Keep the Faith

Posted on May 17, 2021 by billtonnis
Image by Gerd Altmann from Pixabay

“All shall be well, and all shall be well and all manner of thing shall be well.” – Julian of Norwich

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Listen to my song “Mercy Reigns” 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 16:32-33

“Behold, the hour is coming and has arrived when each of you will be scattered to his own home and you will leave me alone. But I am not alone, because the Father is with me. I have told you this so that you might have peace in me. In the world you will have trouble, but take courage, I have conquered the world.”

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The gospel of John was likely written around the year 100.

It is mostly a theological teaching about Jesus after there had been many years to digest and process all that had happened.

We can each place ourselves in the shoes of the followers who Jesus told would be scattered to their homes and would leave Jesus alone.

We all can relate to abandoning him.

It’s tough to live out the gospel that Jesus proclaimed.

It calls us to feed the hungry, welcome the stranger, clothe the naked, care for the sick, and visit the imprisoned (Matthew 25:31-40).

It calls us to be peacemakers (Matthew 5:9) and to love our enemies (Matthew 5:44).

I promise you, if you do these things, you will be persecuted.

But as Jesus said in today’s scripture, “In the world you will have trouble, but take courage, I have conquered the world.”

Jesus didn’t conquer in the sense of a military victory.

He conquered the world in the sense that he showed us that persecution and death do not have the final say.

Walking the path of love will not end in death but will lead to transformation.

New life follows.

All struggles, if entered into with compassion and integrity, will result in transformation and new life.

This is the process God is using to continue creation.

It is also the process God is using to bring about what Jesus called the kingdom of God here on Earth.

The power of Love is alive and well!

This Love is “in which we live and move and have our being” (Acts 17:28), as St. Paul put it.

God is in all and through all.

In this knowledge, receive the peace of God “that surpasses all understanding and will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus” (Philippians 4:7).

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Listen to the song of the day “Mercy Reigns” 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!

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Oneness

Posted on May 14, 2021 by billtonnis
Image by PIRO4D from Pixabay

“What we have to recover is our original unity.” – Thomas Merton

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Listen to my song “All Are One” 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 15:17

“This I command you: love one another.”

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I often hear people loudly proclaiming that we are a Christian nation.

May I ask how we are a Christian nation when we are failing across the board at the very basic foundation of Christianity?

Jesus commanded us to love one another.

We’d be hard-pressed to find wide-spread evidence of this being carried out.

Jesus said the greatest two commandments were to love God with all your heart, soul, and mind and to love your neighbor as yourself (Matthew 22:36-40).

He also commanded us to love our enemies (Matthew 5:44).

Are we even remotely following any of these commandments on a national level?

As G.K. Chesterton wrote in his book, What’s Wrong with the World: “The Christian ideal has not been tried and found wanting. It has been found difficult; and left untried.”

As I witness a tremendous lack of love in our discourse and actions, I realize I am guilty as well.

I look out and see in others the ugliness that resides deep inside of me.

I realize that I can only change myself.

I have to examine my conscience and hold myself accountable.

The truth is, I am probably incapable of loving perfectly without Grace.

God is all loving and merciful.

When I admit my failures at loving all people, God graciously forgives me.

This is what gives me hope.

I realize that I am not meant to be guilt-ridden but grace-ridden.

It is up to me (and you) to be vessels of this Grace to all of creation.

It starts now.

Let’s do this.

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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 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!

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Love Wins

Posted on May 13, 2021 by billtonnis
Image by sspiehs3 from Pixabay

“The best time to show love is when life is forcing you to show hatred.” – Mitta Xinindlu

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Listen to my song “Let the Joy Rise” 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 16:20

“Amen, amen, I say to you, you will weep and mourn, while the world rejoices; you will grieve, but your grief will become joy.”

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I relate to this statement by Jesus.

When I know in my heart the reality of the Oneness of all and everything in God, my heart breaks when I see the hatred espoused in the world.

There are many caught up in the delusion of divisions, of setting up sides in which they are on the good side while others are placed on the bad side.

There are people who can’t seem to disagree with others without also disparaging, vilifying and demonizing them.

