Answer the Call

Posted on June 23, 2020 by billtonnis
Image by Joshua Woroniecki from Pixabay 

In order to be your true self, you will have to step into the unknown.

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Listen to my song “Take the Road Less Traveled” on YouTube by clicking HERE.

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Matthew 7:14

“How narrow the gate and constricted the road that leads to life. And those who find it are few.”

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Jesus gives us one of the keys to happiness.

To enter a narrow gate or make your way down a constricted road, you have to unload all the stuff you thought you needed.

Otherwise, you won’t be able to fit through the gate or maneuver your way on the constricted road.

What is that deep, inner yearning asking you to do?

You will likely be asked to let go of a lot of attachments, a lot of things that the world said you had to have.

It’ll tell you that you have to make some changes, possibly drastic ones.

That inner yearning led me to pursue a Master’s degree in Religious and Pastoral Studies and to write songs.

At the time, I had no idea where this new twisting and dark path was taking me.

Several years later, it led me to quit the only career I ever had as a radio news anchor and reporter.

There comes a time when you have to let go of what makes worldly sense in order to follow your heart.

As I look back now on all that has transpired, I am overwhelmed by the abundance of life I have experienced.

The blessings abound. (Click HERE to read more.)

Let Love lead you.

It’s the only path to living as your true self.

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Listen to the song of the day “Take the Road Less Traveled” on the Live to Love album by clicking HERE.

Purchase and/or stream 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!

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Humility Required

Posted on June 22, 2020 by billtonnis
Image by calimiel from Pixabay 

May our eyes be open to new perspectives.

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

Purchase and/or stream 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.

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Matthew 7:3

“Why do you notice the splinter in your brother’s eye, but do not perceive the wooden beam in your own eye?”

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I bet Jesus was laughing as he was making this comment about how easy it is for each of us to judge others without seeing our own misconceptions.

I mean, seriously, how could you miss that wooden beam protruding from your own eye?

However, this is exactly what can happen if we aren’t humble.

I remember many times in my life when I felt that African Americans who complained about racism should just move on with their lives.

I am embarrassed to say that today.

I actually remember a time in the late 1980’s when I stuck my foot in my mouth in expressing something in regard to Martin Luther King Jr. At that time in my young adult life, I truly felt racism was behind us.

Today, I realize that at that exact time, the vicious and racist actions described in the recent movie and book Just Mercy were happening in Alabama.

Wooden beam in my eye.

(Today I highly regard Martin Luther King Jr. as a prophet.)

I remember six or seven years ago when I was taking Clinical Pastoral Education classes at a local hospital when I was told that an African American chaplain was going to teach us about “white privilege.”

I remember taking offense.

Me? I wasn’t privileged!

I worked hard to get where I am!

As I sat in that class, it was like scales fell from my eyes.

Or was it a wooden beam?

How could I have been so oblivious?

I remember how grateful I was to that chaplain for opening my eyes.

What we truly need today is for more white people to humbly and non-defensively listen to our African American sisters and brothers.

One very helpful book that I’m reading now is White Fragility by Robin DiAngelo.

I highly recommend it to my white readers.

There is a lot we can learn about wooden beams.

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Listen to the song of the day “Heal Me” on the Live to Love album by clicking HERE.

Purchase and/or stream 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!

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Diverse Oneness

Posted on June 19, 2020 by billtonnis

God loves us and the people we most can’t relate to – infinitely.

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

Purchase or stream my music on Amazon Music by clicking HERE.

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

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Deuteronomy 7:6-7

For you are a people holy to the LORD, your God; the LORD, your God, has chosen you from all the peoples on the face of the earth to be a people specially his own. It was not because you are more numerous than all the peoples that the LORD set his heart on you and chose you; for you are really the smallest of all peoples.

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When I read these words of Moses, I was reminded of a very moving moment that happened in my life in 2015.

A group of us representing Catholic churches and schools in Cincinnati was on a trip to Guatemala to form relationships with churches and schools there.

The moment came after I played my guitar and sang for the children outside a school in the little village of Concepcion.

