The Daily Habit of a Funny Way of Walking

Posted on August 27, 2024 by Steve Simms

I have developed the daily habit of an unusual way of walking. It isn’t very popular and looks rather odd, but it sure improves my life and fills me with peace and joy. Let me tell you about it.

Here’s a quote from a man named Lo Alaman: “I believe the blessing that God is inviting us to is that our stories would begin to look more like His.” (For that to happen we need to get in step with the Spirit. If you keep in step with the times, you’ll spend your time staying out of step with God’s Spirit.)

Let God’s Spirit
Set your pace
So His grace
Can lead you
To the place
He wants you to be.

Every Spirit-led step that you take leads you closer to God. If you are seeking to follow and obey the risen Jesus, step it up! If not, step up to the plate so you can “taste and see that the Lord is good”! Step back from your desires and plans so you can step forward in God’s Spirit.

When people walk in the Spirit, they are like a tree planted by streams of water. There’s a spring in their step. Christ’s rivers of living water overflow from within them.

When people offend you and step on your toes, step up in God’s Spirit to bless them and show them His kindness. Step back from your pride and you’ll step forward in God’s Spirit. Watch for Christ’s steps and follow them!

A Spirit-led journey begins with a single Spirit-led step. Take a first step today. To walk in the Spirit, take one Spirit-led step after another, day after day, until you grow from a Spirit-led-toddler into a Spirit-led-mountain-climber.

You learn to take Spirit-led steps by stepping out to obey the promptings of God’s Spirit. Count the steps that truly count. How many Spirit-led steps will you take today?

(Refuse to stay stuck in box steps when God is calling you to walk in the Spirit. Remember that Jesus will be working in and through you every Spirit-led step of the way!)

Let your shoes
Be led by the Spirit.
Begin to choose
To follow God’s
Inner cues.

It’s time for Christians to daily walk the Sunday Bible talk. We must do more than just sit through sermon after sermon and ignore what was said.

Step aside
From your pride
And get in stride
With God’s Spirit.

When Jesus is real in someone’s heart, their words and their life demonstrate that they believe that He’s present with them 24/7/365. I didn’t believe Jesus was real until He started working in my life over and over and over again!

Jesus has a question for people around the world today. Will you set aside your opinions, feelings, and desires and follow Me instead? If your country needs a savior (and they all do), look to the risen Jesus, Himself, not to any other person.

When I walk in the Spirit, I respect people too much to call them names or insult their intelligence just because they disagree with me. If you don’t respect people’s right to disagree with you (without you insulting them), perhaps you aren’t very secure in your beliefs and opinions. Begin to walk in the Spirit and kindness will grow in your heart.

People used to
Hear each other out.
Now they go about
Insulting the people
Who disagree with them.

The British rock band, The Struts, sings:

“Don’t wanna live as an untold story
Rather go out in a blaze of glory.”

The way to do that is to humbly walk in God’s Spirit, day and night.

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I’m Always Searching and Looking For . . .

Posted on August 26, 2024 by Steve Simms

Eye health is vital to vision. Without healthy eyes we can’t see clearly. We need to take good care of both our physical eyes and the eyes of our heart so that we can keep them healthy and clearly see what can make our life better.

Healthy Eyes?

If you’ll keep Jesus
Always in your sight,
You will delight
In His presence
Both day and night.

Look unto Jesus.
See Him who
Is invisible.
Behold the Lamb of God.
Look not at the things
That are seen,
But at the things
That are unseen.
Then humbly
Show and tell
What you’ve seen and heard!

To cultivate
Awareness of
Christ in you
Continually
Contemplate,
Concentrate,
And meditate
On His presence.

Christianity
Is so much more
Than a short walk
From your car
Into a church
To hear a talk
On Sunday morning.

Anything that smothers
The fifty something
New Testament
“One anothers”
Makes it difficult
For Christians
To see into
Each other’s heart
And love as sisters
And brothers.

The shell of tradition
Often keeps Christians
In a passive condition.
Look at and listen
To Christ in you.
Get a fresh vision
Of the risen Jesus.
Every single day
Let Him send you
On His mission.
The world desperately
Needs to see and hear
The Spirit-led rendition
Of Christianity.
Now is the time for
Spiritual ignition!
Live in submission
To the living Jesus
Let Him be
Your optician
And give you healthy eyes!

