Everyone needs forgiveness–even you

Posted on July 26, 2017 by Steve Simms

Your heart was made for God. It’s lost without Him. Receiving God’s forgiveness can reconnect your heart with God. A dark heart can have a fresh start with Jesus.

To many people say “I’m trying to find myself,” instead of “I’m trying to find God.” However, life goes better when we let go of ego.

To be out of step with God is sad. To be unaware of being out of step with God — that’s tragic. However, God offers you the most costly gift in the Universe — His forgiveness paid for by the sacrifice of Jesus Christ on the Cross.

There’s no size in sin. It’s all devastating to our relationship with God. If you seek pleasure in sin, you miss out on the greater pleasure of God’s presence. To think that you don’t need forgiveness is the ultimate form of denial.

Even if we reject Christ & break His heart; He still loves us & longs for us to repent & be reconciled to Him. The solution to guilt isn’t denial or medication. It’s to repent and be forgiven. Those who have experienced God’s forgiveness for their wrongs are willing to forgive others.

Got guilt? God’s forgiveness cures it. Guilt is a reminder that you need God’s forgiveness. Without it we humans are tormented by guilt. God’s forgiveness is: a fresh start; a new beginning; a clean slate. However, no matter how hard you try, you’ll never get completely free from guilt without God’s forgiveness.

Living without God’s forgiveness creates an atmosphere that is worse than living without deodorant. Stinky guilt? Or God’s sweet forgiveness? The choice is yours.

God’s forgiveness makes us feel so good that we want to “Go and sin no more.” No one truly understands mercy until she/he asks for & receives God’s forgiveness.

Self-forgiveness only goes so far. Ultimately we need God’s forgiveness. If you can’t forgive yourself; then go to Jesus and let Him forgive you.

True, you can never be perfect; but through Christ you can be forgiven! You can’t outrun your guilt. But you can run to Jesus and be made clean.

So, don’t carry guilt around with you. Every time you do something that creates guilt, go to God & get forgiven! Remorse leads to repentance which leads to being renewed by God’s forgiveness. To reject God’s forgiveness is to stay stuck in shame and guilt.

Forgiveness involves: admitting your responsibility for your wrongs; asking Jesus for mercy; & pursuing what is right. Experiencing God’s forgiveness is more cleansing that taking a shower after weeks lost in the woods. “Then Jesus said to her, ‘Your sins are forgiven.'” (Luke 7:48) Has He said that to you?

Perfect people never need forgiveness. Flawed people do. Guilty (unforgiven) people often hold grudges & refuse to grant others the forgiveness that they, themselves,
desperately need. Only God’s mercy can mend the mess we’ve made.

All who carry Christ within need to let Him overflow to others. Without an inner source of moral strength, we become slaves to society’s values. God inspired the Bible, so the more that you read & obey it, the more you’ll align with God. When we fail to cooperate with God’s empowerment, we miss out on miracles.

Until our lifestyle shows that the Holy Spirit is in charge, we’re still in some degree of rebellion against God. True Christianity is lived out in daily life, not just celebrated at holy sites. The Sermon on the Mount describes the lifestyle of a Spirit-led person.

To believe in Jesus only by reason or tradition is unstable faith. But experiencing His reality changes lives forever! Christ doesn’t want to make us comfortable. He wants to set us free.

Posted in 1 John 1:9, examples of forgiveness, Father forgive them, forgive us our trespasses, Go and sin no more, how to be forgiven, how to find yourself, how to receive forgiveness, power of the cross, repent, repentance, salvation, self-forgiveness, Sermon on the Mount, shame, the cross, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Nashville church that meets like AA, Al-Anon, & NA

Posted on July 24, 2017 by Steve Simms

Millions of people have found comfort, help, & serenity from various types of support groups, such as, AA, Al-Anon, and NA. Al-Anon’s web site states: “Everyone at the meeting shares as an equal.” It also says: “We help each other by sharing our experience, strength, and hope.”

The recovery-group style of meeting has been so successful that it has spread all over the world and been used to help people cope, hope, and overcome many different kinds of problems. In a time when the church in the Western world is in decline, could the support group model turn things around? Perhaps.

One Nashville church has been using the recovery model for their Sunday morning meetings for almost 10 years: The Salvation Army Berry Street. If you could use some support come visit. No one is asked to share, but everyone is free to share as they feel prompted by the Holy Spirit.

