New Album in Progress

It’s been a while since I’ve written a post because I’ve been concentrating on

writing and producing my 6th album titled: The Time to Love Is Now.

Four of the ten songs are now recorded! You can listen to the title song by clicking

HERE

Would you consider chipping to help make me complete the final 6 songs?

I will need to raise at least $9000 to do this.

Go to my website BillTonnisMinistries.com and click on the “donate” button.

You can also listen to my streaming station, “May I Be Light” by scrolling down.

Many thanks!

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New Christmas Song

Please listen to my latest single.

Click HERE

May the Light be born anew in you this Christmas.

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New Album & New Book

My fifth album and third book are out!

Both are titled: “Love Is the Only Answer”

Click HERE to purchase a CD
Click HERE to purchase

The book is also available on Amazon & the album on Amazon Music etc.

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True Self

“When the presence of God emerges from our inmost being into our faculties, whether we walk down the street or drink a cup of soup, divine life is pouring into the world.” – Thomas Keating, Open Mind, Open Heart

Photo by music4life on Pixabay

Click HERE to listen to the PODCAST version of Today’s Contemplation (Read the reflection below)

Listen to my song “Breathe On Me” on YouTube by clicking HERE.

My 4 albums and 2 books (Mercy Reigns & Listen to Your Heart) are available for purchase HERE. Also available on Amazon.

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

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Matthew 10:39

Jesus said, “Whoever finds his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.”

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This is a key teaching of Jesus to free us from the clutches of being dominated by our egos so that we can be our true selves.

That is salvation my friend.

Instead, many made Jesus into someone you need to believe in so that you can get a passing grade to heaven and avoid punishment in hell.

That would leave most of humanity to a fiery future!

Instead, Jesus showed us (and shows us) the path to life right now.

He said in John chapter 14 verse 6, “I am the way, the truth and the life.”

It’s the “I am-ness” of Jesus that gives us life to the full.

It’s the “beingness” of Jesus.

It’s his way that is the way to life.

And what is the way of Jesus?

Look to the Beatitudes, Matthew chapter 5 verses 1 to 12.

Here you see Jesus preaching about being humble; giving comfort; being merciful; being a peacemaker.

Check out Matthew chapter 25 verses 35 and 36 where he says, “For I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink, a stranger and you welcomed me, naked and you clothed me, ill and you cared for me, in prison and you visited me.”

A person only acts in these ways if that person is not acting selfishly out of the ego’s cravings for attention.

This requires a letting go of that false self which was manufactured out of the craving for power, prestige and security.

It requires, as Jesus stated, losing your life.

When that false self diminishes, you open the channels to the Divine Voice inside of you which always says, “I love you.”

From this inner voice of belovedness, from this inner space of total acceptance, you are free to live unattached to all the things that cannot satisfy you.

You are free to live in the Light of being unconditionally loved.

Then, my friend, you will find your life.

I call that being saved.

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Listen to the song of the day “Breathe On Me” on the Listen to Your Heart album by clicking HERE.

My 4 albums and 2 books (Mercy Reigns & Listen to Your Heart) are available for purchase HERE. Also available on Amazon.

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

Remember: God loves you!

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Amazing Grace

“Please grant us the strength to withstand life’s challenges, the compassion to confront our pain, and the patience to wait the dawning of love.” – Beverly Lanzetta

Photo by Ofjd125gk87 on Pixabay

Click HERE to listen to the PODCAST version of Today’s Contemplation

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

My 4 albums and 2 books (Mercy Reigns & Listen to Your Heart) are available for purchase HERE. Also available on Amazon.

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

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Matthew 5:44-45

Jesus said, “But I say to you, love your enemies, and pray for those who persecute you, that you may be children of your heavenly Father, for he makes his sun rise on the bad and the good, and causes rain to fall on the just and the unjust.”

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We often hear people passionately citing certain gospel passages…but not this one.

This statement by Jesus gets conveniently overlooked.

It doesn’t work in a country that glorifies crushing the adversary.

Jesus gives a radical message of love in today’s scripture.

I mean, it can’t get more radical than loving your enemies, right?

But isn’t that what pure love is?

It’s radical in that, in its purest state, this love is unconditional.

That’s the Love that Jesus experiences from what is translated here as “heavenly Father.”

In a more expansive translation that would likely come from the Aramaic language Jesus spoke, the meaning would probably be closer to Sacred Unity or Divine Birther.

