Shine

Posted on August 6, 2019 by billtonnis

Be the light in the darkness.

(Listen to my song “May I Be Light” on YouTube by clicking HERE)

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2 Peter 1:19

We possess the prophetic message that is altogether reliable. You will do well to be attentive to it, as to a lamp shining in a dark place, until day dawns and the morning star rises in your hearts.

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The prophetic message is that we are all loved by God unconditionally…so we ought to be attentive to it.

Jesus was.

He didn’t just talk about God’s love.

He showed us by the way he lived his life…healing the suffering and freeing the oppressed.

He stood up to domination systems whether in religion or government and called for fairness and change…and he did it with confidence and compassion.

In his death…he showed us that Love would not be defeated.

Death is not the end but just another beginning.

God’s love is everlasting and unconditional for all.

That is quite a Light.

It is desperately needed in this world.

We all have the ability to shine that Light…as it’s always present in the depths of our souls.

Get connected to this inner Light…and reflect it wherever you go.

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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.

Remember…God loves you!

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Free

Posted on August 1, 2019 by billtonnis

Peace is available in this moment…if you accept it.

(Listen to my song “Slow Me Down” on YouTube by clicking HERE)

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Psalm 84:3

My soul yearns and pines for the courts of the LORD. My heart and flesh cry out for the living God.

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We all have an inner yearning.

It’s a deep desire for completion.

We’re missing something.

There’s a hole in our hearts that wants desperately to be filled.

But nothing of this world can satisfy that holy longing.

Many seek satisfaction through material or physical pleasures…or by gaining more power, prestige or possessions.

But it won’t work.

As St. Augustine said to God, “Our hearts are restless until they rest in You.”

God…our Loving Source…is the only One that can satisfy us.

Jesus said that we should seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness…and then all the rest (all the material things we need) will be given to us besides (Matthew 6:33).

The yearning can be filled now…and now….and now.

This is where God is always available.

So be present to the Love that sustains you…and then share it in all that you do.

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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.

Remember…God loves you!

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Divine Purpose

Posted on July 31, 2019 by billtonnis

Each of us is called to be compassionately present to everyone and everything.

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

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Matthew 13:45-46

“The kingdom of heaven is like a merchant searching for fine pearls. When he finds a pearl of great price, he goes and sells all that he has and buys it.”

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What is the most important quest you have in this life on Earth?

Jesus said that to love God with all your heart, soul and mind…as well as to love your neighbor as yourself…are the most important commandments.

Love is why we’re here.

It’s our purpose.

When we love…the kingdom of heaven breaks into this time and place.

We begin to taste the presence of the Divine Love itself.

What would you pay to have such a priceless experience?

As Jesus says in today’s scripture…you would sell everything.

The experience of God’s eternal Love is available right now…in this moment.

All you need to do to experience it…is drop everything else.

Breathe in this experience of God’s love…each breath sustaining you and all that is.

Now…be that presence of Love to everyone…and everything.

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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.

Remember…God loves you!

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Stand in the Light

Posted on July 30, 2019 by billtonnis

Love always perseveres and cannot be defeated.

(Listen to my song “I Stand in the Light” on YouTube by clicking HERE)

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Matthew 13:40-43

“Just as weeds are collected and burned [up] with fire, so will it be at the end of the age. The Son of Man will send his angels, and they will collect out of his kingdom all who cause others to sin and all evildoers. They will throw them into the fiery furnace, where there will be wailing and grinding of teeth. Then the righteous will shine like the sun in the kingdom of their Father.”

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If you want to view this scripture with a preconceived notion of a heaven and hell…that the righteous go to heaven and the evildoers go to hell…then you can fit this scripture neatly into that notion.

But in my opinion, that notion is wrong.

That would make life on earth a contest to see if you measure up for heaven. What kind of cruel picture does that give us of God?

What about God’s unconditional love for us?

What Jesus dying on the cross to show us that unconditional love?

What about grace?

If God made us imperfect and then expects us to somehow be perfect…to somehow earn the reward of being in God’s presence…that just makes no sense to me.

What I think Jesus is doing in today’s scripture…is forcing each listener into a double bind.

Am I part of “the righteous” or am I an “evildoer”?

If I say I am righteous…I know in my heart that I am not.

Am I not one who has done evil…and have I not at some time (or many times) caused others to sin?

Did I not at some time in my life perpetuate an untruth…and cause others to do so?

