GOD'S EYE VIEW

Having an attitude of gratitude depends upon our altitude. Looking at things through the lens of heaven changes ones view completely. The old saying, "Can't see the forest for the trees" is what I'm talking about... God told Moses, "Come up here!" Moses saw everything quite differently from the top of the mountain than he did on the ground. Having a "God's Eye View" is critical. It's like being in a plane as you descend to you're destination. Everything seems so small, so insignificant and much less daunting. For me, I always look down and think I could just scoop it all up in my hands! Just imagine how the world looks to God, even more, how your personal life and all you face, that feels so overwhelming, appears to Him. No wonder “nothing is impossible for him who believes” and “with God, all things are possible”. It makes total sense when you see things from God’s point of view!

I know for myself, I need a "come up here" state of mind more and more these days. I don't always have it. Up there the air is clear and the atmosphere peaceful and unaffected. My mind, uncluttered and without distractions.

The psalmist had it right when he wrote this simple song calling us all up to a "God's Eye View" of things. I need the reminder. Isaiah said, "Come, let us go UP to the mountain of Yahweh, to the house of the God of Jacob; that He may teach us concerning His ways that we may walk in His paths." How do we go up? Like this...

Make a joyful shout to Yahweh, all you lands! Serve Yahweh with gladness; come before His presence with singing. Know that Yahweh, He is God; it is He who has made us, and not we ourselves; we are His people and the sheep of His pasture. Enter into His gates with thanksgiving, and into His courts with praise. Be thankful to Him, and bless His name. For Yahweh is good; His mercy is everlasting, and His truth endures to all generations. Psalm 100

Today, I'm going up to a higher altitude in order to change my point of view. How about you?

©2012 Steven Bliss
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FACE TO FACE

Death, specifically the destruction of my fiercest enemy, my flesh… will be my greatest victory! The closing of my eyes for the last time will end my struggle and free me once and for all from all that ails me. If I didn’t know the Son of God, I would have ended it long ago, but I will not hasten its arrival by selfish or self-induced means. God’s timing, after all, is perfect. Until then, God has things for me to do.

But there is a longing deep within me for this race to finally end; this battle that rages and its long line of destruction left in its train. For I have tasted of what awaits me; and this world, with all it has to offer, pales in comparison.

For me, there is no morbidity in my desire, only truth and light. My only request is that what is left might be for His glory. That I might accomplish His will, even if it were only an act like Samson pulling down the pillars. I pray my finish would exalt Him and His Holy Name.

There will be much wood, hay and stubble when I stand before Him. Of this I am well aware, yet I cling to only that which saves me, the blood of God's precious Lamb who died for me alone.

I have failed more than I have succeeded, lost more than I have gained, but the thing for which I live and breathe and walk this mortal path is my hope and anticipation of seeing Him who loves me... face to face.

© 2012 Steven Bliss
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WHEN A NATION GOES BLIND

"In the land of the blind, the man with one eye is king." ~Erasmus

America is mostly blind. I know some would argue, but truth be told, this country has all but no vision left whatsoever.

The America I grew up in is dead.

Dennis Miller said it best the other night when asked about his thoughts on America ever getting back on track. He said, "I don't think this comes back during my lifetime (he is 59)... I do believe it comes back the same way an alcoholic who has a brush with mortality will eventually come back... someone will have a stroke or somebody will almost croak from alcohol poisoning physically, and maybe then we pull it back; but this thing is not edging back... the inmates are now subletting the asylum... these are the times that try men's souls but fail to test their mettle!"

I can't agree more... the one-eyed jester is now king and the blind worship the jester because they can't see who he really is.

America the great is gone. She sleeps in the dust like all who have gone before her. You may say, “You're wrong, we're fine. We finally have someone who really understands and cares for us." Well… I will let the prophet Jeremiah speak to that...

“Hear this, you foolish and senseless people, who have eyes but do not see, who have ears but do not hear”: “Should you not fear Me?” declares the Lord. “Should you not tremble in My presence? But these people have stubborn and rebellious hearts; they have turned aside and gone away. They do not say to themselves, ‘Let us fear Yahweh our God, who gives autumn and spring rains in season, who assures us of the regular weeks of harvest.’ Your wrongdoings have kept these away; your sins have deprived you of good. Among My people are wicked men who lie in wait like men who snare birds and like those who set traps to catch men. Like cages full of birds, their houses are full of deceit; they have become rich and powerful and have grown fat and sleek. Their evil deeds have no limit; they do not plead the case of the fatherless to win it, they do not defend the rights of the poor. Should I not punish them for this?” declares the Lord. “Should I not avenge Myself on such a nation as this? “A horrible and shocking thing has happened in the land: The prophets prophesy lies, the priests rule by their own authority, and My people love it this way. But what will you do in the end?"

