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Welcome to OneLife Ministries. This site is designed to lead you prayerfully into a heart experience of Divine Presence, Who is Love. I hope persons of varied wisdom paths will find inspiration here.
Blessings,
Brian Kenneth Wilcox
MDiv, MFT, PhD
Interspiritual Teacher, Author
You are invited to join Brian at his fellowship group on Facebook. The group is OneLife Ministries – A Contemplative Interspiritual Fellowship.
Today’s Scripture
28If you are tired from carrying heavy burdens, come to me and I will give you rest. 29Take the yoke I give you. Put it on your shoulders and learn from me. I am gentle and humble, and you will find rest.
* Matthew 11.28-29, CEV
Spiritual Teaching
The man knelt to be initiated into discipleship. Jesus whispered the sacred mantra, revealing the Gnosis to liberate, into his ear, warning him not to reveal it to anyone.
"What will happen if I do?" asked the man.
"Anyone you reveal the mantra to will be liberated from the bondage of ignorance and suffering, but you yourself will be excluded from following Me."
No sooner had he heard those words than the new disciple rushed to the marketplace, collected a large crowd around him, and repeated the sacred mantra for all to hear.
Other disciples reported this to Jesus, thinking Jesus would scold and dismiss the man. Jesus smiled, saying, "He has no need of anything I teach. His action has shown him to be a Teacher in his own right."
*Story adapted from Anthony de Mello.
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We, too, find desire to share outwardly what Spirit gives to us inwardly. The Gnosis, or spiritual Insight, fosters within us peace. And, possibly, the most important sacred mantra we can share with others is being peace, and in a world often torn by unrest and conflict. If we are slavish to ways of life, policies, religion, and politics that un-still us inwardly, will we be prepared to serve others in love, joy, and peace? By finding restful peace, we can share that living mantra, that lively Gnosis of being, with those around us. We can do this, without saying a word.
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What were persons in Jesus' day worn out from? The same thing many are worn out from now ~ compulsive, restrictive, repressive religion. Of course, this being worn out applies to other venues. Do persons get exhausted and dejected by injustice? Repressive economic policies? Politics generally? The tyranny of ever-expanding technology? The pace often demanded within modern societies?
This raises questions. Are we meant to live oppressed and exhausted ? Do we have another option – or just submit to the slavish rule of being worn and worn out?
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Creation itself is an expression of the Life of God. God-Life – Life with a capital L - is Expressive. Any religion, philosophy, or way of life that re-presses or de-presses Life is anti-Life, is un-godly. One may be able to function that way, but we are created for more than functioning and efficiency. Yet, much of modern culture seeks to make persons automatons, mere acting-thinking objects, to reach a materialistic end. If this is the case, and I contend it is, why would we not be surprised at high rates of crime, neurotic symptoms and disorders, psychosis, and break-down of relationship values and societal civility. And more subtle is the silent desperation many live in daily.
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The Jews used "yoke" to refer to the joy and dedication involved in obeying the Torah, or Teaching of God. The Christian is to learn from the Spirit of Christ, being Wisdom's apprentices. We learn from Wisdom in different ways, among them the joy and dedication to the Scripture and varied inspirational writings, and the inner teaching of the Holy Spirit…
12I have much more to say to you, but right now it would be more than you could understand. 13The Spirit shows what is true and will come and guide you into the full truth. The Spirit doesn't speak on his own. He will tell you only what he has heard from me, and he will let you know what is going to happen. 14The Spirit will bring glory to me by taking my message and telling it to you.
*John 16.12-14, CEV
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Wisdom invites us to draw near to Her, even as She did in Jesus to the wearied masses. Grace entails responsibly replying. The “come to me” precedes “I will give you rest.” We are to “take the yoke” that “I give you.” We “put it on [our] shoulders and learn from” the Inner Seed of Love. Then, we “will find rest.”
See, there is no impersonal Jesus Way. The encounter with the Sacred is deeply personal. No one drifts into being an apprentice of Grace. We make a conscious choice to surrender our intellect, memory, and will.
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Jesus realized persons needed a saner, gentler, more graceful experience of faith and Life. Jesus embodied that way for us. In Jesus I myself found rest from fundamentalist, legalistic, restrictive religion. That is partly why I have remained a Christian after struggling for years to discover again meaning in the faith of my upbringing. Jesus offers inner freedom and inward rest from all that would confine our lives and creative energies and make into faith an oppressive, limiting experience.
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What does it mean for you to have “rest” within? How are you learning from Wisdom about Her apprenticing you? Have you ever struggled with your faith until arriving at a new-found meaning and freedom? How is your spiritual community providing direction to persons on the graceful freedom the sacred Spirit offers persons burdened and exhausted with what is contrary to what is good and best, and that hinders mature reflection and expression of Life?
PRAYER
Spirit, grace me to stay close to You today and follow Your guidance. Be my inspiration. I pray persons around me will sense the inner rest I find in You and that will help calm them, too. Enable me to be a living witness of joyful freedom. Amen.
©Brian Wilcox, and OneLife Ministries. 5-13-01. Revised Edition 08-13-06. 2nd Revised and Expanded Edition 04/24/2010.
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*OneLife Ministries is a ministry of Brian Kenneth Wilcox, SW Florida. Brian lives a vowed life and with his two dogs, Bandit Ty and St. Francis.
*Brian welcomes responses to his writings at briankwilcox@yahoo.com . Also, Brian is on Facebook: search Brian Kenneth Wilcox.
*You can order his book An Ache for Union from major booksellers.
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