It’s good to memorize
Parts of the Bible.
It’s better to internalize
And to actualize
It in and through
Your daily life.

What a person does and says when not in a church service reveals much more about the condition of the person’s heart than church attendance does. Jesus never said, “Take a seat.” He said, “Go and make disciples.” The way to grow closer to Jesus is to go and do what He tells you to throughout each day.

I see Jesus doing so many amazing things in my life. I can’t help but stay excited about Him!

Here’s a newly released movie currently in theaters that clearly demonstrates how to see with the eyes of your heart. I saw it yesterday and it is powerful! Go see The Forge.

The Forge Poster
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I Watched The “Life is Worth Living” show

Posted on August 25, 2024 by Steve Simms
Daily writing prompt
What TV shows did you watch as a kid?
View all responses

I remember as a small kid being intrigued by a show that was very popular in the 1950s and 60s. It was called “Life is Worth Living” and later “The Fulton Sheen Program.” It featured inspirational talks by Catholic Archbishop, Fulton J. Sheen. It is said that he spoke without a script or cue cards.

Sheen was warm and personal and spoke humbly from his heart. Somehow his mannerism and words about life and about God would touch me deep within. He talked about the meaning of life and about how God had a purpose for people. Although, I was in a non-religious home, when I came across him on TV, my heart was often drawn into what he said, and I would watch him for a while.

Here are some quotes from him:

“Nothing ever happens in the world that does not happen first inside human hearts.”

“Criticism of others is thus an oblique form of self-commendation. We think we make the picture hang straight on our wall by telling our neighbors that all his pictures are crooked.”

“We know nothing about the inside of our neighbor’s heart, and hence, we refuse to forgive. Jesus knew the heart inside out, and because He did know, He forgave.”

“Unbelievers see us in shops, in theatres, at meetings. Whether they see Christ in us depends on whether we act like Christ.”

“God accepts only what His Spirit inspires. We must bring back to God what He has given.”

“Broadmindedness, when it means indifference to right and wrong, eventually ends in a hatred of what is right.”

“The poison of hate, sensuality, and envy which is in the hearts of men could not be healed simply by wise exhortations and social reforms.” (Our inner healing and transformation requires surrender to the risen Jesus who Sheen called “Our Blessed Lord.)

“The method of adjusting moral principles to the way men live is just a perversion of the order of things.”

“The modern world, which denies personal guilt and admits only social crimes, has no place for personal repentance but only public reforms.”

“Moral principles do not depend on a majority vote. Wrong is wrong, even if everybody is wrong. Right is right, even if nobody is right.”

“There has been no single influence which has done more to prevent man from finding God and rebuilding his character, has done more to lower the moral tone of society than the denial of personal guilt. This repudiation of man’s personal responsibility for his action is falsely justified in two ways: by assuming that man is only an animal and by giving a sense of guilt the tag “morbid.”

“Unhappy souls almost always blame everyone but themselves for their miseries.”

“The world blesses not the meek, but the vindictive; it praises not the one who turns the other cheek, but the one who renders evil for evil; it exalts not the humble, but the aggressive. Ideological forces have carried that spirit of violence, class-struggle, and the clenched fist to an extreme the like of which the world before has never seen.”

“If you do not worship God, you worship something, and nine times out of ten it will be yourself.”

“Sometimes the only way the good Lord can get into some hearts is to break them.”

“We live in days of assassins—where evil is sought in lives more than good to justify a world with a bad conscience.”

“Politics has become so all-possessive of life, that by impertinence it thinks the only philosophy a person can hold is the right or the left. This question puts out all the lights of religion so they can call all the cats gray. It assumes that man lives on a purely horizontal plane, and can move only to the right or the left. Had we eyes less material, we would see that there are two other directions where a man with a soul may look: the vertical directions of ‘up’ or ‘down.’”

“The nearer Christ comes to a heart, the more it becomes conscious of its guilt; it will then either ask for His mercy and find peace, or else it will turn against Him because it is not yet ready to give up its sinfulness.”

