Lay Down Your Sin

Posted on May 6, 2015 by Carl Simmons

No matter where you are in relation to Jesus, “sin” is an ugly word. Just saying the word causes problems, so let’s get on the same page before moving forward. In the days and weeks to come we’ll break this down into much smaller pieces. Today is about defining our terms—and our solution.

People define sin any number of ways, even within Christianity, and tend to subject it to their own ideology rather than the other way around. We like to name particular sins and highlight them—especially if they bear no resemblance to ours. We would much rather confess other people’s sins than confess our own.

We also often like to draw the line at “Well, I thought about it but I didn’t actually do it,” or “Hey, at least I’m not hurting anyone else.” But look at Jesus’s “but I say to you”s in the Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5:21–48)—or just read the entire sermon in chapters five through seven. It’s pretty clear that Jesus doesn’t draw a line anywhere. All sin is condemned by God.

I would define it this way, then: Sin is the inability to respond to God. In every form. Totally expressed or barely conceived. Period. Any sins we commit are the result of sin we already have within us. I did not become rebellious; I was born rebellious. And that still gives me no excuse.

At the same time, each of us is a victim of the sin around us—not just in vague, general ways but in specific, often lousy, and sometimes truly horrific ways. Sin is both within us and around us, and it’s that “around us” that we pick up on and adopt as our own—or respond to by taking judgment out of God’s hands and into our own; or by reveling in our victim status, because at least it gives us some kind of identity.

That’s why I need Jesus. The gospel is not about tolerance of sin, or condemnation of sin—and it’s certainly not about wiping out my own personal enemies. It’s about victory over sin—starting with me. With you. It’s a victory we have to receive from Jesus, before we can live it out.

So when we talk about laying down your sin, it’s not just, “Hey you: Stop doing things God says are wrong.” That’s part of the package, to be sure, but it’s only a part. It’s also laying down the sin you want to openly express but don’t. It’s laying down the sin that has been expressed upon you, by others—even the sin that hasn’t been expressed but you know is there. It’s saying Jesus died for all of it, and beginning to live in that truth. Otherwise, perhaps we should just stop wasting our time even pretending to follow Jesus.

I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. I do not nullify the grace of God, for if righteousness were through the law, then Christ died for no purpose (Galatians 2:20–21).

Because of the hardness of our hearts, we will never totally be immune from the sin around us, or within us. However, we no longer need to be slaves to it, or victims of it. Jesus calls us to a different life. Let’s start living it. Today.

Lay It Down Today

A couple weeks ago, you reflected on your “life passage,” as well as a few questions including, “What’s the one thing that most needs transforming in my life—that God wants me to lay down right now?” Let’s take that further today.

Identify someone you can share openly about your “one thing” with, and commit to getting with him or her on a weekly basis for the duration of this series—and maybe beyond. If you’re working through this with a small group, you’ll get the opportunity to find a partner there—but you can start thinking about whom you want to get with right now. Otherwise, find a friend you can share with, and who cares enough to keep you accountable—someone who won’t let you off the hook but won’t judge you either. If you truly don’t know who to turn to, ask God for guidance, and let him lead you to someone, even if you don’t know that person well yet. May God bless and grow your spiritual friendship as you pursue it together.

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , | 2 Comments

Lay Down Your Pride

Posted on April 29, 2015 by Carl Simmons

Now that we know who we are in Christ and have our heads on straight, now we can begin to deal with laying down our sin. We’ll explore this more broadly tomorrow, but today let’s start with one sin in particular, and arguably the most basic: Pride.

Every act of pride is an act of rebellion. We’re not talking about taking pride in your work or being proud of your kids—we’re talking about the kind of pride that says, “This is mine and only mine. I am right. I, and I alone, deserve this.”

Or it might fly the other way: We might be so filled with self-hatred that we say to God, “You can’t help me. You can’t love me. No-one can. I am alone and I will stay that way. Because at least that’s mine.”

Now, most of us don’t actually talk this way—we don’t want to seem proud, after all—but think about your last angry or bitter reaction, whether anyone saw it or not. How does it stack up against our thoughts above? How did you say or think it?

For that matter, think about why we shy away from discussions on religion or politics—or, bully our way right through. Because our way, our beliefs, are threatened. God, however, is not threatened or intimidated. God can take care of himself—and us. But we must lay down our pride and let him.

