Doing differently

Posted on January 7, 2024 by Steve Simms
Daily writing prompt
What could you do differently?
View all responses

It takes courage to think differently than your feelings and the people around you. Dare to think beyond your mimicking mind. Without the willingness to think differently you’ll stay stuck in your old thought patterns. If you want to overcome your problems, you definitely have to begin to think differently than the way of thinking that keeps you trapped and entangled in them.

Hindsight can devour you with disappointment or it can empower you to see differently so you can embrace hope for the future. Blame is a blotched-up way of thinking. Think differently and love those who have hurt you.

If you’re unwilling to change how you look at your life, positive changes that you try to make will boomerang back into the past.

Christianity has become
A routine religion
Of simply hearing,
Sitting and listening
Week after week,
But where are the signs
Of Christ appearing
In the hearts of the people?
Where’s the awe,
The tearing,
The repentance,
And the God-fearing?
The end is nearing
But without discipleship
Our ship is sinking
And our faith is
Disappearing.

Think differently. What you see as problems might actually be God trying to get your attention. If you want a more hopeful perspective on life, you have to see things differently. Romans 8:28 helps me do that. Jesus helps me see things differently — in ways that encourage me, not in ways that wear me down.

No matter where you are in your walk with the Lord, there’s more. Never stop growing! Refuse to allow any thought that refuses to obey Jesus and to conform to His will to have any place in your mind. Our human thinking falls far short of producing peace between people and between nations. We need the Prince of Peace for that. Perhaps it would help you to see things differently.

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“Think About Things Differently”

Posted on January 6, 2024 by Steve Simms
Daily writing prompt
If you had a freeway billboard, what would it say?
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A fresh new way of thinking can work wonders in your life! Put your life and your thoughts in the hands of the Man who rose from the dead and is still alive and working in the world today! (That’d be Jesus.)

Prepare the way for Jesus to be the Lord within you. Christians are called to constantly fight the invisible fight of pulling down all of the corrupt desires, feelings, and habits that work to achieve and maintain a strong hold within them. Christ-followers are supposed to be continually casting down their own opinions and imaginings by compelling their every thought to always obey the risen Christ so that He can freely live and ever shine His light in them (unquenched, unobstructed, and uninterrupted). Then Jesus can fully and truly be the absolute Lord and Master of all that goes on within them. Never stop fighting the good fight of faith! (See 2 Corinthians 10:4.)

If you have yet to begin that fight (or have already surrendered to inner negativity), it’s not too late for you to start. Begin to focus your mind and heart on what is true, honest, just, pure, lovely, and of good report. (See Philippians 4:8.)

If you don’t like adulting
Begin daily consulting
The living Jesus
And let Him start sculpting
Your mind and heart
And catapulting
You into the joys
Of spiritual maturity.

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Thinking About The Timeless One

Posted on January 5, 2024 by Steve Simms
Daily writing prompt
Do you spend more time thinking about the future or the past? Why?
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I love these famous words: “Jesus Christ the same, yesterday, today, and forever.” They’re more than words to me. They’re reality. Only one person in my life hasn’t changed. That’s Jesus — the timeless One!

Jesus is active now! Religion tends to obscure the reality of Jesus in the present by focusing on Him in the past or future. I spend most of my time thinking about and experiencing the presence of the ever-present One now, so I seldom think about the future or the past. I love every moment with Jesus. (It seems odd to me that church names, preachers’ names, worship leaders’ names, and many other names are spoken by Christians so much more often than the name that is above every other name — the name of Jesus!)

I woke up with this poem forming in my mind this morning:

Every time I
Open my heart
To Jesus Christ
A quiet rush
Of holy hush
Surrounds me
And astounds me
As I gush
With the Spirit
Of the Lord.

Jesus is here now.
How now?
By the presence
Of His Spirit.
If we let Jesus
Now lead us
People will see
Christ working in us
And be changed.
Hear Him now.

This sentence also formed in my mind before I got out of bed: “The most effective leader is a living example of continually listening to and obeying the risen Jesus.”

Jesus has opened the way for ongoing intimacy with God. Regardless of the circumstances, your life will soar like an eagle in the present if you will fully submit to His presence and always listen to and obey His still small voice.