The Divine Birther doesn’t separate and divide anything.

This Sacred Unity can only love everything because it is Love and has created everything through Love.

Its very nature is a part of everything.

God’s love is not quid pro quo.

Jesus compares it to the sun rising on the bad and the good, and the rain falling on the just and the unjust.

Each of us knows that we sometimes might be considered good; but we also know that, on rare occasions of course, we might be considered bad.

None of us acts perfectly.

We all have our faults.

But the Sacred Unity always holds us in a Loving Gaze.

We literally breathe-in the unconditional Love that sustains us.

This kind of Love transforms!

How will the world come to know this Infinite Love if not through us?

Feel the Grace raining down upon you.

Allow it to settle into your heart.

Feel its immense warmth.

How will we pass it on to all of creation?

How will we pass it on to our enemies?

Our reliance must not be on ourselves but on Grace.

May it be so!

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Listen to the song of the day “Radically Okay” on the Mercy Reigns album by clicking HERE.

My 4 albums and 2 books (Mercy Reigns & Listen to Your Heart) are available for purchase HERE. Also available on Amazon.

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

Remember: God loves you!

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Harmony

“The eye through which I see God is the same eye through which God sees me; my eye and God’s eye are one eye, one seeing, one knowing, one love.” – Meister Eckhart

Photo by TheDigitalArtist on Pixabay

Click HERE to listen to the PODCAST version of Today’s Contemplation

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

My 4 albums and 2 books (Mercy Reigns & Listen to Your Heart) are available for purchase HERE. Also available on Amazon.

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

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2 Corinthians 13:11

“Rejoice. Mend your ways, encourage one another, agree with one another, live in peace, and the God of love and peace will be with you.”

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In today’s scripture, St. Paul is trying to urge those who read his words to be whole-makers.

That’s what Jesus was.

He worked to restore those who were ill to wellness and to restore those who were marginalized to a community.

Promoting wholeness and oneness of all people will not win you friends.

Those with power, whether in government or religion, will not react kindly.

They want to hold onto their power.

Perhaps we should all do a gut-check now and ask ourselves this question: What is my motivation for my actions?

Is it the oneness of all or is it more my own personal happiness?

Jesus taught that we are all one.

In the Gospel of John, chapter 14 verses 19 and 20, Jesus stated: “In a little while the world will no longer see me, but you will see me, because I live and you will live. On that day you will realize that I am in my Father and you are in me and I in you.”

Let me repeat that last part: “You will realize that I am in my Father and you are in me and I in you.”

We are all one!

But it sure doesn’t appear that way!

That’s because many are still operating out of their childhood programs for happiness.

Psychologically, they have never grown up.

Thomas Keating, one of the founders of Contemplative Outreach, taught at length about this.

For Keating, these psychological needs involve the categories of power and control; esteem and affection; and security and survival.

If people are still operating out of these childhood programs for happiness, they become egocentric.

Such an operating system leads to us against them scenarios where the “us” is always right, and the “them” is always wrong!

The results are fighting, wars, and the misuse of the Earth as a commodity for our selfish interests.  

At some point, each child is expected to grow up to realize that he or she is not the center of the world.

Each person is a part of a greater whole.

We are all a part of a wondrous Fabric of Creation.

Each of us and all things have the Spark of the Divine inside.

As Paul wrote in Second Corinthians, chapter 13 verse 5: “Do you not realize that Jesus Christ is in you?”

Christ, the Sacred Energy of the Universe, is in you, me and everything!

We are called to see this in everyone and everything.

Only then will the God of love and peace be realized in this place and time.

May it be so.

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

My 4 albums and 2 books (Mercy Reigns & Listen to Your Heart) are available for purchase HERE. Also available on Amazon.

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

Remember: God loves you!

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Be Present

“The secret is to renounce nothing, cling to nothing, enjoy everything and allow it to pass, to flow.” – Anthony de Mello, The Way to Love

Photo by Anja on Pixabay

Click HERE to listen to the PODCAST version of Today’s Contemplation

Listen to my song “Love Is the Only Answer” on YouTube by clicking HERE.

My 4 albums and 2 books (Mercy Reigns & Listen to Your Heart) are available for purchase HERE. Also available on Amazon.

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

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John 14:2-4

Jesus told his followers, “In my Father’s house there are many dwelling places. If there were not, would I have told you that I am going to prepare a place for you? And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back again and take you to myself, so that where I am you also may be. Where I am going you know the way.”