Do we forget common heritage?

Do we forget God’s statement in Genesis 1:26, “Let us make human beings in our image.”

The relational, Trinitarian God made all of us in God’s relational, Trinitarian image.

We are all meant to be in relationship, to share God’s unconditional love, to live in that compassionate Flow.

However, the way of the world seems to be to rejoice in the pain and suffering of others, to revel in the defeat of the “other.”

But Jesus tells us that, if we do grieve over such heartless behavior, if we do persevere in the ways of love, mercy, forgiveness, compassion and justice for the oppressed, our grief will be transformed into joy.

As Thomas Merton said, “Love is our true destiny.”

Love is the law of the universe despite the contradictions caused by unconscious human behavior.

Love is slowly transforming all things into what Jesus called the “kingdom of God.”

It’s happening secretly in plain view.

Jesus compared this covert, Divine action to yeast in dough: “It is like yeast that a woman took and mixed in with three measures of wheat flour until the whole batch of dough was leavened” (Luke 13:21).

Take courage!

Love is indeed winning.

Joy is rising.

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Listen to my song “Let the Joy Rise” 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!

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Breathe

Posted on May 12, 2021 by billtonnis
Image by FelixMittermeier from Pixabay

“We cannot attain the presence of God because we’re already totally in the presence of God. What’s absent is awareness.” – Richard Rohr

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Listen to my song “Breathe On Me” 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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Acts 17:24-25

“The God who made the world and all that is in it, the Lord of heaven and earth, does not dwell in sanctuaries made by human hands, nor is he served by human hands because he needs anything. Rather it is he who gives to everyone life and breath and everything.

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Take a deep breath.

Breathe in deeply – and then slowly exhale.

Feel the Love of the universe energizing and embracing you.

It is the very name of God: Yah–weh.

Breathe in: Yahhhhhhhhhhhh.

Exhale: wehhhhhhhhhhhh.

Meditate by simply focusing on your breathing.

Be present to the Divine Presence.

As Paul put it: “In him we live and move and have our being” (Acts 17:28).

That is how close we are to the Love that made us.

You don’t have to do anything to be worthy of or to merit this Love.

You only have to fall into it, awaken to it.

It is everywhere and nowhere.

The entire universe is being wooed, drawn lovingly to an “Omega Point” as Teilhard de Chardin put it, when all will be One.

It is all sacred.

Thomas Merton got a mystical glimpse of this when, at a corner in downtown Louisville, he saw all people walking around shining like the sun.

Sadly, he knew that most people did not see it.

“If only they could all see themselves as they really are. If only we could see each other that way all the time. There would be no more war, no more hatred, no more cruelty, no more greed…But this cannot be seen, only believed and ‘understood’ by a peculiar gift” (Conjectures of a Guilty Bystander).

My friend, it is true!

Do you believe it?

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Listen to the song of the day “Breathe On Me” on the Listen to Your Heart 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!

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Let Love Lead You

Posted on May 11, 2021 by billtonnis
Image by Gerd Altmann from Pixabay

“The Holy Spirit is the kind of energy that is capable of being there, of understanding, of accepting, of loving, and of healing.” – Thich Nhat Hanh

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

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

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John 16:7

“For if I do not go, the Advocate will not come to you. But if I go, I will send him to you.”

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Jesus told his followers that when he was gone, he would send to them the Advocate, which we also call the Holy Spirit.

In the absence of the physical presence of Jesus of Nazareth, the presence of his Spirit would be unleashed.

This would be far more powerful because this Spirit would then be able to enflame far more people to continue the work of Jesus.

Jesus went on to say that the Advocate, literally helper, would convict the world in regard to condemnation, “Because the ruler of this world has been condemned” (John 16:11).

And who is the ruler of this world?

In my opinion, it is the spirit of greed: greed for power, prestige, and possessions.

Our egos love this spirit because the ego wants all of that in order to create an identity.

That identity, in the words of Thomas Merton, is a false self:

“Every one of us is shadowed by an illusory person: a false self. This is the man I want myself to be but who cannot exist, because God does not know anything about him. And to be unknown of God is altogether too much privacy. My false and private self is the one who wants to exist outside the reach of God’s will and God’s love—outside of reality and outside of life. And such a self cannot help but be an illusion” (New Seeds of Contemplation).