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Hope Awareness Time

Posted on August 24, 2024 by Steve Simms

My favorite time of day is transcendent awareness time. I love it when I’m aware of hope in the midst of seeming hopelessness. I love the time when I am aware of an inner encouragement regardless of my outward circumstances. For me that time isn’t just a few moments here or there. It’s ongoing. Even in the midst of problems, difficulties, and trials, I work to focus my attention on hope that transcends my physical, mental, and emotional environment.

God’s Spirit testifies to my spirit (my innermost being, my heart) that I am a child of God. It’s not so much in words. It’s more of an ongoing awareness of His presence, His power, and His love that abides deep within me. The Scripture “Christ in you, the hope of glory,” isn’t just something I think about with my mind. It actually describes how the risen Jesus continually works in me to communicate with me and to keep me filled with hope and with bright glimpses of His glory. I am ever comforted in the arms of my Father. (See Romans 8:14-16.)

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A Recipe That’s Outta This World

Posted on August 23, 2024 by Steve Simms

Here is a recipe that’s out of this world! It’s from the world’s bestselling recipe book (and bestselling book overall) of all time. It’s full of recipes for victorious living.

The kingdom of God requires that you live by God’s desires for you, not by your desires for yourself. It means that Jesus is your Lord — that you have surrendered to being led moment-by-moment by Christ’s Spirit living inside of you (not by your thoughts, feelings, opinions, choices, or desires). What good does it do for you to go to church and hear a religious talk if your heart is callused and you don’t hear with your inner ears, understand with your heart, and then turn to the risen Jesus to let Him heal you and continually rule you from within as your living Master, Savior, and King? (See Acts 28:26-27.)

“For two whole years Paul stayed there in his own rented house and welcomed all who came to see him. He proclaimed the kingdom of God and taught about the Lord Jesus Christ—with all boldness and without hindrance!” Those are the last two sentences of the Book of Acts in the Bible.

Paul was allowed to have visitors even though he was in house arrest waiting for a trial in Rome, under one of the most oppressive governments in history. Yet he didn’t complain about the government or verbally attack the Emperor. Instead, he looked beyond human government and kept his inner eyes on the kingdom of God. For the last two years of his life, Paul shined as a bright light pointing people to the presence and reality of the living Jesus. He is still doing that today. Read Paul’s letters in the Bible (with an open, uncalloused heart) and see for yourself!

Biblical Christianity is so much more that the words of a Sunday preacher. It’s the Living Word, the risen Jesus Christ, speaking in the hearts of everyday people. Hear Him! He speaks through the Bible, through your conscience, and through thoughts, images, and promptings that He puts in your mind and/or on your heart. He never contradicts Himself, so test what you sense inside you with what you read in the Bible to make sure it is God speaking to you and not your own voice or the voice of evil masquerading as good.

I’ve read the world’s bestselling recipe book for decades and continually sought to live by what it says. It has taught me to think and act like this:

Do something kind.
Say something kind.
When you disagree
Use kindness.

I try to speak the truth that I feel deeply in my heart with kindness and compassion. Here are a few examples of how I try to do that.

To arrogantly deny that human behavior is damaging our planet is to commit the coming generations to disaster.

Fact check of the popular use of the word “reproductive.” The dictionary defines “reproductive” as “referring to the process of reproduction.” There’s nothing “reproductive” about ending a prenatal human life. If animal cruelty is morally wrong, surely prenatal cruelty is too.

To continually claim an election was stolen with no concrete evidence to back your claim, is to act like a disgruntled child who didn’t like the outcome of a playground game.

People have a right to define themselves by their sexual desires and behaviors, but I also have a right to kindly disapprove of their desires and behaviors.

It’s becoming popular for American politicians to talk about Hell and damnation. They throw the words right into the middle of their speeches. However, God doesn’t want anyone to go to Hell. He doesn’t damn anyone. The reason that Jesus came and died was so that no one would have to go to Hell. He’s the way to avoid Hell. Get to know the risen Jesus and let Him rescue you. Read His recipe book with an open heart and discover His present-day power and reality.