I agree with Mr. Miller... America will not recover. America is dark, though she believes she is in the light... but as Jesus said, "If then the light within you is darkness, how great is that darkness!"… so America has become.

This is a time of reckoning. Groaning and sorrows lie just ahead. There is only One hope, but that hope is not based in perception or imagination, but in truth; not a truth derived from subjectivity, conjecture or relativity, but that which is immutable and never changing, indelible and unwavering…  truth that is eternal. All roads do not lead to Rome, and all good souls do not go to heaven. The guarantee is fixed, “…at the name of Y’shua/Jesus every knee WILL bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Y’shua/Jesus the Messiah is Lord/Adonai, to the glory of God the Father.”

The prophet was right, the traps were set and the snares have all now been sprung. The cages are full. But the saddest part of it all, history once again repeats itself, and once again the die is cast… what must happen, will happen.

© 2012 Steven Bliss
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BREAKING SILENCE

It's time for followers of God and His Son, Y'shua/Jesus, to stop cowering to the oppressors. Greater is He who is in you than he who is in the world. If the Lord is the defense of our lives, of whom then shall we be afraid? Are those just nice sounding words or life to you? These questions need to dominate and overtake our weak-minded watered-down faith. It's not enough to just attend some meeting and say I'm a Christian. We live in the most exciting time and the most dangerous. It's a time for action.

The Kingdom of God is not for the faint of heart. Though you may be comfortable now and say to yourselves that you need to not rattle the cage as it could cause a total disruption to your personal life, but I want to challenge you to something you may not be thinking right now; what you are comfortable in right now, you may not be in the not too distant future. What you possess right now may all be taken away sooner than you think. Starting with your personal rights. Are you ready for that?

We can no longer afford to be timid. We have a responsibility... not whether we endorse this candidate or that, but to the truth that God hasn't saved us just to go to heaven, but because the Kingdom of God is here and now and advancing through those who are willing to lay themselves on the line and stand for what is true and what is holy, we have a higher purpose to bring the Kingdom wherever God tells us to.

Darkness is advancing. Lies are now the truth and truth a thing of the past. Discernment for the masses has gone into hiding. What was once considered immoral and unacceptable now permeates our airwaves, our billboards, our iPads and computers, all forms of communications. Darkness covers the earth like a thick blanket and the only ones who have any power to either stand against it or stop it are the very ones whose voices have gone silent.

Y'shua/Jesus said, "There is no greater love than this, that one lays down his life for a friend." If you are a believer and a follower, where does that statement resonate within your spirit? It is not enough to just be convicted! Faith without action is worthless.

This country was founded upon the principles of freedom as laid out in only ONE book, the Bible. But today, not only has that been challenged and watered down, there are no voices "crying in the wilderness" saying, 'Prepare the way of the Lord'". I have people say to me all the time, "You're so bold... thank you for taking a stand." But the truth is, I am only one voice. There are millions of voices that need to be raised. Millions of those who claim allegiance to Messiah yet remain silent. How can this be? Where are the bold ones? Where are those who would lay it all down to follow Him?

Time is short. America is dying. Stand up and be counted or your voice will not be heard in that day when all you are comfortable in is all taken away because of the silence of the many. Ask the Jews of Germany.

All it takes is one individual, like you, to light a match… each one start a small fire. Each one say, "enough is enough..." "Greater is He who is in you, than he who is in the world."

All we have is now... that's all we're guaranteed. Stand, shout, and sacrifice! Blessed is the man whose trust is the Lord, for they shall not be disappointed!

© 2012 Steven Bliss
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THE DAY!

Some say its relevance is of no real importance or serious consequence. Others say it's only cultural, while others say it's a nice religious holiday but only for those who keep such things... having no intrinsic relevance in and of itself.

