VISION CHECK

Perception can be deception. What you see isn’t always what you get. We can be completely deceived into believing something is real that actually never was. We convince ourselves it exists to the point we can feel it, smell it, and even taste it. We become so adamant that it’s real that we willingly fight to hold on to it... but like the mirage in the desert, we find it's false as the sand slips through our fingers. Unfortunately, as though it actually exists, we give it power until it finally overtakes us! The delusion is so strong that our capacity to discern becomes as clouded as cataracts covering the lenses of our eyes.

But if you know your view is skewed and you visit the Eye Doctor for an adjustment to your eyes, before you know it, a little twist of the dial here, a little turn of the knob there and, voila... suddenly everything comes sharply into view and you realize that what you believed was true was actually a lie. When the lenses of your soul is corrected and all the fuzzy details become crystal clear, truth takes over and the illusion that paralyzed your mind begins to vanish into thin air.

Had your vision checked lately?

© 2014 Steven Bliss

If you like this article, please spread it around! Tweet it, Facebook it… just hit the share buttons below! Your comments are always welcome; so please feel free. Thanks! SB

I WISH...

I watched this video and it made me think... I wish I could be a kid again. You know... do it all right, turn out better, learn the lessons and not repeat the mistakes again and again. Be steady in life and finish school. Understand that the idea of "rebel" was never my friend. Listened to my mother and father and not need twenty-six years to realize they were right. Man, I wish I could be a kid again. Chose better paths, acquire wisdom and actually receive wise and act on counsel instead of hear and not apply it; not do what I knew was wrong or hang out with those I knew weren't right. To never do drugs, experiment with sex; resist the temptations that harmed both me, and those I loved. Man, I wish I could be a kid again. To love only one woman as my father did and never know and fail with so many. Made a much better life with something left to show for it and ultimately leave an inheritance that my children will never forget.

But the truth is, if I had done it all differently I wouldn't be me; who I am, know what I know or be able give what I can because of all I have experienced and learned. I wouldn't know the meaning of "healed" had I not been "broken", or the mercy of God had I not come face to face with the depths and depravity of my own sins. I wouldn't understand the power of His love or His patience towards me, or His peace that guards me and passes my finite ability to understand; none of which I deserve, nor have I earned. I couldn't say, because of Him and by His grace "I live and move and have my being". I would never know, never be, never have seen what I have were it not for the path I chose for myself. In a perfect world I would get the chance to change my past, prevent the curse I brought on myself; but I'm thankful today for all that I know and all that I am which He Himself has forged by His own hands, and transformed by His love. And I, just like the woman who washed His feet with her tears, am free to love because He forgives all my sins... past, present, and future.

Though I would never want any of you to go through all that I have, I sincerely wish that you all come to know the same truth.

© 2014 Steven Bliss

If you like this article, please spread it around! Tweet it, Facebook it… just hit the share buttons below! Your comments are always welcome; so please feel free. Thanks! SB

THE DOOR

I took this picture not long ago and call it, ‘The Door’!

Notice the crooked angles, gaping holes, the broken and splintered planks and the shadows that are cast along the deep worn lines of weather and time. And then look at the large red handles that are there to open these awkward and very heavy doors up.

For me, this picture is the perfect metaphor of our lives. Like the marks on this door, our lives reflect the many details that tell the story of who we are. And like every story, we have our own personal mysteries and scars, our broken places with gouging splinters and gaping holes and those shadows that are cast across it. They hang on the surface for all to see, just like this door, but the most important part of this picture to me isn't what is seen, but what is not. Just as it is in real life God, who is always there, sees everything... not only what’s on the surface, but what lies behind the doors. He knows how every crooked angle came into existence, how each gaping hole was formed, how every broken place with all its splinters exploded on the scene... He knows every shadow and time-worn line... yes, He sees it all! He knows each hurt and every wound that has occurred in our lives that created the scabs that formed, which I call, the doorway of our soul. And it’s His hands alone that placed those handles there so those extremely heavy doors can eventually be opened.

So think about this with me for just a moment as you look at the picture of that door and consider this… “How precious it is when someone we know allows us deep inside their life, past all the scars and brokenness and into their wounded heart?” Then ask yourself this, how often have you taken that rare privilege for granted and, while you were in that sacred place, selfishly thought only of yourself and your wants and needs, and not of them? And instead of bringing healing and the gift of love, you added more damage and scars to door itself?

