The heritage of the awed

Posted on September 28, 2023 by Steve Simms
Daily writing prompt
What aspects of your cultural heritage are you most proud of or interested in?
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I’ve always been amazed by the culture of the awed — the people who always notice the beauty around them and let it touch their heart. People like that overflow with gratitude and joy. They focus on the delight of being alive and avoid the blight that tries to hide beauty from their sight.

The heritage of the awed transcends all the ethnic, racial, national, and other boundary lines that have been built by human fears and people’s pride. It consists of the grateful and open-hearted ones from every kindred and every tribe on earth.

The culture of the awed is my heritage, not by birth, but by my choice and by consistent effort to keep my focus on life’s loveliness. The more I let my heart marvel in amazement at the wonder all around (and within) me, the more I’m certain of the reality of God and of His love for all people that He demonstrates through Jesus Christ.

The ancient King David, who wrote much of the awe-filled book of Psalms, told God: “You have given me the heritage of those who fear Your name.” The heritage of the awed is offered to all people. However, if we refuse to open our heart and let it be deeply touched, we will miss the wonder of it all. Look around and be awed by God’s beauty today!

Here is a bold and shocking quote from the first Christ-follower to be murdered for His faith, His name is Stephen and he boldly warned people with these words: “You always resist the Holy Spirit!” How can that be? When you resist your conscience as it tries to guide you away from corruption and into the glory of a better life, you’re resisting the Holy Spirit.

To be spiritually well fed
Make Christ your living Head.
Learn to always be led
By Jesus alive from the dead.

We can’t go God’s way as long as we insist on going our way. To live a Christ-led life requires that we continually cultivate the condition of our heart so that the living Jesus Christ can have complete control. That’s the heritage of those who are continually awed by the risen Jesus. Count me in!

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The contemporary power of an ancient brand

Posted on September 27, 2023 by Steve Simms
Daily writing prompt
What brands do you associate with?
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A brand is a name that identifies or defines the things that people consume. By that definition “Jesus” is God’s brand. He has my brand loyalty.

Unfortunately, over the centuries, “church” has become known as God’s brand. People consume church like a product. They “shop” for a church. Then they choose one and join its loyalty club. Now there’s nothing wrong with going to church and it does bring people some comfort, but just consuming a church’s programs falls far short of “Christ in you, the hope of glory.”

Jesus wants His followers to receive “living words to pass on to” others. (See Acts 7:38.) To fully experience the Jesus Brand, boldly quote and read Scripture until it comes alive in your heart, fills you with ongoing awareness of the risen Christ, leaves you awestruck, and overflows to everyone you meet.

Flowers are created to open. Human hearts are too. When I see people open their heart to Jesus, to continually staying in His Word, and to one another, it gives me hope. A heart fully surrendered to Jesus is open, tenderhearted, and Spirit-led. It makes a person’s face look like an angel’s.

Do the things that cause you to love Jesus more. Avoid the things that distract you from His presence.

Christ in you isn’t about a fresh start. It’s about a brand-new life! Don’t just accommodate Jesus in your life. Let Him be your life!

It’s not New Testament Christianity to merely involve Jesus in your life. Let surrendering to Him be what your life is all about!

Inner peace doesn’t come from explanations or from answers to your questions about life. It comes from full surrender to the risen Jesus.

My brand is: Jesus first! Jesus 24/7! Jesus now!

You aren’t who you think you are. You’re who God says you are. Dive into the Bible with an open heart and discover how the Jesus Brand defines you.

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When life is a sinking boat

Posted on September 26, 2023 by Steve Simms
Daily writing prompt
What could you do more of?
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I could do more of many different things, but if I did more of some things, the quality of my life would be much lower. Some of my thoughts, desires, feelings, and behaviors confuse me and capture me with deception. They harm me while they lie and trick me into believing that they are good for me. To make my life better, I need to recognize the things that try to sink my boat, resist them, and do less of those things.

I bet you’re in the same sinking boat that I was caught up in — drifting through life without discernment — following the current of whatever whims come my way. It’s such an effort to bail out of that sinking boat, but there’s someone offering to help rescue you from drowning.

The living Jesus pulled me out! To show my gratitude I seek to follow and obey Him as I live my life and to adore Him more and more.

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Does God really have good news for humanity?

Posted on September 26, 2023 by Steve Simms

To tell God’s Good News accurately, we must know it. To tell it effectively, with faith’s supernatural substance, we must allow it to continually burn in our heart.

How can we tell Christ’s story with the Holy Spirit’s fire? Before I got out of bed this morning, this poem formed in my heart:

Heart Fire!
When Christians retire
God’s inner fire,
They get caught up
In self-focused desire.
To follow Jesus
Will always require
A heart ablaze
With God’s Holy fire.
(Revelation 2:4-5.)