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The Excitement That Has Never Left Me

Posted on August 22, 2024 by Steve Simms

Humility, kindness, and honesty cause people to be curious about what you believe. After Paul, the sent one, was falsely accused by the religious people in the city of Jerusalem and imprisoned for two years, He was finally sent to the city of ancient Rome as a prisoner of the government. Through it all Paul sat in the back seat and trusted Jesus to lead his life.

One of the first things Paul did in his confinement in the city of Rome was to call together the leaders of the Jews who lived in Rome so that he could humbly, honestly, and kindly explain his situation to them. He didn’t accuse them or insult them. They responded to Paul’s warm approach by saying: “We want to hear what your views are, for we know that people everywhere are talking against this sect.”

Rather than feeling threatened by Paul and his “sect” (party), they set up a time to come back and bring more people with them so they could all hear what he had to say. Then Paul “witnessed to them from morning till evening, explaining about the kingdom of God, and from the Law of Moses and from the Prophets he tried to persuade them about Jesus. Some were convinced by what he said, but others would not believe.”

Instead of accusing and verbally attacking people who support a party you believe is hurting you, be like Paul. Reach out to them with honesty, kindness, and humility. Then they might even say to you: “We want to hear what your views are,” and listen to you “explaining about the kingdom of God,” “from morning till evening.” That’s what happened to Paul, the sent one (apostle).

If you are a Christ-follower, you have been sent to where you are so that you (as an ambassador of the kingdom of God) can be a first-hand witness to and a living demonstration of Jesus’ literal presence, sacrificial love, and grace-filled humility. The kingdom of God begins to manifest when a person learns to freely surrender to, rely on, and humbly flow with Spirit-produced inner rivers of childlike innocence, trust, creativity, openness, spontaneity, and playfulness that release the fruit and the gifts of the Holy Spirit. Refuse to let an obsession with your rights quench the light of Christ that wants to freely shine in and through your heart.

The energy, influence, and insight of God’s Spirit produces indescribable joy! “O taste and see that the Lord is good!” The Bible isn’t a textbook to be learned but a handbook to be experienced and lived. As I strive to LUIGS (Live Under the Influence of God’s Spirit) I’m amazed at how Jesus works in me to keep my heart and mind ever focused on Him, so that I don’t feel threatened by the confusion and hostility that surrounds me in this world.

The last thing that I’ve been excited about is sitting in the back seat and letting the living Jesus steer my life. That’s the excitement that has never leaves me. I’ve been constantly and currently excited about the risen Jesus all my adult life.

Posted in Apostle Paul, Paul of Tarsus, political kindness, political peace, speaking the truth in love | Tagged , , , , , , | 5 Comments

City Can Be a Family

Posted on August 21, 2024 by Steve Simms

One day city will be a family. Of course, I’m talking about the city of God that you can read about in a book called Revelation. (It’s the last book of the Bible.) I experienced some of that city yesterday during an encounter with two strangers in my city of Nashville, Tennessee, USA.

I’ve met so many strangers who were unknown brothers and sisters and have been eager to welcome me into their heart and even into their home. At the sight of those people my heart thanked God and was encouraged. That’s the unity of the body of Christ in action. Although strangers we (Spirit-led Christ-followers) are one in the Spirit. We are one in the Lord. All we need to do is to be vulnerable and humbly open wide our heart to one another with kindness. Then a supernatural connection beyond human description is suddenly recognized. It is revealed to us by God’s Spirit.

Yesterday I had a long conversation with two strangers, a woman and a man. None of us knew each other. Even though the woman was making accusative and offensive statements about politics, I sensed Christ in her. So, I humbly and kindly questioned one of her statements. Instead of responding with hostility she looked long at me and kindness rose up in her eyes. Then a rare thing happened. We had a discussion where we expressed opposing views with warmth, peacefulness, and laughter.

The man was mostly quiet in the beginning. He looked shocked and curious about how we could disagree so agreeably. Soon our conversation turned to Jesus. Without my asking her the woman excitedly shared a short version of how Jesus became real in her life. Then I briefly shared my story of encountering the risen Jesus.

