Your cheatin’ heart will tell on you (don’t follow your heart)

Posted on May 17, 2016 by Steve Simms

heart Jeremiah 17

 

cheatin heart hank williams

We humans continually hustle to hide the hurt and hideousness of our cheatin’ heart behind religion, self-righteousness (self-justification), and/or rebellion. We deny the scathing seriousness of our sin and the evil nature of our heart, even though the Bible declares that: “All of us have become like one who is unclean, and all our righteous acts are like filthy rags.”

God’s grace calls us to repent — to replace our religion, self-righteousness, and rebellion with His gift of radical recovery, restoration, and reconciliation. You don’t repent by “following your heart.” (Your heart is even more confused, corrupt, and cheatin’ than your head. It will continually frustrate you and run you through the gates of hell on earth!)  You repent by opening yourself up to the inner conviction of the Holy Spirit and allowing God to break your heart (by showing you the scathing seriousness of your sin) to the point that the only thing you want is God’s mercy and forgiveness.

We need to open ourselves up to the gracious conviction of the Holy Spirit and allow God to reveal the real condition of our heart. Are you courageous enough to do that?

“The human heart is greedy. It will use religion, color, or any other excuse to justify its greed. Blame the human heart.” –Bono (Are you ready to blame your own heart?)

“It’s easier to say ‘My tooth is aching’ than ‘My heart is broken.” –C.S. Lewis (Are you ready to admit that your heart is morally broken?)

“The truths that I know best I have learned on my knees. I never know a thing well until it is burned in my heart by prayer.” –John Bunyan (Are you willing to get on your knees and seek God’s forgiveness with all your might?)

“Your cheatin’ heart
Will make you weep
You’ll cry and cry
And try to sleep.
But sleep won’t come
The whole night through
Your cheatin’ heart
Will tell on you.”
–Hank Williams (also sung by Patsy Cline)
Posted in Amazing Grace, broken heart, brokenhearted, burning heart, cheap grace, country music, Create in me a clean heart, from the heart, grace, hard-hearted, heart is deceitful, heart is desperately wicked, heart-felt, heartbreak, heartfelt, human heart, Jeremiah, Jeremiah 17:9, love God with all your heart, next heart beat, sinful heart, speaking from the heart, the door of your heart, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , , , | 5 Comments

Are we the walking brain-dead — mindless media zombies?

Posted on May 16, 2016 by Steve Simms

Could our media be polluting our minds and turning us into the walking brain-dead, who mindlessly mimic media messages. Advertisers seem to think so. Advertisers have made TV networks, cable companies, Netflix, YouTube, Google, and Facebook some of the wealthiest companies in the world, because advertisers know that media messages change people’s thinking and behaviors. If media had no influence, advertisers wouldn’t spend a dime and Netflix would be nixed, YouTube would be yanked, Facebook would be finished, and Google would be gone!

Therefore, you are being influenced by the messages contained in the media you consume — whether you know it or not! And those messages aren’t just the commercials and other ads. Everything media puts out has a message. Nothing is neutral.

Do you ever ask, what is message am I consuming in this show, this movie, or this post? Do I want my life to become what I am watching, hearing, and/or reading? If you don’t ask questions like that, then you are surrendering yourself to the manipulation of media like a mindless zombie.

Your media will mold you into its image. Day by day you will gradually become what you watch, listen to, and read. Movies about misery will make you miserable. Posts about anger will cause you to be angry. Shows based on disrespectful people will make you disrespectful. Programs full of raunchiness will make you raunchy (at least in your thoughts). Consuming evil will slowly release evil in and through you.

Is that what you want? If so, then keep on consuming poison media. However, I don’t believe that you really want misery, anger, disrespect, and evil. I believe that you want happiness, peace, self-respect, and goodness (unless you have been so brainwashed by your media that you have lost hope for a joyful and fulfilling life).

It’s not too late to change channels (or even power off). Positive, uplifting media does exist. You just have to search for it and then choose to consume it instead of corruption. The choice is yours. You are what you watch.

“The nature of man was not constructed to harbor evil. Sin is an intruder. Conscience, the fear of God, the capacity of memory, all want to acknowledge what is wrong, to expel it, and to get rid of its sting. But men knowingly violate all this. They hide their sin. Thus they make untold misery for those about them and bring final ruin upon themselves.” –Bramwell Booth (2nd General of The Salvation Army)

Is it a sin to entertain yourself by watching shows that promote and/or exalt sin on TV or a computer? Is it a sin to be a fan of a TV series that parades and glorifies immorality? (If it is morally wrong to do something, then surely it is morally wrong to enjoy watching other people doing that thing!)