But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves. For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man who looks intently at his natural face in a mirror. For he looks at himself and goes away and at once forgets what he was like (James 1:22–24).

Yesterday, we looked at laying down our thought lives—how to be transformed by the renewing of our minds. Probably all of us have experienced an a-ha moment, when God revealed something brand-new to us. Honestly, it’s a pretty… well, head-y feeling when the Spirit helps us see God’s will in a new way, whether it’s through the Word, circumstances, or when you’re just sitting there and this revelation just… hits you.

However, here’s what we often forget in that moment: Insight is just that. It’s insight. At the point we receive it, that’s all it is. It’s a good thing, but it’s a comparatively small thing unless we put it into action. We have an epiphany; we’re inspired by a book or someone’s personal story; we’re moved to tears by a thought—but that’s only a beginning. It’s a seed of something bigger, not the bigger thing itself. What we do with that seed is what matters.

If we do nothing, the moment passes. Nothing changes. That’s one possibility, and we do it often enough. It’s a shame, but it could be worse. For instance….

ghost-mirrorIf we share about this incredible thing God’s shown us and then do nothing with it, we’re like our James 1 “man in the mirror.” We’re actually worse than when we started—because we’ve taken a gift from God and made it about us. We’ve probably primped in that mirror more than a few times; maybe we’ve even flexed our muscles to prove to ourselves what powerful spiritual warriors we are. We’re kidding no-one, especially God.

Yet, because God has allowed us this experience, we’ve allowed ourselves to feel superior about it. If we’re not brought to a place of humility and response, we actually allow something given to us by God to be used by the enemy instead. That thought should stop us in our tracks and ask forgiveness right now.

In fact, if that’s where you’re at, stop right now and deal with it. You can pick this back up in a few minutes; I’ll wait here. Getting right with God is more important….

Doing better? Good. So let’s revisit Romans 12:2. I have to confess, as a guy who readily enjoys being in his head, it’s a pretty easy verse to fall in love with. (That said, I dare suggest that extroverts are in their heads every bit as much as us introverts are—they just want the rest of us in there, too.) Here’s the problem—and the solution: I forget all too easily that Romans 12:2 is preceded by Romans 12:1: “I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship” (emphasis mine).

We’ll explore the outward part of sacrifice more over the next couple days, but suffice to say: Nothing kills pride faster than having to sacrifice our outward selves. It’s probably very little coincidence that Romans 12:3 begins, “For by the grace given to me I say to everyone among you not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think….”

What does this sacrifice look like? Again, it starts on the inside. “The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise (Psalm 51:17). Repentance is not just turning back. More importantly: It is starting over.

If change is only in our heads, it’s short-lived at best. However, when our hearts and spirits change, our bodies—and heads—follow. Our “sacrifice” becomes something we do joyfully instead of grudgingly. When we lay down our pride and become willing to change, our desire to put ourselves above others drops. Through humility, we put ourselves in the same boat as those we used to separate ourselves from—and therefore, we no longer desire to see that boat sink.

Lay It Down Today

Find a mirror, and take at least a couple minutes to look at it—or rather, at you. Don’t fix anything. Don’t primp. And don’t make faces. Just look. At you. Spend enough time looking that you’re no longer comfortable with what you see. Or go the other way: If you already hate looking at yourself, spend enough time that you’re able to see the person God created—the person behind what you see. Either way, take the time to see yourself differently—from God’s perspective.

Then, pray. Ask God to help you not to forget the person you are in his eyes. Ask him to give you the strength to lay down your pride and to live out the word he’s given you. Take some time tonight (or tomorrow night, if it’s already evening) to “reflect” on how God uses you in the next twenty-four hours. May God bless you as you live out his life today.

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

A Leadership Skeleton Worth Putting Flesh On

Posted on April 27, 2015 by Carl Simmons

There’s a lot of concepts and practical ideas packed into this comparatively slender book—so much so that I wish it’d been noticeable thicker so that it all could have been unpacked more. Nonetheless, and especially for those who aren’t big-time readers, Steve Ogne and Ken Priddy have at least set out the stepping-stones for a very clear path to spiritual leadership development.

leadership ladderSteven L. Ogne and Kenneth E. Priddy. The Leadership Ladder: Developing Missional Leaders in the Church. 184p., $12.00, ChurchSmart Resources.