Mankind has always sought control — freedom from daily dependence on God. From the first humans until today we have wanted to disobey God instead of fully trusting in and surrendering to His spiritual life. Because of this we have reduced God to an academic subject, devoid of the supernatural substance of faith, to be understood with human knowledge, but God longs to be the living heart-fire who burns within us.

To restore humans to intimacy with Him, God chose a man named Abraham to give birth to a nation that would bless the world. He revealed Himself to that nation through Spirit-led judges and prophets, but they mostly ignored His efforts to lead them to daily live His presence.

Finally, God sent His Son Jesus — Immanuel — “God with us” — the Creator in human flesh. Jesus lived a life of total obedience and through the sacrifice of His life on a cruel cross paid the penalty for all human sin and restored access to the ancient Tree of Life to whosoever will “taste and see that God is good” and be led by Christ’s Spirit rather than by human desire. (Romans 8:14.) Jesus rose from the dead and abides with us today as “Christ in you, the hope of glory” — living and working in all who will daily following and obey Him.

Following a preacher on a platform wasn’t the norm in the New Testament. The first Christians opened their heart to let Christ reside and live inside. They followed Him as their inner Guide — “Christ in you, the hope of glory.” If you won’t listen to your conscience, it doesn’t do much good to listen to a preacher. (The people who are most anointed are very often the least wanted in a church.)

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Mother Mary’s advice . . .

Posted on September 25, 2023 by Steve Simms
Daily writing prompt
What’s the best piece of advice you’ve ever received?
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The best advice I’ve ever received came from Mary, the mother of Jesus. She told a group of people: “Whatever He (Jesus) says to you, do it.”

Mary’s advice is often stated as “Just do it.” Unfortunately, our society likes to leave Jesus out of our thinking. However, for me, life doesn’t go well if I “just do” whatever I desire. I’m much happier if I stay aware of Jesus and do what He prompts me to do. He often uses my conscience to nudge me along, so I try to closely listen to and obey it.

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The boldness of Stephen in the Bible book of Acts!

Posted on September 25, 2023 by Steve Simms

In the Bible book of Acts Stephen was charged with continually speaking “against the law” (the religion of the Pharisees) and saying that Jesus wants to change things. Rather than directly answering “the charges,” Stephen began to boldly testify and proclaim God’s actions in the history of Israel. He ended his “defense” by telling the Pharisees, that they murdered Jesus, “the Righteous One.” He declared: “You have received the law that was given through angels, but you have not obeyed it.”

Stephen faithfully proclaimed God’s life-giving story to those who considered themselves to be its experts. He boldly rejected their lifestyle and religiosity and the way they sucked the life out of God’s story and how they turned it into dry religious formalism and self-righteous legalism. His “defense” made the experts of the law so furious that they covered their ears and yelled at the top of their voice and then stoned him to death. But Stephen looked beyond the outward circumstances and saw “the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God.”

As Christ-followers we need to look beyond Christian experts who often spin God’s story to make people comfortable. We need to look to the living Jesus, “the author and finisher of our faith.” We need to know the story directly from the Bible like Stephen did and let it burn within us. We need to be able and willing to tell it from our heart, not from a religious curriculum or from sermon notes. We need to look beyond religion and behold the risen Lamb of God “who takes away the sin of the world” and to bask in and proclaim Christ’s glory regardless of the outward circumstances.

Heart-felt adoration of and interaction with the living Jesus shouldn’t be seen as the prelude to a sermon. It’s the main reason Christians are called to gather together.

Churches and Christian conferences have often launched ministries centered around one man or woman. Very few have launched a movement focused on Christ alone.

Stephen’s boldness and courage was founded on the three spiritual weapons revealed in Revelation 12:11:

1) Rely on Jesus’ blood;
2) Testify from your heart;
3) Set aside self-focus.

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My energizer is an inner presence, not a thing.

Posted on September 24, 2023 by Steve Simms
Daily writing prompt
What things give you energy?
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I love the kinetic energy
Of God's spiritual motion
Empowering my heart.
It's more than
A mental notion
Or a human emotion.
It's an inner flow
That makes me grow
And causes me to know
The reality of
Christ's presence and power.
Throughout the day
Jesus energizes me
Hour by hour. 

It's hard to have an energetic body when you have a weary heart. Make your heart ever attentive to Christ's still small voice. Open up to the inner energy of God's free flowing Spirit. The best energy drink is to drink in and savor the glorious presence of the risen Jesus. The cleanest energy is Christ in you.