 

 

 

Posted in abc, American media, Bramwell Booth, cable companies, CBS, choice, electronic media, facebook, garbage in garbage out, influence of words, media circus, moral choices, morality, netflix, PBS, persuasion of media, positive thinking, power of choice, prochoice, right and worng, TV, TV network, TV series, Uncategorized, YouTube | Tagged , , , , , , , , | 2 Comments

Air Dancer Christ-followers

Posted on May 12, 2016 by Steve Simms

air dancers

As I was with a group of Christ-followers who were praying and sharing as they felt prompted by the Holy Spirit, the image of a large Air Dancer came to my mind. Are Christ-followers called to be animated like Air Dancers? I believe we are.

Air Dancers (also known as Sky Dancers, Floppy Guys, or Air Puppets) are long, inflatable plastic (or fabric) tubes (usually with a happy face and two other tubes coming off the side like arms; giving them a friendly, human appearance). Each Air Dancer is attached to and powered by an electric fan. Air Dancers stand up and energetically move about in response to the air being blown through them by the fan.  Everything they do is prompted by the wind within.

Far too often, present-day Christ-followers look like the deflated Air Dancer below. We are drained and aimlessly wandering around struggling to survive. Why? Perhaps we can learn something from Air Dancers.

air dancer deflated

  • In order to function, Air Dancers must be attached to a source of inner wind — a blower. If they are unattached to a blower and/or the blower is not sending wind through them, they can do nothing. The same is true of Christ-followers. Jesus said: “Apart from me you can do nothing.” We must be attached to the wind of the Holy Spirit. If not, our faith is merely a deflated form of religious tradition, and not the powerful faith of “Christ in you, the hope of glory.”
  • Air Dancers must be yielded and flexible. If an Air Dancer gets stiff and/or won’t bend according to the blowing of the wind, it will no longer work and will be a disappointment to anyone needing to be encouraged by its dancing. Unfortunately, we Christ-followers have been taught just the opposite. We have been trained to sit still and not move — to depend on a preacher talking to us rather than on the wind of the Spirit blowing within us.

So what can we do? Learn to surrender to, hear, and obey the wind of the Spirit — the still, small voice of God speaking withing us. But how can we learn to do that? We won’t learn it by listening to lectures. It can only be learned by hands-on experience.

We need to begin to personally listen to Jesus and then do what He says. As we do this more and more we will grow in both our ability to hear Christ and our willingness to obey Him.

We also need one another. More than 50 times in the New Testament Christ-followers are told to encourage one another in various ways. Therefore, when we meet together as believers, we need to be free to hear and obey the living Jesus. Rather than being like rows of deflated Air Dancers lined up in front of a pulpit and doing nothing, we need to be like a group of Air Dancers freely and unashamedly responding to the wind within them. When we do that, we will once again begin to see the powerful Christianity of the New Testament in action.

If you have never experienced a group of Christ-followers responding to the Spirit like Air Dancers, come and visit The Salvation Army Berry Street in Nashville, Tennessee on Sundays @ 10:45 am. — 225 Berry St. 37207. Also check out my book about how Christ-followers can learn to be His Air Dancers.

Posted in animation, apart from me you can do nothing, bouncy houses, Christ in you, Gone With The Wind, hope of glory, mighty rushing wind, the wind blows where it will, Uncategorized, wind, wind of the Spirit | Tagged , , , , , | Leave a comment

Thoughts from the Bible & the General . . .

Posted on May 8, 2016 by Steve Simms

expect change auxilary

I read some statements that General André Cox made at The Salvation Army National Advisory Organizations Conference in Phoenix, Arizona, April 21-24, 2016. The theme of the conference was “Expect Change.” The General’s comments reminded me of these biblical concepts:

Christ-followers are called to come together as His body to listen directly to God and then allow the Spirit to freely flow among us, using each one of us to build up one another. (1 Corinthians 14:26) Then we are called to go back into our daily lives as Christ’s witnesses and let the Spirit freely flow through us, wherever we are, as we: “Go into all the world and preach the Gospel to all creation.” (Mark 16:15) “Quench not the Spirit.” (1 Thessalonians 5:19)

What the General said at NAOC 2016:

“We have seen so many testimonies of God at work in people’s lives. God is intervening in the world, even amid the chaos because He wants all to experience change and transformation. And God expects us to be part of the process — not spectators sitting by watching things happen.” –General André Cox