We meet every Sunday morning at 10:45 at 225 Berry Street, Nashville, 37207. Looking forward to your visit.

Posted in Berry Street, celebrate recovery, Christian recovery, recovery, recovery quotes, Salvation Army, Salvation Army Berry Street, Salvation Army Nashville, self-help, self-help group, simple church, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

The worst condition for a human being

Posted on July 23, 2017 by Steve Simms

To think we’re right with God if we’re not is the worst state we can be in. We need God to show us where we’re not right with Him. How can we live right if we won’t let God show us where we’re wrong?

Until we understand the depth of our personal rebellion against God, the Cross is just a religious symbol. Human guilt can only be removed by the Cross of Christ!

The Holy Spirit reminds us of our sins so that we will become aware of our bondage and seek His freedom! Does 21st century Christianity ignore the Holy Spirit’s conviction of sin?

When the human conscience falls asleep while the mind excuses wrongful behaviors, we need God to wake us up! When we think up arguments to justify our wrongs; we falsely convince ourselves that we have no need of Christ’s forgiveness.

Guilt, like pain, is a warning that something is wrong about the way we are living; and a call to make it right. It’s difficult to appreciate the good news about Jesus until we are deeply aware of the bad news about our sin. When we become aware of the presence of God we also become aware of our sin & of our deep need to turn away from it.

People who don’t know they are in bondage, never seek freedom. Spiritual awakening opens our eyes to see, to be deeply sorry for, and to turn away from our sins.

The closer we are to God, the more aware we are that we are totally dependent on Christ’s love & forgiveness. Your heart was made for God. It’s lost without Him.

Love without justice is license. Justice without love is cruel. At the Cross God demonstrated both toward you. Love & justice intersected at the Cross where Jesus lovingly paid the penalty for my rebellion against God.

If you don’t like liars but like to lie, you won’t like yourself no matter how hard you try. All who carry Christ within need to let Him overflow to others.

Posted in Jesus, license, lying, presence of God, spiritual awakening, spiritual formation, the cross, Uncategorized, wake up | Tagged , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

ABCs of Beyond Church

Posted on July 22, 2017 by Steve Simms
Assembly of God
Body of Christ
Christ’s city council
Dependence on Jesus
Ekklesia
Family of God
God-gatherings
Hooked on Christ
In Jesus’ name
Jesus is the Head
Kingdom of God
Life together
Meeting with Jesus
New creatures in Christ
Orchestrated by Jesus
Prompted by the Spirit
Quench not the Spirit
Recovery group for Christ-followers
Spirit-led support group
Team Jesus
Unity in Christ
Victorious Christian community
Worship in the Spirit
Xylophone played by God
Yielding to Jesus
Zone of the Spirit
Posted in changes in worship, Christian community, Christian support group, Christian unity, church teams, Friends' worship, leading worship, new creature, Quaker worship, recovery groups, silent worship, support groups, Team Jesus, the heart of worship, Uncategorized, unconventional worship, worship innovation | Tagged , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Theology without testimony is like learning about ice cream without eating it

Posted on July 21, 2017 by Steve Simms

Many people have never discovered that when people open up and begin to testify to one another about their love for Jesus, they experience an amazing sense of kinship.

Christianity isn’t just about dispensing information about God. It’s about making and maintaining a deep, heart-felt connection with risen Jesus and with others! Christianity involves the risen Jesus working in and through ordinary people as they testify about what Christ has done for them.

Theology without testimony is like learning about ice cream without eating it. However, people coming together around the risen Jesus reflect His love to one another and actually experience Him together. When they meet to all collaborate with the Holy Spirit, Heaven breaks out in their midst.

ice cream sandwich

When people who have been transformed by the living Jesus, open up and share how He became real to them, awe fills the atmosphere. Perhaps we need more testimony about how Jesus is working in people’s lives & less theological argument.

Telling people about your encounters with Christ is much more powerful than sharing your opinions about Him. People can refute your logical arguments about Christ; but not your honest testimony about how you have experienced Him.

If the risen Jesus has ever done anything in your life; don’t keep it a secret. Show & tell what Christ has done for you! “The ringing testimony of the Christian faith is that God is able.” –Martin Luther King, Jr.

The Bible is full of testimonials about what God has done. Those testimonies amaze me when I read it.

Pursuing self-fulfillment produces frustration. However, self-forgetting to pursue Christ sets you free and fills you with the desire to testify about Him.

