Steve Simms's Blog

Daily writing promptWhat place in the world do you never want to visit? Why?View all responses

John Muir was an American author who explored and wrote about nature. Because of his role in preserving wilderness areas in the United States, he is known as “the father of the national parks.” This is what John wrote about Death Valley: “Amidst the harshness of Death Valley, nature’s beauty reveals its resilience.”

It’s not easy to visit people who are passing through the valley of the shadow of death. Recently my wife, Ernie, and I learned that a 79-year-old friend was days from death. We went to visit him expecting to encounter death’s harshness. Instead, we saw joy, beauty, and resilience.

TK was very thin and weak. He was confined to his bed and couldn’t eat or drink. The only thing he had consumed for three days was by sucking on a popsicle. Yet he greeted us with warmth and cheerfulness and offered us a popsicle.

Ernie and I were amazed. For the next half hour, we listened to TK make jokes and tell funny stories like he always did. Out of the blue I found myself asking him if he used to be a comedian (a question I had never asked him before). He smiled big and said yes. Then he told this story. I can’t quote him word for word, but it went something like this.

“Yes. I was regularly doing stand-up comedy in a Las Vegas casino. One night I was performing on stage, and God began to talk to me. I said, ‘God, can’t you see that I’m in the middle of a show.’ but God kept talking. He told me that that was to be my last show and that he wanted me to spend my time telling people about Jesus on the Las Vegas Strip.”

“I said yes to God and finished the routine. After the show I told the casino that I needed to quit working for them because God wanted me to testify about Jesus on the Las Vegas streets.”

“The next day one of the managers called me in to her office. She had a very tall stack of coupons sitting on her desk. She said that they were passes for a free meal in their casino buffet. She told me each pass was good for two meals so that I could bring someone with me from the streets.”

Then TK rejoicingly said: “There were enough coupons that I was able to eat lunch and dinner in that casino every day for four months. That’s how God provides.”

TK wasn’t in denial about his dying. He told us that Vanderbilt University was soon going to come and get his body and use it for research. Meanwhile he continued to make us laugh with his warm, friendly humor.

After we prayed for him, he sent us away with joyful gratitude. We left in awe of the supernatural beauty that was revealed to us in and through our dying friend. TK amazingly demonstrated to us the reality of the Bible verse: “Christ in you, the hope of glory.” (Colossians 1:27)

Thank you, Jesus, for TK and for his amazing testimonies and miraculous joy. My faith is stronger because of him.

The New Testament isn’t about church attendance. If you actually read it, you will see that it’s about total dependence on Jesus. That’s what we saw in TK!

A man stands beside the Death Valley National Park sign holding a water bottle under the hot sun.

Daily writing promptDescribe a positive thing a family member has done for you.View all responses

Safe!

We human beings
Are on borrowed time.
The clock is ticking.
Time is running out.
We need to be saved
Before game over.
Who can rescue us?
Is there any hope
Or is our fate set?
I’ve put my trust in
The risen Jesus.
I depend on Him.
Every day and night
He fills me with light
And profound insight.
Jesus has shown me
His reality
And rescued me from
Endless hopelessness.
Jesus in me is
My hope of glory!
(Ephesians 2:4-7)

Let Christ in you
Lead all you say
And all you do.
(Colossians 1:27)

“Christ in you” Christianity is much more powerful than “you in church” Christianity! Genuine Christianity is daily walking with the living Jesus, not simply hearing a weekly talk about Him.!

God wants His people to be more than babies in Christ being spoon fed a tiny bit of religious milk once a week yet not growing closer and closer to the risen Jesus every day. “Brothers and sisters, I could not address you as people who live by the Spirit but as people who are still worldly—mere infants in Christ. I gave you milk, not solid food, for you were not yet ready for it. Indeed, you are still not ready. You are still worldly.” (1 Corinthains 3:1-3) O that God’s people would go beyond the milk of church as usual and begin to taste and see that the Lord is good throughout each day!

A Chicago Cubs player slides into home plate as the catcher attempts to tag him out during a close play.

Daily writing promptWhat is your favorite restaurant?View all responses

And the reality is, I love to dine on the Bread of Life! Some people say that Christianity is only a powerless religion full of myths. And the reality is . . . the risen Jesus:

* Turns hopeless into hope,
* Replaces fear with faith,
* Releases people from mental and emotional torment,
* Washes away guilt and shame with mercy and forgiveness,
* Injects people with His unspeakable joy,
* Produces peace that passes understanding,
* Restores relationships that have been damaged,
* Delivers a supernatural ability to love, serve, and forgive,
* Connects people to one another heart-to-heart,
* Floods His followers with inner rivers of living water,
* Sets people free from self-destruction and addiction,
* Provides comfort and strength in hard times,
* Heals broken hearts and even sick bodies,
* Lives within surrendered hearts,
* Leads, guides, and directs from within,
* Empowers with His living presence,
* Liberates from sin and bondage,
* Gives grace to the humble,
* And so much more.