God has more for Christians than we are now experiencing. I don’t believe that God wants His people to just attend and simply sit through a religious meeting that features the same speaker every week. I believe He wants us to frequently assemble together so we can all listen to the Holy Spirit and obey the 50+ one another commands of the New Testament.

(I feel prompted by God’s Spirit when I write. Some of the statements I write make me feel uncomfortable, but I try to obey the promptings rather than my comfort zone.)

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The gift of a living model of radical faith in Jesus

Posted on January 4, 2024 by Steve Simms
Daily writing prompt
What is the greatest gift someone could give you?
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Normally ordinary water ≠ extraordinary wine. However, when mixed with obedience and faith, it can! A living model of radical trust in and daily obedience to the living Jesus is the greatest gift someone can give. I’ve been greatly privileged to receive that gift from numerous people.

In a village called Cana wedding servants courageously obeyed Jesus and risked ruining the wedding by filling the wine jars with water. Then as they humbly served what they thought was ordinary water, they discovered that it was now extraordinary wine. If we will continually listen to and courageously obey the risen Jesus as we humbly do the ordinary things in our daily lives, He will make our ordinary extraordinary.

I believe that God has saved the best for the body of Christ during the last days. “The glory of this present house will be greater than the glory of the former house.” “Christ in you, the hope of glory.” God is “is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us.” Like Mary told the servants at the wedding, “Do whatever He tells you.”

Discipleship:
Obey God the Father;
Follow God the Son;
Be led by God the Spirit.

Worship:
Praise God the Father;
Adore God the Son;
Dance with God the Spirit.

3 Things the Bible says to never stop doing:
1) “Pray without ceasing;”
2) “In everything give thanks;”
3) “Rejoice in the Lord always.”
(Keep your faith in continual everyday action! There’s no faith parking garage in Scripture.)

Church is too often like a parking garage where Christians leave their faith parked all week as they focus on doing other things. Jesus said that His disciples with be known by the fruit of their life, not by their church attendance. Church attendance isn’t on the Bible’s list of the fruit of the Spirit. Love, joy, peace, patience, and kindness are.

If you think you might be talking to Jesus on your death bed, there’s no need to wait. Start the conversation now.

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The Bible’s Religiously Unapproved John

Posted on January 3, 2024 by Steve Simms

A man named John, independently of the religious establishment of his day, began to preach in isolated places (without official credentials) and to challenge people to fully surrender their life to the Lord. As a sign of their surrender John would dip people in water. The Greek word “baptizo” is used to describe that dipping. It’s interesting that Jesus didn’t go to get the approval of the leaders of any religious organization before beginning His ministry. Instead, “Jesus came from Galilee to the Jordan to be baptized (dipped) by John,” and the Spirit of God descended on Him like a dove. Perhaps it’s time for Christ-followers to shift from following religious organizations to being led by the Spirit. See Romans 8:14.

Many of the heroes of the Bible had no official religious credentials, for instance: the patriarchs, Moses, the judges, the prophets, Job, Ruth, Ester, John the Baptist, Jesus, and the apostles. They simply obeyed what the Spirit of God told them to do. The Bible tells us to wait on the Lord, not on a religious organization.

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True playfulness is a mercy party.

Posted on January 2, 2024 by Steve Simms
Daily writing prompt
Do you play in your daily life? What says “playtime” to you?
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Speaking plainly about playfulness: Guilt cuts the guts out of playfulness. The more mercy a person receives the more forgiving and playful he will be. Playfulness is glorious day-by-day celebration of guilt gone away. Give and receive mercy throughout the day and soon you will be playing like never before!

Little children in their innocence are the most playful people on the planet. But as humans grow and rebel, we get to know guilt, and after experiencing its shame we’re no longer the same. Our heart shuts down and feels too heavy to play.

No one has a right to mercy; it’s always undeserved. God’s mercy is His loving and free gift offered to us because it was purchased by the blood, death on the Cross, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. Let God wash away your guilt in the sea of His mercy so your heart can sail and rejoice with His joy. Let His mercy remove the misery of your shame. God wants to rescue you from the bad stuff you’ve accumulated in your life.