“Never has there been a time when people were more engrossed with communicating, but who is really listening? The virtual environment cannot replace looking someone in the eye, talking directly to them and knowing that they listen. God must get frustrated with us because He keeps talking, but do we listen? He speaks through nature, through experiences and other people, and of course, though His Word. But He has spoken most clearly to us through Jesus. When God sent Jesus, He gave us a clear example of how to order and live our lives. But it’s never been harder to listen to Jesus. Yet He continues to speak to us through all the days of our lives. The fact is, we are always in the presence of God. Our problem is that we are not aware of Him.” –General André Cox

Perhaps it is time for Christ-followers to gather in Jesus’ name, become aware of His presence in our midst, listen to His voice, and allow ordinary people freedom in the meeting to say and/or do whatever Jesus tells them to. This would build them up in holy boldness so that they could go and be aware of God’s presence in their daily lives and say and/or do whatever He tells them to.

Here are some more thoughts from General Cox. And here’s more about learning to flow in the Holy Spirit.

general cox

 

Posted in 1 Corinthians 14:26, change, change agent, change in church, change management, changes in worship, each one has a psalm, evangelism, makes change, Phoenix, preach the gospel, Quench not the Spirit, Uncategorized, witnesses, witnessing | Tagged , , , , , | Leave a comment

Beyond IT “potato sorting” to nonmaterial reality

Posted on May 7, 2016 by Steve Simms

potato sorter

Computers are glorified potato sorters (separating electrons rather than potatoes). People translate data into electronic codes and then a computer sorts, arranges, categorizes, stores, and retrieves those coded electrons as directed by a person (or a program written by a person). Then the computer deposits the electronic codes back into words, images, and/or sounds. Electrons stream through it like potatoes through a potato sorter.

A computer is no more cognizant or conscious than a potato sorter. It doesn’t express care or concern. It doesn’t believe or trust. It makes no choices. It has no perception or understanding of what it is doing. A computer has no hopes or dreams — no motives or sense of purpose — no opinions or philosophy — no meaning, no inspiration, no intentions, no disappointment, no guilt, no shame, no sorrow, no grief, no loneliness, no sadness, no joy, no frustration, no anger, no happiness, no desires, no longings, no opinions, no pride or humility.

A person, however, experiences all of that — not just as images and words on a screen — but as direct interaction with nonmaterial reality. We experience our thoughts to be real, not just electronic potatoes being passively sorted by our brains. Even materialists (people who claim to  believe that nothing exists but matter) live their lives as if their thoughts are real (not just electrons being sorted by their brain). (Take Stephen Hawking for example.)

However, unlike a potato sorter, our thoughts don’t just passively run through a physiological processing system called a brain. Instead we actively experience nonmaterial reality by choosing to originate thoughts, to control them, to embrace them, or even to reject them. We are the programmer, not the electron sorter!

Computers don’t experience or perform any of these nonmaterial things (but you do):

Awareness, Belief, Consciousness,

Apprehension, Cognizance, Trust,

Understanding, Concern, Care,

Insight, Wisdom, Evaluation,

Perception, Intuition, Inspiration,

Revelation, Motives, Ideas,

Intention, Hope, Purpose,

Concepts, Meaning, Hypothesis,

Aspiration, Expectation, Mission,

Proposition, Proposals, Conclusions,

Analysis, Premise, Suppositions

Theorems, Thesis, Philosophy,

Presuppositions, Principles, Proposals,

Reason, Speculation, Suggestion,

Conjecture, Explanations, Assumption,

Guesses, Interpretations, Discernment,

Opinions, Reflection, Pondering.

 

 

Posted in a healthy mind, apologetics, atheism, determinism, free will, harmful thinking, high tech, information processors, information technology, IT, making decisions, materialism, mind, positive thinking, power of choice, pro choice, rationalism, renewing your mind, science, scientific theory, self-control, self-esteem, self-help, self-image, spooky action, Stephen Hawking, Theory of Everything, Uncategorized, victim of disorganized thinking | Tagged , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Are we literally livin’ in cyber space?

Posted on May 6, 2016 by Steve Simms

I recently saw a PBS documentary that suggested that if we were living in a video game we would be convinced that we and everything around us is real. However the only real thing about cyber space is the information and directions conveyed by the programming language that deliberately arranged and arranges the electrons.