Although the specific focus here is on developing missional leaders, the fact is: Every leader in the church should be a missional leader to some degree. All of us are “his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them” (Eph. 2:10). Thus, the authors take us through a very logical path of progression that can apply to any one of us, really, and not just leaders. Chapters start with the two “rails” of the ladder before then moving into the six “rungs,” as follows:

• Building biblical knowledge
• Building biblical character

• Living missionally
• Making disciples
• Mobilizing ministry
• Leading ministry
• Leading leaders 
• Planting churches

Each of these stages could easily have been a book in itself (and this might well be an overview for a much larger training program, although I can’t say for sure). Not everyone needs to get to the “top” of the ladder here, but really, every leader should be at least “halfway” up, and most should be striving to move beyond that.

Thus, each chapter identifies several skills that need to be developed for each rail and rung, and provides practical ideas (and sometimes even sketches of larger workshops) in order to train and develop leaders further. Again, on the one hand, as a reader it feels like it moves a bit too quickly. On the other hand, a prospective leader could grab this, dig into one or more of the many suggestions here, and take months fleshing them out on their own. And that’s not a bad thing (and likely part of the authors’ intent).

One thing that Ogne and Priddy do that I especially appreciate is to cross-reference the stages as they go along, especially in terms of tying the “rails” of the ladder to the “rungs.” By doing so, authors reinforce something we all too often forget: Leadership doesn’t mean that you no longer have the need for spiritual and character formation; in fact, it’s something you need more than ever. And by the same token, it becomes clear here than growth in leadership isn’t so much a progression from one stage to another as it is an expansion of one’s circle of influence. (As such, it kind of betrays the entire ladder motif, but I’m OK with that.)

The authors do include a brief chapter/overview at the end on “Putting the Leadership Ladder to Work,” but by then it’s likely you’ll have starting developing your own ideas. And again, that’s a good thing.

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

Lay Down Your “Head”

Posted on April 22, 2015 by Carl Simmons

There’s a popular adage that’s been the chorus of at least a few good songs, which goes like this: “Everything you know is wrong.” That’s not entirely true, obviously (I think), but there’s still a lot of truth to it.

On the one hand, we put way too much stock in our own opinions and experiences, however true they may or may not be. On the other hand—and sometimes even simultaneously—we allow ourselves to become paralyzed by our lack of knowledge, lack of wisdom, or just plain lack of confidence. And by doing so, we end up acting in a way that betrays what little real knowledge we do have.

So with all this in mind, allow me the grace to put an absolute statement out there anyway: Just about everything you know might be wrong. In fact, most of what we know is some entangled mess of right and wrong. But God is never wrong.

And now, allow me to undercut even that: Because of our own fallenness and self-deception, we often don’t even get our understanding of God’s perfect will totally right.

If all of this sounds confusing, it should.

A big part of the problem—but also, the solution—lies in the connection between our minds and our hearts. There’s a refrain in Jeremiah that captures this well—“the imagination of their own heart” (Jeremiah 9:14, et al., KJV). In fact, Jeremiah often throws in “evil” before “heart,” lest we miss the point.

So often, we believe what we want to believe because we want to believe it, as if our desire by itself—or even more often, our pride—makes it all come out right. I suspect that God is far more offended by our arrogance than by our “going off the deep end,” but both miss the mark badly. Both are about us.

So where do we turn to get it right? Facts? Nope. Facts are good, but facts aren’t always the truth. Surf between news channels reporting on the same story on any given night, and you can readily see how easily different channels bend the facts to fit “the imagination of their own heart.”

Conscience? Better, but not perfect. Our conscience testifies that something’s wrong— that we’re somehow already disconnected from God—even as it potentially points us in the right direction. But though our conscience might alert us correctly, we often do wrong things in response to what it tells us. We take short cuts. We run the other way. We do everything we can to avoid the problem we know is there. More often than not, we’re more concerned with easing our consciences than we are with trying to address the disunity in our souls that our consciences have correctly perceived.

So let’s cut to the point: Our conscience tells us something’s wrong; the Spirit tells us what’s right. To receive what the Spirit’s telling us, we need to lay down our “heads”—our thought lives—before God. We need to humble ourselves enough to let God work, and to allow our convictions—or lack thereof—to be replaced by his.