I’m not just making this up. I’ve personally experienced all of these things. You can too!

This is what the Bible says about religion that doesn’t change human hearts and lives; “Having a form of godliness but denying its power. Have nothing to do with such people.” (2 Timothy 3:5) “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here!’ (2 Corinthians 5:17)

A host speaks to the audience during the Global TV Awards ceremony.

Daily writing promptWhere do you see yourself in 10 years?View all responses

Are you content to “swim in the shallow end of church”?

Instead of letting God’s living water freely and continually flow from within them, too many people dangle their feet once a week in the shallow waters of church. (John 7:38-39)

Instead of cultivating the fruit of the Spirit, too many people choose to consistently pick, peal, and consume the acts of the flesh. (Galatians 5:19-24)

Instead of allowing God the Father to train them to receive and allow the gifts of the Spirit to work in and through them, (1 Corinthians 12:1-11) too many people quench and grieve God the Holy Spirit. (Ephesians 4:30)

Instead of denying themselves, taking up their cross daily, and following God the Son, too many people choose to suit themselves, take up a seat weekly, and simply passively sit through another religious service. (Luke 9:23)

Instead of coming unto Jesus and being yoked together with Him like a pair of oxen pulling a cart, too many people are satisfied to simply go to church once a week or less. (Matthew 11:28-29)

Instead of seeking first the kingdom (inner government) of God and His righteousness, too many people seek first their nation’s greatness and their own self-righteousness. (Matthew 6:33)

Daily writing promptWhat are 5 everyday things that bring you happiness?View all responses

Here are 15 biblical ways you can respond to God the Holy Spirit — the Spirit of wisdom and revelation. (Ephesians 1:17) All Christ followers need to continually live by and walk in the Spirit. (Galatians 5:25).

You can . . .
1) Quench the Spirit and ignore Him. (1 Thessalonians 5:19)
2) Make Him sad. (Ephesians 4:30) {Please don’t do these first two.}
3) Listen to and be taught by the Spirit. (John 14:26)
4) Let the Spirit convict you of sin. (John 16:8)
5) Allow God the Spirit to set you free. (2 Corinthians 3:17)
6) Surrender to the Holy Spirit and be His temple. (1 Corinthians 6:19-20)
7) Pray in the Spirit. (Jude 1:20-21)
8) Be led by the Spirit. (Romans 8:14)
9) Receive and operate in the gifts of the Spirit. (1 Corinthians 12:1-11)
10) Depend on Him to fill you with His fruit. (Galatians 5:22-23)
11)) Let the Spirit freely flow from your innermost being. (John 7:38-39)
12) Allow Him to empower you to be a bold and effective witness for Christ. (Acts 1:8)
13) Rely on the Holy Spirit to speak through you by giving you the words you say. (Matthew 10:20)
14) Trust the Spirit to strengthen you from within. (Ephesians 3:16-17)
15) Rely on the God the Spirit instead of on self-effort. (Zechariah 4:6)

Real God seekers deconstruct their pride. (James 4:10) They don’t quench the Spirit or deconstruct the Bible.

God’s intent isn’t to make you content to attend a weekly Sunday event and hear a talk about Bible content. It’s to thrill you with His presence and transform you with His power so that you can repent and be sent to show people Christ’s reality.

I don’t want to be a religious spectator — a passive observer of a Sunday performance. I want to be a living radiator of Christ’s presence, power, and love. I strongly believe that God wants me to encourage and challenge churches and individuals to fully embrace the biblical concept of the priesthood of all believers by opening up their meetings for anyone present to speak as they are prompted by God the Holy Spirit.