The Bible says in 1 Corinthians 13 that, “Love cares more about others that it does about itself!” That being the case, look hard at those doors… you see, it’s not just someone else’s doors you're looking at, but your own. With that in mind, don’t you think it’s time that you "do unto others as you yourself would have it done unto you"? Love heals a multitude of wounds as it covers a myriad of offenses. Let me leave you with this thought... love as much and as hard as you yourself want to be loved.

Life in pictures brings meaning to life!

© 2014 Steven Bliss

If you like this article, please spread it around! Tweet it, Facebook it… just hit the share buttons below! Your comments are always welcome; so please feel free. Thanks! SB

JUST DON'T DO IT!

In 1988 the athletic shoe company NIKE launched the slogan “Just Do It”! It was their way of reinventing the term, ‘go for it’. Since then it’s become an integral part of modern culture and used in a myriad of ways, many of which that have nothing to do with its original campaign. With that in mind, I’d like to address something extremely personal on my end but I believe extremely applicable to all who will read, and perhaps listen to what I say and take to heart the words of a man that has lived and experienced more in his 60 years of life than most will ever do. I want to reach out to men and women around the world and create a wave of thought that will both challenge you and go against the grain of popular thought; especially today’s liberal mindset that takes us far away from principle and virtue. I will speak from my own life and not that of others to deliver what I want to convey in hopes of driving the point deep into the hearts of all who will read this. My ultimate hope is that truth will prevail and true freedom will be achieved as a result of acting upon what I’m about to say.

I’m going to make a ridiculously bold statement here… “Sex has absolutely no meaning apart from love!" It has no more value than the momentary relief one gets from scratching the itch from a mosquito bite. You might argue that sex and love are synonymous, but I completely disagree. In all my years of living and striving, failed relationships and the devastating after-effects of wild sexual encounters, I can safely say with great clarity that love and sex are not one in the same, nor are they a prelude to each other. They actually have a wide chasm between them that is only closed through the intimacy that total commitment and abandonment of self as well as all else to the devotion two people give and receive from each other when they declare to each other what I call the "Agreement of Oneness”. Anything else is nothing more than what the Bible calls fornication. Fornication is simply put, consensual sex for the sake of pleasure outside of the realm of the declaration of oneness. It is an insult to the image of God in us as it completely denies His own personal Oneness. There is no commitment or purity outside of God's intended oneness. It is a hard concept to grasp given the fallen world in which we live and the societal ideologies we are continually and ruthlessly bombarded with every single day. From television to movies, books to magazine ads, you name it, the idea that anything goes is deceptively and with great purpose shoved down our throats until we actually accept and believe it is the norm. But it is not! As I said in a recent conversation I had, just because something appears to be real doesn’t mean it is. Civilizations rise and fall and historically sex has always played a major role in their demise. Not conjecture, fact!

That may have been a mouthful and a paragraph that causes some more grief than joy, but it is one that should be highly considered given the gravity of what I’m hopefully going to convey here. Let's raise the bar… take it to an otherworldly level shall we say. Let's peel back the layers of the onion and say what most are afraid to ever say, or agree with for that matter: sex outside of the confines of its original intention is without a doubt a key factor in the Great Deception! It massages the flesh, the id, the ego of me that goes against the design of humility and selflessness and the grid of real love. It curses the original design of God and the original intention for which it was created. What do I mean original intention? I imagine most will read this and think me a prude with no concept of the pleasure sex brings. On the contrary, I spent the better part of a lifetime totally deceived by its powerful and delectable bounty dining at its table and eating of its delicacies over and over again. I was, shall we say, a glutton of its persuasive delights. But the truth is I was fully, and I mean completely and utterly deceived by its illusive and destructive lie.

I am neither prude nor under the stagnant religious idea that sex is for one purpose only; procreation. But let me be clear, the concept of procreation in and of itself is magnificently and mysteriously overwhelming for those who choose to engage it at its deepest levels.