True story: Romans 12:2 was my life verse even before I came to know Jesus. Here’s the King James version I first read it in more than thirty years ago: “And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God.” There’s so much packed into that verse, and space doesn’t allow us to fully unpack it here. Maybe my own pre-Christian experience with it will help illustrate, though.

When I first read this passage as an I-believe-in-God-but-I’ll-be-anything-but-a-Christian thirty years ago, I immediately sat down and wrote an essay on the power of saying “no.” There was truth to that response—but it wasn’t the whole truth. I had locked squarely into “And be not conformed to this world,” and was on board with “but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind,” but “that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God”? Who cared? I didn’t. Not yet. However, without it the little truth I genuinely knew was as good as a lie.

Our lives are no longer our own. The key to a renewed mind is the willingness to lay down our thoughts in order to learn God’s. As we let go of what’s “ours” and take hold of what we know to be God’s, our minds begin to be purified. The Spirit begins to untangle truth from untruth, the wheat from the weeds. God’s will becomes less of a mystery, even as God himself remains an ever-deepening mystery. Even when we can’t immediately see or understand where God is leading us, he honors the spirit of submission he’s given us—and our resolve to stay in submission—and leads us there anyway.

yes, if you call out for insight
and raise your voice for understanding,
if you seek it like silver
and search for it as for hidden treasures,
then you will understand the fear of the LORD
and find the knowledge of God.
For the LORD gives wisdom;
from his mouth come knowledge and understanding….
Then you will understand righteousness and justice
and equity, every good path;
for wisdom will come into your heart,
and knowledge will be pleasant to your soul (Proverbs 2:3–6, 9–10).

To know yourself better only makes you more like you. To know Jesus more is to become more like Jesus. That’s what God has desired for us since the day of creation. So lay down your head, and be transformed.

Lay It Down Today

What’s your “life passage”—or at least a passage from God’s Word that’s spoken to you recently? Take fifteen minutes now, and let it speak to you some more. Sit quietly before the Lord and simply meditate on this passage. Then close your time in prayer. Here are a few guiding questions to help you process:

  • Why is God bringing this passage to my mind? Why now?
  • What’s the one thing that most needs transforming in my life—that God wants me to lay down right now?
  • How can I invite God deeper into that part of my life and let him work?
Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

Growing in Jesus Featured on NoiseTrade!

Posted on April 20, 2015 by Carl Simmons

Let me keep this one really Season 1 coversimple: Go here. And then, pass it on to your peeps, so can they enjoy it as well. And course, check out the other selections from yrs truly (and sure, others too :)) while y’r in there, anyway.

Let’s make some Noise in NoiseTrade!

Posted in Uncategorized | Leave a comment

Lay Down Your Old Identity

Posted on April 15, 2015 by Carl Simmons

Our first devotional runs longer than usual, but that’s only fitting. After all, it’s going to take a little time to get to know each other. So let’s start in….

Many Christians today believe—or at least live as if they believed—that Jesus died solely to forgive them; and that because their messes are now cleaned up, they can go on with their lives as if Christ had no further claims upon them. This is, quite simply, not true.

If we’ve truly placed our lives and trust in Jesus, then we are also already under the same death sentence as Jesus. “For the death he died he died to sin, once for all, but the life he lives he lives to God. So you also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus” (Romans 6:10–11). We have not died with Christ because we think we have, or because we agree that we have. We—have died—with Christ. Our old life is done. We need to truly realize that, and live in that new reality.

The tough part is living this out on a daily basis—or rather, dying it out. Nonetheless, it’s what Jesus calls us to do: “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me. For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will save it” (Luke 9:23–24).

You will never fully become the person God has created you to be until you’ve fully laid down the things that he has not intended you to be. Only by laying it all down and following Jesus will things begin to come clear.

Notice I said “begin.” This laying-down thing takes a lifetime. God will guide us into the next things that require laying down as we’re ready, but we can start now—with the things we know aren’t God’s. Even when we don’t know exactly what new direction God wants to lead us in, we are already called to obey his Word. That, in itself, should keep us pretty busy. And as we do so, we say to God with our lives, “Speak, LORD, for your servant hears” (1 Samuel 3:9). When we willingly lay down our old selves and serve God as best we know how, we testify—to God, ourselves, and everyone around us—that we are not the same people we used to be. And in the process, we grow closer to God.

As you discover and trust that God has a better life for you, and follow out that trust, it will become more natural—I won’t say “easier”—to lay down the things that aren’t God’s, and to receive those things that are.