The real world is no more “real” than the cyber world. The cyber world is made up of electrons — tiny sparks of energy. So is the physical world. These bits of energy are like letters in a language. The way they are arranged creates the software that determines the structure and environment of both the cyber and physical world.

In the physical world the arrangement of electrons (as depicted on the Periodic Table) determine types of matter. In the cyber world it determines images and words on a screen.

Take away the electrons and there is no cyber space and no physical material. Scientists say that all the subatomic particles in the universe could easily fit in the palm of a human hand. The rest of everything in the universe (that we call matter) is just empty space — bubbles encircled by electrons traveling at the speed of light.

What we call reality (or the real world) is really an illusion — empty space masquerading as solid matter. Everything in the physical world (from hardened steel to apples) is really like these two tables: a collection of billions of electron bubbles that we call atoms. Pop the bubbles and there is nothing left.

buble table

So what is real? The wisdom in the software — the non-material intelligence that organized the electron patterns that determine both the physical world and cyber space. Human intelligence has organized electrons to establish cyber space. But who or what organized the electrons to establish the physical world?

Humans throughout history (even primitive peoples), have recognized the fact that there is some sort of intelligence and/or being that (or who) created the physical world (by programming the electrons). Do you?

(While I was editing this post, I read it to my wife. Then she immediately picked up her Bible to start her day and flipped it open. The first thing she saw was: “The foolish are convinced deep down that there is no God.” –Psalm 53:1) Coincidence? Or a sign from God?

Posted in artificial intelligence, computer science, computers, cyberworld, documentary, electrons, hardware, illusionists, information technology, intelligence, IT, languages, nature of reality, non-material reality, Periodic Table, physical universe, programming, real world, software, speed of light, Uncategorized, worldview | Tagged , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Heart-fire

Posted on May 4, 2016 by Steve Simms

We need God’s heart-fire! Christianity is much more than a mind informed about the Bible. It’s a heart continually ablaze with the presence of the living, risen Jesus Christ! Are you in a relationship with the living, risen Jesus?

heart-fire

There’s nothing like Jesus’ flames cascading in your soul! Experience the cause that refreshes — daily spreading the love and joy of Jesus!

Beyond Pulpit To Being God’s Puppet

Like a puppeteer with a puppet,
Christ wants to live through you.
Christianity is not just about
Hearing words from a pulpit.
It’s about ordinary people
Being yielded to Christ,
Like puppets to a puppeteer,
In our day to day lives.
“Christ in you; the hope of glory!”

Some ABCs Treat You Bad

These ain’t ya momma’s ABCs!
–If you are Afflicted by Addiction;
Beaten up by Bondage; and
Caught up in Compulsions;
Then your life isn’t working right.
And if you don’t get right,
You’ll stay stuck in wrong!

 

Posted in aflame, burning heart, Did not our hearts burn within, fan into flame the gift of God, fire in the heart, heart care, heart religion, heart strangely warmed, heart-felt, heart-felt love, hearts on fire, in a relationship, Jesus in my heart, love God with all your heart, pulpit, pulpit ministry, puppet show, puppeteer, puppets, relationship with God, spiritual relationships, the door of your heart, the heart of worship, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , | Leave a comment

Should we go all the way with “born that way?”

Posted on May 2, 2016 by Steve Simms

I believe that human beings are born with a deep longing for God and that we never outgrow it (even though we sometimes redirect it).  Wherever you find people you find religion and ritual — some form of attempting to connect with (or appease) God or gods (even if they don’t call it that).

This almost universal yearning for inner meaning and purpose has been called “a God-shaped vacuum in the human heart.” Even when people try to ignore it, deny it, or refute it; an inner dissatisfaction of life without God, still drives them and eats at them.

God shaped vacuum

I know that I was born that way. My parents told me that when I first learned to talk I would tell them about God, even though at that time in their lives, they didn’t go to church or talk about God. I wanted to know God from the time I first remember until I was born again at age 19.

So if (at least some) people are born with a craving for God, isn’t contemporary culture contradicting itself when it tries to curtail and cutoff religion? Our present day society teaches that if a person has a deep desire, then she/he has been “born that way” — therefore they should be free to openly express that desire and everybody else must approve of their desire or be labeled intolerant and/or hateful.

Why don’t we use the same “logic” or “reasoning” when it comes to religion? Why doesn’t modern society call people who disagree with religion and/or don’t approve of faith in God, “intolerant”?