If you’ve ever benefited from a support group, you’ll love a testimony meeting where ordinary people show & tell what God has done. Those meetings are somewhat like AA, Al-Anon, or NA meetings — Christ-led support groups where people encourage you and you encourage them.

Experience a worship meeting based on testimony @ The Salvation Army Berry Street in Nashville.

Read a book about how you can have more testimonies in the church you attend.

 

Posted in by the word of their testimony, house church, lay testimonies, Lay Witness Missions, lay witness movement, Martin Luther King, organic chruch, personal testimonies, salvation testimonies, simple church, testimonials, testimonies in church, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Influence others to hope or be influenced by them toward despair

Posted on July 18, 2017 by Steve Simms

Seek out people who will influence you to aspire & work to be the best you can. Saturate yourself with positive, upbeat, encouraging, wholesome, & hopeful influences.

Negative influences are bold, seductive, and pushy. It takes great courage & effort not to get entangled by them! Here’s the recipe for misery: Jump into a sea of negative influences and go with the flow

Influence others toward hope, serenity, & happiness. Don’t let others influence you toward chaos & confusion. If something’s not a good influence on your life; ignore it, avoid it, & resist it! Care enough about yourself to stay away from self-destructive influences!

Life’s an influence tug-o-war! If you’re not pulling towards God, you’re being pulled away from Him.

The influences you have followed have led you to where you are. If you’re not happy with where you are, change your influences. If you don’t like the influences you are surrounded by; change your surroundings!

Here are the influences I embrace: Jesus, the Bible, my conscience, and passionate, faithful Christ-followers (both present & past).

To walk in the Spirit is to let yourself be continually influenced by God.  Every moment we can choose to be influenced by God or to ignore Him. What percentage of your time do you spend ignoring God and His influence?

Whatever you allow to influence you will begin to shape you into its image. To follow negative influences is to be slowly dragged toward hopelessness.

There’s a self-inflicted drag on the human spirit, weighing it down–personal rebellion against God. To rebel against God is to bite the hand that feeds you. However, to stop doing your thing & start doing God’s thing is to begin to experience life at its fullest.

Self-Inflicted Negativity (SIN) is rampant among human beings. Saying that something isn’t a sin doesn’t suddenly make it innocent or harmless. “Go and sin no more.”

If everybody was influenced to think and act like you, what would the world be like? All the explanations and/or excuses in the world don’t make a wrong behavior right.

People need more than reason. They need Christ’s hope! If reason is followed to its logical conclusion; it leads to meaninglessness. It takes faith to produce hope & purpose.

The footprints of grace are humility & holiness.

Posted in center of influence, disciple making, discipling, influencing others, negativity, networking, optimism, persuasion, sales, servant leadership, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Rob Bell: This is what the Bible is . . .

Posted on July 18, 2017 by Steve Simms

Rob Bell has written a book called What Is The Bible? Here’s a poem and a few thoughts to help answer Rob’s question:

Let The Bible Ring Your Bell
I learned
What the Bible is
By reading it,
And as I did
The words burned
In my heart,
Transformed my life,
And made Jesus
More real and powerful
Than I could have imagined.
No one can adequately tell you
What the Bible is.
Read it and
See for yourself.

It’s easier to to twist the Scriptures, than to let the Bible untwist you. However, without faithfulness to Scripture, we’re left solely to our own (or others’) subjective discernment of what’s the voice of God. To avoid subjective answers to the question: “Did God really say…?” read the Bible daily.

We need an epidemic of heart-felt Bible reading where Jesus jumps off the pages and the words of Scripture burn in our hearts! Scripture isn’t a collection of suggestions. It’s supernatural revelation from God. The Bible fills my heart with continual aha moments as the words of Scripture jump off the pages and dance in my soul!

To deny the authority of the Bible is to set aside what God has revealed in the past for your own opinions. If people who put down the Bible would humbly put it into practice instead; they’d soon discover its truth and power.

A Bible basher who says he’s a believer in Christ is chopping down the tree he’s sitting in. Most of what we know about Jesus comes from the Bible. To deny the Bible’s authority is to declare our faith merely subjective.

To divorce Christianity from the authority of Scripture is to jump overboard into the choppy sea of your own perceptions. Making the Bible a smorgasbord where you choose what you like, is to override the testimony of the earliest Christ-followers.

History’s full of testimonies about how God spoke through the Bible and transformed people’s lives. Read it & let God change you.