Procreation is not just the propagating of oneself or a race, nor is it about the preservation of a bloodline, it has far more significance than what is obvious. Procreating is co-creating. The ultimate gift of God given to man to share in with the two halves of Himself, which God put in man and woman, coming together in unity and oneness, as He is One, and doing what only God Himself is the author of, creating life itself. It is the reproduction of His own image. It is His joy and great pleasure for us to be like Him! It is the celebration of our uniqueness in His likeness and our God-given familial right to become one and reproduce Him; one man, one woman... the masculine and feminine natures of God as one. What glory, what power! What splendor! What privilege! I’m going to tell you a truth you may not want to hear as the lies that have been told for so long make it almost impossible to engage with our tainted flesh driven minds; there is incredible pleasure in our participation in the Original Blueprint. There is profound satisfaction achieved in the deep joy that comes from oneness. It is not just the bringing of life into existence but the sharing of intense joy and incredible pleasure the process of bringing that life into existence holds. In it we are able to experience God’s own joy achieved in unity. God intended sex to be the perfect communication between the two halves; the ultimate picture of His own personal desire for intimacy with us! It is the ultimate knowing (in Hebrew it’s the word yada) of not just one another, but Him. The supreme giving and receiving mechanism that can be achieved no other way by those created in His image. (If you want something to think about in light of the fallacies of homosexuality, look no further) Though procreation is a part of all facets of creation, it is not a pleasure-based reality in the rest of creation as it has one purpose alone: increase. If it were just for the purpose of “gettin' ‘er done” then it would be over as fast as it began. Knowing is not necessary for that. Anything apart from the original design is to lower ourselves to our most base-nature and imagining ourselves to be something we are not… animals or worse. How great is such deception? incomprehensible!  It is nothing more than the systematic devaluation of the image of God in us and the demoralization of the creation itself. In other words, it is like spitting in the face of God as one arrogantly take their un-rightful place upon the throne of their life, which is nothing more than rebellion, and entering into agreement with God’s greatest enemy and destroyer of all souls, Lucifer himself, arrogantly fall on our own sword. And to think, all that over the illusion of the momentary pleasure derived outside of the intended realm of good where nothing is restricted and true pleasure is undefiled.

How could we be so blind? Why would we believe something so twisted? You may say it's always been this way, you’re making more out of it than it is, then let me ask you a question, what is the oldest profession on this planet? The answer is there is only one; prostitution! And what is prostitution? It is the original instrument of darkness to persuade the fallen mind into believing its need for momentary gratification as it ultimately objectifies and mares the image of God. It equates man with his supposed 'animal instincts' and gives him a deceptive level of gratification that carries with it neither  responsibility or commitment. Is it any wonder so many children are born out of wedlock? Darkness always twists and perverts what God creates and sees as 'good', and in this insane microwave mentality of a world we live in, our darkest minds are exposed for all to see. Sadly, we celebrate the dark rather than call it dark and see it for what it truly is, grotesque. When we live in deception and function beneath the realities of who God has created us to be, and we no longer reflect the image of the One who created us and we become the terrifying creations of our own imaginations. And the nightmare continues for all those who are deceived and refuse to believe the truth. No wonder the saying sex sells has such power!

There is no judgment here; no condemnation. I have no fingers to point. If I pointed one at you there would be three pointing back at me. I have done all that can be done… sadly, even as a believer in the God who made me I have done the unconscionable and inconceivable. I have been the fool, agreeing with God's enemy, shaming His Name. But here is where hope and forgiveness come in... I personally believe there comes a time in our lives when we wake up and realize we have been brutally deceived and say enough is enough, and then, out of our own failures and experiences, we pay it forward by pulling the curtain back on the master of all deception, Lucifer himself, shining the Light of Truth on the path that points the way to freedom and the joy it brings. To snatch from the fire, as it were, those who are perishing! Honestly, I wish someone had told me these things forty five years ago when I began my own personal plunge into the darkest deception man has ever known. But out of my own deception I can be bold and make the truth known in hopes that someone, somewhere, even if it’s just you, will hear it and make the decision to obey. If it's true that “blessed is the man/woman whose trust is the Lord"... then you won't be disappointed.

In the meantime... just don't do it!

© 2014 Steven Bliss

If you like this article, please spread it around! Hit the share buttons below! Your comments are always welcome; please feel free. Thanks

LOVE NEVER RUNS...

Though love runs deep

Runs wide, runs far...

Love holds fast when the going is hard

Though it can't be seen, you can feel its touch

The dichotomy of love...

