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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. While it focuses on Christian teaching, I pray persons of varied faiths will find inspiration here. Indeed, "God" can be whatever image helps us trust in the Sacred, by whatever means Grace touches us each. Please share this ministry with others, and I hope you return soon. There is a new offering daily. And to be placed on the daily OneLife email list, to request notifications of new writings or submit prayer requests, write to barukhattah@embarqmail.com .
Blessings,
Rev Dr Brian K Wilcox, MDiv, MFT, PhD
Pastor-Teacher, Author, Workshop Leader, Spiritual Counselor, Chaplain
Brian encourages support of the 4-Star Christian organization Compassion, which supports children worldwide; for more see www.compassion.com .
OPENING PRAYER
Like the morning breeze,
let me bring to each moment good deeds;
that the rose of desire within me
will open and bloom.
*Based on the poem by Hafiz, "Like the Morning Breeze." See www.peacefulrivers.homestead.com .
LISTENING TO THE SCRIPTURE
31 Jesus left Tyre and went up to Sidon before going back to the Sea of Galilee and the region of the Ten Towns. 32 A deaf man with a speech impediment was brought to him, and the people begged Jesus to lay his hands on the man to heal him.
33 Jesus led him away from the crowd so they could be alone. He put his fingers into the man’s ears. Then, spitting on his own fingers, he touched the man’s tongue. 34 Looking up to heaven, he sighed and said, “Ephphatha,” which means, “Be opened!” 35 Instantly the man could hear perfectly, and his tongue was freed so he could speak plainly!
36 Jesus told the crowd not to tell anyone, but the more he told them not to, the more they spread the news. 37 They were completely amazed and said again and again, “Everything he does is wonderful. He even makes the deaf to hear and gives speech to those who cannot speak.”
*Mark 7.31-37 (NLT)
RECEIVING SACRED TEACHING
What happened when Jesus sighed? He looked up to heaven. So his sigh was prayer not articulated in words but in communication deeper than words with his heavenly Father.
*J. David Muyskens. Forty Days to a Closer Walk with God.
Paul uses the same word (Greek, stenagmos, "groan, sigh") for the sigh of Christ, in Romans:
And not only the creation, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies.
*Romans 6.23 (NLT)
Prayer leads to loving union with the Holy One but not for private enjoyment. Prayer draws us into unity with Christ, into communion and community. Compassionate action results, growing out of the love of God. We receive the love of God and return that love in grateful devotion. We pray, not to get what we want from God but to consent to what God wants. Prayer expresses relationship, sometimes with words, sometimes, deeper than words can express.
**J. David Muyskens. Forty Days to a Closer Walk with God.
QUIETLY RESPONDING
1) How do you see prayer as relational?
2) Point out some ways prayer is more than speaking words to God.
3) Have you had a time when you felt an inner, silent prayer as sigh or one spoken or expressed verbally in another way?
4) Can laughter be a way of praying?
Blessings!
Rev Dr Brian K Wilcox
June 2, 2009
barukhattah@embarqmail.com
* * *
*OneLife Ministries is a ministry of Brian K. Wilcox, of SW Florida. Brian lives a vowed life and with his two dogs, Bandit Ty and St. Francis. Brian is an ecumenical spiritual leader, open to how Christ manifests in the diversity of Christian denominations and varied religious-spiritual traditions. He is Senior Chaplain for the Charlotte County Sheriff's Office, Punta Gorda, FL.
*Brian welcomes responses to his writings or submission of prayer requests at barukhattah@embarqmail.com . Also, Brian is on Facebook: search Brian Kenneth Wilcox.
*Contact the above email to book Brian for Spiritual Direction, retreats, or workshops. You can order his book An Ache for Union at major book dealers.
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