The Bible is collection of ancient writings from God that multitudes ignore; some analyze; and some try to explain away. However, I absorb it as a love letter from God.

Denying the authority of the Bible doesn’t excuse you from the consequences of ignoring its truths! Many people if they disagree with something in the Bible, deny its authority, rather than letting the Bible hold them accountable. Perhaps it’s time to set aside theological, critical, legalistic, self-protectionist approaches to the Bible and simply read it as God’s love letter.

If what Jesus taught isn’t true; then He was dishonest or deceived. If His teachings are true, then we should wholeheartedly follow & obey Him.

Some people are proclaiming that because Jesus is the Word that the Bible can’t be the word of God. However, Paul of Tarsus disagrees with those who are making such claims. He wrote: “When you received the word of God, which you heard from us, you accepted it not as a human word, but as it actually is, the word of God, which is indeed at work in you who believe.” (1 Thessalonians 2:13)

The word of God that Paul is referring to is the message (the words) that he taught the Thessalonians; which they could have written off as being merely human words. However, instead they received Paul’s message as the actual word of God and it began to work in the hearts of those who believed.

Don’t follow or believe the people today who are trying to get you to write the Bible off as a mere human word. Instead, begin to read the Bible daily and believe it. Try this experiment: Read the New Testament for at least 5 minutes everyday for 21 days without missing a day. Before you finish the 21 days, you will begin to experience “the word of God, which is indeed at work in you who believe.”

Learn more about how powerfully the Bible can work in a community of believers at this link.

Posted in 1 Thessalonians 2:13, authority, back to the Bible, Bible believing, Bible interpretation, Bible quotes, Bible reading, Bible study, book review, God's voice, how to hear God's voice, Jesus, love wins, sola Scripture, testimonies, the world's greatest love letter, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Don’t throw the Bible out for the bathwater of deception

Posted on July 14, 2017 by Steve Simms

Let Scripture challenge & change your perceptions, feelings, & opinions. To depart from Scripture for human opinion is to dance with deception.

To avoid deception: lay down your opinions, continually search the Scriptures, & always let God’s Spirit direct your heart & mind. Beware of people who promote their own religious ideas by trying to make people doubt or disregard the Bible. Don’t throw the Bible out for the bath water of deception.

To think that you don’t continually need to read and apply the wisdom of the Bible is to gamble with your soul. Before you believe a teacher, preacher, or writer; check out her/his words with the Scriptures. (Acts 17:11)

Don’t just blindly read & swallow anybody’s opinions about eternity. Search the Bible yourself! If falsehood & deception weren’t aggressively seducing human minds & hearts, it might be safe to ignore the Scriptures.

Don’t bite the bait of books promoting unscriptural ideas about God, Christ, & eternity. Before you read any book that claims to be about the Bible; read the Bible through & through. Without faithfulness to Scripture, we’re left solely to our own (or others’) subjective discernment of what’s the voice of God.

When I read the Bible, I can feel the Holy Spirit downloading His software in my heart. Jesus asked: “Are you not in error because you do not know the Scriptures or the power of God?” He said:  “Scripture cannot be set aside,” and “Anyone who loves Me will obey My teaching.” “Then He (Jesus) opened their minds so they could understand the Scriptures.” (Luke 24:45) Has He opened yours?

Paul’s letters say things “…unstable people distort, as they do the other Scriptures, to their own destruction.” (2 Peter 3:16) It’s easier to to twist the Scriptures, than to let the Bible untwist you.

Jesus said: “Take the lowest place.” When we all do that, we’ll experience the glory of God in our midst.

Posted in 2 Peter 3:16, Acts 17:11, Bible concepts, Bible interpretation, Bible quotations, Bible reading, Bible teaching, biblical, biblical Christianity, Biblical concept, Biblical principles, Holy Spirit, Jesus, Jesus Christ, Luke 24:45, unscriptural, wisdom | Tagged , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Word choice matters

Posted on July 14, 2017 by Steve Simms

Your lingo leads your life. Choose to use uplifting lingo! It’s hard to build a positive life with a negative vocabulary. Bad words don’t produce good outcomes.

Your feelings follow the verbiage you daily use and consume. Volatile verbiage creates volatility. Serene verbiage will lead you to serenity.

All lingo matters. Some is helpful, some harmful; but every word that you think, read, say, or hear has an impact on your life.

Embrace the terminology of hope and practical optimism! The terminology of discouragement traps people in despair. However, if you build your life on a virtuous vocabulary; guilt & shame lose their power.