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Just before today’s scripture verses, Jesus told his followers that despite the apparent darkness of the situation, their hearts should not be troubled.

They were unable to see the big picture.

They were looking through their limited human lens.

Jesus said he would bring all of them safely to himself and that they know the way.

He then says the famous line, “I am the way and the truth and the life.”

His followers didn’t get it.

Many Christians still don’t get it if you ask me.

They make Jesus the exclusive holder of the key to heaven.

That would mean that the great majority of people from all time are left out.

That can’t be what he means.

In my opinion, it’s the way of Jesus that will bring you to safe harbor.

It’s his I am-ness that we must take part in much more than any beliefs.

Jesus modeled for his followers a person who was totally in-tune with the Great I Am.

Jesus showed them how to die-to-themselves as in how to let-go of their ego-driven selves; to become one with the Flow of the Creative Love of the Universe.

Jesus became this Loving Presence.

This is the Way that leads to peace and freedom from the shackles of oppressive institutions and human constructs.

Love is the Way my friends. It starts right now, right here, with you and me.

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Listen to the song of the day “Love Is the Only Answer” on the Mercy Reigns album by clicking HERE.

My 4 albums and 2 books (Mercy Reigns & Listen to Your Heart) are available for purchase HERE. Also available on Amazon.

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

Remember: God loves you!

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You Belong

“Whoever you are, no matter how lonely, the world offers itself to your imagination, calls to you like the wild geese, harsh and exciting – over and over announcing your place in the family of things.” – Mary Oliver, Wild Geese

Photo by NoName_13 on Pixabay

Click HERE to listen to the PODCAST version of Today’s Contemplation

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

My 4 albums and 2 books (Mercy Reigns & Listen to Your Heart) are available for purchase HERE. Also available on Amazon.

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

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John 11:43-44

Jesus cried out in a loud voice, “Lazarus, come out!” The dead man came out (of the tomb), tied hand and foot with burial bands, and his face was wrapped in a cloth. So Jesus said to them, “Untie him and let him go.”

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Are you in need of new life?

Do you feel like you are imprisoned; entombed so to speak?

Like you have no power?

You are not meant to live such a life.

Jesus said in the Gospel of John, chapter 10, verse 10: “I came so that they might have life and have it more abundantly.”

Jesus said you were meant for abundant life!

Today’s scripture verses came to me other day when I realized I had let religion put me in a tomb.

Rules upon rules and guilt trip upon guilt trip had taken its toll.

I realized how I had been tied hand and foot.

Male authority figures had concocted a religion that constricted my spirit.

It did not encourage freedom and life.

There are certain religious authority figures now who are traumatizing people, binding them in guilt and unworthiness.

It’s tragic.

The truth is: You are a beloved child of the One who made all things.

You are part of the One.

You cannot be otherwise.

You are loved unconditionally.

You are meant to know your belovedness and then to live as a unique expression of this belovedness to the world.

We all have our shadows, our struggles, that are part of our human condition.

But as the Jesuit theologian and scientist Teilhard de Chardin stated: “We are spiritual beings having a human experience.”

Do not beat yourself up over the complex human experience.

Struggles are meant to help you grow in love.

This happens through the grace of being accepted just as you are!

God wants to love you, not punish you!

You are a beautiful, unconditionally loved child of God.

What is holding you in chains?

Addictions? Fears? Religion?

Whatever it is, there is help for you.

There are people who know the real Jesus who are ready to embrace you.

Jesus is calling you to come out of the tomb.

Untie your hands and feet.

You are free!

Live in that freedom!

Be you!

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Listen to the song of the day “The Way You Are” on the Mercy Reigns album by clicking HERE.

My 4 albums and 2 books (Mercy Reigns & Listen to Your Heart) are available for purchase HERE. Also available on Amazon.

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

Remember: God loves you!

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Leap of Faith

“The unknown is simply the Divine in motion, ready to take your hand.” – Kris Franken

Photo by No-longer-here on Pixabay

Click HERE to listen to the PODCAST version of Today’s Contemplation

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

My 4 albums and 2 books (Mercy Reigns & Listen to Your Heart) are available for purchase HERE. Also available on Amazon.

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

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John 3:8

“The wind blows where it wills, and you can hear the sound it makes, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes; so it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit.”

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In today’s scripture, one of the religious leaders who had power over the Jews had come to talk to Jesus in the secrecy of the night.