Jesus taught that there should be no hierarchy among His followers. All Christ-followers are equal level peers. (Matthew 20:25-26)

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Daily writing promptDescribe something you learned in high school.View all responses

Religious talk without daily application is words without wings. Refuse to settle for religious faith that doesn’t lift you up within and supernaturally empower you to mount up on wings of eagles. (Isaiah 40:31)

“Faith without works is dead.” (James 2:26) True faith is supernatural evidence of and confidence in the unseen reality and presence of the risen Jesus. (Hebrews 11:1)

Truly trusting Jesus is so much more than a religion. It’s a never-ending, heart-surrendered relationship with Emmanuel, God with us. (Matthew 1:23) It’s Christ actively living His life in and through you as “the hope of glory. (Colossians 1:27)

Relying on Jesus means setting aside the pride of self-effort. (James 4:10) It is humbly (James 4:6) allowing Him to gracefully (Ephesians 2:8-9) produce the fruit of His Spirit within you (Galatians 5:22-23) until it overflows from your innermost being like rivers of living water. (John 7:37-39)

Mere acknowledgement of Jesus without a lifetime commitment to listen to and obey Him is only religious sentiment. True belief in Jesus isn’t a superficial alliance with Him. It’s deep internal transformation. (2 Corinthians 5:17)

Genuine faith in Christ is daily dependance and reliance on His presence to train and empower you to live in compliance with His will. It’s to be led by His Spirit. (Romans 8:14) “Did you receive the Holy Spirit (as life-transforming inner reality, not as a mere theological concept) when you believed?” (Acts 19:2)

Learn to walk with Jesus beyond the basket of Sunday morning religion. Step into day-to-day dependence on His demonstrated presence.

Go beyond passive Sunday “observership” to Spirit-led discipleship. Churches spend far too much time doing audience and far too little time training, empowering, and releasing people to do the 50+ New Testament “one another commandments.”

Christians aren’t able “teach one another” (Colossians 3:16) if only one person is allowed to teach. They can’t “exhort one another” (Hebrews 3:13) if preaching only flows from a pulpit or a stage. The New Testament “one another commandments” require participatory interaction, not a one-man lecture. When Christ-followers aren’t allowed to obey one-another commands in church services, Christianity is missing a vital ingredient — the priesthood of the believer! (1 Peter 2:9)

Black and white wings composed of various words breaking apart

Daily writing promptDescribe one positive change you have made in your life.View all responses

Together we can experience positive change. As human beings we need one another. We have been designed for community not for isolation. Powerful community requires that we humbly open up our heart to one another. Fortunately, there’s a book that shows us how to do that. It teaches us that Christ-followers are called to be God’s puzzle pieces.

God wants to reveal His will to His people. (Ephesians 1:3-14) When we come together in Spirit-directed humility He reveals various parts of His will through the spiritual gifts that He gives to and through the various members of Christ’s body. (1 Corinthians 12:1-11) Listen to and obey God the Holy Spirit so people can experience your part of God’s puzzle.

Supernatural Civility

God’s banquet of community
Is shared vulnerability.
People clothed with humility,
Setting aside their vanity
To be led by God’s sanity,
Is mighty Christianity.
Where two or more come together
To hear and obey the Spirit
They taste and see Christ’s victory.
To escape from captivity
Banish all your hostility.
Let people in your inner room.
Encounter true tranquility
And Spirit-led civility.
Many are called; few surrender.
(Matthew 22:1-14)

Spirit-led meetings open people up to the power of shared vulnerability. Being Spirit-led is simple. It’s for everybody. Let’s regularly gather to listen to and obey God’s Spirit together. (Matthew 18:10) People who love Jesus obey Jesus. (John 14:15) We Christians need to open up our heart to each other (James 5:16) so that we can help each other move beyond mere religion and into radically obedient discipleship. (Luke 9:23)

Religious showmanship shipwrecks Christian spirituality. Ego-driven religion always goes the wrong way. “God resists the proud but gives grace to the humble.”

Church attendance without Spirit-led interaction is merely showing up for religious routine without power. (2 Timothy 3:5) Many isolated Christians are church members and regular attendees. They come and sit Sunday after Sunday and rarely or never open up their heart to talk about their love for Jesus with other Christ-followers. Church attendance alone without heart-to-heart interaction isn’t obedience to the Bible’s command to assemble yourselves together. (Hebrews 10:25)

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Daily writing promptWhat’s the most fun way to exercise?View all responses

Learn to listen. Exercise your ears!

Notice your notifications. Someone has been sending you voice messages deep within your heart. Pull them up and listen to the still, small voice. Hear Jesus tenderly calling your name and inviting you to ponder His presence.

The best meditation is attentive concentration on what the risen Jesus is saying to you — letting it burn like fire within you. Turn up the volume in your heart until Christ’s living words resonate, radiate, and saturate your inner most being. Soak up the sound of His voice. Savor His presence. Treasure His voice in your heart. (John 10:27)

“The word is near you; it is in your mouth and in your heart,” (Romans 10:8) Day by day train yourself to more effectively listen to and obey everything that Jesus is saying to you. Learn to continually hear and do all that He tells you.