There are any number of powerful stories in the Bible that illustrate this exchanging of our old lives for our new ones. Sometimes even the names themselves change—Abram becomes Abraham, Sarai becomes Sarah, Jacob becomes Israel. Today, let’s look at a couple more Old Testament examples, and then jump almost 1,500 years forward, to another changed man with another changed name….

At eighty years of age, Moses was a fugitive from the law, “a stranger in a strange land” (Exodus 2:22, KJV). He had gone from being miraculously rescued and raised in Pharaoh’s household to a rebel who murdered a fellow Egyptian on behalf of a people who immediately rejected him for it. And now, he seemed destined to live out his days in obscurity in Midian. By most peoples’ measure, Moses was an eighty-year-old failure and would die that way.

But God had other plans.

In Exodus 3, God calls out to Moses from the burning bush. He calls him to lead an entire nation out of slavery and into the land he had already promised them. But before he gives this call, he asks Moses to do something: “Do not come near; take your sandals off your feet, for the place on which you are standing is holy ground” (Exodus 3:5). Moses obeyed. He honored God. And because of that, his life—and the lives of millions—was changed forever.

Fast-forward forty years, to the man who completes the task of bringing the Israelites into the Promised Land. Joshua no doubt knew about Moses’ past, but all he’d actually seen was the man that God had transformed Moses into. From that perspective, Joshua knew he was no Moses.

Then again, for the first eighty years of his life, Moses had been no Moses either.

As Joshua approaches Jericho, the last big hurdle to entering the Promised Land, he too has an encounter with God, and a similar response:

Joshua fell on his face to the earth and worshiped and said to him, “What does my lord say to his servant?” And the commander of the LORD’s army said to Joshua, “Take off your sandals from your feet, for the place where you are standing is holy.” And Joshua did so (Joshua 5:14b–15).

The places where we encounter God are holy. For me, that’s not only included both proverbial and literal mountaintops but also gas stations, empty meeting rooms, and my own living room. You have your own experiences. Because we’ve encountered God in these places, they’re special, set-apart places for us. However, it’s not the location itself that’s inherently holy—it’s God’s presence that makes it holy. God is capable of making every place in our lives holy, and he wants to.

Likewise, God calls us to come out of slavery—to our sins, to our selfish desires, even to the good things we have that are nonetheless only a shadow of the better things God wants to give us—and “enter the land” he’s promised us. And he calls us to help others do the same.

Now, let’s fast-forward… to the Last Supper. In the middle of the meal, Jesus does something unusual—he gets up, grabs a towel and a washbasin, and begins washing the disciples’ feet. (It’s safe to assume the sandals have already come off by now, this time around.) Follow what happens next:

Peter said to him, “You shall never wash my feet.” Jesus answered him, “If I do not wash you, you have no share with me.” Simon Peter said to him, “Lord, not my feet only but also my hands and my head!” (John 13:8–9).

Simon—who Jesus renamed Peter—protested, because he knew who he had been, and who in many ways he still was. He knew how unworthy he was of Jesus. But Jesus knew it, too. Furthermore, he knew what would happen later that evening. He knew how badly Peter—and all of the disciples—would fail him. Jesus’ priority wasn’t the disciples’ past, present, and future failings. What mattered most to him, at that moment, was that the disciples take off their sandals and be served—cleansed—by him.

What Jesus says to Peter, and to all of us, is: It doesn’t matter who you’ve been, what you’ve done. It doesn’t matter how big a screw-up you are now—and no doubt will be in the future. What matters is: Will you hand over your life—all of your life, including the screw-ups—to me, so that I can begin this incredible lifelong reclamation project called Your Life in Me?

Jesus came to remove both the eternal separation from God that Satan intended for us, as well as all the temporary separations from God we put in front of ourselves nearly every day. In case the disciples missed the point—and they likely did—an hour or so later Jesus tells them this:

Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends. You are my friends if you do what I command you. No longer do I call you servants, for the servant does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all that I have heard from my Father I have made known to you. You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit and that your fruit should abide, so that whatever you ask the Father in my name, he may give it to you (John 15:13–16).