It never runs...

Ever!

© 2013 Steven Bliss

If you like this article, please spread it around! Hit the share buttons below! Your comments are always welcome; please feel free. Thanks

DOWN THE RABBIT HOLE PART 2

It takes faith to go into that place where God brings you before the dragons of your life, all those things that stand in the way of you fully realizing God's destiny for you. What kind of faith are we talking about here? Come down the rabbit hole with me and lets discover it together.

“Faith is the assurance of things hoped for...” what are you hoping for? Does it line up with what can only be discovered through an intimate relationship with God? Because you’re in the world, are those things worldly or of a higher hope? In the same way, faith is the “conviction of things not seen…” if you only walk by what you see then you will never realize there’s a whole world of possibilities in the unseen. Conviction here means determined confidence. Are you convinced? What is holding back the power of God in your life? What is it that you know God has spoken to you about yet seems to be held just outside your reach? I guarantee there is something God wants out of your way… Now is the time to address it.

Now is time to become the person God created you to be… that takes faith! 

© 2013 Steven Bliss
If you like this video spread it around, hit the share buttons below! Also. your comments are always welcome. Thanks

COMMITMENT: THE POWER OF LOVE

    I recently had the privilege of spending some very close and intimate time with two people I not only admire, but to whom I owe my entire existence, my mother and father, who have been married for over 63 years and together for almost 65. People like them are a dying breed in this world as are the number of years most couples spend together, which is less than a quarter of the time my parents have been married. Sad! Unfortunately, I speak from personal experience.
    What is the reason for this generations microwave mentality? That “shoot first, ask questions later” perspective that believes life is the Burger King slogan, “HAVE IT YOUR WAY”. If you don’t like it, just get a new one! How could we have such a shallow attitude towards something so sacred? Like racehorses we blow out of the gate, but sadly most won’t finish the race? Well, I think I may have hit pay dirt in regards to the answer to that question as I listened closely to my parents talk about life, love and their undying devotion to one another.
    A year ago I introduced my parents to someone who means very much to me. As we sat around the dinner table at my parent’s house talking and sharing a meal, the conversation evolved into something far more interesting. Out of nowhere my friend asked the most incredible question that, until that very moment I had never heard my parents address, or even talk about. “What would you say are the keys to having a marriage that lasts as long as yours has?” she asked. BRILLIANT! How is it that after all these years I’ve never asked them that? At that very moment I watched the look of great satisfaction come upon their faces as their responses began to flow.
    My father spoke first. “I’d have to say it’s all about commitment. That no matter what may come, good or bad, you never waiver in that commitment.” Then it was my mother’s turn, and she said, “I’d have to say it’s being willing to let go of those things that bother you and accept them for who they are.” I can only remember sitting there speechless as time stood still. Though I know other things were said, I was stuck in their initial responses. Profound!
    If those two sentences were the meal, then at that point I had no capacity to consume another bite. I was satiated.
    Little did I know, that one single moment and their two simple yet penetrating answers would play over and over again in my head for the next year. But not just in my head, in my day-in-day-out perspectives and actions towards my own evolving understanding towards relationship. Sadly, I had never fully realized the feast they were serving that day in any of my personal relationships. Though I thought I was doing the best I could, I fell way short of such understanding, acceptance and devotion. I realized that what made my parents who they are, and their obvious success in marriage, was something I had never fully taken hold of in the depths of my soul. I struggled with rejection and did what I thought was necessary and expected in order to be accepted. But I was just going through the motions, not acting out of a heart of pure devotion and commitment. But all that was all about to change.
    As certain unexpected changes and challenges arose over the following months, something within me began to stir. I was experiencing something deep in my soul towards the woman I loved. A level of devotion that inspired a deep sense of selflessness and the willingness to sacrifice at all costs for the one I love. I realized that "I" was not the important one, but rather she was; and it rang like a signal bell in the quiet of my heart. Suddenly I understood that, just like God who willingly sacrificed His only Son out of a deep and abiding love for His bride (and me), I was willing to lay everything down for her. Though she never once verbally asked for it nor seemed to expect it, but I began to experience within myself a level of commitment I had never understood. The same love and commitment the Bible says Jesus had; the love I am to imitate as one created in His image and redeemed by that love. I’ve heard it taught many times but ateaching only communicates so much. To see it lived out in front of my eyes by my father in total commitment and devotion to my mother in her weakness and most vulnerable state (my mother has been struggling physically for years) exemplified the essence of Jesus, the Bridegroom. At that moment, it was birthed in me. Sacrifice without expectation; selflessness devoid of all desire for personal gain… love without reservation or condition. It’s what I give, not what I get.