But all the power, prestige, and possessions of the false self will disintegrate upon physical death.

Merton goes on to say, “And when they are gone there will be nothing left of me but my own nakedness and emptiness and hollowness, to tell me that I am my own mistake.”

Ouch.

Don’t wait for this jarring reality to hit you on your death bed.

Allow all those trappings of the false self to fall away now.

See them for what they are: finite and passing.

(Some form of meditation such as Centering Prayer is a great practice in letting go.)

Use any power, prestige, or possessions that you have for the greater good.

But let go of any identification or attachment to them.

Allow your true self to rise.

Discover who you are!

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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.

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!

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Sacred Silence

Posted on May 10, 2021 by billtonnis
Image by TF3000 from Pixabay

“It is better in prayer to have a heart without words than words without a heart.” – Mahatma Gandhi

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Listen to my song “Slow Me Down” 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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Acts 16:13-14

On the Sabbath we went outside the city gate along the river where we thought there would be a place of prayer. We sat and spoke with the women who had gathered there. One of them, a woman named Lydia, a dealer in purple cloth, from the city of Thyatira, a worshiper of God, listened, and the Lord opened her heart to pay attention to what Paul was saying.

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Do you pray?

When I was a kid, I was taught that praying was more about reading already-written-prayers or perhaps asking God to make things happen.

I really wasn’t taught anything about contemplative prayer.

This is more of a way-of-being-with-God, an intentional openness to the Divine Presence.

It’s not just talking to God, but listening as well.

In today’s scripture, we see the early Christians gathering along a river outside the city gate for prayer.

It was likely a quiet place conducive to being present to God’s Presence in their surroundings: nature itself.

And through this intention to rest in the presence of God, they came across a group of women gathered there.

Lydia is described as a “worshiper of God.”

She apparently also had been awakened to the gift of a contemplative heart because the Spirit nudged her to listen to what Paul was saying.

This led her to hearing about Jesus and to being inspired to also become a follower.

God, the Loving Source of all things, is indeed always present.

It is we who are often not, instead caught up in our mind’s addictive and endless thoughts.

Set aside quiet time in a place conducive to contemplative prayer.

(I highly recommend some form of meditation or Centering Prayer.)

Just be in the presence of the Divine Presence.

Listen.

Allow this Presence to bring you peace.

You will begin to carry a peace that surpasses all understanding (Philippians 4:7) with you.

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Listen to the song of the day “Slow Me Down” 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!

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Come Together

Posted on May 7, 2021 by billtonnis
Image by Free-Photos from Pixabay

“Out beyond ideas of wrongdoing and right-doing, there is a field. I’ll meet you there.” – Rumi

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Listen to my song “Pour Me Out” 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 15:12-13

“This is my commandment: love one another as I love you. No one has greater love than this, to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.”

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For Jesus, love was the bottom line.

It sums up his entire ministry.

Jesus laid down his life for the sake of others.

He laid down ego-driven, self-centered desires, in order to serve others.

He healed the sick, comforted the marginalized, and stood up to all government and religious leaders who oppressed others.

Jesus did this through non-violence.

When you truly love, you see all dividing lines as human constructs that stand in the way of the unity that God sees.

This unity, what Jesus called the kingdom of God, is what he wanted to bring about on this earthly plain.

For this to happen, it’ll take our cooperation.

Each of us is being called to take part.

As Jesus went on to say, “It was not you who chose me, but I who chose you and appointed you to go and bear fruit that will remain” (John 15:16).

How do we get beyond the low-level of consciousness that simply divides everything into either being in or out, either black or white?

How do we use our gifts and talents to work for a more compassionate and inclusive society that extends God’s love to all people and all of creation?

It takes letting go of all the pursuits that lead us away from this goal.

Some form of meditation such as Centering Prayer is a good way to practice letting go so that this “way of being” seeps into our everyday lives.

Then, one day, you may find that in the process of losing your old self, you are finding your true self.

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Listen to the song of the day “Pour Me Out” 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!