Jesus won’t contradict what God the Holy Spirit has spoken in the past through the writers of the Bible. The more you allow Christ to live in you (Colossians 1:27) and let His kingdom come and His will be done in and through you as it is in Heaven, (Matthew 6:10) the more His present voice will confirm what is written in the Bible.

Frequently and sincerely say these words: “Speak Lord for your servant is listening.” (1 Samuel 3:10) Then notice the ponderings, pictures, and promptings that come to your mind and heart. The ones that align with the will of God as revealed in Scripture (Matthew 16:17) are God the Father revealing Himself directly to you. (1 Corinthians 2:9-10)

Scripture and direct personal revelation from God to you go together. They should never be separated. Test what you hear within you by the Bible. Resist and reject everything that contradicts God’s past revelation. However, whatever Jesus, God the Son, says and reveals to you, do it. (John 2:5) As adopted children always listen to your Heavenly Father. (Romans 8:15)

Two animated ears with arms and legs wearing sneakers appear to be dancing joyfully.

Daily writing promptWhat book could you read over and over again?View all responses

The Greatest Blessing (Material or Immaterial)

The greatest blessing anywhere is to be brought into God’s presence by the blood of Jesus Christ (Ephesians 2:13) and to learn to live in the new and living way of continually experiencing and testifying to His presence and power in your day-to-day life. (Hebrews 10:19-25)

Reading the material Bible with an open and surrendered heart while experiencing the immaterial presence of Christ in you (Colossians 1:27) go together. What God has joined together refuse to separate.

Daily absorb the Bible with your heart (Joshua 1:8) as you unceasingly (1 Thessalonians 5:16-17) taste and see that God is good. (Psalm 34:8)) Scripture and God-experiences work together to transform and empower your life. It’s not enough to merely learn information about Jesus, “the light of the world.” (John 8:12) You need to learn to let Him continually shine in your heart. (2 Corinthians 4:6)

God can change the hole
Deep within your soul
Into His fountain
Of living water.
Learn to let Him flow.
Let Him make you whole.
(John 7:38-39)

Step out of the Sunday audience and into the Spirit-led body of Christ. (1 Corinthians 14:26) Make church a circle, not a stage — no spectators, only disciples.

You may not believe it, but I like preaching when it is done in the power and presence of God’s Spirit. My two favorite preachers in my lifetime are Leonard Ravenhill and David Wilkerson. They preached with boldness, passion, and power.

I don’t like dead preaching that has little or no power to supernaturally transform people’s lives and to demonstrate the presence and reality of the risen Jesus. I think one of the greatest sins is to bore people with the amazing truths of the Bible. The dazed look that people have and the nodding off that they do in Sunday sermons show that boring people with God’s good news is far too common!

I like preaching the way Jesus commanded. He wants all of His born again (John 3:3) followers to “Go and preach the Gospel.” (Mark 16:15) I don’t like preaching where the same person preaches to the same people week after week. If the people don’t wake up and go after Jesus after several sermons, it’s time to go and find other listeners. Go preach. Don’t stay and bore the same people over and over.

Don’t make people dependent on you and your preaching. Train them to go preach to the people that they encounter throughout the week. Jesus says: “Go preach.” The best way to train people to go preach is to free them up in church to listen to God’s Spirit and then say what he prompts them to say. As people are experiencing God speaking in and through them in the congregation, they gradually grow the confidence to “go preach” and testify to the people they encounter in their daily life.

A large collection of Holy Bibles in various leather-bound editions

Daily writing promptIf you could be a character from a book or film, who would you be? Why?View all responses

There’s a character I want to be. That character is described in a book that inspires and thrills me. I try to model the lifestyle of that character every single day. That character is described as a faithful follower of Christ Jesus. Look in the book at Ephesians 1:1.

Here is how you can be a faithful follower of Christ Jesus:

Let God’s kingdom
Be awakened
In your own heart,
His government
Rise up in you
This very day.
Listen to what
Christ has to say.
Live life His way
Throughout each day.
Let His will be
Done inside you
As in Heaven.
Let God’s Spirit
Direct all that
You say and do
And be the glue
That holds you
Together.

Christ is risen today
And every other day.
Wake up and follow Him.
Wise up and follow Him.
Rise up and follow Him!

Yesterday I saw the movie “A Great Awakening.” It’s about George Whitefield and how he impacted colonial America and helped bring about what is known to history as “The First Great Awakening.” George is a great example of “a faithful follower of Christ Jesus. Go see the movie and/or read his biography.

A preacher delivers a sermon to an attentive outdoor congregation under a large tree.