Did I not…in the name of being in the “in” crowd…stand against those who were being excluded?

I, for one, will admit that I cannot look upon myself and say, “What a righteous, wonderful person and not like those awful sinners over there.”

I submit to a cleansing…a “refiner’s fire” if you will.

This, I believe, is what Jesus is getting at.

When you humbly admit your failings in the light of God’s love and mercy…you will be cleansed.

Love, which is what God is (1 John 4:8), does not give up on anyone.

God will redeem us because that’s what Love does.

As St. Paul proclaimed: “Love never fails” (1 Corinthians 13:8).

Amen. Hallelujah!

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

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

Remember…God loves you!

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Death Leads to Life

Posted on July 29, 2019 by billtonnis

Live in the freedom of the eternal love of God.

(Listen to my song “Love Will Always Lead You Home” on YouTube by clicking HERE)

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John 11:21-23

Martha said to Jesus, “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died. [But] even now I know that whatever you ask of God, God will give you.” Jesus said to her, “Your brother will rise.”

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No one dies.

Death is not the enemy.

It is the doorway, the portal, to new life.

Life and death are two sides to one coin.

You can’t have one without the other.

We see this all around us…the cycle of birth and death.

Jesus went to great length to show us that death does not win.

It is not the end.

I have taken great comfort in hearing the many, many accounts of “Near Death Experiencers.”

They are those who claim to have gone to the other side after the clinical death of their bodies…only to be resuscitated.

They then tell of a wondrous, indescribable Light of love that they encountered.

I’ve personally talked with several of these people and I believe them.

Their lives were drastically changed after the experience.

They no longer fear death.

This is the message of Jesus: Fear not!

His references to fire were about a refining fire…a “burning away” if you will of the mistakes we have made…which were actually our best lessons in life.

What if we all lived our lives with this understanding…instead of fearing death and the possibility of hell?

Why do we interpret these verses in the worst possible way…when Jesus himself stated, “This is the will of the one who sent me, that I should not lose anything of what he gave me, but that I should raise it [on] the last day” (John 6:39).

What if we lived in the deep knowledge of God’s eternal love for us…and then lived to share it and be instruments in the awakening of what Jesus called “the kingdom of God” here…in this place?

How else will “God’s kingdom come”?

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Listen to the song of the day “Love Will Always Lead You Home” on the Mercy Reigns album by clicking HERE.

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

Remember…God loves you!

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Cultivate Compassion

Posted on July 26, 2019 by billtonnis

Be sowers of love and peace…not hate and fear.

(Listen to my song “Make Me a Channel” on YouTube by clicking HERE)

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Matthew 13:23

“But the seed sown on rich soil is the one who hears the word and understands it, who indeed bears fruit and yields a hundred or sixty or thirtyfold.”

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The seed Jesus was sowing was that all people are loved unconditionally by God.

By all people…I mean you!

When you know in your heart that you are loved eternally just as you are…warts, faults and all…you can’t help but be transformed.

Your heart melts.

Mine did.

When you are rooted in that knowledge…you can’t help but “bear fruit” and spread that love far and wide.

Bearing fruit…is spreading the gospel by word and by action so others might also know the God of unconditional love, mercy, grace and forgiveness.

May you receive this…be transformed…and richly spread the gospel!

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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.

Remember…God loves you!

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Counterculture

Posted on July 25, 2019 by billtonnis

We are called not to be served…but to serve.

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

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Matthew 20:20-21

Then the mother of the sons of Zebedee approached him with her sons and did him homage, wishing to ask him for something. He said to her, “What do you wish?” She answered him, “Command that these two sons of mine sit, one at your right and the other at your left, in your kingdom.”

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Despite spending a considerable amount of time with Jesus, most of his followers didn’t understand what he was about.

They didn’t hear or see that Jesus was demonstrating how to be a servant leader…not a military one.

He wanted to serve the poor and those in need…not from afar but by coming alongside them.

Meanwhile, the mother of the sons of Zebedee wanted her sons to have the power and prestige of being at the right and left of Jesus when he took over power from the Romans.

Talk about completely off base!

Jesus’ response: “Whoever wishes to be great among you shall be your servant (Matthew 20:26).”

You don’t have to have it all together to serve.

You don’t need a degree or some high sanctioning.

Anyone can do it…anytime.

The time is now.

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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.

Remember…God loves you!