If you don’t consciously choose to use uplifting terminology; negative words will capture your mind and heart. Fill yourself with life-changing lingo, victorious verbiage, & transformational terminology. Read the Bible everyday!

The words you think & say lead to attitudes that lead to actions. Choose them wisely. Thousands of thousands of words have molded who you are, one word at a time.

Be an enthusiasts for encouraging, uplifting words. Talk ’em up! Humanity suffers from a failure to communicate; 1) encouragement, 2) transformation through Christ, & 3) heart-felt love.

Hurtful words: once said, always said. They can’t be erased or intentionally forgotten. Only forgiven. You will live out in your daily life, the words that you continually think, say, & hear.

Christ-pleasing words are transformational. To let Jesus edit our words before we say them, would solve many problems. “Do not let any unwholesome talk come out of your mouths, but only what is helpful for building others up.”
–Ephesians 4:29

We’re called to conform our desires & our words to the will of God, not the other way around. Outward illusions can never compensate for lack of inner peace.

It’s beautiful when people come together in enjoyment & inspiration of the Holy Spirit & the words that the Spirit inspired in the Bible.

People who regularly lie spin deceptions that keep them out of touch with the real world. Faith helps people face real world reality with honesty, humility, and hope.

Posted in censorship, encouragement, grammar, jargon, love, negativity, positive attitude, positive confession, positive thinking, power of choice, power of thinking, power of words, Serenity Prayer, Uncategorized, verbiage, verbs, vocabulary | Tagged , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Do fishy, smelly words jump into your mind?

Posted on July 12, 2017 by Steve Simms

fishy words & me

People become like the words they think, say, write, hear, & read. Do you need a change in words? Lay down put-down words & take up uplifting words!

Holy Spirit promptings, when humbly obeyed, turn into amazing God moments! When first coming to Christ, people are prompted by the Holy Spirit. Once we know Him, the Spirit prompts us even more. You listening?

God often speaks through the promptings of your conscience.  God still speaks to human hearts in a still small voice. All we need to do is listen. Too often we let the voices around us override God’s still small voice within us.

The more we obey God’s still small voice that speaks within us, the more confident we become of His leading. Then we spread His hope more and more.

Profanity is the language hopelessness. The world has enough of hate and hopelessness. Christ-followers need to spread hopeful words! To counter the myth that says that “Christians need to use profanity to be listened to,” I share this:

For 5 1/2 years I was the chaplain in a Salvation Army Adult Rehabilitation Center. During that time I worked with more than 1,400 addicted men right off the streets. I never used profanity but still connected with them in a powerful, Spirit-led way; and in all those years I almost never heard one of them use a cuss word. However, I saw many of them begin to seek God, pray, & devour the Bible.

Therefore, when fishy, smelly words jump through your mind, quickly kick them out. Don’t let them land in your thoughts or in what you say.

The most effective way to respond to hurt is to love more–to increase the amount of love in your words, thoughts, and actions. People are like porcupines; our quills hurt others (often unintentionally). However, speaking and acting in love quells the pain.

Experience exceeds explanation. Seeing surpasses statements. God’s love must be caught, not just taught. “Taste & see that the Lord is good!” To know about Jesus, yet not continually experience His presence, is to miss out on life’s most amazing companionship!

Here’s an adventure for your bucket list. Take a journey through the Bible with the risen Jesus–there’s nothing like that trip! When Jesus speaks in your heart, you can feel the words! Insights inundate me when I read the Bible with simplicity, brokenness, & desperation for help.

No theology, no matter how grand, can take the place of personal interaction with the risen Jesus. To encounter the living Jesus is to be forever changed, always yearning to know Him better.

I wish I could put down in words, how wonderful my heart feels when I follow Jesus. However, it takes the entire body of Christ to do that!  In Christ’s body, everybody has something, but nobody has everything. (1 Cor. 12)

The living Word–
The voice of Christ
Speaks within your heart.
The written Word–
The ancients heard
Christ speak to them
And wrote it down.
Check what you hear
In your heart
With the Bible.

Posted in adult language, bad words, corrupt communication, cussing, encouragement, hate speech, hope, is cussing judging?, Let the words of my mouth, living words, positive attitude, positive confession, positive thinking, power of words, speaking the truth in love, Spirit-prompted words, Uncategorized, words taught by the Spirit | Tagged , , , , , , , | Leave a comment