Nicodemus saw the wondrous works Jesus had performed and his heart was moved.

He was drawn to investigate further.

Isn’t that what happens to all of us?

We have an experience that tells us there is more to this life than what is on the surface.

It taps into an inner yearning to go deeper.

To satisfy this gnawing desire, we must take a step into the unknown.

We must go outside our comfort zone.

Jesus tells Nicodemus he must be born of the Spirit.

He must be willing to let go of his former self, the one who is defined by the false constructs of the world, so that he can experience new life.

He must be willing to listen to the whisper in his heart and then let the Spirit lead him – and the Spirit is as wild as the wind!

You cannot control the Spirit.

It is the all-loving Creative Energy of the Universe!

It will take you to places you never would have dreamed of going!

I never would have dreamed that I’d be playing guitar and singing my original songs to bring inspiration to inmates and comfort to the sick and dying.

The Spirit will lead you to your true self.

The only cost is the death of your old self.

I know this feeling.

It’s not easy!

Turning yourself over to the Spirit will feel like dying.

It takes great trust!

I recently heard a great acronym for the word trust: Total Reliance Upon Spiritual Timing.

The payoff is the freedom of abundant new life that you never would have known had you not taken the leap into the vast void of Infinite Grace.

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Listen to the song of the day “Listen to Your Heart” on the Listen to Your Heart album by clicking HERE.

My 4 albums and 2 books (Mercy Reigns & Listen to Your Heart) are available for purchase HERE. Also available on Amazon.

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

Remember: God loves you!

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Easter Rising

“Your heart knows the way. Run in that direction.” – Rumi

Photo by CarlottaSilvestrini on Pixabay

Click HERE to listen to the PODCAST version of Today’s Contemplation

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

My 4 albums and 2 books (Mercy Reigns & Listen to Your Heart) are available for purchase HERE. Also available on Amazon.

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

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John 20:15-16

Jesus said to her, “Woman, why are you weeping? Whom are you looking for?” She thought it was the gardener and said to him, “Sir, if you carried him away, tell me where you laid him, and I will take him.” Jesus said to her, “Mary!” She turned and said to him in Hebrew, “Rabbouni,” which means Teacher.

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What drew Mary Magdalene to the tomb on Easter morning?

The Gospel of Mark states that Mary and other women came to the tomb to anoint Jesus.

If you look closely at the four gospels that were accepted by the patriarchal Church, you will find that Mary Magdalene was consistently present with Jesus – all the way to the cross and the tomb even though she gets no special attention.

When the men ran away, Mary Magdalene did not.

There were also “other women” whose names were not recorded.

Why do you think Mary Magdalene was constantly there?

Did she perhaps understand Jesus’ teaching about how letting go and losing your life would lead to finding your life?

Do you think, perhaps, she understood that Jesus was teaching us the path to transformation?

The male followers undoubtedly thought Jesus had been utterly defeated. They were off hiding while Magdalene was asserting her authority: “Tell me where you laid him, and I will take him.”

Very curious.

There has been much new scholarship about Mary Magdalene over the last twenty years regarding the other gospels that were thrown-out as well as ancient bible manuscripts that show questionable alterations.

I’m not getting into that here. That’s up to you to pursue further.

The fact of the matter is: There is no doubt that Mary Magdalene was a huge part of the Jesus story.

In today’s scripture, she is the first person that the resurrected Jesus appears to and the first person to be sent to tell the good news.

How did such an integral person become insignificant in the unfolding of the institutional Church?

Not just insignificant: She actually was equated with a prostitute by a pope in the sixth century which tainted what little reputation she had until the Church finally nullified that position in 1969.

Eventually Pope Francis declared her the Apostle of the Apostles in 2016.

We don’t know for sure, but her name might not mean that she was from a city called Magdala, but that Magdalene was a nickname given to her by Jesus meaning “tower” – much like Peter was given a nickname meaning “rock”.

How might the institutional Church have developed differently if Mary Magdalene had been elevated and celebrated from the start?

Why did such an integral follower simply vanish?

There are many questions!

I really can’t explain my deep dedication to this movement, but I have found many others around the world who feel the same.

It feels like something new and life-giving is rising from the ashes.

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Listen to the song of the day “Mary Magdalene” by clicking HERE.

My 4 albums and 2 books (Mercy Reigns & Listen to Your Heart) are available for purchase HERE. Also available on Amazon.

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

Remember: God loves you!

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