Grace Happens

Image by Lawrence Hur from Pixabay

“Most of us were taught that God would love us if and when we change. In fact, God loves you so that you can change.” – Richard Rohr

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Listen to my song “Changed” on YouTube by clicking HERE.

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Galatians 1:13

For you heard of my former way of life in Judaism, how I persecuted the church of God beyond measure and tried to destroy it.

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Before he became known as Paul and later St. Paul, he was known as Saul.

At that time, he was convinced he was doing God’s work by dragging Christians to imprisonment and even to their executions.

Christians of his time would have considered him a terrorist by today’s standards.

God did not give up on him.

God wants to see all people who think they are doing good acts but are actually doing harmful ones to be transformed.

They are usually zealously doing what they think is good.

Remember the powerful lesson Jesus gave us as he looked down from the cross at his executioners? “Father, forgive them, they know not what they do” (Luke 23:34).

Have you ever been confronted by new information and realized you had been wrong or at least misinformed?

I have.

I remember years ago expressing that racism was no longer an issue.

I recently revisited that now embarrassing encounter and I realized that at the very same time I made that comment, the horrible atrocities that resulted in the book and movie titled Just Mercy were happening in Alabama.

I. Had. No. Idea.

I had no idea about a lot of things that my black brothers and sisters were experiencing because I had no connection to their lives.

I was living in a very “white” world.

People can change.

Usually it happens by Grace.

Something happens that causes you to see from a new viewpoint, one you never saw from before.

Each of us is called to hope, pray, and work for the transformation of all people to be more like Christ – especially ourselves.

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Listen to the song of the day “Changed” on the Give Praise and Thanks album by clicking HERE.

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

Purchase my new book “Listen to Your Heart: A Daily Devotional of Calling, Purpose and New Life” on Amazon 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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