This is where a changed life really begins. Especially at first we want, and probably need, to make laying down about the “negative” stuff—the things we know we need to give up for Christ’s sake. That’s why we’re spending most of this first week on those things. However, if we focus only on what we need to give up, it’ll probably never happen. We’re overwhelmed by the task. We know we can’t do it. And to be honest, we really don’t want to give some of it up. For all those reasons and more, we need to grab onto what Jesus promises each of us if we’re willing to lay down everything for him. We need to remember who we are, now—Jesus’ friends. Eternal-life-long friends.

We want to justify ourselves before God, to make ourselves worthy. It will never happen. It can never happen. So let go of it. The good news is: Jesus has made us worthy. He has cleansed us. He has laid down his life for us. Jesus has chosen us because he has chosen us. Because of Jesus, that is enough.

Lay It Down Today

Got shoes on? Take them off. (Or wait for a time when you can do this later on.) Reflect on those places where you know God has already met you, and thank him again for those encounters.

Then, pray a prayer of consecration—something like: “Lord, you have created everything and everything was created to be holy, separated unto you. I want to honor you everywhere I put down my feet, starting in this place. Help me to let go of the person I’ve been, so that I might become the person you intend for me to be.”

Then, don’t forget you prayed this. Watch what God does with this prayer in the weeks to come. Write down any additional thoughts or prayers.

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged , , , | 2 Comments

Lay It Down: A Final Introduction

Posted on April 8, 2015 by Carl Simmons

“Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends. You are my friends if you do what I command you” (John 15:13–14).

We read these words in John 15, and take great comfort in the fact that Jesus laid down his life for us, his friends. But if we truly belong to Jesus, guess what? He’s our friend, too. If we belong to Jesus, then we too are to take up our crosses and follow him (Matthew 16:24). Reread the above passage with that in mind, and follow the implications.

“… And you know the way to where I am going” (John 14:4).

The idea of laying down our lives for Christ’s sake may seem impossible, but it’s not just an idea—it’s our calling. In fact, it’s our lifelong calling, and beyond. It’s not only foundational; it’s eternal. It’s how we first came to Jesus, and it’s how Jesus continues to shape our will in union with His. It is salvation; it is sanctification; and it is the totality of eternal life in Jesus. Our lives have to move from being of Christ or for Christ to being “in Christ” (Romans 8:1, et al.), and to the point where finally our life “is Christ” (Philippians 1:21, et al.).

Therefore, within these pages you’ll find some pretty heavy ideas being… well, laid down. And why not? This is your life we’re talking about, and about laying down every piece of it for the glory of God. There’s nothing more important than that. It’s not easy. In fact, it’s the hardest thing you’ll even have to do—and if you do it right, you’ll get to do it every day for the rest of your life.

In some ways, this is meant to be a very practical book. However, the objective here isn’t doing. Before that, and along with that, each of us is called to “be transformed by the renewing of your mind” (Romans 12:2). We’re called to become the new creations Christ intends each of us to be, and to understand that we are new persons.

The challenge for me, as writer—and for you, as reader—is to avoid compartmentalizing these things into stages, steps, ten easy ways, etc. And yes, this is a book with a beginning, middle, and end; I am using a certain structure and sequence to make all this easier to understand. However, God doesn’t compartmentalize—because he doesn’t change. Repentance and grace go hand in hand. Obedience and freedom go hand in hand. Inner discipline and outward service go hand in hand. Walking in the Spirit and loving our fellow human beings go hand in hand. And we stumble away from God’s will for us when we try to separate these things.

Furthermore: Laying it down is not just about releasing our bad stuff, but about offering up everything “good” we have to God. Jesus, the ultimate good, offered himself up for us. Who are we to do less—and why do we think the ultimate results wouldn’t be as glorious? “Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever believes in me will also do the works that I do; and greater works than these will he do, because I am going to the Father” (John 14:12).

Many equate “laying down” with giving up—with being a quitter, or to just passively let things come at us. In some ways that’s accurate—for example, when God calls us to quit the sins and/or idols in our lives. But as we venture further with Jesus, laying down becomes less about ceasing some activity we’re doing, sinful or otherwise, and more about a different kind of giving up—the active surrendering of everything we do to Christ. It doesn’t mean we stop doing the good things we surrender to him, but it does mean that we give up control of those things to Jesus so that he can direct them, so that his will can be done.