    My father is a very funny and unusual man. He has the most positive attitude of any person I have ever known. But to illustrate his love and devotion to his wife, I want to share a moment I was fortunate enough to experience that shines a light on his amazing yet very conscious commitment to her. First, my dad is 87 years old. He just had hip replacement surgery. My mother, who is almost 84, is not in the best of health and in many ways she is like a small child who needs constant care. My dad has taken care of her without fail for these last five years as she has steadily declined. These days she gets around with walkers and wheelchairs needing oxygen to get her through the day. I was there to take care of her as he was going through his surgery and rehab.
    The day after his surgery my dad was doing a little bit better and looking forward to my mom coming to visit him. After we arrived and were sitting there talking, I heard my dad say to my mom, “Merle, where is my wedding ring?” My mom, sitting in her wheelchair looking very frail with oxygen tubes in her nose said, “I don’t know Ray, I think you left it at home because you couldn’t wear it during surgery.” My dad responded with, “I need it!” “Why?” she asked. “Because I don’t want any of the nurses around here hitting on me!” he said. I busted out laughing! At first I thought he was being silly. “Really dad?” But as I looked up at them both staring at each other I suddenly realized he was dead serious. The epiphany hit me of this man’s deep devotion and intense commitment to his wife. So much so that He didn’t want any other women to think he was available. And at 87 years old no less!
    What passion! What incredible love! Such profound integrity and a deep sense of responsibility he has about himself when it comes to honoring and loving his wife.
    Tragically we live in a time when if something isn’t exactly the way we want it to be, mindlessly we are willing to discard it. We think there’s always something better. We don’t want the inconvenience of the bad along with the good… only the good and nothing else. We don’t realize that our lives play a role in the evolution of another’s and sadly we miss out on what God intended us to know by walking together through all things. We say vows, but we don’t really understand their meaning or power, so consequently we don’t mean them. And unfortunately, all too often, we don’t realize what we has till it’s gone.
    Thankfully God’s love and commitment to us is exactly like what my dad said: never wavering! Though we ebb and flow, and more often than not, run away from Him, and at a distance, His unfailing love towards us is steady and devoted. His commitment is not based in whether or not we love Him back. He waits patiently, never leaving us nor forsaking us. His eyes are staring intently at us… He is faithful, ALWAYS. Who loves like that?
    Maybe the little nuggets inside this very personal story of mine strike a chord deep within your heart? Or maybe you’ve already figured it all out. If that’s the case, then teach it to others. There is a dearth of understanding when it comes to all this, especially in men. Is it any wonder the world is in the shape it is? And how about the church? Divorce is rampant amongst those who should know better and act differently. The church doesn’t need another seminar, it needs its leaders to lead or get out of the way.
    If in reading this you find yourself confronted by your own lack of commitment and realize that you possess a flippant, self-serving attitude when it comes to others, seeing yourself as the priority no matter how you spin it, especially towards the one you claim you love and who loves you back, then think about my dad and his love for his bride for a moment. Imagine yourself like him and start right now to take back the ground you have willingly given up. You will save your marriage, restore your character and renew your desire for the One you have let slip from the center of your heart. Do it first with God. Return to your first love… then do it with the one you love. I promise you will see the power of God in your life and experience Him as never before. As long as you’re on this side of the grass there’s always a chance. It’s up to you to take it!

    Commitment is the power of love!


   * On December 17th, 2013 at 2:39 PM at 84 years and 15 days of age, my mom looked into the eyes of Jesus and saw her mom for the first time in 22 years. As difficult as it was for all of us to let her go, she is no longer in pain and the misery of merely existing. Pray for my dad if you think of it, he's actually doing really well and at peace knowing she is now at peace and with the lover of her soul. Thanks! SB

© 2013 Steven Bliss
If you like this article, please spread it around! Hit the share buttons below! Your comments are always welcome; please feel free. Thanks