The man gradually began to join in the conversation and to enjoy the joy of the Lord with us. I don’t know if he is a Christian brother, but we could see his heart opening up in front of us. Before we parted I gave both of them a card with this link (hopethoughts.com) to my blog. They both said that they would go there and read it. I pray that they do, and that God uses my words to encourage them with Christ’s presence and light. When I woke up this morning these words were flowing through my heart:

I try to be
A life writer,
To let my words
Dance and sing
And ring out truth
With kindness.

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Motivated by discipleship!

Posted on August 20, 2024 by Steve Simms

For me, every day should be a day of discipleship! What does that mean?

The way Christians “make disciples” has changed drastically from the first century. Today Christians rarely even used the word disciple. Instead, they sit in rows, passively hear a weekly lecture, and then go home to the same ole lifestyle while believing that they’ve just experienced New Testament Christianity.

Discipleship is the ongoing activity of passionately pursuing, focusing on, interacting with, and obeying the risen Jesus. It’s an unearned privilege made available by the grace of God through Jesus’ sacrificial death on the Cross. True Christianity never fails, but it is often abandoned and replaced with routine religion.

Discipleship isn’t just hearing a message. It’s being a messenger who testifies to and personally demonstrates the new life in Christ throughout each day.

True discipleship is much more than routine religion. It’s rich revelation that ever burns in your heart and demonstrates itself through your attitude, words, and behavior.

Biblical discipleship freely flows with God’s supernatural inner flow of rivers of living water as Christ-followers gather to all be led by the Spirit. (See 1 Corinthians 14:26.) It doesn’t shut down the Spirit’s inner flow with a programmed religious show. It trains people to continually listen to and obey the Spirit, not just to sit for a religious talk. (Search for: The Joy of Early Christianity book.)

Real discipleship
Isn’t being spoon fed
By a weekly message.
It’s being Spirit-led
By Christ alive in you.

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Shake Off Mental Snakes and Live Miraculously

Posted on August 19, 2024 by Steve Simms

In the Old Testament, Eve listened to the snake in the Garden. When she obeyed it and she and Adam ate from the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil, their lives were separated from God. They died spiritually and were separated from the Tree of Life.

In the New Testament, Paul shook the poisonous snake that bit him and hung from his hand into the fire. The strangers who saw it immediately partook of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. They took the bad man/good man approach. They said: “This man must be a murderer,” and they expected Paul to drop dead. Then after waiting for his sudden death, but seeing nothing happen, they finally switched their opinion and said that Paul was a god.

Paul shook off the snake and miraculously lived. He experienced and demonstrated the Tree of Life — a life-saving miracle from the living God. Jesus is the way, the truth, and the life. It’s time for Christians to shake off the snake of evaluating people as good or bad, right or wrong, left or right, and instead begin to demonstrate the miraculous life of “Christ in you, the hope of glory,” and His love and grace for all human beings.

People want Christianity to be about a thing — church attendance, a sermon, a ministry, a preacher, tithing, a religious routine, a doctrine, a conference — but it’s not. It’s about a relationship of ongoing surrender and obedience to the risen Jesus. Biblical Christianity is about continually demonstrating Christ’s presence, power, and love to all the people you encounter. Shake off the snakes that want you to evaluate people by good or bad and instead love them with the life and presence of Christ living and reigning in and through your heart.

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Hear the Here God

Posted on August 18, 2024 by Steve Simms

Now hear the here God. Let His inner voice motivate you. He’s always here. God’s the ultimate Speaker! He spoke everything into existence.

Hear the near God say: “This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased. Listen to Him!” Hear Jesus the God-Man.

Jesus uses words because He is the Word. “In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word was God.” Hear the living Word say: “My sheep hear My voice,” and “I am with you always.”

The risen Jesus is talking to you. Notice the sound of His still small voice. Wake up from your daze. Tune into Jesus — the living, eternal Waze.

Let your heart be Christ’s moment by moment sanctuary. Listen to what God’s Spirit is saying in your inner ear. Hear Him call you by name over and over again. Let the awe-filled hush of His pure and holy voice reveal His way and ever lead and direct you from within — wherever you are and wherever He tells you to go.

Hear the word of the Lord in what God told the prophets and the other writers of the Bible. Continually ponder Scriptures. Write them on your heart. Savor them like a love letter to you from God, until they burn as an inner fire and flood you with His presence. “O taste and see that the Lord is good.”

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