Therefore, we don’t stop working, but we “work… for the Lord” (Colossians 3:23). We’re still parents and children and spouses, but our priority becomes glorifying God in those relationships rather than pleasing ourselves, or even that spouse or parent or child. We still use our gifts and talents, but we do it to serve God fully and not just for ego fulfillment—even, or maybe especially, in the context of “doing God’s work.” We still receive amazing blessings from God, but we learn to immediately place them back in God’s hands, knowing that even the people and things we love most were given to us for his purposes, and that our joy must rest in that rather than in his gifts….

One more thing: As I address these issues I am, in fact, recognizing my own need to clear out much of the undergrowth in my own life. Put another way: If you think reading this is gonna hurt, try writing it. But it’s my prayer that, by doing so, I not only help clear a path for you to begin moving forward more deliberately, but that you’ll gain the courage to clear out some of your own undergrowth—and by doing so, clear the way for and inspire others.

We’re all in this together. So let’s get started. Let’s get ready to Lay It Down.

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged , | 2 Comments

Free Discipleship!

Posted on April 7, 2015 by Carl Simmons

(Well, the books are free, anyway… the discipleship itself… well, I’ll defer to Dietrich Bonhoeffer on that one….)

Season 1 coverSo it’s done: All six books in the From Disciples to Disciplers series—including the first three, Growing in Jesus, Growing in Character, and Growing in Your Gifts (scroll down for more info on each)—are now available on for free on NoiseTrade. Everything you need to know can be found here. (And hey, go snag yourself the new Josh Garrels album in the Music section of the site while you’re in there anyway—also out today—and thank me later.)

Season 2 coverSo maybe this isn’t the most lucrative alternative for yours truly. But the fact is, because of this option, the latter three books in the series (Growing Others, Growing in Leadership, and Growing in Your Mission), and the latest one Lay It Down, have already been read (or at least downloaded) in 70+ countries since I’ve put them up. That’s pretty cool, when you think about it.

And really, that’s the bigger point; I’d rather have these books in Season 3 coverpeoples’ hands, and hopefully be of some use to someone. That’s why they were created, after all. (That said, tips are appreciated.)

So there you have it. To paraphrase Popeye: I’ve done all I can do, and I can’ts do no more. Now, it’s your turn. Go fetch. 🙂

And with that, we’ll start back into Laying It Down tomorrow….

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Lay It Down: A Journey into Trust

Posted on April 1, 2015 by Carl Simmons

Moving on, and in more ways than I can count…. That said, hopefully you’ve been reading the last several entries and beginning to think: “This sounds great. I could really use someone to walk me through all this stuff, though. After all, like you said, we’re not supposed to do this alone.”

Boy, have I got a book for you. Certainly not as good as a coach, but a whole lot cheaper and easier to work into your schedule in the meantime.

createspace cover

So, is Lay It Down the graduate course for From Disciples to Disciplers, the speed-metal version of it, a desperate cry for help, or none of the above? Well, yes. 🙂 But seriously: What it really is, when all is said and done, is a reiteration of all the “a-ha”s God’s had me stumble across for a quarter-century-plus, thus fueling my need to write that series in the first place.

More directly: The whole purpose for writing this book is to walk alongside you in this journey into trusting God deeper and deeper. I know I haven’t gotten it all right, and I’m pretty sure you haven’t either. There are still plenty of things I need to lay down—and trust me, God’s working on them, hard. Put another way: I need to go through this book again as much as you might for a first time. The jerk who’s writing this blog once again needs to spend some time with the jerk who wrote this book, to try to remember who he really is in Christ, because it’s not me nearly as often as I’d like it to be. And maybe you feel the same.

Still and again, there are also things that God’s already shown me on this journey that are worth passing along. Even as I re-read them, I think “Who is this guy?” Because again, it’s not me nearly as often as I’d like it to be. And yet, I sense it’s who God’s called me to be, and continues to call me on to be.

In short, I know what all this is worth—because I know how much it’s cost. And at this point, it’s all I have to give. So here you/we go….

For the next year of Wednesdays I’ll be reposting all of this, piece by refined piece. Most of it’s already back in the archives in some form, but let’s give it one more shot in its proper scope and sequence (which can be found as you scroll down here, by the way.)

But you don’t need to wait in order to see it all. You can most certainly buy it here (and/or via Amazon)—or at least check it out for free here—and I’d be honored if you did.

So let’s see where the journey takes all of us from here….