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Radically Okay

Posted on July 24, 2019 by billtonnis

“All shall be well.” – Julian of Norwich

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

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Matthew 13:1-2

On that day, Jesus went out of the house and sat down by the sea. Such large crowds gathered around him that he got into a boat and sat down, and the whole crowd stood along the shore.

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Do you think Jesus drew big crowds because he was preaching fire and brimstone sermons about eternal punishment in hell?

Not likely.

These people came to hear an uplifting word…not a fearful one.

Jesus told the people about a God who he called Abba…which is sometimes translated as Daddy.

Jesus said if you knew him then you knew God (John 14:7).

Jesus was the one who did not condemn the woman caught in adultery.

He was the one who told the story of the son who squandered his father’s inheritance in an immoral life but was welcomed home by the same father with open arms…the father being the “God-figure” in the story.

Jesus was the guy who was unjustly and brutally killed…but forgave all involved from the cross, even though no one had asked for forgiveness.

Jesus was the one who said there were many rooms in his Father’s house and that he was preparing a place for each of us (John 14:2).

And he also said he would not reject anyone who came to him (John 6:37).

And Jesus said this of God: “And this is the will of the one who sent me, that I should not lose anything of what he gave me, but that I should raise it [on] the last day” (John 6:39).

No wonder the masses being oppressed by the Romans came in droves to hear him.

What Jesus was preaching was called the gospel…because it was good news!

Let this be the news you hear today…and the message you share with your life!

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

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

Remember…God loves you!

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Solidarity

Posted on July 23, 2019 by billtonnis

We are one human family whatever our national, racial, ethnic, economic and ideological differences.

(Listen to my song “All Are Welcome” on YouTube by clicking HERE)

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Matthew 12:47-50

Someone told him, “Your mother and your brothers are standing outside, asking to speak with you.” But he said in reply to the one who told him, “Who is my mother? Who are my brothers?” And stretching out his hand toward his disciples, he said, “Here are my mother and my brothers. For whoever does the will of my heavenly Father is my brother, and sister, and mother.”

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Jesus is making a point here.

He is not trying to disrespect his family at the door.

What Jesus is saying is that all of us who are trying to do the will of God are one family.

And what is the will of God?

As Jesus put it: “I give you a new commandment: love one another. As I have loved you, so you also should love one another (John 13:34).”

Jesus also said the most important commandments were to love God and your neighbor as yourself.

And if that wasn’t clear enough…he also commanded us to love our enemies (Matthew 5:44)!

So what is the will of God? Love!

We are called to love.

The whole point is…we truly are one family…all of us children of God.

We must start acting like it!

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

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

Remember…God loves you!

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Honoring Mary Magdalene

Posted on July 22, 2019 by billtonnis

The “Apostle of the Apostles”

(Listen to my song “Glorify You with Me” on YouTube by clicking HERE)

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John 20:16

Jesus said to her, “Mary!” She turned and said to him in Hebrew, “Rabbouni,” which means Teacher.

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Today is the Feast of Saint Mary Magdalene in the tradition of the Catholic Church.

It is the one day in which she is honored.

But for some reason, Mary Magdalene is barely ever mentioned outside today.

Of all the people the resurrected Jesus could have appeared to first (including all the apostles and his mother), he chose Mary Magdalene.

That would seem to rather drastically elevate her importance.

She was the first to witness the risen Christ and the first to be sent to proclaim the Good News.

She was also one of the most loyal followers of Jesus…as the gospels record that she was present at his crucifixion and when he was put in the tomb…and finally the only one to see him immediately after the resurrection.

The men had all deserted him.

Can you not read the emotion hidden in the scripture verse featured above as Jesus reveals himself to his close friend?

The next verse is also revealing as Jesus says, “Stop holding on to me, for I have not yet ascended to the Father.”

And yet…Mary Magdalene then seems to disappear.

Well…at least from the canonical gospels that were included in the bible…but not if you read other gospels that weren’t included.

You might want to explore books that were written about the Gospel of Mary Magdalene…such as: The Gospel of Mary of Magdala by Karen L. King…or The Meaning of Mary Magdalene by Cynthia Bourgeault.

In my opinion, we need to investigate more about the woman who has been called the “Apostle of the Apostles.”

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Listen to the song of the day “Glorify You with Me” on the Give Praise and Thanks album by clicking HERE.

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

Remember…God loves you!

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