to continually align your thoughts, words, and behaviors with King Jesus and His will.

Church is a place Christians go for professional services. Ekklesia is a group of Christians who gather to actively serve others.

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To drink Sprite is one thing; spite is another

Posted on March 1, 2020 by Steve Simms

Spite, the desire to hurt others, indicates the absence of love and compassion. Unforgiveness leads to spite and malice — the insanity of intentionally hurting others to make yourself feel better. Malice and mercy are opposites. Mercy requires much more courage than malice.

Malice is mistaken identity, believing that evil is in the people you don’t like (or disagree with), but not in yourself. Freedom of speech guarantees the right to openly disagree with people, but we don’t have a right to verbally abuse them.

If you don’t do what you know, merely knowing it won’t do you much good. If you won’t refuse to allow thoughts that you don’t like, to remain in your mind, then they will linger and torment you.

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It takes courage to be fair & to recognize injustice.

Posted on March 1, 2020 by Steve Simms

It’s easy to spot unfairness when it’s against you (or people you care about) — harder when it’s against people you don’t like. Often it’s easier to see what your mind projects, instead of seeing what is really there. Then unawareness of injustice often leads to the assumption of fairness. Persistence and determination cause many problems if you’re headed in the wrong direction.

It’s difficult to decide who’s right, if we won’t openly and honestly examine both sides of an argument. However, it takes courage to search for truth that makes you uncomfortable and/or contradicts your point of view.

Just because the world isn’t fair, is no reason for you not to try to be fair. It’s amazing there is so much evil in the world, when almost everybody thinks they are a “good person.” The more you align with the kingdom of God, the less you will be at home with the governments of this world.

Fun without meaning and purpose is meaningless distraction. Let Jesus give you meaning. The living Jesus can’t be institutionalized. If Jesus isn’t allowed to be the literal Head of a gathering of His body, the Bible gives no other role for Him to fulfill. The belief in the risen Jesus shouldn’t be limited to 2,000 years ago. Christ-followers need the leadership of risen Jesus, just as much today.

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Which list do cuss words match — the fruit of the Spirit or the works of the flesh? (Galatians 5:19-24.)

Posted on February 28, 2020 by Steve Simms

Here is Galatians: 5:19-24:

“The acts of the flesh are obvious: sexual immorality, impurity and debauchery; idolatry and witchcraft; hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions and envy; drunkenness, orgies, and the like. I warn you, as I did before, that those who live like this will not inherit the kingdom of God.”

“But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law. Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires.”

So which paragraph best defines profanity?

Rather than adding impact to what you’re saying, offensive words distract from it. Profanity impedes communication.

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