If you’ve ever been forgiven of something, you’ve seen the living God at work and experienced a surge of His joyful playfulness. Why settle for the misery of your guilt when you can live in the ongoing celebration of God’s mercy? God’s mercy is greater than your misdeeds and your miseries.

When the runaway rebellious son in the Bible returned to His father it was a demonstration of the guilt-free party time of the Father’s manifest mercy. Have you experienced that kind of mercy party? 

Forgiveness
Is the Father’s business.
That’s what Jesus
Was all about.
He bought it
With His blood
So He can now remove
The stones from human hearts
And tenderly replace
Them with His grace.

Let your heart
Be His house,
A nursery
For God’s mercy.
Learn to forgive
And be forgiven
So Christ’s garden
Can be found
Flourishing on
What was once
Stoney ground
And the fruit
Of His Spirit
May always abound
Within you.

“I love the Lord, for He heard my voice; He heard my cry for mercy. Because He turned His ear to me, I will call on Him as long as I live.” (Psalms 116:1-2.)

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Wholesomeness is my biggest challenge

Posted on January 1, 2024 by Steve Simms
Daily writing prompt
What are your biggest challenges?
View all responses

In this world
That is so blind
To what is right,
The wholesomeness
Of a clean heart
And pure mind
Is hard to find.
I have to look
To the light
Of Jesus Christ
And let Him be
Always bright
In my sight
So I can stay
Connected with Him
Both day and night.
I strive to
Continually
Surrender my life
To Jesus
So His Spirit
Can clear it
Of all that’s unclean
And keep me filled
With His presence.

The wholesomeness
Of inner cleansing
And forgiveness
Is true bliss
Because suddenly
All guilt is gone.
That is why
I sing Christ’s song.

The wholesomeness
Of God’s forgiveness
Is never boring.
It’s always soaring
In the bliss
Of a pure heart
And a clean mind
Free from all guilt.

When life is hard
And I need to cope
I don’t find hope
In a bottle or a bar
But in a special Book
That helps me see
Christ in me,
“The hope of glory.

Modern media present a lifestyle of rebellion, guilt, and shame as exciting, but a lifestyle that produces mental and moral inner peace and well-being as boring. Wow! They’ve got it so wrong.

There’s no true freedom without wholesome restraint. If you give in to every desire that comes your way, you’ll be an inner mess. To continually consume words and images that are unwholesome is to become loathsome and bound up by inner confusion, even if no one but you knows the true condition of your heart and mind.

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I’m nostalgic for Spirit-led Christianity

Posted on December 31, 2023 by Steve Simms
Daily writing prompt
What makes you feel nostalgic?
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The Bible never says that Christians should listen to a weekly sermon. Religious tradition does. I’m nostalgic for the following things that the Bible says that Christians should do:

  • Be Spirit-led. (Romans 8:14.)
  • Gather together. (Hebrews 10:25.)
  • Pray together. (Acts 1:14.)
  • Hear Jesus’ voice. (John 10:27.)
  • Testify about what Jesus has done and is doing. (Revelation 12:11 and Acts 1:8.)
  • Minister to one another. (1 Peter 4:1`0.)
  • Take turns speaking when they gather. (I Corinthians 14:26.)
  • Let each other prophesy. (1 Corinthians 14.31.)
  • Teach one another. (Colossians 3:16.)
  • Encourage one another. (1 Thessalonians 5:11.)
  • Exhort one another. (Hebrews 3:13.)
  • Confess their sins to one another. (James 5:16.)
  • Make disciples. (Matthew 28:19.)
  • Continually read, ponder, and obey God’s written word. (Joshua 1:8.)
  • Read the Bible together. (Colossians 4:16.)
  • Worship in Spirit and in truth. (John 4:24.)
  • Humble themselves. (1 Peter 5:6.)
  • Love one another. (John 13:34.)

These things flow from supernatural revelation, not from human abilities. Spiritual revelation will be cultivated in a humble heart that is ever hungry for more of Christ and His real presence. Christians need to be free to trust and follow God’s Spirit and the Bible instead of being compelled to follow a single (almost universal) form of having church. O that Christians would move beyond superficial ceremony and humbly open our hearts to the risen Jesus and to one another!

A human heart can never be satisfied while it’s full of inner emptiness. Freely seek the Lord and frequently open up and connect heart-to-heart with others who are doing so. Let God’s Spirit fill you up and overflow from within you. The living Jesus is speaking to everyone, and some people actually listen to and obey Him.