I had just led our group in singing the Christian song, “Open the Eyes of My Heart.”

Afterwards, as I stood and looked out at the beautiful faces of those Guatemalan children who had probably never seen a white person from the United States before, I suddenly heard in my heart a soft voice that said, “These are my people.”

And I was moved to tears.

I later told my friend, a priest who was standing next to me, and he said, “I heard the voice, too.”

We both were in awe of a God who loves all people with such passion.

I had to leave the comfort zone of my white, homogeneous life to receive this gift.

I was then able to relate to the verse, “God is love, and whoever remains in love remains in God and God in him” (1 John 4:16).

All people, no matter what race, religion, gender, or sexual orientation are desperately loved by the One that unifies all things in their beautiful diversity into Love itself.

Yet so many humans live in the delusion of their ego-generated divisions.

Thankfully, God never turns away from us.

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

Purchase or stream 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!

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Wake Up!

Posted on June 18, 2020 by billtonnis
Image by Myri Roet from Pixabay

All creation is sacred to those whose eyes are open.

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Listen to my song “How Wonderful to Me” on YouTube by clicking HERE.

Purchase and/or stream my music on Amazon Music by clicking HERE.

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

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Matthew 6:10

“Your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as in heaven.”

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Continuing where we left off yesterday, Jesus was instructing his followers how to pray.

Just after telling them not to use many words because God already knew what they needed, he gave them words to pray!

So, perhaps knowing that his followers almost never understood him very well – he might as well give them a short verbal prayer.

It’s a prayer that became well known as “The Lord’s Prayer.”

In today’s passage, Jesus again breaks down the duality between earth and heaven, the secular and the sacred.

He tells his followers to pray that the kingdom of God, or shall we say God’s reign, or the peaceable realm, comes to earth as it is in heaven.

Jesus also said that the kingdom of God is among you (Luke 17:21), or sometimes translated as the kingdom of God is within you.

As St. Catherine of Siena stated, “All the way to heaven is heaven.”

God’s realm is already here for those who awaken to it.

As followers of Jesus, we are called to be living signs of that peaceable realm of God.

We must become it.

How?

By opening our hearts and minds to it.

By being still in the Divine Presence through contemplative prayer (or Centering Prayer).

By following the teachings of Jesus who said to love all people as ourselves, and that blessed are the peacemakers (Matthew 5:9).

We are meant to be part of the divine evolutionary plan of creation which is ongoing.

How exciting is that!

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Listen to the song of the day “How Wonderful to Me” on the Live to Love 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” by clicking HERE.

Remember: God loves you!

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Centering Prayer

Posted on June 17, 2020 by billtonnis
Image by Manfred Richter from Pixabay

Set aside some time for silent letting go.

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

Stream and consider purchasing 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.

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Matthew 6:6

“But when you pray, go to your inner room, close the door, and pray to your Father in secret. And your Father who sees in secret will repay you.”

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Jesus’ instructions on how to pray are very telling.

He said not to “babble” like those who think they will be heard because of their “many words” (Matthew 6:7).

And that God knows what you need before you ask (Matthew 6:8). 

Jesus is quoted in all four of the canonical gospels as stating to God, “Not my will but yours be done.”

So clearly, this is the aim of prayer for Jesus: Let go, let God.

And the best way to do this is to simply sit in the silent presence of the Divine Presence.

In contemplative prayer, we are invited to simply be still.

This involves surrendering your ego.

In the Christian form of meditation known as Centering Prayer, you spend 20 minutes or more simply letting go of one thought after another.

You introduce a sacred word that you pick for yourself such as “love,” “peace,” or “Jesus,” etc., as your consent to God’s presence and action within you.

Then you settle into the silence and only when you find yourself engaged in your thoughts do you ever so gently return to the sacred word.

This practice of going to your inner room will deepen your relationship with God and will lead to more peace in your life.

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Listen to the song of the day “I Surrender” on the Live to Love 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!

