Wholemaker

Image by Yuri_B from Pixabay

“The foundation of existence is not mere being (what is) but relationality (what is becoming): union is always toward more being.” Ilia Delio

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Listen to my song “All Are One” on YouTube by clicking HERE.

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Psalm 59:2-3

Rescue me from my enemies, my God; lift me out of reach of my foes. Deliver me from evildoers; from the bloodthirsty save me.

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So many times we look out at the world and separate what we see into the good and the bad.

These are the good people, and these are the bad people.

Black or white.

That simple.

The only problem is: it isn’t that simple.

There are a lot of gray areas in life.

Sure, there are times when we need to say this is good and this is bad or we’d step from the curb into speeding traffic.

Children especially need definite boundaries on what’s acceptable and what’s not.

But when we grow up, the lines get blurry.

We saw Jesus side against the religious law when compassion demanded it (Matthew 12:1-8).

We also know that many seem to define themselves by what they are against.

They seem to love choosing enemies so that they have a reason for living. How sad!

Love is the reason for living as Jesus quite obviously taught us (Matthew 22:36-40).

He even explicitly demanded that we love our enemies (Matthew 5:44)!

This is a direct teaching that, I’m sorry to say, most Christians seem to ignore.

Jesus knew that we are actually one body.

St. Paul came to know this as well: “For as in one body we have many parts, and all the parts do not have the same function, so we, though many, are one body in Christ and individually parts of one another” (Romans 12:4-5).

When we purposely separate ourselves from others, or say hateful things about them, we are opposing what God wants.

God wants all people to love each other.

This is the way that the “kingdom of God” comes alive.

But the Aramaic word that Jesus used that was translated as “kingdom” really has nothing to do with kings.

It is not about “power over” but “power with” others.

It’s the place of mutual empowerment, where all work together for the good.

This is what Jesus told us to “seek first” (Matthew 6:33).

It starts with you and me.

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Listen to the song of the day “All Are One” on the Mercy Reigns album by clicking HERE.

Stream and/or purchase my songs on Amazon Music by clicking HERE.

Purchase my book “Mercy Reigns: A Daily Devotional of Compassion, Comfort and Healing” on Amazon by clicking HERE.

Remember: God loves you!

About billtonnis

Child of God, Pastoral Minister, Chaplain, Music Minister, Jail Minister, singer-songwriter, author, activist, former radio news anchor, imperfect follower of Jesus inspired by God's unconditional love, proud uncle... what else is there?
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