But what if everyone is wrong? What if the whole world hangs in the balance on this day... regardless of race, creed or religious adherence and custom? What if it's the single most important spiritual day in the entire history and existence of man and the world. What if it's the day God Himself calls all men into account; the just and the unjust! What if it's the day that no man, woman, or child will escape; where all will stand face to face with the King of kings and listen to His powerful voice decree their eternal fate! What if, like it or not, an extreme truth is written into the history and existence of the most loathed family of people on the face of the earth (the descendants of Abraham... the Hebrews... the Jews), whose sole purpose is to carry that very oracle of this day to the very end, and to the very moment of its fulfillment? And what if God always intended you to know this truth, as it relates personally to you, yet a fierce enemy with one agenda, that being to distract you and keep you from knowing its significance and importance, wars to keep you blind and ignorant? What if today, this very minute, is the perfect day to surrender and discover the truth, as well as embrace the Lover of your soul who died for you and you alone... and the whole world!

Yom Kippur... The Great Day of Judgement begins tonight! The day all the heavens are silent and the King speaks! Discover it today.

Ketivah veChasimah Tovah (May You Be Inscribed in the Book of Life for a Good Year)

© 2012 Steven Bliss
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THE DEMISE OF DECENCY

What do you do in a world that is upside down, when everything that was once wrong, indecent and immoral, is now acceptable, right and true and you’re considered out-of-touch if you think it otherwise?

The morals of a nation, like an individual, determine its course, whether it reaches for what is high, or salivates for what is low and twisted. Personal morality is a difficult sea to cross when all around you challenges what your conscience tries to repel. There is not a civilization that has ever existed on this planet that hasn’t at one time or another had to deal with this very thing. But now we have something insidious dwelling amongst us. Something that presents itself as beneficial yet is a highway to hell for those whose compasses are magnetically challenged. It’s called the Internet.

How can something so powerful be so destructive at the same time? Ask a nuclear bomb that question. Though it weaves through and connects the mind to the endless possibilities of intellectual prowess, mastery and higher learning in ways never before possible, it is at the same time a gateway to the most debauched information ever known to man. It is a bottomless pit of endless filth that carries the mind away to the extremely bizarre and highly forbidden. Pitch black darkness! It’s no longer a select group of people in a small contained environment sharing educational information back and forth, it’s a cesspool the whole world dips it’s little toes into 86,400 seconds a day anytime they want and without restraint.

The worst part of it all: The minds of children are captured like helpless lambs to slaughter long before their prime. Trash in, trash out. The fastest way to change a society is to alter the perspective of its children. Think about it.

As a nation, and I can only speak for the one I live in, insanity and deception is at levels my 59 years have never seen before. I used to think it would never get out of control, but over the past four years I have been seriously challenged to believe that there is any hope whatsoever for a recovery from what is now accepted as "the norm".

I don’t want to paint myself as being perfect. I’m not. I’ve made my share of serious mistakes and pathetic choices. And the worst have come as a believer in God and His Son that produced nothing but destruction and personal failure. But my conscience has been jerked into reality and my eyes opened wide to the demoralization of the human race. In all our sophistication, we are now acting more and more like Pavlov’s dogs waiting for the bell to ring. Tragically, it creates such a twisted perspective that we act one way for all to see and another when we think no one can. But Someone does see! Sadly, there is more wrong than there is right… more unstable than there is firm. And in all honesty, I believe the financial state the entire world finds itself in is a direct result of its complete moral collapse.

Now many will argue with me on this, but history is replete with this story. In other words, we’re not the only ones this has ever happened to, but we are the only ones this has happened to like this.

When the creature tells the Creator they don’t need His help anymore and they are smarter than the One that created them, the natural protection and covering the Creator provides is lifted, and the results are far worse than any cancer… it is a disease known to man as pride and its end is certain death. Not death from a virus, but the audacity of arrogance… a plague far more lethal than any disease known to man. It is the original death.

The checks and balances are all but gone. They have been replaced with another form of regulation. It’s called liberalism. It uses the deceptive tool of “social justice” to state its cause and plead its case, but its ultimate end is the shriveling of guts and the unwillingness to stand up to the lie until one and all are its slave. It births complacency, and like the rats that followed the Pied Piper, it knows that if you tell a lie long enough, eventually one and all will accept its evil as truth. And that’s where we are.