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All Inclusive

Posted on June 16, 2020 by billtonnis
Image by Gerd Altmann from Pixabay

To love is our main mission in life.

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As part of the following reflection, listen to my song “Make Me a Channel” on YouTube by clicking HERE.

Purchase or stream 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.

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Matthew 5:43-45

“You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ 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 have many people who claim to be a Christian.

This means that you are a follower of Jesus and his teachings.

So why do we have such violence, fighting, racism and never-ending wars?

Jesus not only ordered us to love God and our neighbor as ourselves, but just to make it clear that that meant everyone, he said we must love our enemies as well.

Each of us needs to ask ourselves how we are doing with this?

How is it possible to love your enemy?

It’s a tough question that demands that the person asking the question be willing to go the extra mile, and be willing to change if necessary.

Of course, it doesn’t require that you put yourself in harm’s way, but to do all you can to not inflict harm on the person in question and at the very least pray that that person experiences forgiveness and compassion.

Jesus tells us that God doesn’t discriminate on who receives rain.

That’s because God loves all people without condition.

We have to examine not only the conditions we place on others, but also the conditions placed on others by systems that have been in place for years without us even noticing.

Love is calling us to reexamine everything.

St. Paul said that in God we all ‘live and move and have our being’ (Acts 17:28).

We exist in Love itself.

Our main objectives in life are to awaken to that and to make sure that everyone experiences that.

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Listen to the song of the day “Make Me a Channel” on the Listen to Your Heart 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” by clicking HERE.

Remember: God loves you!

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Humble Openness

Posted on June 15, 2020 by billtonnis
Image by WikiImages from Pixabay

Times of turmoil invite each of us into transformational change.

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Listen to my song “Changed” on YouTube 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.

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Psalm 5:2-3

Give ear to my words, O LORD; understand my sighing. Attend to the sound of my cry.

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These words resonate with me today – and I’m betting they do with you as well.

It seems like we’ve all been through a lot.

But throughout history, people have been through far worse and for much longer periods.

I’m wondering how generations of slaves felt as they languished in pain and oppression.

In times of upheaval, we all seem to have a built-in tendency to call to a Higher Source – God if you will.

“Please save me!”

Have you ever had the experience of crying out to God to please do something…only to hear an inner voice respond, “Why don’t you do something?”

I do believe that that is how God works.

There is a Spirit of Goodness knitted into the fabric of all that is.

But we have free will to choose whether to be a part of the good.

For that to happen, we have to be willing to let go of our ego’s desires in order to serve someone else’s needs.

We have to live from the reality that we are not the center of the universe.

There is a Cosmic Plan, a “Christ Project” in the words of Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, in which we all play a part.

These are actually exciting times.

Change is in the air.

God, or Goodness itself, is crying out for equal justice with compassion for all.

Each of us is being called to dive deep inside ourselves and humbly let the light shine on those things that need to change.

As Soren Kierkegaard stated, “Prayer does not change God, but it changes him (or her) who prays.”

May we all open our hearts to the Spirit’s movements and be willing to make the changes in ourselves so that the world might be transformed for the good of all.

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

Remember: God loves you!

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Awaken

Posted on June 12, 2020 by billtonnis
Image by David Mark from Pixabay 

The Sacred is everywhere.

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Begin your reflection by listening to my song “How Magnificent, Wondrous and Glorious” on YouTube by clicking HERE.

Please consider purchasing my songs on Amazon Music by clicking HERE.

Thank you!

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Psalm 27:8

“Come,” says my heart, “seek God’s face”; your face, O God, do I seek!

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This line in today’s psalm deeply resonates within me.

It seems as though this has been the theme of my life – even when I wasn’t consciously aware of it.

From my earliest days I privately talked to God in the monastery of my heart.

I yearned to commune with this Loving Source of life.

I am only in recent years able to verbalize this.

I have come to find God’s Presence all around me, usually surprising me when I least expect it.

I enjoy being on watch for this Divine Presence that can be found anywhere and anytime, but only by grace and in Grace’s timing.