Some people don’t like for me to say that Jesus is the answer, but who or what else can permanently heal a hurting human heart? Politics can’t. Money can’t. Drugs can’t. Sex can’t. Sports can’t. Music can’t. Therapy can’t. Will power can’t. Government can’t. Pride can’t. War can’t. Jesus can!

After writing this post, I went to Seedbed and read these words from Josh LeRoy: “Maybe prophets are prophets, not because God exclusively speaks to them, but because they choose to listen to what God is, in fact, saying to everyone.”

We need to worship Jesus
With our whole heart
So that the rocks
Won’t need to cry out
For Christians to get out
Of the religious box. (Luke 19:40.)

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The Relationship That Has the Greatest Positive Impact on Me

Posted on December 30, 2023 by Steve Simms
Daily writing prompt
What relationships have a positive impact on you?
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I try to be like Simeon. You can too. He’s a guy in the Bible. Take a look at Luke 2:25-32.

Listen to the Holy Spirit’s revelation and move as He moves you and He will lead you to recognize and receive the living Jesus even when others are unaware of His presence and majesty. Then, even though other people may not notice the light of Christ’s revelation and glory, you (like Simeon) will overflow with gratitude, peace, and praise.

In the 21st century, Jesus is much more available than He was in Simeon’s time. For about 33 years Jesus was limited to the confines of a human body, but after His crucifixion, bodily resurrection, and physical entrance into the supernatural realm of Heaven, He returned in the person of the Holy Spirit. Now we can welcome Him into the temple of our body and stay continually connected with Him heart-to-heart wherever we are and wherever we go.

The relationship that has the greatest positive impact on me is the one I have with Jesus. I woke up this morning with the revelation and glory of the poem below forming in my heart to greet me. I like Simeon can interact with the living Jesus, but unlike Simeon there no limits to when and where I can spend time with Christ.

Jesus isn’t seasonal.
Jesus isn’t regional.
He’s everywhere
All the time.

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A strange star stayed close to Jerusalem for two years

Posted on December 29, 2023 by Steve Simms

Some men were wonderstruck by a strange new star that rose and hung over far away Jerusalem. They sensed that it was a supernatural phenomenon — a sign calling them to learn more about the Jews. Somehow, they learned about the coming Jewish King, the Christ, the Messiah, the Anointed One, and saw the star as a sign of His birth. The star lingered so the men decided to take a long journey to Jerusalem to find and to worship the Jewish Messiah.

When they arrived in Jerusalem, they asked people: “Where is the One who has been born King of the Jews? We saw His star when it rose and have come to worship Him.”

The whole city heard about those strange guys and their message and everybody in town was disturbed by it, including King Herod. Herod called together the religious leaders for some research and found out that the Messiah was prophesied to be born in the nearby little town of Bethlehem. Then Herod had those disturbing Gentiles brought to him and they told him the exact time that the star first appeared. Afterwards King Herod sent the odd strangers to Bethlehem to find the child King and to report back His location.

Mysteriously, the star led the Gentile men to a house in Bethlehem and to a boy named Jesus. They saw Him and His mother, Mary, and they bowed down and worshipped the toddler. They opened their treasures and gave the Christ child valuable gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh. Then dreams set in.

The wise men were warned in a dream not to report back to Herod, so they traveled home by a different route. Then the Christ child’s stepfather, Joseph, saw an angel in a dream who told him to take the family and escape to Egypt. So, they fled during the night.

When Herrod learned that the disturbing Gentile men had left without reporting to him, he was enraged and ordered all the boys in Bethlehem who were two years old and younger killed because that covered the time the wise men first saw the star. Then there was weeping and great mourning in the village of Bethlehem which continues to this very day. But the Prince of Peace was alive in Egypt preserving the hope of peace on earth and goodwill toward men — the hope of glory in the midst of our fallen, broken world. “Wise men still seek Him.”

New Year / New Start?
A resolution
Is no solution
Because a fresh start
Without a healed heart
Seldom can impart
Lasting improvement
In the way you live.
That takes an inner
Revolution.
Be receptive
To Christ’s perspective.

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