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Be You

Posted on May 6, 2021 by billtonnis
Image by Daniela Boca from Pixabay

“Let yourself be drawn by the stronger pull of that which you truly love.” – Rumi

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Listen to my song “Sing a New Song” 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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Psalm 96:2-3

Proclaim God’s salvation day after day. Tell his glory among the nations; among all peoples, his marvelous deeds.

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When I say that God saved me, I don’t mean that I was saved from some punishment.

God is love (1 John 4:8), not a judgmental tyrant.

When I do things that are not for my good or someone else’s good, God still loves me.

This is what makes all the difference!

When I realized this, when I experienced this love at my lowest moment in life, it changed me.

I had this inner awakening in a hospital bed over 20 years ago.

I can’t really explain it, but in a moment (or many moments, who knows?), I was filled with a wondrous Unconditional Love.

I didn’t deserve it.

I didn’t earn it.

It was freely given to me.

As a matter of fact, it was due to my lack of merit that I discovered the deep healing of a Great Compassion.

It was as if all things were one in this Love.

From that time forward, I knew I had to share this saving Love with all people and all creation.

I realized that this Unconditional Love makes me whole.

It frees me from fear to be who I am.

I have since recorded four albums of inspirational music and published two books.

“Sing to the Lord a new song” (Psalm 96:1).

Do you know that God loves you with this same Infinite Passion?

Allow this truth to inspire you!

Allow your true self to rise from the shadows in the Light of this truth!

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Listen to the song of the day “Sing a New Song” on the Live to Love 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!

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Grounded in Love

Posted on May 5, 2021 by billtonnis
Image by StockSnap from Pixabay

“You stop fighting and striving…and instead, surrender to your higher purpose and be guided from there…” – Wayne Dyer, The Shift

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Listen to my song “May I Be Light” 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 15:4

“Remain in me, as I remain in you. Just as a branch cannot bear fruit on its own unless it remains on the vine, so neither can you unless you remain in me.”

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Before stating this, Jesus compared God to the “vine grower” and himself to the “true vine” (John 15:1).

He compared the rest of us to being “branches.”

The bottom line is that our true sustenance and source is God.

We can have ready-access to this Source by way of our connection to Jesus.

He is the Enlightened One who models perfectly the self-emptying path to wholeness.

If we took to heart Jesus’ teachings and followed his example, we would experience the fullness of life.

We would be channels of the Love that created us.

This takes letting go of the ego-attractions of this world, the allure of power, prestige and possessions.

As Jesus said elsewhere, “Whoever finds his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it” (Matthew 10:39).

A good way to practice this “dying to self” is through some type of meditation or Centering Prayer.

When we are living a life authentically grounded in the Loving Source of all things, we will then naturally be a part of the Flow of Goodness that is pervading everything.

We will truly bear much fruit – even when we are totally unaware of it.

May it be so!

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Listen to the song of the day “May I Be Light” on the Listen to Your Heart 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!

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Transformative Path

Posted on May 4, 2021 by billtonnis
Image by Joshua Woroniecki from Pixabay

“If you want to cure the world, don’t emanate fear, emanate love.” – Ram Dass

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Listen to my song “I Will Give You Rest” 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 14:27

Jesus said to his followers, “Peace I leave you; my peace I give to you. Not as the world gives do I give it to you. Do not let your hearts be troubled or afraid.”

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Just reading these words brings me comfort.

Jesus was not the warrior messiah that the people were hoping would free them from Roman bondage.

Instead, he was the peace and justice Messiah who would free them from fear.

He confronted the powers that be whether governmental or religious, but he did it with non-violence.

His message to all was truth with compassion and peace.

Jesus preached forgiveness of enemies.

He brought comfort to the oppressed and healing to the sick.

Unlike the world’s peace which usually came by way of force, Jesus’ peace came by way of compassionate action.

The world’s peace eventually dissolved, while the peace Jesus brought had eternal effects.

It was the kind of peace that would carry you through any storm that life could bring and thereby transform you!

It’s a Peace that even death cannot destroy.

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Listen to the song of the day “I Will Give You Rest” on the Live to Love 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!

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