There is only one way out of this darkness and that is to turn the light on. The only real Light that can dispel such darkness comes from the very One that man himself shuns. But if you open up your mind to the idea of just how far out we have gone, the possibility of clear thinking, and the change that truly matters, is only a confession away. "Today, if My people, who are called by My Name, will humble themselves and pray and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven and will forgive their sins and heal their land." His words... not mine.

© 2012 Steven Bliss
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A SINGLE DROP OF HOPE

Ok... some stories are just worth telling.

After I got my car at LaGuardia, I put into my phone's GPS the address of my hotel. I proceed to my destination in Westbury, NY on Long Island. As I got closer, my Telnav guided me with explicit instructions towards my destination. Her final instructions to me were "Your destination is on your left!". I begin to notice something is seriously odd as I get closer to what is supposed to be my hotel. I'm driving by a huge graveyard! I thought surely it must be just on the other side, but what a strange place to put a hotel. As I got up to the enormous gates she says to me again, "Your destination is ON YOUR LEFT!" There is nothing else around but these gigantic closed gates to the cemetery!  As I roll by it she says, "Rerouting" and has me go ahead and turn around. As I approach the cemetery she again says, "YOUR DESTINATION IS ON YOUR RIGHT!". I stop dead in my tracks (pun intended), right in front of those huge gates and looked down at my phone! I then looked at the hotel address to make sure I put it in correctly and then back up at those ominous, not so inviting, gates.

So, I proceeded to drive to a gas station to inquire as to if the graveyard was indeed "my final destination". The attendant tells me that the hotel is actually about a mile back before the graveyard! So I actually passed it long before the graveyard.

I finally find the hotel. I go to check in and there is this older black woman, who I believe is the manager, and another young clerk standing behind the counter. As I approach the desk I ask, "What is your address here?" She tells me the correct address and then looked straight at me with a big smile and said, "It took you to the graveyard, huh? It takes everybody to the graveyard!". I told her it had me a bit worried. She laughed and said, "Oh no honey, I can tell it's not your time yet!" I laughed and got all up in my black gospel self on her and said... "I knew it wasn't..." and then we both said at the same time, "because the gates were closed!" We roared with laughter and I told her I really needed that. I said I'd be ok if it was time and the gates were open cuz I made that all right with Jesus a long time ago. She laughed and said, "I knew it!" I said, "I knew it wasn't time cuz I wasn't hearin' any voice sayin', 'Come up here'... so I breathed a sigh of relief!" For about 5 minutes we went back and forth as if we had known each other forever. We sorta had church right there in the lobby, if you know what I mean. We were high-fivin' and carin' on... then she looked at me and said, "I needed this moment today... I had a hard morning." I smiled at her and said, "So did I".

The other desk clerk just stood there watching us go back and forth laughing along with us. I looked at her and said, "You are so special!" I then turned to the other clerk and said, "Do you realize what a blessing Cynthia is to you?" He said, "Yes... I've worked here now for three years and I know it well." I said to him, "Cherish her... there aren't many like her! It's precious." He shook his head and agreed.

You know... God knows exactly what we need, when we need it. It so lifted my spirits to see her face beaming with God all over it. In one single moment my atmosphere changed. God had her waiting for me and knew I was desperate for a drop of His love... and He instantly quenched my thirst.

Be love to someone... be open to God and don't be afraid to reach out. You just never know that the person you're looking at could be desperately waiting for a single drop of hope and to know God cares.

© 2012 Steven Bliss
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HEART'S IN CHAINS!

Jesus said, "...it's easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God.” When His disciples heard it they were greatly astonished saying, “Who then can be saved?” But Jesus looked at them and said, “With men this is impossible, but with God all things are possible." 
 I've been thinking about the things that block us from entering into a deep relationship with God. Those things that are logs in our own eyes, that we can't see, yet hang as chains around our necks keeping us from all we could ever want or hope to be. 


In the above passage Jesus tells a young rich man who was doing everything right according to the commandments to sell all he had, give the proceeds to the poor, and follow Him. His disciples were astonished at such a statement. The idea that a man who was doing all the right things and not be saved by those works, was incomprehensible to them. But God, who knows the heart of a man, measures by a different standard.