Although a tightly controlled and rigidly programmed format has been the norm for church services for centuries, the Bible presents an alternative. See 1 Corinthians 14:26 and learn about the supernatural order of Spirit-led meetings. For a wonderful adventure with the living Jesus, shift from a programmed church format to Christ's Spirit-led town hall meeting. For far too many Christians Jesus is an intermittent energy source.

It's important for Christians to go beyond mere religious formalism and tradition into being Spirit-led disciples of the risen Jesus. But we need to be careful that we don't distort or reject the scriptural truths about Him. Too often what people call "deconstructing their faith" is the act of abandoning the basic beliefs of New Testament Christianity.

My sustainability depends on Jesus. Lord, have mercy on me a sinner!
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I live in order to be able to:

Posted on September 23, 2023 by Steve Simms

I live in order to be able to:

  • Find wisdom and share it.
  • Experience joy and spread it.
  • Dispense kindness wherever I go.
  • Encourage people.
  • Be a living example of hope.
  • Speak the truth in love.
  • Resist and overcome temptation.
  • Proclaim liberty to the captives.
  • Make the world a better place.
  • Warn of the deception of self-focused desire.
  • Open my heart to people and to God.
  • Align my thoughts, feelings, desires, beliefs, and behaviors with God.
  • Call people to ekklesia (Christ’s Spirit-led town hall meeting).
  • Communicate the reality of Jesus in creative ways.
  • Focus on the risen Jesus and do what He says.
  • Praise, worship, and adore Jesus throughout the day.
  • Be a Jesus-writer; to focus my attention on the risen Jesus and write what He puts on my heart.

(I don’t always succeed at these things, but they are written on my heart and are always my goal.)

Neglecting to find a healthy focus for your life will blur your days with boredom and bind you with blinding distractions. There must be a purpose for your pulse — a reason for your respiration. Finish this sentence: I live in order to be able to . . .

Aimless activity and a mind mired in meaninglessness alienate people from a sense of purpose. Thoughts, desires, and actions that have no purpose produce an aimless life. Finding something meaningful to live for will make your life something amazing!

People need a purpose, and we need kindness. Making it your purpose to spread kindness everywhere you go is a pathway to a meaningful life. A little kindness goes a long way and touches people’s hearts is ways we can’t imagine.

God is a personal being. Throughout the Bible He interacts with and communicates with people. For a meaningful life open your heart to Him.

Here’s an amazing paradox: The more I surrender myself to the living Jesus, the more I find myself. The key to overcoming guilt isn’t to call wrong right. It’s to stop doing wrong.

As humans we all crave a focus other than self. That’s why we put so much time, money, and energy into sports and entertainment. God so loved the world, and we are made in His image. We are the happiest when we focus away from self and put our focus on the risen Jesus.

One of the reasons I so treasure ekklesia (Christ’s Spirit-led town hall meeting) is because people are free to open up and share from their heart. Then we begin to see that we are all facing basically the same struggles and we are encouraged and empowered by each other. As we see other people surrender to Christ right in front of our eyes, we begin to trust that we, too, can do the same. Then we begin to grow from glory to glory.

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Basic Christian beliefs

Posted on September 22, 2023 by Steve Simms

If you’ll listen to your conscience and let it show you where you’re off track, it will lead you to truth with the aid of God’s Spirit. (See Romans 9:1.)

By our sin we have separated ourselves from God, but He has lovingly made a way for whosoever will to be restored to intimacy with Him before we die. For 2,000 years Christianity has taught that sin broke the human connection with God and alienates us from Him. Jesus came and died so that whosoever will can have that connection restored.

Some people say that sin is a myth, but the evil, cruelty and self-focus in human hearts is no myth. It’s a destructive reality!

Christianity is based on these scriptural concepts:
* Jesus is the Creator in human flesh.
* He was born and lived as a man.
* He lived a life without sin.
* He was crucified to save us from our sins.
* He rose from the dead.
* He’s present and active in His followers today.
“Christ in you, the hope of glory.”

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I’d like to know more about happiness . . .

Posted on September 22, 2023 by Steve Simms
Daily writing prompt
Which topics would you like to be more informed about?
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I’d like to know more about happiness, not just in my mind, but in my heart. I want to know more about inner peace, not as a topic but as an ongoing reality.

More information without inner transformation isn’t what I desire. I long to be aligned with hope and joy so that I can be pure in heart.

Rather than filling my head with more and more data, I want to know the Alpha and Omega — the mystery of “Christ in you, the hope of glory.” For me Jesus isn’t just an ancient story, or a religious curriculum designed to make church goers comfortable.

Christ is the source of all the beautiful things my heart longs for and the power to resist and reject the feelings, thoughts, and things that try to wreck my happiness and inner peace. For me, there’s no topic that can compare with letting the risen Jesus light the wick in my heart and brightly burn within me day and night.

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