Here are some quotes that testify that people have a natural born yearning for God:

“He (God) has made everything beautiful in its time. He has also set eternity in the human heart.” –Ecclesiastes 3:11

“You have made us for Yourself, O Lord, and our hearts are restless until they rest in You.” –Augustine

“There is a hole in our hearts that only God can fill.  We were made to be connected to our Creator.  We were made to know Him and to be plugged into His power. Your heart is designed to contain God.” –Rick Warren

“We’re all searching for something to fill up what I like to call that big, God-shaped hole in our souls. Some people use alcohol, or sex, or their children, or food, or money, or music, or heroin.” –Tiffanie DeBartolo in the book God-Shaped Hole

“Love Christ, and then the eternity in the heart will not be a great aching void, but will be filled with the everlasting life which Christ gives and is.”  –Alexander MacLaren

 

Posted in agnosticism, Alexander Maclaren, atheism, Augustine, books, born again, dissatisfaction, Ecclesiastes, God seeker, hate, longing for God, Pascal, Rick Warren, ritual, Tiffanie DeBartolo, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , | Leave a comment

Are Christians playing with a full deck — ekklesia?

Posted on April 30, 2016 by Steve Simms

Is the traditional concept of church short of God’s full deck — the Greek New testament idea of ekklesia? Is ekklesia God’s trump card that empowers Christ-followers to dynamically connect with the living, resurrected Jesus and with one another? A fresh, new definition of ekklesia dropped into my mind during the night:

me and deck not full

Ekklesia is Christ’s city council called together as an interactive, governmental body; to proclaim, decree, demonstrate, and release Heaven’s culture, as prompted by the real presence of the living, resurrected Jesus Christ.

  • “Christ’s city council” — In the Greek New Testament Jesus is quoted as saying: “I will build My ekklesia.” (Ekklesia is the name of the city council in ancient Greek city-states.)
  • “Called together as an interactive, governmental body” — Ekklesia literally means: “called out ones.” (The ancient Greek ekklesia met when a “herald” called citizens to come together to collaboratively conduct city business.)
  • “To proclaim” — Christ’s ekklesia meets to declare the good news of Jesus’ victory over sin, death, Hell, and the grave!
  • “To decree” — Jesus taught that His followers would “bind and loose.” The decrees declared in ekklesia are powerful!
  • “To demonstrate” — Ekklesia goes beyond mere words, as Paul of Tarsus proclaimed: “My speech and my preaching were not in persuasive words of human wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power.”
  •  “To release” — Ekklesia radiates the presence of the living, resurrected Jesus Christ. It discharges His power in all directions.
  • “Heaven’s culture” — The will of God (Heaven’s culture) is not the way of contemporary society. Jesus taught His followers to pray for Heaven’s culture to be manifest on earth: “Your kingdom come, Your will be done, on earth has it is in Heaven.”
  • “As prompted” — The members of ekklesia don’t act on their own will. Instead they are directed by and obedient to the still, small voice within.
  • “By the real presence” — When Christ’s followers gather in His name (under His direct control and authority), His presence moves beyond myth and/or mere religion, into dynamic reality.
  • “Of the living, resurrected Jesus Christ.” The Christ of ekklesia is not “the historical Jesus” (confined to the past) or the “religious Jesus” (confined to a distant, pietistic Heaven),  but the “present-moment Jesus,” alive and active in the world right now!
Posted in Beyond Church, Bible quotes, Bible verses, called out ones, decrees, demonstrations of the Spirit, Dones, ekklesia, Greek, Greek city state, Greek New Testament, Heaven, house church, nones, on earth as it is in heaven, organic chruch, simple church, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , | Leave a comment

Are sermons working or just keeping up appearances?

Posted on April 29, 2016 by Steve Simms

Are sermons working or just keeping up appearances? Will a talk about religion give you the personal power to walk out your faith in daily life?
* When church people recommend sleazy entertainment on social media; sermons aren’t working;
* When Christians run people down, sermons are not working;
* When ministers steal, sermons aren’t working;
* When church attenders lie, sermons aren’t working;
* When millions of people are becoming “Dones” or “Nones”, sermons are not working.
–Perhaps it is time to go beyond sermons — beyond church as usual. Below a copy of “Beyond Church: An Invitation To Experience The Lost Word Of The Bible–Ekklesia” is standing on John Wesley’s pulpit. Get your copy @ http://amzn.to/1UgXwe4.

063

 

Posted in church decline, church meetings, church refugees, church services, church speakers, church teachers, homiletics, homily, house church, lecture, lecture in church, message, message in church, organic chruch, religious talks, sermon series, simple church, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , , | Leave a comment