I have had much and lost everything, including the death of my first born and come face to face with my own mortality when I discovered I had cancer. I went from a big house, 6 figure income and 17 years worth of possessions to nothing... it was all stripped away from me. God forbid that should happen to any of you. I wouldn't wish it on my worst enemy, but God was far more concerned about my heart and soul than He was with me gaining the whole world and what I thought I needed and was best for me. Isn't that a fathers love for his child? But why did those things not come to me when I did everything to make them? Simply this, they blocked me! They controlled my heart and my heart belongs to Him. They were roadblocks to my relationship with Him being intact and vibrant.

I think it's easier to have had it all and then lost it, than to have it all and find your worth in what you've attained and imagine yourself something for it. I see it happen all the time. I have watched those who gained it say they trust God, but for them, to loose it all would be far more devastating than loosing their relationship with God, though they claim it wouldn't. Just like the young man in the story above, they would walk away in despair because they worked so hard.

For me, the most gripping part of the story Jesus tells is God doesn't go running after the young man. The reason is the rich sound rulers' heart never belonged to God. He thought by doing it all right his salvation was sealed. He couldn't comprehend that there was more to this life than things and that there's more to God than rote and religion. 

God's ways are not ours. When we lean on our own strength, our own wisdom, our own understanding and abilities we somehow get it in our heads that they will deliver us. But with God, not only our salvation attained, but our very purpose and meaning revealed. 
There is a vast difference between doing it our way and His.

The question we must ask ourselves is, "Am I willing to loose it all to gain Him?" The world calls it foolishness. God says, it's life!



What's blocking you today? What's keeping your heart bound up and chained? What if you were required to lose it all in order to have all of Him... would you?


© 2012 Steven Bliss

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THE CHOICE: SLAVE OR FREE MAN?

There is a dearth of spiritual insight in the earth that is staggering. It comes not from man's sheer ignorance about spiritual things... no, on the contrary he is deeply in tune with the spiritual world, even if he acts as though he isn't. As the old saying goes, “There are no atheists in foxholes”. It isn't because God hasn't placed around him the most amazing of creations, for He has. The earth, the heavens, heck, the human body alone is the most amazing traveling city and super computer in existence outside of Heaven itself. In those regards, man is without excuse. And it isn't because God doesn't want to be known or remain a mysterious being that only certain "high consciousness" people can attain to such lofty acuity and awareness. That is nothing more than foolishness; religious arrogance, pure and simple. And it isn't because everyday the opportunity to experience the character and nature of God is not possible... love, kindness, compassion, faithfulness, goodness, patience, etc., these are all attributes of the Living God demonstrated somewhere every day by and to someone or something.

No, the plethora of spiritual ignorance that exists is due to the simple fact that, like it or not, we are all born into slavery. Slaves to a system, to a disease, to a government of sorts that has ruled since the abdication of man to its ruler. A kingdom of deception, smoke and mirrors. We are born into a kingdom ruled by a dark prince who though once great, his sole purpose is to deceive, confuse, subjugate and enforce his dark arts and devious rule over the unsuspecting and unaware. He survives by LYING TO AND TRICKING THE MIND INTO BELIEVING THAT GOD IS NOT WHO HE SAYS HE IS. He takes great pleasure in the destruction of man. Why? Man is created in the image of God Himself and therefore unique in all of creation; even more unique than the dark one himself, who used to be highly esteemed. But greater still, man was created for his ultimate eternal destruction.

Can you know you are deceived? The answer is tricky… it is both yes and no. When you water down, ignore or diminish the truth about God, you play right into the system of the damned. Hell plays for keeps... and the simple truth is, we are all born into its system and under its rule. It is condemned and it wants you to stay condemned with it as well. It curses God and diminishes who He is to every single soul that has ever been born on this planet. When you question whether He exists and you look around at all that He has placed around us that reveals Him, you agree with the system you are already enslaved to. When you make statements like "if heaven really does exist" as if the possibility of it not is somehow real, you agree with the slave master’s rule you were born into. When you ask the question, "What kind of God would send someone to hell" or propose that "a loving God would never allow anyone to needlessly die and suffer", then you agree with the dark prince and his wicked agenda who mocks the One and only true and living God.

God is NOT A HUMAN BEING, nor does He think like one. He does not act in accordance with human thought or reason. But the slave master, like the great illusionists, tricks the mind into believing something other than what is real, and mankind reflects his level of his deception every moment of every day as he misses the myriad of opportunities God gives for him to be set free from his enslavement.

The price God paid for our deliverance and the way He did it; when He did it, and why He did it the way He did it go completely contrary to anything that makes sense... or does it? Answer this question, would you as a parent not give your life so that your child could live? And wouldn't you as a husband, lay down your life to protect your wife? Yet the slave master would have you believe otherwise about God. That He would never come and die for His creation in order to set them free. Why? Simple: HE DOESN'T WANT YOU FREE! He wants you to share in his death and ultimate destruction and judgment for eternity.

Perception can be deception. How you perceive God to be determines the level of your potential for freedom or your utter enslavement and ultimate destruction. Truth is NOT illusive or only for the enlightened. It is there for you and reaches out to break the chains off of your life and deliver you from the kingdom of darkness into the Kingdom of Light and Truth! Are you willing to know the truth?

Until you understand your enslavement, that you were born into slavery and remain a slave until the truth is revealed about who God is and you choose to believe the truth, you will remain trapped in the system of the dark one. You will go about your life thinking you are actually free, yet all the while weighed down in chains. The Bible says, “It is for freedom that Messiah set us free”! FREEDOM! Freedom from what? The slavery that most never realize they are in bondage to. Like it or not; agree with it or not, it is reality. The slave master actually hates you because you are created above him and in the image of his Judge, and executioner. The dark on is out for your ultimate and eternal destruction.

Freedom is an option based in a choice. The truth is, your freedom is one decision away!

© 2012 Steven Bliss
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AMERICA: LAND OF THE DUPED AND EMOTIONALLY RAPED

Recently in a Facebook dialog over an article I posted about Newsweek’s hilariously stupid cover picture of President Obama with a rainbow colored halo over his head and the caption “The Gay President”, I have come to marvel at the sheer lack of willingness on peoples parts to investigate the facts on why the do or do not believe in something… such as why after four years of the most contrary and disruptive administration since Jimmy Carter and Woodrow Wilson do they still believe Mr. Obama has anything to offer the citizens of America as he has single-handedly brought the country to its knees and done the exact opposite of all he so gloriously alleged. After a plethora of comments, some ludicrous, some brilliant, some finger pointing and insinuating, I finished it up with what I will call my op-ed on the whole matter. This is “my opinion”. It doesn’t mean I am right, I’m not claiming I am right… merely stating fact and observation on the current state of affairs in America, and the daunting task of re-righting the ship (if it is even possible anymore), and the calling to sanity those who have been so dubiously duped into slumber through hypnotic charismatica! Again… this is just “my opinion”. Take it for what it’s worth!

I think for me, and I'm only speaking for me, my view of the state of affairs in my country is that we are out of control and not getting better, but worse. We are like a close friend of mine who passed away some years back. She had pneumonia and didn't even know how sick she was until she died because she wouldn't go to the doctor because she only thought she had a slight case of bronchitis. Whose fault is it? IMO many people's. Is it all on Obama's shoulders? No, but I must qualify that no by saying "HE IS IN THE DRIVERS SEAT"! That places a greater onus and responsibility on his shoulders. My personal point of view is that he has NOT done a great job. I personally believe its his lack of experience, understanding and a radically different philosophy than what I believe it takes to really steer such and enormous nation. His charismatic and well intentioned beginning with a simple mantra of "yes we can" that seduced the masses has fallen painfully short in its implementation. Was it a impossible task to begin with... probably... has he done the best with what he had to work with... IMHO, NO!

It is painfully obvious to me that most don't really investigate beyond the surface and take things, for the most part, at face value. Let's be honest, research is tedious and for the most part, extremely boring. But, if you only take things at face value and listen to a hyper-biased media, then you will believe whatever it is they want you to believe... whether negative or positive. But I am not one who settles. I know that lies, exaggeration and twisting things are a part of politics, media, and sadly, religion. That's why I want to search out a matter for myself. There have been many times that I have taken what someone said as the gospel truth, only to be humiliated and extremely disappointed when the truth finally did come out.

This is not about religion for me. I know, many of you won't believe that statement because of my strong convictions, but this is about my own personal research and discovery as a citizen of this great, though terribly waning, country. I have many friends whom I love that are gay. I don't care what lifestyle they choose to live, I love them for who they are. Many of my closest friends are black. I had a black pen-pall at 9 years old. I played music and have written with a lot of amazing people, many whom are black. Most of them think I was born black and then turned white. Most of my white friends think I'm black and will publicly state such. LOL I am a hater of racism. God is a hater of racism. I have traveled down many paths in my 58 years and done many things that I wished I hadn't, but I will never be labeled as anti anything other than sin and darkness! I believe in the power of love and the greatest quality any human being can exhibit, humility.

For me, so much is missing in this country... it's lost its way. It has mistaken socialism for acceptance, liberalism for tolerance, dependance as love. We are on a collision corse with destruction. We don't take Santayana's famous remark "Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it" seriously. That's why the Bible is the greatest book in the world... because God knows we forget, and we need to be continually reminded. Israel always did well when it was humble and remembered God's intervention due to their forgetfulness. America... and us, it's citizens, have forgotten what has made us the greatest nation on the earth. We have forgotten the blood that was shed for our liberty and freedom. We disconnected from our European socialistic, dictatorial and despotic past and have created a place where anyone could have the freedom to be who God made them to be in the first place. We are being fed a concoction of pure lies and half truths as we are led seductively backwards... and sadly, we don't even see it. We have become the epitome of the "blind leading the blind". And for this very reason, we are destined to become the very things we were delivered from so long ago... indentured slaves and servants without a voice.

I am truly grateful for the amazing interactions here, but I am not one who lies down and just says run over me. I see a greater hope and future for this country. Is there anyone right now that can honestly deliver that... not anyone human. But there is a way that seems right to many because of the propaganda we are being fed. It's way ends in death. Death of a dream! Death of a nation! Death of Freedom! Do I believe BO is the anti-christ? I reserve judgment on that, but is he really a Christian in the truest sense of the word Biblically... I would have to say from all I have read and heard him say, and yes that includes his own writings and words, NO! Do I believe he is Hitler? No, though he is extremely antagonistic towards Israel and the Jewish people... like it or not, and he strangely resembles some of the despotic characteristics of the man who would deceive a nation! America is much different than Germany in the 1920's and 30's, but deception and propaganda are rampant in the Obama camp. Do I believe he is a muslim and or a muslim sympathizer? If he's not, he has serious visions of using radical Islam as a tool in his twisted view of the world... and again... this is all based on his actions and very own words. Do I believe he is a great president or can be a great president... NO. Is he gay? Really... do I even need to answer that question?

Bottom line is this... we have forgotten that in America it's "by the people, for the people". We still have a voice. For how much longer... that's anyone's guess, but by the way we're going now, it won't be long... even though they may tell you that's not true. In 2014 Obamacare will become law. It is the single most sinister and corrupt piece of legislation to ever be passed into law in this countries history. Once implemented it will be enforced by the IRS. Politicians, and select others, are exempt from it! Really? Why? You have to be drinkin' the kool-aid to not investigate the complete unconstitutionality of this bill. It will single handedly begin the process of removing your rights... OUR RIGHTS to choose. That alone should scare the livin' tar out of every single one of you.

I'm not here to sling mud... but to call to attention those who will hear and shout to those who are asleep at the wheel... WAKE UP! Like me or not... judge me as you will... but I will not be quiet as long as God gives me breath!

Shalom!

(please feel free to comment world…  that’s what the little box below is all about. Your opinion matters)

© 2012 Steven Bliss
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THE EMPIRE OF ME

The EMpire of ME is nothing more than EMpty and MEaningless because no matter which way you spell it, there's only room for ME in it. When I seek to save my life, I loose the very meaning of life itself by which everyone else suffers from my own 

ME-centeredness! 

~Bliss

© 2012 Steven Bliss
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FOR GOD AND GOD ALONE!

As he went along, he saw a man blind from birth. His disciples asked him, “Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?” Neither this man nor his parents sinned,” said Jesus, “but this happened so that the works of God might be displayed in him. As long as it is day, we must do the works of him who sent me. Night is coming, when no one can work. While I am in the world, I am the light of the world.”

After saying this, he spit on the ground, made some mud with the saliva, and put it on the man’s eyes. “Go,” he told him, “wash in the Pool of Siloam” (this word means “Sent”). So the man went and washed, and came home seeing.

His neighbors and those who had formerly seen him begging asked, “Isn’t this the same man who used to sit and beg?” Some claimed that he was. Others said, “No, he only looks like him.” But he himself insisted, “I am the man.”

Have you wondered as to why certain things have happened to you over the course of your life? The question is always posed, “why do bad things happen to good people?” Is your answer, “It must be because of something I have done” or “I must be cursed”? Have you ever thought that it has nothing to do with you, but for the purpose of glorifying God and revealing His works?

This blind man had no idea Who it was he was talking to. He had no idea that it was his “day of visitation”; yet he had been suffering with his affliction since birth. His whole life was lived under the burden and disgrace of his blindness and the assumption by all who saw that it was because of "someone or some sin” that he was blind. But unbeknownst to him, and everyone else, he had been waiting his whole life for the moment that was about to come for which he himself had been born; a visitation from God Himself that would deliver him, heal his blindness and take away his disgrace with a single touch!

What is interesting is that after he was healed, though he was the same man that he was before his deliverance, he was almost completely unrecognizable to all who knew him after his personal encounter with God Himself! He was a man raised in a home where Torah and the adherence to God was taught and lived out. He knew the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob… yet in an instant, all that he had known was swallowed up by his encounter with the Living God! And the very first person he saw was Jesus. He was instantly delivered from what had enslaved him his whole life. When God visits us for the purpose of deliverance, we will never be the same, and the change will be evident for all to see, because we met Him face to face! 

Maybe you have been in the same place forever waiting for a miracle? I’m sure many are and don’t even realize that they were born for one single moment where God Himself will invade their space and unchain them from what has overwhelmed them and imprisoned them their entire lives. Every day he went to that spring hoping for a miracle from God. He went there with expectation and faith. Jesus rebuked the Pharisees for not recognizing the day of their visitation because their spiritual blindness and arrogance prevented them from seeing Who it was that stood before them. Yet in the simplicity and faith of a child, this poor man who was blind, could suddenly see.

The moral: Don’t EVER give up… and don’t believe the lies. Be like the blind man who, though he was afflicted his entire life, NEVER gave up, but instead found out that all he had endured was for the purposes of God! And so is your life... Do you believe?

© 2012 Steven Bliss
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CHECKPOINT 1: STOPPING THE NOISE!

A group of verses have been running through my head all day. I call them the "SO WHAT" verses or “THE RE-EVALUATORS"! They force us to (at least they should) examine our hearts as well as our actions to determine where we are at in several ways...

The first one are Paul's words in 1 Corinthians 13, "If I speak with the tongues of men and angels, but do not have love, I have become a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. If I have the gift of prophecy, and know all mysteries and all knowledge; and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. And if I give all my possessions to feed the poor, and if I surrender my body to be burned, but do not have love, it profits me nothing."

So then what really matters besides love? In Paul's mind, and obviously in the mind of God... NOTHING! Not high and lofty, otherworldly spiritual dynamics like the ability to speak the language of angels, which honestly seems unbelievable, right? And not even the possessing of and the use of such important spiritual gifts such as prophesy; or the fact that God may allow us to know the deep mysteries and knowledge most have no idea exists. And not even attaining to and walking in a level of faith that few experience, yet does exist, which is capable of moving in the uber-supernatural! And sadly, not even the hyper compassionate, benevolent and sacrificial expressions, which seem so close to the heart of God, matter. According to Paul, there is NO GAIN without LOVE BEING THE MOTIVATING FACTOR OF ALL OUR ACTIONS! Without love, as Paul says... WE ARE NOTHING! So my spirituality and "God talk" is nothing more than noise without love! In other words, the Law of Love is the essence of the heart of God!

So then what kind of love are we talking about here? Thought it seems impossible, this is true love: Love is always patient, and always kind. It knows no jealousy nor does it incite one to jealousy. It never brags or is arrogant. It never acts unbecomingly, or selfishly seeks its own way. It is never provoked and never holds someone hostage over a wrong they have done against it. It never rejoices in unrighteousness, but rejoices in the truth! It bears ALL things, believes ALL things, hopes ALL things, and endures ALL things! Real love never fails!

I could so beat myself up just from the mere fact alone that I fall so far short of loving like this... and, according to the first part; I have been an arrogant fool more often than not in my life. I remember all the times I thought myself so "spiritual" when in truth, I was actually NOTHING BUT NOISE!

Thank God for His love, mercy and grace which are new moment by moment! And I thank God most of all that He opened my eyes to see His son, Y'shua!

© 2012 Steven Bliss

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