It reminds me of Thomas Merton’s mystical experience in downtown Louisville when he was suddenly overwhelmed with the realization that he loved all those people there.

Merton said, “There is no way of telling people that they are all walking around shining like the sun” (from Conjectures of a Guilty Bystander).

This type of experience is not only for a special few.

The sacred is everywhere!

You only need to awaken.

A meditation practice such as Centering Prayer is invaluable.

The co-founder of the Jesuit order, Ignatius of Loyola, instructed his students back in the 1500’s to “find God in all things.”

If we did this, we would treat all people and all of creation with love and respect.

May the Peace that is beyond all understanding be with you.

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Listen to the song of the day “How Magnificent, Wondrous and Glorious” on the Mercy Reigns album by clicking HERE.

Purchase and/or stream 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!

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Contemplation

Posted on June 11, 2020 by billtonnis

Inspiration is available to all who listen to their hearts.

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(Listen to my song “Listen to Your Heart” on YouTube by clicking HERE. Please consider purchasing my songs on Amazon Music or other sites. Purchase my book “Mercy Reigns: A Daily Devotional of Compassion, Comfort and Healing” on Amazon. Thank you!)

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Acts 13:2-3

While they were worshiping the Lord and fasting, the holy Spirit said, “Set apart for me Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have called them.” Then, completing their fasting and prayer, they laid hands on them and sent them off.

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This very early group of Christians made it a practice to get together to worship God and to fast.

They were likely practicing a form of self-emptying which was modeled to them by Jesus.

Saul, later known as St. Paul, went on to write that Jesus “emptied himself” and “humbled himself” in order to do the will of God (Philippians 2:7-8).

This self-emptying was a practice of letting go of their egos’ desires in order that God’s desires might be made known to them.

This is how they were able to “hear” the Spirit give them instructions – such as sending off Barnabas and Saul on a mission.

Today’s scripture says the mission was what the two were “called” to do.

The Spirit is still calling us.

But to hear, we will need to be open to hearing.

We will need to set aside time for “self-emptying” and letting go.

Centering Prayer is one such practice of meditation.

It can be done alone or in a group.

(Contemplative Outreach is one organization that can help you.)

Prayer groups can sometimes help discern the movement of the Spirit.

The Spirit is still flowing through the fabric of creation, continuing to inspire all who will listen to take part in this Creative Flow.

It’s happening right now!

As Jesus said, “Behold, the kingdom of God is among you” (Luke 17:21).

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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.

Purchase and/or stream all 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!

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Reign of God

Posted on June 10, 2020 by billtonnis
Image by Jasmin_Völker_Fotografie from Pixabay

All you need is available now inside you.

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Listen to my song “Slow Me Down” on YouTube by clicking HERE. Please consider purchasing it on Amazon Music or other sites. Purchase my book “Mercy Reigns: A Daily Devotional of Compassion, Comfort and Healing” on Amazon HERE. Thank you!

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Psalm 16:11

You will show me the path to life, abounding joy in your presence.

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When we are present, truly in the now without being preoccupied with thoughts, there is a profound peace.

Most anxiety comes when our minds begin to add a narrative to a situation.

“What if this happens?” or “What if that happens?”

Our minds and their narratives can create much suffering for us.

Of course, they can do us much good as well as we all need to think!

But we don’t need to be thinking all the time!

Our minds are a wonderful tool, but when we are completely identified with our minds, that’s when the trouble starts.

When we think we are our minds we might almost never actually be present to what is actually going on.

Stop for a moment.

Just breathe.

Focus on your breathing.

Notice the profound peace.

Look around you.

Really look.

Notice details.

Enjoy this moment.

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

God, the very Source of life, “is”.

God’s name as told to Moses in scripture was: “I am who I am.” Then God added: “This is what you will tell the Israelites: I AM has sent me to you” (Exodus 3:14).

The more we commune with God in the now, the more we will find ourselves in the Creative Flow of life.

Abounding joy will blossom.

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Listen to my song “Slow Me Down” on the Mercy Reigns album by clicking HERE.

Purchase or Stream 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!

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