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

Season 6: Growing in Your Mission

Posted on March 25, 2015 by Carl Simmons

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERAAs you keep growing, God may well put things on your heart that you’ll need to be the one to initiate. God’s given you a specific vision for ministry—either inside or outside the church, or maybe even planting a new church—and now you literally need to make the dream real. And this brings us, at last, to Season 6: Growing in Your Mission.

As with Season 5 (Growing in Leadership), there are any number of foibles to try to avoid as you do this. And as with Season 4 (Growing Others), I don’t know a single small-group study that tries to help people process this—and not a whole lot of books in general, for that matter.

But have no fear: We’ll help walk you through the issues that come with a God-given vision. Things like:

  • First: How do you know it really is God, and not just you? Because once things get real, we’re almost certainly going to find ourselves disagreeing with God on some things. And guess what? God’s right. So when that happens, you’ll need to remember which parts of this vision are truly God’s, so you’re able to keep on trusting him when you don’t understand what’s going on (more on that shortly).
  • What holds you back from getting started, and how do you get past that? Fear of the unknown—or for that matter, of re-experiencing something painful—is something we all face. But while the future is unknown to us, it’s not unknown to God. You have this vision because there’s something God wants made known. And the first people he’s going to have to show at least part of that to is us. That should frighten us. But we need to get past our fears and trust that God knows the way he’s taking us.
  • How do you get others on board (and praying—a lot)? And this might start even closer to home: Depending on our situations, we might not be able to expect our spouses, children, or extended families to support or even understand what God’s calling us to. But they can still serve as a reality check. They may not see what God’s doing in our lives, but they see us. No matter how painful or seemingly unfair their concerns might be, there might well be a grain of truth to them—and we need to deal with that grain before things get even more serious.
  • How will you share the vision in a way others can hear and embrace it, and continue to grow as a team? This is a big and often tricky step. By putting ourselves out there, we open ourselves up to people who we pretty much can guarantee won’t catch the vision right away. But as we share what’s really moving us—Who’s really moving us—we also develop new relationships. People get the opportunity to see where they fit into this new thing. Real needs get revealed. And as relationships develop, others begin to get excited about what God wants to do—maybe even to the point where they can let go of whatever fears or established ways of doing things might be holding them back.
  • How will you deal with setbacks as they come? How will you deal with falling flat on your face? How will you deal with waiting? Because once this all gets real, things won’t follow the plans you had in your head. Count on it. Things go wrong, or at least look wrong. Even when we’ve done our best, we might begin to wonder if we’ve disobeyed God somehow, or feel as if we’ve done everything right but failed God anyway. In fact, there might well be a point in time—if not a long stretch of it—where you’ll stop and ask yet again, “God, was that really you?”
    It’s always OK to ask God that question. We need to keep talking with God, especially when we don’t understand. But once God answers “yes,” it’s our job to keep walking, even if we’re not sure where God’s leading us. Even if things aren’t going the way we planned. Even when our feelings fail us and we think we’re not good enough to do what God’s called us to do. God knows better. He called us to this. God’s plan is always better than ours, and we need to trust God so we can discover more about what his plan is.
  • How will you deal with people leaving, even when it’s not personal (although sometimes, it is)? No matter why it happens—and it will—we need to remember a few things: 1) We should always want God’s best for others, no matter how it affects us; at the same time, 2) what others decide doesn’t change what God’s called us to; and thus, 3) we need to allow God to deal with each person’s decision, and remain obedient to what God’s called us to.
  • And finally, how will you keep growing, even as the vision continues to grow and take shape? Because, no matter where you are, you never stop growing. God will always see to that.

But let’s come back to that “vision thing.” Here’s a quiz to get you started. Ask yourself:

• As I’m pursuing this vision, am I sensing God revealing more about the things he truly cares about?
• Will this vision, once it’s realized, reveal more about God to others, or just more about me?
• Which parts of this vision were clearly not my idea (even if I’m excited about the idea now)?
• Have I tried letting go of this idea, only to find God bringing it up again?
• Would I still want this to happen even if someone else did it—or even if I did it and someone else got the credit?

Bottom line: We’ll spend a lot of time exploring how to “do” the vision God’s placed before each of us. But it starts with us being people God’s willing to take a chance on, by being available for God to work through us. Anything good God accomplishes through us starts and ends with God, and therefore any glory that comes from it is his, too.

Thus, it isn’t the end of the journey, it’s only the beginning. And thanks for rolling with it so far.

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment