Love Wins

Image by David Mark from Pixabay

“And all shall be well. And all shall be well. And all manner of things shall be well.” – Julian of Norwich

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Listen to my song “The Way You Are” on YouTube by clicking HERE.

Support my ministry by purchasing my songs and books at the links following the scripture reflection below. Thank you!

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John 3:17

For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world might be saved through him.

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To begin with, let us remember that God is love (1 John 4:8).

I can only tell you my experience of God, and that of many saints and mystics such as Julian of Norwich, who spoke of a Loving Creator.

The idea that we were put here on Earth as some kind of a competition to see if we could “make it” to heaven or be sent to hell simply has to be dismissed if we are to get to the life-giving message of Christianity.

A god who is putting you through hoop-jumping to see if you make the cut or go to eternal punishment is not a god of love.

So I see today’s scripture verse as an affirmation that the life of Jesus was meant to be our way to wholeness.

He showed us the self-emptying way of life, the path of dying to the ego’s insatiable desires, so that we could live as our true selves in the service of compassion and justice.

As Jesus put it, “Whoever loses his life for my sake will find it. What profit would there be for one to gain the whole world and forfeit his life? (Matthew 16:25-26)”

What a waste it would be to simply follow your ego’s self-centered pursuits your whole life and then realize upon entry into heaven that you didn’t live the life you were meant to live at all!

Mind you, you would still be unconditionally loved by God, but you would have done little to help bring about what Jesus called ‘the kingdom of God’ here on Earth.

This is our mission!

And when you are being your true self, you are also experiencing the inner joy of God’s abundance in your life.

God is always present but many humans are completely disconnected from that presence and are instead caught up in their minds’ incessant activity. (Meditation or Centering Prayer is a good antidote for that!)

Each person’s life has meaning and purpose.

It is a grand adventure for those who realize they are unconditionally loved by God.

All we are meant to do is reflect that love to the world in the unique way that each of us can!

That, my friend, is Good News!

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Listen to the song of the day “The Way You Are” on the Mercy Reigns 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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